etsy whooooo??

a few weeks ago, big girl turned
"twelve-teen," as my mother always called it,
& she wanted her birthday party
to feature an owl theme.

[we always do themes at our house;
last february, little boy celebrated
turning seven with a pig party,
complete with pink snouts & little curling-ribbon tails!]

well, birthday express doesn't have
owl-themed party paraphernalia, so
i turned to etsy.com, the e-marketplace
for handmade goods.

& wow, did etsy deliver!

immediate caveat:
our homemade invitations [above] were actually
from paper source [not etsy-associated];
an owl placecards paper-piecing kit
i simply put together & stuck onto
squares of colored cardstock.

i wrote the invite language into a word doc text box,
prettified the formatting, printed, cut out,
& stuck it onto the back. it read:

~ for our friend [name, so it was personalized] ~
please come to our hootenanny
celebrating [big girl]’s twelve-teenth birthday!!
sunday, october 24th, 2010
5 - 7 p.m.
the cards’ home @
[street address]
~ little critters to pet ~ owlish games to play ~
~ pizza supper to eat ~ good times to enjoy ~

~ plus, cake! ~
please rsvp – we want to know whoooo’s coming …
[number] or kcard@austin.rr.com
it’s gonna be a hoot – don’t let it fly by!

here's what the table looked like all decorated.
orange & green are her favorite colors,
so i went with a brightly autumnal color way.

the centerpiece [at top] is mostly what i typically have
out on the table, with some owlish accents added:
white cakeplate with jim shore seasonal angel &
two little jack-o-lantern votives
+ orange-with-pale-blue-dots bookend owl
by i sew lucky, a la etsy －
one of big girl's favorite birthday gifts －
& a melty-bead owl from michael's
made by one of our kids a while ago.

we served fruit salad [ocean bowl, right rear]
& veggies with dip or hummus [fiestaware, left rear].
later, we ordered pizza for the main course.

but the piece de resistance definitely were the owl cake pops,
courtesy of sarandipity sweets @ etsy.

they came through usps from atlanta, expertly packaged
with disposable coldpacks & thermal bubble wrap,
each individually wrapped & tied with
a little polka-dotted ribbon. not one so much as cracked.

such attention to detail
[can you see the teensy candy beaks & feets?],
& full of the moistest, chocolatiest cake
ever.

stuck into colored dixie cups
full of "harvest blend" plain m&m's,
they were a huge hit.

here are some of the goodie bags,
assembled by me, decorated by little boy/brother.
he did an awesome job making sure
every owl bag had its own expression/personality －
wackadoodle owl, sad owl, sleepy owl,
singing owl [my favorite], chubby owl.

he was so, so happy to help
with some part of the party,
& big girl/sister was actually happy with his work,
which thrilled him even more.

the goodies within the bags included
tootsie pops [remember the 70s commercial
with the owl who discovers how many licks
it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop?],
dark-chocolate molded owl pops
c/o mandie's candies via etsy
[gobbled up too quickly for photo procurement],
& a handful of other treats,

along with these darling owl-themed
scrabble-tile necklaces,
a different design for every guest,
by global pendants from － you guessed it －
etsy.

big girl said all her friends wore their
new owl jewelry to school the next day.
yay!

she loved her etsy-assisted owl party,
& i love her.

& yes, i heart etsy.