Time to unveil the invitations for the two baby showers I've been helping to organize over the past couple of months.

If you follow my facebook fan page than you got a peek at this invitation yesterday:

"She's going to POP" baby shower (Nov. 6th)

Although the concept of a "She's going to POP" baby shower isn't new...

focusing on "bubbles" gives this shower theme a whole new twist.

And I'm in love with the color scheme!

The jumbo 2" lollipops were custom designed by Heather over at Vintage Confections.

And they came out PERFECT!

Not only do the lollipop colors coordinate with the "POP" invitation...

At my request, Heather created soda POP flavors for them too!! (Vanilla Cola, Dr. Pepper, & Cream Soda)

LOVE them!!!

Speaking of "LOVE"....

"Love you to the Moon & Back" baby shower (Nov. 14th)

This theme was based completely on the phrase the couple exchange to each other on a daily basis.

And we HAD to incorporate plaid since it's a favorite pattern of the dad-to-be. (see this post)

Think star dust wishes and sweet baby kisses...

this shower is going to be darling!

Although the two showers have completely different vibes...

they've been equally fun to plan and prepare for.

As you can imagine, there has been a lot of "behind the scenes" going on over the last couple of months.

Not to mention Ella's birthday party that was supposed to be happening on November 13th.

I said "supposed to be" for a reason.

Ella's grandparents from Illinois want to be a part of her birthday AND Thanksgiving...

So we've had to move the party to Thanksgiving weekend.

UNfortunately...

• this is going to result in a lot of phone calls to all of the recipients who received invitations.

• I'm going to have to contact vendors to have them change the shipping dates of the items they are sending.

• one of Ella's friends isn't going to be able to come now. (and that stinks since she only has two...*wink*)

Fortunately...

• this move in her party date will relieve some of the pressure of having her birthday and a baby shower on the same weekend.

• will ultimately buy me some more time for preparations.

• and of course...allows Ella's grandparents, who love her to pieces, to be part of her birthday celebration!!

So, it's all good!

More preparation time is always better. *wink*

Both of the baby shower invitations above will be available in my shoppe.

If you are interested in either one before they are listed, just send me an email: pnpflowers@live.com

It's Wednesday everyone!

THREE WINNERS will be announced on Friday for the Compendium giveaway.

If you haven't already entered to win...tomorrow is the last day!

Enter THREE times to increase your chances of being one of THREE WINNERS!

Go HERE for details and to enter!!

KEEPING IT REAL

I had no idea the colors for the 2" lollipops from Vintage Confections were going to turn out SO amazing!

It was one of those things that you just take your chances on...

and you are SO happy you did!!

let's take a walk...

let's take a walk today...

a "creative" walk.

a walk that takes us through the planning process of an event/party.

a party i actually took part in this weekend...

you up for it?

c'mon...get your shoes on...

or better yet...

take your shoes OFF...

let the information creep...

in-between your toes...

the ASSIGNMENT:

30th birthday party for mike - one of j's best friends & "uncle mike" to my girls

my #1 PARTY TIP:

when you are planning a party be sure to draw inspiration from the person(s) the party is for...

it's key for creating a "personalized" event.

our MISSION:

avoid trendy "over-the-hill" themes

make the party as original as the guest-of-honor

throw all of the "proper party etiquette" rules out of the window...

this party is for mike...

and mike lives by his own set of rules...

(borderline tacky is NOT off-limits)...*wink*

the FIRST TASK:

brainstorm things that make Mike "mike"...

- junk food junkie

- SERIOUS ongoing fashion faux-pas

usually mismatched plaid shorts, striped shirts and bright yellow tennis shoes with shoe strings tied in an unusual/unique way.

- loves movies and has a passion for quoting exact lines from his favorites.

- a very fun-loving, generous guy who deserves to be recognized and appreciated.

with information gathered, we had a SOLID foundation to begin formulating ideas.

the INVITE:

this...to ME...is the most important element when party planning.

i build the party off of the invite.

the invite creates a "buzz"...

it sets the entire tone for the party...

AND...

it keeps me focused. *wink*

so to get the creativity flowing on the invite we needed a source of inspiration...

plaid & striped ribbon

we chose some ribbon we felt were in color combinations we've seen him wear.

by recreating the stripes and the plaid...

an invite was born...

did you notice the last line on the invite?

sooooo fun!

once the invite is complete...

PARTY'S ON!!!

next up...

the MENU:

this was super easy...

he's a TOTAL junk food junkie...i mean SERIOUSLY!

a spread of his favorite "garbage" foods was the perfect choice.

at first, we couldn't decide on whether to do cupcakes or a cake.

we decided to have a cake made replicating a crazy sandwich he once made AND ATE...

(think bologna, chocolate chip cookies, fritos, mayo, mustard)...oh my?!

thankfully his sister had a picture of it to give to the bakery.

the DECOR:

we wanted it simple.

casual.

quirky.

and fun.

this translates into framing posters of his favorite movies...

having stand-ups of some of his favorite characters...(rocky, hulk hogan, etc.)...

and a food table with a massive spread of...

well...

like i said...

garbage food.

the FAVORS:

it was decided personalized coozies were JUST the thing to commemorate the big event.

the PREP WORK:

gathering matching paper goods & utensils.

figuring out the tablecloths/runners.

did we want balloons or not. (we did)

gathering pictures from birth to age 30 for a slide show.

videotaping "birthday messages" from friends/co-workers

finding movie posters.

ordering the coozies.

ordering the cake.

assigning tasks to those who were willing to help.

devising a plan to keep mike away from the house on party day.

and my favorite part....

creating all of the decorative party elements for the food table:

matching blank food tags, toothpick circles, customized confetti

food labels

"celebration circles" to be used with toothpicks and skewers (regular & mini-sized)

the "be like mike" award for the person who came dressed the best

and then finally...

the PARTY:

it's time to put it all together...

the food table spread

the infamous sandwich cake

kind of gross looking...huh? but mike LOVED it.

and that's a picture of the actual sandwich propped up behind the cake...crazy!

the party turned out great.

everyone had a good time.

and it just goes to show that sometimes a little bit of tacky can actually work. *grin*

and once again...

i ran out of time to take pictures of every detail...

but you get the picture...

i'm in complete love with the plaids/stripes and the color combination.

in fact,

i'm so in love that i'm going to be offering it in my etsy shoppe...

soon.

i can totally see a beach themed birthday party using this...

can't you?

and don't you think changing up the color scheme to say???

pinks & oranges?

wouldn't that be perfect for a girly beach party...??

so fun!

thanks for taking that "creative walk" with me.

i hope you feel invigorated.

now.

lace up your shoes

or slip your heels back on...

the day awaits...

Keeping It Real:

i did NOT do this party on my own.

in fact, most of the planning and ideas evolved through the brainstorming that took place between mike's mom, one of his sister's, his girlfriend, and myself. my main area of focus was the digital design aspect...i think they did the hard parts while i got to do the fun stuff?! *wink*

day 3 down - 17 more to go

DAY 3 was quite successful. It was a tremendous help that I was actually "feeling" better. (the cold is lingering but the fog has lifted).

Quick recap:

DAILY OXYGEN MASK: My 1 hour of solace in the a.m. - blogging and getting my art journaling done. (heaven)
POSITIVE THINKING/BEING GRATEFUL/LAUGHING OUT LOUD - I laughed out loud A LOT yesterday. (taking Ema to school in the morning and lots of laughter with Ella during the day).

EATING PLAN: Once again - quite successful. I tortured myself, (as well as J), by baking miniature orange muffins to go along with our chicken salad and fruit kabobs for dinner. (the girls "scarfed" them down while genuinely doing the whole "mmmm...these are sooo good"). Good news though: the muffins can be frozen! So, I've got a nice little stash in the freezer for sampling after the challenge is over. *wink*

and drumroll please....

My art journaling for DAY 3 includes both of the rhonna creations, straight from her site. I shrunk them down to fit onto my journaling page and then added some flowers & brads, a little bit of quick scroll-work, some journaling and chalking around the edges of the word "effective". (I broke out the "chalks" baby...we're talkin' old-school). *wink*

Onto DAY 4 - keyword: imagination! And thanks to all of the other 21ers out there - the support we're offering each other is spreading like wildfire...AWESOME!

Hoping everyone has a super fantastic weekend. Mine involves this:

(notice the background music).

J got these tickets for us for a private "acoustical" concert - sponsored by one of the suppliers for the company he works for. I'm hoping it's a quaint, small crowd. Uncle Mike is supposed to be babysitting...(nervously biting my fingers and wondering how in the world I'm supposed to leave the house for 4-5 hours). It's got nothing to do with Mike's abilities to care properly for Ella - it's my worry about how she's going to be for him. I'll be mortified if she ends up screaming/crying the entire time. *huge sigh*

And so - here's where my "positive thinking goal" kicks in. "Jess, everything will be perfectly fine. It's only a few hours. Even if Ella doesn't go to sleep for Mike, he'll entertain her and feed her cheerios the entire night. It's FINE."

Again, have a wonderful weekend everyone - (and wish Uncle Mike "good luck"). *wink*

in a nutshell...

weekend in a nutshell:

.....girls back from spring break

.....friday night soup night (fresh vegetable w/whole wheat homemade croutons)

.....lens rental

.....ema - swim practice & a day at the lake with cousins.

.....lunch with the brecklin's @ zellie's pub

.....clara - attended a b/day party

.....a visit from uncle mike

.....dinner @ cracker barrell (uncle mike's treat...AGAIN - we love ya).

.....bbq & badmitton @ my mom's (awesome food - love you)

and here are pics from this weekend as well...enjoy!

ema workin' hard

ella being super good during ema's swim practice

 

you'll find j like this on a regular basis - his phone usually a quick grab away

uncle mike & ella

little miss ella

(look @ that crazy hair glistening in the sun - i thought it was hilarious)

uncle mike & ella 

(how precious is that? it's her new thing to turn around and look to see who's got her)

j & ella (can you see her curly hair sticking up on top - too funny)

clara concentrating on the "word search" game we were all about to compete in 

@ cracker barrell - (j & i against clara & mike...)

clara & ella after dinner

and then clara took over the picture taking while we were waiting for ema to arrive/meet us @ cracker barrell. (i should've changed the camera settings for her). *grumbling* but overall, i think she did a super good job. thanks clara!

ella & i

ella & i 

group shot (even though they were all blurry - had to post a pic with ema in it).

hope you all had a spectacular weekend....i have tons of stuff to catch up on - which also means i have stuff to catch YOU up on as well...but that's it for now! Happy Monday!

holy colors batman!

HULLo people...look at these delicious colors - straight from the pantone site. (i've been just dyin' to share these with you for about 3 weeks now - the whole "without computer" thing just wouldn't allow it.) these are the official colors for spring fashion 2009. i am so lovin' the dark citron, salmon rose and hello...super lemon! although i definitely am not one to follow fashion "rules" i definitely enjoy keeping up with the trends. keeps me inspired and of course "in the know". thinkin' i'll paint the girls bathroom the dark citron? what do you think? and i'm tellin' ya - just walk into target or any other retail store and you'll see every single one of these colors in some form/fashion. try it! 

what else is new? well....today is the first day of the photographer's workshop i started! so psyched! if you haven't figured it out yet - i am an absolute sponge for inspiration/knowledge/information related to anything that will keep my mind/creativity active - not to mention anything that will better my life physically, emotionally, spiritually, creatively, etc...  learning is one of my passions...seriously. i am open to anything new that will add "goodness" to my little "library of smarts". (i just came up with that - and though i could 2nd guess myself and go back and come up with a different phrase, today, i'm just letting things flow). limited time can do that to ya! shhhh....ella is sleeping. *sigh*

ummm...okay - had a fab wkend with j - wonderful one-on-one time. it's so therapeutic - not kidding. also sprinkled in there was a stop up at PAP to see "uncle" nate & to show ella off. uncle mike met us up there as well and then we all left to grab a little lunch from chili's - kris, nate's girl, met us up there as well.  j & i  then headed to babies r' us with uncle mike - he treated us/ella to an "exersaucer" and some adorable little addidas outfits for ella. THANK YOU uncle mike!  he & nate are two of the most incredibly giving guys i've ever met. really. truly. ella is sooo fortunate.

big news for em...my little superstar! she came in 3rd place out of all of the 4th and 5th graders @ her school for a "tropicana speech contest". she was to prepare a 2-3 minutes speech on a topic of interest and present it to her class and then to the school administrators. she won out of her classroom and then she competed against 22 other 4th and 5th graders. the 1st place winner goes onto the county competition. i'm so very proud of her. she was so poised. she chose to speak about type 1 diabetes - because her dad was diagnosed with it @ the age of two. i tried to video tape but the flip battery was dead because i hadn't been able to charge it without the computer. ugh!!! but i got a couple of pics...here's one...

the other thing that came and went during the "twilight zone" (defined as the period i was without communication to the real world - without my computer) - ema's 10th birthday. we kept it pretty simple. we had a small party for her @ the house - she requested strawberry cake - homemade of course. here are some pics: 

so...that'll do it for today. i could ramble on and share so much more - well...okay - how about one of ella real quick! this is one of her first tastes of solid food - not tooooo too messy?! *giggle*

disclaimer - please excuse the horrid photo quality - includes awful flash on most and i haven't taken the time yet to make any adjustments....sorry!

have a super "magnificellent" monday - don't ask where i come up with these words? *laughing*