{Real Parties} Garden Spring Fling

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I'm ready for spring!!  So when I had to come up with a theme for my mother's birthday party it was simple.  Her only request was that it be a picnic style party at a beautiful botanical garden here in Virginia called Meadowlark Gardens.  She could not have picked a more perfect location.

I decided on having a simple menu of sandwiches, crudite, an orzo pasta salad and fruit.

My mother and father both love to garden, and since we were having the party at a botanical garden, I thought I'd use a garden theme.  I looked everywhere for an antique wheelbarrow with no avail so I opted for this old fashioned tricycle to hold the sandwiches.  The sandwich choices were ham & havarti on a pretzel roll, smoked turkey on a french roll and shrimp salad on croissant.

I love crudite in individual servings so when I came across these mini terra cotta pots I thought it was a perfect fit for this picnic (plus, I'm not sure about you but if it looks cute...I'm more likely to eat my veggies).

I decided to try my hand at making a fruit bouquet.  It wasn't hard but in the future I know to vary the sizes of the honey dew and cantaloupe.  I ended up doing some additional cutting at the end to fill in gaps.

Delicious and a perfect way to serve pasta salad for a picnic...big hit!

In lieu of a traditional birthday cake, I chose to make cupcakes.  My neighbor made the most wonderful log cake that I think melds perfectly with the garden theme.  I found this birdcage that is actually meant as a jewelry stand, my neighbor suggested I place the 'birthday girl's' cupcake in it...and she says she's not creative!!  Lastly, I decided to try my hand at cake pops.  Yummy, and so easy! Thanks Bakerella!

Lemon cupcakes

I love the way the cake pops turned out.  I found some cake pop petals by Wilton that I embellished with some of my own flower cutouts.

Here's my mom (the birthday girl), my dad and my baby Jack.

Happy Birthday Mom!! We love you!

Photography: Jonathan Hill

{Real Parties} Blush and Bashful

Well, with a lot of coaxing, I finally did it... I think?? You see, I'm not very computer savvy so please excuse the appearances until I can learn a bit more about 'blinging out' my page.

So, the point of my blog will be to share my love of any celebration, big or small.  My goal is obviously to post the end product but I also want to share the steps and instructions along the way.  Wish me luck!!

The first party I want to share with you is a shower I planned for my best friend's niece Lauren.  My best friend of (dare I say) 22 years, Susan Hart, asked me to plan a shower that was pink and whimsical...

In order to make this vision a reality, the party literally started at the front door.

To greet guests…yards of tulle, a feather boa wrapped 'I' and a tray of sparkling pink champagne with paper butterflies perched upon each glass.

My inspiration for this shower came from recently learning how to make tu-tus. I was looking for a cute homemade gift I could give to some of my friends kids and discovered a great tu-tu tutorial on Mommy blessings blog. From there, I wanted to make tu-tus for everything… hence the giant tu-tu on the sweets table.

The idea of the onesie garland makes for great shower décor as well as a perfect shower gift. All I did was design a graphic that matches the décor of the shower. Printed it out onto iron-on transfer paper (don't forget to flip the design before you print). Cut out the design and iron onto each onsie.

One of my favorite activities of the shower was the photo booth. Each guest was instructed to get gussied up in tiaras, necklaces, cocktail rings and boas and have their picture taken with Lauren, the mommy-to-be. I think the photo booth really helped the guests to let loose, as did the mom-to-be.

Along with the photo booth, a wish tree was made from simply spray painting a branch that I cut from one of Susan's trees. Each guest was instructed to write a 'pearl of wisdom' for the mommy to be.

One of the games I planned was 'don't say baby'. I'm sure many of you have played a variation of this game with a clothes pin or a diaper pin. This one was played with a handmade corsage that I made to keep in the pink and girly theme.

Guests left with favors of homemade brown sugar scrub (which smells divine).

I want to thank Melanie of Scout for capturing the moment with her incredible photography and of course to my best friend Susan Hart for giving me this opportunity. 

Stay tuned for a tutorial on the onsie garland!