This past weekend, we hosted a little get together with friends to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It was super sweet + super simple, and I love how it all turned out!

Because we hosted it after the actual holiday, the decor was all 50-60% off. Even the flowers were on sale. These particular flowers were from a local grocery store, but I do want to find another source for flowers grown locally.

I picked up these two wooden boxes last year. They look rustic but they have a plastic liner for flowers. At Christmas, I did two red floral arrangements using pine needles and pine cones for filler. I took these boxes out again for Valentine’s and stuffed them with pink + white flowers and a bit of eucalyptus which smelled so lovely!

For the guests, I put together a savoy and a sweet board. I was surprised at how many heart shaped things I found! Crackers, cookies and sour gummies!

We also did chocolate covered strawberries and apple roses. One year, my sister-in-law introduced me to these delicious apple roses. Ever since, I make them for the holidays. They are so easy + yummy and when I was trying to think what to have for the party, hubs suggested them. Roses + Valentine’s? Perfect!

It wasn’t just a party for the adults. Em’s friends came over to celebrate, too! We set up a craft table with Valentine’s stickers, note cards, glitter glue and all sorts of pink + red crafty things. The kids had so much fun creating!

For favors, there was a Valentine’s basket set out with pink “Love Me” scented glitter bath bombs for the guests to take upon their departure.

I had fun putting together this little party and celebrating with friends. I hope your heart holiday was a lovely one, too!

So much to catch up on! Em turned six last month. Surprise, it was a pony party! So we’ve got a pony party, our travels to Denver, Massachusetts, Dubai, Azerbaijan, and a Disney cruise to fill you in on. Plus, lots of letterpress including her invitations + paper goods for her party and lots and lots of custom home illustrated moving announcements.

This year, Em wanted a mermaid party for her birthday!

And a mermaid party during April was a fun challenge. Public pools open at the end of May. We found an indoor pool option but I wasn’t sure we were prepared to chaperone twenty plus five-year-olds. Then, we discovered The Fish Gallery – a tropical fish store that also installs professional tanks. They have a party room and a gorgeous showroom. It was perfect.

The kids got to watch + participate in feeding the fish in the grand showroom tanks.

They toured the facility and got to touch starfish and little fish in the touch tanks. It was all wonderfully informative and the kids had such a fun time!

Afterwards, it was hand washing time. Then, lunch and birthday cake! 

Like previous years, the sandwiches and fruit came from a local grocery store as did the flowers. Continuing with the color scheme, we made a mint colored drink using lemonade and blue kool aid mix.

We got a small, inexpensive custom birthday cake from Whole Foods. It had layers of chocolate ganache on the inside. Mummm!

The cupcakes came from Hey Cupcake! and were part of The Fish Gallery’s party package. There were suppose to be all white. But, hey, kids love sprinkles! We letterpress printed mermaid + ocean characters and made cupcake toppers with them.

For party favors, we decided on these sweet mermaid and starfish cookies. They were incredibly good!

I found starfish + seahorse glasses at Homegoods. They were perfect to house the anchor forks and paper straws.

So that’s it! Em’s mermaid birthday bash. Thanks to everyone that was able to join us and celebrate her fifth birthday!

We look forward to sharing her birthday invitations with you, lovely readers. Be on the lookout!

This weekend, Em turned five! She wanted a mermaid theme, so we had a little undersea celebration. I’m looking forward to sharing her party + paper details with you!

Oh, happiest of birthdays to you – our sweet, silly, brave, bright, beautiful little girl!

Cookie favors from Truly Scrumptious Cookies.

A while back, we shared with you Em’s fourth birthday invitations. Today, we’ll share her party pics with you!

Em takes dancing. She loves it and has made a few friends in dance class. And, it just so happens that many of her school friends also take dance classes. So, we decided to throw a ballet birthday party for Em!

Her ballet birthday was held at Ballet Austin. The set up was wonderful! In one, window-filled room there was food + cake.

Sandwiches, cupcakes and a small cake all came from a local grocery store. The flowers did too. I bought several types of flowers and arranged them the day before the party.

For the table decor, I painted some of the drink bottles we already had on hand. We placed a few small floral arrangements in them.

The vintage cupcake toppers we ordered never arrived. So, we improvised. We made these toppers using scraps from her invitations and glitter paper.

A real ballerina in a beautiful tutu brought the girls into a dance studio for a forty-five minute dance class.

After the class, the girls returned for refreshments and cake!

For the favors, we embellished hair bows with ballet buttons. Each girl received a bow and a bracelet inside a pretty gold polka dot bag.

So that’s it! Em’s ballet birthday party to celebrate turning four. A big thank you to all that were able to join us.

Our little Em turned four. This weekend we celebrated with a ballerina birthday bash. Can’t wait to share her invites + party with you!