Cooking

My son has been obsessed with cars and trucks lately so after looking for some inspiration on Pinterest i decided a classic construction party would be just perfect.
 

Kennedy wanted a Fairy Party, I didn’t want to go with the typical fairy garden theme. I know how much she loves the outdoors and animals and so it began. I started gutting out our woods on the side of our house and made her and Enchanted forest. I thought of this idea because when I was little my family would take us to this spot in town “The Enchanted forest” and it was so magical to me and was one of my favorite memories growing up. So much stuff to do there and see bowling pins made out of wood, houses, tables, Little men made out of wood, trails you name it. So back to Kennedy’s party I went with an Enchanted forest fairy and gnome Party. I wanted it to feel whimsical, magical, enchanting, majestic. Something she and her cousins and friends could play in after her party and many years to come. I started working on the woods when there was still mounds of snow everywhere,(we live in Maine)  I had a time limit to get this done before her party came along. So I brought out the shovels and starting digging. The area I chose on the side of the house was just perfect, the trees seem to spread out just perfect soo I found the trails I wanted to add and started cutting with a saw and machete (which took forever) and tipping over the dead trees and hauling them out. Thank goodness Kennedy’s papa came along with the chain saw and it HELPED out in a big way!  So finally we got the trees cleared out, I began lining the trails with Rocks , which took A LOT of Rocks to do and took a lot of grunting and groaning trying to push this wheelbarrow through the woods up the trails filled with a ton of rocks. (Gets super heavy). Once that was completed my father’s  friend had given him a pretty nice wooden swing set for Kennedy awhile ago. That wasn’t put together yet, so I had him take the Slide and put it in the forest. Same with the swings and the  Rock climbing wall. I spread them out amongst the trails. Parts from the swing set I used  to make bridges for the trails and also made a tent out of spare pieces. His friend also gave us a nice sandbox that his grand daughter outgrew. So in the sandbox went in to the forest (which is a big hit with he kiddos).  I had the perfect spot near the end of the trail, it came to a complete straight line so I went and purchased large outdoor bowling pins and put them in, it opened up at the end of the trail for the perfect spot. Kennedy’s papa, myself and her Nana worked on a house to put in the forest. It turned out awesome, big and looks like a log cabin just tied in perfect with the theme. I ended up gettting a bunch of brick and painted yellow lines on them and made a big racetrack for forest and found some PVC lying around and made a tunnel out of it and covered it with mulch, rocks, and moss and that’s where the cars went flying down and you could race on the track. I found some trees and hung them connecting to two other tree so I could hang the flower reading canopy I made. I added tons of Toadstools, Flowers, gnomes, Butterflies and pinwheels throughout the trails. I also Made Fairy doors and windows and nailed them to trees. So that sums of the Forest pretty well. For the tables  I had the perfect spot picked out for a large long table for the kids, in front of these large rocks and super old logs that were growing moss all over them and it just added perfectly to my theme I was going for! We made a long table out of plywood and used stumps for the legs and made log benches for seating and I Made toadstool pillows to place on them. I used the main kids table for them to make fairy gardens and remember those large rocks and stumps I put all the accessories for the gardens all over them so the kids could go over and pick what they wanted to put in their gardens. The middle of the table was decor of moss,gnomes,trolls, fairies, rocks, butterflies, birds, flowers, wood, birds nest, fairy homes and animals  etcs…. I had a spot right by the main table to put up a fairy swing, I made the wooden board  and covered it with moss and on the rope added flower garlands. I placed a table by the main table that was set up with fairy wands and headbands I made for the girls and Gnome hats and beards for the boys. I had a section laid out for face painting and Fairy hairspray glitter. I had this perfect round mirror that was made out of bark that went perfect right next to the table and I hung fairy wings I made next to that so They all could check themselves out all dolled up before they entered the forest. I made three toadstool tables from Spools. I set up little crafts the kids could make on them. I hung from the entrance Her name I made out of twigs moss and flowers for each letter. The hanging decor I used were pom poms I already made that I used at one time for her nursery and I made yarn balls out of balloons and hung flower pots covered in moss. The food table was over by the end of the trail to exit the forest, near a wishing well we already had on the property and I felt that tied in perfect with the theme.

A woodland picnic to celebrate my son’s first birthday! Be aware of the bears, they might join us.

I wanted a modern, eclectic feel for this twin nursery. Clean lines and multiple textures. I wanted a nursery that could grow with them. I wanted a nursery that I could add anything I wanted and it just “worked” with everything else in the room.

This is a room for our first child.  Almost everything in it is handmade by myself, my husband or my friends and family.  We started with the rug from overstock and everything else slowly fell into place.  Lots of hand me downs, everything yellow was built by my grandfather.  The dresser/changing table was a craigslist  find painted white by my husband.  All the decor on the walls are original pieces by me or friends/family.  My husband made the curtain rods from sticks he found in our backyard.  The ottoman was an etsy find.  The walls are behr canton jade.  This was the first time I’ve ever decorated a room from start to finish and I loved doing it!  Now we just need the baby! :)

I celebrated Halloween with some adults and a toddler, but thought lots of the ideas could also be used for a children’s halloween party!

Cars themed 2nd birthday party with the colors blue, red and grey.

Mint and pink bows set the theme for this unique and super fun 1st birthday party!

An arts and painting themed party was perfect for my son’s 3rd birthday! Lots of handmade details (which often included his helping hands!), color coordinated brunch foods, and hands-on projects for the kids made for a lot of fun!

My son ended up having the flu so we had to cancel all his friends so it ended up being an adult birthday party as of the morning of the party.  But we all celebrated him and he had so much fun and I think the adults did too.  There was a snowflake photo booth with winter props, cookie decorating station and hot chocolate bar with tons of white and silver “treats”, and a champagne bar for the adults

This was my daughter’s first toddler party (not exactly her birthday party) and because it was in November we stuck to the Winter ONEderland theme. I have always been inspired by my sister-in-law who holds one or two parties each year for her kids and their friends exclusively and she goes all-out in them too. The party was exclusively for kids, mums and aunts partly because our place wasn’t big enough to accommodate all the men that came in the same package and partly because I thought this was turning out to be quite a girly event. I must confess too – I never got around to having a baby shower so a lot of the decoration ideas were on my wish-list since the time I was pregnant and wishing for a surprise baby shower :D

Baby, it might be cold outside somewhere, but in SoCal, it was a balmy 80 and sunny. That didn’t stop a dozen toddlers from getting into the holiday spirit by indulging their inner Martha Stewart at a good old-fashioned cookie decorating party. Frosty didn’t come to visit, but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of frosting in odd places for months to come…
We kept the party more “winter” themed, and incorporated iconic winter images- snowmen, snowflakes, mittens. Hints of Santa & his elves filled out the details. The snowmen cake pops were a definite crowd-pleaser. Then again, who doesn’t love food on a stick? The Santa strawberries & whipped cream could almost be considered healthy. Almost. “Elf Juice” kept the kids hydrated while they worked on the cookies. Kids were able to take their colorful creations home with a jar of layered hot cocoa. Hmmm… maybe when winter finally gets to LA it’ll come in handy.

I had so much fun creating this space for my first little one. It took a lot of time and thought, but I decided to go with something soft and simple. I didn’t want to overdecorate  or incorporate too many colors. I’m not very crafty but I wanted to make at least one thing to add sentimental value. So I decided to make the mobile. There are still a couple things I want to add in over time, but for now, it’s perfect for our little man.

A sprinkle themed party for our daughter’s first birthday!

A summer birthday party for a one year old boy.

A clean, modern, DIY nursery for our lil man.

A pink and silver dinosaur themed party!

Vintage inspired, afternoon tea party honoring Carrie and baby Charlotte, who is due to arrive September 27th!

This was a mother’s day photo shoot created for Yum! Food and Fun for Kids magazine. I wanted to create a party where the KIDS could make everything FOR mom, giving her a bit of a rest! My daughters had so much fun helping me with this party! I really did make them do most of the work. ;-)

I wanted to create a beautiful 1st birthday party for my little girl that was a little bit vintage and really girly with lots of pink and turquoise.  I basically made all the decorations myself and baked and iced everything I could think of that was sweet!