Land of Nod Holiday Party & a Discount Code!

Black and White Stripe Teepee with Holiday Lights Garland

Last week I was honored to get the opportunity to host a Holiday party with the girls from Small Fry and Land of Nod. In Utah we are lucky enough to have a tremendous group of bloggers so it was fun to get to celebrate with some of our favorite blogging friends. 

The florals were done by Lizy from Lizy's Lilies. She is crazy talented and it was amazing to see her work in person. 

We used her eucalyptus garland to drape on our winter wonderland backdrop and then topped it with the goody gumball garland. I mad the backdrop using a queen sheet and puffy paint! It was a fun addition to set the mood for the evening. 

The event was held at the Awful Waffle down in Provo and it was the perfect venue! 

Plush Jamboree Accordion, Plush Jamboree Acoustic Guitar, Camp Log Throw Pillow, Basic Framework Coat Rack 

We decorated the place with tons of Land of Nod goodies. 

S'more the Merrier Campfire Set

Indoor Explorer Multi Stripe Tent 

My favorite part of the night was just catching up with all my favorite blogging buddies and friends. 

We were also lucky enough to have the Land of Nod Creative Director Danielle Kurtz with us for the party. 

Near the end of the evening we had a raffle drawing for some of the cutest Land of Nod toys! 

How adorable is this pig rocker! 

All the attendees went home with a set of 12 days of Christmas ornaments and cookies from Cookie Haven. 

photos by Lindsey Orton and Lindsey Clinton

And for all those that couldn't attend a party Land of Nod is offering 15% off their site from Nov 25-27th using code 6THST! 

There were parties going on all over the country. To see what the other bloggers were up to check out their sites! 

Atlanta

Joni Lay of Lay Baby Lay

Boise

Kirsten Grove of Simply Grove

Charleston

Chassity Evans of Look Linger Love + a former Real Families participant

D.C.

Darcy Troutman of No Monsters in My Bed + a former Real Families participant

Rebecca + Suzanne of A Feteful Life

Kansas City

Carrie + Morgan of Ampersand Design Studios

Los Angeles

Kelly Lanza of Studio DIY 

The Honest Company

Nashville 

Raechel Meyers of Finding My Feet  + a former Real Families participant 

San Francisco

Cristin Bisbee Priest of Simplified Bee

Michaela Warner of Michaela Noelle Design

Mary Heffernin, a former Real Families participant and hosting at her amazing busines The Makery

Jane's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star First Birthday Party

A couple of weeks ago I threw Jane a little birthday party to celebrate her first birthday. I have had the theme in mind since June so I've had plenty of time to work on it. Over the summer I slowly worked on all the details hoping that the party set-up would go smoothly. Although the party was a blast the set-up was CRAZY. I mean seriously so many things kept going wrong! I had two hours to get everything ready which seemed like plenty of time but I probably should have given myself 6 hours! My friends helped me set up a shade tent but it didn't have any coverage on the sides so we decided to attach sheets to the top. This would have worked out fine except they kept falling down. And then the slight breeze kept making the balloons go crazy and my twinkle twinkle sign fell on the table at one point almost crashing into the cake! I had also worked on getting christmas lights strung through the sign and a portion of them just didn't light up. I think it was at that point that I turned to my friend Erin and said, "let's just bag the whole thing and run away".  Luckily my friends came to the rescue and we got everything set up just in the nick of the time for the party to start. We may have had sweat pouring down our faces but we were at least able to spend a good thirty minutes enjoying the party.

I wish you could have seen the craziness! Every time I throw a cute party like this I promise myself that next time I'm just going to get a cupcake with a candle and call it a day.  But I really love throwing parties so no matter how hard I try I can't help going a little overboard sometimes... Am I the only one who feels this way?? 

I am really grateful to Samantha Kelly for capturing the sweet moments with the babies and Jane. 

The party was during lunch time in the middle of the day and husbands were at work so I decided to make this party a special lunch for Jane's baby friends and their mommies. The girls were seriously adorable. You could tell they got a kick out of all being together. 

I made each girl a little gold crown. The crowns themselves were 75 cents each from this shop. I attached them to some black elastic headbands that I bought at Walmart. Jane's birthday crown is from this etsy shop. I was really impressed that the babies kept their crowns on for pretty much the entire party! 

Almost all of my friends have the Antilop highchair from Ikea which made it fun to have all the girls in matching high chairs! 

Last month I bought some gold star wands from Oriental Trading to make little wands for each of the girls. I tied some pink ribbon to each wand that I bought at my local craft store. To personalize the wands I made little clay tags with each girl's name on them. These were made with this mini star cookie cutter and some Sculpey clay. The technique was similar to the one I used here. 

For the girls I made little star peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with this cookie cutter. I also added these star toppers. 

For my table I added this paper star printable from Caravan Shoppe. I layered it with a burlap runner. 

I made these star chips the day before the party and they turned out so cute! 

I enlisted the help of my sister to make Jane's cake. She did such a great job. The star cake topper is from this shop 

The cake was delicious and Jane was sure a fan! 

Jane's shirt is from Swallow's Return. I have been eyeing it since I wrote this post. 

It was really special to me to get to celebrate not just Jane but all of her little friends. It's crazy but a few of my best friends and I all had baby girls around the same time! I feel like as moms we've been through so much together since our babies were born. This was a time to not only celebrate Jane but all of us!

We got to spend some time eating lunch and enjoying each other until the babies got restless and a little crazy.

For the twinkle twinkle poster I used a huge piece of foam core and just wrote out twinkle twinkle little star with a white out pen. Then I drilled holes in the poster and inserted christmas lights to create a twinkling effect. 

For their party favor I gave each baby a little star bow clip from Forever 21. 

This party was a blast to plan and even though it was a little hectic to put together I'm glad we were able to pull it off! My little Jane is an amazing amazing blessing in our lives and I seriously can't believe it's already been a year since that beautiful day that she was born. 

Thanks again to Samantha Kelly for all of these photographs! 

Summer Banner Printable

Today I am excited to share a fun Summer banner printable that Diana has come up with! This would be really cute at a summer BBQ or party. 

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Summer seems to go so fast each year.  It seems like I am always putting up my Christmas decorations right back up again and no decor for the Summer time except for July 4th.  I wanted to make something that I could hang up all Summer long and not feel like I need to take it right back down! I made this easy to make printable banner that you could make to hang in your home or office.  I cut out each letter using a 3 inch scalloped punch, but you can resize these and make them bigger or smaller.  You also can just use scissors.  I then attached it to some colorful streamer paper to add another pop of color.  This hangs in my front entryway which gives my year-round decor an extra fun twist!  

If you'd like to download this Summer Printable, click here and here!

Diana is a graphic designer running her own shop called Livy Love Designs.  She loves using fresh color schemes and bright patterns.  She enjoys drawing, sewing, and learning new recipes.  She is married and has two little kids who she attributes where most of her inspiration comes from.  Aside from her shop, she has recently started working with Modern Yardage and is a fabric designer for them, which has been a dream of hers ever since she started graphic design.  You can follow along with her blog at Livy Love.

An Easy Bridal Shower

photo by Lindsey Orton Photography 

My beautiful and amazing sister Sarah is getting married in a couple of weeks and I am ecstatic! I'm the oldest child and I got married when I was 20 so I feel like I've been waiting forever for my siblings to join me in the world of marrieds. I wanted to throw her a fun bridal shower but life with two kids has made party planning harder than it used to be. I had seen Minted's party kits in action at Alt this year and I thought I would order one for the shower. 

My sister's colors are peach and coral so I thought the Matthiola theme would work best. Using this kit made party planning a dream! You can pick and choose every last detail that you would need for your party. 

I also ordered the coordinating invitations. 

We threw the shower at my grandma's house so it was also nice that I could pack up everything in a box and just throw it together in less than an hour. 

I used frozen strawberries and fresh lemons to make flavored water. 

I bought a pack of plastic glasses at the dollar store and used Minted's decor to liven up the glasses. 

Their wishing tree was used to hang pictures of the happy couple.

The favor was store bought carmel popcorn packaged in cellophane bags. 

I bought some sheets of glitter paper at Hobby Lobby to create this easy garland. I just cut and then stapled the paper to string.  

To create this runner I just used kraft paper and painted dots. Minted's table confetti was the perfect touch to add color and pattern to the basic runner. 

I bought this white spinning condiment holder from Target and then used tiny mason jars to convert it to a utensil holder. 

I have the best sisters in the world and I love celebrating their special moments as they grow up. 

Do you have a blog and are thinking about throwing a party? Minted would love to work with you! 

Go here to learn how you can become a Minted Party Ambassador!