Fête à Fête: October 2013

Here is a sneak peek at my youngest son's 2nd birthday party. When my sister Katia from Casos & Coisas da Bonfa designed this charming astronaut printables collection, I immediately told her I wanted to use it for my baby's party. I am not a big fan of character parties (well, unless you consider Elvis Presley a character) and since he just recently started watching TV, he didn't have any favorites anyway. So an astronaut party was a perfect timeless concept for a boy!

image courtesy of Katia Bonfadini from Casos & Coisas da Bonfa

I didn't have much time to plan, but a quick search online yielded many inspiring results on the theme. Bellow is a collage of some of these enchanting parties (with links):

1. Frost your Cake by Michelle; 2. One Perfect Day Blog by Ness; 3. Maria Bekiaris via Amy Atlas; 4. Living the Swell Life by Jessica; 5. Life Frosting, by Chelsea (I ADORE this hanging moon cake, so creative!!!) All very talented and imaginative ladies, congratulations!

I printed a bunch of coloring pages from the printables collection and will have them available for guests to color during and/or after the party. I am also offering star-shaped crayons that I made myself (with a little help from the kids).

I knew one day I would have a good use for all of those broken crayons we've accumulated through the years from restaurants, airplanes and birthday parties. I never toss them and even pick up the ones from under our table at the restaurant, since I know their destiny would be the garbage can otherwise...

The kids helped me peel off the paper labels, separate them in like colors and break into smaller pieces. Then I tried two melting methods: oven and stovetop. I have to say that I like the range method better - it is less messy after all. All you need is an old pan, a silicone (or even tin) chocolate or mini cupcake mold and a sheet pan (to contain the mess of melted wax!) Keep in mind that you will NOT be able to reuse any of the utensils for cooking afterwards!! I had an old non-stick sauté pan (PTFE-free - if you haven't heard yet, you should read here about the dangers of using Teflon cookware) and $1 star shaped silicone mold from Target at home, so this whole project cost me nothing but my time (and LOTS of it - plus patience - I must add).

Other projects I've been working on...

Customized t-shirts to give as party favors - hopefully I'll have enough time for this project!

The shirts will go inside these take out boxes I found on sale at World Market. They were my inspiration for the polka dot "alien-green" and "star-silver" accent colors and design for styling this party (did you notice the table coverings on the first picture?).

I grabbed some craft wood letters at Michael's and painted them gray, brushed a coat of glue and then dusted glitter all over. I'm loving all the silver glitter and stars that are involved in this party planning!

Another project that didn't cost me much - I had some leftover wooden spoons from this baby shower and just needed to make some more using washi tape that I already had at home from previous projects.

Trying to figure out a way to hang these glittered letters up in front of the drinks table - they are heavy!

Experimenting with various green produce so I can come up with the perfect alien-green juice.

Assembling the cake toppers using hot glue, paper cutouts and memo holder clips from last year's party.

Making paper cones for grissini and whole wheat pretzel sticks to be displayed on my revolving ice cream cone holder first used at the Retro Diner Party. I just love it and it has this retro futuristic look suitable for an astronaut's party :-)

My favorite project was to make the solar system planets. It was the first project to be conceived but the LAST to be executed!! I made them all the day before the party using only a large piece of cardboard box, recycled aluminum foil, scraps of tissue paper and other embellishments I already had at home. Some of the lanterns I already had from previous events and some others I got at an "end-of-the-summer" sale at Pier 1 - lucky me!!

I tried to be consistent with their colors and sizes and used this picture as a guide. Source: solar system planet sizes

Here are the 8 planets all lined up.

It's all coming up so beautifully!! It's been a bit overwhelming to put together this birthday party considering our recent moves, home improvement projects, career changes, trainings, etc. But now that it is all ready to go and I can breathe again, it's so rewarding and I am brimming over with excitement - I can't wait for the kids to see the planets up tomorrow when they get up!