Egg hunts, cousins, and bridal tea invitations


Even though it’s officially been spring for over a month now, I still feel like Easter weekend is the magical weekend that announces SPRING. Maybe it’s the beautiful colors of the clothes and candy {my favorite? the beautiful speckled peanut butter M & M’s}, or spending the weekend outside with family. Either way, we had a wonderful Easter weekend.  To kick start the weekend, Molly and I went to a Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood, hosted by my friend Jessica and her son Graham. Jessica went all out with the decorations and sweets table; the kids – and moms – loved everything!

Doesn’t everything look amazing? Jessica has experience as an event planner, and it definitely shows!

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Easter Sunday, after church and brunch, we went to Beverly’s house for the afternoon. We all enjoyed the afternoon outside, watching the kids run through Benjamin’s new sprinkler and the girls learning how to interact with each other. Every time we get together, Molly and Addison play together more and more. On the way to brunch, Molly was asking for Addi Bird and when she saw her at the club, she laughed and pointed, saying “Addi! Addi Bird!” I pray every night that my daughter and my niece will be the best of friends – they’re practically twins, so they have to be, right?! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the afternoon:

trying to get a picture of the great-grandparents and all the great-grandchildren

sweet girls: hugs!

cooking up trouble already...

...annnnd switch!

I don’t have a lot of pictures of the boys…I need to be better about that!  Beverly got some great shots of her kids on her camera, so maybe she’ll post those soon.

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We’ve had so many fun, spring-like requests recently:  baby showers, wedding showers, and Sip ‘n Sees. We’ve done some really pretty, elegant invitations lately and I can’t wait to see pictures from all the parties.

A customer that we recently created birthday party invitations for contacted us about invitations for a bridal tea.  How lovely is that? I love a good tea party. Here are two of the designs we created for her:

So feminine and elegant, yet simple. They make me want to host a bridal shower!

{Inspired} Whooo loves owls? We do!

The other day, we shared two new notecards designs with you that my friend Andrea asked us to create for her baby girl, Tate.  Tate’s nursery was inspired by the owl crib bedding at Pottery Barn Kids, which Beverly and I had both ooh-ed and ahh-ed over when our catalogs came in the mail.  I may have even jumped up and down and said “Yay!” when Andrea said she was going to use that bedding for her baby girl’s room.  I first became obsessed with owls in the fall, when I wanted this dress for Molly:

Then I saw this bedding in my Pottery Barn Kids catalog:

And then, I found this adorable hat and these plush owls:

Zutano

Dwell Studio

Pottery Barn

So…after we made Tate’s notecards, we decided to create birthday party invitations for the owl collection.  We came up with three different designs and I love them all!  {For the record, Beverly and I are having a *very* difficult time deciding on Molly and Addison’s birthday themes this year…I wonder why!}

Which one is your favorite?

{You can find these invitations and the notecards in our Etsy shop.}

A labor of love: My Easter egg wreath

Last Easter, I wanted to make an Easter egg wreath, so I bought the wreath form but never got around to buying the plastic eggs. After Easter, I bought eggs on sale and put them in my spring decorating box and was so pleased with myself that I had everything I needed to make the wreath. Fast forward to this year:  I realize Easter is coming, we’re i the middle of  stalled redecorating/reorganizing project, and I can’t find the wreath. I’ve got the eggs, mind you, but no wreath form. So I finally go back into the attic, pull out multiple boxes of Christmas decorations, put them back in, look in a closet, and finally resgin myself to the fact that there won’t be an Easter egg wreath this year, either. The next day, in a moment of clarity, I remember that I put the wreath form *on top* of the purple storage container that houses my spring decorations and realize that it must have fallen off and is indeed in the attic.  So back up the stairs I go, pull out the Christmas boxes again and magically find the wreath form.

Then it takes me three more days to get motivated to actually start making the wreath.

And then I realize I don’t have enough hot glue sticks OR Easter eggs.

So after acquiring said items, I start making the wreath and realize that I didn’t put the eggs close enough together and then it’s time to get Molly from school and then we have an appointment and then…well, you get the idea.  So the unfinished wreath sat on our very limited  kitchen counter for a few days.

Until yesterday. I finally finished that sucker. Molly loves it, which is the only reason I made it in the first place.

Last night, I wanted to get a picture of the wreath before it got dark, so as we were getting ready to read Molly her bedtime books, I grabbed the camera. She saw me get the camera and ran after me, calling “Cheese!” Obviously we don’t take many pictures around here.

When I asked her what she thought of the egg wreath, she said, “Cute!” {But I think she’s the cute one!}

So now that that project is complete, I guess I should get around to finishing one of the other 2 zillion half-finished projects.  What do you think?  Have you made a wreath like this before? What else do you do to decorate for spring and Easter?

Monday musings – What we’re up to now

Have you missed us?  It’s been a while since we last blogged – and believe me, it’s not for a lack of goings-on!  Spring has sprung and with it all of the busy-ness of warmer weather, spring sports (baseball and soccer at Beverly’s house), and days spent outside with curious toddlers. Swinging and blowing bubbles are the activities of choice at my house.

We have been working on some super fun party invitations – a special Elmo party, a baby shower hosted by yours truly, and a pirate gathering, just to name a few.  We are also in the final stages of printing our first ever wedding invitation and we couldn’t be more excited about how beautiful it is!  Also, we have created some new notecard designs that are perfect for families and mothers-to-be.  We can’t wait to share them with you.

Sweet Birdie’s Nest is also in the process of a makeover.  We changed our logo/header a bit – did you notice?  We switched out the brown border to a softer gray, and finally added our tagline so that new visitors will actually know what we’re about.  {Not sure why we didn’t think of that sooner…} And we’re looking forward to introducing a new blog design to you *soon*!  We’re so giddy; I feel like we’re in seventh grade, the way we’ve been anticipating and giggling over this change.  If you love Sweet Birdie’s Nest, please continue to share us with your friends and family – we have been able to grow our business because of friends like YOU and we are so grateful.

Finally, on a personal note, I went to Beverly’s house this afternoon when Molly woke up from her nap to look at the wedding invitation proofs and when it was time to leave, the girls gave each other hugs.  It might have been the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Some days I cannot even believe how lucky I am.

 

{Sweet parties} Molly’s Bumblebee Party

We celebrated Molly’s first birthday over the weekend with lots of family and friends.  I chose the theme – bumblebees – after purchasing the sweetest smocked bumblebee bubble suit in the spring.  I was a little worried that it wouldn’t fit her now, but it did!

Beverly designed the adorable invitation {there were several versions – be sure to check out our Etsy shop for the designs!} and other paper products for me.  I had such great help from Beverly, my mom, my mother-in-law, and sisters-in-law to get everything organized.  Thank you!!

{My in-laws made the cutest sugar cookies using beehive and bee shaped cookie cutters; I made the bunting to hang on the mantle and over the dessert table after being inspired by Sara; the paper garland on the chandelier was an easy DIY project from Kim at Project Nursery;  the delicious cake and cupcakes are from local bakery Tizzerts; so many books were donated in honor of Molly for the Levine’s Children’s Hospital; the flatware was rolled in these bright yellow napkins and finished with the party circles!}