Adelyn’s first birthday party was this last Saturday, and I have to tell you that it made me realize all over again how amazing this life that I live really is. I’m blessed in more ways that I can count, from my husband—who put together individual veggie cups without one complaint just for me—to my beautiful daughter who turned ONE yesterday already.Husby and I are blessed with amazing people in our lives who have all opened their hearts to our daughter and took time out of their crazy summers to celebrate this precious child turning one. It was the least I could do to put so much effort into her party.We joke that I put more into Adelyn’s first birthday party than I did our wedding (and our wedding was pretty spectacular). While I didn’t realistically cram the year and a half of work I put into our wedding into her party, I was able to capitalize on a lot of DIY things to create this party.My mindset on her first birthday was that 1) she only gets one first birthday party, and 2) it’s probably the only year that she isn’t going to have some type of opinion on what she wants. So…she got what mama wanted: shabby chic.From handmade invitations that were all just a little different from each other to a food table garland, bamboo utensils, homemade birthday cake and a “chalkboard” sign, I felt really proud to walk away from this party having put so much of my own handmade love into it. And the love of some fabulous Etsy shops (Fancy Flamingo made her cake topper and Posh Peanut Kids is where her romper came from).The only tears Adelyn shed the entire day was when her cake was taken away; but I'm sorry, when a one-year-old demolishes 1/3 of an entire chocolate cake, she has to be cut off! Even so, this little spitfire was wound tight until 8:45 p.m., a solid hour and 45 minutes past her usual pass out time.Lucky for me, my older sister agreed to play photographer the day of the party, so she captured all of the moments showcased above. This alone makes me forever grateful to her because the busyness of the afternoon left me forgetting to even step back and check out the final result of set up.Last but not least, I have to give a little shout out to by husband…the man who helped with anything I requested without one.tiny.complaint. Ladies, he is the perfect example of what to look for in a spouse. He supported (or at least didn’t point out) my insanity on perfecting this party, and he HELPED me—without hesitation—whenever I asked. Usually that meant working on things well into the night hours after we had both worked long days. This simply wouldn’t have been a success without him!

DIY

MEET HEATHER