my 18th birthday was on february 21st… and i had a very fun birthday party. some photos!

i had two cakes – a vanilla pound cake (3-layer, but small) with vanilla icing, and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

that one was big. so big, in fact, that the batter did not fit in the mixing bowl.

I made a fabric backdrop to hang on the bookshelf in our dining room. and amy gave me flowers!

I made a paper table runner (polka dots cut from the anthropologie catalog and various other places), and grouped some colorful stick candy in a mason jar.

food! (don’t you like the reoccurring circles of the items on the table?)

and more food.

we had homemade pizzas for dinner.

and a place where people could type up a message to the birthday girl

I made these paper stars (using a snowflake pattern) and hung them from the ceiling. (the paper for these was also from the anthropologie catalog)

see this record wall? well, it was the backdrop for the photobooth! a few weeks ago i ran across the idea of a DIY photobooth. the more i thought about it, the more i wanted to do it. and we made it work!

with a macbook, a borrowed photo printer, a homemade record wall, an old trunk to sit on, some garage lights… we made a photobooth! the brains behind it, however, was an automater workflow created by a genius. basically, all of the actions (taking photos, putting the images together, printing them, etc.) are batched together in one easy to use workflow.

it was immensely fun to use, and i’m so so glad it worked out. (we did go through some software wrestling – with another program that didn’t work.) and, it created a fun party favor for people to take home.

i sketched the chevron border that i used on the photostrips, and had some fun props, like mustaches and fluffy pink bows.

my sister clara gave me this crazy huge bag. it’s fabulous.

birthday cake!

me blowing out the candles. i’m glad i maintained an appearance of sophistication and didn’t awkwardly puff out my cheeks as i blew.

and that’s the recap of the party!

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