1.10.2010

Hickory Dickory Dock Birthday Wishes


Vivienne in her cute party hat complete with a glittered mouse and feathers to top it off!

I can't believe my baby girl just turned the big ONE! How this last year flew by. Despite my daughter's birthday being right after Christmas, which gives me zero down time in between, I had fun planning her birthday. Thankfully I had pretty much everything planned out in my head before Christmas so that once the holidays were over it was just a matter of pulling it all together. I wanted to have an underlying theme to the party, but I am not usually one for "smack you in the face" sort of cheesy themes so it had to be subtle for me to even go there. I am a sucker for nastalgic things from my childhood so I perused through Viv's Mothergoose nursery rhymes and found Hickory Dickory...you can do a lot with clocks and mice! On a side note, I realized that the majority of old nursery rhymes are all a bit twisted or morbid! It was hard to find one that wasn't depressing. I digress.





I had fun creating her invitations which spun everything else off of that. As always, I wanted to keep everything as simple and understated as I could in terms of food and decorations, but still have a cohesive vibe. I believe a party is in the details and the creativity and time you devote to it... in addition to good behavior by your guests ;) After designing the invites, I was inspired by a template of letters from Martha Stewart to create custom garland. Printing them out on different colored paper, cutting them and stringing them on to some black and white ribbon was a cinch! The rest of the details included custom glittered mouse confetti, cone shaped chip baskets with silver pipe cleaner handles with matching wrapped cutlery, soft flowers, balloons and giant chocolate peanut butter cookies wrapped in wax paper sealed with custom monogrammed stickers.


I found these straws a while back and can't even remember where. I am huge straw fan and I think I may have been the only one who used one, but that means I have more for myself later!




I tried finding colored tissue paper that worked within my color scheme, but to no avail. Bleached wax paper was the next best option and I am happy with how the packaging turned out.

Oh, did I mention that a party was all in the details and the creativity? I still maintain that point, but it's also hugely dependent on the FOOD!!!! I am a vegetarian so picking out a meat dish is always a challenge for me. It has to be something that has minimal hands on requirements! So honey mustard mini drumsticks came to mind...make the marinade. Dump bag in to marinade. Done. The rest of the menu consisted of lemon arugula pasta salad, sugar snap peas with sesame oil, Terra chips (for the cute little chip baskets!), movie popcorn (we have a movie popcorn popper at home - so fun!), applesauce spice cake with cream cheese frosting, hot mulled cider and the giant cookies for people to take home. It was simple yet familiar flavors and I think, or hope, they all went well together.


I made the cake in to a clock with the help of my husband's steady hand. A round cake I can manage...anything else? Not so much.


You can sort of see the mice confetti dispersed on the table.

4 comments:

Lisa C. said...

I'm hiring you for my next party! You did a lovely job for Viv's first birthday.

Anonymous said...

Vivienne's party was lovely. What a pretty name that is :-)

The details were so cute and fitting. Nice job!!

Katie Holland said...

How did you design your invitations? I am doing a mouse themed birthday party for my 1 year old and I love the simplicity of yours!

Jessica said...

Hi Katie,
I created them in either InDesign or Illustrator...can't remember. And then printed them out at home on an inkjet printer with Paper Source paper that had a bit of texture. If you have either of those programs, one tip for making a shape/animal that you want is to find an image of what you want and then trace over it in the program you are using. Saves time trying to get the proportion correct! I am glad you like them!