Showing posts with label retro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retro. Show all posts

Sunday, October 2, 2016

fiona's camping birthday!

Fiona turned ONE this summer, and we celebrated with a camping birthday!


It was a vintagy Moonrise Kingdom/Camp Wandawega inspired party, and we had planned to have it outside at my aunt and uncle's house. We were going to do a campfire, a nature walk, and have their beautiful old yellow canvas tent set up and decorated.


But all the rain from the WHOLE SUMMER decided to fall that morning, afternoon, and night, and we had to move it into the garage. The kiddos had a ball, but it hurt my heart a bit.

Cute little bear from Target's Pillowfort collection, and play fire by me. ;)


I had more than one person tell me the unexpected rain was somewhat of a metaphor for the year Fiona and I had. They're not lying. ;)


So I guess it's only right that I had to scrap everything and rethink the day. This little girl keeps me on my toes!

All the s'mores we never got to eat. :( We still have marshmallows and chocolate. 
If anyone wants to do a campfire call us up.


These fruit skewers turned out great! Just sliced some melon and pushed cookie cutters through. Bada-bing.


There are tiny washers glued to the back of each pennant on this banner. 
I actually remembered to weight my banners this year, and we weren't even out in the wind!


There was a lot of family memorabilia on the table. We had my mom's moccasins, my grandparents' lantern, compass, bobber, roasting sticks, and kiddie lawn chair. We also had Zach's grandpa's fish knives, and this sweet old thermos I found at my aunt and uncle's house the day of.



The party favors for the grown ups were "s'mores-to-go" with mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, and Teddy Grahams.



Instead of cakeballs, I put energy bites on a stick! If you do this, keep them in the freezer till right before cause they did start to fall off.




I really love life-like animal figurines. You know, the little rubber plastic ones like these. It's so hard for me to not buy all of them at the craft store, but I got a couple for the cake and the kiddo favors. ;)





My mom made three ah-mazing cheesecakes! S'more, Hawaiian, and Root Beer Float. I got my s'mores somehow!




We always have the party guests sign a book for the birthday girl. This year's was Curious George Goes Camping.


Favors for the two baby guests were little birdies. ;)


And the big kiddos got packets with animal figurines (heart eyes), little woodland critter tattoos, coloring pages, and a cute little chart of how to make shadow puppets. (Which we would've done in the tent, but you won't hear me complaining about it!)

 Our nature walk checklists!


I got most of my Instagrams from the past year printed and hung them on this fabulous frame Zach made. It's supposed to be for our bathroom mirror, but I'm stealing it.





I had a little play area for the kiddos with books, "sleeping bags", and toy food to cook over their pretend fire. The kids loved it, and I'm so glad since we were all kinda squished inside!


We also made binoculars for our nature walk. So easy to prepare, and the kids really seemed to like doing it.


Fiona was hamming it up. She had such a great evening. She loves people, and likes to be silly.


Her "Happy Camper" shirt is from LilMongo's Boutique on Etsy, and the moccasins are from Trendy Ends - also Etsy. And she actually left her kerchief on the whole evening!


Those eyes!


Cake time was hilarious. She really has not had sugary stuff, so she was VERY into it.


Proud big sissy!


She got immediately CAH-RAZY, then powered down just as fast. Oh, sugar. What a wild ride.



We love you so much, Fiona! From your time in my belly, to your birth, to this intense year we've had, you've come through so much. You have the best smile, and make us laugh every day. ONE! We made it!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out on that rainy night with us! We loved celebrating with you!


Party Credits
Party Styling: Kara Hallead
Photography: Faith Zimmerman
Cheesecakes: Carol Scheuerman
Tablecloth: Hobby Lobby
Log Cake Stand: TJ Maxx
Instagram Prints: Shutterfly
Favors: A.C.Moore
Wood Font: Wood Sticks from Dafont
Decor: Vintage
Plush Fire and Logs: Kara Hallead


Thursday, April 2, 2015

mimi's 80th birthday party

We got to celebrate my grandma, Mimi's, 80th birthday this January! Friends and family came out to celebrate her, we had lots of good food, and I discovered the joy of setting up a dessert table without having to actually make the desserts. Why have I been punishing myself this whole time?! Spending weeks cutting out circles or folding tissue paper doesn't bother me in the least, but after just an hour of baking or chocolate dipping I'm shaking my fists at the heavens.


The inspiration for the decor was this gorgeous fuschia dress that Mimi wore as a bridesmaid's dress sometime in the 50s. 


I also used a lot of vintage photos of Mimi; on the cupcakes, the embellished posters, and around the room.


 And a TON of tissue paper flowers. These are very retro to me - like prom decor from the 50s.



Did you know you could order large photo prints from Staples for only $4.99? You have to choose "engineering prints", ignore the many warnings that this is NOT a photo grade option, place your order, and pick them up in store! Files that were originally professional-grade, high-quality prints work the best.


Mom made the amazing desserts; including Almond Joy Cheesecakes and Hawaiian Pineapple cupcakes.



For the cupcake picks (originally seen on Empress Stationery), I used some of the hundreds of photos I've scanned onto our computer over the years. I cropped all of the photos to be about 2.5"x2.5", then I arranged them in rows in a Word document, and printed them on cardstock. Then I used my 2" circle punch to cut them all out, mounted them on pink circle cut-outs, attached toothpicks, and that was it. All for the cost of a pack of pink cardstock. ; )




Love that beehive!






Here's more engineering prints. After picking them up from Staples, I put them in lightweight poster frames and had some fun embellishing each with tissue paper flowers and tassels. 

Mimi and Pappap on a trip in Ocean City, NJ.

The birthday girl!

Mimi with Cheryl, the woman to whose wedding Mimi wore the fuschia dress. 
I found out at the party that it was actually a "rainbow wedding" where all the bridesmaids wore different colors. 
They said that was all the rage then. 

Happy Birthday, Mimi! So glad I could spend it with you! 


Party Credits

Party Styling: Kara Hallead
Photography: Faith Scheuerman
Desserts: Carol Scheuerman
Photo prints: Staples
Vintage Items: Charlotte Sprenkle
Cupcake Stand: Pier 1 Imports