Monday, 17 November 2008

zakky's birthday party


Before the table was set (or rather, crammed with food). It was help yourself to balled food: mini meatballs, chicken vol au vants, dim sims, mini pizzas and pies, potato balls etc!

My little boy turned two yesterday! Can't believe it! To celebrate, we had immediate family around for a lunch of balled food. Seriously. I was debating whether or not to do a theme and to be honest, I'm really not sure if I ended up with one! I thought I'd do balls (or round things) because he pretty much is attached to a ball most of the day - kicking, bowling, batting. He's obsessed. So I thought I'd make Martha's pom poms, blow up some balloons, and make a Happy Birthday banner with sewn-together round paper discs. I bought and made all round food (or as close to round as possible), decorated his number 2 cake with round icing balls, smarties and mini M&Ms and was going to collect all 214 balls from underneath the deck for all the boys to play with but completely forgot about it. But no matter, some of Zak's gifts included a soccer ball and goal posts, a golf set, a plastic pool/sand shell with 50 plastic balls and a backpack filled with sports equipment including a football, soccer ball, velcro ball and tennis ball. So safe to say, there were enough balls to play with. And play they did! Steve and his sports-mad family put the soccer posts and ball to good use (despite its mini status) while Zak ran happily amongst them playing his own game of soccer with another ball.
So the place looks like a paper bomb hit it, but here's a little look at how it did look. Before anyone got there! Here's what I did (yet again, not the best pics - it was a rather overcast day and quite dark inside. But still, I don't know why my stupid camera takes such grainy pictures...).


Our new purple stone wall. Needs yet another coat but getting there! Pom poms were over the table; balloons hanging from the fan over the living room. I chose a blue, purple and green theme. Love those colours together.


Cutlery, napkins and favours dressed up in pretty colours and patterned paper.


My happy birthday banner. I collected a range of scrapbooking papers in shades of blue, purple and green and spray painted them onto sheets of cardboard then cut out the circles, stitched them together and stuck on individual wooden letters. I'm very impressed with myself! Ha!


I originally ordered the birch cutlery but they wouldn't have got the forks in on time so I went for bamboo cutlery, plates and bowls. Plastic cups got the special treatment - wrapped up with paper.


My favours were little organza bags filled with pencils, colouring in sheets and a little book. I also attempted the Rebecca Thuss favour bags for lolly bags. I had grand plans to make EVERYONE one. But after the first, second, third attempt and a hissy fit over my sewing machine's inability to sew properly, I ended up handstitching the last two and was grateful only four children were coming. And I've just realised I hadn't even filled them when this picture was taken! They looked a little better filled out. But I do love how they look. If you have the time and energy, they're perfect for weddings and baby showers.

14 comments:

amy turn sharp said...

gorgeous wee one! Looks like a blast!

 Viv said...

Lovely! Happy birthday Zak! What a gorgeous family and the decorations were perfect.

Amanda said...

Too cute! I love all your birthday crafts. He sounds like he had a wonderful day.

It's amazing how quickly our babies grow up, isn't it!

Amanda x

Ninka said...

Wow, the party looked beautiful! You did a gorgeous job :) Happy Birthday Zak!

P.S when icing, try a crumb layer :)
http://www.chow.com/stories/10046

Lin said...

Looks like you had a great day. Love those Martha pom poms - i've used them before for Christmas. Also, about the cake - i do two layers of icing to overcome the crumb problem.

Anonymous said...

Aww Happy Birthday Z-man! Looks like you had a blast. The decorations and little touches are so sweet B, you did a great job. Loving the family portrait too... about time ;)

Anonymous said...

It all looks gorgeous! Happy Birthday Zach! Lovely family portrait too! How do you make those pom poms? Its mys sisters hens in a month or two, and think they would be great to hang from the trees in theme colours!

belinda graham said...

hey guys - thanks! it was a fun day and zak has kept me busy today too playing with everything. i'm exhausted. at least he shares the love - every single thing he got yesterday was played with at some stage today! peachy, the pom poms are ridiculously easy to make. i've made them a few times now and they really do look good - very festive! here is the link: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias
have fun! x

la la Lovely said...

Happy birthday to your little one!!! What a fun party.. love what you did! So colorful and creative!

paula said...

birthday parties are so much fun. my son turns two in march, it really does go by fast. his party seems to have been a hit.

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

What great ideas, I just love your blog! I'm linking to your customized plywood letters-fantastic! Off to explore some more of your crafty inspiration...

Anonymous said...

Thanks heaps Belinda! Will see how i go with it... Glad to know they are easy though!

Fashion Hayley said...

What a lovely party. I love the Martha pom poms too, I tried to make them recently but didn't read the instructions before buying the materials and ended up with not enough tissue paper. So I made sorta Martha-esque lopsided pom pom star things. No one could tell in the end that they were wrong, only me. Oh well next there is always time, hey?

Realmarce said...

Nice birthday party!!! I love your blog, is so friendly