I’m such a sucker for pretty handmade party decorations so it has to be expected that I love everything made by Pretty Swell. Perfect for holiday parties, weddings, bridal or baby showers, or just for livening up your home or office space, each garland is crafted from fabric flowers that have me completely smitten.

{Photos by Pretty Swell.}

I love reading The Indigo Bunting and checking out all of Erin Jang’s many creative projects and designs. Erin’s work always feels incredibly fresh and inspired to me, completely unique and entirely her own. It’s a touch quirky and always fun, characteristics I rather love. This latest little project is too thoughtful for words, a gift for her husband, a root beer lover. Erin put together a crate of 24 different varieties of root beer and then designed a cheat sheet with notes for each based on reviews she found written by other root beer fanatics. Needless to say, her husband loved it. And I, for one, love gifts that are more thoughtful and personal than expensive and flashy. Wouldn’t this be a lovely holiday gift, birthday gift or even wedding gift for your groom? You could easily fill the crate with another beverage – perhaps beer selections from microbreweries for the beer aficionado – and create a cheat sheet of your very own. A truly fabulous idea.

{Photos from The Indigo Bunting.}

As promised, I have baking on the brain again this week so I thought I’d interrupt your Monday afternoon with a little cookie break. Not only do these cookies look positively amazing, but we all know chocolate chip is an old favorite that never goes out of style. I just spied these perfect chocolate chip cookies over on Honey & Jam and had to share. Now, of course, everything the sweet Hannah bakes (and photographs) just looks too pretty for words, but these cookies took it to a whole new level for me today. I really really need to start my holiday baking.

{Photos by Honey & Jam.}

Much like the happy newspaper bunting I so quickly fell in love with a while back, this weekend I found myself completely enamored with the cute paper creations of Bookity. From wallets and handbags to handcrafted paper holiday ornaments, garlands, and gift tags, Bookity is all about crafting beautiful things for book lovers out of salvaged books that would otherwise have gone to waste. I especially love these grommeted ornaments made from pages of old books and comics. I love the idea of them hung together in clusters or strung along as a garland, perfect for the holidays, entertaining or unexpectedly chic wedding decor.

{Photos by Bookity.}

I can’t really think of a better way to kick off the week than by sharing with you what might just be the world’s cutest first birthday party. It is filled with adorable red, white and blue race car-themed little boy charm from the checked bunting to the adorable checkered flag birthday cake. I love this party for little boys of all ages and I like the idea of keeping shiny red apples around to entice kids to pass up some of the sweet treats in favor of fruit. I now officially want all of my friends to have babies so I can start planning great ideas for toddler birthday parties!

{Photos and event design by scissors paper cake via Party Perfect.}