More Themed Party Ideas

After I had to exclude so many great themes for my birthday party, because I have already been to or thrown these parties, I spent the past night online doing research on what other creative blogging people have done in terms of themed parties and here are my favourites so far:

Superheros – inspired by this great kid party by SugarSweet, but I could also imagine a great adult version of the theme, e.g. dressing up as your childhood hero

 

1920s – inspired by these wonderful girls , ahhhh, those hats, those lips, and those dresses – how chic, I think the 20s are my favourite past decade in terms of style, music and attitude

Circus – inspired by this Taschen book cover, I think cotton candy, popcorn, sequins everywhere, ballerina skirts...

 

James Bond – my all-time favourite movies, especially the ones with Sean Connery and the latest ones with Daniel Craig, their 50^th anniversary would be a great reason to use it as a party theme and there is nothing more glamorous than men in tuxedos and girls in golden bikinis J I am really inspired by Naomi’s party theme

 

Pirates – ever since I have been to a little girl’s birthday party with this amazing home-made pirate ship cake, I wanted  a party with eye patches and bare feet, with wooden swords and fake rum myself as well.  

What do you think? Any favourites of yours? Any great themed parties you have thrown or been to?

Themed Party Ideas

What makes me happy? Starting to plan a new party right after having cleaned up the mess of the precious one ;-) Seriously!!!

Well, maybe this is partly due to the fact that I haven’t thrown or been to a lot of parties since I had the little one.  But that is about to change.

Currently I am planning a big party for my birthday in February. Not because it is a special birthday. Just an ordinary 37^th birthday.

At the moment all I know is that...

... I want an all-adult party, so the grandparents are booked to take the little one overnight...

... I want to have lots of friends around me – both old and new ones...

... and I want a themed party with dressing up and motto decorations.

What the theme is, you ask? Oh well, that is a difficult question.

I have already been to a number of great themed parties. Especially in Australia people are very creative and enthusiastic about them, I have to say ;-) And I certainly do not want to repeat a theme.

I have been to a Bad Taste Party – very, very funny, but unfortunately:  I have been there, I have done that.

I have been to several Wig Parties – hilarious, but only if it is not too hot. These wigs otherwise kill you and your fancy make-up ;-)

I have been to a Sea Life Party – with male and female mermaids, pirates and odd sea monsters.

I have been to a Cowboys and Indians Party – where we all square-danced in the end.

I have been to a White Party for my friend’s hen’s night.

I have thrown a Breakfast at Tiffany’s – including turquoise petit fours and huge diamonds on the tables.

 

I have invited my guests to a Las Vegas Gambling Night – with big bucks and low lights and someone who actually stole the highest coupon.

We threw an Australia Party for our friends before moving to Melbourne.

 

My overall highlight was a Mafia Party which we have thrown for my husband’s 30^th birthday. Too many highlights to mention them all, but I just say 17 men with hats, a nun, lots of fake money and a shot man singing karaoke and a lot of other dubious folks.

Wow! I have to admit I have been to more great themed parties than I initially remembered. But after having gone through all the photos of the past few years, I have to say. A lot of great themes are already out of the race for my birthday theme ;-(

I guess I have to immerse myself into other people’s parties and steal some great ideas!

Quick & Easy NYE Decorations

I promised you a more detailed report of my freneticdecoration craze so here it comes ;-)

On December 30^th it suddenly began to dawn on me that the next day was NYE... and we were having a party...  at our place... and I had prepared absolutely nothing in terms of decorations.

ARGGGGHHHH!!!

No problem one might say, but I love party decorations.

I think they are vital for setting a party mood. For making guests feel special and welcomed. For getting the fun and the party started. For lifting all spirits especially on a slightly difficult night like NYE on which not only a few people feel a bit depressed due to the whole review and resolutions thing.

I would spend hours, days and weeks planning party decorations. And I could easily spend a fortune on decorations for one night only. And here I was, with no plan, no clue and no possibility to shop (it was Sunday and we still have the lovely tradition of one shopping-free day per week).

ARGGGGHHHHH!!!

After I stopped beating myself up and thought of all the good reasons for having more important things on my mind than party decorations (a number of Christmas parties, family Christmas in two cities, a flight with a toddler in between the two Christmases, lots of small and big presents to make and buy, my usual hurray-I-am-on-annual-leave-tonsillitis, my husband moving back to Berlin, a birthday party of a very good friend...), I started to get through my boxes and drawers... and I found pink. Lots of pink. I am not exaggerating. I found pink EVERYWHERE. And so I decided to make it a think pink NYE.

I made a few lucky bags out of pink paper and silver stickers...

... and filled them with little lucky symbols which I found around the house...

... a felt heart for love, a band aid for health, a shell for a journey, a piglet for luck, a cent for money,  paper clip for success, a balloon for fun and antlers for courage (I know, but I was running out of lucky symbols ;-))

Plus I cut out 2012 from plain paper and wrapped it around pink tea light holder...

... and blew up all the pink balloons I could find and hung them up...

... and I filled all my silver Christmas ornaments in glass vases of all sizes and shapes.

 

For the table decoration I stamped a pink 2013 on plain white napkins...

... threw a few small disco balls and used a piece of unhemmed fabric as table runner...

... put silver plates and pink tea light holder on the middle of the table. E voila!

Not too bad, but...

Quick – 2 hours max

Easy – no special skills needed at all and a colour-scheme really makes your life easier (I know I sound like a wedding planner ;-))

Cheap – if you have a helplessly overstocked decoration and crafting department like me :-)

So, now I can think about a new party, just to try out some new decorations and buy more glittering stuff ;-)

Happy Sunday!

Are you addicted to Pinterest?

Because I am ;-) What a brilliant source of inspiration! Since I have discovered this website, my to-do-lists exploded. So many things I want to make, I want to cook, I want to decorate, I want to give as a gift...

Of course there are hideous things or stupid tipps (especially the whole weight loss which are actually ads), too, but overall I have to say: I am thrilled!!!

So in case you haven’t discovered it, yet, it is really worth a look: Pinterest

If you want to find out, what my fantastic finds are (which I keep rambling about), you can also click on the little Pinterest button in my right sidebar and it will take you straight to my folders:

At the moment I have 14 boards with topics ranging from Accessories to Yummy (Food). You see, all my favourite topics ;-)

Oh and just before you go, I have to warn you. Pinterest is highly addictive. You will forget to bring your children to bed, you will be late for work or dates, you will stay in your pyjamas all day, you will burn your food in the oven and stay up too long... but it is worthwhile ;-)

Party Weekend Part II – A Fish Themed Baby Shower

Although it is not Party Friday, I still want to share the beautiful party that we have today. My friend A. is expecting her first baby in September and we throw her a baby shower today. As with N.’s twin baby shower a couple of weeks ago, we decided to make our own party rules and forget about cheesy games and nappy cakes. 

A fish themed baby shower – what the hell, you might ask. The simple reason is that my friend A. calls the little baby in her tummy Guppy. I think it is such a cute name. And it is perfect, because they do look like guppies on the first ultrasound pictures, don’t them? Anyway, the theme was guppies and once we got over the first ‘I-have-no-idea-what-to-do-with-guppies’, our creativity exploded.

Here are a few of the guppy things which we thought of, made or put together:

Presents: Onesies with guppies printed on them – I just bought the oh-so-practical kimono-style onesies, which you can easily put on and off the baby without having to pull them over their precious little heads (which all babies really hate!) and printed some guppy pictures which I found online onto them. I used T-Shirt transfer sheets which you just iron onto the onesies. And if you have ironed them properly (quite hot and with lots of pressure), the pictures survive a lot of washings.

A Bag full of Advice: Little notes of advice and little things that make life as a mum so much easier. Well there is no guppy on the bag, but giraffes are just so cute (remember my giraffe obsession) and we didn’t want to stick crazily to the guppy theme.

My little things were: gel breast cooling pads and pure lanolin cream, because those two things truly saved my nipples from bleeding and me from dreading breastfeeding.

My little notes of advice were: regarding baby language (Dunstan baby language ), about sound of hair dyer or vacuum cleaner being relaxing for little babies (or at least for my little one), about looking after yourself as well (because happy mum = happy baby) and about making as many photos as possible (because time flies and you never get around to do ‘proper’ photos and therefore you will be eternally grateful for all those happy snaps you have got).

Decorations: Shiny sequined guppies hung up on the walls with fishing tackle ;-))

Location: Since the weatheri is nice we celebrate at the garden of the mum-to-be’s parents. They have a beautiful pool so it was perfect for our ‘guppy party’ ;-)

I am off to some last minute decorations now. I hope to share some more pictures with you later on. Keep your fingers crossed that the thunderstorms wait until tonight!

Today was my first ‘real’ kids birthday. Meaning the first one that I organised. I threw a little backyard party for my goddaughter who turns 2 in a month and since her mum is expecting twins who are due around the same time, we thought we better prepone the kids’ party so that the little one can celebrate with her friends and her mum ;-)

The most important things I learned today were:

• you don’t need to prepare any games for 2-year-olds if you have a huge sandpit and see-saw in your backyard. That keeps them entertained for hours
• all young-parents want at a kids’ party is strong coffee – forget about beer and diet coke, those days are gone
• the birthday girl (or boy) always cries – no matter what you do. It is always too much attention. Too many other kids playing with her/ his new toys. It was like this when I was little and it hasn’t changed a bit.
• water balloons are not just small balloons – first they are impossible to inflate and then they are impossible to fasten with a knot
• at the end of a kids birthday you need a beer and the last piece of cherry cake. And that is what I am going to have now.

Hope you had a wonderful Saturday as well!

A Bavarian wedding – decorations

Yummy place cards for the girls...

... and for the boys.

found here

Or simple but oh so beautiful self-made place cards...

found here

First Birthday Party

I love parties! I love to go to parties! I love to throw them! I think there are many things to celebrate, not only birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and Easter. Therefore I now dedicated my Friday posts to parties: to creative party invitations, to easy-to-make party food, to party decorations that make all the difference... I hope you feel inspired by the festive atmosphere on Fridays and celebrate many small and big events.

It was my little one’s birthday on Tuesday and since I wasn’t allowed to post on the day, I now want to share some details of her first party.

What’s the deal with throwing parties for such little ones, you might ask? While I generally agree with you that the birthday girl (or boy) won’t fully understand what is going on, I still think he or she will feel that something special is happening and that he or she gets extra love and attention on the day.

My decorating scheme – if you can call it a scheme – all started with this wind mill which I found at a a 1-Euro-store. I loved the colours and I loved the nostalgic appeal and I loved the polka dots (especially since we used to call our little one dotty, when I was pregnant with her)

For an extra festive look and a splash of colour I whipped this garland up from paper scraps. The method is the same I used for the doyleys garland here. I just punched circles out of the scrap cardboard and then sew them together with my sewing machine. 10 minutes max for 10 meters of garland and it costs nothing.

The biggest hit for my little one were the balloon, however. I just scattered a few around the apartment and she pointed at them whenever she saw one. Played with them longer than with any of her new toys. Learnt that they explode when you bite into them. Or pinch them really hard. So much fun and so pretty!

And because everything was so dotty, her new baby doll Stella also put on her dotted dress. It is one of the lot I found in the amazing second-hand shop. Doesn’t she look like a mini party girl ;-)

I decided to keep the number of guests very small. Actually I just invited by best friend and her daughter, who is just 9 months older than my little one. The girls know each other very well – because their mamas love to hang out together ;-) – and my little one is always so impressed what the bigger girl can do, plus she loves to take care of my little one. They are just adorable together.

This is how the birthday table looked.

Of course there is the golden birthday plate (which - after much research- I found here)...

... there is the first birthday candle (of many more to come) in my old candle rings...

... and there are very yummy cherry muffins made after the recipe I found at one of my favourite food blogs Schöner Tag noch. They were delicious! Not too dense, not too fluffy. Not too fruity, not too cinnamon-y. Just perfect! And so easy to make – check it out!

I have been to a couple of first birthday parties lately and some of them were a bit over the top for my taste: too many kids, too many adults, too fancy cakes, too many presents, too much action for the birthday baby – because they are still babies even if they turned one. Therefore I am very happy with my little one’s first birthday party – good food and good friends plus lots of time for playing, dancing and cuddling. I hope my little one will agree with me someday and not complain that she hadn’t had a fancy cake ;-)

A Casual Christening – Invitation

I love parties! I love to go to parties! I love to throw them! I think there are many things to celebrate, not only birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and Easter. Therefore I now dedicated my Friday posts to parties: to creative party invitations, to easy-to-make party food, to party decorations that make all the difference... I hope you feel inspired by the festive atmosphere on Fridays and celebrate many small and big events.

My next party is going to be the christening of our little one in June. We want it to be a relaxed celebration with our families and closest friends. Nevertheless we still want it to be something special, because it is a special day in our lives.

Therefore when preparing the invitations, I went to etsy (http://www.etsy.com/) for some inspiration on christening invitations. These are my favourites:

found here

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found here

My all time favourite, however, is this one:

found here

If Iwouldn’t be the all-invitations-selfmade-type-of-girl, I would definitely buy these one ;-)