birdie’s first birthday
We celebrated Birdie’s first birthday last October with our family and close friends. My friend Cyn Kain came by to take these pretty pictures. Birdie is such a happy, happy little girl, but she erupts into absolute joy at the sight of a balloon, so we had many of those in all shades of pink tied off with pretty pink satin ribbons, as well as this girly #1 balloon, which was, obviously, the highlight of the party!
I labored over her smash cake, and out of fear I’d totally bomb the icing, made a trial-run cake the week before. The cake recipe I used is from The Back in the Day Bakery cookbook. It’s the classic vanilla cupcake Back in the Day Bakery is known for — a cupcake Jon and I enjoyed on a trip to Savannah a few years ago! I used two 5″ pans and stacked the cakes. The recipe yielded just enough batter to make both cakes and nearly a dozen more cupcakes. You can find the frosting tutorial I used here.
The cake pedestal is from Sweet Shop Lulu (I ordered the 6″ round stand), and the topper (a celebration candle kid) is from The Small Object; Sarah was kind enough to paint the hair color to match Birdie’s!
We were busy birthday elves crafting lots of pretty to surprise Birdie on her big day! My husband, Jon, made party hats for pumpkins (since Birdie’s birthday is in October).
Meanwhile I made a birthday hat for Birdie, mini pom pom garlands and big pom poms to hang from the ceiling. To make the pom pom garlands, I used this tutorial for napkin pom-poms and attached them to satin ribbon. I found along the way that the tissue paper from Paper Source is the best weight for pom pom crafting. I used the colors red, strawberry, blossom and poppy, which corresponded with the colors in Birdie’s invitation designed by Jennifer Wick at Minted.
My mom and I baked “1″ sugar cookies, dusted in glittery, pink sprinkles. We used this cookie cutter.
Inspired by Jon and Sherry, we made a first birthday time capsule, filling it with all sorts of things we collected and our guests gifted, from magazines, to a grocery receipt, to a newspaper. We’re looking forward to opening it when Birdie turns 18!
And that is how we celebrated Miss Birdie’s first birthday!
All photographs except the instagram photos by Cyn Kain
Shelly’s vintage baby shower
I rarely ever post about anything non-wedding, but this baby shower designed by Danielle Thompson is so pretty and so modern, I had to share it here.
Danielle designed this party for her sister, Shelly. She made chocolate bar wraps by scanning an illustration from a vintage children’s book and layering it on top of her digital patterned houndstooth paper.
Danielle purchased the crepe paper flowers from an etsy seller, but they’re also easy to make. All you need is crepe paper (crepe streamers from the party store work well), faux pearls from a craft store like Michael’s, toothpicks, and backers for the pom poms (like circular pieces of paper) to make them stick to the toothpicks.
Danielle used Martha Stewart’s pom pom kit {pom poms always make a room look festive!}. MS also has directions here on how to make your very own. The folding techinque you’ll use for big pom poms is identical to what you would use for the small pom cupcake toppers.
Danielle found these sweet vintage style nut baskets on etsy, which she used to hold favors.
To see more of Danielle’s work, visit her etsy shop, Tiny Bazaar, here. You can also find her digital kits here and here. Thank you Danielle!
