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Ready for Baby Charlotte

I am so bad about posting my work on the blog, but my goal is to do more of it next year! I will do a round-up of family photos at the end of the season, but for now, I wanted to share some photos I took on Sunday of one of my nearest-and-dearest friends, Amanda. We are so in love with her sweet daughter, Charlotte, already! I’m anxious to meet her. Amanda has always been so tiny and petite, and fortunately for her, this carried over into her pregnancy. Hello, hot mama-to-be! Scott is one lucky man. Amanda didn’t want to take photos, but I convinced her to come over and snap a couple in an empty lot directly across from our house. It took five minutes ,and she already thanked me for talking her into it. I mean, how could I not document how stunning she looks!

Countdown is on, Baby CC!

Getting Started with Smile Direct Club

Well, this smile journey story has a strange start, but stick with me for a minute!

In 2009, I interning in France, and during this time, my friend, Andrew and I, went on a little vacation to Nice. We bought some snacks for the beach, and the vegetarian that I am, I grabbed some carrots. As I’m sitting on the pebbled beach, I bite into a carrot and ‘pop’! I managed to unglue one of the sides of my permanent bottom retainers. The bar was still attached to the other side, but it now protruded slightly into my mouth, under my tongue. It wasn’t painful, but it was very bothersome. I thought many times about going to an orthodontist in Paris to have it fixed, but my French was very conversational and I couldn’t wrap my head around calling and booking an appointment, so alas, I never did. When I returned at the end of August, the day I got home, I went in to get it fixed. At my orthodontist’s office, he told me that my smile looked great, and since I had been out of braces for over ten years, he would just take off the permanent retainer. Worst. Idea. Ever! 

Fast forward to 2011, my wisdom teeth all start coming in, and since I am a huge chicken when it comes to needles, I endure the pain of them all breaking through my gums and crowding my mouth. Cue teeth moving. 

So now, in 2017, I have buckled bottom teeth that drive me absolutely crazy! I cannot stand seeing how crooked they have become, but Sasha thinks it isn’t a big deal, and the $5,000 we would pay for Invisalign has always seemed too much to fix this problem. Enter Smile Direct Club. Smile Direct Club offers affordable teeth straightening aligners at a price that is 60% less than competitors. 

Destiny’s Baby Sprinkle

Baby Sprinkle Girl Creative Shower Real Sprinkles Invitation on Snapshots and My Thoughts by Ailee PetrovicYesterday, I threw one of my best friends, Destiny, a baby sprinkle to celebrate the impending arrival of her sweet baby girl (and also her 25th birthday!). The shower was at Sweet Paris’ CityCentre location, and despite the weather outside being frightful, the atmosphere inside was seriously delightful (ode to one of my favorite Christmas carols). Destiny’s mom flew in from Las Vegas for the shower, and it was so nice getting to celebrate with Baby Thompson’s Nana there too!

We ate crêpes, decorated cupcakes, guessed Baby T’s arrival date, took photos in front of the sprinkle backdrop, watched as Destiny opened one adorable baby item after another, and had wonderful conversations amongst old and new friends. I love baby showers!

Destiny and I met last summer and quickly became good friends. We both have 2.5 year olds, Truman and Isla, who are also best friends, and I love seeing them together, as Isla always lights up when she sees her pal. Destiny is one of the most sweet, considerate, and thoughtful people I’ve ever met, and we wanted to show her how loved and appreciated she is. The group of ladies  at the shower definitely filled the room up! 

There were a lot of talented ladies who helped me pull off the sprinkle, and I’ll start with the invitations, which were created by Papellerie (the same gals who did our wedding suite and Isla’s birthday invitations). I am thrilled with how they turned out – they have sprinkles in them (see video on my Instagram here). 

The gorgeous wedding cake was made by Lisa of Maple & Love, whom gave me all of our incredible travel suggestions when we went to Melbourne. It was a lemon and strawberry cake, and although I don’t eat eggs, I did totally get a bite of the icing – glad I did! 

My Cricut got a good workout, as I used it to create the bottle shapes for the Eos party favors, the ‘Guess Baby Thompson’s Birth Date’ activity and the vinyl shapes for the mylar balloons. I left the heavy duty laser cutting to Monica of Paper Flour Ink, who made wooden boards reading Oh Baby Girl that she covered in sprinkle paper. She is the best!

At a recent party I co-hosted, one of the other gals suggested we order thank you cards and pre-address/stamp the envelopes to help the mama-to-be, and I thought this was such a great idea, so I ordered pretty pink and gold thank you cards from Tiny Prints. I also ordered customized mug from Tiny Prints that read, “Sugar, spice, all things nice – that’s what Baby Thompson is made of” for the tea and coffee. Side note: I’m also obsessing over their gorgeous Holiday cards. We’ve gotten a few in the mail that are Tiny Prints, and I love them!!

My amazing friend Amanda baked cupcakes that were at each place setting, surrounded by colorful sprinkles from Layer Cake Shop. Guests got to decorate them as they wanted, then take them home (because crêpes and cakes made for fully tummies!) in boxes, which had customized birthday stickers, also from Tiny Prints. 

Meredith, the queen of creativity (hello invitation stylist!), helped me to blow up and stick all of the confetti-shaped balloons to the backdrop, which my wonderful mom sewed (Sasha DIYed the PVC pipe stand and Amanda sanded it down! Talk about a team effort!). 

I am seriously so excited to meet sweet baby Thompson. Our oldest babes are already best friends and I know that she and Emi will follow in their siblings/mom’s footsteps. It was such a joyful shower, and I would love to re-live it all over again. She deserves all of the love and attention, as she is one of the most selfless people I know. February cannot come soon enough!     

Baby Sprinkle Girl Creative Shower Real Sprinkles Invitation on Snapshots and My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovicailee_petrovic_161203_l86a7555

Isla’s Tea for Two Party

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Two whole years have gone by since Little Miss Isla was born. Part of me feels like it was ages ago, and then I have moments where it feels like I was in labor just yesterday. I had to re-read her birth story (here) to remember details I thought I would never forget. And then what feels like yesterday, we celebrated her first birthday (party and first birthday post). Looking back at the photos, she looks so little!

We had a tea party for her second birthday celebration, and held it at our house. Much to my dismay, it was pouring rain outside, so we had to cancel the moonwalk last minute as well as a few other outdoor games. Despite the bad weather, the party went off without a hitch (eh, except don’t put a sparkler on a 2 year old’s cupcake!), and Isla had a great time mingling with friends and family. I’m sharing more photos below, as well as sourcing for most of the goods. If I missed something, please leave me a comment and I’ll let you know where I got it!

A little two year update:

Isla’s favorite animals are flamingos, bubas (Serbian for bugs), dogs (especially Belle), and elephants. She loves to make all animal noises and now thinks she’s an expert at naming them as well. Every night, we read 4-5 books, then sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Kumbaya, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. We try to vary the books as often as possible, but Each Peach Pear Plum, A Squash and a Squeeze, I Love You Through and Through, My First Read and Learn Bible, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Room on the Broom, 1, 2, 3, Peas, Toot and One Ted Falls out of Bed are some of the ones she picks out the most.

GIRLBOSS: Phuong of Mibellarosa

Girlboss_Phuong_MibellarosaI think it would be impossible for me to envy Phuong Nguyen’s talents more than I already do. This post took me ages and ages to write, because every reference link she sent me, I gazed longingly at every detail of the photos. Phuong is the owner of Mibellarosa Designs, a design studio based in Houston, specializing in (exceptional beautiful!) event planning and floral designs. I first worked with Phuong on a Valentine’s shoot I did with Destiny, and the florals she created were unbelievable.  

Shortly after that, I ordered an Omakase vase (translation: “I’ll leave it up to you” – Phuong’s selection!) for Caroline Knapp on her birthday (on her Instagram here), and I felt it was the perfect way to give someone (who has lots of gorgeous things already!) a thoughtful gift. I will definitely be ordering more for other friends’ birthdays. I can’t wait to work with Phuong again – hopefully soon! 

You’ll quickly scroll through this post (before reading it in great detail, of course) and go googly-eyed over the florals she has created and her incredible styling She has the best taste (true story, I’ve had Police’s ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’ stuck in my head the entire time I’ve worked on this post – not a coincidence!). So without further ado…

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