Borrowed Decorations

For a simple 1st birthday, simple decorations seem fitting.  Or, in my head no decorations seem ideal.  That was my plan until someone offered her daughter's first birthday decorations to me.  I commented on her picture on Facebook, and next thing I knew, she found me at church and generously offered to let me borrow them.  Several texts and one phone call later, and they were mine for the party.  As much as I would love to claim them as my own creation, I have to say a big thanks to Camille for letting me use them.  

1.  Wide Open Windows.  Camille wasn't the first girl to help me out on the ambiance.  I have to give a shout out to mother nature for a beautiful afternoon!  We had our windows open and the breeze was flowing.  Nothing says AWESOME like a warm fresh breeze, especially in November!

2. Ruffled Strips.  Camille let me borrow a whole collection of ruffled and non-ruffled, pale pink strips.  I had a ball hanging these on the windows and whatever else I found.  Ruffles + pink are my jam!  I can't get enough.



3. Three Cabbages.  I actually bought these for a shower I threw the next day, but they went great with everything.  They're white, green, small, natural, and HALF OFF.  Thank you Walmart guy who drives an easy bargain when it's time to make room for Christmas trees!  I wanted to pot these in three identical containers, but didn't have any at my house and my neighbor-friend who I thought would have something didn't text me back last minute on this.  I found this cute container and stuffed some crumpled brown paper around it and sha-zaam.  A perfect little arrangement.






4.  Fabric Garland Banner Thing.  A couple of you spotted this in the other pictures and asked about it.  It is beautiful.  I'm not sure if Camille (that name is so pretty, I just have to say it over and over) made this or bought it, but I'm sure it would be easy to do.  Hefty rope + Clearance fabric ripped in strips = easy decoration!  Guess who loved it more than me?  The boys.  Burl saw it and gave a dramatic "oh wow" and John said it was so cool we could leave it there.  He said it didn't look like a decoration for a party just something cool I made for our house.  I took this as a huge compliment and gave him a rowdy high-5.

These are all great ideas, but the best idea of all is borrowing decorations!  I want to encourage everyone to borrow or lend out decorations with friends!  Find them at church and say, "hey, I happen to have a bouncy castle in my basement that I could blow up for your block party.  Want me to bring it over?"  Community. Recycling.  Decorations.  The kids' parties are much bigger than the kids.