Oh there’s so much to say about this special little girl. She turned our world upside down two years ago and continues to do so with her love for life.

One night this week, as I was getting ready to tuck her in, she asked me as she pats the rocking chair, “Rock baby…manket?” (She was asking to be rocked with her blanket). I sang “Rock a Bye Baby” as I rocked her and she had the biggest smile. Its one of those moments as a parent I will always cherish and never forget. Well, every night this week, she asked “Rock baby?” How could I say no? My heart just melts and this is how Campbell is. What a sweet, cuddly, hilarious, strong, independent, loving little girl. The best daughter and little sister around.

I was thinking of her birthday party months before and even thought of a great theme, but it had been an unusually busy January and we decided to celebrate her birthday with just the four of us at home. But then I felt guilty thinking I wasn’t throwing a party for her because of all the busyness and everything else that had gotten in the way. So I decided, I would plan a small party within a month and to invite close friends and family…..I figured fourteen invitations was a perfect amount for a quaint and intimate event. Well with over 30 guests confirmed and add a little excitement with details…get ready for some picture overload…

I quickly emailed Liana for help with my concept for Campbell’s button theme party translated to her invitation. She and her husband, Mike designed it exactly as I imagined, the pink and grey colors were perfect, and the letterpress work is just gorgeous. It was so fun to also be able to use her birthday crown this year again.

It has become tradition when I host a baby shower, I give the mom-to-be a “wishes for baby” card where guests can write a message for baby. I now include this for the girls’ birthdays (with their name and age) and hope to do it every year. I also was able to get these wooden blocks as Campbell’s first and middle name initials from Paloma’s Nest. Another favorite detail was the grey polka dotted tablecloths!

My husband has been SOOOO supportive with my party planning obsession and I think he has gotten into it as well ;) He came up with purchasing wooden circles at Michael’s, drilling two holes in them and hanging them as garlands across the dining room. I also had to incorporate the tissue poms, they really add alot to events.

Ahh the cake…its been an interesting journey with cakes. I used to describe a cake to some of the local cake bakers, and they always seemed to come back the opposite of what they are supposed to look like. I got tired of it and started making them myself. I actually loved making them for birthdays! I also love the look and taste of homemade cakes. As I planned for this party and the more details and projects I did, I realized a week before the party that I will not have time to make the cake. I remember seeing on Facebook recommendations from friends and photos of cakes from someone local who I had met at a recent wedding who made the wedding cake. I contacted her and described the cake, forwarded some photos, mentioned milk allergies of family members…WOW, did she over deliver and did an amazing job! The cake was not only gorgeous, but tasted DELICIOUS! Every button was handmade out of fondant. It was chocolate with buttermilk vanilla frosting, (soy/almond milk was actually used) layers of cool whip and chocolate ganache….it was the best cake I had ever eaten. Trust me I have eaten tons of cake! If you are in the Chattanooga area, get in touch with Queenie Lewis!

The adorable handmade ceramic buttons from Paloma’s Nest are not normally for cake toppers, but they worked out perfectly.

I made pink chocolate melts with button molds and there were pink ranunculus flowers in mason jars, courtesy of the super sweet and talented florist, Grafe Studio!

I was really happy with the pink burlap to use as tablecloths for the guests. We tied huge pink balloons to the mason jars and I strung pink buttons on pink striped cotton twine that were placed in the middle of table.

We now use this bunting banner every year for birthdays.

Sooo fun…we had three stations we called “bar”. One was the juice bar. We had six different juices: pineapple, pink lemonade, orange-pineapple, grape, apple, and orange. Guests could mix them up and drink them with different sized mason jars. Really loved the striped grey and pink straws.

For the little kids, they had a special juicebox. We had these labels printed (along with the labels in grey frames) at Kinko’s.

The second and third stations were a burger bar and fruit bar. We had all of Campbell’s favorite fruits…she can eat fruit all day long!

The burger bar was a hit. Knowing that about 95 percent of the guests were vegeterians, we served 100 percent vegetarian burgers. There were three kinds: “chicken” patties, grillers (both were Morningstar brand) and the homemade patties, so good! We cooked up lots of those…I think there were at least 100 miniature burgers! If you would like the recipe to the homemade ones, let me know, I’ll see if my husband is willing to share the ingredients ;)

I made button sugar cookies…tried to do it Bakerella style, but did not really succeed, but they were yummy anyhow.

More overviews of the room. Garrett’s grandma makes the best pasta salad and it went really well with the burgers. YUM.

It was quite a surprise for the weather to be so sunny and the temperature around 70…in February. So as you can see by the lack of decorations on the back deck, we were not really planning for us to use the screened in porch but the kids LOVED eating outside and parents were able to eat inside and still be able to watch the kids through the open windows. It worked out so great!

Time for cake!

Gray is the most helpful big sister and she just adores Campbell.

Sampling the delicious cake for the first time. And taking a moment to be with my daughter.

We had three games. The first one was “Pass the Button.” Garrett drilled four holes, painted and tied fabric around the homemade button. Sooo cute! The kids loved passing it around with music.

Then we played a similar version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. We had “Pin the Thread on the Button.”

The third game was “Guess How Many Buttons?” Everyone had a chance to guess how many buttons in the jar…there were 374!

Soooo fun to have all the cousins and lots of friends together!!

Time to open presents!

One of my favorite details was the favor bags. I asked my mother-in-law to see if she could make a similar favor bag that I had seen online…I have very little knowledge in sewing and had actually asked her for sewing lessons 8 years ago…she is truly so talented and has quite a gift. I asked if it would be hard to make the bags and would we have enough time (this was two weeks or maybe less before the party). She graciously said yes, she could do it and it wouldn’t be hard at all…she even added special details with scalloped edged flaps and bow finished twine. It turned out way better than I dreamed of! Thanks Mom!

Everyone took home a favor bag and in it had the chocolate button lollipops, clementines, and pencil with pencil sharpener (for older kids). I love that the bag itself is re-usable for a toy, or give-able as a gift, etc.

Last but not least, the “thank you” cards. I just mailed these out last week…I think it was in record time! These were letterpress thank you cards made by Liana and Mike customized for Campbell. I absolutely love her monogram initials and button on the back! Their customer service is also the best out there, they truly go above and beyond.

Whew, you made it!

Thank you for reading this and I hope you were able to get some ideas for your next event! I wasn’t able to link everything, so if you have any questions, please let me know.

If there was something that I regret not doing, it was to have someone official photograph the event! I know I deserve a slap in the hand as we are photographers and we should know better! Honestly, we overlooked it and just totally forgot :( Garrett took most of the pictures and yes we indeed got some great photos, but we should have had someone there so we could actually be with the guests more and serve as better hosts. I almost forgot to have a family shot too, thank you Amanda! Lesson learned!!

To all our friends and family who came, we loved getting to spend time with you. I know Campbell had a blast. Thank you also to those who helped us out, we truly appreciate it! And for the ones who weren’t able to come, we sure missed you and hope to see you soon!

I want to especially thank my husband, Garrett for his wonderful support with all this! His creativity along with encouragement of all of my crazy ideas was unbelievable. He is a keeper :) And love to my beautiful daughter Gray for patience, humor, and being a wonderful little helper.

On to the next one!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I am receiving some fun party things in the mail and now that we have mailed the invitations out, I wanted to give you a sneak peek!

I collaborated with Liana and Mike to create a simple and sweet invitation. I am thrilled with the result!

Beautiful letterpress invitation designed and made by: Liana and Mike Hall of Apres un Reve.

Also you may have noticed something different on the blog. You can now read each post as a complete post instead of opening each one. You can also comment easier with the comment box visible and less things to fill in. And you can now  “Like” the posts :) Thank you Flosites!

Speaking of buttons….

I found some of these great Valentine craft supplies a month ago and finally got them out today. Gray went to work and did her own thing. Felt heart buttons, heart stickers, kraft paper, and heart doilies from  Michael’s. Cotton striped twine from Anthropologie.

How appropriate and adorable! Valentine’s Day is around the corner. I found this button heart and its perfect because I wanted to give you a sneak peek on Campbell’s birthday “theme”. Yes its buttons and the colors are pink and gray!  I’ve been planning like a crazy lady and its such a fun thing to put together. The invitations are ready to be mailed off. I’ll be dreaming of party favors and whats on the menu and wrapping special Valentine gifts this weekend. Hope you spend it with people you love.

Here are more adorable buttons. Pink vintage.

White buttons. LOVE.

Wooden buttons I adore and group them with ribbons, spools and twine….perfection.

Photo credits: 1) tinywhitedaisies 2) frecklesfairytales 3) Country Living 4) Stipje All via Pinterest

Valentine’s Day is around the corner and I am loving some great DIY projects I am seeing on the web. I have always loved Valentine’s Day and now with a family who loves celebrating, it couldn’t be better. I especially have my heart set on gifts and projects that are handmade with love and meaning.

First up are Valentine’s fruit stickers from Twig & Thistle. How precious and practical!

A Personalized Kraft Notebook from Paperwink. You know why I love it.

Pie Crust Heart Cookies from smashed peas and carrots as seen in One Pretty Thing.

Country Living magazine’s TreeMail as seen in DesignSponge. Brilliantly sweet concept.

Hellloooo!

Its been quite a week and I apologize for the lack of blogging. Internet went down and it would have been tough blogging from a phone :( Also so many exciting things have happened and hoping to share here the next few days.

Super thrilled, I will be traveling to Rosemary Beach, one of my favorite areas to visit for a girls’ weekend I was invited to for much needed down time with 6 other fabulous women. And I have been secretly planning a baby shower for one of my dear friends, Alice! Surprise! She just received her invitation last night and took a lovely photo of it so here’s a sneak peek. Can you guess the “theme”? :) Planning a shower for out of state can be tricky so I will post about it and will be giving some tips. Still so fun with all the wonderful details!

From Michele of  Michele Calderon Photography:

My favorite is one we’ve done since my kids were little.  Every year, I wrap 24 Christmas books and put them in a basket, and each night during December, one of the kids opens one before bed and we read it.  When we first started, I didn’t have 24 books, so we borrowed from the library.  (Since they were holiday books, they could only be out for 2 weeks, so they got special “open me first” wrapping paper LOL!)  But now we have more than enough……and the kids (ages 9, 12, and 14) still really look forward to it – they won’t even let me get rid of the old board and pop up books!

Many of our books were chosen from reading the Chinaberry catalog.  My favorite source for children’s books – you can get lost for hours in their detailed catalog.  www.chinaberry.com.  You’d love it!

Not long after Michele contacted me, Katie emailed this link for the same traditions and it shows ideas on how to do it as well as book recommendations!

Thank you Michele, this will be a new tradition for us THIS year. We LOVE books too and this fantastic idea of a tradition and couldn’t wait to start next year so I ordered some last night :)

Do you have favorite Christmas traditions? If you’d like to participate on here, let me know! I’ll be posting throughout December.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today’s guest post is from a dear friend, fellow shoe lover, and fantastic wedding designer, Lisa Konecny of E Events. I love how thoughtful and creative she is with this! Read on…

Our ”gifts“ as hosts {cooking, cleaning decorating, setting an elegant table} can seem monumental at times.  Many of us {read; ME} put an extraordinary amount of pressure on ourselves to personally hand pick each ingredient and cook every last recipe to perfection.  I’ve been a hostess for various holidays for as many years as I can remember, so switching gears for this Thanksgiving and being invited as a *gasp* guest has been welcomed challenge.

I still very much wanted to have a personal touch on the holiday, of course, and so I have set my focus on a lovely hostess gift.

This year, I am a guest at my beloved Jeffrey’s mother’s house.  She is the most delightful woman and I would consider her to be the same kind of hostess as I am.  She is a marvelous chef, she can feng shui a table like it’s nobody’s business and she is driven solely by the comfort of her guests in her home. Because of this, she rarely accepts contributions or assistance.

This year my hostess will receive a “Day After Thanksgiving Survival Kit.” A bottle of wine seems so ordinary, her table will be set beautifully and her menu is set, so …she can enjoy the components to her kit on the weary day after:

Packed in a set of tins from IKEA, she will enjoy:
*Hoagie Rolls {For turkey sandwiches!}
*Gourmet Dry Soup Mix {Just add water!}
*Cranberry Vanilla Hand Soap {Kickin’ off the Holiday season}
*Shea Cashmere Hand Cream {She will likely have scrubbed lots of potatoes and washed some pots and pans!}
*Milk Chocolate Cherries {Jeffrey says these are favorite indulgence}

My idea and gesture is for her to barely lift a finger the next day all the while knowing that I was incredibly grateful to sit at her Thanksgiving table in a most loving and beautiful environment.

Sources:
Tins: IKEA
Hoagie Rolls: Bakery / Local Supermarket
Soup Mix: Country Gardens Cuisine {Found at TJ Maxx}
Hand Soap: TJ Maxx
Hand Cream: Bath and Body Works True Blue Spa
Milk  Chocolate Cherries: Harvest Sweets {Found at TJ Maxx}

Thank you so much Lisa! For more information on Lisa, visit her fabulous website: E Events and join her Facebook Page HERE.

Gray’s birthday is in May but we decided to celebrate it in early June due to hectic travel schedules. She actually liked it because she felt like she was having two birthdays! Her party was a cooking theme with create-your-own-pizza-and-cupcakes. And she and her friends even had their very own custom aprons!

Details:

Location: our home here in TN (the back screened porch) to make their own pizza, backyard to eat and make crafts, and dining room to sing happy birthday to and decorate cupcakes. The party was for girls only.

Lighting: lanterns from Target.

Plates, cups, and napkins: Target

Gray’s Birthday Outfit: Appaman from Snap Kids

Aprons: I had an idea for cooking party and a vision for custom aprons and they were beautifully created by my friend, Konika. We went to a thrift store and found a dozen pillow cases, which she made the aprons. Not one was alike. Gray’s apron was an early gift from a friend, Annette and was purchased on Etsy.

Personal pizza pans: borrowed from a friend, Katie. She bought them from Ebay and they used to be pans from Pizza Hut.

Pizza dough: ordered about 25 doughs from a place called Roselli’s Pizzeria the night before. Owner lives in our neighborhood which is a plus, customer service was top notch!  The girls were able to kneed the dough and put toppings on it.

Pizza toppings: cheese, tomato sauce, olives, fresh basil, mushrooms. Each guest had two little white bowls filled with cheese and tomato sauce and then we had a little toppings bar off to the side. Parents who stayed were able to create their own as well.

We put the pizza in oven for 500 degrees for 15 minutes.

Drinks: water with lemon slices and fresh mint from our garden in a glass pitcher with spout, on a “lemonade stand”

Decor: fresh flowers from friends’ Maria and John’s garden, hydrangeas and lavender.

Activity: after they ate outside in the backyard, we put up a tent and blankets and they made crafts: created their own books from construction paper, drew pictures, and decorated with glitter and sprinkles.

Cake: made by mom and dad. Strawberry cake with real strawberries, pink icing, coconut topping. Continuing the tradition with a cake stand for birthdays from Rosanna.

Gray’s birthday crown, another tradition: from StellandLivi on Etsy

Cupcakes: homemade with strawberries baked in. Toppings bar included: chocolate chips, strawberries, marshmallows, sprinkles, and cupcake icing of different colors.

Gifts: On her invitation and a tradition for birthdays, in lieu of gifts we asked guests to donate to the Nashville Flood Relief.

She did receive a few cool gifts! One of Gray’s gifts from us matched the theme: it was a Rosie Flo’s Kitchen coloring book.

All photos by: her daddy :)

I adore special occasions, milestones and celebrating them. My favorite is birthdays. Maybe because when I was growing up birthdays were never a big deal. Whatever the case, I vowed to myself that I would make up for it when I had children. I wanted them to know how special they are and that their birthday IS important and it’s a part of a special tradition in our family for it to be celebrated.

Celebrating the individual surrounded by family and friends.

Just today, we threw our daughter Gray, her 5th birthday party. Blog post and photos coming soon!

Last January, we celebrated Campbell’s first birthday party. It was tough to plan since its in the middle of winter and I didn’t know what theme would work, (her birthday also landed on Super Bowl weekend). I decided on a bird theme which worked well!

We planned for her birthday celebration late in the afternoon served light snacks with close friends and family and then a big Super Bowl party with more friends that night for dinner.

Our new traditions:

A birthday crown is now a tradition to be worn on birthdays, ESPECIALLY while blowing out the candles.

Reading the book, Birthday Presents by Cynthia Rylant.  I stumbled upon this book by accident at a used book store and what a treasure it has been. This is a story about the parents of a little girl telling her about each of her birthdays from when she was born until she is six, the memories and traditions they had along the journey…tears!!!

The birthday cake has to be on the special cake stand. It can be the most lopsided and imperfect cake ever made, but the cake stand will make it look beautiful ;)

For guests: choosing a cause to give to in lieu of gifts. For Campbell’s it was Hope for Haiti. Even though there were a few gifts that were sneaked in ;)

I really loved all the details that came together. I always try to find unique and meaningful details for birthdays…thank goodness for Etsy! I have put together names and links for you below. I hope it helps guide you for your next special occasion!

Questions for you:

There are so many Etsy shops to choose from these days. Which Etsy vendor do you love? Which one specifically for kids?

Do you have special birthday traditions? What are they?

Cake with Jelly Belly Ice Cream Parlour mix: yours truly

Bird Cake Topping: Blue Butterfly Design on Etsy.

Wooden Blocks: Petite Circus on Etsy.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries/Marshmallows: yours truly

Cake Stands: Rosanna

Banner: Kim Herring on Etsy

Crown: Oh Sew Sweet Creations on Etsy

Dress: Illia Kids on Etsy

Table cloth: Land of Nod

Popcorn Bags: Target

Animal Jumbo Stacker: Pottery Barn Kids

****And don’t forget to participate with aden + anais giveaway which ends tonight at midnight! Can give as a gift to someone or keep for your child.

Winner announced Tuesday!