a colorful birthday party for Ian

We never had proper celebration when Ian turned one since we were in Paris at the time, so of course we had to throw him a real party for his second birthday. Since Ian loves to eat, and is really a happy little guy, I loosely based the party off of a little piggy I drew and a fun and bright color palette. We held it at a park and couldn't have asked for better weather. I made a garland of half-blown-up balloons and made tiny floral centerpieces for the picnic tables. For the kid favors I sewed small felt totes and glued felt letters for the first initial of each kid. The adult favors were chocolate bars repackaged in patterned paper I designed and printed. We were having so much fun that I forgot to have Ian wear the birthday hat I made him until the party was practically over!


Photos by me and Traci Yau of 45wall Design

a star-themed baby shower

I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law who is having a baby boy in a few weeks. I've been loving stars lately, and of course the ever-popular color mint, so designed the invite and shower decor around those two elements. Fortunately it was a small shower, 'cause sewing those little felt stars for the favors took longer than expected!

It's been quiet on the blog because life has been so busy the last couple of months. The shop and my increasingly active boys have occupied much of my days and nights. But things are finally slowing down, and now we're preparing for a very big and exciting family trip. More on that in a couple of weeks!

oscar is 3!

We celebrated Oscar's 3rd birthday this weekend with family and had a great time. We feel so blessed to be near both sides of the family, and that Oscar can grow up with his cousins and be spoiled by his grandparents and aunts and uncles. I figured since I did next to nothing for his 2nd birthday, I should try and make this one a bit more special, especially since he's old enough now to understand what a birthday party means. I tried to keep it simple with just a few decorations but it still took me a couple evenings to prepare, and I'm not so sure Oscar cared all that much about the decor. He hardly noticed or would at most ask why those paper balls were hanging there. Maybe he'll appreciate it when he's older and looking back at pictures, but at least I had fun with it! I loved seeing the expression on his face when we all gathered around to sing him happy birthday. And naturally he was more interested in the frosting than the cake, and his favorite part was opening his presents of course!

one!

Oscar is one! He actually turned one a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't have a proper celebration until this past weekend.

I've been pretty obsessed with stripes lately, so thought I'd do a "sails & stripes" theme for his party with deep blue, seafoam green, and pops of yellow.





Once the invites were done, everything else came together easily..









The idea for the paper sailboats above came from here. I printed some coordinating patterns onto letter-sized paper and followed these instructions to make the boats. For the hat I printed the striped pattern on a half circle, glued it together to make a cone, and curled some strips of vellum to go on top.





I found the perfect striped fabric at Ikea and sewed drawstring bags to fill with goodies for the kids' favors. The adults got fruit jellies in glassine bags taped shut with striped stickers (printed onto adhesive sheets and cut into long strips).



All in all it was a great celebration. I know all the decor was really an excuse for me to have a little creative fun, but I figured a first birthday doesn't come around too often, and surviving the first year with a first kid is worth celebrating. This past year was quite a year for our family, with my dad losing a 2-year battle with cancer when Oscar was only 5 weeks old, and Oscar having some health issues that had us in and out of the hospital quite a bit. We are here today by God's goodness and grace, and are so incredibly thankful for Oscar, for each other, and for our family and friends.

woodland critters baby shower

A few of us threw a woodland critters baby shower for Traci this past Saturday. Everything turned out great and we all had a blast! I had tons of fun designing the invites and other pieces to go with the theme.





























I asked Irving to chop up some branches from our backyard to make stands for the food labels.




For the candied pecan favors, I sewed muslin drawstring pouches and stamped them with a squirrel stamp I carved out of an eraser.




We also bought a manzanita branch and stuck some felt leaves onto it for the main spread. Sumiko, Shelley, and Rita sewed little birds and foxes, and Rita and some other ladies made some amazing food. Susan knitted these awesome props for the photobooth (yup, we're into photobooths!).






See more photos here.

(And yup, still waiting for the baby to come out.. )

vintage circus baby shower!

As expected, the baby shower this past weekend was absolutely fantastic, thanks to some super kind and talented friends of mine! There were giant red and white balloons tied to little white pots with wheat grass, tons of delicious circus-themed food, a candy bar, and fun kiddie stations like block-painting, face-painting, and balloon animals... it was amazing!








Oh, and we can't forget the photo booth!




Thanks to Traci, Susan, Rita, Sumiko, Ishya, Lim, and Olivia for the best baby shower a girl can ask for -- you guys are the best!


:: photos courtesy of Herman and Susan ::