{Sweet Parties} Benjamin’s Lego Party

Beverly’s middle son Benjamin turned SIX earlier this month and he wanted a Lego celebration! It took a bit of manpower and some late nights on Beverly’s part to pull everything off, but the party was super cute and best of all, Benjamin had a blast! Both of Beverly’s boys’ birthdays seem to sneak up after holiday rush, plus we had a slew of custom orders right before Benjamin’s party, AND all three of Beverly’s kiddos were sick for a week. I’m impressed she had a party at all!

There wasn’t a lot of Lego graphics to choose from, so Beverly created a Lego man to use on the invitation and decorations, and even Benjamin’s shirt! The one Lego figure was Lego enough to satisfy Benjamin’s desire for a Lego party but subtle enough for Beverly’s desire to stay far away from anything too theme-y.

Have you seen the Lego storage from The Container Store? It’s SO cute, and functional to boot! I ran over to our local store to pick up a few items for Beverly to use during the party and *bonus* – the boys got Lego storage out of the deal!

On the party day, Jim and Ben helped out by blowing up and hanging the balloons & streamers.

Jackson and Benjamin pitched in and pitched several rolls of streamers into the trees in the front yard. Very festive, don’t you think?

I am so glad we could celebrate with Benjamin {and Beverly too!}.

How did it become January 23 already?

Seriously. Where do the days go? Beverly and I have had an awesome {and awesomely busy!} January with Sweet Birdie’s Nest and life in general. I celebrated a birthday earlier this month and Beverly’s older son, Jackson, turned nine a few days later. I’m definitely not old enough for J to be nine! {I still remember the day he was born and cannot believe how much I love that kid! All of Beverly’s kid, and my own at that, but still…}

Molly {my only kiddo} and Jackson {Beverly’s oldest} have both been sick, which means they’ve been home from school, and the semester has started back {I teach at a local college}, in addition to a record number of orders for Sweet Birdie’s Nest. We are constantly blown away by our clients and marvel over the repeat customers and referrals we receive regularly! We seriously cannot thank you enough.

A few fun things from this month include this fun invitation we created for Evie’s birthday party. You have to check out this indoor park! I wish we had something like this in Charlotte!

And take a look at this safari themed first birthday party. I am in love with the color scheme.

Our bow-tie collection has been really popular this month, and we have had several custom requests. I just packaged and sent one of the new collections and I think it’s too sweet not to give you a sneak peek:

See?! Total cuteness! Be on the lookout for the full collection in the shop soon!

 

Better late than never…

I just realized that I never shared mine and Beverly’s Christmas cards with you!

Many of our readers are dear friends and family who received a card from one of us, but in case you follow our blog from the blogosphere {we love you all – real life and blog friends!} we thought we’d show you what we came up with.

I think they both turned out great; we wanted to test out some new features, so we both used the pearlized paper and I added rounded corners to mine.

I beg your forgiveness for the photos; it’s getting dark and rainy here and there’s a sick toddler sitting in my lap. However, I knew that if I didn’t do this *now,* you’d have to wait for this year’s cards. {Oh, and yes – we DID get our cards our just in time this year. I was a little worried we were going to be sending Christmas cards after Christmas! It’s the thought that counts, though, right?}

 

Ideas and inspiration

Beverly and I met this morning for a SBN pow-wow and some caffeine. We talk on the phone often and exchange what feels like a million emails a day, but nothing beats a good face-to-face meeting. There are a few changes coming your way in the Etsy shop that should make shopping a bit more streamlined {you may not even notice the changes!}, and we discussed a few new ideas.

One of our new thoughts is a menu planning notepad. I need a menu planner in a bad way, and since we were going to make one for ourselves, we are going to share it with you guys, too!

Something else we want to introduce is a new collection of notecards – we have ideas for some “grown-up” correspondence cards that we hope you love!

Finally, a Valentine’s collection is in the works! Think printable Valentine cards, party circles and more!

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I am *totally* smitten with Pinterest. I find the World Wide Web to be fascinating and intimidating at the same time; there are SO many great ideas floating around out there to inspire but am I the only one who gets frustrated that I can’t seem to keep up with all those great ideas? At least with Pinterest, I can satisfy my urge to be nosy and see what others are doing AND categorize all of those fabulous things I must try. And every once in a while, I come across something totally brilliant that makes me wish I had thought of it first!

Like this:

 

Umm, hello?! That’s a changing table that is now used as a totally awesome serving piece/bar/display stand for entertaining. When I saw that, I instantly wanted to run upstairs and put Molly’s changing table back together, but I guess I’ll wait for a reason first. But don’t be surprised if you come to my house and see that bad boy in action! I’ll be sure to take a picture and share with you if I do repurpose the changing table in this way.

Have you used your babe’s changing table in another way? Do tell!

Happy Fall, y’all

This past weekend, Jim and I took Molly to a local pumpkin patch. The girl had a blast and refused to pick out a pumpkin because she didn’t want to leave. We went on a hayride, visited the petting zoo, and traipsed around a field of pumpkins, all on a beautiful {albeit warm} fall day.

Sunday, we headed to Beverly’s home to sit on her gorgeous back porch, watch football and eat chili. The guys put together a propane porch heater {which we didn’t actually need on Sunday!} and made a fire in the fireplace for s’mores after dinner. Beverly and I also chatted for a bit about our upcoming 1st Annual Holiday Open House and holiday card designs.

Tonight, Jim and I made apple-stuffed acorn squash – it was warm and sweet and yummy and screamed fall. We get a produce delivery every Thursday that’s full of local produce; it’s really challenged me in the menu-making department because we don’t typically eat purple sweet potatoes or eggplant, but it’s been fun to eat seasonal fruits and veggies and support local farmers. I read today that we only have five more weeks of deliveries before they take a break for the winter and I’m already bummed about getting produce at the grocery store again.

The rain that’s falling now is supposed to usher in some cooler weather…I’ll get to wear my new Frye boots before I know it! At least I can wear my rain boots tomorrow.

{Celebrations} Happy birthday, Beverly!

Today is Beverly’s birthday!

Beverly is not only one-half of Sweet Birdie’s Nest and my dear friend, she’s my sister too! I was trying to find a picture of Beverly for today’s post but the only recent one I have of her is from Addison’s birthday party, as she’s coming down the water slide. And something tells me she wouldn’t want that displayed here.

Beverly, I hope you enjoy your day and gets lots of love from your kiddos! I love you!

{Gift Ideas} Girls’ Dollhouses and other gifts

Did you have a dollhouse as a child? My little sister and I got beautiful Victorian doll houses for Christmas one year – blue for me and pink for Whitney – and I played with it for years, becoming somewhat obsessed with buying furniture for it and then rearranging the furniture for hours.

My mom wants to get Molly a dollhouse for Christmas this year and I had so much fun looking at them, trying to decide which one I wanted Molly to have. The Pottery Barn one is adorable and very cottage-y, and of course the furniture and dolls are so sweet, but I decided on a Plan Toys dollhouse instead.

Once I saw this one, it was pretty much a no-brainer. Although Plan Toys has several dollhouses to choose from, I wanted Molly to have The Green House. It has a wind turbine, solar panels, rain barrel and recycling bins! And, the best part is that Plan Toys have a minimal impact on the environment.

I can only hope that Molly is as excited about her dollhouse as I am! I know I will have to restrain from buying a ton of accessories for it right away – it comes furnished, and my mom got the nursery furniture too. There’s a super cute dog house and an outdoor vegetable garden that we might have to have though!

Does your daughter have a dollhouse? Beverly is still trying to decide which one to get Addison. Any suggestions?

Some of the other things that I’m thinking about for Molly this year {thanks to Beverly’s ideas!} are a sling or carrier for her baby dolls and maybe a mixer or blender for her kitchen.

*Just so you know, I was in no way compensated for this post. I am really just THAT excited about getting this dollhouse for Molly and I really, really love Plan Toys. 

Introducing…my favorite new shape!

I’ve always been drawn to out-of-the ordinary shapes for regular items. For example, when we registered for our every day plates and bowls, I went with Pottery Barn’s Sausalito Square pottery {which they sadly don’t carry anymore!} instead of the more traditional round plate. My wedding invitations were a small square, as were Molly’s birth announcements. For Molly’s christening invitations, I chose a longer, thinner rectangle. And if you’ll recall, Molly’s second birthday invitations were a beautiful scallop die-cut.

As I’m sitting her typing this blog post, I realized that my new favorite shape isn’t really that new: I’ve had this picture frame on my desk for a while now!

{Also from Pottery Barn and also not available any more.}

Anyway, when Beverly found this punch, I knew I had to have it for Molly’s cupcake toppers and favor tags.

It made super cute tags, huh?

SO, I couldn’t wait to share it with our customers. Yesterday, I was assembling cupcake topper for a customer that ordered our yellow and purple carousel invitation and toppers, and Beverly and I thought the cupcake toppers would be *adorable* with the new punch! I contacted Rachel, our sweet customer, and she loved the idea. I snapped a picture of the cupcake toppers before I shipped them and I know she’s going to love them – they are so sweet!

I can’t wait to put these new cupcake toppers in the shop!

What do you think? Do you love the new shape too?

Back to Reality

Last Thursday, Beverly, my mom and I took off to visit Whitney {our little sis} in Santa Barbara, where she lives and works with her hubby and their two dogs. Would you believe that the *only* pictures I got all weekend were on my Blackberry? I have to photographer sisters and I have a DSLR myself, but Beverly and I didn’t even travel with our cameras! I have got to be better at taking my camera places because I know I missed out on some great shots.

Whitney made sure we had a wonderful visit and had full, fun itinerary planned for us. We celebrated our arrival in Santa Barbara with lunch from the Burger Bus, then we hit up happy hour and did some shopping on State St. Friday, Mike and Whitney took us to their favorite winery, Riverbench, and then we drove a little further north to tour Hearst Castle. On the way home, we hit up San Luis Obispo for dinner at Big Sky Cafe. {We also toured a wonderful rest stop on the way home, thanks to yours truly. Just like a kid, I didn’t think I needed to go when we left the restaurant!} Saturday, we had lunch in Los Olivos and visited a few more wineries, including one that pairs cupcakes and wine for a super yummy tasting experience. Finally, on Sunday we had the most amazing brunch {and dessert} in downtown Santa Barbara before heading south to Summerland to do some antiquing.

wine + cupcakes = genius

We arrived back in Charlotte this morning and picked up right where we left off. Thanks, Whitney and Mike, for having us for the weekend. We had a blast and can’t wait to see you guys in July!

Leavin’ on a jet plane

Beverly and I are on our way – with our mom! – to visit our little sis in Santa Barbara. Oh, what an obligation to travel to beautiful California to visit family, right?

Just kidding!

We are so excited for a few days away. I’m looking forward to a run with no humidity and we’re all looking forward to the wine tasting tour Whitney has planned for us! Beverly and I miss will miss our kiddos, that’s for sure but they’re in good hands.

I’ll be sure to post some pictures when we get back! In the meantime, if you send us an email, we will respond as soon as possible {in between wine tastings, of course!}.