All Aboard Noah's Birthday Train!

When Harriet was transferred to the US from Canada in 2002, she started out simply as my co-worker (who was deathly afraid of the LA freeways!), but throughout the past nine years, she has become one of my closest and best friends! I have been so lucky to have been a part of so many happy and momentous events in her life here, including her marriage to her wonderful husband, Walter, and the birth of her beautiful son, Noah. To commemorate Noah's 3rd birthday this past weekend, they decided to party it up at My Gym with all his friends, while honoring his recent love of trains… Thomas the Train! I was so happy to help out with the planning and execution of Noah's party! Since the venue only provided a table/counter, we decided to maximize our space by utilizing it to display all the food, dessert and favors, anchored by a blue and white striped fabric resembling a conductor’s hat pattern. To capture the overall feel of a train station, I was inspired by the printables Rachael Lewis of Phoenix Event Planning created for her adorable Choo Choo Train Party, including the cute wording she utilized! Here are the details:

Passengers were greeted at the door with a sign instructing them to climb aboard Noah’s birthday train! Once inside, they made their way to PLATFORM 3 and as soon as they grabbed their conductor hats (displayed in a small red suitcase), they were ready to party! ALL ABOARD!

 The beverages were served in adorable plastic train cups equipped with straws. CHOO CHOO!

When the train passengers were ready to eat, they proceeded to the DINING CAR, where they would find turn table pizzas , along with snacks, such as fruit salad.

The cupcakes included train-themed designs from train tracks to luggage to Thomas himself!

The cupcakes were displayed on a tower for NOAH & FRIENDS to enjoy!

Next to the cupcake tower, we had a plush train basket, which held thematic blowers to be utilized by the passengers to celebrate! And lastly, the LUGGAGE DEPOT was located at the end, including a blue suitcase with Noah’s name and housing the favors. I utilized the same railroad scrapbook paper to decorate the chipboard letters and glued them onto the inside of the suitcase cover. When the trip was over, we made sure all the passengers stopped by to pick up their luggage, which included items, such as train whistles, toy metal trains, steam bubbles and Thomas the Train Pez dispensers to say “TANKS”!

Noah had a wonderful time aboard his birthday train with all his fellow friend and family passengers!

Conductor Noah! 

My daughter was definitely a passenger that enjoyed the fabulous ride!

Anabelle and her Auntie Harriet

Happy 3^rd Birthday, Noah!!!

Danny's 28th Pub Golf Invitational

For Danny's 28th birthday, his fabulous wife, Tiffany (and one of my dear, dear friends... and even more special that our daughters are BFF's!), ordered cupcakes to provide some sustenance for the players to kick off 18 rounds of pub golf! With a mixture of green, blue and orange color schemes, I designed golf and beer-themed cupcake toppers for the festivities! Here's hoping the cupcakes helped them get through all 18 holes at par... by bar! ;) Happy Birthday, Danny!!!

Pub Golf Cupcakes



Danny's Blue Ribbon and Argyle Toppers

Golf and Beer!

Golf Accessories

Beer mug and keg and Golf bag

About to Hatch!

What can be better than having a reason or occasion to celebrate? Many reasons!!! As you may have read in my last post {Love is Sweet}, a dear friend of mine, Jessica, is getting married in a couple of months and we just threw her an art-themed bridal shower last weekend. We are so excited about her upcoming nuptials! One of her bridesmaids (and another of my best friends that I've known since high school!), Melissa, is also looking forward to the event, but her invitation will have to include one more person, as she will be having a baby in about a month! To continue the festivities, we threw her a country bird-themed baby shower to help feather her nest in anticipation of her little chick that’s about to hatch! Jessica, along with myself and Melissa’s close friends Lindsy, Emily and Alison, collaborated to put the shindig together.

Melissa’s mother, Maxine, was so kind to have offered her beautiful home to have the shower and their décor just fit our theme perfectly! Maxine and her husband, Bob, recently remodeled their house and throughout the pictures, you will see what a fabulous job they did!

INVITATIONS

Jessica found some adorable bird and nest invitations on TinyPrints. Melissa and her husband decided to wait until their little chick hatches to find out the gender, so we decided that the pink and green color scheme wasn’t too gender specific and set the mood for the rest of the party.

Invitation

DÉCOR

The shower guests were greeted at the door by a wreath adorned with a nest and little buntings reading “about to hatch”. 

Wreath at Front Door

About to Hatch

Gerbera daisies in pink, orange and yellow hues were placed in polka dot watering cans with birdhouses and glass vases and placed throughout the house to add some fresh and vibrant colors. 

Gerbera Daisies in Watering Can

Gerbera Daisies with Birdhouse

Lindsy and Emily made an adorable and creative diaper cake with coordinating decorations, such as a bird house, egg wreath!

Birdhouse Diaper Cake

FOOD AND BEVERAGES

Upon the guests’ arrival, they were welcome to snack on a delicious hors d’ouevres sampling that the ladies prepared, including chick and egg-shaped sandwiches and deviled eggs to name a few. 

Hors D'Oeuvres Table

Per the mom-to-be’s request, the beverages served were chocolate milk and Shirley temples! Both were offered in little mason jars: Shirley temples with green straws and chocolate milk with Oreo cookie straws! Such a cute touch!

Grenadine, Sprite and Mason Jars with Straws

Beverages

DESSERT TABLE

The dessert table continued the country bird theme with its décor and offerings. 

Dessert Table

I made milk chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and topped with fondant decorations matching back to the invitation and themes, from the birds to chicks to a birdhouse and worms! 



Coordinating Chocolate Cupcakes

Fondant Toppers matching the Invite

Mama and Papa Birds and their Egg 

Color-Coordinated Worms!

I decorated green and pink bird sugar cookies displayed in a wire basket with moss and also had some green and pink Peeps in smaller baskets! 

More Desserts



Basket of Cookies

Green and Pink Bird Sugar Cookies

Mason jars in various sizes held different candy eggs, from jelly beans to malted eggs to chocolate eggs. 

Candy Mason Jars

Chocolate, Malted and Jelly Bean Eggs

I also made nests with crispy chow mein noodles and melted butterscotch, which held pastel-colored chocolate eggs. 

Butterscotch Nests with Chocolate Eggs

Lastly, Jessica crushed up some Oreo cookies, which we placed in cream-colored pots, along with gummy worms to top ice cream in small flower-etched glass tea light holders. 

Ice Cream Station with Oreo Dirt and Gummy Worms

My daughter scooping up some dirt!

Since the table had a beautiful wood and had a rustic feel, we decided to forego a tablecloth and simply add the décor and desserts to it. 

Dessert Table

One of the bird cages re-created the invitation with wooden birds and a nest with an orange egg and small buntings like the wreath , also reading “about to hatch”. 

Birdcage with Invitation Re-Creation

The other birdcage displayed baby photos of both Melissa and her husband, held by wooden clothespins.

Birdcage with Baby Photos

FAVORS

As favors, guests took home little baskets filled with glass tea light holders with jelly bean eggs and Peeps chapstick! Jessica did a cute job displaying them on a beautiful mirrored-hutch by the door and decorated the candelabra with additional nests and a sign reading “So Tweet of You to Come!”

So Tweet of You to Come!

The mama bird-to-be was very touched and had a wonderful time with friends and family throughout the party, as we played some fun games planned by Alison and opening presents to finish feathering her nest in preparation for her baby chick! Only one month to go! We cannot wait for that little egg to start crackin’! 

The Party Chicks!

The Mama Bird and I!

Love is Sweet!!!

This past weekend, I had the extreme pleasure of helping throw a very special bridal shower for one of my very best friends, whom I have known since I moved from Brazil when I was merely 11 years old! 

Friendship throughout the years...

This party was a complete collaboration between myself and the other bridesmaids in the wedding party: Melissa, Chrissy, Julie, Becca and Robin. The bride-to-be, Jessica, works in an art gallery in San Francisco and the colors for her upcoming wedding are navy blue and green. We decided to feature these aspects to personalize the celebration. The bride's sister-in-law, Julie, graciously offered her beautiful home for the festivities. To capture the overall feel of artists and galleries, we incorporated frames, easels and paint cans, along with floral motifs in the navy and green color palette, for a simple and elegant design. Here are the details:

Invitation

After conveying our general ideas to the fabulously talented Jessica of Party Box Design, she designed the beautiful invitation that set the tone for the party with its multiple patterns in navy and green and the saying “Love is Sweet”. Jessica also designed some fabulous printables to match the invitation that were utilized throughout the party, including favor tags, food name cards, etc.

"Love is Sweet" invitation

Dessert Table

I wanted the dessert table to be simple and clean, utilizing the overall elements to carry out our theme. I made vanilla cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting for the tower, adorned with fondant toppers with designs ranging from painter’s palettes, aprons, flowers and the “Love is Sweet” saying. I added two small wooden artist mannequins to the top of the tower holding hands and each holding a tag that read “love” and represented the bride and groom (with a tuxedo and wedding dress graphic respectively). 

Art-themed Dessert Table

Cupcake Tower

Bride and Groom Art Mannequin Toppers

"Love is Sweet" fondant toppers

Art-themed fondant toppers

Since Jessica loves peanut butter, I followed a very simple recipe from the Martha Stewart website to make peanut butter cups, but used colored melting chocolates to make them look like paint on palette-shaped plates. Another bridesmaid, Melissa, made some delicious brownies and drizzled them with white chocolate (a la Jackson Pollock!), which we displayed on white frames. I included additional paint cans throughout the table – to hold silverware and minis to hold green gumballs. All the desserts were labeled with small green frames and mini easels. We used a clean white tablecloth and a navy runner a bridesmaid, Chrissy, sewed herself (and also sewed all the fabric napkins in alternating navy and green)!

Peanut Butter Cup Palette and Jackson Pollock Brownies

I continued to feed my obsession with dipping marshmallows in chocolate as Melissa and I made little paint-dipped paint brushes and displaying them in clear paint cans found at any craft stores. 

Marshmallow Paint Brushes

Food and Beverage

All the other bridesmaids did a FABULOUS job preparing some amazing food and beverages, including delicious antipastos, homemade gourmet pizzas and the English drink Pimm’s Cup as a nod to the bride’s studies at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London! Absolutely delicious!

Antipastos

Pancetta Raddichio and Fontina Pizza
Photo by Jennifer French

Mozzarella Tomato and Basil Pizza
Photo by Jennifer French

Beverages

Decor

The ladies did a fantastic job of carrying out the theme throughout the décor. The flowers continued the color scheme with a mixture of white and green florals in simple, yet elegant glass vases and tied with striped navy and white ribbon. 

Floral Centerpieces

The party guests were able to peruse the “gallery”, which included a collage of the bride’s childhood pictures, along with photos of the couple displayed in white frames and easels.

Picture Gallery

Favors

The gift area was designated by a green-patterned frame with the “thank you” printables from Party Box Design. 

Gift Table

The same frame and another “thank you” tag was displayed on an easel inside a wooden artist’s paint box and included the favors: mini floral and patterned notebooks with pens for guests to be inspired to create their own art, as well as paint chips (colored M&M’s) in mini tins.

Favor Art Box

Favors close-up

"Thank You" tags

I was so fortunate to have been able to collaborate with such fabulous ladies to put this shower together and the bride-to-be had a wonderful time with her family and friends!!! 

The beautiful bride-to-be!



The Party Gals

So excited for more wedding festivities to come and especially the bachelorette trip: Vegas Baby!!! Oh wait, I live in Vegas... ;)