Ahoy! Last weekend we set sail and turned our house into Birthday Party Island! Seriously, it was POURING down rain the entire day, which kept our 40-ish guests confined indoors! We still had a great time and had the greatest pirate party ever!

I spent the whole month prior to the party freaking out about the weather. Regardless of it being September, it's still SUPER hot and I worried about having kids outside in the heat of the day. Well, mother nature took care of that for me and dropped the temps 25 degrees and made it rain for two days straight. Now, I love the rain and I know we need it, but not on party days! I am grateful though, for my amazing friends and family for coming anyway and enduring the cramped house to celebrate with us!

Our house has an open floor plan downstairs, and for the most part is all open between the kitchen, living room, and breakfast area. We've dubbed the breakfast area the "party corner" since that is usually the main decorating spot for parties. The furniture is the most movable here and it just seems to work. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space in the party corner, but I'll take what I can get! We hung flags from the ceiling to match the invitations I designed, and I'll admit they are still there, two weeks later. Just today Nolan was eating lunch and pointed to the flags and said "happy!" Maybe they'll stay up just a little bit longer. 

This year, I also decorated our fireplace mantle by replacing the pictures in the frames that are always there with a photo of my pirate boy, a ship, a number two, a pirate flag, and of course hung lots and lots of banners, flags, and buntings. 

I have been dreaming of doing a pirate party for well over a year. I was buying stuff for the First Birthday Confetti Celebration while collecting clearance pirate gear for this year! I found some great hats and crafts at JoAnn's and Target had a ton of pirate Valentine items too. Luckily, Nolan took to the Disney show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, which made it definitely okay to throw him a pirate party!

I had a hard time deciding on how to decorate the cake. I am SO happy with how it turned out. The inside layers were suppose to match the outside with ombre layers, but my cakes didn't quite cooperate. I still love the finished product! 

My mom has become quite the sugar cookie decorator and made some amazing cookies, one of which I used on top of the cake. She also made the pirate ship watermelon fruit bowl, it was SO cute! We even had sharks in the punch thanks to an ice mold I purchased forever ago that I'd been saving for the perfect party!

Thanks to a dear friend, we had a 5 foot colorable pirate ship that was quite the life of the party! I loved seeing the kids sailing through the livingroom having a great time together. We had pirate hats to color and a fun photo booth. Everyone got to choose their own loot of tattoos, necklaces, coins, and eye patches to take home. 

I love spending these great times with our friends and family. I love planning parties and working on the little details. I have to say, life is pretty great! Even when it rains on party day.

I am excited to try out this San Antonio Market on Saturday, October 11th. Please come out and say hello! 

A few weeks ago, I participated in the Austin Craft Riot's Summer Show. I spent two days at the Austin Music Hall with lots of my fellow hand-makers. If you came by, thank you SO much. It's so awesome to get to meet customers and show them my paper stuff, and get insight on what's on their wish list. I don't do a lot of shows, so they are always very enlightening and fun. Plus, I get to check out some really awesome handmade goods for myself while I am there too!

If this is the first time you're hearing about this summer show, you definitely need to get on ACR's list (or mine!) and get yourself there next year. Each vendor donates goods for swag bags - and let me tell you, they were EACH worth about $45 this year! 

This was my first show with my new branding and setup. I am so pleased with how everything looked. My hubby made the PVC banner holder, which had a few issues staying upright. If you make one for yourself, get some extra-thick PVC, the thin stuff just isn't quite thick enough. This will be getting an overhaul before my next show. Thanks to my neighbor, Magpie's Trick's extra clamp, everything stayed in place!

My ladder bookshelf held all of my fun holiday goods, and new stuff like lunchbox notes and DIY banners. These will be coming soon to the Etsy Shop as Printables! My gift tag selection has grown quite a bit, and I have some ideas for some new designs as well! I especially loved my new signup cards and mailbox for my email updates. 

The ACR Summer Show is such a fun family event. The kids area alone is worth coming for (seriously, there was a Wonder Lab with tons of projects to do and toys galore!), oh and the 70+ vendors aren't too shabby either! A huge thanks to the team who made this such a fabulous event! I can't wait for next year!