It's all about the cake...

My sister Kasey's birthday is Christmas Day. Ever since she was old enough to stay up late we have had a birthday party for her at midnight on Christmas Eve so it doesn't get lost in all the celebrations. No matter where any of us are for Christmas Eve we have to make it home by midnight to sing, eat cake, and open presents. We even did it in my hospital room the year Avery was born!

This year Kasey turned 18, which is hard to believe. We decided way last summer what she wanted her birthday banner to look like...zebra and hot pink. My sister Rach and I decided she needed a cake, too. Rach found one online that matched perfectly and sent it to a local bakery to see if they could make it. It was sooooooooooo cute that I changed the font on her banner to match the 18 they put on the top of the cake.She of course changed into a pair of PJs at 11:59 that matched her decor. That's my girl!

A New Wedding Trend

The new thing at weddings seems to be for the bride and groom to hold some sort of sign on their wedding day that says "thank you" for a picture and send it out after the wedding. I wish we had thought of this 8 years ago when I got married!

This genius bride decided that she wanted a banner that said it instead of a sign. After we picked paper in her wedding colors and a font that she loved, here is the final product...The bride and groom each plan to hold one end of the ribbon. Such a cute idea if I ever get the time I am adding it to my shop in black and white.

A Christmas Birthday Banner

Back in November a repeat client of mine decided to order a banner for her daughter whose birthday was very close to Christmas. She said that she wanted it to be reminiscent of Christmas, but still girly. I already had the perfect paper for that! Since her birthday will always be close to Christmas, this mom did not want her daughter Maggie's age to be put on the banner. (Just a note, you CAN just slide the age off the next year or order a replacement card if you wish.)

So with only 3 ribbons actually having letters on them, this is how Maggie's banner turned out:
As my husband and I were staring at it as we usually do after I finish a banner, we decided that we both liked it better than the original layout...though I wasn't sure what to do with the age when the client wanted that included. We just liked the way it was spread out more and had two twirling ribbons.

So after a few adjustments and a few attempts, here is the new customized style for all banners:
So a big thanks to Beth for making me rethink and improve...most of my new products have been sparked by something a client has said or requested, so keep those suggestions coming!

Ellen's Cupcake Party

Some of you have asked why I can keep blogging about custom parties if I am no longer doing them. Well, a couple of reasons.

1) I haven't even finished blogging about all of the parties I did in November before I stopped doing customs.

2) I didn't completely stop doing custom orders, but now I am doing it just mainly for people I know. AND a couple other projects to come (big ones...wink, wink).

SO...that said, here is a cupcake party I did for a friend of a friend in December. Cyndy, Ellen's mom, was pretty open to anything, but she was having red velvet cupcakes at the party and said that maybe that could be the basis for her theme. Here is the outcome:

**The Invitations**

**The Banner****The Crown and Hats**
**The Cupcake Toppers**
**The Door Sign**
**The Thank Yous**

It seemed as though I had "one" happy client in the end...

Thanks Kel, for sending them my way!

New for the PDCfG!

Now that I have added the POLKADOT COLLECTION for BOYS, we distinguish around here by PDCfG (POLKADOT COLLECTION for GIRLS) and PDCfB (for BOYS). I am actually working on becoming the acronym queen which drives my husband cuckoo. He HATES them. He actually gets so mad that he yells "OBGYN" every time I use one, because that's the only acronym he knows that he thinks will embarrass me. What a nerd!

So anyway, along with the new collection came a bunch of things that people had asked for along the way that I decided to work into the PDCfB. But that meant that I better design the same things for the girls line, too! So here they are...

**Tutu****Custom Invitations****Custom Thank Yous****High Chair Bunting**
**Bib**
(bib found at Golden)**Smash Cake Topper****Favor Bag Toppers****Cake Plate Ribbons**

There are a few more things for each collection on its way...and I'm ALWAYS open to more suggestions of things you'd like to see, so shoot them my way! All of the things listed here are now available in my shop.

Sorry this blog is a day late...there are some AMAZINGLY exciting things on the horizon here at PD&P...hoping to be able to share news soon. :) Have a great weekend...be back Monday!

Debut Number Two!

I'm not sure you have all been looking forward to this as much as I have, but even so...the day has arrived...

THE POLKADOT COLLECTION for BOYS...To see all the pics, click on the slide show on the right. --------->

P.S...are you a fan yet? If you are on facebook, become a Polkadots & Pirates fan!

I WANT TO BE A PD&P facebook FAN

New products for the girls line coming tomorrow!

Future President?

Tate and I were watching the inauguration together this morning. He was pretty into it...he said the Lord's prayer while they did, listened to Aretha Franklin Sing, then while President Obama was being sworn in the conversation went something like this...

Tate: Hey Mom, I know that Barack Obama is our new president.

Me: Yes, Tate.

Tate: That means he is really important.

Me: Yes, it does.

Tate: Hey Mom, when will I be the president?

Me: Do you want to be the president?

Tate: Yes, actually, I do!

Me: Well, then you can run for president when you are older.

Tate: Okay. (Pause) Can we watch cartoons?

From President to Curious George in 1.2 seconds. That's a 4 year old for you.

The Boys Line Photo Shoot...

Today was the big day for taking pics of the newly finished boys line, set to premiere in my shop this Wednesday. Last time I had my photographer good friend Darcie do them, today I was alone.

I love taking pictures, but I want my site to look cohesive and I am more of a candid shot (and not professional) photog. But it ended up being pretty fun because I learned a few things and got to try a few tricks along the way.

My model was less than cooperative, but is pretty cute so I forgave him...Then he expected to be paid...Good thing that his currency is Tracie's cupcakes!

I dealt with lots of this since my 3 kids were here as well as my niece Addie...Thank God Daddy was home for MLK, so I had some help!

So needless to say, at the end of the day I had 450 pictures on my camera and looked like this...
Don't worry...there are some that turned out better. More to come in the next few days!

Just in case you were wondering...

My friend Judy emailed me today and asked if I had found my wedding rings and mother's ring yet. With all the hubbub of Avery's birthday and Christmases I completely forgot to blog the update.

I had my sister Kara come and help me clean for Avery's birthday party. With it being so close to Christmas I needed a little help and a fresh set of eyes to look for the rings. I had been thinking about it pretty much 24/7...and I had looked everywhere I could possibly think of. I mean, I'm talking I pulled every can out of the recycling and shook it, just in case the kids stuck them inside...took the vents out of the floor...felt in every Kleenex box in our house...looked inside every pair of shoes. I was LOSING HOPE to say the least. Even with my added incentive of $100 bonus if she found them, Kip cleaned all day and found nothing.

Then we went to our parents houses for Christmas and came back Friday the 26th. The only thing left to clean was the bathrooms, which Eric was doing as I was finishing decorations and making food. All of a sudden he came down (with rubber gloves on) and started making out with me. Yuck, right? He then handed me my rings.

This is how our kids' bathroom usually looks...And this is how it looked before Eric started cleaning...
Do you see the difference?
Never even thought of looking UNDER the books that often tip over. I must have set them there that afternoon after the other kids left when I gave the kids a bath. I actually ran around the house jumping and singing AAAAA-LLE-LUIA! Can you picture it?

Hello, beautifuls... I missed you...

A Hip (po) First Birthday

I am so waist deep in this new boys line that is launching next week that I didn't even blog yesterday. I promise it will be worth it. I also got one of the new clothing items that will be part of my line yesterday...so exciting!

So anyway, since it is daytime I have to be kind of quick today or my kids will start the next world war. This party actually made its way all the way to England! Little Felix was having his first birthday party at the end of December.

These were the invitations that mom sent me as inspiration...I was soooo excited because I had been keeping this really modern fun paper in my mind for some project because I loved it and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. I also drew a hippo similar to the one on the invitations per Felix's mom's request.

The crown and hats...

The banner...Napkin rings...

The cake topper...
And the door sign...

Off to seperate the troops...be back tomorrow...hopefully. :)

Hello, Cupcake!

Since I had a snowman themed party I thought I'd share another snowman themed project that we made last week. Have you heard of the book Hello, Cupcake! ? I got it as a gift from my friend on her wedding day for being her personal attendant. It is the CUTEST book...it has everything from holiday cupcakes, to animals, to cupcakes that look like chicken legs, mashed potatoes, and peas. The directions are really easy to follow and it has great tips on making cupcakes in general.Since the kids and I are pretty much shut-ins here with subzero temperatures, I decided we needed to find something fun to do. But these cupcakes take a TON of ingredients to decorate, and most of the ingredients you only use a couple of each thing. So I definitely needed to decide which ones we were going to make first so I could get all the supplies.

Tate wanted either the werewolves or the sharks, Avery wanted either the princesses or the sleeping babies...so we went with snowmen, because that's appropriate in January and pleased neither of them.

They didn't turn out quite like the professional picture in the book, but that's what you get when a 4 year old is in charge of decorating the faces. So here we are...Dad, Mom, Tate, Avery, and Beckett...He was so proud...check out that frosting on his face! I'll be back tomorrow!

Let it snow!

Since it snowed ALL DAY here, I thought this would be appropriate for today...

Little Jacob had a snowman party for his first birthday back in December. The funniest part of it was that he lives in Texas and it was in the 70s the day of the party! We already had a snowman built by the time he had his party, but they only had the ones I drew for them. :)

This turned out to be one of my favorite (and by FAR the most time consuming) projects I've done. Jacob's mom wanted me to make some sort of decorations to adorn their light fixtures. So going with the snowflake/snowman theme I got the idea to make snowflake mobiles with Jacob's pictures of his first year in the middle.

Here they are laying on my table...And then at the party...Courtney also ordered a door sign, a smaller version of the door sign for her cocoa station, and napkin rings...
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Superheros...

I think I've mentioned before that I believe any licensed character apparel should be reserved for underwear and sippy cups...but I do understand (more and more every day) how much kids LOVE it and ask for it, too. So both of these next Moms wanted to give their boys a party they'd love, but to do it in a classy way. I did my best to accommodate and surprisingly I loved the outcome of both.

The first project was a referral of another client (thanks Beth!) who was doing a Star Wars theme for her son Tate, turning 5. I was immediately into the project since I have my very own Tate turning 5 soon! She didn't want it to have the actual Star Wars logos or anything, but wanted navy and black and a space age like font. I actually found the Star Wars font, but I found out it doesn't look like much if you don't have the S and T & R and S connecting. So I found another font we both liked. Here is Tate's banner...

Its funny how I've seemed to get waves of the same sort of order simultaneously. Just a few days after I got that order, my sister told me that her nephew was having a Batman themed 5th birthday party and that Jayden's mom wanted a banner and crown for his party as well. I used some of the same paper, only adding the Batman gold paper. I found some cool Batman logos as well that I thought looked really tasteful as far as character apparel goes, and added them and a new font as well. Figure in a couple batman ears on the hat and there you go!

So here is Jayden's banner's and crown...
And here is Jayden at his party...
So there it is...my attempt at making superheros classy!