Collette's Birthday Party

Collettes Winter ONE-derland party was so much fun. My mom and I had a blast decorating the night before and we had lots of Christmas decor that fit right in.

 

Collette's baby book served as the guest book. It's a picture book you can fully customize. I found Mixbook recently and have already made 3 different picture books and a calendar! It's basically digital scrapbooking and every one has come out cuter than the last, as I get more familiar with the capabilities. You Add in your own text including all baby book must haves (1st tooth, words, ect.). I did her pictures in chronological order and I left the last page blank so guests were able to write her a sweet happy birthday note to read when she's older. It was made from the website Mixbook,I usually start a project and order when they have a 50% off sale which is often!   

 

 

 

The favor ornaments were hung on a tree I had as a Christmas decoration and the jar favors lined up on the same table. The tutorial for these is here.

 

The cake was done at a nearby bakery called Pila's Pantry, and tasted great! The cake topper was ordered off of Etsy from ModernBlooms. I love how the topper came out, and its a great keepsake.

 

The ONE banner was also ordered on Etsy from LaCremeBoutique. Initially I had planned on hanging it on Collette's highchair but since it was too big, we used it as a backdrop.

 

 

Collette's onsie said Birthday girl on a pink "sash", I wish I had a better picture of it! From Madibethcreations.

 

 

Collette, to my surprise didn't even try to take her hat off ! The cake was a perfect distraction. Her hat was so cute, and just the right proportion for her head. After searching for a while and looking over many Etsy shops I finally found it on Kutie Bow Tuties. I told you I had an Etsy obsession:)  

Collette's First Birthday - Party Favors

Since Collette's birthday falls in December I thought it would be cute to do party favors in theme of the season. 2 years ago Anthropologie came out with mason jar "snow globes" and my mom and I made our own and they came out great. So after seeing some pink bottle brush trees on Etsy I had my inspiration. 

I found some little jars online at TomKat Studio, ordered the trees from Loveitshabby on Etsy and made a stop at Michaels. Initially I thought we would just do the jars but after recalculating our guest list a final time I came up 8 favors short. So while at michaels I found these empty glass ornaments and thought it would be perfect! My mom came over to help, we thought we'd just start them and ended up getting them all done in no time.

All you need is some "snow" glitter. Martha Stewarts is more expensive but after using it I thougt the bigger glitter flakes and color were prettier. I used a little jewel it glue for adhering the trees to the glass ornaments and jars, some ribbon/twine or any decorative touch you'd like! I also used a little jewel charm tied to the ribbon for some extra sparkle. The needle nose pliers were used because the trees.. even being only 3" were a little too big for the jars. They fit but it looked squashed so we used the pliers to separate them from the wood base, cut the trees wire a little bit and then reattached them to the wood base. It was an easy fix. The trees fit much better after. 

The trees were a little tricky getting into the ornaments. The wood base barely fit through the glass opening. First I straightened the tree, I applied the glue to the wood base, then carefully pushed the base through the opening, I used the pliers to lower the tree into the ornament and place on the bottom. I pressed on the tree until the glue squished out around the wood base and then in went the glitter. I used 2 bottles of glitter for 20 favors but I like a full look, you could get away with using less.

They turned out so cute. I made little tags and attached them to give the favors a personalized touch. I actually ended up "favoring" ... (too cheesy? Lol) the ornaments, the more I thought about it the more I liked them. Every year when we decorate our tree we will be reminded of Collette's first birthday. That year filled with firsts for all of us and the fun party where family and friends celebrated together.I hope it's the same for our guests.

Finishing Up The Trailer

The cabinet doors are finally back on. We decided to reuse the old hinges. We spray painted them with the same bronze spray paint. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above the dinette I decided to do something a little more custom. I removed the mirrors with the gold flowers from the cabinet doors.  I started by braking the mirror and then I cleaned all the edges with a razor blade. It was fairly easy and not too time consuming. I found these graphics on Etsy from Vintageretroantique. Then I used Printmoz and had them printed on backlit film the exact size I needed and then siliconed them in place with a piece of glass in front of them. The clear silicone worked perfect. The graphics were around $15 and I think I had them printed for around $48, the glass was $12. I'm happy with how they turned out. Sometimes your vision doesn't come to life quite like you wanted but thankfully I didn't have that on this project! I still need to take a picture with the lights on in the cabinets at night. It is such a pretty glow and gives off just enough light.

 

 

 

We cleaned the floors and laid down the vinyl peel and stick which we got from Lowes for a very reasonable price. The floors are Antique Woodland Oak. We also used a glue prior to laying the peel and stick plank after reading some reviews about it not adhering well since the camper is subjected to extreme heat and cold.

 

 

 

 

We love this key/mail holder. After our first trip, asking ...where did you put the keys a million times we knew it was a necessity. This one is great because it hold both our cellphones too. I also ordered this from Etsy by Masterworks888. << I have an obsession with Etsy if you havn't caught on to that yet.

 

 

 

We had some trouble with the metal bar that holds all the spices in the kitchen as you can see. We have finally installed that but not at the time of the pics. We also mounted a small TV. It has a built in DVD player on the side and works great!

 

 

 

I ordered the table and legs from ebay. The table came in damaged so the company gave it to us for free and we were able to salvage it. Beats spending $100+.

 

 

The bathroom still needs some updates, I really wanted to install a new toilet when we were doing the flooring but we decided it could wait.

 

 

 

The Before and After Pics

 

 

 

 

As you can see we have yet to recover the sofa/dinette so I'm hiding most of the sofa under a Pendleton wool blanket lol. We don't plan on doing those until next year but I can hardly wait, I already have all the fabrics picked out! Before our first trip we also put up all the old window coverings (not in the pictures above). We plan on replacing them with night shades... my parents new trailer has them and i'm jealous. They are excellent. Keep an eye out for my post when I redo the valances. Another day another DIY project.

 

 

This is our baby CC on our first camping trip with the trailer redone. It was a really nice trip, well ok the first night we barely slept and had to drive the baby around from 1am-3am since she wouldn't stop crying and we were afraid the whole camp site would hate us! But the second night....not a peep and it finished the trip off on a high note!

 

Collette's Room

Having a girl is such fun, I loved decorating her room. I love grays at the moment and most of the walls in our home are gray so it kept with the scheme. I knew I wanted a chandelier for her room but couldn't afford most of them! My mom and I decided to head to Ikea and I finally found a chandelier in my price range! It was $99 and super cute. Ikea SODER chandelier. I was worried about the light output, but once we had it installed it was definitely bright enough.

 

 

We picked up the pink crystal additions at the Rosebowl Swapmeet for $2 a piece. The shelves are from Ikea, the crib is from Potterybarn as well as the bedding for it.

 

 

Marie decal from Disney's Aristocats Movie is from Ebay. I'm a sucker for kitties.

 

 

We love the video monitor. I can't imagine life without it. It's from BabiesRus. The bunny bookends are from restoration hardware. Almost everything else is from TJ max.

 

The eterge is from Ikea, I just spray painted it gold. We replaced the top and bottom with glass and mirror.

 

The dresser we bought off of craigslist. It was the first purchase for the babies room and an exact copy of the one I had when I was little (wish I would of kept it). The ottoman I also found on craigslist and had it reupholstered in this sweet girly fabric. I spray painted the C above her crib white and used some of the fabric to match.

 

 

The tree decal was the last addition to her room and I love the way it turned out. I ordered it from Etsy from Thewhitetreestore. The decal comes in long strips and you cut the branches into sections and apply one at a time. It sounds like a long process but it was done in about and hour, maybe an hour and a half.

 

 

 My mom came over to help. She is very handy, and knowledgeable on many DIY projects. I can always count on her help and I know the project will turn out great.  Its so nice to have a project be fun instead of work.

We started at the base and worked our way up.

 

 

This decal came with almost all the tools we needed.

We did use our laser level to make sure it started off straight. Then we applied the decal and used the tool it came with to make sure its adhered to the wall, then peeled the see-through layer off. A few of the leaves wanted to come up with the paper. They give you extra leaves so we replaced a couple, everything else, as long as you move slow, adhered perfectly.

 

 

The baby is never far from our projects.

 

 

 

We had to cut some of the decal since I had a doorway. We also off set the decal a little. On the left we let it wrap around on the next wall. We were going to cut it to match the right side but liked the way it looked!

 

 

Easy project that gives great detail to her room!

 

 

My husband asked after the decal if Collette's room was done now ...that's a good question. I can't say because i'm always rearranging things, finding new things I like better so lets just say done for now.

 

To be continued...perhaps.