{Happy Customers} : Donovan

I've said before a hundred times that I could honestly stay busy just between my own kids, my friends' kids, my sister's kids, and my sister's friends' kids. I'm serious. I think I could have a project all the time. So here we go with one of my sister's friends' kids...cute little D. I wish I had a better pic of the cute bib from *golden* and the tee from Persnickety Me...I promise they were both adorable!

Bigger pics along with all our PDP cuties over at {happy customers}! Thanks, Gina!

For Kate...

Lots of grading for report cards going on over here...almost finished. Looking forward to my real job slowing down a little bit and getting back to actually TEACHING kids instead of testing them! This post has been almost finished for almost a week, but it wasn't one I was just going to throw out there with little thought.

Maybe you've heard of her. Maybe you pray for her every night. You may have seen her on other blogs. You may have even seen her on Dr. Phil.

Photo compliments of Oh So Posh Photography via The TomKat Studio

I'm talking about a little girl named Kate McRae. I first heard of Kate through my friend Kim of The TomKat Studio. Kim became aware of her story because she lives in the same town as little Kate. Last summer Kate's mom was trying to take her kids to the pool to cool off one afternoon but decided to stop at the doctor's office because Kate's hand wouldn't stop shaking. Their lives were forever changed when they found out Kate had a massive tumor in her brain.

Reading Kate's story was so heartbreaking to me on so many levels...its hard for a mom to not think of her own kids when hearing of a story like Kate's. She is only two months older than my Tate...I just can't even imagine it. I hope I never have to. It turned out that Kate's 6th birthday was the day after Christmas...and as you know my own little Ave's birthday is the 23rd of December. Kate's celebration this year, though, would be far different than ours. She was in the hospital receiving chemo.

TomKat Kim decided she had to reach out to this family and on her blog asked if anyone would like to help her make Kate's birthday as pleasant as possible. Of course I was in, although I wasn't exactly sure how to help because Kim and I both make party goods...so I offered Kim a tutu because I knew she already had a shirt and a hat for Kate from other donors. Kim gladly accepted and asked if I would make Kate one of my banners as well, to which of course I said yes!

Here are a few pics of some of the items donated for Kate after Kim set up her hospital room, including the banner and tutu I sent...

Photos courtesy of The TomKat Studio

I could try to recap the rest of story about how the goods were delivered, but Kim tells it much better herself. If you are one of the few people who reads my blog but has never been to Kim's, you should (for more reasons than I can mention...so stylish and fun!). Click here to read her post about Kate and all the wonderful vendors who pulled together to try to make a little girl's birthday a little brighter. If you want to follow Kate's story, you can visit her site as well. As heartbreaking as it is, I find it equally amazing to read the faithful words of Kate's parents Holly and Aaron...they stay so positive through it all.

Pray, people, pray. Hope for a miracle. And hug your kids a little tighter when you put them to bed tonight. I know I will.

The PomLove winner is...

Congrats, Jayme! Email me!

Thanks to everyone for playing...I think I like hosting giveaways more than entering them! We'll do it again soon.

{Get the Goods Giveaway} : PomLove

One of my favorite things from Avery's party was the tissue flowers I got from PomLove on Etsy.

They are seriously so so pretty. You can hang them from the ceiling. You can set them on a table. You can group them. You can hang one single pom. You can use them for a party. They can hang in a bedroom, living room, or office. I am honestly crossing my fingers that my BF is having a baby girl so I only have to wait a couple of months to use the ones I have again. If I'm being honest, I haven't even taken them down from Avery's party yet just because after a long day at work it makes me happy to see them hanging in the living room.

Kirsten, creator of PomLove, is offering one lucky PDP reader a three piece pom set!

There are several ways to enter...leave a comment for each to get multiple entries! Please leave all extra entries in the comments here on the blog, not on Facebook or Twitter so I can keep track of them!

1) Simply leave a comment telling your favorite of Kirsten's pom sets or favorite colors.

2) Become a fan of pomlove on Facebook. You can also leave a comment for an extra entry here if you are already a fan!

3) Become a fan of Polkadots & Pirates on Facebook. Again...already a fan? Leave a comment!

4) Follow PomLoveOnEtsy on Twitter.

5) Follow pdotsandpirates on Twitter.

6) Blog, tweet, or facebook (or all three!) this giveaway!

Deadline to enter is Monday, January 18 at 5 o'clock. Winner will be chosen and posted on Tuesday morning. I have some other projects I am working on and then taking a long MLK Day weekend away, so I'll be back with a winner then. Have a great weekend!

Little Red Rocket

I loved working with this mom after doing her son Carter's 1st birthday last year...remember those luggage tags? Some of my favorite things I've done. This year she wanted to do a "Little Red Rocket" theme.

I have actually seen the pics of the party and can't wait to share them someday soon...just need to get some photographer permission first...but I can tell you that it looked like "a blast"! =)

{Happy Customers} : Grayson

I am once again getting a little backed up on my {happy customers} entries...thanks to all of you who have sent something and I promise I am going to catch up!

When Colleen sent me pics from Grayson's party I was so impressed...she made life-sized replicas of the tent on Grayson's shirt from Persnickety Me and the elephant that I use on all the circus party goods. SO SO adorable!

Hop on over to {happy customers} to see the pics in greater detail and read about Colleen's PDP experience as well as checking out all our previous little cuties!

Have a great weekend!

Oh how she's grown!

Hard to believe my baby girl is 4. I know people say it is amazing and that time just flies, but it really is true. I had so much fun planning Ave's party this year...she has gotten to be my little PDP apprentice and is so into the details. E took the kids out of the house one day so I could start getting decorations in order. Her face was priceless when she walked in. It made every minute I spent worth it!

So as far as inspiration {as I said in an earlier post} came from some paper I found and loved. From there I made these invitations {also posted earlier!}

I decided very early on to use the pettiskirt that I had bought for our family pictures and a scallop shirt and scallop "a" hair clip from Em Tanner paired with my very favorite Babylegs for her outfit. The scallop was very flower reminiscent and I loved the fonts and knew I had them and could use them for the rest of the decor as well.

I made close to all of the decor I made myself...you know the usual stuff...the pics from the actual party are not great...it was so dark and I didn't have my camera set on a good setting for night pics. I took some pics earlier and some after during daylight hours, but the ones from the actual party aren't wonderful...but you'll get the overall idea!

A sign to greet everyone (I had to brave -20 degree temps to get this pic!)...

Some flower cupcake toppers to top the always pretty AND delicious cupcakes from my BF Tracie...

(Stands are from Crate and Barrel...thank you to my Mother-In-Law for borrowing hers so that I could have a matching set!)

Napkin Rings...

(Paper goods from Plates & Napkins of course!)

Hats and a crown for the birthday girl...

Flower Lollipop Favors for each child to take home...

I always try to look for something fun to do as a guest book. I took a shadow box that I had here and lined it with some of the paper I had to match the party, stuck Avery's invite in the middle, and had the guests sign flowers that I made to give Avery birthday wishes. They just attached them with a glue dot. I am going to keep it up in Avery's room...a fun reminder of the party throughout the year...

I did not go at this party completely alone though...I found a fabric line designed with the same prints as the paper I already bought, so my girl *golden* hooked me up with an awesome table runner (no name or age so that it can be used for many years and birthdays to come!) and some napkins that had "4"s and "A"s with flowers on them that we used for serving food and under lamps in the living room...

Then I tried two new Etsy girls I've had my eyes on FOR.EV.ER. They did not disappoint and I was even able to trade products for some of it which is always fun and a money saver!

First PomLove...

These pics don't even really do them justice to how pretty they are and what a design punch they really add to a space. I used them both on the sides of the banner I made and then after seeing this on Party Perfect (via Design Sponge) I made a small cluster of poms and lanterns and made some garland from the matching paper to wind in there as well...

Then maybe one of the cutest things ever came from Lollipop Workshop...

I found through a friend and knew I wanted to do one for Ave if I could...meanwhile they started popping up all over the place. After seeing one on Bakerella here, I got the idea to make her her own little PDP banner...

This is where Avery almost passed out. It was her favorite thing at the party...her own little dolly with her own little banner! She says she's going to use it for her dollies to have birthday parties. =) That's my girl.

So after pics were taken of everything, it was time for cake...

Three screamers out of nine kids...not bad. Kids LOVE my hats, I tell you. Then just a couple other cute pics from the party...

Happy birthday, Aves! I love you!

A sneak peek...

After editing and editing and sorting through pics, I have all the pics ready to put into a post tomorrow that I don't have time to write this second...but until then I used a few of my favorite pics to give you a peek at Ave's party from Saturday:

Stop back for lots more explanation, detailed pics, and vendor info tomorrow!