Simple and Inexpensive Birthday Party Decor Tips and Tricks

We celebrated Baby Bumblebee's 3rd birthday this weekend with friends, family, and Mickey Mouse!  He is a huge Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan, so this was the perfect party theme for him.  My goal for this party was to keep things low stress and simple so I could just enjoy spending time with my Baby Bee, so I found some generic Mickey Mouse Party supplies at Wal-Mart and used a few tricks to create a fun display.  A great way to create a fast, simple and inexpensive party display is to use your wrapped gifts.  Just a few wrapped gifts with brightly colored bows create a huge impact and become a key piece in your decor. I fell in love with this polka dot paper I found at Home Goods, and knew it was the perfect thing for our party.  

Another simple and functional way to decorate is using glass jars full of candy.  Not only can your party guests enjoy munching on their favorite candy throughout the party, it looks great too.

The bundt cake below is my favorite element of our party decor.  Queen Bee had a terrific idea to  add Mickey Mouse shoes, hands and ears to the cake (from a play-set that we already had) to make a Mickey bundt cake!  I love how it turned out, she is so creative! I used my version of a Nothing Bundt Cake copy-cat recipe and it tastes exactly like the original.  I will share this recipe with you all on Wednesday.  Trust me, you will want to try this cake!  It is so moist and the cream cheese frosting is to die for!  

S'mores Bar

Summer time is in full swing and that means it's time to break out the s'mores.  We recently celebrated Queen Bee's graduation with a party for our family and friends and since her very favorite treat is a s'more, we knew a s'mores bar would be the perfect dessert for the party.  

For roasting the marshmallows, we had Sterno pots set along the table in aqua colored pails that we found at Target for $1.00.  In the middle of the pots, a larger pail held our roasting sticks, which were metal skewers embellished with ribbons.  

We had a sign posted with s'mores recipe suggestions based on the party theme of travel and adventure.

Want "s'more" details on our graduation party? (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)  Click below for all of the little things that make a party special.

The Importance of Lighting- Kitchen

Lighting is one of THE most important aspects of interior design.  One of the biggest mistakes I've found that people make is they scrimp on their lighting budget.  Lighting is one of the last decisions people make when building or remodeling their home.  Often by the time you come to choosing lighting you have stretched your budget pretty thin and need to make sacrifices.  Don't sacrifice on lighting!  Plan ahead and save money elsewhere, because lighting is one place you don't want to cut corners.  

I think that it's important to have multiple sources of light in each room, but especially the kitchen.  In your kitchen you need a fair amount of task lighting.  Consider your lighting needs for your kitchen island, over your sink, and under your cabinets.  You don't want to have dark spots or shadowy spots where you are trying to work.  Various lighting sources also creates mood lighting which is a must for a well designed lighting plan.  In my kitchen I have under cabinet lighting, canned LED lighting, island pendant lighting, a schoolhouse fixture over my sink, and a large fixture over my dining table.  They can each serve a purpose individually, or I can turn them all on to light up the room.  My mood and energy seems to shift with a brightly lit room.  I love it to be bright and full of light when I'm cooking and cleaning.  One of my favorite times of the day though, is after dinner when the kitchen is "closed down" for the night.  Everything is cleaned up, the dishwasher is quietly working away and only the under counter lights and the light above the sink are on to give the room some mood lighting.  It makes me happy just thinking of it.

Lighting is one of the best ways to make a statement in a your home.  Great lighting is something people will instantly notice.  I like to think of lighting as the jewelry of the room.  It gives your room that little bit of bling and is a great way to give your home some personality.