Last year whilst wobbling about in my last few weeks of pregnancy,I came across the inspiration for her first birthday party. It was just after Christmas and Walmart had these beautiful rolls of decorative organza on sale.Knowing that I had plans to be off of work for longer this time around, and understanding that I had a stricter budget for this party, I decided to start accumulating things here and there in $10-20 increments every so often, as to eventually have all I needed for her first birthday party. Yes, that means I've been planning it for a little over a year (and I used to think those kind of moms were nuts! Haha!). I quickly snatched all of the aqua and pink rolls of organza that had silver snowflakes along each side, as well as silver snowflake ornaments and the excitement began.
I started a pin board on Pinterest and began accumulating ideas for her winter "onederland". I saved and reused glass juice bottles as her centerpieces. I wrapped them in wrapping paper and used mod podge and silver glitter to make them look frosted with ice. I used my Word program and an online tutorial to make party circles with " Leila's Winter Onederland" on them, basically because its silly to pay someone $15.00 for a digital picture you can make and print yourself, for free! I hung white foam snowflakes found at Dollar Tree from the ceiling over each table with push pins and fishing wire. I also had ornaments, which I picked up at Joann's just before Christmas on a $2.99 per tube special. The colors were beautiful and added just the amount of shine to the tables! All decorations were positioned on top of silver chargers I picked up at Tuesday Morning and set on top of the organza rolls which were used as table runner.
I went this year after Christmas to clearance shop at Walmart grabbing tinsel for chairs, fake snow for centerpieces,and items for goody bags for the guests. Goody bags were made from plain white lunch sacs that I hole punched and strung curling ribbon through and hot glued snowflakes cut from my Slice machine onto.
I ended up deciding to make her cake as well, and opted to do a 3 tier cake instead of a 2 tier and smash cake. We just let her eat the first piece, which was A ok with her! Her banner was made from light turquoise, snowflake printed doilies I found at Dollar Tree during the holiday season, stencils, and white paint I had on hand already.
Anna and Elsa were a fluke find by my sister in law, who was shopping for birthday girl's present at ToysRUs. She stumbled across the large cardboard cut outs marked down from original price ($39.50) to $3.95, yes, crazy, I know! As much as I was trying to stay on track with the winter onederland theme and avoid Frozen ( although I love it dearly), I ended up caving, because who wouldn't want Anna and Elsa at their party right???
Plates, napkins, and cups were a mix of Dollar Tree and Walmart ( all .97-$1.00 per pack). I ended up making most of the cookies with recipes found on Pinterest for almond snowball cookies, the best sugar cookie recipe ever, and a royal icing recipe that didn't require meringue powder and tasted lovely! I was lucky enough to have my sisters in law help setup, and assist with additional sweets and dinner also. I definitely couldn't have enjoyed myself as much as I did without their help, if you're reading this, thank you girls!!!!
Now to the outfit! I spent most of the year coveting the adorable creations of an Etsy shop called TicklePants boutique. Now that woman has talent! I would have loved to just click, click and submit my order, BUT, I have been working on my sewing skills and wanted to give it a try on my own. I really wanted to be able to look back and say,"See how silly, ridiculous, and adorable your outfit was? Mommy made it especially for you!" And now I can! I used the organza rolls that I also used as table runner and additional accent decor, to make her tutu. I sewed hot pink satin ribbon down one side of two of the shorter rolls of organza, then sewed them together, and sewed a waist band.
After all the material was added I cut the fabric into sections to help the tutu appear fluffy and rounded at the ends. Then fray checked all of the ends of the ribbon. I probably could have done the whole thing in an easier way, but I'm no seamstress and I usually figure out the easy way AFTER I've completed it the most difficult was possible, haha! I had a lovely lady named Julie from Embroider More/facebook/embroidermore, make her birthday onesie and she did an AMAZING job! I sent her a couple of ideas and she made it exactly how I wanted, and even added a few extra adorable touches (rainbow colored snowflakes, and rhinestones)! I got some white tights from Walmart and used the rest of the hot pink satin ribbon to add ruffles around the ankles for added "froof" or so my mom calls it. Her hair bow was also made from the hot pink satin ribbon and a few kinds of ribbon from the $1 holiday section at Walmart (I especially love the silver). When the bow was done I felt as though it was missing "something". I did a few online searches and realized I needed to add some fluffy feathers to the top for the "over the top" look I was going for. I found the feather clip at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 which I clipped into the middle so I can reuse it for another bow in the future possibly.
The outfit (apologize for the quality of this picture)
Hair bow top view
Tights and skirt ( this was taken the end of the party, she had been crawling around and badly needed a skirt refluff!)
For games we played "Don't let the snowball melt," which is essentially a game of "Hot potato". I made yarn pom moms for our snowballs. We also had a "Freeze" dance. Many of our guests were too little to grasp the game concepts, but we still tried! All in all it was a fun party. I was actually able to really enjoy it! Thank you to all of the guests who attended! Thank you for my wonderful family members who put their hearts into this event and helped make it one I will never forget! And thank you readers, I hope there are some helpful tips in here for your Winter Onederland as well!
