Thankful for your business...

Hello everyone...I'm writing from my parent's house so no pictures since they're on my other computer at home. I didn't think I could wait until I got home to write again, so I thought I'd give a business update instead. So here's the skinny of what's going on here at PD&P...

I am so thankful for all the business I've had over the past five months. On Wednesday I hit a milestone...150 sales!

It has been tons of fun...but very busy and at times stressful, too. So as I promised, I'm working like a mad woman this weekend trying to finish up all my custom orders and am going to take the month of December to hang with my fam. Please cross your fingers that I get finished...at this moment I still have 4 parties to complete, but do have 4 that I have already finished and are waiting to be mailed when I get back on Monday, so that feels good. All of us at the Newman household are ready for a bit of a break.

I will have some POLKADOT COLLECTION things to finish up next week and am hoping...and this is kind of a stretch in my mind right now...hoping to have some Christmas things listed by Monday night. I do realize, however that I should have been selling them a month ago to really get anything out of it, but it just was not possible this year. It will at least look festive in my shop, right?

Lastly, I will have new policies once I reopen for custom orders in January. I do not have them all hammered out yet, but I am going to attempt to try to limit custom orders and have more of a laid out schedule of when they will be completed and when they will be shipped so it will eliminate stress for me and for the client as well. I would LOVE to make birthday stuff for every kid in America, but let's face it, contrary to my husband's belief, I am NOT wonder woman. No cape here...

I'll be back Sunday with more pics once I get home. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. My stomach still hurts!

The last of the hot pink and orange...for now...

Over the past month or so I've done a whole bunch of hot pink and orange parties. It seems like themes come in streaks, though each one usually has they're own little twist. This party was for Ella, the daughter of a girl I grew up a few miles from. I did her son Owen's party a couple months ago. Now it was big sister Ella's turn for a party. Here is Ella's partyware:

The banner...The door sign and confetti...

The crown...

and the cake topper...

Now the only hot pink and orange I'm working on is Avery's for her party next month...I hope to have a sneak peak of the invitations early next week!

Caution! Someone's getting old...

This party was so fun to do for multiple reasons. 1) Tammy is one of my best friends from middle school and high school...she is a total riot and I wish she didn't live in a different state. 2) I'm going to be 30 in a couple months, too, (EEEEK!) so it was fun to plan a party for someone my age. 3) I didn't really have to use my brain much for this...Tammy honestly pretty much had it planned in her head...I just had to get what she had in her head out into product.

After Tammy sent me all her ideas, I picked up the paper and got straight to work. She had everything from the shape and color of each item to the font already picked out! Talk about easy! Here is her "Caution: The adventure begins at 30" Party turned out...(I'm stealing these pics from your blog, Tam...hope you don't mind!)

The (old) birthday girl in her crown...(doesn't she look good for a 30 year old who is 7 months preggo with #4?)The banner...The cupcake toppers...Printed confetti...Door signs can really be hung anywhere!Here's to making the next 30 as good as the first! Happy birthday, Tam!

From 0 to 85

Today I have two banners to share. Now usually I am working on a kids birthday party, which I love to do, but I have to say when I get to work on something besides that it is a welcomed change of pace. First, my good friend Patti asked me to make a banner for the 85th birthday party they were throwing her grandma, Evelyn. She said that her grandma loved the color blue, so as long as there was blue in it that it would work perfectly.

So here is my sophisticated blue banner for Grandma Evelyn...Then one of my past clients, Beth, emailed me one night and said that her sister in law was having a baby three days later and she wondered if I could quickly whip something up for her new niece (still nameless at the time...and come to think of it, what did they name her, Beth?). The nursery colors were light pink, sage green, and lilac. I got it done that night and sent it straight to her sister in law with a matching card and personalized message from their family.So if you have an event coming up, remember that I can do more than a two year olds party!

Paige's Puppy Party & The Pukies

You may have noticed my absence yesterday of my regular blog entry...I was so excited to write it because I had all the pictures from my friend CJ's daughter Paige's party. Unfortunately I was down and out with the stomach flu. I thought yesterday morning I just was feeling literally sick from lack of sleep, but within an hour my body was telling me otherwise. My husband came home for lunch and witnessed me puking and said he'd run back to work to get his computer and come home...does this happen to anyone else? If I would have called him from home he would never have come home, but when he SEEs me actually getting sick, then he feels too guilty...especially when I was babysitting my niece on top of my regular three. Unfortunately, by the time he got home, he too was sick. Can you say roll the movies? We pretty much watched our kids play while laying on the couches feeling like we'd been hit by trucks all afternoon/evening. Today CJ called and the first thing she said was, "You aren't sick, are you?" Apparently at least 6 adults at the party have had the stomach flu in the last 24 hours. Oops. I told my husband that's the last swingers party we ever go to! Just kidding.

Anyway, the party was great. Paige is such a cutie and it is always such a good time when we get together with my college friends. Our kids really like each other, too, which is fun to see. Here are some pics of the birthday girl and her puppy birthday decor...

As I showed you before, her invitations...Framing an invitation is a great way to add to the party decor while spending no money...just put it in a frame you already have! I always steal the same frame from Avery's bedroom for my kids parties. Here CJ framed Paige's invitation and set it next to the inspiration for the party, Paige's favorite puppy, Molly.

The banner...The crownS, yes, plural...it was Paige's Uncle John's birthday, too, and he had to have a crown as well. He was such a good sport he wore it for most of the party. We didn't dare put his age, though, and instead it said "just plain old" :) ...The cake topper...I love that CJ's cake lady used my funky puppy pic on the cake! And that cake was so dang good...I wish I had a piece right now...my appetite just returned looking at it! Tate actually asked for a second piece and Avery, well...as you can see she ate the frosting off the first piece and then asked for more frosting...ha! That girl, I tell ya. She's trouble. And a little like her mother. :)

Of course I can't resist making the gift wrap match the theme, either...
This is my favorite pic of Paige...it is just one of those pics that "looks like her"...you know? How they really are in real life...no cheesy grin for the camera.
I totally missed getting a picture of two of the things I made for the party. The first were some favor bag toppers that actually go right over the top of a ziploc bag. You can kind of see them way in the back of this picture on the table behind Paige to the right. Paige handed out the bags of Puppy Chow to all her guests (after convincing her that she shouldn't keep them all!). I also missed a picture of the door sign. Luckily I had taken a picture of those two things together before I delivered them. Happy 2nd Birthday, Paige! And I hope all your guests are on the pukey mend!

Elliott's Cars

About the time that I was getting several orders for the circus party, I received this order. Elliott's mom had made her own invitations with a digital kit that she purchased online and was designing the party around her invitation:
I thought that the paper that I used for the circus projects would be perfect for this project, too, but we'd just need to pick a different font. I also thought that we could add orange and turquoise to the paper that I printed the letters on since they are included in the invitation as well. Leisha also sent me the image of the cars that she used on the invitation so we could incorporate those as well.

Here is Elliott's collection...

The banner...

His crown...

The door sign...

Have a good weekend! I'll be back Sunday night or Monday!

The circus continues...

Here's day two of the HWTM circus craze. This client loved the circus theme, but was using invitations that had different animals than the original ones that we used for Darrian's birthday. She sent me this picture of a gift bag that matched her invitations for inspiration:
Using this picture and a few others of animals that I like, I came up with these animals to use for Jackson's party ware:

I am excited to say I get to show the real life pictures since Jessica emailed them to me last night...just in time for this post! Thanks, Jessica! So here they are in action:

First, the birthday boy Jackson wearing his crown...The banner...

The hats...The napkin rings...

The confetti

(I used the extra images I had from the hats in the confetti as well, which worked out perfectly!)...

The door sign...

Tomorrow will be day 4 using red, blue, yellow, and green, and day 3 of the paper used for the circus theme, but with a new twist. More tomorrow!

The HWTM Circus Craze Begins!

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know about a month ago or so I was featured on Hostess With the Mostess for a circus party that I did earlier in the summer. In fact, you probably are sick of hearing it. I apologize. I promise I will only mention it a million or so more times! :) No really though, within a couple hours of that post being up, I received this order to duplicate what I made for that party. I was thrilled (and a little nervous that I might become overwhelmed with orders for the circus party!). To make it even more exciting, this party was for 3 year old twins! So I got to make pretty much double of everything, which was fun. I already had the images from istock and the designs in place except for the door sign. Because the twins were turning 3 it ended up working out to use a common circus phrase for the sign. Here is how it all came together:

The banner...
The twins' crowns: red for Annabel and blue for Jack...
A close-up of the hats, which also came in blue, green, and red...

And the door sign...

I still have 3 more circus orders coming! I will be back tomorrow with another order from the circus craze with a few design changes. Better go clean up my living room, which looks like a 3-ring circus right now!

Fly on by and have some fun!

Today brings another airplane party. This one is a biggie, so be ready for lots of pics! The two airplane parties I've done previously used a different designer's invitations as the basis. This client wanted something a little "busier" to suit her taste. After giving her an example of a few airplanes that would suit what she was looking for, I drew one that matched the colors she requested and made the invitations, which I included in an earlier blog. In case you missed them, here is how they turned out:Then I got to work on the rest of her items.

The entire collection...

The banner...
The cupcake toppers...
The door sign with Sara's clever wording "Carter's party arrivals here!"
and the party hats...

The cup wrappers and confetti...
Then my favorite thing yet...luggage tags to put on the favors and a baggage claim sign for the table that the favors will be on...

When Sara, Carter's mom, and I were first discussing options for his party, she asked if I knew anyone who could make her a t-shirt for Carter's party. Can you guess who I sent her to? Yes, Rachel at Goldenshop. You may be beginning to think that this is her blog, too, but its only because what her and I do go so well together and you all know how I love things that match and anything themed! Plus she never updates her blog anyway, right Rach? :) Here is the t-shirt and the bib that she made:I told you this was going to be a biggie! After Sara received her items in the mail, she decided to order a few more things, so then I sent her these:

More cup wrappers,
more confetti,

and 2 yard signs that will be attached to stakes in the yard directing people to the party...

The party is this coming weekend...can't wait for those pics, Sara!