Modern Silver and Purple Girl's Mario Party

For my cousin's fifth birthday, she asked for a Mario themed party, so I was excited to try a unique color scheme, which was pale purple (or lavender), white and silver. It also had some pink and pink-purple shades in the watercolors and treats. Her favorite character is Toad, so you may notice a particular emphasis on Toad decor and mushrooms. The star balloons came from Amazon, the flowers were a mixture of backyard wildflowers and a bouquet from Currahee Gardens, the glow-in-the-dark car favors inside of the pinatas were from Dollar Tree, and the cake was from Ingles. Everything else, including the costume, was handmade (and I look foward to sharing those tutorials with you in upcoming posts). My brothers contributed by creating a white-and-purple pixel Mario (by Will) and giant Lego party scene (by Jacob), which they invented themselves. I made the crayons with a silicoln mold from Walmart. The holographic paper I used for the various signs/labels was from Michaels. I made the marshmellow treats myself, and I will share the recipe in a future post as well. I made the adult favors by printing wallet photo prints, creating holographic-confetti-filled stars and placing them in favor bags. The circle banner was just watercolored paper cut into circles and glued onto a string. You can view the Mario mystery box pinata tutorial here. Without further ado, here's Riley's fifth birthday party:

I hope you enjoyed it! I will post again soon!

-Lauryn

"Reach for the Stars" Graduation Party

Hello, everyone! Today I am excited to share my cousin's graduation party. I wanted to do something original, like others on Pinterest have, such as the ones I found online, including "The World is Your Market" (Farmer's Market theme), "Donut Forget Me" (Donut theme), and "Down the Rabbit Hole" (my favorite!). For mine last year, I created a book-themed graduation party (see here). After a lot of brainstorming, I came up with a "Reach for the Stars" theme. The color scheme was pale purple, light pink, navy or sapphire blue, gold, and silver. I've always wanted to do an astronomy party, so I had fun with it. Every banner, sign, placecard, and hanging decoration was handmade. I watercolored everything with purple and pink hues. The stars were just recycled cardboard painted gold. The star balloons were from Amazon. I made the round wreath by wrapping a hula hoop with blue fabric shreds and gluing on a hand-painted poster cut into a banner. I embellished it with branches that I partly painted with gold or silver paint and a white rose. The moon was made with stick-on vinyl I had bought a long time back for $0.50 on cardboard. I used my tye-dyed fabric as a photo backdrop. My grandparents made the cake. If you're wondering, the cake was also celebrating her 18th birthday which was the same week she graduated. I made up the poem that goes with what I called her "Dream Jar", and it says: "We wish upon our star / as she prepares to shoot afar / Placed in the jar, each written line / is a wish that will help her shine." The guest would write wishes/advice and leave it in her jar. I painted constellations on the mini globe, and for the party favors I invented "Star Dust Sugar Scrub" which I will share in more detail in a future post. The flowers were beautiful and fresh on Saturday, but I left them out Sunday morning until late afternoon, so they sadly wilted. They were really pretty before though, and I bought them at the Clarkesville Farmer's Market from my favorite florist. The business is called Currahee Gardens, so if you ever need flowers, check it out. Since I had almost all of the supplies on hand, the total cost was maybe $2 plus the bouquet. 

I took as many photos as I could, but unfortunately I did not capture the main meal and side dishes. Anyway, I think the graduate enjoyed it and the weather was fair, so I would call it a success. I hope you enjoyed and look forward to sharing more with you soon!

-Lauryn