A Pretty and Pastel Birthday

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and as usual I had a small, relaxed celebration with my family. This year I decided to go really girly and pastel for the theme, inspired by the gorgeous Liberty print line from Meri Meri. I ordered a few paper party supplies from them to go with my existing birthday decor, and some favor supplies that I'll show later in the post.

The miniature pink carnations my family surprised me with went perfectly with the soft and feminine theme, and lasted beautifully for two whole weeks. Pink carnations are one of my absolute favorite cut flowers, and this particular hue was especially gorgeous.

As you might have noticed from the first photo in this post, I purchased cupcake flags this year instead of making them as I did the previous two years. The mix of pastel floral patterns looked pretty with the pastel sprinkles--Carnival Mix in the Nature's Colors line from India Tree--I topped the cupcakes with. The chocolate cake and vanilla frosting are my own go-to recipes, which I'll actually be sharing soon, so stay tuned!

For an activity, I thought it'd be fun to make the beaded memory wire bangles from the April section of French General: A Year of Jewelry. These turned out to be a great party craft since they're quick and easy to make but allow for lots of customization with color. I made two using my favorite line of all-purpose beads, the Czech glass beads from Beaders Paradise. These come in easy-to-store tubes in a wide array of colors, including the Hematite and Peach blends I used for my bracelets.

As always, I made up a couple of party favors for my family members who don't eat the cupcakes due to dietary restrictions. I divided up a pack of Meri Meri Liberty alphabet stickers, added a long Meri Meri Liberty gift tag to be used as a bookmark, and printed my own vintage-inspired blank postcards with colored ink. I packaged everything in a clear cellophane back with a scrapbook paper topper cut with pinking shears. Fun fact: this is also how I package the garlands I sell in my Etsy shop!

In keeping with what has more or less become an annual blog tradition, I'll be following up my traditional birthday party post with my traditional birthday book haul post soon--I was gifted with quite the bounty of reading material this year, which will no doubt carry me through all spring and summer!