Thursday, July 21, 2011

We are finalist!! PLEASE VOTE!

This is so funny....when Annabelle's party won Project of the month back in February Andrew immediately said "mom...I want my party to win that next"....and I thought to myself, "There are so many good parties out there, we would never be lucky enough to be chosen as a finalist again!" ....so we had a fun surfer party for Andrew and I uploaded into Project Nursery photo gallery and forgot I did. The other day I got an exciting email. GUESS WHAT?!! It was chosen as a finalist!!

Now we need your help! Please VOTE for Andrew's Surfer party!! He would LOVE to win!!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

I am so honored to even be in the top three here anyway!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Family Gatherings {times two}

I have had a really wonderful month filled with family gatherings! Last night we gathered around 45 people from my husbands family for a fun little reunion while the kids from Norway and Colorado were in town to get to know the family! We had a blast as we always do with this big family! I kept the theme simple {CELEBRATE FAMILY} because that was the point! I decorated in Navy and Orange and made sure to use plenty of printables to pull the theme through.  Here is a little look...












In the beginning of the month we had my husbands godparents from New Orleans visit. We hosted a casual breakfast. I was able to get everything fresh from the farmers market that morning and made 2 homemade quiches to go with it. I also made homemade honey butter and gourmet bagel spreads the night before just to make our fresh bagels and pastries a little more special! Once again, I love visiting with family so I had a great time. Feeling very blessed!




Now I am looking forward to some quality beach days with my kids before they have to head back to school! I hope your days of summer are filled with family and fun too!
 
Visit my NEW blog and shop www.homespunhostess.com
 

Monday, July 11, 2011

Surf's Up!

A couple of weeks ago my sweet little Andrew turned 7! We had a fun surfer party for him with blue and orange as our color theme. My very talented sister made desserts that made the party awesome and Maggie took pictures to make it all look magical!

For starters...look at my little surfer boy! he enjoyed every moment of his surfer party and that makes it all worth it!


Have a look at these amazing cookies and cake! They tasted just as good as they looked too. I used brown sugar as "sand" in my galvanized tiered tray. I also made little cups of blue jello with  gummy sharks swimming around with little "caution SHARKS" flags. You can personalize this printable collection to fit your party too! Now available here in my shop!



This party really did not break the bank, and I am going to share my secrets for being frugal and still throwing a very pulled together theme party.

For the favors, I set up a shelf that I already had at home with "Andrew's Surf Shack" goodies. We got sunscreen (Bonus...in matching colors!) at the dollar store, sunglasses in white and shades of blue, also from the dollar store, we got the perfectly matching lollipops at Easter for $1 ea at Walmart, the bubbles were less than $1 ea at Target and the custom labels tie them right into the party, the sunshine cookie sticks were from Dollar Tree with my custom tags added to them and even my little candy jar was filled with inexpensive orange candy. The kids loved the free for all!

 We had a cookout and served food from "Andrew's Beach Grill" in retro blue baskets. The fruit and coleslaw was packed in mini 4 oz cups with custom "Andrew's Beach Grill" picks. The water and soda bottles were simply wrapped with matching labels to pull it all together.

Gotta love Target.....$4 beach towels that I took to a sports shop to have the kids names embroidered and a super cool shark fin ice mold!


Those surfboards that the cupcakes are on....$2.50 cork boards from...you guessed it- TARGET! And the lanterns were also from the $2.50 section.


Hope you caught a little inspiration! Surf's up!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Enter to win a Party Paper Package!

Happy Friday! I am having a busy busy week with some fun custom orders. I am also planning a big family breakfast for Sunday and helping with my sweet niece's Flamingo party tomorrow! Fun! Fun! Fun!

Today I want to send you over to check out Sheek Shindigs. She is hosting a Homespun Hostess giveaway today so be sure to head over and enter! While you are there you can check out all of her great entertaining inspiration too! She just did a fabulous 4th of July breakfast for her cute kids that you won't want to miss!

Have a great weekend! Today is my sister Cil and sister-in-law Shannon's birthday....so I have some celebrating to do!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July Weekend! I hope everyone has a fun (and safe) weekend filled with friends, family, food, fireworks and fun!

I have a USA flag for you to upload free today....makes a cute little photo prop and after that stick it in a pot of red geraniums for a festive decoration!

Click here to download!





{check out these adorable lollipops from Michaels....look just like old fashioned bullet popsicles from the ice cream truck}