I love sending and receiving mail.  It’s so old school, but I get excited seeing something other than an internet promo with my name on it in my mailbox.  I think it’s the personalization and feeling that someone spent time to send me something.

But, recently, and especially since Archer’s arrived, I find it difficult to remember to get a card while I’m out (because you know I can’t make a special trip as easily as I used to), then to get it in the mail in time.  That’s why when Paperless Post reached out and asked if I would review their online cards and invitations, I jumped at the chance.  Personalization without the hassle of going to the store, sign me up!

As soon as I visited the site, I knew what and who I wanted to send an online card to, my dad for Father’s Day!  My dad’s a semi-retired IT guy so I knew this would be right up his alley, and since they live in a gated community in Florida where all the mail is delivered to boxes near the club house instead of their doors, it takes extra time for travel time.  Not to mention that’s if they check their mailbox that day.  For example, I sent a Mother’s Day card to my mom back in May the Thursday before, and she didn’t get it for an entire week!

It was difficult finding a card at first, because they are all so cute!  I found this cute bear, and liked it mostly for the inside message (although I could have totally used any card and changed the message to read whatever I wanted), and made a few customizations and had it ready to go in a few minutes.


My favorite part has to be that I did this all last Thursday and was able to schedule it to be delivered anytime I wanted!  I obviously scheduled it for early Sunday morning and that was it!  I knew it would get there in time, and I knew my dad would see it because he’s on his computer a lot.  I loved it so much I made one for Mike too!

For Mike I went with a photo card and used a recent photo from a music festival we went to.  I mean, those baby ear protections get me every time!
 

It was perfect because while I had already gotten Mike a gift I, of course, forgot a card.  And, because we were at a wedding the night before, we ended up sleeping at my sister’s house since she watched Archer for the day and it was easier than moving him.  Mike got his card first thing in the morning, and then later when we got home, he opened his present!

For those that don’t follow me on Instagram, part of the gift included shirts that I’ve had planned to make since basically the day I gave birth to Mike’s mini-me!  Arch-man looks a little apprehensive here, but he loved his matching outfit, I think it’s all the goofy faces I make trying to get him to smile, he’s on to me!


Overall, Paperless Post was really easy to use, and for this season of my life, where I can’t remember what day it is some days, let alone making sure I’m getting cards in the mail for holidays and birthdays, it’s a really great option!  It’s not limited to cards either, you can send out invitations, flyers, thank you notes, save the dates, etc.

My good friend recently used a similar service to send invitations to her rehearsal dinner, and even though I was a bridesmaid and Mike was not only a groomsmen but also the officiant, (so we were obviously not missing it), it was still super easy to reply and let her know we would be there!  I’m already thinking about what parties I can use this for next!

If you’re thinking about trying it out, use my invite link here for 25 free coins which is enough to send a handful of cards, or maybe invites to your 4th of July BBQ.  I know Archer’s got a super cute outfit picked out, just saying, wink wink!

This post is in partnership with Paperless Post, I received free coins in exchange for my honest review, but all opinions and words are my own.  I honestly loved the service provided and wouldn’t have shared otherwise!

Last week Mike turned 3o, and since he took me to Vegas to celebrate my 30th last year, I wanted to do something big for his, so I threw him a Dirty 30 Fiesta!

It started with the invites.  I wanted it to look like an adult, modern fiesta, like a Dia de los Muertos celebration, and show Mike’s personality.  I found the Day of the Dead skull vector here.

I had found this lodge, which is owned by a neighboring parks district, while I was searching for a wedding venue in 2013.  It was new construction and was only completed 2 months before our wedding, so I wasn’t able to use it then, but I always had it in the back of my mind for a large party in the future.  It turned out to be the perfect backdrop for the fiesta!

It was easy to transform with these Mexican papel picado banners, which are actually plastic and really durable.  Mike also had no desire to get back up on the 12’ ladder to remove these at the end of the night and after who knows how many drinks, so we rigged them up by the dowels on each beam and tied string at each end.  Mike was able to pull the string and pull the banner down safely from the ground!

The tables and chairs were part of the lodge rental, and I was able to buy table clothes for half the price of renting them.  For the table settings I made table runners using serape blankets, and a combination of chips and salsa bowls, sombreros, and Mexican food cans with paper cactus.

There was a large quilt framed on the wall, so I covered in kraft paper and made a giant               3 – 0 with photos of Mike throughout his 30 years (they were seriously giant, each was 4.5 feet tall!). 

This had to have been my favorite project, as it took weeks to get all the photos together, edited, printed, and cut, and that meant weeks of looking at Mike’s mug and remembering all the crazy moments and aww-ing over his baby photos!

I think a lot of people enjoyed looking at all the photos and seeing him throughout the years.  The only problem was I took the photos above right before the party started and the brown paper was too heavy for the numbers so as I walked by it all came down in a big whoosh of paper.  I quickly slapped the numbers back up straight on the glass, but the quilt was then the background.  Not too bad, but not exactly my vision!

Above the fireplace (which was gas – and created some cool ambiance and heat during the party) I used this cute taco party balloon setup by Studio DIY as inspiration. 

I was able to get the cactus balloons online, then had them filled at my local Party City.  The letter balloons were bought online as well and aren’t helium, so my sister and I blew them up, taped them to string, then Mike used washi tape to hang above the fire place. 

In the lobby I kept the decorations to a minimum and reused my sister’s chalkboard from her wedding (she bought it from Ikea and shortened the legs), some 3 – 0 balloons (I have a thing for giant balloons) and some paper fan decorations.  

We set the food and drinks table along the kitchen, which had this amazing barn door.

Mike got a keg of Negro Modelo and we rented a margarita and daiquiri machine, which judging by the amount drank – was a huge hit!  I also believe this was a first for the Danks, we ran out of beer! 

I had a local Cleveland taquero, Barrio, cater the party.  It was half the budget, but so worth it.  It was by far the most talked about thing at the party. 

Another fun activity was the temporary tattoo station.

I bought temporary tattoo paper online, used Photoshop and the Silhouette software to print and cut out a bunch of tattoos, including the skull from the invite and finger moustaches.  They were a huge hit with the kids.

And the adults loved them too!

Overall, we had a great turnout of our friends and families and everything went really well!  The birthday boy had great time and it was a nice mix of an adult party, with enough things to keep the kids happy as well!

The only thing I’d change is to remember to bring out the camera before the 3rd or 4th margarita!  Luckily my memories are a little less blurry then most of the photos I got!

Happy Birthday to my favorite person – please stay a goofball forever!

My younger sister is getting married this August, and as her Matron of Honor I threw her bridal shower over the weekend!

I reserved a private room at a favorite trendy restaurant downtown for a Sunday brunch and it turned out to be a hugely successful, and almost stress-free party.  There were 25 ladies who attended, and I went with a loosely “geometric” theme.  I started with the invites, which I created using a design I found on Zazzle: 

I used the geometric shapes as my décor inspiration, knowing that the restaurant already had some louder colors on the walls.  Obviously, the big décor feature were the LOVE balloons, which I ordered online here, and had filled at my local Party City.  They were the focal point and background for the gift table.

For the tables I created some basic himmeli style shapes using some coffee stirrers and wire.

They were super simple, cheap, and my mom and I made them together on Saturday, all around win!

I created a menu with selected items from the restaurant’s menu for the guests to chose from, using the pink hexagons to carry the theme.  For favors I made little Mimosa soap bars!  On the back they read: “From my shower to yours, thank you! From the future Mrs. Michelle (her soon-to-be married name)”.  So cheesy, but oh so cute!

For a “guest book” I created a Date Night Jar, and guests were asked to think of a date night idea for the bride and groom.

Also, on the table were cupcakes made by my sister’s friend, and embellished with gum paste decorations I made using a Cricut Cake.  Its was such a pain, and gum paste tastes like sugary cardboard, but they turned out exactly as I envisioned and looked awesome with everything!

The food was ordered and served very efficiently by the servers, so much so that we were flying though everything much sooner than I thought!

We started with a simple game called “Who has the groom?”.  I made cards with actors heads on tuxedo jackets and one with Michelle’s fiancé Keith’s head.  Before everyone got there, I placed an envelope at each place setting, underneath the kraft paper.  Whoever had Keith won!

For the main game, we played “How well do you know the Bride?” while we waited for our food to arrive.  This was a simple game of 15 questions, but it was pretty funny since some of the guests turned out to know Michelle even better than she knew herself!

After we ate, Michelle opened presents and I set random timers throughout and whoevers gift she was opening when the time went off, got a gift. 

Since I forgot to grab a photo of my sister and I on my camera (doh!), here’s a photo of Michelle, and my future sister-in-law, Kelly who is getting married to my brother in October!

It was really great to throw a bridal shower for my sister, and to celebrate her upcoming marriage to Keith.  Now the countdown is on for the big event, the wedding in August!

Since our kitchen is at the state of completion, I wanted to throw a party.  That's a little weird for me, since Mike's always the one to suggest dinners and having groups of people over.  I think I've always felt our awkward little kitchen was not only ugly, but not conducive for entertaining.  Now that we have our dream kitchen, for this house at least, I was excited to have people over!

The only problem was, I couldn't think of an excuse.  I was itching for a real party, paper invites and all.  It just so happened that our very close friends were finding out the gender of their second child around the time I was hoping to have a party, and since there wouldn't be a baby shower, a gender reveal party it was!

It actually was really easy to throw together, so much so that I didn't freak out when I realized we would be in Canada for a long weekend the week before.  I found my inspiration in the form of this invite from Etsy.

I went back and forth on what clever phrase to use, you know "Bow or Beau", "Little Man or Little Lady", and decided on "Blue or Pink, What Do You think?".  Here's what the invite looked like, (names and address are obviously fake):


I kept the ombre color theme throughout my decorations.  My friend's husband thought I was crazy for actually using decorations, but it made the party in my opinion.  


Ps. How does one run around like crazy getting a party ready, and have time to take super styled photos?  I didn't even have half the food out in the photo above and took this photo about 7 minutes before everyone showed up. 

The background, (which unfortunately had to share the spotlight with our new dining room pendant light - which I'll share more details later), was a bunch of paper fans I bought and hotglued to 2 pieces of poster board taped together.  I first laid everything out on the floor, then starting gluing.  Don't forget to take a photo to look back on when gluing in case your cat decides to jump over and knock some fans off.  Just saying.

 
I trimmed the pieces of poster board that you can see in the edges and along the sides.

I also made the tissue paper tassel garland, probably my favorite decorating item, that I mastered back at my bridal shower.  They even made an appearance at the wedding. 

The dining room was the perfect place to decorate since it's still such a blank slate.  We have curtains to hang, but decided to hold off until after the party so it would be easier to decorate and hang things up.  The small table on the right used to sit in the living room, but has been displaced since we installed the fauzdenza and was used for a little guessing game.


I made a sign with a couple pregnancy facts for anyone that wanted to use the old wive's tales for their guesses.  I used a command strip, (my absolute favorite hanging system), to hang it above the table.

 
Everyone made their guess then wrote their name on a piece of paper, then placed it in the color coded bucket.  They also grabbed a little clothes pin with a blue or pink ribbon in it to wear.  After the reveal, we picked a name from the correct gender bucket and they got a gift card.  Really simple, but kept people involved in the fun.

Since the party started at 3pm, I had some heavy apps, including these buffalo chicken empanadas, (so good), smoked chicken spinach artichoke dip, (mike took lead on this since it's his fav), and some tomato and bacon cups, (my mom's recipe - cooked in biscuit "cups").  Also, some veggies, fruits, and chips and dip.  For dessert I made rice krispie treats, then dipped various items in chocolate, because anything tastes better dipped in chocolate.  It was also a way to carry the ombre color design into the food.

Pretzels, oreos, and marshmallows, oh my!

Everything turned out great, and it was so much fun showing off our new kitchen and getting to share in our friend's big reveal.  Oh, and for "main event" I made our godson a shirt to announce the new arrival.

IT'S A GIRL!

He had the shirt under his regular shirt, then lifted it up for everyone to see!  It was so much fun to see everyone who had guessed a girl! 

The only thing I was concerned with was we are a house of two adults and don't have any toys, and I don't exactly decorate with kid-proofing in mind, (although I think cat-proofing might be very similar).  I had asked our friends to brings some toys since we had some toddlers and kids coming.  It turned out it wasn't needed since apparently all you need is a giant couch, some pillows and tons of blankets.  The aftermath:

 
I'll have to remember that for next time.  And, thank goodness for the kids section of Netflix because even though they could have jumped on the couch all night, it was for the adults sanity that all the kids crashed in front of the tv for a little bit to calm down!