Par-Tayin' Sweet Shoppe Style!

My goodness!  

Savanna (10) and Eva (2 weeks old)

What a whirlwind this past weekend turned out to be!

Our littlest girl turned eight!

I just don't know where the time goes.

It just seemed like yesterday, she looked like this...

And today, she's eight!

First, I have to tell you...

The picture quality is terrible.

We were in a gym at our elementary school and 
I forgot the little piece that attaches my camera to my tripod.

Florescent lighting is notoriously hard to take good pictures in...  

Which is why I wanted my tripod, 

so I could use a higher shutter speed.

Darn!

I suppose I should count my blessings

 that it was the only thing I forgot!

But, all the pictures are either too dark, blown out, or blurred.

I picked the best ones out of what I had to work with...

Which, sorry to say, wasn't much.

;)

Anyhoo...

The theme Eva wanted was a Sweet Shoppe Party.

Fun times!

I started out making these invitations over a month ago...

You can find the tutorial HERE.

My goal was to do a little bit each week, 

so that I wouldn't be rushed with trying to get everything done 

a couple of days before.

Uh-huh.

If you follow me, 

you know that I am the master procrastinator.

Time flew by and 

I found myself making all the decorations the day before!

Yep.  

Literally from 8 am Friday 

until 

2 am Saturday morning.

You would think I would learn!

I did, however, pick up party supplies, decorating stuff, candy, etc.... 

in the weeks leading up to Dec. 1st.

Be proud of me!

This is a HUGE  breakthrough with my PPD! 

(Perpetual Procrastination Disorder)

;)

Every bit of Eva's decor was pretty much either...

A)  Bought at a thrift store.

B)  Bought on sale or clearance.

C)  Handmade.

I thought this was a big deal, 

since I've always been a "buy new" kind of gal.

Guess not.

Scott informed me that 

"it wasn't cheap, if I was decorating the entire gym."

HA!

I was so disappointed that my pictures were disasters.

Every.  Single.  One.

But, you can get the gist of it.

The backdrop was made from 

a pink plastic table cloth (Dollar Tree - $1.00) 

and 

purple tulle that I got from a girl selling her wedding supplies on Craigslist 

(12 yards - $5.00).

The banner...  (Clearance @ Walmart - $1.50 each for two of them).  

I added letters that I printed out 

on card stock paper and cut out.  

This was a fail, because the pink letters blended with the stripes and polka dots.    At the last minute, I was outlining them with a black Sharpie, which really didn't help much.

I should have gone with white, or even black letters.

Poo.

The "candy" was made from either balloons

 or 

chinese lanters/pinwheels 

(Clearance - Walmart - $0.50 for a pack of 2) 

wrapped in cellophane and tied with white gift wrap ribbon .  

I attached cake pop sticks to the pinwheels 

to make them look like lollipops.

All in all, it looked cute.

I just wish the letters had stood out better.

The Sweet Shoppe Table 

(with over-exposed jar tags LOL!)...

was made up of all of Eva's favorite kinds of candy.

Pixie Sticks...

JuJu's in extra cupcake liners...

Starbursts...

Sweeties...

Cherry Candy Canes...

Laffy Taffy...

Dum Dum Lollipop bouquets...

Flavored Tootsie Rolls 

and 

Skittles.

All of the apothecary/candy jars 

were found at various area thrift stores.  

Prices ranged from as little as $0.50 to $3.00 each.

The cupcakes...

were Confetti Cupcake Mix 

nestled in pink cupcake liners.  

The cake stand was from Hobby Lobby 

(Clearance $3.99 because the box was damaged).

I added the polka dot ribbon (Walmart - $1.79) 

and purple tulle.

I tinted the Cream Cheese icing light green with food coloring 

and embellished them with striped toothpick banners 

(Walmart - Clearance - $1.00).

I have to hand it to Eva with the decorating of the tables.

While I was putting up the backdrop and 

arranging the Sweet Shoppe table, 

she was busy setting the tables up.

What a champ!

I found the plates and napkins at Walmart.

The napkin rings I made by printing out pink ovals on card stock paper 

with the girls' names on them.

I cut them out, used a hole punch to put holes on each side, and

 threaded it with ribbon to look like a piece of candy.  

Then I added the tulle to the top with a glue gun.

The cups were plain and  

I embellished them with Washi tape 

that I had left over from a spring project 

(a steal from Pick Your Plum).

A last minute idea for the centerpiece were these faux cupcakes:

 I literally made these an hour before we left to set up the party.

I printed out striped paper on card stock 

and taped it to three Christmas cookie containers 

I had on hand.

Then, I wrapped sparkly tissue paper around poly-fill 

and tucked it into the tops.

The cherries were made from small circles 

cut from pink card stock.

If I had been thinking ahead, 

I would have used white tissue paper for the "cupcake icing".

;)

But seriously, it was a last minute idea.

Didn't Eva do a great job on the table?!

The only thing I did to it 

was add the crepe paper streamer down the middle.

She did fantastic!!!

I told her afterward I would have never been done in time 

without all her help!

(Scott and the boys were at a wrestling tournament, 

so it was up to me and Eva to get 'er done.)

The other table she set up was the craft table...

Since we're so close to Christmas, 

I thought ornaments would be a great craft

 for the girls to take home.

The bright color and sparkly-ness were a huge hit!

I just happened to get these when they were 50% for a box of 30 

at Hobby Lobby, so I only paid $3.99.

So, each girl could make one of each color.

Sweet!

We added hearts down the center of the table, 

which were also foam stickers for the girls to use 

in decorating their ornaments.

Eva loved the idea!

The girls could then take the ornaments home 

and put a picture of their choice in them.

For the centerpiece of the craft table, 

I used a large jar that I bought for $5.00 off 

of our local Facebook For Sale Page:

The girls had to guess how many gumballs were in the jar 

and the winner got all of the gumballs.

(127)

I used a small spaghetti sauce jar wrapped in pink tissue paper 

and embellished with ribbon for the girls to place their guesses in.

The Guessing Game was one of four games...

We played musical chairs and the girls even came up 

with their own game of trying to get all the balloons  

inside the middle of the chairs.

That was a hoot to watch!

(Props to Ian and Noah for blowing up 30 balloons!!!)

Then I had a "Pin the Lollipop to the Stick"...

which was made by wrapping the empty cellophane tube 

with tissue paper and cutting circles out of colored card stock.

The girls had a blast with this new take on 

"Pin the Tail on the Donkey".

Then, as a knock off to "Hot Potato", 

we played "Cold Popsicle" instead...

The "popsicle" was a $0.97 dog toy from Walmart!  

LOL!!!

Each of the winners received Notebook Jewels shaped like cupcakes 

that I got on clearance for $0.30 each, from Walmart.

Since Eva gave me the proverbial "thumbs up", 

I would say the party was a smashing success...

At the end, all the girls lined up and filled their goody bags 

with all the treats.

Also in the goody bags were two brightly colored pens with tassles,

a hair band, and candy/cupcake tattoos.

(Clearance - Walmart - $0.50 each)

I'm sure the moms all loved me that night because they loaded up

on all the candy!

To be honest, it was a lot more work than I thought it would be, 

when I agreed on the idea of doing a Sweet Shoppe party.

But seeing all these happy faces having fun 

made it totally worth it!

Dream Big,