Party prep - oh my!

As I mentioned a few weeks back in this post, we are gearing up for a Wizard of Oz Birthday bash this weekend. Lucie picked the “Dorothy” theme herself and is getting very excited about the upcoming event!

We finalized the invitation and applied a small bit of glitter glue to the shoes once printed, which of course Lucie was thrilled about helping with! The final cards turned out great and I have to say the little bit of glitter is my favorite part!

I also created an inspiration board for the invitation/party that looks like this:

And now, after a whirlwind weekend out of town, it’s time to get down to business and finalize all of the party details which is coming up in only 5 days, yikes. Here’s my crazy list of Wizard of Oz party details:

• Chalkboard paint a yellow brick road on the sidewalk path in our back yard

• Make a sign to go on the front door that reads, “There’s no place like home”

• Make a sign to be place on the side entrance of the fence that reads, “Follow the yellow brick road”

• Create a flag banner from paper or fabric

• Hang scenes from the movie around the party area

• Rainbow fruit tray or rainbow fruit skewers

• Popcorn in paper cones

• Apples hanging from a tree

• Pin the heart on the Tin Man game

• Make a Glinda or Wizard crown

• Watercolor paint favors with “Somewhere over the rainbow” tag

What else am I forgetting? Who knows how much of this we’ll actually end of doing (definitely not everything!) but it’s fun to brainstorm and then hopefully we can pull of a few good ideas on the list. As I told myself when I couldn’t sleep at 2 a.m. thinking about all of the things to do last night, it is just a 4-year-old’s birthday party! I’m sure the kids will have a blast whether I find the gingham table cover I’m looking for or not, right?     

What's on your wish list this mother's day?

For all you dads out there wondering what to do for mother's day this year. We've got some ideas for you! Check out our top five gifts listed below. 

Photo from Martha Stewart

5. Flowers - pick up an arrangement from your local florist or put together an arrangement from the garden or grocery store. Keep it simple with one flower like these bright and cheerful calla lilies.

Photo from Sydney Hale Co.

4. Candle - a scented candle is always nice, but these natural soy candles from Sydney Hale Co. are simply amazing. I am loving the sea salt + bay rum candle these days!

Photo from Lululemon

3. Gift Card - pick up a gift card to her favorite clothing store, bookstore, or cafe and then be sure to give her a few hours of kid-free time to go and enjoy it! 

Photo from Love and Life Cards

2. Love and Life Cards personalized stationery - give some beautiful stationery in a classic cream or her favorite color. 

1. Spa Treatment - anything from a simple pedicure to a full day of pampering at the spa - she'll appreciate it! 


What is on your wish list this year for mother's day? A day with the family? Jewelry? A day at the spa? Or is a homemade gift from your children all you need to put a smile on your face? Leave a comment letting us know and then share the link to our blog with your husband and kids for a little light reading!


And however you choose to celebrate your day - HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!     

Inspiration boards, invitations, and party planning... oh my!

A few months back, my daughter Lucie began talking about her 4th birthday party. Not surprisingly, my independent thinking daughter had a few ideas of her own about what kind of party she wanted. She had dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz for Halloween last October and declared back in January that she would like her birthday in May to be a "Dorothy Party". After talking about this for months, I realized last week that it is almost May (yikes!) and I better start getting organized if I'm going to pull of this Wizard of Oz inspired party! I immediately turned to my friend Pinterest for some ideas and found many! I was particularly inspired by a Wizard of Oz themed party created by Kate Landers Events and The TomKat Studio. Wow! I also found a little bit of inspiration from images from the movie itself. And we've recently been listening to a lot of music from Wicked so thought we could throw in a little Glinda and Elphaba love. 


I am obsessed with collecting images on Pinterest so thought an inspiration board of images found might really help us to find our favorite things about The Wizard of Oz and go from there. Here's what we ended up with: 

[1] There's no place like home vintage sign from Kara's Party Ideas
[2] Bubble Gum Necklace from Make and Takes
[3] Glinda and the munchkins
[4] Every girl needs ruby red slippers from Kate Landers Events
[5] Retro rainbow paper straws from Heliotrope
[6] Pin the heart on the Tin Man from It's Twitchell Time
[7] Dessert table from Kate Landers Events
[8] Rainbow lollipops 
[9] Dorothy's first meeting with the Wicked Witch
[10] Rainbow cupcakes from Kate Landers Events
[11] Love these tutus from Kate Landers Events


So many more fun ideas - we just might need to create another inspiration board before the party in a few weeks, but for now I thought best to focus on the invitations. Blue gingham - check, Dorothy silhouette - check, yellow brick road - check. 

And of course I couldn't resist including a little polaroid photo of "Dorothy" from last October!

Stay tuned for details from the party later this month! And remember, "there's no place like home." 

50 million trees planted and just getting started!

To celebrate Earth Day this weekend, our family did a little lawn and garden clean up on Saturday. Then as the rain started to fall yesterday afternoon, we cozied up with a blanket to read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. I found this to be an especially good choice because my almost 4-year-old has become very interested in the environment recently. She has been talking a lot about pollution and what that means. This talk has led to her wanting to pick up pieces of garbage we find on the ground everywhere we go. Though I’m not always so keen on having her pick up random candy wrappers with her bare hands, especially when there are no hand washing opportunities near by, I am very proud of my little girl for making our little piece of the planet a little bit cleaner. I hope she teaches her younger sister these values with the same enthusiasm and that they both take this with them into adulthood.  

Since yesterday was Earth Day, we wanted to share a little bit about the amazing company that the folks at Love and Life Cards are inspired by on a daily basis. We have the privilege of partnering with Trees for the Future. This amazing organization began helping communities around the world plant trees in 1989 and continues this important work today. They have planted 50 million trees in 12,000 villages around the world and they're just getting started. Our relationship with Trees for the Future guarantees one tree is planted for every order we receive. That’s right, you place an order for 10 cards and a tree is planted - not too shabby!

If you have a minute, or 9 minutes rather, watch this video interview with the founder of Trees for the Future, Dave Deppner. You'll be glad you did! Every time I watch it I am a little more inspired than the last. It makes me want to move to a village in South America and start planting trees... well, that is until my husband talks me down. And maybe he is right, maybe I should concentrate on planting trees in my own backyard first. 

Thanks so much for allowing us do our part through designing fabulous cards for you!

Happy Earth Day!

xo

l&l

And the winner is...

Donna Wells - Boston, MA

"Mom, can you make me Beef Stroganoff for dinner? And not the kind you make with mushrooms and stuff. The kind out of a box"

Congratulations Donna! You were our first and favorite response. We seem to really love the ones where our children innocently insult us.

We wanted to share second and third place just for a chuckle:

"oh good mum, you're dressed up as an old lady, you be the granny and I'll be the little girl"

- Jennifer age 4

"mummy?"

"yes Danny"

"I can't wait until I stop picking my nose"

"me too son"

- Dan age 3

We didn't get any definitive response on how to keepsake these little gems of our children's wit and intelligence, but the main way we have shared them with friends and family is Facebook. Overwhelmingly, people have said they have tons but can't think of them, so our top tip this week? Write it down! Facebook it, blog it, take a little video on your phone, but these moments we think we will never forget are quickly replaced by loads more of lovin' life ones! :)

Time to catch up

Yes, it's Tuesday, but both of our contributors have had technical difficulty so we are using the new age "dog ate my homework" excuse.  For those of you wanting to hear how hilarious your kids are, we promise, we will be announcing a winner next week so it's not too late to enter our "kids say the funniest things" contest.  Just email us at info@loveandlifecards.com or post on this blog, your kids witty remarks and you could still win a $25 love and life cards voucher.


The main reason for postponing the contest, besides still sifting through entries, is because we wanted to share the fantastic interview Sona did last week with Joey C from Good Morning Gloucester for anyone who hasn't seen it.  
http://networkedblogs.com/w1KkG


And that might just be the other reason we are late, one half of this business was too modest to show off what a great job she did!  Sona Rocks!  


Finally a big thank you to Joey C, how great is he?!

Fast chicks 5k!

Although we usually stick with designing birth announcements and stationery, we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to help out this great fundraising event! We have been busy, busy designing logos, signs, and t-shirts for the first annual Fast Chicks 5K happening on May 5th, 2012!


This women's only race/walk is designed to celebrate active women everywhere. This year all proceeds will support the Patton Park Playground Fund; a three-phase project already underway by Friends of Patton Park with a $100,000 fundraising goal to update and redesign the popular playgound. 


In order to be guaranteed this awesome t-shirt, register this week by Thursday, April 5th through the Fast Chicks 5K web site http://fastchicks5k.org/Home.html!

Oh yeah... and although the HWMC 5k is a women’s only run, the Club is planning to auction off a bib number to one wicked lucky “rooster” (male) who will get to join the field and race along side of all these lovely ladies. In addition, the winner will receive a custom t-shirt and specialized race packet and goodies. To join the fun and submit your bid, visit the Fast Chicks facebook page.

We'll be announcing the winner of our "Kids say the funniest things" contest next week so you still have time to enter to win a $25 gift card! Just post a comment with your favorite and funniest kids stories or send them to info@loveandlifecards.com.