Chickadee Home Nest: Longaberger

Showing posts with label Longaberger. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Shabby Chic Lil Cowgirl Birthday Party

Our Baby Love turned SIX this week! And to celebrate her birthday we had a BIG cowgirl party.

The venue: The tool barn at her maternal grandparents’ farm.

The challenge: To make the most of the farm surroundings, add burlap and apple crates and marry it all with silver, pink, and lace. FUN, FUN, FUN!

When the idea of the party at the farm was born, my assignment was to help with making things pretty. Baby Love’s mamá had the vision, and I started gathering the goods. (That’s why I need a nice, big basement! LOL) This is the beginning of the transformation. You can see that at this point we’d already grabbed an awesome old ladder and old shutters (far left) and put them into play.

And we transformed it to this:

The dessert table was the main attraction. We also had a food table and a table for the drinks. The backdrop and tablecloths are pieces of a 15’x12’ drop cloth from Lowe’s that I cut. (Some day I’ll tell you the story of washing and drying and cutting a 15’x12’ piece of drop cloth :) . )

Some close ups:

Remember all those hydrangeas I’ve been drying? Some are in a big bin in the basement, and to the party they went! Our first thought was to fill the other apothecary jar with pink- and cream-colored macarons, but there were lots of guests, so we opted for wafers, which turned out to be an excellent choice, especially given the number of children in attendance.

This was Baby Love’s own cupcake and decorated marshmallow. The lollipop stick on her marshmallow includes a flower left over from her tussie mussie I made for her dance recital (you can see that post here).

I’ve seen lots of small glass bottles for children’s drinks, but being worried about safety, Mr. Chickadee and I started saving plastic chocolate-milk bottles (lovely excuse to drink chocolate milk!!). I spray painted the bright blue caps tan to fit our color scheme, and decorated them with twine and ribbons. The tags were used by parents to identify their children’s drinks.

Mamá painted real horseshoes, pink for the girls and copper for the boys, as party favors. I stumbled into these galvanized tins (already rusty, YEA!) at TJ Maxx a few months ago. They had three—one bigger than the other two—and they all came home with me!

White and semi-sweet chocolate-dipped marshmallows were a real treat for the kiddies!The lollipop sticks were decorated with various ribbons and lace to continue the color scheme.

Mamá made the darling garland that will now go in Baby Love’s room, as will the sign with her name on it.

The plates on the plate rack are the romantic Duchess pattern by Paden City (you can see them in more detail here). Their soft colors were perfect for the occasion.

The ladder ultimately filled the space between the dessert and the food tables.

“Ava’s Party…Welcome” by Baby Love, with a drawing of herself, the garland her Mamá made, and of the ladder. ;)

The pink Depression glass cups and saucers and juice glasses came along in my bins just in case, and they came in handy as fillers for the ladder, as a vase for the perfect rose (see below), and to hold the pink-and-white paper straws on the dessert table.

A perfect rose, well suited for Baby Love.

Transitioning to the food table…

We were feeding about 60 people, so the serving pieces needed to be BIG…oh, now I remember why I needed those big Longaberger baskets and crocks years ago! We briefly toyed around with the idea of china and flatware (our son, Baby Love’s Papá, is a chef who does occasional catering jobs, so he could have brought enough), but logistically it didn’t make sense.

And the drinks…

I’ve done “a year in review” with this Pottery Barn vase for each of the babies’ birthdays, but certainly never thought that she had noticed. Well…this year she asked me if I was going to do all her pictures again! Goes to show you, you never know what they’re noticing and what they like. So Yes, Baby Love, I’m doing it again!

There was even a piñata!

Everybody dig in! (And yes, the birthday girl wore a pink saucer tutu, pink-and-black cowboy boots, and a denim jacket.)

~ Confetti from the piñata in her tutu ~

And a few final (whew!) glimpses of The Lil Cowgirl Birthday Party ~

Our little three-year-old nephew, Vinny, came prepared for a cowboy day with his vest, chaps, hat and boots, (though he wouldn’t get on the horse! LOL).

And there were plenty of cowboy boots in all sizes…

This is how Grandpa Ken kept the barn warm for us.

And would you look at the size of these {tractor??} tires?! The horse blanket served to disguise them a bit. And why an empty frame?

To take a picture of Baby Love and each of her little friends on the horse! Each picture will be included in the child’s thank-you note.

It was a PERFECT day. Packing everything but the kitchen sink was well worth it. As Mr. Chickadee and I unloaded the car (just about every inch of an SUV-ful), we talked about all the sweet moments of the day. Sometimes it’s those moments after the fact, when you have time to reflect, that bring it all into full focus…when the memories start to formulate. A precious time…do you find that too?

Those of you who’ve done out-of-town weddings probably know exactly what this was like…and I bet the love and the memories made it all worthwhile, yes?

NOTE: Some of the items I use in my posts are in my Etsy shop, but many are not, simply because I haven’t updated my shop. If you see something you like and wonder if it’s available for sale, email me at coral5252@gmail.com and let’s talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to Google+ this post or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!

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Home and Garden Thursday at http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/

Open House Party Thursday at http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com

Transformation Thursdays at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

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From my nest to yours~

Zuni

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

4th of July Table and More

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays (along with Christmas and Easter). I have fond memories from when I was on the drill team in high school, and we marched in the Fourth of July parade. It was such a thrill to be there. The parade route went through a neighborhood that to my young eyes was fantastic, and I decided that was exactly where I wanted to live when I grew up—right on the parade route, so my family and I could step right out our front door the evening before and set our lawn chairs out to reserve our spots. I don’t know exactly when I realized that the reason the parade went down that street was because it’s a wide and busy road, and that the houses, though nice, aren’t really all that grand, but the memories of the patriotic music, all the flags, and the cool morning air when we got there early in the morning…I’ll never forget. Oh…and I forgot to mention another part of my young girl’s dream: we’d have a BIG barbeque in the backyard with LOTS of people in attendance, and all would be decorated in RED, WHITE, and BLUE. What fun!

Well…we don’t do the big, blow out party, but for all my adult years I’ve done some semblance of decorating and setting a patriotic table. In fact, in my 4th of July bins I still have pictures of a Country Living spread that I fell in love with, probably in the late 80s. My passion goes back a loooonnnnggg ways.

Now that blogging has entered my life—how FUN to get to share my tables with all of you! So here it is, my FIRST 4TH OF JULY TABLE FOR BLOGLAND! In anticipation, in our screened porch…

Let’s play Find the Differences! Here, I’d forgotten that I’d wanted to use my PB tall, red sherbets, which you’ll see in the pictures above. What a difference they made, yes?

My Longaberger bean pot was the perfect centerpiece. And the PB glasses, trimmed in blue, are perfect for the flag stirrers.

The candles in the PB tall sherbets are floating ones, but I was afraid to light them and have the heat break the fragile crystal, even with water in it. I love these stems, and they were a gift from my husband, so the risk wasn’t worth it (and PB doesn’t carry them anymore).

Even the log cabin is sporting a flag, and the whirligigs on the patio catch the light to bring some fun. Those will go home with the grandbabies for the parade.

The wrought iron shelf is now decked out in R,W,&B too.

A McCoy vase holds lavender sans water, so it’ll dry.

I bought this wood “box” to hold plates when I serve buffet style.

I love slate…this heart was a happy find in an auction box lot! Perfect for this girl. :) The beach towel? At the ready for heading to the pool.

Then evening came, and even I was surprised by these AWESOME candle holders! I’d gotten them at Kohl’s last year after the 4th, so I hadn’t seen them lit up. Oh.my.gosh…what FUN!!

The fireworks are doing double duty—they’re decorations now, until the big day arrives. And the glass gentleman?? Also an auction box lot; he’s George Washington, filled with red water.

Patriotic, chocolate-covered sunflower seeds.

And now for a few vignettes, inside and out~

Some of the elements of the screened porch table started out inside, as the centerpiece on the dining room table.

Because we have a storm door, regular wreaths don’t work, so I use a garland that can be pressed by the door and not damaged, then added the flags, which I had attached to twine with clothes pins for another project.

Every year when I buy our annuals I choose reds because they attract hummingbirds, and invariably, as the 4th draws near, I find myself buying blue ones too.

I wish you all a happy and SAFE 4th of July. Please take a moment to reflect on the freedoms of this great country, and the sacrifice of those who have served and currently serve to protect it and us~

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them! And if you like what you see a lot, maybe you’d like to +1 this post or pin it on Pinterest too! Thank you!

I invite you to follow me. If you’ll let me know that you’re following, I’ll be sure to follow you back.

Cuisine Kathleen at http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/

Wow Us Wednesdays at http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/

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What's It Wednesday at http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

Thursdays at StoneGable http://www.stonegableblog.com/

Home and Garden Thursday at http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/

Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Open House Party Thursday at http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com

Share Your Cup Thursday at http://jannolson.blogspot.com/

Transformation Thursdays at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

Feathered Nest Friday at http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/