Black White and Yellow Happy Birthday Day

Two years ago my 4 best girlfriends and I celebrated our 30th birthdays together. We live in 5 different towns, 4 different states and 2 different countries so being in the same place at the same time these days is rare!  Somehow it worked out that we were all together and since the love for planning fab parties began with these girls when we were in high school, it was a must to throw a party for our 30th!

In honor of my 32nd birthday (today) I wanted to share these fun photos.  I hope everyone has experienced or one day will experience the sense of belonging and support that comes from a fantastic group of friends like these girls.  What a blessing their friendships are to me!

Pretty Pretty Poupee

We had a fabulous time tonight at the Poupee (again, it's poo-pay...french word for "doll") girl party.  Seriously, I can not express in words how much I enjoy times like tonight.  It is so great to see the birthday girl with all of her favorite people, surrounded by a terrific party.  I am not sure why the decor and all those little details are so important to me but they ARE and I am learning to embrace that and not apologize for it:) Do you have this problem?  Do you ever feel like the rest of the world thinks you are silly for "doing up" you parties?

This party was so fun for me because a few of us did it together and that takes a lot of the pressure off. I was able to focus on the details that I love while the other girls brought their own gifts to the mix. Also, we did the party at a clubhouse so I didn't have to clean my house- BONUS! 

I have lots of details to share but I do not have lots of pictures.  I am waiting patiently for April to provide me with some eye candy from the party!!  I am so excited to see her pics!  Here is just a taste...this photo is the birthday girl (in black) and her sister (two of my 3 fabulous sister-in-laws) posing for a little photo shoot...with props...of course!

Do You Know?

The countdown is on for my sister's 25th birthday soiree.  Many of you may not be familiar with the theme for this one so I thought I'd give you a few days to familiarize yourself with this fun phenomenon that is Poupee (poo-pay) Girl.

HERE is the link, check it out, surf around, see the cuteness.

White Christmas Party Invitations

I can't wait to throw this wintery white party in a few weeks! Christmas really is the best time of the year!

Here are the invites!

Shopping Party Details

Mailee's shopping party was a blast! This is a great alternative to having the party at home while still avoiding the chuck-e-cheese route!! My best advice is to keep this type of party to a smaller number of kids. Here are a few of the fun details!

Spending Money "Goody Bag"- as opposed to filling a goody bag with "stuff", I gave each girl an empty goody bag and some spending money for the mall. I gave my daughter the choice, 8 kids with $7.50 each, 6 kids with $10 each or 4 kids with $15 each. This particular daughter is a quality over quantity kind of girl so she went with inviting her 3 favorite people and having a little more spending money. For what it's worth, I think the party would be equally as enjoyable for the kids even if they had a smaller amount of money.


Scavenger Hunt- I made two lists, one was labeled "take a photo of these..." the other was labeled "complete these tasks...". Each item listed had a box next to it and they all enjoyed checking off the boxes as they completed the tasks. This kept the party moving around the mall as the girls were shopping with their spending money. The even bigger bonus to the scavenger hunt? GREAT PICTURES!!! The kids were happy to strike a pose as long as there was a little box to check off!

completing a task- "play hopscotch".

Clearly this takes a bit of planning. I went to the mall a few days prior to the party armed with my camera and a pen and paper. I scoured the mall for fun little free activities. interesting items to look for, and counted up the number of bank machines and exits. Don't go too far in advance, the mall is constantly rotating stock.

completing a task-find a card at the Hallmark store and "give" it to Mailee.

The girls loved this activity. They took their time and picked out great cards! I don't know about you but with 3 kids in school and at least one friend party a weekend, I do not allow my kids the extravagance of purchasing cards from the store. It's all about the make-at-home cards! They all enjoyed pretending to pick a "real card"!

This is the card my older daughter picked out for her sister! I thought it was a perfect choice coming from a first born!

Stick with the theme- make the gifts match!!!

After 3 hours at the mall, we moved the festivities to the house for cake and gifts. I invite the whole family, aunties and grandparents for this hour of the party. I enjoy doing all celebrating on one day!

Lazy Lanterns- Sometimes hanging lanterns is just a lot of work! I tied beautiful bows on the top of each lantern and plopped them on top of varying sized vases and candle holders. They looked fantastic and they were quick and easy!

Purse Cake- A shopping party must have a purse cake, yes?

This is my version.

Here are my favorite photos from the scavenger hunt...

"take a photo in front of a blue tiled wall"





"take a photo at the front desk of (fill in name of store in your mall with swanky front desk) and strike a pose!"

"Put on a ring, a hat and some glasses and get them all in the photo"


The family photo!

Thanks for looking, I hope you feel inspired to go out and plan a shopping party of your own! I did this theme with my own friends when I was a teenager and again as a bachlorette party in college. It's a winner every time and with any age!

Golden Birthday Bash

We celebrated my sister's golden birthday in a blinged out affair to remember. What's a golden birthday? You don't know? Everyone has one. It's the year that you turn the age of your birth date...whew, was that confusing? Let me break it down... My golden birthday happened this year when I turned 31. (that thing about a girl never telling her age, pish! whatever!) My birthday is the 31st of May. Get it? Here's another example in case it's still not sinking in: my daughter Maddie's birthday is March 4th so she celebrated her golden birthday when she turned 4. Are you with me?

So this sister turned 21 on the 21st of September and here is how we marked the occasion.

A fab banner in various sized rectangles and squares made out of stiff felt. Silver glitter puff paint and some rhinestones completed the look. Gee, look close, this is a horrible photo!

The lights to the right are lumieres. We folded down the tops of brown paper lunch bags, added sand and lit white candles. They looked great! They lined the walkway in the front of the house and the entire deck in the back. This is an easy and affordable way to add ambiance to any outdoor event.

We placed these cylinder vases on the tables. They were filled with pearls and chunky clear jewels. Once we poured in the water and added a floating candle, they were pure bling!

Here's one of those lovely vases at night! Pretty!

My favorite decoration at this party was the lantern poles. I put three bamboo poles into the ground. (large pots would work as well) I strung twinkled lights up and down each of the poles and then slipped white paper lanterns on to each pole.

These were a dramatic backdrop for this golden affair!

Now you know I am all about the cake. I love to make a cake perfect for each event. What do you do when the guest of honor does not like cake? Turn her favorite dessert into something fabulous! This sister loves cheesecake so I bought a bunch of inexpensive wine glasses, filled them with a no bake cheesecake and put out tons of topping options.

The desserts looked great displayed together stacked on cake plates. I purchased gold plastic spoons and glued a rhinestone to the tip of each one, added a spoon to each glass and wa-la...a non-cake "cake" to blow candles out with!

Oh- and the best part? We washed the glasses and sent those home with the guests as favors.

Golden candles of course!

If you are 31 or younger, you may still have a golden birthday to celebrate! If you missed your golden birthday, find someone who still has one coming and start planning!!

I forgot to mention one final detail...all of the guests were asked to "wear white with touches of gold and bling!" Fantabulous!

Show me your most sparkly, golden, blinged-out events!!!

A Boy and His Hero

Stay tuned for pictures of this weekend's father and son superhero party!!

50's Themed Birthday Party

This weekend we did a 50's themed 50th birthday party top to bottom. Some of the fun elements of this party; the entire guest list came dressed in 50's gear, the candy bar was displayed in old fashioned penny candy jars with all the birthday boy's favorite candies, and the live band hosted a dance off between the men and the women! Too fun!

Records and streamers adorned the tent and spun in the wind. Along the back side of the tent you can see a record wall. Each of those records has a different photo of the birthday boy in the center. The guests really enjoyed lookig at the photos!

Birthday banners are such a fun way to honor someone on their special day!!

When the guests arrived they were greeted with a record shaped name tag and given a pennant. The pennants had names that the birthday boy goes by, along with his birth year and the number "50". The whole crowd was waving their pennants when the guest of honor arrived to his surprise party!!

Great name tags! Laminated and backed with a pin.

Themed cupcakes in three designs: colored flags, records and music notes. Half chocolate, half vanilla, all topped with a creamy buttercream icing. Fig & Ruby can CAKE your next event!! We have a passion for cake and we can create something wonderful to coordinate with your theme.

Check out that black classic car in the background...it is a BBQ grill!! Boyd's Auto rents this awesome grill and gives 100% of the proceeds to a local charity. For this event, we brought in Gorgeous George's Gourmet Burgers. They are located downtown by the sails, right next to Moolix. Gorgeous George's and Moolix are actually owned by the same AWESOME guy. "Gorgeous George" created authentic handmade-from-scratch burgers and fries for the 70 guests. It was terrific!

Cupcakes on display with all the fixings for a fabulous sundae bar. Ice cream provided by Moolix was out of this world topped with all sorts of treats that the family provided.

The guest of honor's wife came to us with a vision of a 50's themed party that included old fashioned Coke bottles. We found them and made it happen and they were truly such an awesome touch. Unfortunately we did not get a photo of the table centerpieces...Black ice buckets filled with ice and coke bottles poking out of the top-so fun!!