A Joyful Riot

DIY Birthday Party Family Halloween Costume

September 22, 2018 ·

As we get ready for Halloween this year, here’s a look back at our last year’s DIY birthday party family halloween costume! Complete with cake, party hat, presents, and confetti!

I’ve been brainstorming our family halloween costume for months, and as usual, I am planning a few costumes this year haha. But before I can share those, I had to take a look back at our family costume last year! We went as a birthday party!

Our 3 year old daughter went as a party hat which was a costume she absolutely loved! She still dresses up in it often :)

And our 1 year old went as a birthday candle in a sheet cake wagon!

He was a big inspiration for this group costume as a whole because I was planning his one year birthday party at the same time so birthday things were on my mind! Plus, I knew I wanted to incorporate either his stroller or our wagon into his costume. Even if he had been walking great by that time, I would never plan on a baby doing well around the neighborhood for trick or treating! I’ve always loved the baby costumes that use transportation (there are some seriously genius stroller/wagon costumes out there!) so I was excited to try my hand at our own version and a sheet cake seemed to be the perfect fit.

As for me, I went as a bag of confetti and my husband went as a stack of birthday presents. All the costumes were fairly simple but I thought I’d share the DIY for each of them here. Sit tight, there’s a lot of birthday themed costumes to see here :D

A Floral Pink and Rose Gold Bridal Shower

September 15, 2018 ·

Twinkle lights, s’mores & eucalyptus come together in this dreamy & romantic pink and rose gold bridal shower, perfect for warm summer evenings!

Is it too late in the year to share a summer evening bridal shower?! haha! What is kind of sad about this is that I actually threw it last summer, so yeah like over a year ago… I was waiting for the right time to share it this year but then whoops its already autumn! So I decided to just share it anyway for fear of it being to passe to share next year haha.

What’s good about it though, is like, well, everything. So I’m hoping that the little-too-lateness will be made up for with some dreamy florals, twinkle lights, and food in this pink and rose gold bridal shower!

Pierce’s Pastel Gender Neutral Nursery!

August 30, 2018 ·

This pastel gender neutral nursery has a ton of fun little elements perfect for a baby boy or girl!

I am so thrilled to be sharing baby Pierce’s nursery! I am less than 2 weeks out from his due date and he really could arrive at any moment so I am beyond happy that his nursery is all ready. By the way, being over 38 weeks I now realize why pregnant women always are saying they’re ready to be done! I have had an easy pregnancy so far and I cannot really complain. I don’t know if my body is lacking hormones or what but I have had no nausea and almost no complications. I still have had migraines and definitely had a lot of days where I was exhausted but compared to the horror stories I’ve heard from a lot of other mommas I feel so blessed. However, now that I am feeling huge, uncomfortable, have daily aches, and have been in my third trimester the entire summer in humid D.C. I am glad I only have a maximum of a few weeks left. Plus I cannot wait to finally meet him! (But don’t worry mom I don’t want him to arrive early).

Now I am not someone who can wait for the entire pregnancy to find out the gender – kudos to those of you who can! I am the person who opts for the blood test at 10 weeks so I can find out as early as possible and start shopping and planning. When I got the results back at 12 weeks I initially thought it was too early to know. But then one minute later I changed my mind. I did wait 2 days for my amazing friend Dorothy to make a gender reveal cake and do a small family reveal over video chat though. That is the extent of my patience.

Since I knew the gender so early I had planned for a nursery that went with a boy. However, now that it is complete I think it really could work for a girl as well and thus would be perfect for those who want a more gender neutral space or who are waiting to find out their baby’s gender. Like I wrote in my inspiration board post I went back and forth on styles for a few weeks before Machelle gave me the idea of using pastels. I focused on blues and yellows and think that the color combination is perfect for a boy and I love how it all turned out. Greg was just so helpful as well – painting the nursery with me, putting up the crib, etc. I initially thought I would have the nursery all done by the end of my second trimester. Looking back on it this was quite an audacious goal and I still had a lot of buying, organizing, and planning to do in my third trimester. At least everything is all set up before he arrives. I know I won’t be using the nursery for months since he’ll be sleeping in a bassinet in our room but it makes be feel better knowing the space is ready.

DIY Outdoor Rug with Spray Paint and Stencil Revolution

August 9, 2018 ·

Make your own DIY Outdoor Rug with Spray Paint and Stencil with a little spray paint, and an awesome stencil from Stencil Revolution!

In the new DIY outdoor seating area I shared the other week, I featured this new rug which was actually a DIY! Outdoor rugs can be expensive and hard to find (just like indoor rugs!) and so when I saw this one at Costco earlier in the season for less than $20, I snatched it up! At the time, I had no idea it’d turn into this beauty! In fact, I had no idea it’d have such a lovely deck to sit on top either! As I mentioned in that post, the deck sort of just came together last minute and I decided that all the beautiful furniture I got, from Article, needed to have a prettier rug than just a simple ribbed gray one.

So, when I got an email from Stencil Revolution, I knew exactly where I would use one of their amazing designs! I knew it wouldn’t be hard to make my own DIY outdoor rug with spray paint and stencil! And it wasn’t! It only took me maybe 30 minutes and 2 cans of spray paint. Now I have a large outdoor rug, 6×9, for about $40! The price makes me happy, and the finished design does too!

Modern Tropical 80th Birthday Party

August 6, 2018 ·

This modern tropical 80th birthday party features shades of blue and green, a fab balloon arch, and some subtle tropical elements like palm leaves, pineapples, and coconuts.

About a month and a half ago, our dad turned 80! Can you believe that?! Well, you probably can, seeing as how you barely know us :’D But, if you did, you’d be blown away by that! Our dad is about the age of all our peer’s grandparents. And honestly, in better shape than all of them. (click “read more” to see a pic of him to prove it!).

Every summer, we have a little family time down in Saint George, Utah. We hang out together in a condo for a few days, swim a lot, eat a lot, go see some shows at Tuachan, and basically, just relax! This year, since that was happening only a couple weeks after our dad’s 80th birthday, we decided to throw him a party while we were there!

We were lucky enough to have all of our immediate family together, for the first time in at least 5 years. We have a bit of a mixed family, with some half siblings and step-siblings, 9 kids total. And so we rarely ever see each other all together. We decided this summer was a good time to make that happen and I decided it was a good time for me to finally try the epitome of current party decor trends: the balloon arch!