ViNtAGe CiRcUs BaBy ShOwEr

I cannot believe it has been over 2 years since I last blogged. Has it really been that long since I had a great party? Well, this past weekend I had the opportunity to host a baby shower for my best friend Amelia. When she announced at a Sunday dinner that she was pregnant I totally burst out crying. I was so incredibly happy and excited for her! It was one of the more embarrassing moments of my life, but I knew right then that I would have to throw her an awesome baby shower.  I then proceeded to beg her to let me host the shower. Once she gave the ok I started brainstorming ideas and came up with the adorable vintage circus theme. Can I just tell you, I love all things vintage and I try to incorporate  it whenever possible. 
As I started planning for this event I began to realize that I had so many ideas that I was going to have to cut corners somewhere. It ended up being in the invitations. Normally I would make them myself but I found some adorable ones on Etsy. Here I seriously love how they turned out!

 I then set about intensely searching Pinterest and the internet in order to get all the details right. I cannot lie, I feel that this shower turned out great. 
Here is an over all view of the space. My wonderful parents allowed me to host the baby shower in their amazing backyard. I am SUPER grateful for this.  Also, can I tell you how excited I was to be able to use two of the sets of chairs I have refinished? Super excited!

While searching for centerpiece ideas I came across pictures of antique circus posters. I LOVED THEM! So, I decided to print some and frame them. They were one of my favorite parts.  And of course who doesn't love fresh flowers?  

Each table had a cute baby animal matching game, which was actually kind of hard, and the thank you gifts. Thanks to the NICU, where I work, I was able to repurpose some adorable glass bottles. I glued some small plastic animals to the lids and spray painted them a glitter gold. I then filled them with some candy. I think they turned out pretty adorable. 

Ok so I was able to get these marquee letters at Michaels during a major sale. They stand up but I realized that I would have no place to stand them up, so I enlisted my husband.  He, by the way, was my muscle behind this project. Not only did he come up with a great sign idea for me to hang the letters on, but he lugged all the tables, chairs, and canopies out of trucks and up stairs and around the yard and you get the picture. HE IS AMAZING! Any way, I think the marquee letters really made it all come together. 

And I threw in an extra pic of the french macarons because they are gorgeous!

Now, I am not a huge baby shower game supporter, but I realize that people need something to do and games that don't require too much embarrassment are ok. So amongst the baby animal matching game we had a diaper raffle, because you really cannot have too many diapers, and a headband making station. I made a few example headbands ahead of time and I can tell you that they are SO much fun to make. I probably could have kept making them all night. It was a great interactive activity to have. The only down side is that I totally forgot to take pictures of the completed headbands hanging on the stand. 

Over all I think this was a fun and successful shower. 
Now, here are some horribly candid photos of the party goers. Thanks mom for remembering to take pictures of people!

Amelia, I just adore you and I am super excited for your baby girl! Thank you for letting me be your friend!

Afternoon tea, anyone?

I recently discovered my ancestry after sending off a DNA test. I was strangely excited by the results, although not entirely surprised.

 Being adopted and the dark haired child in a blond, pretty darn Scandinavian family, I have always wondered what my heritage was. Over the years many people have put in their guesses, my mom assumed I was french, but I always felt like I should have been British. So, when the results came back, even though everyone and their dog has British ancestry, I was very pleased to discover I was 59% British. All the obsessions with hats, English gardens, the Union Jack, British comedy, and pretty much all things ladylike made perfect sense. Ha Ha! Well, at least I had an excuse now for all those obsessions. 

It was about a week after I received my results that I decided I needed to celebrate, and what better way to do that than afternoon tea. I invited my adorable nieces, friends, and family. Girls only, of course! 

There was  much giggling, some not so great British accents, and many sugar rushes. Quite a lovely time if you ask me. 

Cheers!

THE BIG 30!! HaRrY pOtTeR sTyLe

It happened. 

I turned 30! 

It was inevitable and I have been building myself up for the event for quite some time. 

I decided that instead of being sad about it, I would embrace the event and throw an amazing party.

For years I have talked about having a Harry Potter themed party. Like a full blown Harry Potter party! 

I decided there was no better time than my 30th birthday. 

~The invites~

~The Decor~

~The Peeps~

(Well, some of them)

~They made me wear the sorting hat during the birthday song~

~Amber was so sweet and made me a Harry Potter cake!~

I felt so loved by the turnout of friends and family. As a matter of fact, for those 10 people that left the party before I had the sense to take pictures, I love you all and thank you so much for coming to celebrate with me! 

Being able to celebrate with fabulous people, Harry Potter style, seriously made my day MAGICAL! 

Eh eh, see what I did there? ;-)

The next day was my ACTUAL birthday, January 5th. Growing up I shared my birthday with my amazing grandma...I totally miss her...and then sort of shared with my brother because his birthday was on January 2. Any way, my mom bought this birthday candle when we were really little and She would pull this candle out for everyone's birthday.Who am I kidding! She STILL pulls it out for everyone's birthday. This candle will last forever because we only light it long enough to sing to the birthday person and have them blow it out. 

Ah, good times!

 So, my brother and I decided to recreate a picture that was taken of us with the candle when we were little. 

This birthday was the BEST birthday I have had in a long time. I am so grateful for all of the friends and family that made it possible!

ChRiStMaS fUn

I started preparing for Christmas far before Christmas. I had my decoration up toward the beginning of November, true story. I just knew the minute December hit everything would fly by and I would be too busy to enjoy it. I was right. I seriously don't know how I would have gotten everything done if I hadn't started early. 

I can honestly say that Christmas is, BY FAR, my FAVORITE time of year. I LOVE IT! I love shopping, I love wrapping, seriously cannot get enough of wrapping, I love giving gifts, I love snow, I love lights, I love the hustle and bustle, I love the smell of Christmas, and just everything! I get really bummed when it's over. I call it my post Christmas depression. Any way....A few of the traditions we have started are going to see the lights on Temple Square, seeing the Nutcracker, and buying a REAL Christmas tree for our bedroom. We keep pretty busy during the Holiday season. We always like to try something different and if we love it, we keep it on our list for the next year. We are ALWAYS looking for ideas or suggestion though. :-D

So, every year we celebrate Norwegian Christmas on Christmas Eve with my aunt, uncle and cousins. We have done this for as long as I can remember and it is basically my favorite part of Christmas. We get together and eat Norwegian food...LOTS of AMAZING Norwegian food and then exchange gifts and just enjoy being together. This year we had the kids dress up and do a little presentation.The girls were Santa Lucia and the boys were julenisse. Santa Lucia is basically the patron saint of light and the julenisse is the Norwegian Santa Claus. So fun!

Later Christmas Eve we went to eat some more delicious food at Jeff's family party. I had so much to eat that day I thought I would burst! After the party I had to go into work for 6 hours...where I ate more food and waited for Christmas day. 

Hello! Isn't baby Miles' motorcycle jacket, that his favorite aunt Melissa gave him, adorable?!? 

Well, there you have it. A few weeks late, but what a fun Christmas