Mint and Coral First Birthday Party

I can hardly believe how fast time has passed and my baby girl is now a big One Year Old! It seems like just yesterday that we brought our sweet little bundle of joy home...

to her beautiful new nursery.

And now she has grown into an amazing little toddler who has the cutest laugh and heart melting smile.

I'm learning just how fun it is to have a baby girl after so many little men!  I've planned lots of Thomas, Lightning McQueen, Star Wars, or dinosaurs birthday parties and it was so fun to get to do something girly. I decided to go with a coral and mint theme to match her nursery...of course!

 If there is one thing I've learned (especially this last year) about doing birthday parties for your little ones, its that simple is better. There have been so many times when I've stressed myself out over cleaning every last square inch of my home, or making sure every last detail is right.  In reality I've learned that my guests often don't care if my baseboards have been scrubbed...and by the time it gets to your 5th child, they often are not as inclined to make a big deal out of it. My oldest child's First Birthday party had so many guests! Everyone was so excited to come celebrate him and he was spoiled rotten. As we've gone through each of my children's First Birthdays the parties have gotten smaller and smaller, partly because I've invited a lot less people (I've whittled the guest lists down to immediate family instead of everyone I know, ha!) and partly because after so many parties- for all my kids- the novelty starts to wear off for guests and host.

I've learned its better to keep it simple and remember that the party is not for your guests but for your child. I've gone from reserving rooms at clubhouses and serving a full course meal to just having the party at my home and serving cake and ice cream only. In all honestly, I'm a person who loves a big party and would easily go over the top...but doing it five times a year every year is a lot of work! For baby girl's party I tried to keep it simple and sweet...AND I didn't clean every square inch of my house.

I started out by purchasing this Mind's Eye fan set from Zurcher's as a backdrop for her party vignette. The fans are easy to set up and I attached them to the wall using clear bulletin board tacks. Next I added the ONE balloon garland (balloons also purchased from Zurcher's).  I added a couple of white flower shaped balloons from a local party store and the main backdrop was done!

I'm a person who loves to use what I have around the house so I grabbed some old tassel garland that I had left over from her baby blessing luncheon and put them upside down in my vintage blue mason jars. I then taped some of her 1 Year Old photo shoot pictures to wooden skewers and stuck them in the middle of the tassels.

Gift wrap can add so much and this gorgeous Rifle Paper Co. wrapping paper was the perfect touch! I found some mint and coral polka dot bags from Target to add in and the presents were almost too cute to open.

I am not a cake decorator by any stretch of the imagination! I often buy a cake or have someone make one for me. It is just not my thing at all. I'd had a sweet friend make me a cake for her photo shoot that was absolutely gorgeous! I was really tempted to ask her to make another, bigger one for the party, but I was also trying to be very careful about staying on budget (because it would be so easy to go over the top!). I ended up making my own cake and kept it very simple.  Two 8 inch circles stacked with my favorite homemade butter cream frosting. I found this cake garland and "1" cake topper at Hobby Lobby and they added so much to the cake.

 I had one of her pictures from her photo shoot printed out at 11 x 14 and mod podged it to a canvas so I could use it as a center piece.  I will later be using it in a gallery wall in my basement...I love decor that has a purpose and can be reused!

I bought some gold plates from Target and coral plates from Zurcher's and stacked them alternating on a cake stand.  Forks in a mason jar and cups stacked in an old tray rounded out her little birthday vignette.

The party went fabulously and we were so excited to watch baby girl open up her gifts.  I'm pretty sure she had a blast playing with her cousins and smashing cake all over herself and the floor.

Here's my favorite buttercream frosting recipe, enjoy!

Butter Cream Frosting

• 1 C REAL butter
• 1 1/2 tsp REAL vanilla
• 4 C confectioners sugar
• 2 Tbs evaporated milk

Cream butter and vanilla until smooth. Add sugar and mix well.  Then add in milk.

Rustic Little Boy Room Part 1

Hello everyone! I'm here today with Part 1 of my Rustic Little Boy Room makeover.  

Many of you may remember this room as our Birch Family School Room.  This poor little room has undergone three different makeovers in the 6 years we've been in our house...it just can't seem to find its identity, ha! About 6 months ago we got rid of our homeschool room and turned it back into a bedroom for our 4 and 6 year old.  I sent my children back to public school last year and while it was great to have a school room to do homework in and store things like books and bags, it was even more important to have a bedroom for my two youngest boys.  All four of my boys had been sharing one large bedroom downstairs and it just was not functional at all.  I'm still eagerly waiting for the rest of our basement to be finished (there's sheetrock on the walls!) and right now we just can't decide if the fifth bedroom will be a school room or another bedroom so my oldest can have his own room.

I'd wanted to do a rustic themed room for quite some time. It's definitely out of my design element and I wanted to challenge myself. I started out by purchasing a new bed and bedding from IKEA.  I just love buffalo check and these duvet covers jumped into my cart, ha! I purchased some gold spotted Threshold sheets from Target and threw in this Hello pillow from Hobby Lobby and the feather pillow from Target.

Next I tore out the board and batten and shelf that was on the back wall.  The shelf stuck out about 6 inches and was at just the wrong height so the bunk beds couldn't be pushed up against the wall.  In a small bedroom I need every inch I can get! This faux barn wood wall was a fun project and the tutorial will be going up on Make It and Love It next week. Once it posts I'll come back and post the link for you! It only cost me $30 to do and I think it adds so much to the feel of the room. Of course I'm a sucker for architectural details...for me they make or break a room.

 This whole gallery wall is made up of items from Hobby Lobby.  The deer head has been floating around my house since last fall and he finally found a home in here.  I wanted to bring in some black to break up the wood, gray, and white and this pennant was the perfect addition.

This galvanized bucket was gifted to me from my mom but she originally purchased it from Walmart (of all places!). It works great to hold all of the oversized books that don't fit in the book shelves.

This little corner over here will be the focus of Part 2 of this room's makeover.  I'm making my boys a little tent (or teepee because I haven't decided yet) so they have a little reading nook in their room.  I'll also be touching up paint and hanging up curtains.  Keep watching for lots more to be added to this room.