peek-a-boo!

the big first birthday recap: part 2: FOOD!

If there's one thing Jews do right, it's food at a party. Gabe and I knew from the start we'd have to live up to our wedding (greatest meal EVER) so we went straight to the pros. Obviously, some of the best food in town is Postino's. Bruschetta, charcuterie, salads, paninis. Done.

And then there was cake. I literally cried when Alyssa from Cuteology brought the cakes through the front door. Besides being totally stunning in design, both the cake and the smash cake tasted outrageously good. Literally the yummiest cake EVER-well, besides our wedding cake. Beautiful and perfect for our little girl's first birthday.

The dessert table also included clearly the most delicious cookies in town-Barb's! These were the same exactly style the aunties served at my Phoenix baby shower, and I now plan to have them every year! I made the tablecloth and backdrop. That's downplaying it a little. That freaking backdrop took me hours to conceive, craft and install. And I loved every second of it! #craftastrophe My cousin Hannah made the marshmallow pops! I added a little bit of candy, a lot of MacKenzie-Childs and was ready get all Amy Atlas up in here.

one year ago.

i am feeling nostalgic, grateful, and reminiscent. one year ago, i gave my notice to work that i would not be returning from maternity leave. not every day is good, but there is good in every day. forever thankful to gabe for supporting me, especially when i say "today was not good." the long and the short of it- yes, i love being a stay at home mom and yes, i miss working and and yes, some days i feel unfulfilled and yes, most days i feel like i'm the luckiest girl in the world and yes, i will work again in some capacity at some point in the near future and yes, i'm not using my degree and yes, this is the most important work i have ever, will ever, and could ever do. and yes, this was very very difficult to write so i'm throwing in a video of baby Sloane both to mark the anniversary & for good measure in hopes of non-judgement.

Gesundheit. from jenny martin on Vimeo.

the big first birthday recap: part 1: decorations

now that i've had a few months to recover from my baby girl's first birthday extravaganza, i thought it was high time i share a few details. i spent many hours making sure every detail was just right for her. here are some of my very favorites of all the little decorations we had. from balloon filled windows to a life-sized fringed "1", it was every blog obsessed girl's dream. all for our little girl to have the most special day, surrounded by family and the best of friends.

SLOANE white

SLOANE white: Halloween 2013. dress -Little Wellies // headband - handmade by me // necklace - PixysPretties // shoes - TOMS.

year after year.

Photo Cube

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Invitations, announcements and Christmas cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

I totally love all the products that Shutterfly has started offering. I made this one for my dad's desk, showcasing an amazing game weekend in Gainesville. We're a family that bleeds ORANGE and BLUE!

10 reasons i love the instagram.

if you don't follow me, you should! @30jennymartin and if you don't know what instagram is, get with the times, man. get with the times. 1. it still feels like a good old boys club. i'd say of my real life friends, mostly the tastemakers and my most "in the know" types are regular grammers. and hands down, it's the best place for a blog fan to feel truly connected to writers they like. i follow all types of friends, bloggers, stores, brands, celebrities (NOT the kardashains-can't handle!). sometimes i tag them, and once or twice they've written back. total win in my book. my close real life friends that gram know how into it i am. and so are they! 2. my feed shows me everyone i follow, all the time. facebook totally sucks now that they control what you see on your news feed.

3. there ain't no shame in #overgramming. my account is what it is-filled with baby Sloane shots with an occasional craft project thrown in for good measure. looking for a picture of your favorite #jewban in a santa outfit?? check my feed. i truly feel like there is no judgement. if you are sick of my baby cuteness, don't look. pretty simple. 4. #hashtags mean something. sure, i use them in cute {lame} ways but i also use them to assign a category to different things im up to. example: #keywestorbust was assigned to all my recent summer vacation pics. 5. other peoples babies! i absolutely love seeing daily our friends-near and far-on the parenthood journey. if i do say so myself, most of my friends are smart and creative-so they all have funny, poignant pictures of their kiddos. 6. gabe loves it. he keeps my feed on his desktop at work. it warms my heart when he shoots me a reminder text "instagram, please!" although he has yet to post pictures himself...not sure why.

7. screenshots! i do this constantly, whether it's an outfit i want to buy, a recipe i want to try, craft i want to put my own spin on or a judgment i want to make and send a friend! i kid, i kid. 8. believe me, i've done the facebook cleanse and weeded out a lot, but I still get the way too often "OMG my baby doesn't sleep a wink" status update that causes me to sigh heavily. There's something more gratifying to instead see an f-in exhausted new momma selfie on the gram rather than read about it.

9. although i could give or take the filters feature, the fact that the grams are saved in a square to your phone is unique. i love to print them using prinstagram. we had a rad poster made of the first 6 months of sloane's life as portrayed in social media: #sloaneswonderfullife.

10. the #abeautifulmess app. Super cool blogger sisters took their full-time gig to a whole new level when they realeased this hipster photo-editing app that allows you to jazz up your grams with super simple text, graphics and filters.

the big first birthday: #slOaNEstock2013

laying in bed late one night, when all of those glorious ideas pop into everyone's head, i realized that sloane contained the word O N E. adorbs. of course, the first birthday is monumental for any new mom. i've dreamed of this day since marrying gabe yet am dreading the actual fact that her first year with me is coming to an end. anyhoo-i have been planning for quite some time and now am in total over-the-top list making, craft explosion mode. i think this is the only party where i can get away without a major theme for her, so we're doing a hint of BALLOONS with a splash of stripes, layers of colors, and basically anything that's making the rounds with my blogger friends. we officially kicked off the downward spiral into jenny is a crazy person land with a super fun-you guessed it-PHOTO SHOOT! i ordered balloons with her logo (#imean) from here. they were super easy to work with and look totally crisp. although she could have rocked a good outfit, i also love her in just a diap and headband like we do each month. i chose a metallic gold bow from that awfully weird bowtique place at scottsdale & shea on a turquoise band that i had.

gabe is such a good sport. we blew up about 25 balloons, added some bunting from A Felt Affair, filled sloane's crib up, and dropped her in.

smile.

source.