Just a simple invitation...or something

So I like invitations. That might be an understatement.

When I decided to have a small gathering of ladies over for a tea party for my birthday I got very excited at the prospect of going maybe just a little bit crazy on a small batch of invitations. 

I gathered up 8 little wooden boxes from several different craft stores and painted them an array of peachy-pinks and golds.

I then took little glass jars and filled them up with loose leaf Earl Grey and attached a little tag of instructions with baker's twine.

I also included some disposable tea bags as well as some bits of bakers twine with cute little pink tags for tying off the tea bags (they don't need it, but they just kind of up the cute factor).

I broke out the calligraphy pens and gold ink and hand lettered the invites. They are definitely not fancy or super well done, but I liked being able to hand write them like ladies did in England back in the day.

Then I packed all the pieces up together in the painted wood boxes and tied them up with pretty ribbon.

 And then I hand delivered them! I would set them on my friends' doorsteps and text them pictures letting them know there was a little something waiting for them.  

I had such a blast putting these together! I don't think they're TOO over the top, but I do think they gave my guests a slight taste as to what they were in for - and hey, who can turn down Earl Grey, right?

Pinkies up!

Way back in March I turned the big 2-9. To ring in the last year of my 20s I decided to have a Lady Tea Party. For years I have dreamt of a party - some of my fave ladies gathered around a table full of sweets, piping hot tea, everything drenched in pink with plenty of gold glitter thrown in for good measure. What better excuse to throw such a party than one's own birthday, right?

Less talk, more pictures, I hear ya.

Tom was a doll and snapped a pic of me setting up. Here I was putting those little gold animals on the tops of the nine mini cakes I made. Yup, nine. There were nine ladies (including myself) and therefore nine mini cakes...this is not excessive in my mind in the slightest. Mom, I blame you for this logic.

Just some close ups of a few of the cakes. I'm no cake decorator, this was my first attempt at making cute cakes (maybe don't look at those pics too close...). Super thankful YouTube exists, not gonna lie. Playing with butter-cream was so much fun! Easily one of my favorite party crafts to date!

Here's a pic of the whole spread: sparking water, non sparkling water, French Press coffee (you know...in case anyone preferred that to tea), fruit, cheese & crackers, shortbread cookies from a local bakery, the mini cakes, and arguably the biggest hit- tiny little cucumber sandwiches made by my lovely sister, Melissa. They may not sound exciting, but believe me when I say they packed a punch of flavor and were all gone before the party was done - they were a smashing success!

 

Here are just a few pics of the table. Naturally the second you start looking for a pink tablecloth they are nowhere to be found. This was not a problem an afternoon of craft store hopping with my mother, Melissa, and Kerrie couldn't solve! We found some pink fabric (which Melissa so graciously hemmed for me, thanks again, sis!) to use as the tablecloth, gold glitter scrapbook paper to use as place mats, and a basic black and white stripe fabric to use as a runner. Truthfully I would have preferred a wider stripe, but this is what was available and it turned out pretty cute anyway, if not just a little cross-eyed inducing. You can also see the little vases that I crafted out of Starbucks jars and Martha Steward craft paint making an appearance. I filled them up with all the flowers I could find at Central Market that were shades of peachy-pink or white. The white flowers lasted for WEEKS. I also took basic flour sack towels (found at Target) and painted "tea" on them in gold paint to use as napkins...tea towels that say "tea"...teeheehee.

The white dishes and pretty blue glasses were my Great Aunt Nan's. She was a lovely lovely lady who I have so many great memories of. She passed away a few years ago and these treasures found their way to me - I actually remember exactly where she stored them in her amazing kitchen. Using them for this party was pretty perfect as a Ladies Tea is precisely the kind of party Aunt Nan would thoroughly approve of. She basically wrote the book on "overboard entertainment" - she's the first person I've ever known who would decorate every room in her house at Christmas with multiple themed Christmas trees. My personal favorite was the red high heel tree, which was just how it sounds - a Christmas tree decorated with red high heels. I feel proud, and lucky, to have inherited even a small bit of her sense of whimsy.

Tom went shopping with me for tea and he found these adorably perfect sugar cubes. I just love that he knows me well enough to know that they would be the perfect addition to the party, and that he was sweet enough to indulge my whims.

I have a pretty big crush on Confetti System, but the DIYer in me just won't let me spend that kind of money on something I'd have such fun creating myself. These tassels were completed over the course of a week or so. Anytime Tom and I sat down in front of the TV I would tassel away! They aren't perfect, or an exact replica of what the pros at Confetti System would create, but they were sweet and handmade and added the massive dose of pink that the party called for.

Now for the most important part of any party, especially this Tea Party - the Ladies!

I'm so lucky to have such lovely, joyful, and indulgent friends! Not a single one of them vomited from all the pink - and that is impressive.

My camera died shortly after taking these pictures (nice job charging your camera, Amanda...jeeze) so I whipped out my phone to get a few shots of my guests and their cakes (in no particular order):

Gorgeous Breanne! One of my most favorite people and kindred spirit! I made sure there was at least one cake with a mini horse on it, this girl loves mini horses...all things mini really.

My beautiful sister in law, Kerrie - she loves cats, the color coral, and lets me braid her hair whenever I want. Love. Her.

My stunning sister, Melissa. Check out that hat! It was our great-grandmother's (Aunt Nan's mom, clearly they had much in common as well) and what better occasion to bust it out than a lady tea party!? I feel like the hat alone took the party up a level.

My other amazing and lovely practically-sister, Celeste. She is my #1 craftsistant, I love it! She helped paint the little animals gold, and make the tea cup candle favors among other things. She even matched her cake here, girl after my own heart!  

Look at cute Angie! One of the sweetest people you could imagine - that little gold donkey on top of her cake now has a home in her kitchen, love it!

Adorable Meredith! Look at her and the gold pig cake! She's getting married soon and I can't wait to help with all the wedding crafts and projects!

My sweet cupcake friend, Chelsea! She just so happened to be in town the weekend of the party - could NOT have been better timing. When we were in college, and then working in the same town right after college, we would happily craft away every spare second. So glad she could partake in all the lady fun! (Every time she comes to town she brings me cupcakes from my favorite cupcakery...that's a real friend right there).

Here's sweet Maggie - my sister in washi. We can talk paper for days...and likely have. Getting a card from this lady is like receiving a little piece of artwork - love!

Tea party selfie! 

Thank you to all my sweet lady friends and family for making the day so special! Also thanks to my husband for helping so much with a party that he wasn't even invited to - he always helps calm my hostess neurosis and for that I am forever grateful. 

My next post will likely be about the invitations for this party...yup, more pink and gold. After that will be all about the crawfish boil that we had for Tom's birthday though, so no worries, I won't forever inundate the blog with pink pink pink.

Photo of the Day - Days 85-91

Day 85:

This was one month after Tom had the mole on his forehead removed. The scar looks better and better every day. What, you're too busy staring at those gorgeous green eyes to notice the hot manly scar above them? Can't blame ya. #backoffhesmine

Day 86:

So that dude up there went out of town on me for a few days. I figured it'd be a great excuse to get some girl time in - enter Elizabeth St. One of my most favorite restaurants. It's French/Vietnamese and so freaking adorable I would move in if I could.

Day 87:

For night number two with the husband out of town, I crashed my sister's dinner. We had delicious fish tacos and some fun times playing on an exercise ball. Look at that sweet upside down smile!

Day 88:

So, by day three of no Tom, the pugs had had it. I had dinner on the floor of the living room with them and we all pouted together. I decided to repaint the office while he was out of town and these guys wore themselves out following me around while I cleared out the room and started painting.

Day 89:

I plopped a dog pillow down on the floor of the office after I finished painting so the pugs had somewhere to hang out while I moved everything back in and hung stuff back on the walls (I even hung curtains all by myself! me = all that is woman). This is not an incredible shot of the new wall color, but it is very neutral. You can see that by day 4, we were all worn out and very ready for our Tom to be home.

Day 90:

After almost 5 days away, Tom finally came home! I snapped this as we left the house to grab some lunch. A storm was rolling in on one side of the horizon, while behind the house the sun was shining away, kind of a backward metaphor for him being home...let's pretend the storm was leaving, shall we?

Day 91:

No pic today - whoops!

Photo of the Day - Days 78-84

Day 78:

Alright - so the name of this blog is pretty indicative of the fact that I enjoy a few hobbies - most of them of the crafty variety. I had been reorganizing my craft space/our office and here is my happy place...my drawer of glitter. That's right - a DRAWER of GLITTER. So maybe I go gaze at it sometimes...maybe by sometimes I mean daily...don't judge.

Day 79:

Here is that wacky headboard I referred to in my last post. And my unmade bed - to be fair I realized I was getting into bed and hadn't taken a picture that day, so here it is! Our room feels so regal now!

Day 80:

I bought myself flowers and put them in one of those vases I crafted. That is all.
Day 81:

So we have established that Tom's birthday officially equals a crawfish boil every year. Also, we like to make t-shirts (screen printing being one of my hobbies...) for our guests to commemorate the event. Here, Tom is working on the artwork while I mixed the ink color. 

Day 82:

Ezra being adorable, like he does, modeling the toddler size version of the 2013 Crawfish Massacre shirt. Looks like he's a fan, no?

Day 83:

Tea time is basically my favorite time. Here I enjoyed a cup of loose leaf white peony tea in my new tea infuser/mug in one (thanks, Mere!) and a few bites of dark chocolate with honeycomb - so good. I made that bar last almost 2 weeks. Also, I did share with Tom, just...for the record.

Photo of the Day - Days 71-77

Day 71:

K, so I recognize that this is a terrible picture, but it is so rare that the pugs ever actually play tug of war (Tom just called it PUG of war, teeheehee) with each other, much less that I have my camera at the ready the rare times that they do, so this is a precious image to me. We are pretty sure that Fender has a tender mouth, so he basically always loses. Also, Tele is super hard core.

Day 72:

Tom and I went to indulge in a bit of our fave frozen custard at their new location and we happened upon a new trailer/local farmer's market. Clearly we weren't leaving there without our fair share of heirloom tomatoes. For the record - they were delish.

Day 73:

Awww - I caught some lovers! I don't know these people, but the prompt today was "branches"...see that, there are branches!

Day 74:

Tom and I were waiting on a table for dinner and I snapped this pic of him in the sun. So handsome.

Day 75:

Tom and I went thrifting and found a super wacky headboard (it's a photo of the day in a few days). The same shop had this adorable pink dining set. Upon looking at this picture I'm wondering how I got out of the store without buying those cute aqua and gold glasses...

Day 76:

We took the Scout out for a quick spin around the block and I used the opportunity to take a weird selfie in the double side mirror. We should probably clean those before I try that again...

Day 77:

The prompt today was "spots". This pretty pretty moth was waiting for us by the front door after we came home from running some errands. I'd never seen one like it. Up close, it actually looked like the deepest blue color.

 

Photo of the Day - Days 64-70

Day 64:

Happy birthday to me! We snapped a pic right before we went to dinner - then came back and I started this here blog. Kind of a big day... Also, how cute is Tom? The fun thing is that the actual day of this post is TOM's birthday - this worked out well, no? Happy birthday, Tom! I love you most!

Day 65-66:

No pic today - or the next day - such is the story when one's birthday falls at a super busy time at work. Excuses, excuses...I know.

 Day 67:

 

This is my lovely lovely birthday twin, Krystal. Love. Her. We hadn't seen each other in a million years, so when she popped into town the weekend after our mutual birthday, I stole she and her cute sister for dinner. This girl had just had a day of spa pampering and she was not about me taking our picture, but she indulged me anyway - who has the right to look that good after being exfoliated and massaged all day?

Day 68:

March is a popular birthday month - case in point, my friend Meredith. The weekend after my birthday tea, we had a birthday game night for Mere, complete with mustaches, duh. Her fiance, Joe, finds her adorable, as do I. Look at that face. I mean, I dare you to not smile at all that cute.

 

Day 69:

 

Ezra's laying down some fat tracks, or is it phat? I don't listen to hip hop. I do know that this kid is the best. Tom and I got to babysit him for a few hours while my sis and bro in law went on a lunch date - we laughed, we cried, we shared a grilled cheese. Pretty great afternoon in my book.

Day 70:

What do you ya know, no pic today. Worst streak yet! Ah well. It's my birth week. I do what I want.