our house!

What an honor to be featured on design*sponge's sneak peak today! Thank you, Amy and Grace. More here.

toot, toot!

That's me tooting my own horn- which I try not to do too often, but I can't help myself (sorry!). While I was doing a 9:30 p.m. grocery run on Friday night, I spotted the May issue of Better Homes and Gardens. On page 24, there it is...a shout-out to Party Perfect- hooray! Thanks to Miranda for putting up with me (I'm not the best interviewee as I tend to go off-point and then forget what I was saying), and to BH&G for choosing little ol' me as one of their faves! I'm so incredibly honored. And apologies for my tilt-y head, not quite sure what I was doing with that one.

3.4.

I had the best of intentions to take detailed photos of my 34th birthday soiree, but as luck would have it- we ran out of time. Turns out managing two young kids while sending mom out for a massage and getting ready for a party is next to impossible. So I only got so far as to photograph the mint-infused ice cubes before I was instructed to put down the camera and get ready! I wish I could show you pictures of cute hubby dressed in all-white with a bow tie, of custom 'specialty' drinks he created (he considers himself an iron chef in the kitchen, but unfortunately, is not), of my sweet Gram eating up the attention of all the ladies. But alas, all I have are the ice cubes. Hopefully you get the picture- I promise to be better next time!

invitation from hpg right here

duh duh duh - duh

That's how I spell out that sound when something ominous is approaching. In this case, my 34th birthday- tomorrow. It is now official. I feel old. It might have something to do with the sleep-deprived, body altering year I've had- I'm hoping by this time next year I'll be facing 35 in better shape. But for now I'm looking forward to a day of relaxing and a small night time celebration with some friends.

p.s. I got a preview of Gen's sale- lots of things to drain my pocketbook and cheer me up for the 34th year!

photo via martha stewart

spring has sprung!

Our yard is in full bloom, and I'm loving it on this beautiful day. Happy Easter weekend to you!

me

If you have any interest in moi, click on over to English Paper Co. for an interview.

p.s. I'm so excited for Kayce's house story in Country Living!

oh.

It's our 7 year wedding anniversary today. After a weekend with no sleep (4 month old not doing so hot in that department) and a yellow lab who swallowed a meatball with a toothpick on it...we celebrated quite modestly with a 45 minute dinner at a local chain restaurant. Sigh. Perhaps we'll do better next year. I take comfort in the fact that I'm still smitten with my man- a fabulous guy I still can't wait to spend the rest of my life with. As the front of our wedding program said, "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be!"

I was honored that the last Martha Stewart Weddings magazine included some snaps from our wedding in the '15 years of great wedding ideas' issue! Here's our shout out on the MSW website (though you spelled my name wrong Martha-ites... hint, hint!).

spring is around the corner...

There is such a delay between when I complete the designs for a collection and when it gets to the stores, that I almost forget when new things actually arrive. I was so excited to see some of the spring Hicks Paper Goods collection is now available at Polka Dot. I had so much fun designing it- I hope you like it, too!

A couple of selections, above: ballerina; party cow; pink candle cake; easter bunny; easter eggs; ice cream sundae; and moving announcement.

valentine packaging

Not sure I've uploaded this correctly for your use...I'm a bit technology-challenged. Hopefully it will work!

for my valentines

Valentine's Day is one of my absolute favorite holidays. I believe it's a misconception that the holiday is only for couples. I actually enjoy celebrating Valentine's more for my girlfriends, than my actual sweetie. This year I chose to make my far-away BFF's a special surprise package. Included: gummy heart treats, sweet tarts wrapped in pretty paper, some of my favorite homemade shred, and a little homemade valentine. I've attached a .pdf for you to use, if you'd like to make the gummy heart packaging yourself.

party submissions

Dear Readers:

Thank you for your loyal following- hard to believe I will be celebrating Party Perfect's 2nd birthday in June. What a ride it has been! I am constantly inspired by you, and love seeing the parties you've designed for yourself and loved ones. There is certainly no creativity shortage out there!

Because so many of you thoughtfully share your parties with me, I wanted to make sure I posted some guidelines for submission:

- Please send an email with either photo (.jpg) attachments or a link to hickspapergoods(at)yahoo(dot)com. Do not leave a comment on another post if you'd like me to view your party. While I moderate comments, I do not follow up on links that are provided on posts.

- The party has to be visually stimulating in order to make the cut. There are some brilliant parties I've passed on because the pictures simply don't do the great idea justice.

Some tips: photograph details in natural light before the party; minimize 'busy' backgrounds; make sure to photograph the details (favors, food, etc)- not just the people at the party; and my personal pet-peeve...don't angle your camera!...straight-on shots are best.

- Some have been concerned that we have to be 'friends' in order to have their parties posted. While I certainly feel fortunate to have several creative friends, the bulk of my posts are from people I have never met in person...so don't be shy!

- I love to feature parties of all kinds! While the majority of submissions I get are for children's parties, I know there is a plethora of great adult parties out there as well- so submit away.

Thank you for opening your hearts, minds, and parties to me- it has been such a privilege to be a part of your lives.

xoxo,

Sara

images via kate spade

true love

My sweet husband fought off his brothers and was able to wrangle me some delicious Thanksgiving leftovers- quite a feat! Wishing you good food and a happy Thanksgiving weekend.

gram's party: the wrap-up

Oftentimes while planning a party, I will ask myself...why am I doing this?...putting the time, effort and expense into a party sometimes doesn't seem like the best use of resources. But just about every time I am so happy with the end result, that I forget about the hassles of party planning.

Gram's birthday was no exception. We were so thrilled with how the party went. Gram and his friends had a wonderful time ...we figured out he is one of those children that enjoys being the center of attention! I am slowly being won over to the 'rented-out' parties...we loved walking away from the messy clean-up after all was said and done. But I loved that I was still able to inject some personalized touches to the party to make it feel special. It was a perfect day and we made some fabulous memories that we will always look back at fondly!

for sources, look at the bottom of this post

gram's party: the 'cake'

Another element of the party that I could control (since it was not at my house) was the cake. Instead of attempting to bake a cake (as I did last year), I pressed the easy button and ordered up some wonderful cupcakes from my favorite local bakery, in a variety of chocolate, red velvet and 'blackout' flavors. I gave them red cupcake liners and sprinkles to work with, since they are a pretty bare-bones operation and don't do much embellishment.

I decided to work with a stand I had long ago purchased from Martha by Mail (R.I.P.). I wanted to figure out a way to put a 'topper' on it, since the decorative white wood piece that came with the stand wasn't going to work with the look I was going for. I found a circular chipboard box in the 'wood crafts' section of Michaels, that I used to modify the top (see detailed photos above). I then covered the box with wrapping paper and grosgrain ribbon, and adhered a '2' that I glittered in silver. I was quite happy with the results!

I finished off the stand by using grosgrain ribbon along the edges, adding flags to the cupcakes (tutorial will be included in tomorrow's post) and a wooden monkey was thrown in to tie back to the invitation.

sources:

cupcake liners and red sprinkles...layer cake shop

chipboard box, '2', glitter and ribbon...michaels

cupcakes...the cupcake collection

gram's party: favors

As I've said before, this year we decided not to have my son's birthday party at home. With a 3-week old in the house, I thought it would be too overwhelming. However, I didn't want to use that as an excuse to not create anything special for his big day, so I decided to put together a few key items that could be transported to the party site (a kid's gym).

Using the invitation color palette as a springboard, I created favors that reflected the loose theme of the party... 'playing.' The favor bags contained items that Gram loves to play with- Play Doh, a whistle, and a ball (all in the color palette, of course!).

I was appalled at the price of shred fill ($3+ for a small bag of crinkled colored paper!), so I decided to create my own, using scraps of leftover wrapping paper and my shredder (photos 3 & 4). A much cheaper (and more chic, I think) alternative. Then I created a 'cuff' for some store-bought gift bags that folded over the top. If you are not computer savvy, some pretty scrapbooking paper would look great as well. I used a bone folder to get a crisp fold, and a mini stapler to put the cuff in place.

Lastly, I inserted a thank you card into each bag that was designed to look like it was on school ruled paper- again, an element that fit in with the color palette of red, white and turquoise blue.

sources:

red gift bags...michaels

classic colors play doh...hasbro

balls and whistle...oriental trading company

shredder...amazon

invitations...hicks paper goods

location...my gym

ouch

The weekend started with a bang, as I nearly amputated part of my left index finger on Friday around midnight. I was using an exacto knife while making 'water bottle labels' for my son's birthday. Note to self: do not use a dull blade while exhausted with an infant screaming in the background! I landed myself a trip to the ER along with a really nasty looking finger. We managed to pull off the party on Saturday, however, and Gram had a blast! Sunday he became really sick which we just learned is the result of an ear infection we've been battling for a month. I will do my best to keep up with posts this week, but am not making promises as I am adapting to only being able to use 9 fingers, nursing a very sad 2 year old back to health, and taking care of a three week old. I know, however, I still have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving week!

getting ready

My son's 2nd birthday party is this weekend, and I'm doing my best to create some personalized touches. I'm a bit disappointed that I'm not having the party at home- but I figured I would be biting off more then I could chew with a 3 week old in the house.

In the meantime, a bottle of milk spilled in my purse all over my camera and destroyed it! I'm hoping to borrow a friend's camera for some game day photos, but for now, I've been taking a couple of snaps with my iphone as I'm knee-deep in preparations.

and the winners are...

for giveaway...

#1 Lindsey who "loves the tree bird cards!..."

#2  Jennifer who said, "I love to bake, so I love to make chocolate goodies and cinnamon bread for friends, family and neighbors!"

#3 Holly from California who said "I love the pink chevron cards!..."

Winners-congrats! Contact me at hickspapergoods@yahoo.com to claim your prizes. Thank you to everyone who entered!

i'm baaaack! (kind of)

Thanks to all of you who sent words of support our way. We were blessed with a little girl, Adah, last week. She had an unexpected stay in the NICU which was disconcerting, but at least short-lived. All is well now and we are on the road to creating some normalcy in the house- at least trying to!

The drawing for the three Hicks Paper Goods contests will take place tomorrow at noon, so get in your entries while you can!

In the meantime, feast your eyes on this lovely poster from Anna Bond. I ordered one for Adah's nursery and couldn't be happier. Even the packaging was lovely!

HIcks Paper Goods GIVEAWAY #3 + DISCOUNT!

Our last giveaway is a doozy- a set of 50 Hicks photo cards (holiday or other) will go to the lucky winner!

With a $142 retail value and the option to upgrade the winner's order at half off, this is quite a prize. View the photo card collection right here.

You can either tell us about an item you'd like to see in the Hicks collection that doesn't currently exist, or tell us your favorite design in the comments section.

LASTLY- for those who simply just love a good discount, you won't want to pass up this deal Lemon Tree Paperie is offering to Party Perfect readers for a limited time. 15% off all Hicks Paper Goods orders (that's on anything and everything we offer- 1400 items!). Just enter HPG15 at checkout.

I'm now giddy with excitement about the giveaways *and* the baby! Best of luck...