I wanted to subtitle this post: How to Outsource an Entire Birthday Party because in essence, that’s what I did. I fretted about it for about a minute; after all, I can use scissors and glue and could probably have made pinwheels and decorations myself, but given that we just moved, have a new nanny, have had too many illnesses to count, have a stove with a finicky oven (meaning no way was I going to attempt a cake), etc., etc., it seemed wise to just buy everything. But — and here’s the catch — I didn’t want it to look like some pre-packed party from the party store. I wanted it to look creative and unique and just like I did it all myself, which many of the party  goers thought. Haha! Fooled them!

The Occasion: My son’s first birthday

The Location: Our temporary rental (while our house is being built). 2BR, teeny tiny, so we limited the guest list to 20.

The Theme: My son loves anything that spins so I came up with the idea to do pinwheels. I also wanted a “color story” and focused on orange and yellow with pops of red.

The Planning: I did nearly all my research online (surprise, surprise) and used Evernote to keep track. You can see my notebook here. There are all sorts of random pinwheel things I found, including pinwheel jewelry (I contemplated wearing some) and shirts for Hunter to wear. I’m a HUGE fan of Evernote and will tell you more about it next week for Tech Tuesday.

The Vendors:

• Email invitations: I contacted Ariana at Becoming-Mom, because she just opened an Etsy store and she designed some darling pinwheel invitations for me. (If you haven’t read her blog, yet, you should check it out. It’s one of my favorites.)
• Pinwheels, pendant banner (with pinwheels), pinwheel favor boxes: Twirlie Whirlies Etsy shop. She could not have been more pleasant and fun to work with. I picked four papers from her selections and she made pinwheel after pinwheel for me. They were “real” pinwheels, too (meaning they spin) and the pendant banner she made is SO cute that we’re putting it in Hunter’s room. The stuff was perfectly packaged and really, really cute.
• Photo banner (also with pinwheels!): This custom banner was made by MaryHadALittleParty’s Etsy shop. When it arrived and my husband saw all the photos of Hunter, he got very choked up and quietly asked me if there was a way we could preserve this for him some day. I emailed her pictures from each month of the last year and she picked the ones that worked best in her format. She stuck with yellow, orange and red circles and added some pinwheels to the end. Really sweet.
• Pinwheel repositionable wall decals: These were a stroke of luck: bright, colorful pinwheel wall decals from Flair4All. I also bought some alphabet decals from them to spell out things like “Happy Birthday.” These are all going in his room as decorations. (I figure even though we’re only here for six months, I can totally use a lot of this stuff to decorate his room!)
• Food/Cake: The cake was made by a local woman who works with a friend of mine, so I don’t have a link to share with you. I gave her very little direction beyond “pinwheels” and love what she came up with. The food came from SouperJenny’s, which if you’re here in Atlanta, you probably already know about. The only catch with the food is that the party was on Sunday and they aren’t open on Sunday so we had to pick it all up Saturday. Our fridge is WAY TOO SMALL so we had to drop it all off at a friend’s house. The same friend who knows the Cake Lady. Good friends.
• Lollipops, candy: I found all the candy at a local candy store and got the jars at the Container Store. If you don’t have a candy shop locally, Google “whirly” or “swirly” lollipops. Lots of folks sell them online. I also got the favor boxes at the Container Store.

The Result: My dad, sister-in-law and niece came in for the party which was soooo nice. My best friend, who is insanely busy with her own kids, was able to make it (we held the party on Sunday to work around her kids’ schedule), as were several other close friends. Hunter was a bit overwhelmed by all the people. He did NOT smash his cake. Just kind of looked at it like, “Huh? What am I supposed to do with this?” All in all, a fun time.

OK, enough talk. Time for some pictures!

Today’s post is a two-fer, meaning I’m including it in both the Works for Me Wednesday series AND the Wordless/Wordful Wednesday series. For more great Works-for-me-Wednesday tips, check out WeAreThatFamily. And for more great pictures, go to SevenClownCircus, 5MinutesforMom, and WordlessWednesday.

Today’s the day we close on the sale of our house! Yay! So naturally, I have a lot of decorating things open in the browser.

Did you know chalkboard paint comes in COLORS? Apartment Therapy blogged about this the other day and it’s WAY cooler than plain old black chalkboard paint. Not sure what we’re going to chalkboard up, but this is on our idea list for sure. (Can’t do much for the next six months unless it’s to our furniture; we’re renting while we build our house.)

Customize your own Jonathan Adler piece. Are you freakin’ kidding me? Jonathan Adler lets you make your own pillows, rugs, and bags. HOW AWESOME IS THIS? How will I ever decide what to get? As my friend, Rene, says “Eeek!”

My dream kitchen. Saw this pic in one of those kitchen magazines, showed it to the builder, and this has officially become our “inspiration kitchen.” Love the banquette, love the beam pattern design on the ceiling, love it all! Love the Persian rug under the table but think that will have to wait till my son is a LOT older. For now, it’ll be bare or with a splat mat!

I’ve been super busy working on a couple of presentations for upcoming speaking gigs. I love doing the research but find myself distracted because we also have to finalize the plans for the new house (more research) and pack up all our stuff with an 11-month old who has picked NOW to start getting wigged out by new people, places and things.

So it’s stressful but it’s a good, happy kind of stress. My husband and I are going to build our dream home — and it’s going to be pretty “green” (environmentally friendly) with great energy efficiency. Our baby is going to get to grow up in this new house which will be healthier for him and the planet. And we’ll be living in a neighborhood that I LOVE. I really can’t wait.

In the meantime, I’ll be a little nuts and I’m sure it’ll be reflected in even more random posts than usual. Bear with me!

Open in the browser right now:

Another cute owl mobile that didn’t make my owl post. I saw this on Gifts Define Facebook page. It was a custom order and I said, “hey, you should make that available in your shop,” and they did – the day after my owl post went live. I wanted you owl-lovin’ folks to see it, though, as I think it would make a darling addition to an owl or woodland creature themed nursery.

Pregnancy Posts. I am loving the pregnancy posts at DesignMom. DesignMom is pregnant (with her sixth!) and is posting pregnancy stories from other women. They are well-written, some touching, some funny, but all of them made me smile. Even though I HATED being pregnant (something I’m going to tell you more about next week).

My Best Friend’s Birthday. Today is Terri’s birthday. She is my best friend. You know the one you can call for anything, any time. We’ve known each other for 17 years and through a series of jobs and coincidences, have actually lived in three states, worked at the same companies, and lived in the same zip codes. She is an amazing woman and I wanted all of you to know it. Here’s one of my favorite wedding day pics of the two of us. Even though you can’t see our faces, I think it says it all. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, T!

A good friend of mine is going with an owl theme for his daughter’s 1-year birthday. I sent him some ideas the other day and then I noticed on our Facebook page that one of this blog’s readers, Courtney, is going with an owl theme for her daughter’s nursery. I posted some  links for her, too.

And then I thought, duh, maybe other people would like links to cool owl stuff for babies? So here you go, by request, sort of, my list of owl stuff.

Bedding: Pottery Barn Kids Brooke Collection

Toy Box: Etsy Shop ModMomFurniture

Mini Owl Stuffed Animals: Perfect for a baby’s room or party favors from Etsy seller AprilFoss

Wall Decals: Repositionable fabric decals (forest creatures) from Etsy seller LoveMaeStore

Mobile: Check out this bamboo, laser-cut owl mobile from Branch (eco-friendly shop) – not pictured above but it’s cute!

Birthday Party or Baby Shower:  Cupcake toppers and party decorations from Etsy seller CiaoBambino

Perfect Little Owl Outfit: Zutano Owls print (register for our giveaway – deadline TONIGHT at midnight – and win it!)

Hand-Made Owl Shoes: These baby shoes from Bugaloo are sooo cute! I just ordered a pair for my son.

Looking for ideas for your nursery or party? Or just gift ideas in general? Email me at sherean at gmail dot com and I’ll see what I can rustle up.

This post is part of the Works for Me Wednesday series, hosted by WeAreThatFamily. Lots of great tips and tricks there every Wednesday!

When I was pregnant, someone asked me what theme I was going with for the nursery.  “Theme? What do you mean?” I asked, “Like Winnie the Pooh?” No offense to Pooh fans but cutesie themes made me gag worse than chicken (I didn’t have food cravings when I was pregnant but I had serious food aversions).

I wanted a modern nursery, stylish, but with some whimsy.  I figured that the nursery was for me: until my son was old enough to tell me that he absolutely, positively loves Thomas the Train more than anything else, I’d be choosing the decor.  Later, he can go all train-happy if he wants. (Just please, God, let it be trains and not NASCAR.)

OK, now that I’ve offended all the NASCAR Winnie the Pooh lovers, here’s what I decided on for the nursery:  black and white with pops of bright yellow.  My inspiration was one of my shirts. Y’all remember when INC (International Concepts) had a sea of black, white and bright yellow clothes?

I searched and searched for bedding in my chosen colors and found nothing. Most of the black and white stuff I found was damask which felt too girlie for me. (Even though the room was for me, I did want it to transition into a little boy’s room some day.)  Then I came across this set and thought it’d make a good base. Of course, I didn’t use the bumper or quilt, so that was a big waste of money. If you decide to go bumper-less, save yourself the money and buy a sheet, crib skirt, and curtains to match. Voila! Instant design. Get a rug, too, if you can find one you like.

Since I couldn’t find bedding with a pop of yellow, I went nuts and painted the walls bright yellow. No wonder the kid won’t take naps. One pregnant, insomnia-filled night, I decided I wanted a wall of black shelves so I searched and found nothing and decided right then and there that my husband should take up woodworking, which he sort of did, and made some built-in shelves. (They turned out great, Honey!) I also decided the baby should have something hand made from each of us so Christopher took some of his childhood Legos and made the Lego Dude on the ledge.  I have yet to make my hand made item. But I bought lots of stuff on Etsy that other people made. That has to count for something, right?

Anyhow, time for the pictures, which is what you really came for, right? Keep in mind, I am no decorator. It’s not as neat and tidy as those adorable rooms I see over at ProjectNursery, for example. But I’m proud of it. It’s different and it suits us.

And you know the best part? Since we’re moving in a few weeks, I get to do it all over again! (Seriously, we’re going to be in a rental while we build so I can’t do much but I’m thinking of going with a green wall color and buying some re-positionable wall decals to spruce it up a bit. It’ll be Nursery 2.0.)

Items in the Room:

Baby Cache Manhattan Nursery Furniture from BabiesRUs

Wall ledges from Michael’s

Canvas storage bins from Container Store

Artwork – free -from artist Kal Barteski (cheap frames from Michael’s)

Down East Midnight Bedding from Carousel Designs (only available in their outlet; if you want black and white, check out their Black and White dots collection, which is similar)

Dandelion wall decal (large) from Etsy seller LewasDesigns

Here’s what’s open in my browser right now:

The Bumbo potty training seat. We never used a Bumbo. That was one thing our kid figured out early (sitting) and he’s still sitting today (instead of crawling). But I just read on CoolMomPicks about this Bumbo seat for the toilet and I’m filing it away for future reference. Any potty-training experienced mommas out there want to weigh in on this? Is this a genius idea or just another thing desperate parents waste their money on?

Infant and Children’s Tylenol Recall. Here’s a list of all the recalled box numbers. But notice it’s a long list of teeny, tiny numbers. <sigh> No time to pore through each one so here’s what I did. I found the box of Infant Tylenol we have at home, looked for the code on the bottom, went to the recall list on my browser, hit the Control Key plus “F” (ctrl+f) which brings up a “Find” dialogue box. I typed the lot number in there and it highlighted it for me on the page. (If yours isn’t recalled, it won’t find it.) Quick and easy!

Pinwheel Birthday Idea. This is really coming together. Found cute pinwheels and pinwheel favor boxes on Etsy, of course. Some of you all emailed me last week that you thought it was a great idea. I think I’ll do pinwheel food (think sandwich roll-ups) and pinwheel cinnamon rolls, that type of thing. I’m liking this as a one year birthday idea. What do you think?

50 Kitchen Ideas from the Barefoot Contessa. You all know that we’re building a house, right? Hope to break ground in a few weeks so we’re in the thick of meeting with the builder, revising plans, that sort of thing. I am researching like mad to find ideas for the house and ran across this piece — with lots of pictures – from Ina Garten (a/k/a “The Barefoot Contessa”) on her kitchen. She details what you need in the kitchen, how she designed hers to be maximally efficient, and other little helpful tips. The site also has lots of other kitchen designs and ideas. I’m in research heaven!

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend! Don’t forget to enter my Zutano giveaway.

Have you ever tried Wordle.net? It’s a free site that lets you paste any text in a box, play around with it and create word clouds. Change the colors, the layout, the font — and Worldle will “randomize” it. Words that are repeated often in your text will show up larger in the Wordle art that you create. Here’s an example I did using the lyrics to “You are My Sunshine.” It’s a lot of fun to play around with. Have a favorite nursery rhyme? Song? Poem or passage from a book? All would make great Worldles!

Once you get your Worldle looking the way you like, simply print it, frame it and hang it. Voila! A Mommy Masterpiece!

Don’t want to make your own? Download these free black and white animal prints. Soooo cute! I have six of them framed in my nursery.

This is part of the Works for Me Wednesday series. More great tips at WeAreThatFamily.

Don’t forget to enter this week’s giveaway. Deadline is tonight at midnight PST. And come back tomorrow for our final contest of the month. Psst, someone told me the prize has something to do with my favorite baby clothes . . . starts with a “Z.”

So did I mention that it’s been kind of crazy around here? Our house sold and we’re closing in a few weeks. We’re planning to move into a rental while we build our dream “green” home. Our nanny doesn’t want to drive to our new neighborhood (too far) so I’m interviewing nanny candidates. I have two speaking engagements in the three weeks surrounding the move. My son, who isn’t crawling yet, but getting seriously close, is probably going to figure that out on the day the movers arrive. Oh yeah, movers. I need to call some.

So what’s open in my browser right now? A bit of EVERYTHING.

Nannies4Hire — this is where I found my last nanny and where I hope to find the new one. It’s free for nannies to register and free for parents to search. But you have to pay if you want to contact any of the candidates (or reply to any of their emails). The free-to-search function is useful because you can check out the talent pool and decide if you want to spend the money on a subscription or not. We did, and I have been overwhelmed with the number of people contacting me about the position.

The color gray. When we were looking at whether to buy or build, I fell in love with the interior of this house (pictured below). Loved the gray and white kitchen and the gray walls everywhere. So now I’m trying to figure out how much gray I want in the new house. And then I saw this post on Apartment Therapy and love the idea of a gray bathroom. Would that be too much in the master bath, I wonder? (Ours won’t be nearly as grand as the one pictured below, but how I would love to have a chandelier in there!) I also like the idea of a gray dining room. Hmmm . . .

Inexpensive area rugs. I’m still looking. The house we’re going to rent has hardwoods throughout but I’m thinking that it might be painful for a soon-to-be toddler. We’ll need area rugs in the new house, too, so the trick is finding some large enough for the new house but small enough to fit the rental. Maybe I’ll just get some at IKEA. Suggestions anyone?

Liking the pinwheel idea. Last week, I told you that my son loves anything that spins (wheels, ceiling fans) and so I was trying to come up with a theme for his first birthday party that involved wheels, but not cars. And I wanted an orange and yellow color scheme. So imagine my DELIGHT when I saw this post about a baby shower, orange and yellow, with pinwheels! I am totally stealing a bunch of these ideas. I have a million Etsy shops open in my browser right now. Stay tuned cuz next week, I think I’ll post pics and links — a virtual “inspiration board” if you will — and show you all the direction I’m headed. Maybe there will be some good resources there for you as well. (And maybe you all will have some ideas for me!)

Got a friend that’s particularly creative? You know the one that makes all her own holiday decorations and hand stamps her own fabric. (Can you even do that or did I just make that up?) I have several artsy girlfriends (Kemba, I’m talking to you!) and think a little Tools of the Trade gift basket is in order.

Let’s start with some cool Pantone mugs in the color of your choice ($14.99/ea). I love the clean lines and simplicity of these mugs.

Staying in the kitchen, you could add some salt and pepper mills ($25.13/ea from Amazon). Vesatee, these would look great in your new red/black kitchen:

And because most of my creative friends are really into typography, how about some typography soap ($20) from the fabulous online store Charles and Marie?

There are also Pantone Messenger bags, luggage tags and more at PopDeluxe, another great online store.

A friend just emailed and asked where we got the cute black and white artwork for the baby’s room. One of these days, I’m going to post a nursery tour with shopping info (it’s always “one of these days,” isn’t it?), but in the meantime, here’s the art and the generous artist (Kal Barteski) who posted this for FREE on her blog. All her stuff is FABULOUS so buy some. I stumbled upon her work when I was trying to come up with a cool black and white nursery. We blew these pictures up a bit and printed them out with a regular old printer, then got some cheap ($9/ea as I recall) album frames at Michael’s and voila! Instant wall art.

Here’s a pic of how we arranged them in our nursery. Many thanks to Kal for making such hip, wonderful pieces for Mommas like me!

Not to make this a longish post, but I was just checking out the stuff she has for sale and I love, love, love these 5×7 prints. We’re going to be moving soon and I’ll have a new nursery to decorate (yay!) so I might just have to buy and use these as inspiration.

And Oh. My. God. I want this baby book she designed. It’s pricey but way hipper than the babyish stuff I combed through trying to find a modern one. And yet, it’s still sweet and whimsical. Love it!

This is part of the Works for Me Wednesday series. More great tips at WeAreThatFamily.

Oh and don’t forget to register for our giveaway from CandyStick Lane and the JumpOff. Deadline is midnight tonight. And check back here tomorrow when we announce a NEW giveaway!

Thinking of all the thought and time that went into this Fairyland birthday party is exhausting. But what a COOL party! (Hostess with the Mostest’s blog is a great resource for party ideas — be it a big bash or simple dinner party. Love her!)

Looking at some AMAZING cakes. Check out the cute bridal shower cakes that Kim Vallee has rounded up.

Wondering what I will do for my son’s first birthday coming up in just two short months. A friend told me that at this age, the days are long, but the years are short. <sigh> Have a great weekend, All.

And don’t forget to register to win in this week’s contest!

Just got an email about this contest from Benefit and Serena and Lily and I am all over it. I love, love, love Serena and Lily’s Wren nursery collection, but can’t, can’t, can’t afford it. Besides, I learned that you don’t need a bumper so all you really need are sheets. But I digress. There are plenty of GORGEOUS and usable items at Serena and Lily. And I happen to love Benefit cosmetics. I use their Benetint and High Beam on my cheeks all the time. Trying to go for the J-Lo glow.

Anyhow, the contest ends Sept. 8th. No purchase necessary. Just fill out this form and good luck!

My husband’s cholesterol is a teeny bit high so his doctor prescribed a glass of red wine every night. He calls it his “medicine.” And it makes him tipsy. After half a glass. I teased him about this one night and he protested, while sloshing his glass about and you know how this ends, right? He spilled it all over the carpet. So I won the argument but our carpet was the unfortunate casualty of that war.

I did what any good Googler would do and searched for how to remove red wine stains from carpet. I came across this bizarre recipe. Mix a little Dawn with hydrogen peroxide, pour it on the stain, and presto! Stain disappears. The magic formula is to use more peroxide than Dawn apparently. Not an exact science, in other words.

We tried it and it worked. I was skeptical so I didn’t take before and after pictures. You’ll just have to take my word for it. It also worked on old spit-up stains. (Seems I’m always discovering new corners of the house my son has blessed with his stomach contents.) We did not have Dawn and used 7th Generation dish washing liquid instead.

This is part of the Works for Me Wednesday series. More great tips at WeAreThatFamily. Hope this works for you!

I’m in a loving mood this morning. Here’s what caught my eye this week:

I love Tim Gunn. I wish he were a relative, that cool uncle who always brings something fabulous to Thanksgiving dinner and entertains all the kids with stories of his world travels. Thank goodness Project Runway is back! When you’re not watching the show, check out their site. You can send a personalized greeting from Tim to your friends’ cell phones. I sent several to friends yesterday. It’s a hoot. Try it yourself! (Oh and don’t tell me what happened; we recorded it to watch over the weekend.)

I also love Jonathan Adler. If it’s orange and on this page, I want it.

I love Becoming-Mom. Her blog is full of great resources and right now, she’s sharing everything she learned about making the perfect cake for her son’s 1st birthday. I just watched the video from the party and cried. I can’t believe my baby’s going to be one in a few months! I told my husband how amazing her party was and that ours would be nowhere near that good. I’m good, but not that good. Just sayin’. Creative, heartwarming, adorable; watch the video.

I heart Zutano. In case you haven’t heard. I’m still obsessing over the 50% off sale on Zutano clothes at BabySuperMall. I’m just so ticked off that they only carry up to 12 months. Cuz I would sooooo be loading up on new clothes for the munchkin! Because I featured so many of their boy designs, here’s my favorite new girl print for those of you with baby girls (or girls on the way – Kate!).

Things I’m NOT lovin’? Jon Gosselin. Or Kate, for that matter. I wish their 15 minutes were up.

Just saw this at TheJumpOff and CRACKED up. Renee continues to crank out awesome “upcycled” clothes made from used t-shirts. How funny is this onesie?

Saw this GORGEOUS aqua and orange Moroccan-inspired party idea at Hostess with the Mostest (love her site y’all!). This makes me want to have a grown-up party that involves cake even though I don’t like cake. I’ve also been thinking of doing my son’s room in orange and aqua if we move (trying to sell our house now) but my husband can’t get past thinking “Miami Dolphin colors” and I guess he thinks that’s a bad thing. I dunno. I love it and all things orange lately.

And check out the Back-to-School Guide over at Cool Mom Picks. So many great ideas and they’ve secured LOTS of discounts for you. Discount codes galore. Oh happy day! Or Oh Happy Weekend cuz I will totally be clicking up a storm. I have a nephew and niece who both have big “firsts” (first day of kindergarten; first day of first grade) and those backpacks are tempting. . .