Cake & Presents

Sym is having a birthday sleepover with her friends on the 15th (she insited it had to be on a Friday and I told her if it was this Friday her friends would have to celebrate Gwen’s birthday too so she picked next week) but since yesterday was her actually birthday we marked the occasion with cake and she opened her presents from family. Except her dad didn’t want to bring her gifts from him up the hill to my house, and my mom is bringing Sym’s gift when she comes over on Friday, so it’s more of an extended gift-opening.

For some reason I only took instagrams of the decorations I spend the last four days working on…

top row: Party hats! I made these with stiffened felt & assorted pompoms. I kiiiiiiind of went overboard but they are so cute & also fun to make. Tissue tassel garland! Every time I make one of these I improve on my technique. I thought I’d perfected in the summer when I made one for Jenn’s summer camp party but this time I think I’ve really got it. I MIGHT put up some tutorials on making the hats & garland, I didn’t take pics of the process so I’ll have to find time to make more (because what I need is more of these???).
bottom row: Banners and honeycomb pompoms! I made the banner in separate pieces so I can switch out the “Symphony” for “Gwendolyn” on Friday. The pompoms I made using this tutorial from Mr Printables. These were my least favourite thing to make and idk if I would bother with them again. They are just really tedious and repetitive and if you make one mistake the whole thing is fucked- but you can’t tell until you finish the whole thing! The first two I made were pretty boned but I did get the hang of it by the end (although not enough to make more than five). My favourite is the tri-colour one on the right. Silver balloons! Obviously I didn’t make these but I DID do extensive research to find them at an affordable price. Everywhere else seems to have them for $4-$6 PER BALLOON, but there is one dollar store (locals: it’s the Dollar Tree on Thurlow between Robson & Alberni, downstairs) that has them for $1.25 each, including helium. Sooooo I got a dozen (one for each of Sym’s 12 years, and if they last until Friday, one for each of Gwen’s 12 months).

I’m terrible at decorating cakes so I went with my usual technique of going BALLS TO THE WALL with sprinkles. I made a small, 7″ cake since not many people would be eating it but still used an entire can of frosting. GROSS. But also DELICIOUS.

please note Sym’s dad lurking creppily in the background. Also I cropped these into a square because we were posing right next to my fire extinguisher, how lovely.

Sym tried to bunny ears her dad but instead elbowed him in the face.

Waiting patiently…

FINALLY!





From me and Taylor: a poster of her name in pink & black nebula design (like the mini number posters I did), red plaid shirt & black jeans (you can kind of see them under the shirt), and a book/craft kit on making puppies out of pompoms. From Gwen, a little octopus plush from Cheek & Stitch. From her grandma/step-grandmas, cards, cash and a giftcard.

Also from me and Taylor, her own key to the house, on a laser-cut leather keychain from CutPath

Time for cake! Sym had the tiniest piece (and didn’t even finish it) and her dad doesn’t eat anything with eggs or dairy soooooo it’s going to be up to me to eat most of this thing.



Happy 12th birthday, Symphony!