My good friend Laura of Ascot Friday recently threw super cute party for her one year old son, Lincoln. All the stars aligned (with a birthday right before 4th of July and a name like Lincoln) for a red-white-and-blue BASH. I’ve photographed several of Laura’s parties and she out does herself every time! I’m dividing the party into three parts for the blog. This will be the post showing the decor and party guests. Then the photo booth and a special post for the cake smash. Because it was that cute!
Laura bought an old presidential campaign book and used the pages to make posters as decor. The dollar store had a wealth of flags and red, white and blue accessories.
Here’s Laura and her sister prepping the hot dogs…Bryan’s mastering the grill behind them.
What’s more American than apple pie a la mode? I love this party tip…pre-scoop the ice cream and adorn it with flags, so it’s ready to serve!
Next up…the fun photo booth!
I’ve shared parts of my boys’ room over the last year since I made it over, but never the finished product. I think homes are always a work in progress…we are constantly re-freshing things and the kids are growing, so we try to re-configure according to their needs! The boys have been in bunk beds (purchased online as pottery barn knock-offs) since they moved out of toddler beds, many years ago. They are 10 and 11 years old (19 months apart) and collectors of legos, bionicles, art supplies and just about everything else under the sun. My goal in the room was to keep the clutter down. I wanted to have a container for everything. Basically a place to put everything away.
The focus of the room is the shelving unit that Bryan (husband of Ascot Friday) built for me. It’s loosely based on shelves seen at The Ace in Palm Springs. He did an AMAZING job and if you’re in Long Beach and want to have him make you shelves like these, let me know and I’ll put you in contact. The shelves are filled with books, toys and a few vintage found items.
I tried to use vintage pieces that would be functional, like pottery bowls to hold lego guys and an old pair of speakers as book ends. I did a whole blog post about the soda crate that houses all of their art supplies. I also love this old flour sifter that now houses colored pencils.
The green storage boxes are from Ikea. I printed out matching labels to remind the boys what belongs in each box!
The white bedding is also from Ikea. I splurged on a Jonathan Adler needlepoint pillow to inspire the room and the other pillows I made. I also have a whole blog post about how I made chevron stripes out of the regular old striped fabric that you buy at Ikea.
I grew up hating bananas. Especially the brown spotty ones. My grandpa used to say the brown spots means they are extra sweet, but I never believed him. Just like avocados, seafood and blueberries, bananas grew on me. And now I think the brown spotted ones are like banana pudding. Turns out my grandpa was right!
Bananas gone ripe…too ripe, make perfect banana bread. But, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Before you let them go to the mushy ripe stage, make bananas foster. Don’t be scared, there will be no fire in your kitchen. I had only ever had bananas foster in fancy restaurants where the whole pan is aflame. But, Ben the Chef, introduced me to a new bananas foster. The ingredients are pantry staples, which means this dessert can be your bale-out when guests show up last minute!
In a large saute pan, melt your butter and add the brown sugar. Stir in the zest from half an orange and the juice from the whole orange, along with 1/4 cup strong coffee. We used my Keurig and brewed a cup of coffee on the smallest setting. Add four sliced bananas and stir for a few minutes until the sugar has melted. Serve immediately over ice cream.
I don’t normally just leave the blog empty for a whole week. We got back from a two week trip and I headed straight to my photo sessions at Rascals to Rebels. I hit it with full-force! The kids that came had tons of energy and it was a rare visit of sorts! I had 2 newborns, a set of twins and a set of triplets! The photo sessions are only 15 minutes long, all back to back, so be amazed at how much cute was squeezed out of a mere 15 minutes!!
Categories
Subscribe to be notified about special session prices and availability!