Jonah's 1st Birthday: Table etc...

Happy Tuesday, everyone- today I'm sharing more details from Jonah's 1st birthday: table decor etc....

When first studying my original inspiration for Jonah's theme, I took note of the host using her own existing stash of Golden Books and children's decor and decided that I would endeavor to replicate this.

First, I called Gramma and asked if she had access to any of our childhood books- she did and deposited a box full! I had a blast walking down memory lane as I perused favorite titles such as, "We Help Mommy"- loving this whole 'free decor' thing:)


I set out to showcase multiple favorites on the dessert table and also in a discreet (aka away from little hands) area- my brothers enjoyed seeing our much loved and worn books on display:)


In my inspirational layout I noted the use of classic toys interspersed with the Golden books and replicated with rubber ducks, a classic Pooh Bear jack-in-the-box and rubber blocks, all of which we had on hand:)


No birthday is complete without balloons so hubby graciously blew up some mammoth, helium quality balloons that my puny lungs couldn't handle! And since the walls were freshly painted I used thumb tacks to attach the balloons to limit any signs of destruction:)

Now for the table:

I laid out some of my baby Beatrix Potter bowls that added sentimental charm, along with the treasured Golden Books:)


It seemed to me that the Poky Little Puppy would've used a red & white checked napkin if he needed to wipe his little paws, so I set out to get some- after coming up dry in my attempts to purchase these I bought some fabric and stitched them up in a hurry. They came out to a slightly larger cocktail size- perfect for little paws:)

I wanted to highlight some classic, old fashioned candy and scored with finding "Bit O Honey" on clearance- they were housed in old mason jar mugs and held the mini pennant in place:)

I had the respective dessert flags housed in jars containing gum balls, peanut M&Ms and little golden wrapped Werther's (milk choc & caramel swirled truffles which I'd never seen before).

Water bottles were given a lightning fast makeover: I set hubby to tearing off Ozarka labels while I ran to my tabletop paper cutter and snipped some strips of the Pawsitively Prints DSP to form belly bands and no, they weren't perfect (cut them a little short in my haste) but they worked!

And for the guest treats, I broke with convention and didn't assemble 'goody bags' (gasp!) and forged ahead into the unknown and chose to be innovative..ish:) I simply didn't have the resources/time to make what I would've liked and I remembered seeing a blurb on another 'Mom blog' of having her son's friends choose toys from a big basket and what a time saver it was...hmmmm.

Thus I popped pinwheels (loved these & ran out of time to make any!) from Rose's birthday in my little wooden crate ($0.49 thrift find!) with Golden Books, Annie's treats and handmade "snack sacks" as I'm calling them.

Well, I don't know how much of a time saver this endeavor was since I decided to make reusable "snack sacks"... missed several hours of sleep but they were worth it:) I followed this tutorial and didn't run into any major snags- planning to make more for Livy & Jonah:)

***NOTE: I did a TON of research about appropriate materials for reusable food bags; for these I chose an organic hemp + organic cotton blend for the lining. Hemp is evidently known for it's extra 'clean' properties and organic cotton is highly recommended for any kind of food lining. If you want more info on this particular journey of research, just let me know:)

Thanks for looking,

Tiffany