One I Am - Dr. Seuss Birthday Party

A couple weeks ago at the shop, we helped host an adorable Dr. Seuss party for a one year old. Kelly, the mother, had ordered a bunch of turquoise and red supplies for the party, plus some great banners and decor items. For invitations, she worked with a local shop favorite, Gretchen from p.ink creative (currently on maternity leave, but usually available in the shop!). After getting invites out and products ordered, she asked for our help to put everything together for the party. Dr. Seuss is such a fun theme for a birthday party because there are a lot of  ideas you can play with!

Dr. Seuss is full of patterns, colors and quirky designs. We wanted to set the kid tables to set the mood for the party.  With the supplies, we alternated polka dots and stripes, then added pops of blue. Kelly had different book covers printed, so we used those for the center of the tables to finish them off. Fun to have an alternative to a table runner, especially when it ties in the party theme.

We had free reign on the backdrop and I knew I wanted to do red stripes. Streamer stripes are an easy, affordable, and effective way to add a pop of color and pattern to your party. I originally thought about doing 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish across the backdrop. After looking at pictures of the fish, however, I was worried about their heavy design and being able to recreate them by hand large enough for the backdrop. Thing 1 and Thing 2 then came to mind and I ran with it! I drew their bodies out on red poster board, used white paper for faces and name tags, then topped off with a chopped up blue tissue pom pom. The pom pom added a fun and quirky dimension. I definitely cut them up to try matching their hair, and probably would have chosen larger ones if I did it again. Kelly had a cute picture banner we then hung up across the backdrop.

Activity wise, Kelly had Dr. Seuss games for the children and coloring sheets. The games included pin the hat on the cat, ring toss and bean bag toss. Coloring sheets are a great activity to keep kids entertained while waiting for the rest of the party guests to arrive. For the adults, she asked them all to sign a Dr. Seuss Happy Birthday To You! book they could have as a keepsake from the party.

How amazing are those cupcake toppers? Nothing like having your baby's face on top of his cupcakes! Definitely a cute idea if your theme involves a hat of some sort. The birthday boy needed a smash cake and a mini Dr. Seuss hat fit the bill. Kelly also had cookies made for the guests to take home as their party favor. Cookies are always a good favor idea because they are a reasonable price and who doesn't love a cookie? Since it was dinner time, she also served pizza, salad and snacks.

Overall, it was a great afternoon celebrating the birthday boy! Faith and I had a great time playing with the theme and setting up for them. If you are needing a party space and help putting together a fun event for your one year old, we would love to help!

Etsy shops were Kelly found decor items:

Cupcake Toppers - kjoyeldridgeshop

Signage - BlacklineDesignLLC

Coloring Sheets - AnniePaperShop

Cookies & Cake were made locally by Sweetly Scrumptious.

Lots of Love,

Favorite Things Flamingle

This year for my birthday I wanted to have something fun to plan! I am pregnant and the first, and let's be honest second, trimesters were a little rough to say the least, so I needed something to distract myself. After seeing the new invitation collection from my extremely talented friend, Ali from Lark + Raven | Love Lore, I knew I wanted to finally host the favorite things party I have been holding on the back burner. Who doesn't love a night with good friends and going home with lots of goodies?

These invitations are offered in the shop! Stop by to see the collections.

Inside the invitation I made sure to give everyone instructions for the evening. I originally saw the idea on the wonderful blog called Jenny Cookies and I fell in love with the concept. I decided to start pulling together ideas and planning a fun party to kick off summer.

Since I went with a tropical invitation scheme, I decided to go all out with flamingos, pineapples and monstera leaves. Unfortunately, my patio plan was rained out. I was bummed because I really wanted great lighting for the photos and had prepped my patio with fun pots, a new umbrella and colorful cushions. It worked out though! We brought the party inside and my mother and husband helped decorate the house! I even had my mom line the walk way up to the house with yard flamingos to get people in the mood the minute they arrived.

I wanted to make sure to have delicious food and drinks to get the evening started, so I ordered our neighborhood favorite, Ziggy's Pizza, and my brother made a delicious rosé elderflower cocktail. Cookies I ordered from my favorite local cookie maker, Sweet Sugarlicious. They couldn't have been more perfect for the party! She always goes above and beyond and they made me smile. I highly recommend her if you are in the area. I mean those gold pineapples and monstera leaves...dreamy! I also purchased a light pink cake from our local grocery store, mainly to use an adorable flamingo pinata topper I had purchased from the talented Lula Flora on Etsy. In my gold Annie Glass bowls, I set out my favorite Sugarfina candies we carry at the shop. Who doesn't love a champagne gummy bear or birthday caramel?

 

Now back to the favorite things part of the evening. You invite your guests over for a little party and have them each bring 3 different items, 3 of each (or however many items you would like to do, it's flexible). We stuck with a $5-10 budget, which was perfect. I reached out to make sure everyone was doing okay with their search and explain how to bring the gifts - gift wrap isn't necessary. Some made their own tags and I had tags available for the rest. I think it's fun to know who brought what!

It honestly was like Christmas bringing gifts you put thought into and then receiving some yourself. I loved seeing the creativity of my friends and what they came up with. People brought their favorite snacks, drinks, facial products, reads, vintage finds, cups and more! I tried to capture everything to share because I loved having ideas to look through when planning my party. It truly was hard to choose what I wanted!

 

I gave everyone a gold bag to use while they were doing their "shopping." Since the event of the evening was moved to my sunroom instead of outside in the open, I decided to break people up into groups. I had the girls draw numbers 1-3. We then did three rounds of 3 items each round. We rotated which group went first to make it somewhat fair. If you have a larger area you can do 3 rounds and just let everyone go at once to let the craziness and fun ensue! The great thing about having multiples of each fav thing is that usually you got what you wanted no matter which round you were in. Everyone brought such fun stuff, I think everyone left happy!

To say I have wonderful friends is an understatement! I had the best time catching up and watching everyone pick out different items. If you need a fun night, I definitely recommend this idea!

A picture on Rosie the flamingo was a must! I also forgot to mention, she made a new friend last night. Sally brought me a giant pretzel float! Watching her walk up to the house carrying that giant thing was one of my favorite moments of the evening and I wish I would have captured it.

Apologies for an overload of pictures, but wanted to make sure to share all of the fun ideas from the evening, so you can be inspired for your own. What are you waiting for? Get to planning a favorite things party with your best friends!

Lots of Love,