Little d turns 1

Little d tuned 1 in Nov 2016.

So we decided to go all elephant themed in traditional Indian colors - considering there was a larger scale traditional ceremony on the day of the celebrations.

Ms. B helped out with the staging of the decorations this time. She surely is talented! Loved her attention to detail and design aesthetic!

This is how the dessert table looked.

Full credit for setting this up to Ms B. She pulled everything together in this nice coherent look.
Can you catch the traditional elephant theme going on in the set up?

Another look of the table and the back drop and us all together! :)

The cake was super duper cute - Nikita does it again :) I love the colors and it was very tasty too - almost everyone came back for a second helping :)

One other feature that we had for this bday was a wishing tree. Bare branches with hanging glitter leaves where messages for the birthday boy could be written. 

I love how beautiful this table turned out. The white vase never fails. Even in this traditional colored set up - it just fits in! The elephant theme continues to this table with that lone sandal wood elephant.

Another dear friend Ms. P helped out with the back drop for the wishing tree table. Blue and green crepe paper curtain.

The curtain and the wishing tree seen together in their final location. Oh Ma made that lovely little brocade fabric shawl for the sandal wood elephant :) 

It took help from quite a few hands this time to put together these decorations.

One more wall decorated with the elephant to spread the theme.

While the cake cutting and lunch took place at the hall downstairs - we had a pooja at home. This one is a picture of the home - S and me engrossed in the serious pooja. While friends R and V providing us a comic relief now and then :)

I am totally in love with buntings. They can totally dress up a space. They make their presence felt, transforming any space. Nice gingham buntings this time - found a free printable online and printed at Printo.

Favors:

A tea light holder pair for all my friends :)

Completely hand made :)

Hand made favour tags in lovely hand made paper and gold sharpie - sits so well with the traditional indian theme.

More hand made paper and more hand made bags to hold the tea light holders.

These tea light holders are basically square and round shaped cork coasters dressed up.

I painted the coasters and affixed rhine stones and the candle holder cups. Designing them was a blast. The colors of base paint, colors of the rhine stones. So many many possibilities :) It was a riot!

Children's favors:

All children got a hot chocolate jar. These jars were hand painted with glass colors with lovely tags with the recipe / instructions :)
The jar had hot cocoa powder, chocolate chips and sprinkles.

I seem to be following a pattern where I do not remove all decorations as soon as the party is over. Some get taken off the day after while a few stay for a week and some stay even for 2 weeks. The moved furniture go back to their right place, almost the same night. But some decorations like this hand drawn elephant stayed for a fortnight :) Don't you just love the colors?

little d had a second traditional party in Chennai in december. The favours were the same for all adults and children. Some decorations were carried all the way there.
At chennai this rangoli is my favourite decoration element.
I love how symmetric it came out :)

I am sure little d had no clue what was happening on the day, but he was as co-operative as a lamb :) Adorable little munchkin turning one. Oh I don't know if you were able to catch it, all 4 of us wore  color co-ordinated outfits :)

D is 5 Space bday

Up up and away we all went into space for Dhruva's 5th birthday!
Another great event with loads of DIY and decorations with D involved in it all more than ever!

Ready for a chronicle of all things spacey and galactic that this party had?

Venue: Living room of 207.

Decorations:

Paper lantern planets and striped bunting plus small xmas lights to mimic the night sky with stars.

The wall behind the cake table was made to look like the night sky filled with stars, planets, a satellite and one astronaut floating.

All these were hand drawn and hand cut out shapes, but for some of the stars (which I got ready made at Itsy Bitsy)

I think the biggest attraction was probably the rocket photo booth. Thanks to an awesome thoughtful friend who figured I could use her new ladder's packaging box for something useful at the party! Thanks to pinterest, she knew about the party even before I was ready to tell anyone about it! :)
Although, I am not completely happy about the way the rocket was finished, the kids just had a blast posing behind it.

Also the door behind the rocket booth was closed with a black curtain. Add a Sun and a few stars and you have some more sky for a back drop.

One more Rocket made out of cardstock to fill out the bare walls. I love how colorful it turned out.

I never knew I liked door signs so much! This sign we hung on the main door. A door sign is a good way to set the tone for a party. This one was printed out of 220 gsm paper and was completely deigned by your truly! Designed on this awesome app/ website called Canva!

Speaking of design and canva.. This time there was an official invite designed on canva, just to make sure everyone knows the when and where is the party clearly.
Here is how the invite looked.

The dessert table was almost true to the theme this time around. It had alien faces marshmallows and fruit rockets.

Covering up juice boxes in the colors of the party is an easy peasy deco that I am a fan of lately. This time juice boxes were further dressed up with Astronomical elements like planet, UFO, alien and other such.

More decorations: The wall next to the entryway has a window which was again covered with a black curtain and housed a sleepy moon and 2 clouds along with a colorful felt stars.

Another view of the decorations.

Entry way and more paper lanterns. Paper lanterns are my most favorite decorating element! They are under used. They are as colorful as balloons. They do not need inflating. They do not pop or go lifeless after a couple days, unlike balloons. If protected form the dust well enough, they can be reused over and over again.

Oh and btw, the alien from toy story was invited to the party. The children had to pin the antenna on him in a fun game!

Cake cake cake! What's a birthday without a cake! D's 5th bday cake had a typo! The A at the end of his name was left out. But D tried to reason it out saying, the astronaut at the end of his name is the A. :) Whatever makes him happy :)

Favors: Brown paper envelopes/bags are a new found treasure!! I have always been torn when it comes to favors. How much should I spend on them? Should it be a long lasting toy or should it just be a fleeting fun thing. Annnnd, I have the need to make it useful. Also, I need it to be within our budget. You get the conflict in my head - right?

I think the brown paper bags sort of take care of the budget angle - They can be decorated in many different ways - hence providing the carfting outlet while, they are one of the cheapest packaging available in many sizes. 
So this is probably the beginning of a long journey with the brown paper envelopes!

Favors this time:
- A small encyclopedia (one of Sun, Moon, Earth, Stars, Space, Universe) - package in a large brown envelope decorated with colorful dot markers.
- A star shaped hand made soap - packed in a smaller hand decorated brown envelope.
- A cardboard tube dressed like an alien with a candy.

All of the above was on the day we had the party - July 22.

One the morning of the real bday - July 25. D got a surprise from his appa and amma.

The room where he went to bed on the prev night had a yellow(his fav color) curtain when he walked out on his bday morning.

And he got a special gift form his parents again wrapped in a brown decorated envelope (Oh! I was serious about the long journey with brown paper...)
His gift was a sticker activity book / encyclopedia on horses and ponies which happen to be his latest obsession apart from yellow color.

Happy birthday dear little one! :)

Happy Birthday D!

Phew! we did it! Finally!
D had a birthday party in California - with all his and our dear friends!

I have been preparing for this day for almost 2 years. When the first birthday party plans were scratched - I ended up adding more decorations and ideas to the birthday basket and carried it forward to the second birthday!

All of our dear dear friends helped out. This must be the millionth time I am saying that, S is not very mobile due to his foot - So I shouted for help and cousins and friends responded. B-I-L and Co-sis were also here at that time. So more hands to put things together.

Here are some main highlights from the party.

A backdrop for the cake table made with honeycomb tissue balls. "D is 2!" banner and a string of Christmas lights. Thanks cousin A and P for executing it to perfection! :D

I love paper lanterns - for years now I have been trying to fit them in my home decor, and each time I have backed out for some reason. Finally I found them a place in this party and they did NOT disappoint! Love paper lanterns - they just liven up the place - especially in yellow ;) We also had some photo props.

Here is the cake table. We sampled the cake at one place and it was heavenly! But they said since it was so moist and soft it could not hold any fondant decorations on top - so we ended up having 2 cakes. One cake just for the train decorations and another one to - well - eat! :D

This is the choo-choo train decorated cake. Pretty closely duplicated from a picture I gave them. Which I found on - of course - Pinterest! BTW, the cake stand is a DIY. *grinn*

Here is the second delicious cake.. And all decorations on top made by yours truly :)

I am not sure if you already caught the DIY tray post - We filled the tray with cups of cheerios and goldfish and some toppers for glamour. Thanks A for arranging them.

When I browsed through various party sites for ideas - one idea that really registered, was the menu card for the day. Such a simple DIY and so easy to add color to the party.

A look at all the food that was served - All of these are south Indian dishes. Food labels were a DIY, not that our crowd needed labels for food - but me needed excuse to DIY ;)

                                                     

By now you must have guessed that theme we were going for is yellow and white.. One more easy way to add more of those colors was the drink stand. We served Badam milk and in yellow cups :) Thanks V for arranging them and much more!

Straws, spoons and forks continue to add color. The silverware and straw holders are both DIYs.

Finally, favors! These bags were for kids. Contents and tag tutorials can be seen here.

These purses and small boxes are favors for adults. They held 2 french macaroons each - chocolate, salted caramel and pistachio flavors - my personal fav was salted caramel.

D was happy! Many of his friends all in one place that night. And there was cake and Vada! There is not more that a 2 year old asks for. Love you D - you are so so special!

Huge thanks also go to cousin K, K, BIL V and P for all your help :) (If you are reading this you know who you are ;) ).

Linking this to caffinated crafters.