Flora and Fauna 1st Birthday Party

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! 

DIY Modern IKEA Tarva Hack

When I revealed Emerson's nursery a few months back, everyone kept asking how we DIY'ed the IKEA Tarva dresser in her room. So I'm finally getting around to laying out the step-by-step of how we did it!

The thing I really love about the Tarva is that it comes unfinished and is designed to be customized and jazzed up. I've seen several really awesome and inspired creations using the Tarva and I love that IKEA is creating products specifically for people who love customizing furniture.

See the full DIY after the jump!

DIY White Woodland Christmas

Last Christmas, our living room walls were dark paneled wood. I tried my best to decorate for the holiday and lighten up the mood in the room, but I just couldn't get over how dark and cavernous the dark wood panels made everything feel. It was right after the holiday that we decided to paint the paneling white. And this year, I couldn't wait to decorate our space. Everything came together quite nicely and I went with a white woodland theme. Some of my favorite details include our tiny gingerbread woodland animals on the mantel, cinnamon scented pinecones in the tablescape, and the amazing DIY customizable wall plate from adorne by Legrand on our wall.

To create our tablescape, I used live garland from Trader Joes (cut down to about 5-6 feet), cinnamon scented pinecones from our local grocery store, clementines for color, and a mixture of candlesticks and ivory candles.

 

To create the mantel display, I used more of the live garland as a swag and made a gingerbread woodland forest with IKEA DRÖMMAR and Vinter cookie cutters. 

This is the custom wall plate from adorne by Legrand that I decorated using metallic cardstock, boxwood twine, a tiny plastic deer head, and thin red ribbon. It's the perfect addition to our decorations and provides a lot of visual interest to an otherwise empty wall. The coolest thing about it was how easy it was to decorate. Almost all the DIYs I tackle end up taking more time than I anticipate, but designing this wall plate took about a half hour start to finish. Decorating the plate (not the electrical set-up, clearly) would be a great project to do with kids. 

Click through to see the full DIY and more details! 

The Ultimate Modern Baby Registry Checklist

1. Bassinet | 2. Sophie the Giraffe | 3. Boppy | 4. Wooden Rattle Toy | 5. Stokke Sleepi Crib | 6. Maxi-Cosi Mico Car Seat | 7. Video Baby Monitor | 8. White Noise Sound Machine | 9. WubbaNub Pacifiers | 10. Skip Hop Diaper Bag | 11. ERGObaby 360 Baby Carrier | 12. OXO Wooden Highchair | 13. Velcro Swaddler | 14. Jellycat Bunny | 15. Muslin blankets | 16. Baby Jogger City Stroller

When I was pregnant with Emerson and went to make a baby registry, I went a little nuts reading reviews and examining every baby registry checklist under the sun. In hindsight, I may have overcomplicated the process. Who really needs to read 200 reviews of a stroller? At the end of the day, you just want things that are awesome, functional and fit your style.

A ton of our friends and family are having sweet babes this year and I get asked a lot about our favorite baby gear. Here are the things we loved and used the most. I'm going to continually update this list as time goes on to share what works for each stage of baby's first year.

SEE THE FULL LIST BELOW:

DIY Felt Stockings with Tassels & Poms

When I was a child, decorating for Christmas was a sport. My Grandma (on my dad's side) and my mom would go ALL OUT and transformed both of their homes into seriously magical worlds. My Grandma chose a theme each year and would buy all new decorations to match. One year was a gilded gold with a white tree and my 12-year-old self thought I had walked into Buckingham Palace. My mom's place is always on point, as well. She has serious decorating chops all year round, but Christmas is when she really shines. I always try to sucker her into helping me decorate my place around the holidays. And now that we have Emerson, I'm so looking forward to the magic of holiday decor.

One of my favorite decorating moments was when the Christmas stockings went up on the mantle. They would hang there in eager anticipation waiting to be filled and all throughout December I would check mine to see if anything had arrived early.

So this year, I wanted to make personalized stockings for Emerson, Rich and I. Inspired by the ever-lovely Anthropologie stockings, I decided to go with a yarn tassel and pom-pom look on wool felt. Not only are the results pretty darn cute, but it was much more affordable than anything store-bought.

Click through to see the full DIY after the jump!