Livia In Onederland

Happy First Birthday, My dear, sweet Livia Brielle! Born on 11-11-11, what a memorable day!
This first year has gone by so fast, in fact, that's what all parents say. Although, there have been some very slow moments, where I'd just sit and stare at your sweet little face, keep from sleeping just so I could watch you breathe, sit and watch you learn to smile, to roll over, to sit up and finally learn to take your first steps.  Those are the moments that seemed to last a lifetime.  Every moment we held you to keep you warm when you were a newborn to waking up every few hours to hold you and give you your milk, until you were able to hold the bottle yourself-these..... all seemed like eternity. Now, here you are, seeking independence already!  We have cherished you because God gave you to us, we have embraced the special life he gave and we especially rejoiced when they told us you were a girl. So now, we take this special day to honor you and thank our friends and family for all their love and support.

Project 1:Livia in her Onderland dress.
 This dress was made from a womans blue silk shirt, found at the goodwill store. The Basics: I took one of her dresses and used it as a pattern to cut the shirt into the Onederland dress. I studied Alice's dress from the disney book and added a few adjustments for a one year old.
The apron was plain cotton scrap fabric, rosette white trim, and satin ties for the back, with a button closure at the top.
The leggings were clearance knee high socks from target, cut at the ankle and fit to her leg length.

Project 2: Thematic Elements

Our plans were to have this great tea party outdoors, provided there wasn't any rain.........well, no rain came, but we didn't think about winds.  Yes, very windy SE winds 15-20 mph recked havoc on my plans, but....yet again, I had to improvise and take most things indoors. Here are a few items made for outdoors; playing cards, tree signs, croquet game and front door wreath. 

Playing card was made from poster board and construction paper. I used an old cereal puff container for the paint can and cut out the paint brush with regular card stock.  I looked at the faces of the cards in the book and tried to draw them similarly. I used my tomato cages to hot glue them onto and stuck them in the mulch, as if they were really painting the roses red!

 I used baby diaper boxes and cut out these wooden looking pointing signs for the tree. I painted with acrylic paint the words and outlined them in blending colors.

Here's spade boy, playing card, painting the roses red.

I just so happened to have this keepsake in my attic of an old croquet set my family played when I was little. I've been meaning to restore it, but haven't the time....but this will do. I had my husband cut up the tomato cages for the misplaced original wire hoops. I then hot glued playing cards onto the hoops for fun.

Project 3: Indoor  theme   Most of the appetizers were brought inside due to the wind, and most of the paper goods. I also wanted to hang this tissue ball & lantern set above the tea party table. So here they are, all inside. 

I followed a tutorial on tissue paper poms and flowers. I purchased the tissue paper from the dollar tree in the multi color pack and just divided out the colors to create each flower. It was so easy and inexpensive.

I plan on editing the following pictures and adding information, but for now here's a few pics, just for fun!