MadeByAPrincess

My daughter’s favorite movie and music is the Sound of Music so this year for her 2nd birthday we threw her a Sound of Music themed party.  The overall theme was elegant and classy and done in gold and ice blue with hints of green to represent the green and white damask curtains.
This party was months in the making and I could not have been more pleased with the outcome.  I included details around the party directly from the songs from serving “schnitzel with noodles”, “cream colored pony”, and my little girl in a white dress with a satin blue sash.
My husband and I created an Austrian mountainscape out of giant appliance boxes painted blue (for background mountains) and lush green.  We had even had “snowcaps” made out of poster board spray painted with shimmer pearl paint.  The mountains were placed in our backyard in where our guests picnicked under the trees filled with “wild geese flying with moon on their wings” and “raindrops on roses” which were made out of authentic sheet music from songs from the movie made into a cone with roses and greenery hanging in the trees. Strung crystals adorned the tree to look like glistening raindrops.  In the house I hung old travel posters, a ribbon garland and “snowflakes that stayed on nose and eyelashes”, and an Austrian flag.  Captain von Trapp would have been proud.
I had never made Austrian food but I made schnitzel, spaetzle, and kaiserschmarrn from scratch.  We had a pink lemonade bar outside, something the Baroness would have approved of!  One of my dear friends, Roni of Roni’s Sugar Creations, custom made musical note cakepops just for this event that were to die for. The food table was decorated with suitcases to represent their travel out of Austria, a picnic basket, copper kettle, woolen mittens, and bright yellow gerbera daisies just like on the hillside where Maria and the kids sang “Do Re Mi.”  I found green and white damask shower curtains and hung them in my dining just like the ones Maria had in her bedroom.
All of the guests left with a favor box full of soil, a potting cup, and Edelweiss seeds so they could plant their own Edelweiss plants which Captain von Trapp would have loved I think.
The movie played in the background the entire party and the music was playing outside.  Many of our guests had not seen the movie in years and all remarked that the movie evoked such happy memories from their childhoods.  This is my favorite that I have thrown so far and loved seeing my daughter light up when she saw Maria (a Limited Edition Barbie Maria) sitting atop her cake.

Yesterday my little one, Megan, and I hosted a Top o’ the Mornin’ St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast for some of our playgroup friends. We had about a dozen little friends and their mommies. I was so excited about this party because this was our first hosted event with this group and I love St. Patrick’s Day! Not many people know this but we have a leprechaun named Liam who can be quite naughty St. Patrick’s Day morning. I’ll have to share some pictures of his escapades…
One of my favorite things about throwing a party are the decorations. I love the details and finding or creating those little touches that mean so much in the overall design. I bought six gold fringe door streamers to use for my pink and gold birthday party in January to use as curtains in my dining room. They stayed up for Valentine’s because they were so festive and just when I thought I was going to take them down I realized they would be perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.
I wanted to add some color so I added a valance made out of rainbow wrapping paper. Tutorial for that will be later this week. It’s so easy and only cost $4.
Many of the items I used were found at one of my favorite places , The Dollar Tree. You can find some amazingly great stuff there. The green foil runners on the coffee bar was a roll of wrapping foil from there. The vintage looking glass pedestal bowls and cake plates…candlestick glued to the bottom of glass bowls and plates. I love anything sparkly so in addition to glittering the serving pieces I created a “LUCKY” glittered letter banner
No one believes me that I got the supplies at Dollar Tree! The Irish coffee mugs and shamrock garland I decorated them with, yep, from there too. The serving spoons and forks were found there too, I just glittered them. The people at my local Dollar Tree recognize me now I’m in there so much.
Now onto the food! I served Lucky Charms in leprechaun hats, mini Nilla Wafers in black pots because they looked like little coins, festive Chex Mix, mint crinkle cookies, rainbow made out of fruit and mini green pancakes, and crock pot Irish cream coffee.
The kids loved the marshmallows in the Lucky Charms, devoured the Nilla Wafers, and thoroughly enjoyed the fruit rainbow. The mommies seemed to really like the Irish cream coffee! One of the moms, not a fan of coffee, really liked this coffee because it tasted more like hot cocoa. Lucky for me there was a cup left which I am enjoying right now.
I wanted to do a craft with our new friends so I bought glitter paint at Michael’s and cut a few poster boards from Dollar Tree into 8×10 and 5×7 sheets. I also cut some bell peppers in half (took the seeds out) because when cut they look like shamrocks. The art station was a huge hit and I loved seeing all those little rainbow fingers! This is a really easy craft to do even with a bigger group. It’s pretty inexpensive too. A 6 pack of glitter paint was $5.99, the paint brushes were $5, the poster board was $1.50 and it made a bunch of sheets, the bell peppers were on sale so I think they were $2, and I made the pots and coins with my Silhouette Cameo with black and yellow paper I had on hand.
The art project was a big hit and everyone went home with something to remember our day together. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!