Felicity's Girly Vintage Birthday Party

My baby girl is now 2 years old!!!!!

Warning: If you are one of those people that hate all things pink and super girly back away from this post immediately!

For her birthday I threw Felicity a vintage inspired feminine party that I thought would represent who she is - she's all about jewelry, shoes and all things girly.....

I made everything for the party and used pretty much just supplies and things I already had or borrowed so I think the party only cost around $25, including food, decorations and all!

The food was served on an old vanity that I actually had in my room as a young child.  I threw some zebra print fabric on it and topped it with edible goodies.

The cupcake toppers were made by using some plain white and black "F" tags I bought at Hobby Lobby a while back on clearance.  I used some scrapbook paper I had to put behind the "F" labels for some color and embellished the edges with glitter.

Felicity's favorite treat is chocolate covered marsh-mellos so I made lots of them and stuck some on chocolate wafer cookie sticks I picked up at the dollar store.

I hung leopard print fabrics on the back wall of my canopy tent with clothes pins and pinned some pink balloons on with some clothes pins as well.  I made the balls hanging above the mirror from coffee filters - Click Here to go to my post on how to dye coffee filters and make the balls.

The punch fountain was borrowed - Felicity absolutely loves it!  

Some of the gifts she opened included colorful sunglasses and jewelry that she put on immediately and wore for the rest of the day....

I made the lace tiara for her and she liked it a lot more than I had expected.  She wore it around for several days after her party.

Funny Story:  when the pinata actually burst open she started crying.  I guess she was mad that someone broke her new pink flamingo.

and of course I had to share this.... At the end of the party Zoey decided she had waited long enough....
it was time to steal a cupcake!

It was a lot of work getting things ready for the party, but it was totally worth it because Felicity and all of our family enjoyed it.  I still cannot believe it's been two years since we were blessed with this beautiful baby girl.  I cannot even remember what our lives were like before she came along.

I am linking this post up at some great blogs. Click Here to see who they all are!


P.S.  You can still use coupon code "Welcome2012" to receive 20% OFF any order & a 
Free Hair Bow at my online boutique: www.InspiredByFelicity.com

Just Some Artistic Experimentation....

Felicity has recently started experimenting with her markers.....  

Every time she gets a marker, she immediately starts drawing on herself.  I usually just let it go.  I try to give her space to experiment and learn and make her own little artwork.  The markers are non-toxic and safe so I figure there's no harm in letting her get as "creative" as she wants.  

She's always so proud of her handiwork that once she finds a mirror to look in she can't stop checking herself out and smiling!

Also, just in time for 4th of July we still have some red, white and blue patriotic feather headbands available!

www.InspiredByFelicity.com

You can use code "Welcome2012" for 20% OFF your whole order and you will receive a Free Hair Bow as well.

{ Wordless Wednesday } Playing in the Rain...

Some mothers make their little ones go inside when it starts raining...

But I am one of those Moms that says,

"Hey Felicity, it's raining, let's go outside and play!"

Cowboy Pocket Banner & Gift Box

As much as I love making pink, frilly, little girl creations it was fun to make some little boy stuff recently for a  friend who just had a baby boy with a cowboy themed nursery.

A few months ago I re-purposed some pockets from my old jeans to make a pocket banner for Felicity's room.  I knew a little boy version would be cute so I went to Goodwill and bought a couple pairs of men's jeans for a couple dollars and cut out the pockets.

To see exactly how I put this together Click Here and see my tutorial from my first pocket banner.

 

In the far left pocket I put a guitar onesie I made the baby using an iron-on patch from hobby lobby.

I put the banner and a couple other things I got for them in a simple gift box and tied it up with tulle and twine and glued on a small pocket with a candy bar for her older son so he wouldn't be left out.

Also, on a completely different note, I was driving down the road recently I spotted to funniest thing.

Walking down the center of the road in front of me were  two adult geese with a flock of babies....  

When they saw my car coming they scurried off into the field by the road.....

Coming across this little family unexpectedly was such a fun little surprise it had me smiling all day.

I should have the pictures from Felicity's second birthday party up in couple days.  I can't wait to share them  - Have a great week!

Paper & Tea

I've been absent from blogging recently while getting ready for Felicity's birthday party (which we had today) and working on a bunch of orders, but I wanted to share these cute pics.  A few days ago while Felicity was napping I decided to go through some of my paper stash, while treating myself to what I thought, was a much deserved afternoon snack 

(I had been working frantically hard that morning finishing up some orders that had to get to the post office by noon, while keeping Felicity entertained at the same time.  Trust me, it's much more difficult than it sounds - especially since her favorite new game is, "Try to get to the hot glue gun before Momma can stop me").

I was trying to find some paper to make Felicity a party hat for her birthday party. 

 It's been a while since I pulled it all out and once I did I found so many gorgeous patterns and colors I forgot I ever even had. I immediately had to get my camera and snap some pictures of all the beautifullness ( I don't think that's really a word in the real world, but in my world it is).

How awesome would it be to have the job of designing all these beautiful papers for a living!  

Just looking at all of them is so inspiring.  I love sorting through the sheets, moving different prints side by side and seeing all the interesting combinations together.

Looking at all the prints immediately makes me want to pull out some scissors, glue & glitter and create something fun and colorful.

This is one of my favorite papers I found... I don't even remember buying this, but I'm certainly glad I did.

Even though I'm a paper hoarder I never did find anything just right for my baby girl's party hat, so I ended up just making a lace tiara/crown instead.  However, I did pull out all the papers below to use for a little something I want to make for my dinning room.  

Being the klutz I am, I ended up spilling tea, but only one sheet was injured....

Oh, and my snack is one of my new favorite treats.... A banana & wholegrain toast topped with Nutella and black tea with a bit of milk - it's awesome and somewhat healthy, I guess.

Felicity had a Vintage Inspired colorful and animal print theme party for her 2nd birthday today.  I cannot believe she is already two!  I will have pics to share from her party this week.

"Get Inspired" Monday Blog Party

It's time for my "Get Inspired" Monday blog party!  Whether you are here to find some inspiration to get you going this week or if you're a blogger with some  new posts you would like to show off to inspire others, I'm so excited that you're here!

First, here are the features from the last party!

The link with the most click was...

{ Backyard Entertaining } from Ladies Holiday


Some of my favorites were....

{ Homemade Disinfecting Wipes } from Making It Feel Like Home


{ Classic Banana Bread } from Taking Time To Create


{ Living Area Redo } from My 1929 Charmer


Now it's your turn to link up any posts that you think may inspire others.  Whether it's inspiring someone to create, cook, have faith, or just be the best mom ever, your link is welcome!

Day Trip to McAlester, Oklahoma

Felicity and I recently took a trip to McAlester, Oklahoma to visit a large gift shop that carries pieces from my children's accessory collection (www.InspiredByFelicity.com).  I love the town so I took my camera along and took a few pictures while we spent the day there.

Here are some shots from the old downtown, where one of my fabulous retailers "The Yellow Gazebo" is located.

Above is the "Hotel Aldridge" - it's a historic hotel in McAlester, which has now been converted into an apartment complex. 

A neat mural on the side of an old building.....

This is the High School.......  I had no idea where it was and then I made a wrong turn and ended up stumbling upon it and it was definitely worth stopping to get a picture of.

Below is the "Largest Lump of McAlester Coal" found back in the mining days in the early 1900's.

On a different note, McAlester, Oklahoma is also known for being the site of the worst prison riot in U.S. history, which took place in 1973 at this Maximum Security Prison located on over 1500 acres on the edge of the town.  { Photo from Oklahoma DOC }. 

The McAlester, OK prison is mentioned in the opening of the classic novel, "The Grapes of Wrath", when Tom Joad is released from there.

In addition to being home to a maximum security prison with a "Death Row" & "Lethal Injection Chamber", McAlester, OK is also home to....

The U.S. Defense Ammunition Center & The McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, which makes and stores pretty much all of the bombs used by the U.S. military.

{ Photo Source }

The McAlester Army Ammunition Plant covers almost 45,000 acres just outside of town.  It has 2,891 buildings, 2,426 igloos and a storage capacity of 8,840,559 square feet!

There's so much more to this neat little town but that's all I have for now, except for this one last bit... Felicity's favorite part of McAlester: the "Cherry Berry Frozen Yogurt Bar".  

Buried under all that fruit and chocolate is "Cheesecake" frozen yogurt.

Felicity and I shared a huge bowl and after we finished it, she grabbed the cup and went back up to the self-serve yogurt bar saying, "More, More, More!"

The headband she is wearing is from my collection and can be found here: InspiredByFelicity.com

*I had planned to take some beautiful pictures of the gift shop where we delivered things to but Felicity was in a terrible mood when we got there so that just didn't work out.