Baby "Sprinkle" Party

I threw my sister a baby "sprinkle" this weekend to celebrate the birth of her second child. In addition to designing the invitation (which I posted a few weeks ago) I also created a banner, paper flower centerpiece, origami butterflies, and party favors. My 5-year-old nephew, Isaac, joined us at the party and had more fun with the balloons than anything.

Here's a close up of the flowers from the centerpiece. I created them out of cray paper and attached them to sticks with wire.

I found the most perfect party treat. Purple butterfly and heart suckers.

I hid 12 of these origami butterflies around the party room and had everyone search for them. Whoever "caught" the most butterflies won. The best part was explaining the rules to the game when I noticed everyone's eyes started wandering around the room. All it took was one person to break ranks and run toward a butterfly before the rest followed. Next thing I knew everyone was fluttering around my house in a panic to find as many as they could. It was fun to play but even more enjoyable to watch.

The party favors were mini take-out containers with a lavender butterfly accent filled with decadent chocolate.

"It's a Girl" banner.

A Surprise Wedding

My wedding was very non-traditional. I eloped in Las Vegas! It was a complete surprise to both our families, so to celebrate and give everyone a chance to congratulate us we threw a party, or you could say "reception", a few months later. For the party I crafted a few of the decorations: posters, lottery ticket favors (to go with the Vegas theme), paper flowers, cupcake coasters (with the cake and frosting flavors on each since there were 5 different kinds), and cootie catchers (that had trivia questions about my husband and I).

UPDATE: Our wedding has been featured on aubreandrus.com. Check it out for a peek into what goes into planning an elopement and how to keep it a secret.


Photos courtesy of my sister, Anne Bottkol at travelingvenus - thanks for snapping these Anne!

Our wedding cake was cupcakes so I found the perfect wedding topper, a mini bride and groom. However, when I bought them they were wearing traditional wedding attire so I hand painted them to match our wedding outfits instead.

We were given this bean bag game as a house warming gift the previous year so I painted them up with fun designs and used them as entertainment during the reception.

Fall in the Midwest

Nothing says autumn like pumpkins, gourds and sunsets.