Little Mermaid Party: Decorations

This will be my last post about the birthday party. It's only taken me three weeks to write it!

I didn't do anything too extensive for decorations (not like last year's 100 ft long braid hanging out of our front window!).  The main focus was the food table.  I set up the table in front of the window in our dining room, so that I could use the curtain rod to hang up my backdrop.  I despise having to try to hang things from the ceiling, so I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out to use the curtain rod instead.

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Hobby Lobby has a large selection of bright turquoise, purple and green Christmas decorations this year.  I was able to find several things that worked will with our Little Mermaid party theme! 

I knew the cake was going to be various shades of turquoise/aqua, so I wanted to create a backdrop that represented "under the sea" and coordinated with various shades of turquoise/aqua.  I used some shiny tulle, sequin garlands, and ruffled streamers made out of plastic tablecloths.  I was really excited about the way it turned out once it was all put together.  I actually liked it so much, that i left it up after the party, and just took it down today!  =)

 I was going to spell Happy Birthday, Audrey at the top.  But then that was way too many letters to cut out and figure out how to hang up, so I just simplified and went with Audrey instead.

 You can find a tutorial on how to make the streamers here.  Seriously, they are my new favorite thing.  Very easy to make, though a bit time consuming and a bit painful on my fingers.  But WORTH it in the end!!

 In our basement, I set up some tables and chairs for extra seating.  I did decorate these tables with tablecloths and centerpieces, but I forgot to take a picture!  I just got some sparkly purple and green sprays from the Hobby Lobby Christmas section and put them in a clear vase filled with turquoise rocks and gems. 

I also had plans to turn the play area of our basement into an Under the Sea world.  With streamers and tissue paper poms and various sea creatures hanging from the ceiling.  As the party grew closer and I grew lazier, this turned into me randomly hanging a few crepe paper streamers around the room.  Often my plans are bigger than my motivation to actually do them!  This picture shows the (lame) streamers, and also the craziness in the basement where all the kids congregated to play!