About a year ago, on the first day of summer I became an aunt to a beautiful baby girl. My niece was born in Chicago, IL (hometown of her father and new home to her mother). I spent most of my summer in Chicago that year, taking care of my babe niece. This year, when summer rolled around the only thing on my mind was her first birthday! I decided to take on the entire project myself. Although I wasn't given a budget, I decided to DIY most of it, since I love crafting!
Heres a panoramic view of the backyard. I got lucky with the high raised privacy bushes. They served as a perfect backdrop for the entire party. For the party I had a dinner table, dessert bar, food table, and photo booth. The themed colors were all pastels blue, pink, green, yellow and orange.
CAKE: The cake was a strawberry shortcake that I ordered from the local bakery. I asked them to keep it simple, with a pink boarder. I found these beautiful candle letters at Party City. They matched perfectly!
DESERT BAR: Here is my beautiful niece at the dessert bar (we stood her on a chair behind the table). Amongst the desserts were cake, cupcakes (from the same bakery with requested colors), cotton candy, melon, cantaloupe, and gum balls!
GUM BALLS: The gum balls were purchased at Party City for $0.15. I kept them wrapped in plastic (so they would stack better) and put them in clean simple drinking glasses. I made sure to get the correct colors to match the party. It was a very vibrant addition to the dessert bar.
COTTON CANDY: For the cotton candy, I purchased buckets of ready made cotton candy from the local market. I took half sheets of paper and rolled them up to be the cones. To stick the cotton candy onto the paper cones, I used a brush to brush on honey onto the paper. It stuck beautifully! The honey was sticky, but also sweet. A great natural and edible paste. I put blue marbles my into shot glasses to hold the paper cones of cotton candy in place.
ASIYA: The Asiya block names you see on the table I drew with sharpies on regular craft paper. I was inspired by the ABC block party collection at Party City. The only part of the collection I bought were the napkins that are on the party table. I then glued the paper onto cardboard to give the letters more support. To stand the letter on the table upright, I attached regular drinking glasses to the back with tape. They stayed put beautifully, even with all the wind of the windy city!
Love Always,
Little Miss Sunshine
