Amara's 2nd Birthday Party!

Tuesday evening, we celebrated Amara's birthday with some of her closest little friends. I really fought to keep it EXTREMELY small, and mostly family.... those that Amara has spent a lot of time with this year...that have invested SO much into her second year of life.

I opted for an outdoor celebration at Arrington Vineyards. It was perfect!! We were practically the only people there. The sun was setting, and we had an amazing view overlooking the vines. It couldn't have been more beautiful.

 For the first time, I was done setting up and able to relax before guests arrived. NEVER in the history of my party planning has that happened. I would like to think that it is because I have gotten better with planning and timing, but I don't think that is it considering I didn't even have time to shower or wash my hair for the party. Shhhh! However, swinging with my baby sweet toddler, staring at the gorgeous views and just taking it all in with her before the celebration started was a surreal moment for this mama. I needed a stress-free evening....we all did!

The little details......

 ^^ I just put three sheets of watercolor paper together with a crayola kids' art smock and crayola watercolor set. I had custom tags printed at Rock Paper Scissors. ^^

 ^^ I found a great DIY party hat template at Oh Happy Day (such an amazing blog!). I just used Kraft paper sheets, and then hot glued hand dyed/store bought poms on them! ^^

 ^^ These little guys were my favorite! I love a good party favor. I just bought the paint cans at a local craft store ( Michaels and Joanns both carry them), stuffed them with different color tissues to look like "paint", and stuffed them full of goodies! ^^

[ Mini paint set, mini slinky, Ring Pop, swirly straw, bouncy balls, stamps, temporary tattoos and mini bubble containers] I found all of it at craft stores and Target.

 ^^Adult picnic dinners: Sub sandwiches with chips and a pickle! Wooden fruit baskets here ^^

 ^^ Kids' picnic dinners: turkey sandwiches, goldfish/pretzel mix, grapes and a juice box. The boxes were a Martha Stewart find. ^^

 ^^ Found cotton candy at a local candy shop, wrapped it around a stripey straw and voilla! Definitely time consuming, but totally worth it! Who doesn't love cotton candy on a stick!?! ^^

^^ I decided to make an Instagram banner to showcase Amara's year of growth. ^^

Sprinkling a "Fab Mama"

Last Saturday ( yes, I know I should have posted this on Mondayish??), two of my besties, Lori and Lauren, and I threw a baby sprinkle for our dear friend, Leah and baby Max! She is not only an amazing mother to sweet Ari already, but she is such a thoughtful friend to me. The sprinkle had to be special, it was a no brainer to all of us hostesses! 

Leah wanted us to keep it simple ( yeah, okay), so we opted for a restaurant setting in the evening. We chose a Nashville hot spot called Marche, and it was absolutely perfect!! The food, the ambiance, the service.....perfect! We went with some of the colors from Max's fab nursery, and accented it all with gold tones. All of the beautiful paper goods were designed by Lauren at Rock Paper Scissors. Gorgeous, aren't they? We toasted with some Prosecco in hand, and it was just an avalanche of delicious food from that point on.

Here are some pictures from our evening! Disclaimer : forgive some of the blurry pics. Like any great hostess/blogger, I did not charge my camera, so I had 30 secs to snap pics of the table and decor before it shut off. The rest are from my Iphone.

^^ The Fab Mama looking stunning! ^^

^^ If you have not eaten at Nothing Bundt cakes, you are missing out!! Seriously, amazing! ^^

^^ I had so much fun arranging these flowers! Flowers just make me happy! ^^

^^ Tea lights wrapped in gorgeous gold washi tape from Lauren's boutique! ^^

^^ Favor take out boxes for leftover bundt cakes. ^^

We love you Leah!!!! We can't wait to meet baby Max! He is already loved so much!!

- Jenni

A snowy sprinkle for baby Hsu!

This past weekend I had the honor of hosting a baby sprinkle for one of my besties! Shara and I go way back....well, before we were both married with kids, which feels like a century to me! She and I were roomies before we both got swept off of our feet and got talked into getting married by our hubbies. Yep, that is how it went folks....we were just too irresistible, and they practically begged us! haha....

Baby Sprinkles are a trending thing for mommies with their second, or third, or fourth, or fifth ( Lord, help them) child on the way. It is just a nice way to celebrate them and their soon - to - be new arrival. Let me tell you, when mom's get out of the house, away from their kids, that is STILL all they talk about. Granted it was a BABY shower, but still....we just love them so much!!! It has been a couple of years since Shara's first bundle of joy, Rowen, so it was fun to get new stuff since we all know that within a year of having a baby, there are a million new gadgets out that were not available to you before.

I plan to post some pictures from some of the projects that I did for the shower throughout the month. It was a lot of fun to craft for this shower and I had great friends who let me bounce ideas off of them and borrow stuff! Thanks Lori, Leah & Lauren!!

   

 Invites were custom designed by my friend Lauren. She is the owner of the charming Paper Boutique in Downtown Franklin called Rock Paper Scissors. Check out her

 blog/website....if you are into really pretty things and what not ;)!

I left a plate full of envelopes ( not sure why I cut those out of this shot??) out that I had already stuffed with "thank you" notes and written Shara's return address on the back so guests could write their mailing address on them, and it would be super simple for Shara to write her "thank yous" without too much hassle.  

 I have yet to paint my buffet ( Craig's List find), but was so loving the white tassel garland up against the natural wood!! I followed a GREAT tassel garland tutorial HERE!

I didn't really know the look I was going for until I got midway through the decorating process. I really tried, and was successful at using materials I already had to keep cost down! It is hard for me to resist burlap and glitter, so they were musts! I guess it was a little "rustic, woodland, winterlandish theme??" 

I LOVE having our DIY chalkboard in the dining room, especially for parties!! A little "fake calligraphy" if you will....by yours truly.

 I did a really simple diaper cake ( tutorial HERE) with silver ribbon and some cardboard snowflakes that I found in the dollar section of Michael's craft store that I covered in Modge Podge and dipped in glitter. My 14 year old little sis co-created this masterpiece with me :)

I knew I wanted a dessert table above everything else. There is always room for dessert right?

DIY color blocked wooden utensils! 

A perfect favor idea for a small gathering like this! Everyone was able to take a little goodie bag home to their family! On an even better note, it got most of it out of my kitchen so I wouldn't devour it all myself. My husband was out of town, trust me....it could have easily been my breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Hope you had as much fun looking as I did planning! I can't wait to meet your sweet new baby boy Max and Shara! He is so lucky already to have such a sweet & caring family to be born into. Love you guys!