Friday, July 15, 2011

Garden Fairy Party!

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I tried to come up with the best mix of tiny fairy party and big girl party all at the same time.  I went with the colors that Cyan chose blue and blue… ie: aqua and teal, I set about to make something beautiful for a party in my garden.  Because after all, it was going to be an evening party in mid-July…. so I could trust that we could have it out in the garden right?

Two days before the party I checked the weather.  Nothing but rain for as far as they would predict.  The morning of the party it was pouring… and only broke for a few minutes at a time all day long.  Now I was in a spot.  I had to move the whole party under cover, make it still cute, and because the tents that I had available to me were 12 by 12, I had to move it out of the garden (the garden paths are 3ft or 5 ft across, and honestly wet grass would have soaked fairy costumes anyhow.).

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Out came my antique lace curtains and white folding wall for a back drop instead of the garden beds.  Two tables were borrowed and 10 folding chairs were rented to replace the benches that were soaked from the rain.

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I bought 18 roses for decoration and filled in with flowers from my garden and then ferns from a friends yard, which I added to the backdrop. I also brought in the nature elements through wooden bowls, burlap fabric, wooden rounds, poppy seed pods, and lots of glass mason jars filled with candles or flowers. The whole effect was rather charming!

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The birthday girl seemed happy with it (which is really all that matters!)

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The food:

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I made lots of tiny things for this party.  Sandwiches wrapped in natural wax paper along with teal scrapbook paper and jute tie were the first course. 

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Side dishes were all kinds of fresh berries, brownie bites with cream cheese frosting and fresh raspberries, twice baked potato bites, and melon wands.

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For the place settings I used white small plates on top of large plates with large teal napkins tucked between.    

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I also got a set of 12 glass milk bottles (idea from here) with aqua striped paper straws (from here) that made the whole setting tie-in and added a touch of whimsy to the table.

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The cake!

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My friend Cori made the cake from a sketch I drew her. It was perfect! She has such a talent! How I LOVE this cake!

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Each of the girls got a ‘key to the secret garden’ on a necklace as they came into the party.

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As the rain came and went, so did the rainbows. You can see one below behind the girls (although this picture doesn’t really show how bright it was).

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During the rain breaks we went out and did the craft that I had planned for them… making their own fairy gardens!

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I had painted each of them a tiny bird house and given them a small piece of ‘Mother of Thyme’… after we had filled the fairy gardens with soil I gave them to the girls to decorate with rocks, shells, and glass beads.

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I just loved seeing their imaginations take off as they braved the downpours to collect sticks, flowers, and leaves from around my yard. Some of them even got to venture into the gardens! :)

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The end of the party was watching the movie “Fairy Tale: A True Story” which was supposed to be with a projector outside under the cherry tree…. but ended up in my living room instead (and none of the girls were the wiser). The girls giggled the evening away and watched as a couple of sweet little girls discovered fairies in their a garden of their own.

All in all it was a beautiful party! It took a lot of redoing because of the rain, but I think a lot of those last minute touches made for a pretty wonderful party!

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I had a very happy, and a very tired, birthday girl by the end.

Happy birthday to my beautiful 10 year old! I love you so very much!

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13 comments

Jill said...

That is just GORGEOUS! What a wonderful mother to go to all this work for your daughter's tenth birthday. Good work! She will remember that forever.

The Dutch Girl said...

What a lovely party! And "Fairytale, a true story" is one my favorites. I cannot wait until my Lola is old enough to enjoy it. She is a fairy girl, too.

Ashley said...

You are an awesome mama! So much inspiration!!

Kristen said...

I love it! so stealing ideas

Sewn Together said...

Beautiful Val, you are a party goddess.

Jennifer Howard said...

this is sooooooo lovely what a lucky daughter you have. Wonderful, just wonderful in every way!
Thank you for sharing.
In PEACE
Jennifer

Frannie said...

All I can say is WOW!

Trisha R said...

*I* want a party like this at 35 years old! AMAZING! So clever and creative!

jessica said...

Where did u find those keys?

Val in the Rose Garden said...

Michael's in the scrapbook section. :)

David Waltz said...

This is a great example when our daughter becomes a little older.

Anonymous said...

Val, I can easily say that that is one of the very best party ideas I've ever seen! It is just beautiful and SO creative of you!! I'm very impressed! Maybe I'll get a granddaughter some day to have this cute of a party for. Don't think any of my boys would appriciate the fairy theme too much! Nice Val.

Alicia said...

I found your site via One Pretty Thing. This party is enchanting! I want to throw it for myself. Unrelated: I'm a grad student at the University of New Hampshire and I'm doing a survey of craft bloggers at craftbookproject.com. I'd love it if you took the way-less-than-10-minute survey, and there's a giveaway going on there for a $100 Michaels gift card right now. Anyway, thanks for keeping up such a beautiful blog!
Alicia
craftbookproject.com

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