Hey everyone! Just a few days ago we celebrated my cousin Riley's 7th birthday with a unique theme she chose herself: cats and horses! She also wanted an orange party. For this theme, I decided to do a boho-vintage style with subtle oranges and browns as the main colors. The cake was from Ingles. The dishes and books displayed were items I had on hand, with most of the ceramics handmade. I also handmade the giant, wooden box and wooden, hollow rectangle used as stands. The lollipops and candies were super easy: I made them by melting some chocolate chips, mixing in a little water, pouring them into a succulent silicone mold (from Walmart) (that I sprayed with baking spray first to be safe), adding the lollipop sticks, and freezing them. The bouquet consisted of wildflowers and plants from my yard and my grandparents' yard. The little plants on display were mine and my mother's that we had on hand. I made the prize ribbon by cutting and hot-gluing a combination of burlap ribbon and scrapbook papers. I painted a tiger figurine and all of the other cats and horses came from my grandmother. All of my cat statues decided to go missing and I could find nothing to use when my grandmother came to the rescue with perfect small kittens and a horse. I painted the banner with acrylic paint. My mother tied yarn onto the embroidery hoop and I tied on ribbon, then painted the yarn with watered-down acrylic paint to create the bohemian dream-catcher decor. Riley and I agreed on hot chocolate for party favors (which might seem weird for a summer party, but we agreed every day is a great hot chocolate day) and I packaged them in brown paper bags. I decorated those bags with hot-glued or stapled scrapbook paper and doilies, on which I wrote "Thank you for making Riley's party 'purrfect'!" I displayed hanging photos by taping them on yarn that I tied to a wooden dowel. The party did not include half of what I hoped to include, such as the subtle-orange-dyed photo backdrop I started on or a balloon arch. I started putting out a few dishes when I ran by the day before to teach an art lesson, but I basically made everything the morning of (since I accidentally overslept until 3 or 4 a.m. and had to go around 7:00 a.m.) and had like thirty minutes to decorate, so it was super duper last minute despite my best intentions. However, I think my cousin was happy, so I guess it was mission accomplished.
I hope that you enjoyed and can use this theme for future inspiration! My second-session summer class starts in two days, so I hope to get back to posting weekly but if I don't, that's why and I will get back soon. Thank you for visiting!
-Lauryn
