Ruffly Birthday Party!! Part One

Pay no attention to the child's arm on the right of this photo as she is trying her darndest to get into this picture. We just celebrated our youngest's first birthday. We had a great time. I thought I would share some of the fun things that we did. Everything we did was on a tiny little budget, and was really easy. I thought they turned out super cute (not to toot my own horn or anything, I got a lot of my ideas from other people.)

Invitation:
Here is our invitation for the party. I know the saying makes it seem like we should have decorated with a balloon theme, but I thought the string globes could pull it off. Whether they did or not, I don't think people really cared since we had food. For the invitation I created the words, banner and little swirls on photoshop, glued on scrapbook paper air balloon pieces, and then sewed the invitation to a scrap of burlap. I think it would have been cute on printed fabric too, but the burlap was super cheap.

Decor:
Next I spent my time working on the decorations. There is a great tutorial outlining how to make these string globes here. The tablecloth was a little more intense than I thought it would be. I estimated that it would be a good afternoon nap or two worth of time, but it ended up taking me a good week's work of afternoon naps and some work at night to finish it. I did alter it so that there were three narrow ruffles instead of the two larger ones on this ruffled tablecloth tutorial, so if you stick with the original instructions it probably won't take nearly as long. I used the ruffled crepe paper tutorial here. They were quick, cheap and easy. I think if I make them again though, I would buy a gathering foot, since keeping my machine on such a tight setting made me feel like I was abusing it.

Sustenance:
What's a party without food right? We served sweets and italian sodas for this party. I wish I would have gotten a closer shot of the cake. Oh, the things you forget when you have a bunch of people over at your house! We made a mini ruffle cake for the birthday girl, and a double layer cake for the party goers. We made a mini banner to go across the larger cake. We got the directions for the ruffle cake off of this awesome video here. It was so easy and it looked really cute.
We also served the oreo truffles from Bakerella . Those are awesome because they can be made about a week in advance. We just dipped them in colored vanilla bark.
Macarons were the trial dessert of the event. I had never made them, and some of the blog posts about them made them seem outright terrifying, but I found this site with a video that I followed to the letter and they turned out great. The filling is awesome, totally worth the extra work. I froze one batch of macaron shells for about a month and filled them the day before, and they still came out great.

I got the italian soda idea from this post . It seemed like something fun,  especially in the heat of summer and everyone seemed to really like it. I got this frame from Hobby Lobby for $10 on clearance, it was 24x36 and a rockin' deal! I wanted to make a sign like we used to see at an ice cream shop we liked to go to before we moved. I primed a large piece of cardboard and sketched the italian soda picture with pencil. I then painted the color in with artist acrylics (I'm not sure if the quality would have really mattered.) Lastly, I outlined it and wrote in the ingredients with a Sharpie. I wish I would have used a thicker marker, but that was all that I had on hand. The Sharpie didn't take very well with the primer and I went through two markers.

All in all, things went really well. My two splurges were the table cloth ($15) and the picture frame ($10). I have a tutorial of a great way to use up an empty picture frame coming up soon too!

$20 Trip to Hawaii

I love Hawaii, I would live there if I could. Palm trees, fresh mangoes, and 80 degree weather practically everyday, who wouldn't love it? It's too bad plane tickets cost more than the $10 I have in my sock drawer. When we found out we were having our first baby, I knew it would be a long time until we could go on a vacation just the two of us. I also knew we didn't have the time or the money to go on a vacation before the little bundle came. So I decided to create Hawaii in our living room. It was much cheaper than flying, and with the lovely invention of the thermostat 80 degrees became a possibility (even though we decided to keep it at the standard 72 degrees.)

 

Of course you have to have plane tickets to get to Hawaii, so I snuck these into my husband's bag before he left for school. Just to give him something to look forward to when he got home. These were the dark pre-Photoshop days, so I made them in one of the Microsoft Office programs.

I decorated the apartment with all of the Hawaiian beads and paraphernalia we got on a past trip. I also splurged and bought a $3 tabletop tiki torch from Michael's for the table centerpiece. I placed sea shells and tropical fruit (pineapple, mangoes, bananas, etc.) around the torch. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I didn't think about needing them for a blog later on. 

Family Fun Version 

    

My Version

I also made these cute flowers from cupcake liners. I got the idea from a family fun magazine, and just kind of changed them a little to make them my own. I actually made a few of both. The flowers from family fun worked well to prop up on objects around our house. They would look cute strung for a lei, or a garland. My version worked well to lay on the tables, couches, etc. I also used them in the centerpiece. They do take some time, so plan ahead. Here is the original flower link Family Fun. 

  

For dinner we had Cafe Rio. If you are from the west coast, or have visited the west coast you may know the restaurant I am referring to. It is awesome!! We love it, and since we don't have one nearby, we miss it. Terribly... So we found various recipes online and make it ourselves. It isn't technically a Hawaiian dish, but it has pork as an ingredient so I let it slide. 

 

Since I don't personally have a good picture, and since there is not a Cafe Rio to be found withing city or state limits I had to borrow a picture. This one is from Favorite Family Recipes, I haven't tried their Cafe Rio recipes, but I did use one of their recipes for dessert. Judging by other recipes I have tried on their site, I'm sure their version of Cafe Rio is delicious. 

For dessert we had...

 

Pineapple Delight!!  I just used a little fruit from the centerpiece. This is a more truly Hawaiian dish, it is similar to the awesome tropical fruit ice cream you get at the Polynesian Cultural Center. When we went to the PCC my husband and I both had two each. Hey, it's not everyday you are in Hawaii.

Even though we didn't actually get to go to Hawaii, my husband was still happy to have a night that I had planned especially for him. I would like to do another one for him soon, this time I will be sure to take pictures.