Winter OneDerland: The Decor

So here we go...the first in my series of posts about Levi's Winter OneDerland bash.  Today we'll focus on the decorations.  If you're considering a similar themed party, one of the main advantages is that most of the decor was created for free...or close to it...from supplies already on hand or very cheaply purchased.  Let's start with front walkway.  I lined it with white balloons (stuck in the ground with golf tees a la Pinterest and) and then had a simple snowflake wreath on the front door.

As you enter our house, the first room you see is the dining room where I typically set up the food.  This is our main party staging area, so I wanted to give it a big treatment.  The backdrop was just some wrapping paper that I found and taped to the wall.  I printed out various black and white images of Levi from the past year and strung them along.  In the center were three pictures of him spelling out "one" from his photoshoot a few weeks back.  I also made some paper snowflakes that hung from the ceiling and hideous ceiling fan!

The food pretty much dominated the food table (duh).  I'll go over the details of that tomorrow, but I did want to share with you a couple easy things I did to snaz it up and make it look fancier than just a plain white tablecloth.  I collected some branches from our yard, spray painted them white, and coated them with Epsom salt.  After putting them in vases on each end of the table, they certainly made the table a little prettier.  My cake stand created from Dollar Store plates and candle sticks (and then spray painted) also seemed to help.

The other main area of decoration was the mantle.  The "snow" is just cotton balls threaded on a string.  With all that going on, the mantle didn't need too much more.  I made a few trees out of cereal boxes and various supplies (fabric, cotton balls, felt, and yarn) and then framed a couple more pictures from Levi's first birthday photoshoot.

There were touches of decorations elsewhere throughout the house.  Above the drinks bar, I strung the pictures from Levi's monthly photos.

I also created a "Year of Firsts" for him, framed it,and put it on display.

And finally I created little snow men from styrofoam balls and plastic cups rolled in Epsom salt that hung out near our Chili Bar and Hot Chocolate Bar (more on both of them tomorrow).

And, of course, Levi's high chair got a little treatment as well.

So there we have it...the decorating fun that was the Winter OneDerland!  Tomorrow I'll be back with details on all the food and drinks we served (my favorite part of any party)!