Party Ideas: Poppy's Pretty 2nd Birthday Party

Super-stylish Mum Melinda (of the Georgica Pond blog) hosted her daughter Poppy's 2nd birthday party at her parent's country home in the New South Wales southern highlands. Mel went to town on handmade decorations, and fabulous girly party food, and despite being a reluctant baker, created a masterpiece layered cake complete with mini-bunting. Mel  - a former magazine stylist - shares lots of great tips on how she put this soiree together, just for us!

Birthday: My daughter Poppy's 2nd Birthday

Organised by: Mum Melinda (Georgica Pond) with help setting up on the day by my husband, mum and grandmother.
Location:  My parent's 100 acre country property, in the Southern Highlands, NSW.
Theme: Pretty and girly

Invitation: I made the invitation using scrapbooking papers, pink rick rack ribbon and I wrote a little rhyme for the invitation wording.

Cake: I'm no baker (in fact I'm completely hopeless and usually buy the birthday cake), but for some reason I was determined to make my own this year. So I gave myself the huge challenge of making the 4 layer rainbow cake (a Donna Hay recipe) and decorated it using about 1kg of butter icing! I made the mini bunting attached to the vintage paper straws. I was thrilled with the way it turned out and it tasted pretty damn good too. Although while it was sitting on the dessert table in the sun, the whole side of it started to melt and we had a bit of an icing avalanche. A quick spin in the fridge fixed it up though. 

Party food: Lots of junk and lots of champagne for the grownups.

Decorations: I made all the decorations. I'm a former magazine stylist, so I really miss doing crafty and creative things. I picked a selection of coordinating scrapbooking papers from Spotlight and made the larger bunting which I threaded with pink ribbon, using a design that was a bit of trial and error. I made the cupcake toppers by recycling some I had made last year. I bought the die cut from Spotlight and cut out different daisy circles from the papers I chose. I added the initials and numbers from adhesive letters in that cute vintage font. I also made all the wrappers for the chocolate bars and the drink bottles. The lolly bags I bought locally, and added the sweet little personalised initial for each child, using the die cut and the initial stickers. I love that sweet pink and white string, which I used throughout. I also made some Smartie cookies, which I put in cellophane bags and tied with paper wrapping and string.

Tips: Craft stores like Spotlight and Lincraft, even the 2 dollar shops are a veritable treasure trove of ideas and inspiration for DIY party decorations. It's fun, costs less and is very rewarding hunting around for bits and pieces, finding ideas and inspiration hidden in shelves then taking it all home and turning it into something lovely and personal. If you're even a little bit crafty or artistic, it's great fun and satisfying making it yourself. I must admit I do think putting new matching wrappers on drink bottles and chocolate bars is a bit nuts though! I blame (dessert table guru) Amy Atlas for that one! Oh and make sure a bottomless glass of champagne is always nearby!

Something Special: We had four generations of family on the day which was lovely. Poppy, me, my mum and my grandmother (Poppy's great grandmother).

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Thank you Mel for sharing your daughter's gorgeous day and all your advice with us. Head over to Mel's beautiful blog Georgica Pond for more photos from Poppy's birthday and to be inspired by her home renovation and classic American decorating style.

Images: Georgica Pond