Goodbye September & a Garland Giveaway!

I can't even express how much i loved september. i love love LOVED it. in every possible way. It was pretty awesome. I had promised myself that I would make it a happy birthday month. I wasn't sure how at first since i know its super silly to celebrate your birthday all month. but i do ;)

 and this year i wanted to share that happiness. I kept thinking about how close my sisters birthdays were to mine. (we are all a year apart in age, that's us in the photo above :), I'm on the bottom left heheee)  We grew up celebrating our birthdays together. it was fun :) We all had a strawberry shortcake party back in the day. pretty awesome xo. What's even better is that we are pretty good friends too ;) So there the idea grew into a Sisters & Friends birthday party to celebrate being together. 

And this is us being super silly blowing out our 1 candle hahaa! ( i forgot to buy more candles :P *blushes*) I made the cake so stinkin tall, it didn't fit on the cute tea plates lol!!! 

We had to serve them on dinner plates :) i like that problem. i like it a lot. XO

I had this pretty felt floral I had made for a shadow box a few years ago. I totally think it looked cute as a cake topper. And purple is really growing on me again for some reason. Especially purple florals. And purple sprinkles. xoxo 

smiles * :)

girrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl you know that cake is workin' that floral. 

I made the cake an ombre purple color. You know, while ombre cake is "still in". Although i think all birthday cakes should be super colorful. And it tasted pretty darn good. Vanilla cake + raspberry filling + cool whip frosting + a dash of purple ombre chocolate sprinkles. I think this cake was as least 11 inches high. Its ridiculous. crazy. good. i might have gone overboard with the layer thickness. but i have no regrets ;)  

I also made a pretty fabric garland. i'd say me & the new sewing machine are fast friends. i was worried there for a second. but my heaven's i've never seen such beautiful stitching! I am giving total credit to the machine of course heehee.  

I went a little crazy making garlands.

is it possible to have too many garlands?!?

i made more fabric garlands + my very first doily garland! i know. i know what you're thinking. how did you muster the courage to actually cut a doily?!!!! i totally almost cried. but then i realized i really wanted a doily garland more than not have one so i picked out some of my favorites from a HUGE pile i've thrifted. and now i have this beauty.

Here are the left over bits of doilies. They look so dreamy right? My succulent is daydreaming of doily clouds lol!

When the time came to decorate the cups for our party, i decided to make them into mason jar cup holders. doilies are forever my friends. xo let not one piece go to waste. I've tried making a doily before and i can now certainly appreciate the time & talent that was put into its creation. i obviously failed at mine. so now i thrift them. love them. forever xo

i hope its safe to say that grannies everywhere would approve of doily garlands. because i sure love them. its SO much better than keeping them stuffed away in a box. I think i might leave it up for the rest of the year :)

I also created this little display for the coffee table. Its a butterfly I bought in Vietnam. I removed it from the frame it came in since it was falling apart. So this might be its last photo ever. but i loved it. Little r and i gathered the mini pine cones, feathers & stick from our many walks. i wanted to keep an earth tone to our little party so it seemed appropriate :)

I couldn't keep my love for succulents out of this party either. i mean look at that cutie. xo

the succulent not the chocolate ;)

okay so when i was planning the party i started with a really pretty color palette of purples + greens + browns... i added in the dark blue instead of the greens because of the pretty blue china i have collected over the years. i just figured it would be really nice to finally use it :) I then added the greens as my accent color in the form of succulents. I was pretty darn happy to show those off too hahaa!  That blue vase was a Anthro clearance section find! yay! it was less than $5 bucks and its the prettiest color. do you ever think sometimes you were meant to find something?! i totally think this beauty was meant for our lovely table. i jazzed it up with succulents i already had & its been on our table since. xoxo

pretty pretty greens. sigh*

i'm very happy to say that the table cover was thrifted for $1 & the table runner was .50 cents. I'm just sorry i didn't iron it before setting the table. wait. no i'm not. i hate ironing. hence the reason theres a wrinkly table cloth on my table. lol! but now that i see the pictures, yep. i'd iron the darn thing. oh dear. 

this party was kind of like my gift to my sisters. I thought about them throughout the process of creating & putting these details together. I truly feel like i put forth my best & my heart into every detail. We had our friends & mom over & got to share this day with them. It was so very good for all of us. We had such a fun time crafting, painting our nails, scrapbooking, eating & laughing. I love them so very much. I'm still counting my blessings xo. This was the best present ever. Sitting around my sisters & friends and getting to enjoy it all. My cup runneth over xo

***** remember i mentioned a birthday giveaway? *****

well, I'm giving away:

- A Fabric Garland ( pictured above)

- Vintage Sheet Music Paper Garland ( also pictured above :)

- and a little surprise "fall gift" ( it's going to be cute xo )

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment. that's it. tell me something about yourself. anything, what do you like celebrating? what's your favorite starbucks drink? do you think there is such a thing as too many garlands ;) or even leave a simple hello. i will pick a winner this coming monday! 

I hope you are having a great start to this new fall season!

-Happy celebrating lovelies,

-d