Tonality Designs

The Giraffe Came!

This weekend I had fun with all the animals and friends who showed up at Drew's 2nd Birthday!

The inspiration all started with Drew and his love for giraffes. "Giraffe" could almost be considered Drew's first word after MaMa and DaDa, so Drew's parents knew they wanted a giraffe motif, but they didn't want anything too cheesy. Hence the modern and fun Pingg Evite we designed. We knew the invitation design would show up again at the party but we had no idea how much fun we would have doing it. After being further inspired by the Candyland Birthday posted on the Hostess with the Mostess Blog, I think we created a perfect setting for all to get lost in the fun. 

Guests were immediately greeted by balloons and the oh-so amazing balloon arch—could there be anything better? Well, maybe the hanging dots (originally done for Alyssa's Dora Birthday) that hung from the tents. This time we added pictures of the birthday boy and the giraffe illustration. The balloons and dots proved to be perfect backdrops for all the party pictures. 

And let's not forget the fun candy centerpieces. (See DIY instructions here.) Completely edible, guests dug right into the lollipops, Mike and Ikes and cotton candy. 

And then there were cupcakes. They were decked out with cupcake toppers with Drew's picture and original giraffe illustration. And of course we had stuffed animals spread around everywhere. Yes the details were all there. 

Lastly, entertainment. This place couldn't have been more fun for the kids. A bounce house, train, slide and animal puppet show rounded out the different kid zones we had set up. Even the adults got into it—elephant or zibra mask anyone? So much fun.

I invite you to see a slide show of some of the pictures here.

Instant Party Playlist with Pandora

So it's 11:00 p.m. and I still have a marketing pitch to write, but I'm going take a minute to write this post because they say it takes 28 days to groove any activity into your brain so that it becomes a habit. It's only day 4 so I better stay on top of it. Luckily for me I have a great find to write about.

I visited my friend Kat yesterday and I was loving the music she had playing. I was thinking, "Wow, Kat really has an awesome iTunes list," but then she opened Pandora's box—well, Pandora's music website that is.

Kat claims everyone knows about this, so forgive me if this is old news, but here's the scoop. Pandora is a free internet radio station that allows you to create your playlist just by typing in the name of your favorite artist or song. So for instance I typed in "Jason Mraz" because he's been on my mind since seeing him perform on American Idol last night. So now I've been enjoying not only Jason's music but also Jack Johnson, Michael Buble, One Republic, The Fray, Coldplay . . . Pretty good play list and I didn't have to search or download anything, I literally only typed two words—Jason Mraz.

So you know where I'm going with this. How perfect will this be for a party? If you're like me you always say that you're going to update your iPod and create a new party mix, but the party comes and you haven't had the time. But now all we have to do is go to Pandora and type in a music genre or artist name and we'll have an instant party playlist. So amazing.

How many of you are having Memorial Day Barbecues? I know I am and I can't wait for everyone to be swaying to my amazing party mix. There are a lot more features to Pandora, but I'll let you discover those on your own. Trust me, this is one Pandora's box worth opening. Thanks Kat for opening it for me. Open it for yourself here.