A Lovely Party

I had a lovely party on our deck Friday night for some of the sweetest ladies I know. Nearly every Monday night, for close to a year now, I have been having coffee with a group of ladies who have become some of of my best friends. Anyone can come & hang out with us at Java after Jammies. If you are single, married, younger, older, divorced, or dont have children it doesn't matter. The only requirement is that you be a woman. Unfortunately three of the ladies couldn't attend because of other commitments and they were missed. 

Over the last 6 months I have secretly been planning this party. I had been wanting to do something special for each of these ladies but at first couldn't figure out what to do. I asked myself the question, "What is something I would love for someone to do for me? What would that look like?" I have always wanted to have a beautiful birthday party with all kinds of lovely details & not have to do any of it. So, this is exactly what I decided to do. Throw a party in honor of each of these ladies & not tell them any details about it. They were not even allowed to bring anything to the party.

Thrift shops are one of my favorite places so for the past 6 months I have been collecting sets of thrifted china for next to nothing. I mix-matched the china, used mason jars for drinking glasses & to hold silverware, and re-cycled starbucks iced coffee jars to hold flowers. 

Angela & I. She is so sweet.

Last week I went to a pumpkin patch and grabbed 8 pumpkins for $5. I spray painted two of them white, laid a cream tablecloth with a burlap runner over it on the table, and filled the re-cycled vases with a $4 bouquet of flowers from the grocery store. The main light source was strung lights all over the deck. Year round we have lights secured on the deck but not above the table. I bought a package of $1.50 doilies from the baking section at Michaels to cover two extra strands of lights to go over the table. The doilies definitely added some much needed daintiness to the deck. 

I used washi tape on the envelops of the invitations for the party and really wanted to find a way to incorporate it into the table scape. The party was at night so tea lights were a great little source of light throughout the table. I wrapped the washi tape around the bottom of the tea lights for some extra character to the table scape. 

It was such a fun night. 

We ate an easy dinner of soup, sandwiches, fruit & cookies. 

We talked, laughed, drank too much tea & coffee, enjoyed some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and had a great time. I'm so thankful for these sweet ladies in my life. 

Everyone got a little gift bag filled with fun things. 

I'll share what I put in the gift bags later this week.

Left to Right is Angela, Rene, Meredith, Casey, Alyssa, & Diana. 

Rene & Meredith. They both are so great! 

Casey & I forced everyone to play the Friends game at one point. We only played for 10 minutes because we are the only two that watch the show way too much. We didn't want to bore everyone else.

Most everyone stayed pretty late. By the end of the night my feet were very tired. It was so worth it though. I must say that it really is necessary to throw a lovely party for you & your girl friends. It is so much fun & everyone walks away having had fun and feeling good. Now I really want to throw another party! It was so much fun!

Happy Monday!

Oh, by the way be sure to visit again in the morning

 because Now Rejoice starts tomorrow!

~Brit

Linking up with Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Block Party

On Halloween we hosted a Fall Block Party at our house. For the past few years our church has sponsored block parties throughout the city as an alternative to traditional Halloween festivities. Anyone & everyone passing by the house who is trick or treating is encouraged to stop by for games, tons of free candy, hot dogs, and sodas. This was the 1st year we've had it at our house. We really enjoyed it & there were SO MANY PEOPLE! IT was pretty awesome. We started about 6 & went until 9:30. Let me show ya. 

Noah helping Chase cook hundreds of hot dogs. 

 Noah went as a little preacher man. He was going to be Clark Kent but then we found Johnny's suit (from when he was a kid) hanging in Noahs closet the day before & thought he needs to wear this before he cant!

He loved it. He loved the block party. All the people. The bounce house. Candy. Everything.

 Until it was time to come in at 9:45. Then then the melt down was out of control! Ha! I had to share!

After Noah went to sleep the two of us were outside trying to get the light tower down. It was not cooperating & was slightly broken. My man figured it out though. I hope you had a great Halloween too. Happy Saturday.

~Brit

Noah's DIY Vintage Little Man Party!

Noah's birthday party last weekend was small but fun. We had some family in from out of town to enjoy all of our little man's favorite foods & to celebrate in Noah fashion with airplanes, silly mustaches on straws & to eat all the yummy things he loves! I had a lot of fun making all of Noah's little man decorations for his party. Um, just a  warning, I'm going picture overload with them. Just saying.

I made Vintage Map Pin Wheels, Oversized Confetti, Mustaches on Straws & Cupcake Toppers, Birthday Banner, Airplane Garland, Picture Garland, Mustache Garland, and a Pom Pom Garland! FYI you should know I made all the decorations over a months time, good thinking there! Totally going to put most of the decorations up in Noah's Bedroom!!

We had turkey & cheese crescent rolls, french fries from wing stop, mac n cheese, berries, and cupcakes! It was all very yummy.

I strung oversized mustaches on twine above the bench Noah opened his gifts on.

Opening his beloved Woody doll from Toy Story. (Kid loves this toy! Thanks Grammy)

A few months ago I took Noah's 2 Year Pictures (here) so I printed some of the photos out & strung them over one of the doorways. I also sewed together airplanes doing barrel rolls on the other side.

Noah was not being too cooperative with having his picture taken. Little stinker. Unless he was opening gifts, eating ice cream, playing choo choos, or running around in the water outside. 

Told you, it was IMPOSSIBLE to get a picture with him! No names Grammy was unsure how to use my camera, so kinda only got our heads & the garland above. ha! 

He's a cute little man!

LOVE this little boy of mine!!!

Noah got a very fun gift for his birthday that all the kids enjoyed playing outside with! We had a great time hanging out with everyone! I really missed my sister & her little ones here but I'm hoping to get to see them SOON! I'll probably share some tutorials for the DIY Decorations next week!

 Happy Friday Friends!! 

~Brit

Fun Things: Party, Giveaways, & New Friends

Oh my! There have been some fun things lately in life. A party, meeting so many sweet ladies, and being a part of an incredible GIVEAWAY! Let me share a little more with you...

#1 Over the weekend we had Noah's 2nd birthday party with family. His birthday was May 12th, but we had family in from across Texas & from Iowa so we thought it would be the perfect time. I'll share more pictures later this week from his DIY Little Man Party! 

#2 Last night I was blessed to meet some sweet ladies last night via Google+ Chat. (I keep calling it Skype lol) This month I am sponsoring Naptime Diaries and Jessi host a video chat for all of her sponsors. It really was a blast & I enjoyed every minute of talking, hearing everyone's heart, laughing, and praying. Looking forward to getting to know these women. 

Fun Thing #3 

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Today I am lucky to be apart of Julie's giveaway on her blog at The Funny Thing of It Is. This lady is so genuine & I LOVE her blog. I am giving away a Rose Flower Ring with Lace from my Etsy shop. There are several other wonderful women joining in the fun for this HUGE giveaway. Get this ONE WINNER Takes ALL! Really you gotta go check it out! Enter to win so many lovely things! Go GO GO! 

 

#4 Bike riding with my baby on the back! We went out for about 30 minutes this morning & we love it! New morning routine for sure! 

Gotta go get ready for staff lunch!!! 

~Brit

DIY Cake Banner Tutorial

Last weekend my very good friend Jane & her boyfriend Wesley were in our neck of the woods & stopped by before heading to Arkansas. Jane just graduated from college & I sadly was unable to be at her graduation so I was glad I got to see her the next day. I made her a graduation cake & put a fun little banner on it. Jane is one of my favorite people in the world & I am so excited for her. Today I thought I'd share the very easy DIY Banner Tutorial. 

Supplies:

Scissors

Embroidery Floss

Card stock (color of your choice)

hot glue gun

2 skewers

I started out making 12 flags for my banner, but ultimately only used 5 flags. I cut 6 tiny triangles (right under an inch long each) from the cute pink card stock & then 4 triangles from the brown.

Get your glue gun hot. Make pairs for each flag & then lay them in two separate lines in the pattern of your choice. Lay out your floss above them. Make sure you leave enough floss on both sides of the banner to be able to later tie it onto the skewers.

Put a thin line of glue on one triangle at a time & then lay your floss into the glue. Notice I made a mess of mine, whoops. So no worries if you do too. Once you glue down your floss across one set of the 5 triangles go back & put a dab of glue in the middle of each of the triangles & glue down the other paired triangle on top to make flags.

Once the glue is dry then wrap the floss around the skewers and tie in place. Put the banner into your cake & that you are done. Now don't be jealous of my fancy smancy cake (haha). Jane & I lived together for a year during college & anytime we made cupcakes or cake she always chose the Funfetti cake and icing (my husband loves it too) so I had to make it last weekend. lol. To make the icing go further I put half a container of light whip cream with it. Worked great! 

Happy Tuesday!

~Brit