Soft Vintage Pink and White 1st Birthday Party

We had a WONDERFUL time! We ate lots of cake..

{To see the Birthday Girl's 1st Birthday photo shoot, complete with smash cake, go here.}

...and Cupcakes... ...We sang Happy Songs... ...opened lots of fun presents... ...played with our friends...



...had some belly laughs...

... and read pretty books. {Just LOOK at that little pointer finger!}

The Dessert Table.

I really wanted to do an "Amy Atlas" inspired dessert table. {http://amyatlas.com/ PLEASE don't compare my work to hers. She is AMAZING.) I just LOVE her work! While I am not a fan of contemporary design, I love her clean, symetrical, repetitive lines. She does a wonderful job of softening her contemporary lines and making a theme look fantastic. I went for a very soft, very feminine, vintage style with a tiny modern twist on it in a pallate of pinks, whites and creams.

Most of this wonderful serving-ware is from the thrift store! I think I REALLY lucked out that day and found some great pieces!

Great tissue Pom-pom tutorial from Martha Stewart here.

Party Favors {Ali's "kisses"}

These were strung on a White picture frame. Sorry for the lame picture. ;)

Cookies 'N Cream & Milk Chocolate Hershey Bars that read:

"Alice Rebecca, April 21st, One year filled with pure, SWEET joy."

FANTASTIC paper from Hobby Lobby. I cut the medalions with fancy scissors then took a stamp-pad to the edges.

Super cute marshmallows that I found at Wal-mart (of all places). They were really gross. But they were pretty. ;)


Meringues

{Recipie here. I just made mine fancy by piping them out of a piping bag with a fancy tip (Wilton 1M) }

Another Cake Stand made from Thrift-Store finds! 6 Layer Chocolate Fudge Cake
w. Whipped Ganache filling {Tutorial here. To make my life easier, I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips instead of chopping my own chocolate.} & Amaretto Swiss Meringue Buttercream {Tutorial here.}I followed this buttercream ruffle tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHYX0qXDVy0

My Gumpaste Flower tutorial here.

This Cake Stand was made from two FABULOUS pieces that I found at the Thrift Store!! I think it cost me a total of $2.75.

White Rassberry cupcakes w. edible feathers and "pearls"

{White cake (Box mix!!)w. Rassberry filling {from Orson Gygi's} and Fresh Rassberry American Buttercream

*The 'Pearls' were made by rolling white fondant in a ball, then rolling it around in 'Pearl dust' from Wilton. The 'Feathers' were actually made from rice paper! I found the rice paper at my favorite local kitchen supply store Orson Gygi's. I just cut it into the shape of a feather, then took my scissors and made the slits on the sides.
This Cupcake Stand was made from placing two glass stands from Wal-mart. They were on sale and cost me $9.00 total!

Cupcake wrappers were made from {Grease-proof} paper doilies!! Tutorial here from Intimateweddings.com.

Beaded Chandelier tutorial here from Dollar Store Crafts!

For more peeks at the photos hanging here, click here. Beverage dispenser: $6.00 from Wal-mart! Carrot Cake Cake Pops
Tutorial from Bakerell here.
My hubby from Tomseth Construction made this Barnwood flooring that I used as a photo prop in Ali's 1-year Photo Shoot. It was AMAZING in the photos. I ran to Hobby Lobby and grabbed 4.5 yards of their ruffled material from the spool [instead of making it myslef] and it saved me SO much time.

This lovely cream and sugar set were also a thrift-store find!

{Pssst, here's a secret. I made this Pink Lemonade (Crystal Light!) look extra fancy by adding the lemon slices!}

The nametags just added that extra fancy, put-together touch. ;)

The "Guess how old I am" game. You had to guess which month of her life each of these pics were taken in. Super hard! Lemme tell ya!

We had some wonderful family and friends come up! My brother, Scott and his awesome family came all the way from Payson. Our good friend, Mark ('Uncle Mark' to my kids) drove up from Saratoga Springs, my good friend, Sara and her kidlets came. GUESS WHO else came?!! My In-Laws!! It was such a {WONDERFUL} suprise! They came all the way from Cali JUST for Ali's 1st birthday!! What amazing parents and grandparents. I am so lucky to have them as family. ;) We had a great time eating, talking, laughing, eating and playing.

*A BIG 'Thank-You" to the lovely Jen from Tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com for the wonderful Mother's Day spotlight!*

1 year Photo shoot

Alice is turning 1!! I can't believe it. I don't {WANT} to believe it.
Let me tell you a little bit about this thing:

She's an absolute {DIVA}.

She will {TELL} you if she doesn't like how you conduct business. ;)

She completely rules the house...and our {HEARTS}.

She LOVES to {CUDDLE}

She is {DOTED} on by all she meets.

She has an infectious, toothless, One-dimpled {SMILE} that brightens up the room.

She {ADORES} her siblings.

{No one can make her giggle like Trevor}

She {LOVES} to {DANCE}. Any time, any place.

Daddy is her {FAVORITE}

She would eat {BANANAS} for every meal if she could.

We have had one year of pure, {SWEET} joy

She is just...{LOVELY}

This is seriously the messiest I could get her! She's such a Miss Priss.

She's learning to walk!

Don't you just LOVE the drool??!

She reeeeealy loved that spoon. ;)

The "Diva" face. It's totally fake...Don't give in.

Right after this shot, she cried because her hands were messy...Told ya. Miss Priss.

Seriously?!!

My FAV shot.

*A special thank you to my wonderful brother, Scott for recovering these from my corrupted memory card!!

*And a very special thank you to the lovely, amazingly talented, Crystal for not only editing these pictures for me but for putting together this BEAUTIFUL invitation. You are phenomenal. Go to: http://crystalruby.com/ to see her {BEAUTIFUL} photography!

In Love...

I'm SOOOO making 2 of these?? For what??...I'll think of something. ;)

You can do it to. ;) http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2010/05/make-a-beaded-chandelier/

TV Debut

So here is the link to my fancy-schmancy TV debut. ;) I also added pics of the rooms detail in more flattering light than was used with the video in the clip. http://studio5.ksl.com/index.php?nid=59&sid=15045928This is the birdcage that they focused on. The lovely milner's head and french cracker jar belonged to my Great-Grandmother Ardis. She was a professional hat maker by trade in the 1930's and the jar was a gift for her wedding in 1928.

Oh Happy Morning...

There's nothing like Double Stuffed Cinnamon Streusel Pancakes and Strawberries on a Sunday General Conferance {http://lds.org/general-conference/watch?lang=eng} Morning. She actually clapped and cheered for her breakfast. ;)

Get the recipe here: http://twopeasandtheirpod.com/cinnamon-streusel-pancakes/ No syrup needed. I just loaded mine with whipped cream. ;)

P.S. Thanks Auntie Jena for sharing this recipe and contributing to this smile. ;)

Ruffle Cake

...Cause I LOOOOVE me some ruffles. ;)

Lizzy's Baptism

(WARNING: Lots of pictures. :)

My beautiful, sweet, loving, empethetic, unselfish not-so-little-girl got baptised on January 22nd. She was so excited.

I must tell you a little story about why she looks so beautiful in her baptism jumper... When she was being interviewed by her Primary President (along with 2 other girls) the Primary President had two baptism dresses availiable and one baptism jumper. Now, with three little girls getting baptised on the same day, only having two dresses might pose a problem. The Primary President asked who would like a dress and immedietly, Lizzy's hand went up and she asked "Oh, may I PLEASE have a dress??!!" (She REALLY wanted a dress.) We held the dresses up to the girls to see which girls they would fit then I put the dress back on the table because I didn't want to just take it. One other girl got a dress because it was long and she was the tallest. The Primary President then handed the second dress to Lizzy while she was talking and the third girl started to silently cry because she knew that she would have to wear the jumper. Lizzy noticed her crying and simply said (and remember...she REALLY wanted that dress!): "Oh...well, she can have the dress." Just like that! It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I got choked up and it was all I could do not to cry. I explained to her in the car on the way home what a wonderful thing that was for her to do and she just shrugged and responded: "Well, I just wanted her to have a special Baptism Day." She was not trying to fish for praise or recognition. She just genuinely wanted her to have a special day and was not concerned about having her own special day. The Primary President called me later to see if I would like her to call around and try and find another dress from another Primary President but I told her not to because I knew that Lizzy would look the most beautiful in the jumper that she chose. What an example she is to me.

Of course a party with the best family and friends followed and we all had a very, very special day. ;)

Here are some shots from the Baptism Photo Shoot I did with her and then there are some pics of the fun get-together afterwards. ;)