Sweet Shop Party

Well I'm finally getting around to showing you the details of this party.  I guess I'm still recovering from the massive exhaustion.  So when I asked the kids this year what kind of party they would like the response was "candy".  Okay, I can run with this.  So after hours of looking at ideas on line I started to piece together a rough outline of what this party should be.  It couldn't be too girly since we have a joint party and it needed to stay in the range of reasonable cost wise.  I decided on a sweet shop theme complete with a candy buffet and a soda bar.

The decorations came together from supplies already in my stash and actually turned out way better than if I had planned and bought new materials for them.  I made two fabric banners, using primary colors and brown bias tape/quilt binding.  These are super simple to make.  I just cut out triangles from my fabrics using pinking shears, and then sandwich them between some bias tape and stitch.  I also made two banners using ribbon, paper, fun foam and pictures.  For the first of these I simply cut out circles of foam and attached them to the ribbon using clothes pins.  I alternated with pictures of the kids for a personal touch.  For the second I wrote out 'Happy Birthday' onto the foam and paper circles and tied them onto a length of ribbon using small pieces of ribbon and rick rack.

My biggest project for the party kind of fell into my lap.  I was generously given a charm pack of Moda's 'Hello Betty' fabric and it just called out to me to be part of this party.  It has such a cute retro feel to it.  I used pretty much the entire pack plus a few squares from my stash and just started piecing them together.  I did rows of five squares across until I got to about 70 inches long.  Then I sandwiched my top with some fleece ( I didn't have any batting and actually prefer quilting with fleece) and some vintage backing fabric.  I then machine quilted the whole thing and used some store bought binding in chocolate brown to tie the whole thing together.  This is one of my favorite things I have made so far and even though it was intended for the party, I'm sure it will be a permanent fixture on my dining room table!

For the candy buffet I bought a few glass containers at different stores around town, not spending more than five dollars a piece.  For the rest of the containers I used stuff I already had; iced tea glasses, a trifle dish, plates, cake stands, etc.  You can really find a lot of this stuff in your cabinets.  I bought candy at Cracker Barrel since they seem to have a really good selection of vintage style candy and it's not too expensive.  I used candy sticks, lollipops, twizzlers, zots, candy buttons, candy bottles, lik n dips, candy straws, airheads and some handmade candy.  I bought a few things at the dollar store also.   I put out little bags so that people could take some home with them, but we were still left with more candy than any family should have.

The soda bar was something I saw a picture of on line and loved.  We have done old fashioned bottled sodas at parties in the past and they were always a hit.  This time I just covered a small table with fabric added a little sign that read 'Soda' and then arranged the sodas ( about 50) on the table in rows.  I finished it off with cups and straws.  I found mine at the grocery, Cracker Barrel (they charge a fortune for them, be warned) and even Marshall's.  I love how they look all out on the table and I refrigerated mine to make them cold before hand.  They only stay that way for about an hour though so having some ice on hand is a good idea.  I'm looking for some skinny oval shaped galvanized buckets to use for this the next time so I can keep them on ice.

The other miscellaneous decorations I made included two door signs that looked like lollipops and some paper medallions.  It was a tiring day but a perfect one.  The weather held out and the kids had a blast in the pool, folks left in a tired sugar haze and I had two very happy kids.

Thanks for letting me share!
Kim