A Christmas Shopping Party

I recently hosted a party for two very talented ladies.  Teressa Lane Jewelry & Colleen from Outside The Bloom are both super creative entrepreneurs with such beautiful work.  A few weeks before Christmas I invited everyone I knew for a little shopping at my house to support shopping local!  

First up, a little wine and sweets were on hand to accompany our shopping.  I used a plaid blanket that I found at a thrift store as the tablecloth.

 

 I loved Colleen's pillows and beautiful signs.  Each piece was available for custom design, so people could swap out what their signs said and the finishes.  The signs with the string lights were sold first.  Adorable!

 

This was my custom order from Colleen.  Loved how my mantle looked!

                               

Here are two of my favorite bracelets that I got from Teressa.  My double bracelet with my kid's birth dates and a beautiful stone bracelet that goes great with jeans! 

When you have a moment, check out both their sites, as well as Instagram and Facebook! 

Christmas Cards from Minted

The red cups are back.  Uh oh.  That means it is that time of year again!  I know people out there get annoyed that Christmas is in stores the literal second Halloween is over, but I love it.  I love everything about Christmas, so if I can enjoy it a bit longer, I will! 

With this season means annual photos with your family photographer or getting your Christmas cards ready.  I love getting actual mail (you know, the good ole days) and seeing all the beautiful cards our friends & family pick out.  We are taking our family photos next week, so I always start to scout out the perfect Christmas cards.

One of my go-to places for beautiful cards is Minted.com!  One of the things I love about Minted is that they have so many individual designers to fit all tastes and the quality is superb.  Plus I love that you can completely customize your favorite design. I used Minted for Drew's 3rd birthday last year...

I thought I'd take a moment to share some of my favorite Christmas cards that I have my eye on!

I have to admit, I'm a total sucker for handwriting or any type of scripted font.  That is where my eye goes every time.  My style generally tends to be pretty simple when it comes to the card, as I like our photo to stand out. 

I love the simplicity of both of these designs!  I prefer cards that say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays.

 

I am also completely biased to any Christmas card that says "Joy".  It's my middle name, and my mom had started an ornament collection for me from a young age of all "Joy" ornaments, so I'm a bit partial.  Here are my favorites:

 

I do like Noel too....

And here are my other favorites that I am keeping in my "Favorites" folder!

 

 

 

 

When making my decision, I am so visual, so I end up uploading my favorite family photos and trying them out in my favorite designs to see which one looks the best.  A big part has to do with the color schemes in our pictures and what options each card has. 

If photo cards aren't your thing, they have beautiful non-photo options as well.  Head on over to Minted today and check out all their beautiful designs and check back soon to see which one I chose!

Drew's Frozen Inspired 4th Birthday Party

Last month, we celebrated my baby's fourth birthday.  Like every other mom of a little girl this year, a Frozen party was imminent.  Let It Go had been played in a constant loop in our house, making my husband seriously consider checking himself into a loony bin.  BUT I do love this movie, and it was so easy to find inspiration. 

I usually start my party-planning juices flowing by starting with a color scheme.  I saw a lot of the parties that were on Pinterest and most of them were all about Elsa and the icy colors.  I decided to play off of Anna & Elsa's dresses.  I did not want anything literal "Frozen" in the decor.  First up, was the invitation design.  Whenever I can, I always prefer a invitation via mail versus an E-vite.  Don't get me wrong, I love E-vites and have used them tons, but for this party, I wanted to set the tone early.  I collaborated with Colleen from Outside The Bloom. Colleen has the most beautiful handwriting and completely "got" what I was going for.  We added some glitter and washi tape and the invites were on their way!

I was completely inspired by a fringe curtain I saw on Pinterest awhile back and decided to give it a go.  It was really easy, but definitely took alot of time and glue!  

Are you in love with peg dolls as much as I am?  I think they are just the cutest.  I thought that I would give it a go and try my hand at doing some.  Off I went to Michael's and I was so happy with how they turned out!  

 

Next up was a floral "4" to hang at the party.  I grabbed a piece of cardboard and just drew a giant four on it.  I cut it out and got out my glue gun and wah-la!  

 

 

 I found these adorable free printables from Bakingdom by doing a google search!  I just loved that they had rosemaling.  They added the perfect addition to my walls! I ended up using these on our front gate and a few other places throughout the house. 

You have to admit, Frozen has a lot of funny moments.  Anna always has the best lines, but if you really pay attention, Kristoff has some of the best lines.  When I met with Colleen, I knew I wanted to highlight some of my favorite quotes from the movie, and I could not have been more happy with the designs she came up with! 

 Here are some other details that Colleen helped with!

 

 

Now it was time to get the party started!  Us here in San Diego had the hottest, longest summer ever.  Yes, we are spoiled, but we love when summer starts to wind down and we get to trade in our flip flops for an occasional boot.  Maybe even an Ugg boot if we're lucky in December.  But, this September was so stinkin' hot, we decided to do a little twist on Frozen and get frozen shave ice.  Sno Cal Shave Ice was so awesome and served our guests as they arrived.  It was a perfect way to start our party off with a frozen treat!  

And then, a Frozen party would not be complete for a four year old without Elsa & Anna in the flesh.  This princess phase won't be around forever and I will always remember that look of awe and happiness on her face! 

These ladies from Royal Entertainers were amazing.  Not only were they absolutely beautiful, they were so talented....so great with the girls and both had amazing voices.   I worked with Royal Entertainers last year, when Cinderella paid us a visit.  They were so great to work with and were happy to accommodate my kinda-random request to have Anna do braids in the girl's hair! 

The finale of any party is the cake!  I worked with Crimson Cake this year and I could not be happier.  As mentioned above, I didn't want anything "literal" at the party.  I used the dresses as inspiration and it really was a great centerpiece. 

 

I took a picture of each girl with Elsa & Anna with an Instax camera that I borrowed from a friend.  I got this awesome glitter paper from Michael's and cut it down and taped the picture on for the girls.  Drew still has hers next to her bed!  

Lastly, I had so much fun with the goodie bags! Drew loves bracelets and to accessorize.  It's her thing.  So, I wanted to do a personal, handmade touch to the goodie bags, so I made some Elsa inspired bracelets. 

Then we had to have lots of fun other stuff in there too!  What girl doesn't love lip gloss, chapstick, Frozen hair ties, tattoos, and Elsa's ice crystals (aka rock candy)!

 

A huge thank you to my very talented friend Leigh, of Leigh Castelli Photography for taking pictures of everything today and catching this special moment with my little.

  Hope you enjoyed the pictures!