Heyyyyy!
Yep, it’s been a while. I had to look up my login information for the blog. Eleven months, new laptop, and a crowded brain to blame.
I love this space and have all kinds of things I want to write about, but…life. I might have to go back and post some updates but, today, I’m here to tell you about Hannah’s birthday.
She turned 9. On 9/9. She was born on 09/09/09. See the theme? Apparently there’s a thing called a GOLDEN birthday. When the year you are celebrating (the age you are turning) is the same as the day of the month you were born. {So I missed my golden birthday – 22 on December 22nd – by a long shot.}
Hannah was all in the planning of her golden birthday…and she knew exactly what she wanted.
She wanted it at home, in the backyard. Way more work than having it out somewhere, for sure, but I obliged…after all, we don’t have birthday parties every year. (Her last one was the big Fancy Nancy soiree in 2013 for her 4th birthday, so five years ago.) Also it rained but, thankfully, that came before the party and not during.
She wanted to invite girls only and made her own guest list, including friends from all places and activities. And she wanted to paint. We went with watercolor instead of getting into the mess of acrylics, canvases and instruction. We decided on a gold-turquoise-blush color scheme. I sketched what I wanted the invitation to look like, and sent to my very talented sister-in-law, Crystal, and BAM. She delivered.
My mom found that cute tank on Etsy and Joe and I gave her a new pair of her very favorite shoes: the gold metallic high-top Chuck Taylors. (They are no longer available and I searched high and low, found some leftover stock and bought them in two sizes.) As for decorations, we made a watercolor banner/pennant ourselves from coffee filters (thank you, Pinterest) and strung those across the house.
And we went crazy with balloons.
I bought several bags of gold ones from Hobby Lobby which Joe blew up (thanks Daddy) and then ordered four dozen of the helium variety. There were around 175 balloons, I think.
I picked up paint swatches in the turquoise and blush scheme from a variety of places and scattered those along the food table, taping down here and there with gold washi tape and dropping some gold poms across the top.
That photo was obviously taken before we had finished setting the table.
The abstract piece in the background was done by a sweet friend and local artist, Rylin Crane (check her out on Instagram @rylincraneart), and our gift to the birthday girl. I told her the colors Hannah liked and she went to town, with quick turnaround, too. I was so excited with how it turned out! I know some talented people. Hannah loved it.
We set tables in the backyard with all the supplies. I spray-painted the girls’ brushes gold because the primary-colored sets of brushes from Michael’s was just not in my detail-oriented plans. It was kind of a pain (as you would imagine), but I was on an hour-long phone call with my high school BFF so I didn’t mind.
Instead of doing a full-on tutorial, we went with a wreath-guide. I drew large circles on each girl’s paper, along with their first initial, and that’s it!
Each girl did as she pleased and they all seemed to like the freedom to be creative.
I was really happy with how it all worked out. We went with good paper – so much better than trying to watercolor on regular art paper. The paint and brushes were the Artist Loft brand.
I also had little square-shaped watercolor paper for each girl to draw a little something for Hannah. I’m thinking I’ll take that big “9” Hannah and I painted and make some sort of collage with the squares. I’ll keep you posted and update with what we decide.
Once they were done, we punched holes and tied ribbon so they could be hung up wherever.
We moved inside to eat and play, dance, etc. It’s September in South Georgia which means temps are still rising into the 90s. We didn’t do anything elaborate with food – just finger foods and some of Hannah’s favorite things.
The cake was just a one-tier round with an ombre effect. It wasn’t supposed to be, so here goes what happened…
Hannah and I perused Pinterest to get inspiration for the “perfect” cake for a golden watercolor birthday. We kinda put several ideas from different pictures together and came up with a two-tier masterpiece, the top tier being gold and a muted watercolor-effect in turquoise and blush for the bottom tier. My mom brought the stunner with her from Savannah the day before the party and, upon arriving in town, saw that it had collapsed? melted? something! in the box. Completely ruined. Y’all. It was upsetting. We aren’t sure what happened exactly, but have never had this happen and have transported cakes before. I didn’t get to see it, but my mom said it was “perfect”.
Soooo, to Publix my brother and I went. Joe ended up being able to salvage the original cake enough to cut pieces out of the bottom layer. If it’s any consolation, it tasted delicious!
Now the cake pops are a different story. Also brought by Mom from Savannah (different place), these favors were exactly what we asked for and more…and they were also delicious. From the baker’s IG page:
My mom found these little clear containers and tied favor tags with coordinating ribbon.
It was a sweet send-off…along with balloons. Everyone left with their watercolor and a balloon. And we still had plenty leftover. The helium ones lasted for more than a week floating around the house, and the Daddy-variety are still bunched here and there along the floors, stretching the golden celebration through September.
It was a fun party with a bunch of cute little girls. I had one happy 9-year-old who was so thankful and sweet. She is easy to do things for and I’m so grateful for her. Loving this age and making these memories.
{Thanks Meme for all the things, and to Uncle Will Will & Stella, and Gran Gran and Poppy for coming to celebrate our golden girl!}
Leave a Reply