My March Madness

It happens every year on March 17th...both of my sons' birthday (this year my oldest is turning 8 and my little guy will be 6). So why I didn't start planning their parties until the last week of February escapes me! Typically I start party planning right after Christmas so I won't be completely stressed out come March. However, the threat of madness somehow wasn't enough of a deterrent for me to start planning early - hence the reason I'm a little scary to be around right now.

My first big task was to convince my boys to have one big party versus individual parties like last year. It took about 1.2 seconds for that idea to get shot down. My oldest son had already decided to have a painting themed party and my youngest was dead set on having a cooking party. Score: Kids-1, Mom-0. Fortunately after a few hours of research, I was able to locate and book venues for both parties.

Next task - invitations. I believe that invitations set the tone for a party, so I always like to create something that will get the kids excited for the main event. I came across a ton of ideas on the Internet for invitations. With the little time I had I combined some of those ideas and came up with the following invitations.

For the painting party...a watercolor set. Here's the front of the invitation:

and here's the back with the details of the party...

For the cooking party...a recipe card.

I found the most adorable little oven mitts in the dollar section at Michael's craft store that served as envelopes for the invitations.

I finished off the invitation by putting each child's name on the pot holder...

I haven't planned any other details yet (food, cake, decorations, etc), so I should be good and crazy by the end of next week - pray for me!

My Encounter with a Mouse

Last year I had the pleasure of planning a baby shower for a dear friend - I wrote about it here. This past weekend her baby turned 1, but I'm still in denial that an entire year has past! My friend, much like myself, is a theme-girl and her daughter's birthday party theme was Minnie Mouse.

I was honored to be asked to make something for the big event and immersed myself in research. I rarely have the opportunity to make products that include licensed characters (never for money and only for friends), so this was a treat. I decided to make a door sign similar to the ones I sell in my Etsy shop. Here's the result...

I never knew Minnie had such long eyelashes - I'm thinking they're fake!

This project also gave me the opportunity to try a new technique - printing on burlap fabric. It was super easy, which of course means that you'll be seeing a lot more burlap from me!