Birthday Party: Zoo Party Invitation

My daughter loves animals - so that was our inspiration for her 3rd birthday party last fall.  I designed a few different invites for the party, but ended up going with the second here.  I love the giraffe print with the green.  So fun!

Holiday Party: Snowflakes

For the past several years, our good friends have a holiday party to celebrate the season with good food and friends.  This year, I helped with the decor and had a blast!  We provided a few desserts (like some delicious peppermint patty balls) and asked the guests to bring a dish to share.  The colors were blue and white with pops of red.  We hung puffs from the ceiling and placed small snowflakes throughout the house.  A fun find was a felt snowflake table runner we used on the coffee table.  This small touch of snow was on sale and perfect for tying the rooms together!

 The main activity for the party was a cookie bar.  We made simple sugar cookies and frosting and had guests decorate their own.  Because the party guests were all ages, this was a big hit!  The kids loved it and the parents appreciated having something festive for their kids to do.

 We sent each family home with a bag (or two) of homemade puppy chow.... the snack, not the real thing.  It was a delicious and inexpensive small thing to say thank you for coming.  We used blue cello bags with red ribbon tied around them.  I found a bag of little wooden white snowflakes in the craft section at Michael's and hot glued them on to tie into the snowflake theme.

We had a great time planning this gathering and a great time attending!  Guests enjoyed the casual atmosphere, good food and friends!  It was a perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

What are your holiday party plans?

Shower Sunday: Blackberry Pie & Cocoa

I love baby showers!  They are so fun and the themes are endless.  My sister-in-law is expecting a baby girl and we were so excited to plan her shower.  The inspiration for this shower came in the strangest form - dessert!  Kaysee loves blackberry pie and the colors were perfect for a baby girl shower.

All of the decorations came together perfectly!  We kept the decor simple with lots of small things making a beautiful tablescape.  The home decor of the hostess just so happened to fit perfectly.  Purple napkins, raspberry pink and purple M&Ms, red and purple mugs, fun pink & purple tissue paper puffs and a soft, purple blanket draped over a white tablecloth for a pop of color and texture to the table.

For drinks, we again kept it simple.  For an evening shower (7:00-9:00pm) in November, hot cocoa was the perfect warm beverage.  We had four flavors of cocoa (regular, dark, mint and salted caramel), three flavors of marshmallows, whip cream, sprinkles and crushed candy canes for toppings. Delicious!

Our inspiration was blackberry pie - so obviously, that's what we served for dessert.  Delicious at any temperature, we made the pies earlier in the day to avoid a time crunch.  They were delicious!  Serving only one dessert choice made the menu simple and delicious.

We kept our activities simple, too.  I don't know many moms-to-be who really enjoy the typical shower games.  They can often be awkward for guests, too.  We had three activities - the first two were as close to "shower games" as we got.

This final activity was harder than I anticipated!  We each wrote down wishes for Addison and Kaysee collected them for her memory box.  This activity would only work for moms that want to remember by keeping mementos.  I printed out extras for people who were not at the shower to fill out.

 Finally, we included a "station" for addressing your thank you card.  Even if you say you don't, most guests do like to receive thank you cards from the mom-to-be.  This makes it a little easier for mom.

Overall, it was a great shower!  It was small, but beautiful - fun, but simple.  

We're so excited for Baby Addison to arrive!

It's in the small things!

Thanksgiving: Pie & Puzzles

Do you ever feel like you're being torn this way and that for Thanksgiving?  Everyone wants you to eat turkey and watch football at their house!  We have a large extended family - and it's hard to navigate the maze of Thanksgiving dinner plans.  So, we kept it simple.  Pie and puzzles after everything else...

Card Creations - Beautiful Fall Colors

A creative design piece of Circle River Creations is handmade cards.  Once a scrapbooker, always a paper crafter - I love making cards.  I love only having a small canvas to work with and finding fun, unique and creative ways to use paper and other embellishments.

Below are some card creations I recently designed.  I love fall and with it fall colors!  These are a different twist on fall colors with pink added in, but I love them!

Even with cards, it's all about being creative and small things making something great!  Three simple ribbons, folded and stapled to a card adds depth and a splash of texture.  Making a collage out of stickers that may not look right standing alone - a small thing, into something great!

Be creative today!

Birthday Party: Sweet 16 Glow Party

This party was so much fun!  Brianna worked on a fabulous menu which was perfect for teenagers!  A handful of small things to eat made for a delicious platter to choose from - gorgeous, uniquely designed cake (by Brianna), fruits, meatballs, chips & salsa and mini cupcakes.  It's amazing what glows under black lights! Add tonic water to your favorite punch and you have a fluorescing beverage!

For activities, we kept it simple.  In my book, food counts as an activity!  But there was also some fun music and a dance floor covered in black light glow, a simple ring toss using glow bracelets and spray painted bottles, a canvas painting activity using neon paints (so it looks okay in the light, too!) and a make-up station that included fluorescing face paint and neon nail polish.  Simple, but fun and teenage-friendly!  

All of the guests were given glow bracelets and necklaces as well as a take home "Sweet 16" Candy gift.  We wrapped mini Mike & Ike packs in fluorescent paper and added cut out 16s to pop.

We covered the windows with cardboard and paper to keep the light out and used as many black lights as we could find.  Other small things included cutting glow sticks and splattering the inside of glass jars, using extra fluorescent paper pieces as confetti for the tables, using highlighters to write notes on the white paper, and white table clothes added to the overall glow.

A great party is all about the small things!  

Miss S, we had the best time creating this special party for you!  Happy Sweet 16!

Glowing Details

Here are the glowing details of the Sweet 16 Glow Party!  Each guest received one or tow glow bracelets and/or necklaces when they arrived.

 In addition to their glow bracelet, the guests left with these Sweet 16 Candy Bars - the Birthday Girl's favorite candy wrapped in fluorescent printer paper (it doesn't have to be expensive to pop)!

 This was a Pinterest idea made our own - cut open a glow bracelet and use as decor!

 

A party isn't a party without food.  And food can easily become part of the decorations.  It's a great way to make the most out of your budget.  Everything becomes one small piece of a great party!

Be Creative!