Little Sweet Pea

When my friend Molly contacted me to help design her friend's daughter's first birthday I couldn't say no...they wanted to do a "sweet pea" theme which I've always wanted to do AND she loved a lot of the colors and papers from Avery's party which I love.

And because I adore this picture of little Sophia I have to show the invitation a little closer up...isn't she adorable??

Happy birthday, Sophia!

Emmaline's Flowers

I have done a few flower parties in the past (like Grace's here and Jozlyn's here) and loved them all. Avery always loves when I am working on those orders, too, and decided a long time ago that she wanted to have a flower party for her birthday this year as well. This ended up working out perfectly since Megan had booked me months ago to do one for her daughter Emmaline. I got to design a few items that I plan on using for Avery's birthday, too!

Here is how it all turned out...

Can't wait to see pictures from the party, Megan!

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!

Many More Monkeys

Ever read the book Hand Hand Fingers Thumb by Dr. Seuss? Its one of my kids favorites!

"Hand in Hand More Monkeys Come, Dum ditty, Dum ditty, Dum, Dum, Dum!"

That's kind of how I've felt lately! Monkeys is a pretty popular theme...my own son Beckett had monkeys for his party, in fact. Since then I've had quite a few requests for monkey parties. Here are three that I've done lately...

The first was just a crown like Beckett's and some matching confetti. This was a VERY rushed order. She also was having Rachel from Goldenshop make a rush bib, too. Now usually Rachel and I would coordinate for something like this, but like I said, it was a very rushed order. The mom didn't even get to pick out paper or anything, she just told me the colors and had told both Rachel and I to use the monkey from Beckett's party. So I made the crown and then panicked that maybe Rachel's bib and my hat wouldn't match...but by this time it was 2 in the morning. AND I needed to ship the next day. AND I was out of paper. So I didn't know whether to even ask Rachel what she did, but of course I did anyway. And when she did we both pretty much were at a loss of words, because this is what she had made...
Isn't that crazy? We both used turquoise and brown stripes, neither of which we used for Beckett's party...it was total luck.

Then more recently, pretty much a day or two apart, got orders for two huge monkey parties, so here they are! I made them pretty similar since I was working on them pretty simultaneously.

First, Henry's 1st Birthday:The banner...
The door sign...
The high chair bunting...
The cupcake toppers and napkin rings...
The crown and hats...
And a closeup of the hats...
and the confetti.

Then Carson's 3rd birthday party. I just found out the other day this is the nephew of a former client who I have become friends with...I had no idea until during one of our email chats she mentioned that everyone loved the decor. Thanks for the referral, Heidi!

The Banner...
The crown and hats...
The cupcake toppers...
The napkin rings...
and the door sign.

Alright...enough 'monkeying around' for now. Some more Newman weekend photos tomorrow!

Party time again!

Okay...back to the ever going party which is my life! But first I want to say thank you to all of those who left comments, sent an email, or just said a prayer on my or MaryKay family's behalf. The wake is tonight and funeral tomorrow, so I know it is going to be a hard couple of days, but I am hoping since I got some of my moping done I can celebrate what a wonderful woman MK was and how that can make all of our lives better.

So anyway...back to the party...

I love the colors hot pink and orange together. So much so that I found an outfit for Avery's birthday that is hot pink, orange, and purple and have had it since the beginning of May. That's not weird since her birthday's not until December, right? :)

Apparently the pink and orange combo is the new "in" thing! I am currently working on 4 projects with that same color scheme! So needless to say you'll be seeing a bunch of papers used a few times, but all in a little different way.

This mom was planning her daughter's first birthday to look like this picture from Hostess With The Mostess:
She also had a few other items already bought such as these invitations from tiny*prints:and a picture frame, so she picked a font that matched what she used for those. It was fun, because she made her order right after Beckett's birthday and ordered some things that she obviously saw on my blog entry that aren't regular things in my shop. For instance, she ordered a high chair bunting (coming to the PD COLLECTION soon!) and matching ribbons to tie on her cake plate.

She didn't really have a "theme" per say, so when I was making a couple of the items I needed a little inspiration. This mom had seen Rachel from Golden Shop's stuff on this blog, too, so she had ordered a bib and a hat from her. I asked Rach what they had used for the bib, and she sent me this pic:
This wasn't Kate's ACTUAL bib, they changed it a bit with fabrics and design, but was the example they used to create it. So I drew a cupcake with flower frosting to add in a couple of places. Here is how Kate's stuff turned out:

The Banner

Somehow when I put this banner together, two backing circles got switched around in "birthday", but it is now fixed so that the two different hot pink polka dots are not right next to another circle just like them! Can I play the lack of sleep card?!?

The High Chair Bunting and Confetti
The Napkin Rings and Favor Tags
The Door Sign and Cake Plate Ribbons

More hot pink and orange tomorrow!

Our Little Monkey Turns 1!

It was a big weekend in the Newman household! Beckett, our youngest (and final, according to my husband) child turned one. We had a wonderful day on Saturday celebrating with family and friends. The party started at 3 and our last guests left at 10:45...so I'm hoping everyone else had a good time, too!

Now usually when I blog about a party, I give you the inspiration the client sent me for the party to show you where I started. The inspiration for Beckett's monkey party came from 2 places. First of all, he sleeps with a monkey that his aunt Kasey gave him when he was a baby. He loves to cuddle him to fall asleep. Secondly, we call him "our little monkey" because he's always climbing and crawling around on everything, trying to give me premature gray hair!

So after doing a little looking for a good monkey to use, I found one that looked a lot like the monkey he sleeps with, only it was wearing a party hat...perfect! The color combo I used are just colors I love, so I changed the monkey that I found so that his hat matched the decor.


As far as party pictures, there were far too many to choose just a few, so here are 33 of my favorites. I tried to include mostly pics that included decor (since that IS what this blog is for), but couldn't resist putting a few others in, too...hope you don't mind! All you other mothers will understand that in spite of my best intentions, I took very few photos at this party. Thank God my sisters and Mom were there to step up to the plate! Thanks, ladies!

I made everything you see except the bib, which came from my friend Rachel at Golden Shop...isn't she talented?! A PERFECT match. It was "the icing on the cake" as they say!

During the process of making Beckett's party items, a client requested monkey items, too. So, I changed the hat color again and made Coen's blue and brown monkey items. Click here to see how they turned out!

Thanks to everyone for being patient last week as I prepared for the party. It was a whirlwind but a good time. Now it's back to work...right after I clean up the party hangover which we call our family room!