A Lemonade and Sunshine Social for Ella

Yesterday was the big day for the Lemonade and Sunshine Birthday Social to celebrate my daughter turning two years old. I had planned special vintage touches throughout the event (you can see a blog post about my original party plan here).

I'll start by saying that is was planned to be outside, and have the feel of a garden party. But we woke up to rain and so we worked around it and had the party inside.)

Here is Ella, the party girl in a beautiful pillowcase dress by Three Sisterz:


A closeup of the tablescape. The pie plate is vintage milk glass and the roses vase is an old lard jar.


My fabric flag pennant garland, you can see more photos and the tutorial I used here.


The tablescape, complete with a victorian tablecloth and French cut glass vases. Notice the folding chairs? I don't have any actual dining room chairs right now because I am waiting to find the perfect Windsor chairs for this table.


A close up of one of the vases, with flowers from my childhood home in Maine that my Dad brought for the party. The lemons are in an Ironstone tureen. I placed lemondrop candies in old Mason jars throughout the room.


This Victorian doll was the gift my Dad brought for Ella. Notice the card? It is from the 40s.


Here are my party favors, lemon drop candies in little canning jars and my paper peonies made from coffee filters.


Dad brought a vintage pin the tail on the donkey game.


Ella didn't like the blindfold much!


The cake, made by a friend. It was a lemon cake with raspberry filling. Here is the stack of Pink Flamingo Pyrex that my friend Flannery lent to me. Now I want a set of my own!


I made these fabric flowers for all of the women and girls that came to the party. They are made from the same fabric that I used for the garland. I will be posting the tutorial I used later this week.


And here is the big moment, when Ella blew out the candles on her cake!


It was a happy day, filled with indoor sunshine and love!


Thanks for visiting, and be sure to check out these fabulous Monday Link Parties!

Lemonade & Sunshine Vintage-Inspired Party Favors

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How CUTE are these?


I am pretty much beside myself over how cute these turned out. They are party favors for Ella's upcoming Lemonade and Sunshine Birthday Social. They were SO SIMPLE.

I purchased two packs of 12 mini-jelly jars with twist-rings and lids at my local grocery store. The lemon drops came from Target at $.99 a bag (each bag filled two jars). I pulled out the leftover fabric from my Scrappy Fabric Flag Banner, and I planned on using the raffia for the lids.


There was a happy surprise underneath the jars--these labels!!


So initially I was planning to put a square of fabric over the lid and tie it with the raffia. BUT--the lids were so slippery and the fabric square so small that it was just impossible. This was my plan B solution--to use my new pinking rotary cutter to make longs strips of fabric and tie them around the lids.


Aren't they precious!!!??



I plan to place them in an old basket as party favors for my guests on their way out.



Oh, and here is Ella's rag doll, inspired by the tutorial from Inside A Black Apple--only this doll is nearly the same size as Ella, and made with all vintage fabrics (except for the felt hair.)


I hope you are having a wonderful week! I can't believe that there are only 4 days until Ella's birthday party!

I am participating in these link parties today--if you are visiting from one of them welcome and please follow me and leave me a comment if this is your first time here!

A Sunday Feature on U-Create

Hello and Happy Sunday! If you have popped over from U-Create, welcome! Kari was very gracious to feature me on her blog today--I have received many new visitors who have come through her blog and I really must say W.E.L.C.O.M.E.!!!!

So here is a little update on some of the ongoing preparations for my daughter Ella's upcoming Lemonade and Sunshine Birthday Social. First, the party is this Sunday--ONE WEEK AWAY! If you look back at this post about it, you will see some of the inspiration that I pulled from around the web for the party.



Initially I was very excited about photos 2 and 3, but I don't think my newly two-year old will actually keep a flower crown on her head, and I have decided not to use my old Mason and Atlas jars for lemonade as I remembered that I have a huge glass container with a spot that I am going to fill instead. I haven't decided yet what kind of cups or glasses to use--but my Dad is bringing me some of my Mom's vintage jelly jars--so that may work.

I have decided to fill the jars with wildflowers for the tables.


I don't have enough, so I have started soaking labels off of jars from things from the back of the fridge. I plan to have about 20 jars filled with flowers. I am also going to wrap the necks of the jars with leftover fabric from my Scrappy Fabric Banner.


Oh! And I am happy to share a sneaky peeky (a term my Bloggy friend Kim over at Small Words likes to use) to show you this item I picked up at a local antique shop. I needed a really large tablecloth and found this beauty!


Oh, and that blue piece with the sunflowers? Awww . . . I can't give away all of my tricks in the first week!

AND--you know how I mentioned Kim over at Small Words? Well she just finished a BEAUTIFUL custom-painting for Ella that I will talk about tomorrow!

Stay tuned . . .

XOXO