Glitter Reindeer

Hi all!  Welcome to October!  The holiday season is upon us already, which is hard to believe!  Recently, the glitter reindeer I did for last Christmas has been making its way around Pinterest, most noteably re-pinned by the Glitter Guide, fittingly.  Here is the original post and tutorial.

Kristin from Bliss At Home found me from Pinterest and let me know that she did her own glitter reindeer, inspired by mine.  Love the way hers turned out!  Check out her post here. 

I have a bunch of new projects up my sleeve that I'll be posting soon!  In the meantime, if you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, find me here! 

Drew's Pretty Picnic Party

“Picnic: Originally, a fashionable social entertainment in which each person present contributed a share of the provisions: no, a pleasure party including an excursion to some spot in the country where all partake of a repast out of doors.” – Oxford English Dictionary

My baby girl, Drew Elizabeth turned two on September 2nd.  I started planning early on in the summer so that I'd have plenty of time to get all the details in that I wanted.  The theme I chose was a "Pretty Picnic Party", with a little bit of a twist.  No, there were no eating on picnic blankets or traditional picnic baskets, but we had a great time outside with our friends.

I ordered very simple invitations from Tiny Prints and lined the inside of the plain envelopes with this awesome pink ombre napkins from Target. 

This was a super easy DIY project.  I found the idea on Pinterest, which is hugely becoming a great place to find great inspiration for all things, but especially parties!  You can follow me here.  Once I had selected my fabrics, I glued them into Mason jars and used them as vases. 

Some of my favorite flowers were available at the flower market before the party and I was so excited.  Feverfew (mini daisies) and anemones!  I put them in these adorable berry baskets from Sweet Lulu. 

Here is the food table before all the food got set out.  

 The drink station...

The adults had glass Mason jars, but the kids had these awesome plastic bottles from Sweet Lulu that I added chalkboard labels to.

 To make the lemonade a little more "fun", we had mango and strawberry purees that guests could mix in.  It was delicious!

I used these cute baskets from Garnish.  Below are the kids baskets which included a heart shaped PB&J, a fruit cup, and mac n cheese.  Oh and a little Pocky on the side!  The bags, fruit cups, and zig zag spoons are from Sweet Lulu.  The chips bags were an easy DIY.  I got the craft paper bags from Michael's, as well as the doiles.  I found the "D" stamp in the $1 bin at Michael's and wah-la! 

Below are the adult picnic baskets.  I stamped the cute "2" from Paper Source on the treat bags, which included yummy turkey sandwiches.  I made the potato salad and the green salad in the cup. It was so fun for guests to be able to just go grab their basket and have everything in there.

This is our gelato stand!  My dad made this for me from scratch!  The backdrop is a vintage sheet that I found at an estate sale.  The cute chalkboard sign is from the $1 bin at Target.  My dad and I made the tarp on top and I did the banner. So happy with how it turned out! 

Next to the gelato stand is the cake and lace chandelier.  I had so much fun making the quirky toy mouse chandelier for Drew's 1st Kitty Cat birthday, I thought I'd try something again.  Thinking of hanging it in her room I love it so much!  DIY instructions coming soon!

 I made miniature #2 sugar cookies to stick on top of the gelato.

How amazing does this gelato look?  It tasted just as amazing!  We even had sample spoons for people to try.  The strawberry, salted caramel, and brown-sugar sour cream gelato was from EscoGelato.  If you live in San Diego County, you've got to check them out!  The lemon cheesecake gelato was from Bubby's in Encinitas, another local favorite. 

 There is my Micah, taking a break from the bouncie to get some gelato. 

 A Jones birthday party is not complete without a banana truffle cake from CAKE.  The wire topper was done by my dad, and we'll be adding a collection to our Etsy shop soon! 

Here is the birthday girl when we sang to her.  As you can see, she wasn't too excited by all the singing.  This is a preview of the face I get when I tell her "no". 

 Here she is a bit happier with her gelato! 

As favors, we had pints (from Sweet Lulu, as almost all of our parties supplies are always from!) of gelato for guest to take home and miniature "pie bits" from the amazing Elizabethan Desserts.  Some of our guests got inventive and combined the apple crumb pie with the brown sugar-sour cream gelato.  I had a taste and it was amazing!  Below, I got a simple chalk board and just attached a few doiles from Michael's.  P.S. A chalk pen is a must! 

 I had so much fun with this party!  It was girly and vintage and sweet.  It was really fun to spend time with our closest family and friends to celebrate my beautiful baby girl on her special day.  Hope you enjoyed!  Plan on seeing the gelato stand make appearances at many more parties to come.  Now, on to planning Micah's 4th birthday in December! 

Summer Happenings

This has been one busy summer and I'm so behind keeping up with my posts!  Here are just a few highlights of what we've been up to over our July vacation!

Playing at Grandma & Grandpa's house!

 A new wreath I made for my parent's house! 

A beach day, complete with fringe bikini, cheetos, and sunnies.  Love this girl!

 I made double chocolate marshmallow milkshakes! 

 Our first trip on the Coaster down to Encinitas for breakfast and a walk.  So fun...we'll definitely be doing that again!  Our first swim lessons...a little anxiety, but they did great!

 Drew's birthday invitations went out and a picture of some party supplies!

 Micah's first day of pre-school.  Can't believe how big he is! 

Anemone and ranunculas in July!  Love! 

 A new painting that I did.  Micah told me, "Good job mom.  it's really, really, pink!"  

 Hope you create something fun this weekend!

Napa

A few weeks ago, Jason and I got a chance to have mini getaway to Napa for his birthday!  We arrived on a Thursday around 4:00 in Sacramento and drove to Napa.  We arrived just in time for a wine reception at the Marriott in Napa.  A nice way to start our trip!

Next up, we had reservations at Bouchon in Yountville.  My cousin works at Bouchon, so I was excited to see him and have dinner with him and his lovely girlfriend.  As everyone ate seafood and some more adventurous items, I snacked on bread and butter (and wine).  Reminded me of the French butter we had on our honeymoon in Bora Bora!  Delicious! 

 I had the steak frites with truffle french fries.  That was one amazing meal.  I loved hearing stories of all the famous people that my cousin has seen in the restaurant and how cool Thomas Keller is. 

After getting to sleep in, we headed right back to the Bouchon Bakery next door for some croissants.  One word...amazing. 

 We also grabbed some macaroons for the kids and my parents.  The carmel macaroon was my favorite!  We went to a tasting at Jessup Cellars next in Yountville.  We had a private tasting set up by my cousin's girlfriend.  I have never had wine at 11:00 a.m. in my life, but it was fun!  The pairing came with some yummy cheese and dark chocolate.  Next up we headed to lunch at Mustard's Grill.  Jason and I split a burger and a salad.  Literally everything we ate on this trip was soooooo good. 

After stuffing ourselves, we decided to drive around and headed up to the Auberge Du Soleil. 
I had looked into staying at this hotel, as it is related to our L'Auberge in Del Mar.   A bit pricey, we opted for the Marriott since we'd be out and about so much.  We decided to go get some coffee and dessert on their terrace.  What an amazing view!  I think next time we go to Napa we may have to splurge and stay here!

Jason and I split this strawberry shortcake, complete with strawberry gelato and fresh strawberries.  It was so good with my tea!

 So full at this point, we weren't sure if we could head to another tasting just yet, so we drove around some more and walked around some vineyards.  It was perfect weather.  After walking off our meal, we went to the James Cole Winery, where my cousin's girlfriend works.  We then headed back to Yountville, where Jason surprised me with an impromptu couples massage appointment he had made!  It was so relaxing and a great way to unwind!  That was our first couples massage since our honeymoon!

That night, we went to Press in St. Helena for dinner.  This restaurant was totally Jason and my styles.  We had a lovely time and a fabulous meal.

The next day, Saturday, was Jason's birthday.  We woke up, checked out, and headed back out to St. Helena to the Model Bakery, which we heard had the world's best english muffins.  We both got the breakfast sandwich and coffee.  It was a nice, light, breakfast after all the eating we had done the day before!   They really were so good we got a bunch to go.

After walking around St. Helena, we headed to Calistoga to go to the Schramsberg Winery for a cave tour and tasting at 11:30.  What a cool experience that was.  We loved hearing the history and then getting see the caves gave a whole new appreciation for the art of wine making!  We both really enjoyed all the wines.  After an hour, I was ready to get out of the musty caves and see the sunshine!  So, on we went back to Yountville, for our final stop before the airport.  We had reservations at Bottega for lunch.  After watching Top Chef Masters, I had a little crush on Michael Chiarello, and kinda hoped I'd see him.  No such luck, but had such a yummy lunch.  I was a little nervous eating here, since the menu seemed a little more adventurous than I'm comfortable with, but in the end, I trusted our waiter and just loved the gnocchi with squash.  Jason had some kind of pasta with rabbit ragu.  I had to get over that...

We made one last stop at Bouchon Bakery to stock up on some goodies for my parents and the kids.  Bouchon was having their annual Bastille Day celebration, so we stopped there and said goodbye to my cousin.  Wished we could've stayed longer for the festivities!

We finally made it home on Saturday night to see my two babes.  We got lots of hugs and kisses.  We had such a fun trip and 2 1/2 days was just perfect for us.  Can't wait to go back!

Now on to working off the lbs. I gained!