Spin in for Some Fun!

You're Invited to spin in for some fun as our little Gabriel turns one!
To celebrate my little Gabers TURNING the big ONE we threw him a precious pinwheel themed party.

I can't believe that my little baby, pictured above, is already TURNING one. The first year really WHIRLED by!

In the above photo he is patiently awaiting for his party guests to arrive - poor guy was trapped in his chair while mommy and daddy ran around finishing all of the details.

Pinwheel themed Save the Dates, Invites, and Thank You cards were designed to coordinate with the pinwheel theme.

Guests were greeted by whirling yardwhirls lining the sidewalk and a pinwheel wreath on the door. Personalized pinwheels included the phrase 'Gabriel is turning one!' on the quadrants.

Traditional and double peony pinwheels in the party colors of green, light blue, turquoise, grey, and chocolate brown were scattered around to make our home more festive.

Custom pinwheels were also stuck into white tin buckets filled with freshly grown wheat grass.

Several memo boards were scattered around the dining area featuring our favorite photos of Gabe throughout his first year. Party pennants were strung to add to the atmosphere.

The above memo board features 11 photos of Gabe - each one taken on the third of each month at exactly 12:08 pm (his official birth date). All photos were taken in the same rocker in his nursery and were posed with Mr. Bear. As Gabe grew bigger throughout the year the bear magically grew smaller. (I borrowed this idea from Laura.)

Food items included easy to eat items including pinwheel sandwiches and twirly antipasto pasta salad.

All 20 guests were offered fun party hats from our Pennant and Party Hat Tower. Guests drank their lime-aid (with blueberries for a blue touch) from green and white striped paper straws. The custom flags helped everyone keep track of their drinks throughout the afternoon.

Instead of cake, key lime cupcakes with key lime cream cheese icing were served. And yes, the personalized pinwheel cupcake toppers actually whirl!

As you can tell, Gabe enjoyed his yummy cupcake!

And best of all - he had a great time with all of his Aunties, Uncles, and Cousins.

After the party, it occurred to me that my little guy is really not that little anymore and I started to think back on all of our great memories from the past year. Thinking back on all of his firsts brought a few tears to my eyes. I know that there are many more great moments ahead, but the past year has also been very bittersweet. I love you my funny little honey bun!

...

For more photos and larger view of any of the above click here.

...

Pinwheels, Party Hats, Pennants, Banners, and Invites - Pinwhirls

Striped Straws and Pennants - Pebbles in My Pocket

Tie and Suspender Onesie - BK Chic Boutique

Wheat Grass - Genesis Wheatgrass

You are Invited to our Monster Laboratory!

Late in the summer I found the above costume for my little Gabe.

I showed it to Hubby and he agreed that it was the first perfect costume for our little Slobber Monster. Fast forward a couple of months and I decided to host a Halloween Party. I battled back and forth between a "Pinwheels into Pumpkins" theme and a Monster themed Halloween party. Not because I didn't totally love the Monster theme, but because I'd already sort of had this theme in mind for his first birthday party. But, as you can see the Monster Laboratory theme eventually won out as it just went so perfectly with his costume! I designed the above invite to invite all of our guests - I couldn't help but plaster our little slobber monster on the invitation ...
as well as the above little monsters. {Aren't they the cutest?} They, as well as a few other designs, were also used throughout the party on food tents, hang tags, food bags, cookies, etc.

Guests were welcomed to Gabe's Monster Laboratory by luminaries and ghoulish gourds. I made the above wreath with black tulle and festive ribbons.

Upon entering, they were greeted by Miranda, the Mannequin and by Gordon's Green Glittery Hands.

Pre-dinner spooky snacks included these handmade S'mores Caramel Apples.

As well as Hauntingly Hot Potions including Orange Hot Chocolate, Ghost {White} Hot Chocolate, and Spooky Spider Cider.

Party cones filled with Cinnamon & Sugar Kettle Corn and Chocolate Kettle Corn were also available.

For the kiddos, we also had a 'Buffet of Body Parts' which included body shaped gummies from ears, to noses, to severed fingers and toes.

My favorites - the gummy eyeballs, brains, and fangs!

Next we move onto the 'Tower of Treats' as I'm a firm believer in eating dessert first {or at least saving room for plenty of it}! The Tower of Treats featured an abundance of sweets including ...

Cookie Monsters

...

Home Made Butter Cream icing between two Oatmeal-Cranberry-Walnut cookies

...

A tie for my favorite dessert!

Monster Head Cupcakes {Butter Cream icing atop red velvet cupcakes}

Shots of Monster Blood {Tapioca Pudding featuring lg dyed tapioca pearls}

...

For decor we used black and white fabric as a backdrop as well as shreds of ghoul cloth. We also filled beakers with lg dyed tapioca pearls and mini m&m candies.
...

'Eye'ffles {Handmade chocolate truffles - the other tie for my favorite dessert!}

Monster Cookies {designed by Whimsical Originals - notice how she replicated our monsters perfectly!} The Monster Cookies were definitely the visual hit of the party!

Cherry Brain Parts {shortbread tarts filled with cherry pie filling and freshly made whipped cream topping piped on to form a brain topping}.

Marshmallow Monster Teeth {square vanilla marshmallows dipped in colorful candy melts}

Brain Jello {cherry Jello brain}

Skull Cake {handmade by my sister}

Brain Juice Punch {complete with floating eye balls}

Centerpiece on the food table included flickering candles, beakers filled with colored water, dyed tapioca pearls, and mini m&m candies. Instead of traditional glasses, guests drank out of plastic beakers {as they needed to be kid friendly} and monster grin straws.

Candy Eyeball drink stirrers were a huge hit with the kids.

For dinner we served, Decomposed Salad, Monster Eyes {sausage balls} ...

... Breadstick Bones with Monster Blood {pizza sauce} ...

Rigaboney {not shown}, Spooky Spaghetti Noodles {black and orange spaghetti noodles - not shown} with Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce {not shown}.

Parting Favors included test tubes {plastic for the kiddos} filled with candy bones. The die cut labels read 'Thanks for Jointing Us!' {You get it? Bones - Joints!} And who could forget about the cute little Monster Cookies! Guests also had goody grub bags available to bag up the over abundance of treats from the party. I surely didn't want all of the sweets sitting around my house after the party. :)

The party was a monstrous success - although there was a fire ban in our county {due to lack of rain} so we couldn't tell ghost stories or roast marshmallows by the fire. Boo-hoo. But it was still great fun for all of the costumed guests including myself {zombie nurse}, my hubby {mad scientist}, Gabe {slobber monster}, sunbathing beauty, two mummies, Juno, lumberjack, ballerina, scary creature, old man Superman, Cleopatra & Caesar, Spiderman, Batman, Giraffe, and a Pirate!

...

To view larger photos of the party just click here!

...

Although this was a Halloween themed bash, I imagine this party being super cute and creative throughout the entire year! Select items from the party will soon be available for purchase on our website.

....

How to replicate the party:

Monster Costume - One Step Ahead

Monster Cookies - Whimsical Originals

Monster Invite - Crossroads Cottage

Monster Food Tents - Crossroads Cottage

Party Cones - Crossroads Cottage

Hang Tags - Crossroads Cottage

Bag Tags - Crossroads Cottage

Labels - Crossroads Cottage

Treat Bags - Crossroads Cottage

Monster Grin Straws: Crossroads Cottage

Ghoul/Mummy Cloth/Fabric: Jo Ann Fabrics

Black and White Fabric: Hobby Lobby

Black Flickering Candles: Hobby Lobby

Beakers, Flasks, and Test Tubes: LCM Lab

White Serving Dishes: HomeGoods and Target

Silver Skeleton Salad Forks: Target

Gummy Brains, Eyeballs, and Fangs: Target

Gummy Eyeball Ice Cubes: Target

Eyeball Drink Stirrers - WalMart

Skull Cake Pan - Wilton

Eyeball Candies - Hobby Lobby

Brain Mold: Spirit Halloween

Manequin Head: Spirit Halloween

Glittery Hands: HomeGoods

Tulle Wreath: Crossroads Cottage

KettleCorn: Popcorn Indiana

Paper liners: Jo Ann Fabrics

Tulle and Ribbon for Wreath: Hobby Lobby

Food Recipes:

Breadstick Bones

Buttercream Icing

Monster Eyes

Decomposed Salad

Rigaboney

Brain Juice Punch:

2 bottles sparkling white grape juice

2 gallons orange juice

2 L lemon-lime soda

1/2 gallon orange sherbert

Combine sparkling grape juice, oj, and soda in a lg punch bowl. Scoop sherbert into bowl until it has produced a nice scum over the top. Garnish with a full tray of gummy eyeball ice cubes.

Other hints:

- Monster Cupcakes: Make the cupcakes and icing ahead of time and ice. My sister and I made them a week ahead of time and stored in the freezer until the morning of. Don't add the eyes until day of party.

- Cookie Monster Cookies: We also made the cookies and icing 1 week before the party. They also froze perfectly. Eyes were added before freezing.

- Chocolate Eye Truffles: Followed the recipe on the back of the baker chocolate box. Rolled the balls in sprinkles and added the eyes. Add eyes before rolling in sprinkles. They were also frozen the week before the party.

- S'mores Caramel Apples: Made the night before the party. I'd never worked with Caramel before. Yowsers the caramel cooled quickly - within 5 seconds. I used the individually wrapped caramels out of the bag. The secret was putting the crushed grahams (to make things simpler I bought the grahams already crushed from the baking section), mini chocolate chips and mini marshamallows all in the same dipping bowl. Also I had to cut the mini marshamallows in half so they didn't look quite so large on the apples.

- Cherry Brain Tarts: I also used pre-made shortbread tarts and cherry pie filling from the baking section. I added a bit of cinnamon to the cherry pie filling just because I LOVE cinnamon.

The whipped cream was home made. The colors turned out a bit too pastel for my liking, but if I added more and mixed the cream more I would have risked overbeating the cream. {I added the coloring after beating}. Next time I might try adding the coloring before beating ...

Hostess with the Mostess

Sometimes a girl just needs to twirl with delight.

...

And recently I've twirled twice

...

as my pinwheels were featured in parties on

one one of my favorite blogs

...

Hostess with the Mostess!

...

Several weeks ago they were featured in a

Bright and Bold Butterfly themed party

by Rebekah with A Blissful Nest.

...

If you are in a down mood now that the drearier days of

fall are upon us just visit the post about the party

...

it will surely brighten your day!

And
...
just recently Amy with Amy Nichols Special Events
emailed to let me know that her Bouncy Ball Themed event was
also featured on the Hostess with the Mostess blog.
...
I loved working with Amy on these pinwheels as the theme was so creative.
Although it was ball themed, it was a subtle ball theme with lots of circles and polka dots
instead of the traditional sports balls.
...
Love how it turned out!
You will too.

...
I'm also twirling with delight as fall is here and things have slowed a bit.
I finally have time to breath.
...
This has allowed me to spend some more time with my Little Gabers
who is growing way too fast
...
to check out some recent photos on/around his 6 month birthday click here.
...

Giveaway

Awhile back, in the wee hours of the morning, I came across the below invitation for sale on Etsy. I immediately went gaga (no, not lady gaga) over it. Yes, because of the pinwheels, but also because of the vintage carnival design. I quickly contacted anders ruff (the sellers) asking if I could design some papers to coordinate with this invitation. And much to my delight, I received a response - almost immediately - from both Adria and Maureen (yes - two separate messages) - which is sayin' a lot as it was seriously like 1 in the morning. (Do us etsians ever sleep?) They were kind enough to agree - yay! So, I stayed up the rest of the night designing the papers. Not-even-joking. Wish I were. Who needs sleep? Not I - especially when I've found such a find!

Anyway, fast forward a few weeks, and here we are. The final products using their inspired papers. I would place some more photos in this blog posting, but what can I say, I'm not going to.

I wish I could provide some very exciting excuse such as I'm just about to catch a flight to - insert exotic location - but the truth of the matter is that I have a crying 4.5 month old (on my lap - typing with one hand - such fun), have been spit up on three times in the last hour, and I have 6 shipments to get out the door very soon. (How I'm going to carry them and Gabe into the post office , not so sure yet. Hubby - please arrive home early tonight.) The only thing getting me through this day is the Christmas music playing in the background - yes, I said Christmas music. (What - is it too early?) So, to view all of my exciting carnival creations just click here. Hope this will do.

...

If not, visit AndersRuff's blog as they obviously have it much more together and have tons of photos posted. While you are there, register to win over $114 of my products.

I promise, if you are the lucky winner, or if you are one of the unlucky folks who actually has to purchase one of my products (wait that sounds terrible), not a one of them will have spit up on them. We try to keep that contained to mommy's clothes. :)

...

On a side note: visit their etsy shop to purchase the invite.

It's a print yourself invite so super affordable. They also have lots of other printable items.

Perfect for everyone on a budget - and who isn't these days? I even offer diy kits for my products.

...

Well, I'm off. My xmas music has just shut off. My sign that it's time to be moving right along.

Have a fantabulous weekend!

uber- exciting news

...

I have some uber- exciting news.

In case you are wondering, uber is a few steps higher than super.

...

Our large handheld wedding pinwheel bouquets were recently

featured in the 2010 fall/winter issue of the knot magazine.

...

Check out page 56 in the notebook trends section -

5 ways brides are saving $5,000.

We were featured as #3 - they're skipping the flower girls' bouquets.

...

This news seriously made my month -

I didn't even realize that I'd made the issue until a friend,

who just got engaged, emailed me about it.

A staffer did request samples months ago - she said

that they loved them and then I never heard another word.

So, I just thought they weren't going to be included.

Guess I was wrong - for once, I'm glad I was wrong!

...

Since the arrival of little Gabe in April I've found it difficult

balancing this pinwhirls business and a newborn.

Some days, when I look at my to do list, I think it's impossible

and some days I just want to give up.

But, it's news like this that keeps me going.

So, thank you the knot, for making my month!

...

Molly & Logan: Pinwheels Galore

I had the pleasure of working with Molly beginning in the fall of 2008. She was one of those totally organized brides whom I love to work with as not only wasn't her wedding not until May of 2009 (which gave us lots of time to work out the details), she also already had the perfect vision of her wedding day. And, lucky for me, her vision involved a fun pinwheel filled wedding.

...

She is pictured with her hubby, Logan, above. As you can see pinwheels were pulled into almost every aspect of their big day. Yes, those are fondant pinwheels, on her wedding cake! How cool is that? I just love when something looks good enough to eat, and considering my love for pinwheels, I would so love to take a bite out of one of these cuties. (Although who am I kidding? I couldn't destroy such a precious pinwheel - even if I am 38 weeks pregnant and am craving all things sugar.) :)

And, just look at her Save the Dates - not only are they gorgeous, the cards were also enclosed in a pinwheel fold. See, I wasn't fibbing when I said that pinwheels were used in almost every aspect of the wedding. (Save the Date and Invite Photos courtesy of Giddy Ink.)

The invites were equally as gorgeous - I was instantly in love with their monogram. Just look how the 'M' and the 'L' melt together. Just perfect.

As Molly and Logan left the church they were greeted by their guests waving these 'Love' themed pinwheels. Molly did a great job finding the above scrapbook paper that matched her colors and theme perfectly.

Aren't Molly and Logan the cutest?

In all of their photos you can just see how much they enjoyed their fun-filled day.

Another just totally unique part of their wedding - the wedding party left the church and arrived at the reception in a trolley. Yes, you heard me right - a trolley. It doesn't get much more fun than that. And no, they aren't in San Francisco - they wed in Ohio!

...

Look at the above pinwheel just a spinning in the wind of the trolley!

When guests arrived at the reception hall, they were instructed where to seat with our pinwheel place cards. Once again, Molly found the perfect favor for these little cuties and I printed their wedding monogram on the inside of these pinwheels. Lisa from Pen & Ink Calligraphy did an awesome job hand lettering the place cards.

The pinwheels were propped into candy filled votive holders.

Oh, just look at the beautiful sea of pinwheels ...

...
Thanks Molly and Logan for allowing us to feature your wedding on our site.
I'm sure the photos will bring much fun to our followers.
...
Thanks as well to Kitty Maer Photography for not only capturing such wonderful images but allowing for us to share them.

...