Wild ONE Safari First Birthday Party

Wild ONE Safari First Birthday

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information. 

Wild One Safari First Birthday Party Decor

My sweet guy turned one this summer and I still can’t believe it. How is he already ONE?!?! As I was thinking of a theme for his first birthday party, I kept going back to his sweet safari decor in his nursery. So naturally, Jack’s Wild One made total sense! 

Balloon Arch

Wild ONE Safari First Birthday

I am really into balloon walls and arches these days. My rockstar of a husband is my muscle behind these projects and he is seriously such a trooper for inflating and hanging all of these balloons! You can buy balloon kits on Amazon or pick out your own balloons. If you are going to do a balloon arch, I highly recommend purchasing a balloon pump

Greenery Backdrop and Wild One Balloons 

MILESTONE SAFARI BIRTHDAY BANNER

I purchased these greenery panels from tableclothsfactory.com, spray painted them, and attached them with zip ties to create the size I wanted for my backdrop. Honestly, it was completely worth the money and effort to have this look. It made the perfect backdrop for the decor and photos. However, if you aren’t wanting to spend a little less time and money, check out these adorable and very realistic greenery backdrops

I found these adorable WILD ONE balloons in copper on Etsy! I absolutely LOVED the color! 

Monthly Milestone Banner

FIRST BIRTHDAY MILESTONE BANNER

I LOVE these sweet banners! It is so fun to see how much my sweet guy has changed in just 12 months! I made this banner with my Cricut, but you can also purchase these on Etsy. Also, if you don’t have a Cricut Maker, but love making crafts, I highly recommend the investment. I saved SO much money on this party by making my own decor! I was also able to customize everything and create exactly what I was envisioning for the party. 

Giant Balloon ONE

SAFARI BALLOON ONE

I first saw this idea on Pinterest (of course) and immediately texted it to my Jeremy, my rockstar of a husband. We bought two pieces of the 40 x 60 foam board from Hobby Lobby. I printed out the style of 1 I liked and Jeremy measured the foam board and cut it with an Exacto Knife. We then used hot glue to attach the sides of the one. Thankfully, the foam board bends really easily so that you can shape the letter. It is such a great statement piece and makes for a great photoshoot! 

Sally The Giraffe 

WILD ONE SAFARI BIRTHDAY PARTY

We just love Sally! My parents bought this as a “welcome home” gift when we brought Jack home from the hospital. She lives in Jack’s nursery, but was happy to be part of the decor for the party. You can purchase your own plush giraffe by Melissa and Doug on Amazon! 

Safari Highchair Garland and One Banner 

WILD ONE SAFARI HIGH CHAIR FIRST BIRTHDAY BANNER

This was honestly so easy to make! I purchased ribbon and tied it on string to create the hassle garland. I created the ONE banner on my Cricut Maker machine and attached it to the garland. This was one of my favorite pieces for the party! 

Safari Themed Cake and Smash Cake

Safari WILD ONE CAKE 

I just adore this cake design from Sugar Bee Sweets Bakery in Arlington, Texas! For all my local DFW friends, I highly recommend this bakery! I sent them ideas of what I wanted and they created this perfect cake and smash cake! I made the Wild One cake topper with, yes you guessed it, my Cricut Maker! 

Safari Tassel Garland 

For this garland, I created and printed the safari animals on my Cricut Maker and made the tassels out of tissue paper. 

Jack’s Wild One Safari Birthday Plates and Napkins 

WILD ONE 1ST BIRTHDAY SAFARI PLATES AND NAPKINS

These adorable custom first birthday safari plates and napkins are on Zazzle. If you don’t need them customized, check out this super cute party pack! 

Safari Themed Wild One Birthday Cookies 

WILD ONE PARTY COOKIES

For all my DFW friends, The Velvet Crumb created these gorgeous cookies! I highly recommend! 

First Birthday Milestone Sign 

SAFARI MILESTONE BIRTHDAY SIGN

I designed this in Canva and had it printed at our local print shop for about $40. It made such a fun statement piece for the party! 

Time Capsule Activity and Sign

WILD ONE SAFARI TIME CAPSULE

I think this is such a fun and sweet activity for a first birthday party! Since Jack won’t remember the actual party, this is such a fun way to show him how many people were at his party to celebrate him and who love and support him! I made the sign in Canva and had it printed at a local print shop. 

ONE Balloons With Tassel Garland 

Giant Safari ONE Balloons

I purchased these balloons from Party City and added tassels (the same one form the tissue paper tassel garland) down the string of the balloons. They were SO cute! 

Safari Stuffed Animals “Adopt Me” 

This was such a fun activity for the kiddos to “adopt” a safari friend! I found these adorable safari stuffed animal party favors on Amazon for SUCH a great price! 

Safari Party Headbands 

SAFARI BIRTHDAY PARTY HEADBANDS

These safari party headbands were so fun for the kiddos AND the adults! They looked so cute in all of our photos and added a really fun interactive and whimsical element to the party. 

Wild One Safari Water Bottle Labels 

This is such an easy and inexpensive touch to help keep the theme going throughout the party. I purchased this cute design on Etsy and used labels to print them at home. 

Safari Animal Cookie Jar Party Favors

WILD ONE SAFARI PARTY FAVORS

I found these cute jars at Marshalls and filled them with Safari animal crackers I found at Costco. I made the thank you tags on Canva and printed them on my printer at home. 

Lion Veggie Plate

SAFARI PARTY FOOD LION VEGGIE PLATE

I had SO much fun planning and decorating for this party! I hope this post brings inspiration for an extra fun and Wild ONE for your little one! 

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How to Address Envelopes With Your Cricut Maker

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information. 

The Cricut Maker is amazing. Just AMAZING! I’ll be honest, it took me almost 6 months to finally start really experimenting with everything it can do! I was so nervous I was going to break it or that I would waste my materials because I didn’t know what I was doing! But after a lot of research, fails, and experiments, I am finally creating some fun and beautiful crafts! I am in no way a Cricut expert yet, but I hope to be very soon.

I’m currently creating décor for my sweet Jack’s first birthday party! How in the world is my precious baby boy one?!? I’m having so much fun planning “Jack’s Wild One” and my Cricut is really saving me so much money on décor!

For today’s project, I’m showing you how to create beautifully handwritten envelopes with your Cricut Maker! I found these ADORABLE invitations on Etsy and I want the envelopes to look just as precious. I have been practicing my calligraphy, but it would take me DAYS to finish these envelopes! Thanks to my Cricut Maker, I can work on other party décor projects while my Cricut Maker addresses my envelopes for me!

Ready to get started with your Cricut? Here is what you will need:

Step 1

Open Cricut Design Space and start a new project. Open a text box. Select “Writing” under the style box at the top of Design Space.

Select the dropdown under font and filter the fonts to only show you the writing fonts. This will display all font options that will write with your Cricut Maker. For this tutorial, I’m using the Babette font.

Steps to address envelopes with Cricut Maker

Step 2

In the text box, type out the sender’s name and address or just their name if you are hand delivering your invitations. Select the text box and select more from the tool bar, advanced, and ungroup to letters. This will allow you to connect each letter to together. Just drag and attach until you like the way each word looks. Once you like how the name and/or address looks, select all words and click “attach” in the bottom right corner. If you would like the return address to show in the top left corner, take the same steps and create a separate text box.

Steps to write with Cricut Maker

 

Step 3

Place your envelope on the blue mat and determine where you want your text on the envelope. For me, I wanted the name and address to be between the 2” and 5” mark in the center of the envelope and the return address to show in the very top left corner. Use the grid to size the text to show between the 2” and 5” mark. Once you have the correct size, select Make It!

Move your text on the mat example exactly where you want it to write on the envelope. Click continue and select Copy Paper for your material. Place your envelope in the top right corner of your grid and press the flashing “load” button on your Cricut. Once it is loaded press the Cricut symbol to start making! You are done! How easy was that? Now just repeat for each new address.

What are some of your favorite fonts for writing with your Cricut?

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How To Make A Taco Cake

Taco Cake

Who doesn’t love tacos? Taco night is definitely a weekly staple in our household. Last year, one of our best friends was having a taco themed birthday party. His wife was planning all the details and mentioned wanting to have a taco cake. I immediately volunteered to make the taco cake because it sounded like a really fun challenge. I had never made a taco cake before, but I figured it couldn’t be that hard, right? Thanks to this amazing tutorial from Studio DIY, it was honestly a piece of cake! Ha! But I definitely learned a couple of things during this process. 

How To Make A Taco Cake

The cake batter I made was enough for two 8-inch round cakes so my husband decided to make one too so that we could have a little bake-off! It was so fun y’all. We took the taco cakes to our friend’s party and had everyone vote on the best looking taco cake. So I HAVE to ask y’all, which one is your favorite? 

Taco Cake

Side Note: See the terrible grease showing on the cardboard from the buttercream? I definitely learned my lesson. See my quick tip below Step 1 to see how to prevent this rookie mistake. Face palm for sure. SO embarrassing. Lesson learned. 

Okay now that you have already made your mental vote, I will tell you that my hunky husband won the votes at our friend’s party.  We both took one different creative liberty while decorating that made our cakes stand out. As I was mixing the yellow buttercream for my taco shell, I left some specs of white in the mix to make it look more like a corn taco shell. Jeremy decided to add some of the crushed Oreos to the frosting on his shell to make it look more realistic.

While I was so annoyed I didn’t win, it was honestly so fun and we had two cakes to enjoy! We even had a request to make another taco cake for another friend’s birthday the following week! And not that I’m bitter or anything, but my husband is a dentist so he is required to have steady hands while working with hand tools on a daily basis. Again, not bitter or anything! =P I’m honestly so proud. 

Date Night!

For a fun date night, enjoy these super easy chicken tacos for dinner and have a taco cake decorating competition for a fun activity and dessert! 

Are you ready to make your own taco cake? Gather all of your supplies and let’s get to decorating! 

Taco Cake Supplies and Ingredients: 

  • 1 8-inch round baked cake 
  • 1 Batch of Buttercream (Check out one of my go to recipes from Paula Dean) 
    • I started with 1 batch of buttercream, but depending on your recipe, you may need to make half of a second batch to make sure you have enough. 
  • Red Food Coloring
  • Green Food Coloring
  • Yellow Food Coloring
  • Brown Food Coloring
  • Orange Food Coloring
  • Crushed Oreos
  • 3 Tbsp. Meringue Powder
  • 4 Cups Powdered Sugar
  • 5 – 7 Tablespoons Warm Water 

Step 1: 

Cut your 8-Inch round cake in half. Spread buttercream on the bottom of each cake half and sandwich them together. This will act as your filling so be generous! Spread a little bit of buttercream on the flat edge of your sandwiched cake and place the flat edge on your cake stand. You should now have the shape of a taco on your cake stand. 

 

How to Make a Taco Cake

Decorate A Taco Cake

Quick Tip: As you can see, I made the rookie mistake of using a round cardboard cake board as my base to decorate. Since my cake is not round, you see SO much cardboard and it just looks terrible! And once you start decorating, there is no moving the cake without absolute disaster! This is why I recommend first placing it on the cake stand you plan to serve the cake on. 

Another Quick Tip: The birthday boy requested a strawberry cake, so of course that is what he received. However, the strawberry cake did make it look like raw taco meat when we cut into the cake. Ha! SO if you don’t have a cake flavor preference, a chocolate cake would be the most appetizing visual in my opinion. 

Step 2: 

Cover the cake in a thin layer of the buttercream frosting and place it is the fridge for 30 minutes to chill. This is known as your crumb coat to prevent crumbs from getting into your final layer of buttercream. 

Step 3:

Taco Cake Decorations

While the crumb coat chills, make your buttercream and icing paste colors. 

Buttercream:

¼ cup brown buttercream.

¼ cup green buttercream

Color the remaining buttercream yellow

Icing Paste:

Mix the meringue powder with 5 tablespoons of water to form the icing paste for the cheese and tomato toppings. You want it to be thick, but thin enough for you to pipe. Just add a tablespoon at a time until you have the right consistency. I personally needed 6 tablespoons of warm water. 

Step 4: 

Remove the cake from the fridge and cover the cake in the yellow buttercream until the cake looks like a yellow taco shell! 

Taco Cake

Quick Tip: Use a knife or frosting spatula to smooth the top of the taco and help create a groove for your toppings. See how the picture above doesn’t quite look like a taco? Keep working with your knife or spatula until you have more defined edges on top. I worked on this step until I was pleased with the top. 

Step 5:

Place your brown buttercream in a piping bag and cut a small whole at the bottom of the bag. Fill each side of the taco with the brown frosting about ¼ of the way up each side of the taco. Carefully coat the brown frosting with the crushed oreo pieces to make the “ground beef” for the taco. 

Place your green buttercream into a piping bag and use the Wilton 366 Leaf Tip to pipe the lettuce on the top of the cake. You will cover the remaining yellow top of the taco cake with the lettuce buttercream. 

Quick Tip: Practice using the leaf tip on a paper towel before you pipe the buttercream lettuce on top of the cake.

Step 6:

Divide the icing paste into two bowls and color one red and one orange. Add each icing color to a piping bag with a round tip. Pipe small lines onto parchment paper to make the shredded cheese. For the tomatoes, pipe tiny squares to resemble diced tomatoes. Let the toppings sit until set enough to remove with a knife or small spatula. I waited about 10 minutes.

Place the shredded cheese and tomatoes on top of the cake to finalize your beautiful and delicious taco cake! 

Taco Cake

I would LOVE to see your finished taco cakes! Please leave me a link to your post below. If you want a little more inspiration, check out this Nailed It! themed emoji cake decoration competition I had one my friends last year!

Cake Decorating Emoji Cake

Have you made an awesome cake? I would love to see your finished cakes! Happy decorating, friends!

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Floral Baby Shower Party Décor

Baby Shower Paper Flower Decor

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information. 

Pink and White Floral Baby Shower Decor

I love planning baby showers. There are so many creative décor themes and I love finding new DIY crafts to conquer. When I’m asked to host a baby shower, the first thing I like to do is ask the mommy-to-be if she has a certain vision for the shower. This is such a big day for the mommy-to-be and daddy-to-be, so I always want to make sure that it is what they want. If they don’t have something in mind, I will usually suggest three themes that I am envisioning and we will go from there.

The Baby Shower Theme

Floral Baby Shower Decor Crafts

For today’s featured baby shower, the floral baby shower décor was not difficult to select. This sweet shower was for precious baby Lily. I talked with the mommy-to-be and asked what colors she was doing for the nursery. I wanted to make sure that she could incorporate any of the décor that she wanted to keep into the nursery. Since she was doing pinks and whites for the nursery, I used those colors for the majority of the décor.

The Invitations, Thank You Notes, and Guess The Date Calendar

Designed by Forever Your Prints

Baby Shower INvitations by Forever Your Prints

I had so much fun searching for the perfect invitation! The invitation for a party sets the entire scene, so it is important to make sure it is absolutely stunning! I found so many beautiful invitations on Etsy! I decided to narrow it down to three and let the mommy-to-be choose! She finally decided on this gorgeous design by Forever Your Prints on Etsy!

I also love diaper raffles! When you order the invitations, make sure to also order diaper raffle cards! Include the diaper raffle card in the invitation. If guests would like to participate in the raffle, ask them to bring a pack of diapers to the shower and their name written on the raffle card. As they arrive, collect the diapers and drop all diaper raffle cards in a jar. During the game portion of the shower, draw a raffle winner and award them with a really fun prize! Just remember to make the prize extra special since the guests are bringing an additional gift! I love diaper raffles because guests don’t feel obligated to participate and it is a great way to collect a nice stash of diapers for the mommy and daddy-to-be!

I also ordered thank you notes in the same design! I had a station at the party next to the guest book and I asked the guests to please fill out their address on an envelope. This saves the mommy and daddy-to-be a lot of time and makes thank you notes a breeze! Also, don’t forget to keep track of who gives what during presents! That list will be very helpful when it comes time to send thank you notes! 

Guess The Date Calendar

This adorable shop also makes Guess The Date calendars! For those who are not familiar, a guess the date calendar is for guests to guess what date they think the baby will arrive! I purchased a butterfly stamp with pink ink and had all of the guests guess their date!

The Baby Shower Décor

Baby Shower Paper Flower Decor

I wanted everything to be covered in flowers with a show-stopping backdrop for the mommy-to-be to sit in front of during the shower activities. I found these beautiful paper flower templates on Etsy by Paper Flora. They are SO EASY to make and you can make multiple sizes from the same design. I chose my two favorite designs and purchased stock paper in the colors I wanted for the shower.

Paper Flower Baby Shower Decor

I made multiple sizes so that I could create a floral arch on the wall and I used fake leaves that I had left over from a Tropical Themed Baby Shower that I hosted to add a pop of green to the flowers! I purchased the Hangman Products PCR5 Poster & Craft Tape, 5′, Roll, White from Amazon to hold the flowers to the wall and it worked beautifully! This is the same tape I like to use when I make a balloon arch!

Floral DIY Wooden Block Letters

I purchased these adorable wooden block letters from Hobby Lobby and painted them white. I then glued small fake flowers to the bottom and up the sides of the letters. I LOVED how they turned out and so did the mommy-to-be! She has these in sweet baby Lily’s nursery now! 

DIY Floral Craft Letter Initial

I really love monograms and initials, so I purchased this giant cardboard L from Hobby Lobby and stuck fake flowers all over the L. I cut the flower off of the stem and just left a small part of the stem to stab into the cardboard. It worked perfectly and looked so pretty!

Shopping Tip: #HobbyLobby marks all of their flowers 50% off every other week! #DIY Click To Tweet

Floral Balloon String

I LOVE these gorgeous 36” balloons! They make such a statement when you walk in the room! For this floral themed baby shower, I decided to add flowers to the balloon string to give it a little extra glam! I took small flowers and leaves and hot glued them down a balloon string. The morning of the shower, I tied the floral string around the balloon and cut the actual balloon string off of the balloon. It turned out so cute and the shower guests were asking where I bought it! Purchase your own pack of 36″ Balloons on Amazon! 

Pro Tip: Party supply stores charge as much as $15 to inflate a 36” balloon with helium. Instead, take it to the floral department at your local grocery store. I took mine to Kroger and they only charged me $2 to fill this giant… Click To Tweet

Hot Air Balloon Floral Centerpiece

I wanted something extra special for the floral centerpieces on the buffet table! I saw this adorable hot air balloon flower box craft on Pinterest and I had to make it! It was so easy and looked amazing on the table! Here is what I used to make it:

Diaper Cake

Diaper Cake Floral Baby Shower

While diaper cakes don’t sound at all appealing, they make for fabulous baby shower décor and it is a great hidden gift for mom and dad! For this diaper cake, I decided to go with a black and white striped fabric and then use giant pink peonies to make it pop! Check out my blog on how to make a diaper cake here!

Pro Tip: Purchase diapers that are larger in size for the diaper cake. Most people purchase infant sized diapers for the shower. This will help mom and dad already have diapers for later! Click To Tweet

Mommy Milestone Wine Crate

Mommy Milestone Custom Wine Label Basket

I always love to include this with my gift! While all of the gifts are to the mom and dad, they are really for baby! This is a creative and fun gift that mom and dad can enjoy together to celebrate after the baby is born! I found these adorable Mommy Milestone custom wine labels on Etsy by Lush Label! Each wine label celebrates a different occasion after baby is born and includes a cute poem! You can have the babies name on the bottom to make it extra special! Check out my blog post on how to make a mommy milestone wine basket here!

Hospital Door Hanger Wreath

Floral Hospital Door Hanger

Help mom and dad welcome baby into the world with a beautiful hospital door hanger! This is a great way to show off sweet baby’s name and their official birthday as the loved ones visit the hospital! This also looks amazing at the shower! Check out my blog post on how to make a hospital door hanger!

Baby Shower Guest Book

 

 Baby Shower Guest Book: Guess How Much I Love You

Special moments like a baby shower go by so quickly! I always like to include a guest book for mom and dad to look over and remember their sweet friends and family who showered them with love and support. Instead of a blank book that may end up stuffed on a shelf, I like to buy a favorite children’s book for the guests to sign and leave sweet messages. Each time mom and dad read this to sweet baby, they are reminded of the love and support from their friends and family! As baby gets older, they will be able to read the sweet messages of love and support and know how much they were loved before they were even born!

Baby Shower Games


Munchkin Bristle Bottle Brush
I love playing baby shower games where my game supplies can also act as a gift for the mommy and daddy-to-be! The Price Is Right is SO much fun and mom and dad end up with a lot of necessary items for baby! I pick out 10 necessity items listed on their registry for the game. I give each guest a piece of paper with each item numbered. I introduce each item to the guests reading them all of the necessary information. For example, if one of the items were a baby bottle cleaning brush, I would include that this particular brush is BPA free, has a suction cup base and a flexible neck for easy cleaning. Each guest would then write down their estimated guess of the price of that item. Once I go through each item, each guests adds up the total of all items and the guest with the closest estimated total to the actual total of all 10 items wins! Mom and dad take home all of the items for the game and the guest leaves with a fun prize! Target gift cards are always a popular prize!

Baby Shower Food

Baby Shower Food

For this shower I went with a brunch theme. We had a donut cake, fruit tray, veggie tray cheese, crackers, coffee cake, quiche, Danish, and pigs in a blanket! For the beverage station, I had a coffee bar, juice bar, hot tea, iced tea, and water. There were very few leftovers!

If you are still trying to select the perfect theme for you shower, check out my tropical themed baby shower décor ideas!

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FREE Printable Wine Labels

Printable Wine Label

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information. 

Happy National Drink Wine Day! As many of you already know, I love custom wine labels! They make for a very personalized and thoughtful gift and they are great for parties! One of my favorite ways to use personalized wine labels is by gifting a bride a groom a year of firsts with a wedding milestone wine basket! We received this at our wedding and we had SO much fun enjoying the different bottles of wine for each new milestone in our marriage! I also love to give a Mommy Milestones wine basket at baby showers for the mommy-to-be and daddy-to-be to enjoy after the baby is born!

Wine Bottle Labels

Printable Wine Label

Free Printable Wine Labels

While custom wine labels are perfect for these types of occasions, you might want to dress up a wine label without having to order custom labels! Well thanks to FTD by Design, you can wow your party crowd with a custom bottle of wine in just a few minutes! All you need is a printer, double-sided tape, and a bottle of wine! It was super easy and it turned out beautifully! 

Wine Label Gift Tags

Visit FTD by Design’s blog post for their super easy instructions and to download their 6 free printable wine bottle labels for special occasions! They are all so adorable, but I think my favorite label has to be the Sip Sip Hooray! It’s hard to read that and not want to cheer! You can apply them directly to the bottle, or print the hanging label that you can easily hang on the bottle! You will never want to show up to a birthday party, dinner party, or family gathering without these show-stopping wine labels dressing up your delicious bottle of wine! If you love these gorgeous Mikasa Cheers Red Wine Glasses as much as I do, they are very affordable and are perfect for a romantic dinner or a party! Cheers! 

 

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FREE Football Commercial Bingo Printables

Football Commercial Bingo

It’s almost Super Bowl Sunday! I absolutely love hosting a Super Bowl party each year. Well, let’s be honest, I’m pretty much always looking for a reason to host a party. But the Super Bowl is just so much fun! The food, the commercials, the halftime show, and of course, the game! While I personally love football and enjoy the game itself, I know a lot of people who attend our parties each year really don’t care about the game they just like the experience and hanging out with their friends. So this year, I thought it would be fun to have Super Bowl commercial BINGO as a fun game for our guests!

2018 Big Game Commercial Bingo

Guests can use markers or candy to keep track of their card during the commercials! I have a first and second place prize for the first two people to get a blackout or who come the closest to getting a BINGO blackout! We went with a bottle of wine and a bottle of whiskey for the prizes, but you can get really creative depending on your crowd! I used 2018 Super Bowl commercials to make these cards extra fun for this year’s game!

Football Commercial Bingo

I have created 12 different versions of the cards! Click here to download your FREE Super Bowl Commercial BINGO cards for your Super Bowl party! Is your team in the Super Bowl this year?

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Wedding Gift Idea: A Year Of Firsts Wine Basket

Wedding Wine Basket - A Year Of Firsts

I love weddings! I seriously still cry every time I think about our wedding day. It was just so happy and even more than I dreamed and prayed it would be. My husband and I were blessed with the sweetest family and friends in the whole world. Not only did they give up their weekend to celebrate our wedding and marriage with us, but they gave us some of the most generous and thoughtful wedding gifts! I still have every single wedding card we received saved in a wedding memory box so that I can reminisce on the sweet wisdom and encouragement in each of those cards.

Wedding GIft Wine Basket

I have always loved shopping for wedding gifts for other people. I want to make sure I am giving them something that they will truly love! I usually stick to the wedding registry when selecting a wedding gift. However, one of my bridesmaids and her husband gave us something that was not on our registry and it was absolutely brilliant! They gave us a wine crate full of wine bottles and each wine bottle was labeled for a different “first” that we would celebrate together as husband and wife. It was absolutely beautiful. Aside from the fact that we were given a basket of WINE, each bottle had a different celebration for us to look forward to! First night married, first fight, first holiday, first dinner party, first anniversary, first baby, and first dental school graduation! The last one was very specific to us! We have joyfully celebrated with every bottle except two; first baby and first dental school graduation. Those will be enjoyed in our future!

Wedding Wine Basket

I loved this gift so much that I decided to make it for a baby shower I hosted. Now don’t freak out. This gift is for Mommy Milestones. Firsts for the mommy and daddy to celebrate with AFTER the baby is born. This was a big hit with the mommy and daddy-to-be!

Mommy Milestone Tropical Themed Baby Shower Gift

This past weekend, two of our sweet friends were married in Fredericksburg, Texas. For those who may not know, Fredericksburg is known for their beautiful vineyards. Our friends also happen to love wine, so I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to create another wine basket of firsts for the beautiful bride and groom! I found this lovely shop on Etsy called Lush Label and they create adorable custom wine labels with poems that match each of the firsts! I also used them for my Mommy Milestone Wine Basket I mentioned earlier. The shop owners are lovely to work with and their poems and labels are adorable!

Creating The Wine Basket

Wedding Gift Wine Basket

I have found that the easiest way to get the original wine labels off of the wine bottles is to put them in a bowl of room temperature water. I let them soak for about 30 minutes and then remove the label. I just use a wet paper towel and soap to pull any extra sticky stuff off of the bottle. Unless you are taking the label around the cork off, make sure the top of the bottle does not get wet! Dry the wine bottles and apply the new label. In my opinion, I think it is easiest to apply the side of the label first and then work your way to the other side. This will help prevent wrinkles! I chose a basket instead of a wine crate this time because I felt like it fit this country-wedding theme. This is also a basket that they can use in their home. I stuffed the bottom with plastic grocery bags so that my wine bottles would sit higher in the basket. I covered the plastic bags with this beautiful cream-colored sweater knit throw from Target.

Wedding Wine Basket - A Year Of Firsts

I draped the blanket over the edge of the basket and placed the wine bottles in the basket! This gift is perfect for any wine lover in your life and helps make many first memories so special!

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Fall Date Night: Carving Pumpkins

October Pumpkin Carving

Happy fall, friends! Boy did we have a full weekend of fall fun! We went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze (full blog review on that adventure coming tomorrow), tested out a few new fall recipes, and we carved pumpkins! Carving pumpkins is super therapeutic. You get your hands super messy, cut and carve, and pat yourself on the back when you are finished creating this beautiful pumpkin! This is something the hubs and I have always enjoyed doing together. We like to make it a full date day. We go to a pumpkin patch, pick out a pumpkin, have a fall themed meal, and carve our pumpkins while watching football! For all of my Frog fans out there, TCU is 6-0 and currently ranked #4! Go Frogs! Okay, back to pumpkins.

Let’s Get Carving! 

 Target Pumpkin Carving Kits

A couple of years ago, we found these delightful pumpkin carving kits at Target. Depending on the theme, there are six different pages with designs and four carving tools. The instructions are super easy and they actually work! Oh, did I mention that these are for 9 years and up? Carving pumpkins is not easy, friends. I will take all the help I can get! These kits are perfect for a date day, but they are also very kid friendly and will be great for a family pumpkin carving session. With that said, mom and dad, you will definitely want to help. The patterns are super helpful, but it is still difficult. 

The whole concept is also really helpful to create your own patterns! Just print out what you want and use the tools and instructions in the kit to carve your design! We always have a TCU pumpkin each year, so Jeremy did a quick TCU carving. I think he did a lovely job!

TCU Pumpkin Carving

This year, I chose Disney Princesses and Jeremy chose a fun pumpkin Halloween theme. We also saw a Star Wars theme, Paw Patrol theme, and Justice League theme. They had the Avengers and Spider-Man last year, but we didn’t see them this year. Each kit is between $4 and $6! They have 6 total designs that you can continue to use with your tools! This is a steal and you can save it to use again next year! After you clean out your pumpkin, tape your design to the pumpkin and use one of the tools to punch holes along the pattern. From here, I would suggest using a marker to draw the design pattern from the holes on the pumpkin. This will help you keep track and not just see a bunch of dots on your pumpkin! I started out doing the Beauty and the Beast them, but I didn’t draw it out after I punched my holes and I totally messed it up. 

Pumpkin Carving Instructions

Final Pumpkins! 

I decided to attempt the Cinderella theme instead and that went much more smoothly! Jeremy did a very convincing bat theme and I feel that it is just very “velcoming” on our patio. 

Cinderella Pumpkin

We had so much fun carving out pumpkins and we are pretty proud of how they turned out! Which one is your favorite? If you pick Jeremy’s, I promise you won’t hurt my feelings… ha! Have you carved a pumpkin yet this year? Happy fall, y’all!

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How To Make A Going Away Gift Basket

Gift Basket

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information. 

It’s not goodbye, it’s see you later. Right? Ugh, that expression is so much easier said than done. One of my best friends moved to Illinois this summer. Her husband received an incredible job opportunity and they just couldn’t pass it up! Thankfully, the move is temporary, but it will be for a couple of years. She is a southern girl through and through and I knew she was going to feel homesick moving so far away from home. I wanted to give her things that would remind her of home and comfort her when she was feeling stressed, exhausted, and homesick. Instead of buying her one thing for her new home, which is GORGEOUS by the way, I decided to make her a going away basket full of little reminders of home. Each part of the basket went with a different letter and each letter included an encouraging scripture card that fit that occasion. I started each letter with, “Open When You are Feeling….” My hope was that each gift and letter would help her feel better during that moment. I made her a total of 6 different cards. 

Gift Basket

Open When You Miss The Sweet Sweet South

Going Away Gift Basket

There are certain things that remind us of home. For this part of the basket, I wanted her to have a taste of home when she started feeling homesick. A local jar of Texas salsa, two mini bottles of wine, and a letter full of all things Texas.

Open When You Can’t Even

Moving Gift

I knew there would be moments where she would just be over it! Sometimes, you just need to get in your jammies and chill out! This gift included one of her favorite types of candy, a romantic comedy, popcorn and wine. This letter reminded her that home is not where you live, but who you live it with and to enjoy every second of this new chapter.

Open When You Feel Stressed

Gift Basket Idea

We all experience stressful days, but being far from home with a house full of boxes definitely does not help. For this part of the basket, I included a bottle of wine, homemade essential oils bath salts, and a book to read while soaking in the bath.

Open When You Have Your First Snow Day

Gift Basket

Moving from Texas to Illinois means a major change in weather! She would finally have a real white Christmas! I wanted to make sure that she stopped and enjoyed the moment. I included a mug from Magnolia, (I have a matching one) candy canes, marshmallows and plenty of hot chocolate packets!

Open When You Need A Mollie Day

Moving Away Gift Ideas

One of our favorite things to do is to open a bottle of wine, sit on the couch in our jammies and talk late into the night. We are also really big fans of Target. It is our magical place that takes all of our worries away. For this occasion, I included a bottle of wine, a Target gift card, and a card reminding her to call me anytime, day or night.

Open When You Open and Unpack Your Last Box

Moving Away Gift Basket
Unpacking is exhausting! I wanted her to have something to look forward to and clearly there are few better ways to celebrate than by popping a bottle of champagne! I made this letter a celebratory letter to help encourage her about their fantastic new journey!

For the actual gift basket, I purchased this beautiful wicker basket from Target. I knew that this would be something she could also use in her home for décor and storage. I packaged everything together and made her promise not to open it all at once!

Have you made a going away basket before? What would your Open When cards say?

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Baby Door Hangers For The Hospital Door

Floral Hospital Door Hanger

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information. 

Oh how I love sweet babies! I am not a mommy yet, but I absolutely LOVE all of the babies in my life. One of my favorite types of parties to plan is a baby shower. That is such an exciting day for the mommy and daddy-to-be. One of my favorite things to make for a baby shower is the baby door hangers for the hospital door. It is such a beautiful way to welcome the sweet baby into the world and it helps set your door apart from the other doors in the hospital. It also looks fantastic as part of the décor at the baby shower! After the baby is born, just fill in their birthday, time of birth, weight, and height! I removed the sweet baby names in my photos for privacy, but you get the idea. Check out a few baby door hangers below for some inspiration and learn how to make your very own baby door hanger here!

TuTu Cute

Tutu Baby Door Hanger

This tutu themed baby door hanger was so fun and SO easy to make! I had never made a tutu before, so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I read this tutorial to give me an idea on how to get started. Once I learned how to tie the tulle around the wreath, it was super easy from there! I just purchased a foam wreath from hobby lobby and covered it with fabric. It turned out tutu cute!

Floral

Floral Hospital Door Hanger

Oh I just love this wreath so much! I will share my full blog post from this shower soon, but as you may have guessed from the wreath, this shower was a floral theme. It was oh so easy to make and it really didn’t cost as much as you might think! I purchased all of my supplies from Hobby Lobby. They put their flowers half off every other week and I just used my 40% off coupon for my supplies that weren’t on sale.

Tropical

Tropical Themed Hospital Door Hanger

I became obsessed with pineapples and flamingos after planning this tropical themed baby shower! This wreath was so fun to make and I absolutely loved the pineapple monogram from Build A Cross!

Initial

Baby Boy Hospital Door Hanger

This adorable door hanger was for a precious baby boy! I wanted to do something a little more masculine, so I decided to just stick to a giant letter for his initial. I incorporated the colors of the baby shower and used some wooden dots to add some depth.

I’m always looking for new inspiration! Have you made any hospital door hangers to welcome a sweet new baby in your life?

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