{summer hued surprise party}

My lovely Mom celebrated her 60th birthday last week, and I decided to throw a really fun summer-hued surprise party for her. My original plan was to host the party outside on our patio, but with the Indiana summer temps hitting nearly 100 degrees that day, I had to move the party indoors to our dining room.

The great thing about this party is that all of the details can be translated to an outdoor party, and I decorated on a small budget, including some really personal and unique details.

Let's start with the table decorations, shall we? I used lots of pieces that I already had, including linens I inherited from my Grandma, my jadeite cake stands, thrifted milkglass vases, and mason jars.

I wrapped the mason jars with simple scrapbook paper strips, and made some fun yarn pom poms to attach to the milk glass vases for a bit of extra whimsy. The flowers were a lucky clearance find at my local grocery store that day...four bouquets in my yellow and white color scheme for $10 total!

A few final touches included circles of coordinating scrapbook paper, cut out with my circle punch, and a some favorite photos of my Mom.

We don't have a chandelier over our dining table, so my Mother-in-Law came up with the genius idea to turn our IKEA table lamp into a hanging light over the table. I simply removed the lamp legs, and with the help of my husband, hung it over the table. Yellow and white tissue pom poms added lots of fun and whimsy...

This idea could easily be done outside, hung from a patio ceiling or pergola, as long as you have a power source to plug in the lamp.

For the mantle, I created a super simple and personal bunting, using paper doilies, scrapbook paper, photos of my Mom, small wooden paper clips, and yarn...

It was one of my favorite details, and my Mom loved it so much she took it home with her. My original plan was to hang the bunting from our patio wall, so again this is a very versatile decoration for an indoor or outdoor party.

And now for the party treats! We sipped on iced coffee out of mason jars with cute lids, striped paper straws, and yarn pom poms thanks to an idea from this baby shower by Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy.

My one splurge for the party were fancy desserts from our local French bakery...key lime cheesecakes and chocolate hazelnut tarts. Yum!

I'm usually planning parties for my boys these days, so this was a really fun departure for me. We had such a lovely evening enjoying lots of girl talk and sweet treats. And the best part was spoiling my Mom on her birthday!