Our little gal Emerson turned 1 this past weekend and we went all out for her party. Some of our close friends and family came in from our of town to celebrate with us and it was a truly special day. Not to get too sappy, but this past year has easily been the best of our lives. Challenging, yes. But so very rewarding and full. Approaching her birthday, I got pretty emotional at the thought of Emerson going from a baby to a toddler. I already miss her cuddles and clings. However, her curiosity and excitement for discovering this world is contagious and I'm so ready for this fun next year together.
When I set out to plan her party, I really wanted to incorporate things she loved. Our house is set back into the woods and one of our favorite activities together is watching the woodland creatures in our backyard. We have wild turkeys, deer, chipmunks, squirrels and birds of all kinds. We really love animals around here. Emerson also adores the vintage Steiff animals my mother-in-law lent her and squeals every time she gets to pick one up and hold it. So a flora and fauna theme seemed like a perfect fit.
Many of the party details are DIYs-- the triangle garland, mustard wall banner and desserts and I've tried to describe how I made them below!
I originally set out to make Emerson's cake look much more polished than it turned out. But at 2am in the morning the night before the party, things got desperate and I decided to go for an impasto palette knife look. I really liked the way it turned out considering the circumstances and it was super easy to execute (frost a crumb layer, refrigerate, and then lather it on thick).
See the DIYs after the jump!
