red + white

Every time I do one of these tablescapes I think it might be my favorite... but this one really might be. I brought in some real height to this table (which could work for a Valentine's Day table or a Christmas morning breakfast if you substituted the cupcakes and brownies for muffins (or not if you like to eat brownies for breakfast like I do).

AJ asked me why I'm planning months ahead... I had intended to do every month in one post and realized it was a lot of work to do each one sooo for my own sanity I'm spreading it out... I'm not trying to make you enjoy Christmas or Valentine's Day when Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet. I'm not like Macy's decorating for Christmas before Halloween.

I've been brainstorming about Drew's 1st Birthday and know that I'm going to use upside down balloons somewhere so this table was sort of a test run for me to work out some design kinks... I got the balloons for 1 penny / bag at Michaels. Aren't you jealous? I bought every red balloon in the store. :)

I wanted a very kid friendly party which is why I went with the milk and sweets set up... AJ is happily enjoying the brownies (one after running yesterday and one with ice cream after dinner) and the cupcakes are unfortunately for a luncheon after a funeral for a sweet man from our church. I'm not just making food for a table display... I'm trying to reuse. :)

Now that we've covered pretty much every angle from after here are the details...

I made these mini pom poms in about six minutes... I'm not joking, they were so easy. You just wrap yard around a large serving spoon and tie a piece of yard directly in the middle, slid it off the fork, cut the folded over edges and spread out your mini pom poms! This was one of those Pinterest projects I applied to real life.

Notice these adorable straws... found them at the Dollar Store in the Christmas section. I bought four bags of 12 straws for Drew's party.

Kim loaned me this completely adorable stand. I think it's from the fabulous Home Goods (Kim and I could happily live in that store). These are brownies I made last night and then I just used a tiny wooden heart cutout from Michaels for 9 cents and put confectioner sugar all around the heart... it's like a reverse cookie cutter.

I'll probably do a mini tutorial on how to make these mini pom poms at some point but I thought they added a touch a kid fun to the table... My mom made some that looked way better than these for our clown Halloween costumes growing up. I think she used yarn that wasn't the cheapest stuff she could find (which is what her daughter did). I'm going to figure out a way to use these for Drew's party.

Here are the cupcakes again, and I put some mini red sprinkles in a little dish with one of Drew's tiny spoons. The cake stand is also from Home Goods and I just change up the ribbons depending on the occasion. I'll just leave this in until after Drew's party. I'm all for saving time and doing prep work ahead of time... even if it is more than a month early...

AJ found this old milk jug in the attic from the previous owner so we stuck it in the dishwasher and I used glass cleaner on the outside and it was as good as new!

I had this amazing idea for a hanging centerpiece but that failed. Mmm more like beyond failed. Good thing my balloons where only one penny. :)

I made a mini collage out of some of the images in case anyone wants to make me the happiest woman alive and pin it to Pinterest. :) Yes, Heather Varela, I mean you.

I'm adding this to a link party at Between Naps on the Porch... a really fun blog that hosts Tablescape Thursdays.