Scenes from The Woodland Fairy Weekend...

Millie's party with all its glitter and garland and sparkle and wee fairies running about was just the sort of joyous mayhem we needed to offset the intensity of the previous days...

The girlies had a blast making fairy huts, playing "pin the tail on the squirrel" and stuffing themselves with little chocolate stars and mini-cupcakes and rock candy and other assorted sugar-laden goodness. Suffice to say, it was a day filled with happy makers.

But the very best part came midway through the festivities when Millie looked up at me, grabbed my cheeks and breathlessly yelled "thank you for my beautiful party".

That was, for sure, the ultimate happy maker.





The five snaps above were taken by our friend Russ Aman to capture a little of the calm before the storm.

McQueen as Birthday Inspiration...

image via the sweetest occasion

image via le dans la



Making things with your hands is essential to well-being... It feeds you, grounds you.

That's what I told Bryan this morning at 7:00 a.m. when he walked into the breakfast room and asked me why I was (in his words) "trying to re-create the set of The Lord of The Rings out of string and twigs". In his defense, he did find me sitting all crazy-eyed in the midst of a massive pile of brass wire and yarn and bells and gold spray painted twigs and other assorted ethereal detritus.

I was in the craft "bell jar". Just sayin'.

Yes, it's that time again friends. It's birthday madness, and in an attempt to get some of that aforementioned grounding and well-being, I've gone in, deep.

There are fairy crowns and wands to make, tiny plastic woodland animals to spray paint, a giant tree branch to decorate (it's GIANT), burlap to drape and moss to spread. I'm going for that crazy gorgeous Alexander McQueen creation above meets Pixie Hollow vibe. We'll see where I end up.

Have a fantastic, festive (and safe) New Years... I'll be back next week with tales of our woodland fairy adventure.

Some Scenes From the Weekend -- Audrey's Birthday Edition

Me, Christine + Shannon and Kayli (the amazing ladies behind Oil and Cotton where we held the party...) hanging out in the teepee before the festivities started.









Clearly the big event of the weekend was Audrey's birthday celebration...

The party on Saturday was a success, and all the sweet girlies seemed to have fun making their little dream catchers (which I have to say, wasn't easy). But I think beyond all the obvious festivity of a birthday party, for me, the loveliest part of the day was watching 20+ five-eight year old girls have such an appetite for art and a willingness to help each other. I hope that desire sticks with them, as I truly believe so many amazing/powerful things come out of women banding together, but I digress ;-)

I'm also especially proud of how the party turned out, as I literally have never put more work into homemade decorations...(Let's just say, I spent an insane amount of time wrapping embroidery thread around a branch.) The effort was equal parts highly satisfying, exhausting and, well... humbling. The humbling occurred late last week as I toiled away for the third night in a row while gazing out the window at Bryan and the girlies happily splashing around in the pool. Later that night when Audrey and I were snuggling and reading a couple of books before bed, she declared she had a really good idea and proceed to gently suggest that I, "work on the branch after we go to bed so you can spend more time with me". Ouch. Talk about providing some perspective. I swear that one gets smarter with each passing year.

Needless to say, I took heed -- i.e. I stopped wrapping the branch and just slapped some paint on the bare bits of bark and nobody was the worse for it...

The rest of the weekend was spent reveling in A's b-day with lots of mellow family moments, and it concluded last night with dinner outside (in the amazing mid-80 degree weather!) to celebrate the exciting news that lovely cousin Erin and boyfriend Ben got engaged... So major goodness all around.


Hope you guys had a fantastic weekend!

Embracing our "Inner Hippies" -- A Peek at The Planning

Some evidence of the obsession -- my Pinterest inspiration board for Audrey's party...


image from Australian Harpers Bazzar/jmireps via Table Tonic

In between our trip to Marfa, my work trip to Chicago and the start of the new school year, Audrey and I have busily planning for her 8th (!) birthday party next weekend…

My “obsession” with planning the girlie’s birthday parties, tends to elicit a little, well... joshing from my buddies. I get it; the whole deal can seem a little nutty for what is essentially a couple of hours of sugar-fueled kiddos raging against the machine. But I love a good birthday party, I love all the planning and dreaming up the fun details… It’s my thing, and I think it might be Audrey’s thing too, as the two of us can happily wile away the better part of an afternoon dreaming up ( in grand detail) future parties we want to throw.

But beyond the pure creative aspect, I love how the process of creating a special “event” for the girls honors their birthday in a memorable way. Birthdays are important -- I think they deserve a little pomp and circumstance and effort. For me, it’s never about material extravagance or being excessive, rather it’s about lavishing creativity and time and effort on my girlies to mark the day they entered our lives…


Audrey's invites in progress...


dreamcatcher via Creature Comforts...


the "stretch goal" cupcakes via Lori Hernadez

To that end (after much joint brainstorming), we collectively decided to celebrate her special day this year with a sweet, mellow hippie/boho themed shindig. It’ll be a “girls only” affair at a little art studio where the guests will make dream catchers and beaded necklaces while listening to Joni Mitchell… kidding about the Joni Mitchell part, sort of ;-)

We’re also planning to use our teepee and IKEA sheepskins and (stretch goal #1) some homemade streamers modeled after Casey’s to create a little photo backdrop/hang-out space for the girlies. And, since it’s an afternoon party, we’re just serving lemonade and cupcakes, so I want the cupcakes to feel especially festive, thus stretch goal #2: attempting to somewhat replicate goodies that look like the ones above…I’ll let you know how that goes. ;-)