Thanksgiving 2012

I know this post comes waaaay late, but I thought it couldn't hurt to share it anyway :) Just to forewarn you this post is going to be pretty picture heavy, because well I'd rather let the pictures do all the talking! I got most of my inspiration from Pinterest (no big surprise there) so if you would like to see some of my inspiration pins, you are welcome to visit my fall board here.

I was so excited to host our very first Thanksgiving at our house this year, and I wanted to keep the decorations very simple and natural. I am not a huge fan of traditional Thanksgiving decor and colors so I put my own spin on it. I went with aqua pumpkins, white plates, tan linens, and natural tree branches for that pop of fall color. Hope you enjoy!

  

 

 

 

 

 

Each person had a cloth napkin, paper napkin, and personalized leaf place holder.

 

 

Mmmmm you cant forget the sweet tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Sorry for the crazy eyes, Britna caught me off guard, but yay for homemade Pumpkin Cheesecake!

 

 

Britna did such an amazing job with all the arrangements around the house. She is also responsible for all of these beautiful photos!

 

 

 

 

Evan had the most important job of all, entertaining the little man. But they enjoyed themselves thoroughly on the wooden ramp Evan made that morning.

 

 

Overall I would say it was a very successful first Thanksgiving. Thanks to a wonderful family that helped me out and made it so much fun and memorable.

 

If the host is smiling at the end of the Thanksgiving, you know its been a good day. :)

 

Party Time

So it occurred to me today that Ive never really shared my parties with you guys. I love to plan parties! I love deciding on a theme, then picking out cute crafts to make that will go with that theme. They are not always fancy parties, and maybe not even a technical "party" but just a decorated table for people to enjoy while they are at my house. But whatever it is, I love it. Since this blog is all about the things I love, why not share my pictures with you all?

 Its so fun to see how my "style" has changed and evolved through the years. Its also nice to look back at some of these pictures and see how often I had to use only what we had. The budget is such deciding factor when it comes to planning a party, but when on a tight budget it forces you to become even more creative and really think outside the box! Unfortunately with a lot of these parties, the budget was also small in the camera department so a lot of the pictures are blurry. he he.

Lets start it off with something festive. This was our first Christmas party after Evan and I got married. We were living in a little one bedroom apartment so it wasn't the best place to have a party, but hey that just means less space to decorate! 

One of the my favorite parts of a party is decorating the table. It makes the biggest impact and really puts you in the party mood.

Most of what was used on the table I had borrowed from my mother-in-law, which definitely saved my bacon (or at least my theme).

I made some place holders for everyone, one style for the girls and another for the boys.

I grabbed some spikey balls from the tree outside for my centerpiece.

 Then started on the cookin. Its quite interesting trying to cook a fancy Christmas dinner in a kitchen this small, but with the help of my mom and sister we were able to get it done.

We made the classics.

Sweet potatoes, rolls, green beans, a green salad and my first ever ham!

Mmm...

The food was good but the company was even better.

The next party we had in this apartment was a surprise anniversary party for Evans parents. They were celebrating 30 years! Since it was an anniversary party we went with the traditional material of pearl.

My sister in law made chocolate cupcakes decorated with pearls and their initials. I made banana cupcakes with honey cinnamon frosting. Did you know you can buy edible pearl dust to go in your frosting?! There is also little edible pearl candies too!

 I got this idea off of the Martha Stewart website to do a three sided picture frame.

 

  

You simply get three picture frames and take the backs off. Then you hinge them together to make a triangle, I think I just used tape, and print your pictures on vellum. Then you plop a candle in the middle and voila!

 Don't they make the cutest couple!

Well thats two of the parties I've planned and Ill show you a couple more next time. Hope you've enjoyed them!

Britna's Baby Shower

These last few weeks my mother in law and I have had so much fun planning my sister in laws baby shower. She has had so much going on in her life, with the building of a new house and preparation for moving, that we wanted to give her a day to relax and who doesnt love looking at that cute baby belly? They are wainting to find out the gender of the baby so we decided to use some of the colors she is doing in her nursery, which is white and grey. But we just had to throw a little color in there!

We went with the "nesting" theme which turned out so cute! We incorporated polka dots as well, since the mother to be really likes them (and they're gender neutral).

Janean made these adorable shadow boxes of the parents to be when they were babies, and from the looks of it, this new baby is bound to be the cutest thing ever!

Anyone who knows Brina knows she is the queen of baking. Her chocolate chip cookies are soooo irresistable, so naturally we had to make the party favors cookies in a jar.

We played some really fun games, like the string game. We asked each person to guess how much string it would take to fit around Britna and her belly. And what a confidence booster that was for Britna seeing as how every guest was at least 6 inches too long! It also gave every guest the opportunity to spend time with Britnas adorable baby bump.

 Next we did the "Who's That Baby?" game. On the invitation we asked every guest to bring a baby picture of themselves. After they all arrived I put them up on this bulletin board for all the guests to come on up and guess who was who. This game was hard! Well for everyone but our Aunt Jan who guessed 8 out of 9! And the only one she missed, she was only one sibling off! It was so cute to see everyones adorable baby face. 

Next was the presents! There were tiny onsies, and fuzzy home-made hats, little hooded towels, and baby shampoo. Below Margaret made her the blanket of her dreams. All of the presents were straight from the heart, and will be so helpful in preparing for this baby. They say it takes a village to raise a baby, but even more so it takes a village to fill a nursery!

 We had cupcakes that looked like little nests with jelly bean eggs, and the most delicious tea sandwiches.

  

 Here is three generations of wonderful women!

Here we are, the party planners! We are quite the team! 

 We are so grateful for everyone who was able to make it. You all made it such a special day. Now if only March 12th could get here a little faster! Come on baby we cant wait to meet you already!