Thoughtful Thursday

Birthday Party Planning

With Sally's birthday a little over a month away, party plan are in full swing over here at the Moske house. I love a reason to throw a party and I LOVE my girl...add the two together...I'm in heaven :) Sally is really into Minnie Mouse. I may have had something to do with that. Hey, I have to make sure she loves Disney World as much as me! I decided that this year we would do a Minnie Mouse party...but old Minnie Mouse...the red and black. I'm not really into the pink Minnie...just a personal preference.  I feel like with the holidays and then we were out of town for a week...it has snuck up on me. Here are my plans.

I was going to make my own invitations, but realized it would just be easier for everyone if I ordered them. Here are the ones I got. 

For favors, I want to either do white buckets or polka dot gable boxes. I have been collecting goodies to fill these with for weeks.

I will be having a photo booth so we can get pictures of all of the guests. I will have a backdrop and some props to pose with. I will use the pictures to make a small keepsake album for Sally.

I am making ears...maybe not for every single guest...but for all the kids and then a few extras. I ordered some headbands off ebay. Hopefully they get here soon.

Of course I am having a dessert table. I really like these set ups.

For the first one, I am thinking a rag garland in place of the tassel and obviously the colors would be a mix of red, black and white.

I will be making cupcakes like this complete with fondant bows and ears.

I will be doing fruit in red and black cups like this.

Drinks will be served in my starbucks bottles. I have black and white striped straws...now I just need to decide if I want to wrap ribbon around the top like this,

or put a label on them like this.

I will be making a wreath like this for the front door.

I will also be making a banner like this for a black frame I have very similar to this. I will add pictures of Sally :)

Joe and I will be making Sally a Minnie car.

Do you have any great Minnie ideas that you want to share?

My Holiday Home Tour {2013}

Yes, Christmas is over and it is January 2014, but I am still sharing my Christmas decorations...because life was too hectic to post about it earlier. I was just enjoying the family time and craziness and traveling that is Christmas.

So let's get to it shall we?

Here is the view from the front door when you walk in. 

Here is my entry hall table with my silver tree/vintage ornament collection and a glass jar that I filled with fake snow, fake evergreen and a silver deer.

On our small but cute banister, I wrapped garland and finished it off with small silver ball ornaments and a burlap bow that I made.

 

I have my Christmas cards displayed on a lighted garland leading into the dining room. 

Here is my tablescape. I tried to go with a natural look...black and white checked fabric runner, a lantern with pinecones, evergreen and burlap and mercury glass. 

I wanted to have another tree in here so we grabbed a cheap (real) one at Lowes. I put it in a vintage galvanized tun and decorated it with burlap balls, newsprint birds, and white pom trim. I love the way it turned out and I cannot wait to collect more ornaments for it.

On our other door leading into the laundry area, I have a vintage sled, fishing bucket and wooden crate with a lighted tree and a DIY JOY sign that I made last minute. 

In the laundry room, I have two Katie Daisy prints on my wooden clip frames.

I decorated the mudroom area with quotes from Elf (free from Pinterest) and Sally's art from school.

Here are pictures from the kitchen. I decorated the butlers pantry with a free printable from Pinterest, cute snowman salt/pepper shakers, a jar of candy canes, etc.

In the den, I have a Christmas tree made from green books. I just grabbed all the ones I could find off the shelf in our office and stacked them up. 

I had a lot of fun doing the mantle. I used a old window and made a garland spelling "peace" out of glittered letters. I put out my mercury glass collection and used real clippings to fill in the space.

Here is our pretty tree :)

I put some of our Christmas books in my vintage olive bucket.

I displayed my collection of Christmas pop ups and other adult books in an old locker basket.

Here is a view.

In the entry leading to the other den, I have a garland with my collection of cupcake ornaments...yes I collect cupcake ornaments.

In the den, I added a few things to the shelf to make it more festive...bottle brush trees and vintage letter blocks. 

I had to decorate the guest room....since we were having guests (my brother and his wife). I have a small tree that I made a button garland for. It has starfish ornaments on it :)

I have a pretty angel and some vintage sign letters. I also spelled out "believe" with scrabble letters.

On the tall dresser I filled a jar with vintage marbles, a jar with jingle bells and a cute little elf.

I added a fun pink tree to the guest bath upstairs.

Here is Sally's room :) I grabbed the garland from Target and LOVE it!! I ordered her a white tree and decorated with non breakable ornaments. I also switched out her regular art prints for some free Pinterest printables. 

So there you go...my house in Christmas 2013 :) I had a lot of fun decorating and cannot wait to do it all again next year!