Name: Elsie (1)
Location: San Diego, CA
I knew that I could easily get carried away with my baby's first birthday party so I quickly sought inspiration from this party post. Seeing that my child has no theme-worthy interests other than peek-a-boo and biting my arms and legs, I just decided to go with bright and colorful.
For the invitation, I got Kate Spade note cards and mounted a photo of Elsie on her play phone. I used gold thread and self-adhesive folder tabs to make a tiny pennant-like garland on the inside of the card, and the party information started out with the phrase, "We're calling you to join us."
To continue with the running rainbow theme, I bought stock paper from Amazon and gold yarn to make the heart garland. As for the cake, I couldn't resist the popular rainbow cake recipe from Whisk Kid and Martha Stewart. I regret not making a vanilla meringue as suggested because a quick and easy butter cream frosting that I made turned out way too sweet. Anyway, I didn't get a good picture but we also got a big bouquet of multicolored latex balloons and kept them tethered together - think of a scaled down version of the movie, Up!
Elsie wore Circo rainbow leggings to go with her Circo dress. We bought Spritz goodie bags, party hats, blowers, balloons, and plates. These were all super affordable at Target. We snacked on rainbow chip cupcakes, strawberries, pineapple, and Doritos. We ordered pizza and Elsie had her slice of cake. Good times and a very happy birthday!
Thanks "Oh My"!
(Images: Snoring Doormouse)
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We have an Elsie too!!
We have an Elsa. Great minds... :) Fun and colorful party! Great job!
@Annieglan and @olliegraphic: No way! A lot of people ask us what our baby's name is and when we say, "Elsie," they pause and stare blankly for a little bit before they respond with, "oh, cute .. hello, Elise!" We don't correct them though. It's sweet that they stop to say hi. =)
I liked Elsa for our daughter but the husband nixed it. :-( Cute party, though. I'm a sucker for bright and colorful. And love the folder tabs idea.
So sweet! And great job on the cake. I might be too intimidated to try to make it. And your Elsie is ADORABLE eating that cake!
@Theplumathree: Elsie is my husband's grandmother's name. We thought it would be nice to have the name passed on plus we like how it's a bit vintage .. or rather, very vintage. The name hasn't been popular since the 1920s.
@Cleona: You can definitely make the cake! 3 cake pans and 2 batches of colors. The gel dyes that the recipe calls for seem to make richer colors than the traditional food coloring drops. I've learned that I love parchment paper! It helps so much with clean up. Thanks for the comment! =)
beautiful table spread! I love the tiered cupcake stand - where did you purchase it from? love it!
@Lauk80: Thanks! My friend let me borrow the cupcake stand but you can get it from Target for $20! I love Target. Anywho, I just checked, and it's not currently available. Maybe they'll restock? They were carrying it for a long time so I don't know if it's discontinued. Here's a link for a "cake stand" search: http://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=cake+stand&category=0%7CAll%7Cmatchallany%7Call+categories
Hope it comes back! I wanted to eventually buy one for myself. I think it's made of ceramic so it feels like good quality. However, I might get a 6 tiered pastry stand that I saw featured in Real Simple magazine: http://www.gretelhome.com/koziol/661-babell-xl-serving-tray-in-white.html
I don't know if it's against the Apartment Therapy rules to include the links above... If so, I hope someone tells me!