My Table Display: Pittsburgh's 'I Made it! Market'

I was thrilled to be a part of the Valentines Day Markets put on by I Made it! Market a few weeks ago! I was definitely a unique vendor at the event...since I sell printables and am an online based shop...But I wanted to attend the event to promote my Blog: The Busy Budgeting Mama & my etsy shop Pretty Paperie Printables and to make connections
 in the local area! I had a blast! My amazing mother came up from the south to help me with everything from putting the table together to entertaining my
 girls while i talked to potential clients. 

I loved chatting with all the shoppers and getting to know the other 
vendors selling hand made items.
By the end, my cheekbones hurt from smiling and
 I was completely talked out...but it was fun. :)


most of the photos shown were taken by the lovely christine of christine marie fine art photography. everyone needs to travel with a talented photographer haha. 
you get amazing pictures e-mailed to you. :)

I wanted to keep my budget for this craft fair very low since most of my money making off this would come later through orders in my shop. And i feel like i did a good job of using what i had.. I took frames off my walls, ribbon and paper from my craft box. my mom brought the lovely drawer and the lace table cloth i layered. I had a slideshow featuring recent clients and some of my favorite designs..it helped people to see the range of work i've done.

I put together a sampling of Party Printables with the Valentines Day Theme...just so people could get an idea of some of my top selling items..spark their imagination for  items to include in their next event! It was always the best when people would stop by my booth, take a card and tell me about a party they were going to be planning!! lots of baby and bridal showers.

I created my business cards and uploaded them to vistaprints.com. LOVE how they turned out. and the price was fabulous!! be sure to google discount codes to use before you buy! there are always good ones out there to use......
 One side was my blog and the other my etsy shop. I got lots of compliments on how i branded myself which made my day because i worked hard on that.

sample treat bag tags.

The babies for some reason didn't want to sleep the night before.....so i was frosting these mini cupcakes the night before at 2 am. haha. good thing i loveeee this kind of last minute craziness. :) Everyone kept asking if they were fake!! And my response of course..."No they are real! i should probably just eat these as i stand here to show they are real..i'm willing to make that sacrifice to showcase my toppers well..." haha. they agreed.

my little angel. watching a show. she actually fell asleep there for part of it. She had a blast seeing all the people (specifically the hula hoop lady.) and I think she loved it so much because I kept telling her we were going to a ballroom and we could danceee.. hehe.

I put out Christine's business card since i used her beautiful photos from the Budget Friendly Valentines Day photo shoot. She made some great contacts and even had a sign up for a Engagement shoot giveaway she was doing. It was a joke with all the single/not engaged yet girls who stopped by. They kept saying they were going to take a card and sign up to give a hint. haha.

leading up to the weekend, my mom was busy crocheting up a bunch of ADORABLE baby hats!! they were just so sweet. I'll be adding them to my shop soon. 
It really was so funny how many young women were first drawn to the baby hats and would comment on how they couldn't wait for a baby!! 
I also had two adorable baby models with me to help. they were a nice touch. ;)

christine was there snapping away! 
and sophia was a little trooper (i had a babysitter the 2nd day but the first day of the event I had to bring her with us and it was right during her nap time..she was AMAZING.
 Her hair is a lil wild below because of the cute baby hats she was modeling for us. hehe.

i was definitely the "BUSY budgeting mama whiel working my table. juggling sienna...passing out cards answering questions.. my husband told me that i wouldn't have been true self if i didn't have her at my table too. ;)

I will be sharing with you, later this week, some fellow vendors who caught my eye! 
You will love them! If you haven't already been to an event like this you should..and for all Local PA/Ohio readers you should look up I made it! Market and attend one of their events.

 i hear the summer ones are awesome! 


I'm off to Atlanta to visit my sister, Valerie (of Blanqi.com) 
Someone was incredibly generous enough to gift me with a buddy pass(all expenses included) (incredible right?????) and i'm sooooo excited to visit my family down south! My sister had her baby a month after i had sienna and we haven't had a chance to get together yet!! i can't wait to meet the lil guy and to take some photos of the cousins together. :) I'll be away from sophia again which is sooo hard. But Ben is all excited to have daddy time with her. It's a short and sweet trip and i'm sure i'll be sharing photos
 of the fun with you once i get home! 

Featured Client- Pretty in Pink 1st Birthday Party Theme

I'm so excited to share photos from a recent-returning client!

 She ordered printables from my Etsy Shop for her daughter's Baptism Party...
and i was thrilled when she got in touch with me to help with
 some printables for her daughter's 1st birthday party! time has flown by! 

enjoy the cuteness. 

the Party Theme was Pretty in Pink. 

and Colleen was sweet enough to send me
 info on the party to share! be sure to check out the details below!

seeing her ruffled streamers backdrop makes me want to make one up!!
i've been seeing it around and i really want to try it.

she did a fabulous job dressing up her cupcake tower!

how sweet is that birthday hat???

seriously, how cute are they? and the streamers really make a great photo!!

Thank you Colleen for sharing your beautiful party with all of us!
I'm so happy I could be a part of the fun details!


"So, I'll admit that I'm one of "those" moms who started planning (or envisioning) my daughter, Chloe's, first birthday party when she was about 2 months old. I was introduced to a few party planning sites and blogs by friends with children and fell in love with the beautifully detailed parties that were featured. By no means do I think that I've achieved that level in party planning, but I loved the process of planning her first one. 

The trickiest part by far was finding just the "right" theme. I love all things glitzy and girlie and toyed with the idea of a princess, cupcake, sweet shoppe or ballerina theme, but I felt that those would be more appropriate when she's a little bit older and actually enjoys things like princesses or ballerinas. I settled on "Pretty in Pink" as a way to do all things pink, frilly and girlie, without limits.

Because I work as middle school teacher and have a daily commute of an hour to and from work, time is certainly limited. I saved pictures of things I loved for a few months and when she was 6 months old I started listing out what I actually wanted to do for her party, and set myself little time lines for each project. I'm so glad I did that because with time on my side, the help of my sister, mom and some Etsy favorites I was able to accomplish many of the projects I had set out to.

One of my favorite parts of the party were the backdrop of pink and white, "ruffled streamers". I saw a picture of these on a party site and fell in love, but when I read that they required sewing I knew I was in over my head. Luckily after a little bit of pleading I convinced my sister, a fashion major, to sew them for me. She offered up her talents for more projects and I was able to get the custom table cloth and "1" party hat out of her. She did a beautiful job with all of them.

The cupcake tower was something I really wanted to showcase and loved the idea of incorporating tutus (one of my favorite little girl items). I found a tutorial on YouTube and spent a Saturday morning making two of those to tie around my 4 tiered cupcake stands. As a bonus, I had a couple super cute tutus after the party! I also created the tulle rhinestone and pearl cupcake toppers using a 2'' and a 1.5'' punch. Adding to my dessert table was Chloe's whimsical "smash cake", created by Alpine Bakery in Concord, CA, old fashioned pink candy jars from Potterybarn Kids and ribbon cotton candy cones that I made out of different shades of pink card stock and pink ribbon.

I wanted as much pink and sparkle around the house as I could get so I started off trying to create pink, glittery garland to hang. When that didn't come out so well I discovered that Martha Stewart had beat me to it and ordered 32 feet worth of her pink sparkle garland, which I then cut into strips and hung from the ceiling around my living room, above her birthday banner and from the light fixtures in the house. Because her birthday is in January, and the weather was so unpredictable, I knew that I needed to have something for the 10 kiddos under the age of 5 that were there, so I set up a craft table for the kids to make their Mommy and Daddys Valentine's Day cards. Each kid had a lollipop labeled with their name to designate their "spot" at the table.

I'm all about personalized touches so her party was a little "Chloe" crazy. After working with Natalie from theprettypaperie for Chloe's baptism party last August, I knew that I needed to utilize her again! She created beautiful water bottle labels that said both, "Happy Birthday Chloe" and had the number "1". I can't tell you how many compliments I received on them. She also created custom Thank You tags for the "1" cookie favors (made by my mom to match the "1" on her invitation) that were handed out at the end of the party, and lucky for me, I was able to reuse the custom tent cards that I ordered from her for Chloe's baptism as food labels. Another Etsy favorite that I used was her adorable custom, pink cupcake pinata that had her name across it from MommyDo. The custom welcome door sign was created by Etsy seller 10candles. And last but not least, the beautiful birthday girl was in probably the cutest birthday outfit I've ever seen by Etsy seller ilovefancyschmancy.

I was lucky enough to be able to hire a professional photographer to document the day and relieve me of any photo taking responsibilities. Shea, atwww.shealynnphotography.com did a beautiful job capturing the day and many special moments. After 6 months of planning this party the completion of it was bittersweet, but, cue the eye-rolling from my husband, I have already started my folder of ideas for birthday party number 2..."

-Colleen

A Day in the Life- Favorite Bargains, Blogs, Recipes, Style Tips & Mommy Moments

FAVORITE PARTY THEME - A Coco Chanel inspired Baby Shower
 A perfect shower for spring time just around the corner! I love the shower theme..very unique!

via hostess with the mostess

AMAZING ruffle cake!

a great baby shower DIY project!

RECENT MAMA MOMENT- Spent the weekend away from

 Sophia for the first time since I had Sienna. big milestone!!

 The hubby and I went away for 2 days for a friends' wedding!

it was really fun. and GORGEOUS. i love weddings. :)

MAMA STYLE @ WEDDING - Dress.... H&M for $35
(ignore the wrinkles..it was nurse the baby or iron the dress. haha.)
The times when sienna was sleeping we actually felt like we were on a getaway with no babies..haha. or as close as we will be getting to one for a while! :) 
Sienna is so portable at this age it was way easier to travel with just
 her than with both girls. It was hard for me to leave sophia but it
 was really good for ben and I to have that time together.
 When we picked her up she made us feel pretty awesome haha. 
the best big hugs and smoochies! and with sophia being 2 1/2, she did great.
 it's really tough at first (at least for me!) but I highly recommend it if you can!
you need to date your husband :)

FAVORITE DIY - Fringey Streamers Tutorial

via Oh Happy Day

I'm definitely wanting to incorporate this fun touch to my next party!!

so cute...a great way to jazz up plain ol' streamers!

I've seen people sew streamers together to ruffle the..but i'm liking this look too!

hop over to her blog to see her full tutorial.

FAVORITE TODDLER TOY - cheap but totally awesome

 dollar store Sunglasses.(shown in video below)

 but daddy's are way more fun to play with..........

 Sophia turns into another person when she puts them on!

haha.. for some reason she does this "cool voice" when 

she wears her shades... amazing right?

daddy wondered where the little fingerprints came from on his sunglasses........;)

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