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Flower Party!
We just got back from a really fun flower-themed birthday party for Annalie this last weekend. May is a crazy month when it comes to birthday parties. I’ve got one every week. Actually it’s kind of nice that so many people have birthdays in May, since the weather is always beautiful. I know when I’m planning Bug’s birthday parties, I always have to factor in winter weather and that really cramps my style. (Yes, I know I live in the land of sunshine but January can still be a wee bit cold for us. Our blood is thin.)
This party was a really fun party for me because Bethany let me help, even though she thinks I’m crazy when it comes to party-planning. But this time she let me convince her that my way of planning parties is the best way. I can be a bit bossy when I have a vision so the fact that Bethany humored me was amazing. I really tried to hold back but that’s like asking me not to breathe.
It all started with the cake. As you know Bethany can make an amazing cake. If I am the cardboard whisperer then she is the cake whisperer. Annalie made a special request for a flower-shaped cake with strawberry frosting for the petals and blueberry frosting for the center.
Bethany being Bethany, she made the cake exactly to spec and the frosting had REAL strawberries in it and REAL blueberries too! I didn’t even know you could do that! She blended the fruit into pureés and mixed it into the cream cheese frosting. It tasted AMAZING!
I’m all about how things look. I couldn’t care less about taste. You could cover a piece of foam in frosting and I’d be happy as long as it looked good in photos. Which is a lesson to me. It’s good to be around friends who have different tastes to teach you that your own view is not the only one.
But me being me, I decided that this really cool flower shape should be incorporated into everything in the party! Why not?!! I LOVE flowers! There is so much you can do with them. Why not make it a flower-themed birthday party!!!
Bethany found a neat flower-shaped piñata online.
I picked up some real flowers at the flower market on my way down to Bethany’s. I used to arrange flowers for an old job of mine so I know the secret shopping spot where the pros go. I really miss visiting the flower markets at 5 o’clock in the morning. I know it’s weird to love an early job like that but there is something exciting about shopping through rows and rows of super-fresh flowers in the wee hours of the morning. Real florists get there super early to haggle over the best deals.
Technically I’m not really allowed to shop there anymore since I closed my resale license several years ago. But I remembered one vendor was a little more shady than the others so I quick slipped in and just as I’d hoped she sold me a bundle or two under the table. I think she might have swindled me because the flowers cost twice as much as I expected but I was just thankful she didn’t blow her whistle on me and send me scurrying out with nothing.
There is nothing like fresh flowers at a party, I say. That and flower-shaped food! We had flower-shaped peanut-butter-&-jelly sandwiches and flower-shaped vegetables. If I’d had my way, we would have had flower-shaped ice cubes in our drinks too but I think Bethany would have looked at me cross-eyed. As it was she drew the line when I suggested cutting radishes up as roses. I guess she’s right. Kids don’t usually like radishes.
While Bethany and I ran around and hid all the clues for a treasure hunt that would happen later, the kids made tissue-paper flowers. Thankfully, my mom was on hand to keep everyone in line. I think the flowers were a little difficult for the wee ones but they managed.
And of course here is a photo of Bug and her GREEN flower. She is so consistent. Do you like her green skirt? My mom made it.
She made one for each of her three grandchildren. They look like they hate their skirts in this photo but really it is just me trying to get them to smile. I was so fed up with SuperChic (the pink one) not cooperating with me that I decided to try a little reverse psychology and tell them to NOT smile. As you can see my trick backfired on me. But I actually love this photo so maybe we should try it more often. Maybe they’ll grow up and start a rock band and this can be their album cover.
Here’s a shot of them cooperating. They are laughing because I made them say “Auntie is STINKY” or something. When all else fails resort to fart jokes.
So where was I? Flower cake, flower piñata, flower food, tissue-paper flower craft and…a quickly-drawn flower stand! Bethany had some cardboard boxes around so I drew my idea of a flower stand really quick on one of them and cut out a window for the kids to pretend to sell flowers out of. That was fun for about five minutes.
I think if I had come up with that idea a little earlier I could have really made a cool flower stand with real buckets of flowers and everything. I was imagining little bouquets wrapped up in paper doilies to give out as favors and I bet a flower stand invitation would look really cool too…you see how I am?
Bethany also gave out t-shirts with flowers on them as party favors. (You can see them in the top photo.) I love party favors like that, something you can really use instead of cheap toys and candy that we all need like a hole in our heads. A week earlier Bethany and I got together and freezer-paper stenciled them. It was really fun and actually quite simple. I think she is going to write a how-to post about it soon. So stay tuned for that. (I did write that post. Here it is! ~Bethany)
You might also notice my my mom’s flags decorating the patio in some of the photos. Bethany bought them from my mom’s shop before the flower theme was decided on. But they do have flowers on them and they are Annalie’s favorite colors. It’s really handy having friends who support my family’s hobbies. It especially makes it easy for me when I need to shoot product photos for my mom’s shop. Nothing like real life for great photos!
Though between you and me, those flags are real buggers to shoot. It’s almost impossible to get the right background to make them look as pretty as they do in real life. But whatever…buy them! They are great. Really they are. (Also it’s great to support the grandma who buys Bug most of her cute clothes.)
I’m really getting off track. This post was supposed to be about Annalie and her really fun fifth birthday party that I got to help with. I’m so glad we were part of it.
The flower cake was inspirational. Thanks for thinking it up Annalie!
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Craft Day at Kate’s
I have this friend named Kate. Just like her name, she’s great. She’s that girl who always wears something classic and timeless yet incredibly creative like a cool silver bracelet with an otherwise ordinary outfit. How does she do that? She has amazing taste and she was born that way. She starts trends, she doesn’t follow them. I think she invented polka dots. She has the coolest house and the coolest clothes. Just about everything she does makes me stop and think, why didn’t I think of that?
When I stand next to her I often feel like the most backwards boring frump that ever was. I often think that I’m just not good enough for her because she is so artsy and put-together, a perfect combination of originality and timeless beauty. Meanwhile I’m the boring has-been who dressed herself in the dark from the dirty laundry I found on the floor. But then I remind myself that I get to be in her collection of friends. She picked me out like a bead in her beautiful friend necklace. I might be that weird wobbly orange bead that smells funny but she picked me out.
I think that about a lot of my friends actually. I wonder what they could ever see in me. But then I just tell myself that I add spice to an otherwise perfect life. They need me to mix things up. Everybody needs a quirky friend like me, right?
Kate likes to stay anonymous (mostly) on the internet so I haven’t really mentioned her much before. Even though she’s drop-dead gorgeous you’ll never see her picture here because she doesn’t like to be photographed. (Though she is in my wedding photos so if you’re sneaky you’ll know who I’m talking about.)
But my story isn’t really about her so much. It’s just that we were hanging out at her house today. We’ve been doing that every Wednesday. We both have kids nearly the same age and we’re trying to start up a regular Craft Day Wednesday sort of thing.
So far it’s going really great. We still have to work out the kinks, like timing and snack schedules. I need to work on bringing all the right supplies and having them ready before attention spans run out on me. But it’s working. Maybe someday we’ll invite friends and neighbors to come too. It’s a lofty dream but it could happen. Kate does have the perfect backyard for it, of course.
Today we decided to make foam stamps. I was trying to emulate this craft (via The Crafty Crow) but I wasn’t able to round up any plastic take-out containers or foam plates in time. Kate had some sticker-backed craft foam paper on hand so we tried that instead. Surprisingly it worked! It wasn’t perfect but it did work.
First we had the kids draw a little figure on the foam with a ball-point pen. Then Kate or I drew over their design with a dull colored pencil, making sure the line was thick and etched into the foam heavily. The sticker backing helped the pencil not go all the way through. Then we rolled on some paint, or let the kids dab on their own, and stamped away. It was loads of fun.
I think Kate and I could have stayed there all day stamping away. It’s funny how as a mom you do all these really neat crafts that you never would have thought of if you didn’t have kids, but since you do have kids you have a very small window of time in which to do them in. It’s the motherhood catch-22 I guess. But I’m not complaining.
At the end of the day we had quite the collection of cards. They’re a little bit sloppy and sometimes covered in fingerprints but I think they will work great for those times when I need to slip in a little note for a package or send off a simple “thinking of you” card.
Kid art is so sweet. I know we only have a short amount of time that they will want to share it with us. This is an easy way to make the art last a little longer. I don’t know how long these stamps will hold up but they do wash and they can be re-used. I’m sure they’ll make many more cards. It’s print-making at its crudest.
I can’t wait to see what we do next Wednesday! Long live Craft Day Wednesdays! Hopefully Kate lets me live that long. She’s going to kill me for writing this post about her.
