Caterpillar Countdown: Wednesday

Dear Diary,

It’s day 3 of party planning!  Is there a support group for party planning addicts?  I told my ex-boyfriend who has a Finance Degree that I needed him to put me on budget.  he replied and said I needed him to be my sponsor!  I really should be writing down my expenses, huh?  But you only turn one once! And you should splurge on at least one item, right?

On Wednesday, I purchased a personalized high chair tutu that I never knew existed until I became a first time mom.

I came across a shop on Etsy called Tamara Marie Originals, custom embroidery and boutique bows.  Since I am also addicted to putting bows in my daughter’s hair, it didn’t take much to become hooked on what the shop was selling.  Bows+500 feet of Tulle+Butterflies=A Customized High Chair Tutu for Baby C.  Who knew this thing even existed?  And who knew that I would pay more for a tutu than I did for the actual high chair?  It was a bit pricey, but it was well worth the splurge.  I’m very particular about things matching, so her pink and brown flowered high chair didn’t go with the decor.  My friends are now calling me Phaedra from the Real Housewives in Atlanta who threw the equivalent of a wedding reception for her son’s baby dedication at church.

Very Extravagant:

Order a custom high chair tutu.  Tamara added my daughter’s name and age and butterflies to match the theme.  Her shop had a blue caterpillar design, but being such a girly girl, I requested that she adds pink to the design. I went a step further and ordered pink and green to match my sorority colors.  I also bought Mylar butterfly balloons to tie to the chair.

What to do with the tutu….

My party planner friend and fellow DFTM mama Janica came up with several ideas to repurpose the tutu.

1.  Make a wearable tutu

2.  Make a princess throne by wrapping the tutu around a plain chair in the nursery.

3.  Use the tutu as a vanity skirt.

4. Dress up a large stuffed animal/teddy bear.

Very Affordable

Make a high chair banner.  You can create a caterpillar using cutout circles for the body and write “I am one” on each section similar to the birthday banner Erica from Pickle ‘N Pinwheels created.  Makes an affordable and cute cover. Erica also made face pieces for the balloons (The Children’s Museum package comes with free helium latex balloons) to make a caterpillar.  You just need to buy a red balloon for the head, green balloons for the body and ribbon.  All of those items I picked up at the Dollar Tree.  You can cut out the eyes, ears and nose from green, yellow and purple card stock paper.

But I was still hungry to plan more.