Emily Burn: 2021

8/27/21

Trash Truck Theme Birthday Party// Garbage Truck Theme Birthday Party

Our little boy is THREE! This year for his birthday I asked him what he wanted for his birthday cake, while looking at pictures on Pinterest he spotted a trash truck cake and it was all he could talk about... so his trash truck birthday was born.

Today I am excited to share the details from his birthday party. The decorations, cake, activities, etc. I hope this helps inspire you if you have a trash truck loving toddler like I do.

Lets start with the cake, since it was the inspiration for the party and such a hit. I am no where near a professional baker/ decorator but this cake was fun and simple to make, because it did not need to be perfect. Messy worked well for this type of cake.

I used boxed funfetti cake mix, you can of course use any homemade cake recipe or box mix you like. I baked it in two 9" rounds and stacked them with frosting in the middle. Then I frosted the cake with simple vanilla frosting. Next came the fun part, I placed the trash truck on the cake and used cookies, candy and sprinkles as the "trash" falling out the back. You can see more on this simple process and how I did it in the video above.

Personally when you are dealing with toddlers I feel like cupcakes are the way to go so I also made a batch of funfetti cupcakes. I kept things really simple and topped them with these toppers from etsy and used sprinkles to create the same look of trash falling out the back as the cake. The kids loved these and this was a very simple and cost effective option.

Next lets talk decor. I found this sign and balloon bundle on amazon and knew that was what I needed. It did all the work for me, all I had to do was the balloons. If you like to do balloons or balloon garlands for birthday parties than you need this balloon pump, it makes all the difference and the process to quick and easy. Best $20 you can spend for parties.

On the table I just placed the cake and cupcakes in the middle, in front of the banner. Next to that we did some snacks, and a few little favors for the kids to play with.

I didn't take any pictures of the food but we got chick fila platters: a large nugget and a large platter of chicken minis. This was an amazing decision, nothing to cook for us and everyone (parents and kids) loved the food. With the chick fila we had fruit, veggies, chips, pretzels, rollups and drinks.

For activities we kept it pretty simple and not on theme. It was August and hot where we live so we put out two water tables, our sand box and a truck washing station. The kids spent most of the time playing with the water tables and were all very happy and entertained.

For the truck wash station I just put several plastic toy trucks in a plastic bin and in a separate bin filled two of these bottle with soapy water, two spray bottles with water and added in several small sponges for them to use.

Party Sources:

*Affiliate links

Cake Truck- https://rstyle.me/+5AT1ManMXH3obnZGao3DKA

Cupcake toppers- https://rstyle.me/+bAK8Ukq0FJJZS1ejRc5ACg

Sign & balloons-https://rstyle.me/+oxNyDyps7yN-ctRwHc7ztQ

Balloon pump- https://rstyle.me/+pRcNS2BqHZaY3fRHEc1-dQ

Monster trucks for wash- https://rstyle.me/+B_inDJLrfdD9P13D7v0QqQ

Cake stand -https://rstyle.me/+UEjV1v_6sTrXZz43jlnGVQ

3/6/21

Baby Girl Nursery Tour - French Inspired Nursery

We are expecting our second baby, a little girl any day now so I thought it would be a good time to share her Nursery. We moved our son from this room next door into a new bedroom because this room is best suited to be the nursery. Therefore we kept most of the room the same minus the crib accent wall.

For the accent wall I knew I wanted to use this rose wallpaper from Rocky Mountain Decals, however when I priced out how much it would cost to cover this small wall (~$500) I knew I needed to come up with a creative solution to save some money. Which is why I decided to do the framed accent, and I love it even more because it is so unique and stunning.

I used three wallpaper pieces and we framed it with moulding we purchased from Lowes that was already white. Once baby girl is here and we have told our friends and family her name I also have a name sign to hang above the crib that I plan to spray paint gold to match the other accents.

For the crib we wanted to make sure we bought a convertible option that can be used as a toddler bed and a headboard down the road, that is also what we got for our son so he still has his crib. I loved this one because it had the pretty trim detail. I love it now on the crib and it will also be really pretty as a headboard.

Next to the crib we placed a small nightstand that we already had to put the sound machine and humidifier on. Then above that we hung some floating shelves for decor and a beautiful wall sconce.

On the shelves we have some simple decor: a sonogram picture, a rose, baby shoes and a white and gold unicorn.

Above the shelves might be one of my favorite touches, I found this crystal chandelier wall sconce on amazon and knew I had to have it and that it would help tie my vision together. We hung the light on the wall without hardwiring and used the light hack with a puck light to power it.

The glider was already here from my son, and I cant recommend this chair enough for your nursery. It is the most comfortable, supportive chair especially for postpartum and feeding.

For the curtains, I layered blush black out panels with a sheer curtain on top to give it a softer look for the nursery.

The last space is the changing table area, this piece was also already here so I simply changed the knobs to these gold and crystal options to make it more feminine. Above the changing table I added four Paris prints that all had some pops of pink in them, I love these they are so beautiful.

Here are the sources for everything in the space:

Wallpaper: https://rstyle.me/+nDmDhjtd2dQFXlqxC4yTsA

Crib: https://rstyle.me/+tfjDpqXyFhsPODYr80LGZw

Name Sign: https://rstyle.me/+L31zJc-V3o8aT6AQju-ehw

Wall Sconce: https://rstyle.me/+C0nZ3wICrZ74j4mm7gGqfg

Gold & White Shelves: https://rstyle.me/+IFk4Cqzenex8oUGi9zZG_g

Changing Table Dresser: https://rstyle.me/+V-oSqOBoxL07CpIrbsJNQg

Knobs: https://rstyle.me/+8oZLhlfZp1fPG6p3qgegJg

Glider: https://rstyle.me/+TKLDJHg1tKZVMwrOjO-R9g

Book shelves: https://rstyle.me/+g-EqKodeiuW-JqLpDAM_9g

Paris Prints: https://rstyle.me/+6XRVlNG1pFtM_x6tDDzLRg

French Inspired Nursery- Design Plan

Here is my design plan for my little girls nursery. I wanted it to have a nod to French design.

You can see the full tour of the space here!

You can watch a video tour of the space here!

Sources:

Wallpaper: https://rstyle.me/+nDmDhjtd2dQFXlqxC4yTsA

Crib: https://rstyle.me/+tfjDpqXyFhsPODYr80LGZw

Name Sign: https://rstyle.me/+L31zJc-V3o8aT6AQju-ehw

Wall Sconce: https://rstyle.me/+C0nZ3wICrZ74j4mm7gGqfg

Gold & White Shelves: https://rstyle.me/+IFk4Cqzenex8oUGi9zZG_g

Changing Table Dresser: https://rstyle.me/+V-oSqOBoxL07CpIrbsJNQg

Knobs: https://rstyle.me/+8oZLhlfZp1fPG6p3qgegJg

Glider: https://rstyle.me/+TKLDJHg1tKZVMwrOjO-R9g

Book shelves: https://rstyle.me/+g-EqKodeiuW-JqLpDAM_9g

Paris Prints: https://rstyle.me/+6XRVlNG1pFtM_x6tDDzLRg

1/28/21

Toddler Room Tour- Cars Themed

Today I am sharing my sons new room. We are due with our second baby in a couple months and because of the size and shapes of the bedrooms we decided to keep the nursery as the nursery and move my son next door into what was once the guest room.

We used this opportunity to re-design a room for him and get him excited about moving. He picked a Cars theme and was so excited throughout the whole process of creating his "new room." Today I am going to show you the tour of the room. I wanted to keep things, simple and neutral with the "theme" elements easy to swap out if my toddlers interests were to change.

A couple weeks ago I posted a video showing the decorating process for the room, you can watch that video here. Below is the video tour of the room.

Now lets breakdown each section of the room with some photos, everything I used will be linked at the bottom of the post!

We made the crib wall our accent wall, using a brick wall paper, his existing crib, a name sign and lights. I love the pop of black against the brick, complimented with the wood grain of the crib. This wall actually features no Cars

For the lights we hung up two wall scones but did not hardwire them, we used the "lighting hack" with puck lights to use them. We wanted to have an option other than a lamp for a toddlers room, which didn't seem like a good idea and love how this turned out.

On the wall next to the door we have the dresser and gallery wall. This wall features all of the Cars characters and my son loves to look at them. This was a super simple and inexpensive design, we found the Route 66 sign at hobby lobby on sale for less than $10. Then I downloaded the Cars prints from Etsy, printed and framed them. It would be very simple to switch out these frames with different prints from Etsy if interests were to change.

On the opposite wall there is a little cutout between the two windows that I thought would create the perfect "reading nook." I started with a floor pillow and some additional pillows to create a comfortable sitting space on the floor. Then we hung a set of acrylic bookshelves on the wall to fill with his favorite books of the moment. Above the books I hung a set of "READ" letters. I painted three of them matte black, two with road lines and then on the final letter I used modgepodge to attach a piece of checkered scrapbook paper.