Our Tweet Heart's 1st Birthday Party! {Part 1}

Ilah joined our nest on January 12, 2010 and by the time she was a mere six months old, I started thinking about {and began purchasing things for} her 1st birthday party. The day rolled around all too soon and it was a wonderful, intimate 1st birthday. I loved, loved, loved, prepping for Ilah's special day and putting every little detail in place. I really felt like Ilah's birthday party was filled with pretty little touches that weren't just purchased, but was also comprised of things that were also homemade. I found myself tapping into my creative side, not only for achieving a pretty look that was minimal in cost, but also because I really wanted to add my own flair to my little girls special day.

We took an abundant amount of photos last weekend so I will be doing a few separate posts highlighting the day. I will begin with the little hat that Miss Ilah wore for her birthday party and then showcase the food that we served.

Below is the hat that I made for Ilah for her party! I purchased a pack of 8 party hats {for $1 at The Dollar Store} and covered them in embellished scrapbook paper. I trimmed the hat in feathers and made the bird {out of felt and fabric} that I already had on hand. The same goes for the cupcake topper. I made it from fabric, cut out a "1" {from dark brown felt}, and hotglued the piece to a lollipop stick.

Lots of pictures to come of Ilah digging into her cupcake!!!

Onto the food!! It's so nice having an island in the kitchen. The food spread consisted of Rotisserie Chicken, Wild Rice, Roasted Parmesean Potatoes, Corn, and Salad - and cake and cupcakes of course!!

The piece below is actually the very first thing that I bought for Ilah's birthday party - probably six months ago. I just loved the saying and the birdcage on it. It became my inspiration piece!

Find things around your house that you already have and add them to your decor! The little birdie below is from Ilah's bedroom {he goes on top of her wipe warmer to hold the lid down! Ha ha!}....

I purchased a set of 2 birds {seen below} for just $3.50 - on clearance at Kirklands.

I contemplated buying cupcake toppers off of Etsy but decided that I would just make my own. By the time you buy a set of 12, you can own the actual paper puncher, buy all the paper, and the embellishements - and still save. So that's just what I did.

I tied some ribbon around the cake server for an extra little touch....

I made enough party hats for everyone to wear one - and we all did!

Onto Ilah's birthday cake!! From the beginning I wanted to make it myself - from scratch. Even though I had never made a cake from scratch before! So I took to the internet to browse for some ideas and I found one that I really - really - wanted to replicate. It was an adorable fondant cake with fondant birds and fondant flowers on it. I contacted the person who made it {who lives in Australia!} and she was soooo nice to write me back {while she was on vacation!} and tell me how she made it. She even took time to send me multiple emails telling me the exact things to buy and how to achieve the look. I went out and bought everything - but then I chickened out. I didn't want Ilah's birthday cake to be my "practice cake" with fondant so I decided not to go for it. I was already putting pressure on myself to make a yummy tasting two-layer cake - with fillings also made from scratch....to add fondant to the mix was starting to overwhelm me so I didn't attempt it. Had we not had been snowed in perhaps I would have went out and bought another box of fondant and done a "test cake" but that didn't happen. But I did search endlessly for recipes and made a cake a week before her birthday and it came out delicious - white cake with chocolate ganache and strawberry mousse! And so that's how Ilah's birthday cake came to be.....

I was so nervous constructing Ilah's birthday cake!....Worried that the top layer would slide off because of the strawberry mousse! But there were no catastrophes...all went well! PTL!! {Praise the Lord!!}

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To see additional photos of Ilah's 1st Birthday, visit these links: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, The Day After