Vintage Birthday Party

Today is my mother’s 80th birthday and to help her celebrate I put on a vintage birthday luncheon for her this past week.

I love everything vintage and have recently developed a fondness for vintage tablecloths so I wanted to incorporate those into the party.

The luncheon was held out on the patio in our garden.  Fortunately we had wonderful weather.  After a very rainy spring and early summer I was a little worried but the weather came through and it was almost too warm and sunny.  We pulled out the sun hats and sunglasses and everyone did fine.

I also have a little collection of vintage aprons.  Since I had to use my ugly folding chairs I decided to dress them up a bit with the vintage aprons.  I used a double sided tape to tape them onto the top of the chairs.  It worked great.

For the table decor I used my blue mason jars I had picked up last year for the backyard wedding reception I helped with.

I filled them with flowers from my garden and placed a jar on each table along with a couple of old, vintage books.

The only flowers I had to buy was one bunch of hydrangea from Costco which I used in the arrangement I put on the serving table.

I also used the blue and clear canning jars to display pictures of my mother through the ages.  People loved looking at the photos!

I also added some vintage inspired pinwheels into some of the jars.

I borrowed an old vintage quilt from a friend to use as a backdrop.  The serving table was right up against our fireplace and there was an ugly black vent I needed to cover up.  I ran a wire line and used clothes pins to hang it behind the table.  It worked perfect.

I basically just found every vintage type thing in my house and used it to decorate with.  An old shelf from my girl’s room that was in the garage, a sign from Tessa’s room, books from the family room.  I just went around the house collecting things.

My Aunt Pam came down from Canada for the party and brought me this beautiful hat she found at a garage sale.  It very quickly became part of the decor.

I like to use signage on my serving table.  I always like to know what I am eating and besides that it looks pretty!

The menu consisted of three types of quiche, four salads, bread, cupcakes and cake.  For more details on the menu check out the recipes I’ll be posting over at Your Homebased Mom.

The desserts were on a separate serving table.  I found an old rusty shelf at a vintage shop that I used to give the table some height.  I added more flowers and books.

I also stacked 3 cake plates on top of each other for the cupcakes.

The finishing touch was a pretty girl in a vintage dress and apron to help serve!

Since the party was back in the garden I wanted people to know which direction to go so I pulled out Daisy and added a sign to her so people knew where the party was!

The best part of the party?  Was just watching my mom enjoy herself with her friends!

Happy Birthday Mom – we love you!

Party Guest}Pioneer Party

My friend Sarah is amazing.  Not only is she a talented photographer and an amazing party planner she is also the mother of six, yes I said six, of the most adorable little girls you will ever meet.  And on top of that she home schools them!  I told you she was amazing.

Sarah use to be my neighbor until they moved out to the country.  We miss those cute little girls (and Sarah and Chris too).

Fortunately I can keep up to date on the whole family through Sarah’s blog.

Recently Sarah shared a fun Pioneer Party she put on for her daughter Autumn’s birthday.

Today I am excited to share with you Autumn’s amazing party.

One of the benefits of living out in the country is that you have friends and neighbors with barns which is the perfect setting for a pioneer party.

And farms and barns usually come with animals!

Sarah sewed up a batch of pioneer bonnets and aprons for each of the party guests – I told you she was amazing!  Don’t they look cute in their little pioneer gear!?  Hannah would look cute in anything!

In addition to playing with the animals there was a lot going on at Autumn’s party!

There was candle dipping…

and the candles made cute little table favors too!

There were also potato sack races, feeding the goats and chickens

felting eggs,

and making the biscuits and butter.  What a great idea – let the party guests make the party food!

OK, I’m tired after just typing all of that!

Autumn has pronounced it to be her best birthday party yet.

Happy birthday Autumn and thanks Sarah for sharing your fun pioneer party!

Surprise 50th Birthday Party

I am the one usually giving the party.

In fact, it’s been a lot of years since someone gave a party for me….

But that all changed this weekend when my sweet family and dear Beach Babe friends (a group of women I have known for over 20 years)threw a surprise party for my 50th birthday. I know, it’s hard to believe, but I am 50!!!

I have a couple of other girlfriends that also turn 50 this year. For years we talked about celebrating our fiftieth birthdays together, in Italy, taking cooking classes. Well, over the years life happens and things change and we knew that the dream was no longer a reality, at least not right now. When my Beach Babe friends heard about the lost dream they knew that the party they were throwing for me needed to have an Italian theme!

We were greeted at the door by this lifesize menu!

There was lots of yummy Italian food to enjoy.

 

I have some friends that are very good cooks!
 

My family had done a great job of compiling a guest lists and so many of my friends from different parts of my life were all there!

 

And my sweet parents were there to celebrate with me too.

 

My family put on an entertaining program complete with a printed program.  Thanks to my good friend Julie who is the queen of organization who put together the invite, program, menu etc.

 

Logan and Cali did the 12 hours of mom’s day sung to the 12 Days of Christmas – it was hilarious and their actions were even more entertaining!

 

On the first hour of mom’s day her to do list said….

One ten mile walk in a weighted vest

Two Webinars

Three Scrapbooks

Four care packages

Five diet cokes

Six grocery store visits

Seven trips to Anthropologie

Eight million pictures

Nine books to read

Ten recipes to cook

Eleven phone calls to kids

Twelve new blog posts

 

Next on the agenda was a song by my friend Merrill set to The Impossible Dream.  Part of it went like this…

“To write the unwritable blog, to bake the unbakeable bread, to live in the Garden of Eden…..

 

Clark and Tessa helped out with the entertainment too.  They put on a skit about Jim and I in another 50 years!  They were hilarious and pretty much nailed us!!  Complete with Jim’s plaid shirt and baseball cap and my multiple pairs of glasses!

 

Then Logan sang a sweet song from Fiddler on the Roof called  “Mama, a Rainbow.”  The words start out, “What do you give to the lady who has given all her life and love to you?  …..What can I give you, what will your present be? Mama young and beautiful, always young and beautiful.  That’s the Mama I’ll always see.  That’s for Mama with love from me.”

 

Of course it made me and just about everyone else in the room cry!

The program finished up with a few funny things from Jim and my Mom, or at least they thought they were funny!

 

The program concluded when Jim presented me with my birthday gift.  To read more about it check out my post over at Your Homebased Mom.  Of course I loved it and it made me cry too!

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After the program we had birthday cake, my favorite – lemon poppyseed creamcheese from Beaverton Bakery! 

 

And my husband made a sweet toast.

 

Thanks to my amazing friends the Beach Babes….

 

and my wonderful family for making this a birthday I will never forget!

 

Turning 50, just the beginning of a great new era in my life.  Maybe I’ll go to Italy for my 60th!!