You know what you want to do but....

I think one of the most frustrating things when planning a birthday party is when you know you have the perfect theme or idea but finding the supplies and decorations you need to pull it off is near impossible. It just isn't out there.

Came in touch with a lady over the weekend who wants to do Paul Frank's Julius the monkey for her daughter's first birthday party. She contact me through my Etsy Store and asked if I could do decorations for this.

Well after I figured out who Julius was, I set out to come up with some ideas. Sometimes when you look closer at something, you will see that it is much easier to recreate than you might think and Julius is one of those characters. He is basically just a few simple shapes and very easy so we recreated his shapes and put a birthday hat on him and there we had it! Needlesss to say the lady was thrilled.

My advice today is don't give up on your ideas, ask for help, seek out someone who makes things handmade (like me!) and you will succeed at having that perfect party come together to celebrate that special day you worked so hard to plan!

Today I celebrate a very special birthday

Today I celebrate one of the most important birthdays in my life. It is that of my first born son. He is 26 years old today. We are not able to spend today together but that is okay. He is finishing up his military training and in a few short weeks we will be celebrating his graduation together from military training. It will be so worth the wait to see him. When I look at the pictures from his first birthday celebration, I had no idea the man he would become or that I could fill my heart with any more love or pride for who he was. At age 1, he already had filled my heart to what I believed was overflowing but little did I know there was always room for more.

In the meantime, today I have memories of his past birthdays to make me smile. One of the best memories I have is of his first birthday celebration and that is what I want to share with you today. Twenty-six years ago I didn't have a fancy diecut machine or a computer to create my designs that I can today. Really all I had to work with was a box of crayons and a couple of pieces of posterboard but I should have known way back then that my passion to create memorable birthday party decorations was in my blood forever.

One of the birthday themes that has lasted for generations and I believe will be there for many more is Sesame Street. What a perfect theme to celebrate a child's first birthday party. Since opening my online store, Sesame Street has been my most popular birthday party decorations sold. Even though my son's first birthday wasn't quite as exquisite as I am able to make now, no less love went into my drawings on that posterboard than go into the decorations I create for others today. I believe that is truly what it is all about. Yes, its a business but the joy that you receive from having other people tell you how special their celebration was because of the help you gave them in creating the perfect birthday for their child's special day fills the heart more than anything monetary could ever do. Birthday celebrations bring families together in love to celebrate a life and I believe there is no greater time we could spend together than sharing that love.

My advice today is to make your birthday party celebrations special. Go all out if you can and that doesn't mean you have to spend lots of money to do it. Just make it special and memorable so that 26 years from now, you can remember the special time you shared with your child and celebrated with your loved ones like it was yesterday.