baby – Elizabeth Smillie

a storybook themed baby shower, part 1

August 31, 2016 Elizabeth Smillie

A while back we had the privilege of welcoming a new nephew into the family, and we celebrated with a storybook themed baby shower! His mama loves reading, so we thought a party filled with children’s books would be a perfect way to welcome the little man to the world.
Babies and books – love them both! Since this was a storybook themed baby shower was for a baby boy, I used lots of neutrals (“vintagey” colors), whites and blues, and scattered stars and vintage books about liberally – and I think it all came together beautifully.We split up the hostessing duties a bit – I got to hostess at our home and provide the decor and drinks, my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law took care of the food.
Most of the decor were things that I either already had, we had in the shop and tweaked a little, free printable from Pinterest or that I made just for the occasion {children’s book page pinwheels and pennant “BABY” banner! And an adorable table runner from vintage children’s book pages, too – so cute.}We went with a simple color scheme – white, light {and a little dark} blue, kraft brown and vintage papers. The colors were a perfect backdrop for the children’s books, and played well together. :) I used a mix of vintage and new(er) linens, a variety of mixed metals and some wild grasses instead of of flowers. Stacks of vintage books (of course!) in brown and blues came into play, too.
I was delighted with how my table runner turned out! My mom has a knack for finding gorgeous old children’s books, some of which are sadly too worn to be enjoyed by our children. I used the pages with colored illustrations, arranged the pages a few times until I was happy with how the colors looked together, and secured them in placed with some double-sided tape. Super cute! (it was inspired by this table runner)One of the details I loved adding to this party were the framed storybook quotes and artwork. I found several through Pinterest, and a few through a basic web search – all were free, and when placed in frames I already had, made a fun addition to the shower. And the new mama enjoyed keeping a few for the little guy, too!

Stay tuned for more party photos, including more decor, the super darling and delicious food (all storybook themed!) and the guest of honor!

shop items featured:

customer love: “Winter Baby” first birthday photos

December 18, 2015 Elizabeth Smillie

Customer love time! I know Christmas is just next week, but who wants to take a break from the hustle and see some cute little babies? You do? Oh goody -we’re happy to oblige! Joelle purchased some snowflake garland from us and has been using it in her photo sessions – she shared some pictures with us, and they are so, so cute!!! I love how she has taken the theme of “Winter Baby” and run with it. :)
Such a sweetie pie!

You can see even more of these cuties and her other work on her Facebook page (and maybe schedule a session if you live nearby!). Thank you so much for sharing these with us, Joelle!

Do you have photos that you’d like to share? If so, you can either email them to me at elizabeth@pltmarket.com or tag them with #thepathlesstraveledmarket or #thepathlesstraveledevents on Instagram {as long as you have a public profile :)} – we’d all love to see your ideas! Also, I often send “thank you” coupons to the lovelies who let me share their photos with you – so if you’re looking for a coupon for your next order, sharing photos is a great way to get a discount!

Items featured: Frozen Snowflake Garland, 20 ft

customer love: travel themed baby shower

November 19, 2015 Elizabeth Smillie

Customer love time again! Erin just sent us these photos of the dessert display at the travel themed shower for a baby boy she put together a few weeks ago, and they look great! Erin combined our Vintage Map Heart Toppers with our “It’s A Boy!” toppers – pretty sweet! For the cake topper {which was stuck in a pair of cupcakes :D}, she asked for a customized version of our original Vintage Map Heart Mini Cake Banner. We placed a handstamped heart in the center, and the result was perfect!

Thank you so much for sharing these with us, Erin!

Introducing …

November 2, 2015 Elizabeth Smillie

Introducing…our newest member of the team, Ruth Ann Smillie!

Our new baby girl joined us just before noon on August 6 (which is the excuse I’m using for the lack of blog content recently :D). The birth went perfectly, different and yet the same as the three before her. She has been welcomed by enthusiastically loving arms of her siblings (they’re just about loving her to pieces!) and has been such a joy.

Our baby girl is here! We have named her Ruth Ann, and our family is utterly in love with her. #ruthannsmillie #smilliekids

A photo posted by pltmarket (@pltmarket) on Aug 9, 2015 at 9:11am PDT

We are so incredibly thankful for this new little bundle. And, now that she’s here (and we are sleeping again! YAY!) you’ll see some more fun things around here. So much to share! So many new things in the shop! And perhaps even a giveaway in the near future. :)

I’m so happy to be back blogging again, sharing thoughts, ideas and updates with you lovelies,

crafting for a baby

April 24, 2015 Elizabeth Smillie

Crafting for a sweet new baby is always a joy! A few weeks ago I had the privilege of making this entirely custom, delicate name banner for my precious new niece, and I had so much fun. Her mama is decorating the baby Cora’s new space in blush and glittery gold, so I even got to use some of my current favorite papers. :)

Her mama is decorating the nursery for this babe in gold and pink, so I had a ton of fun making a sweet, girly and glittery name banner for baby Cora using some of my favorite papers and ribbons. I went with scalloped circles in a vintage rose print for the background and gold glitter for the letters, all strung on a light rose satin ribbon. So feminine, and suitable for both a baby and a growing girl.

I am experimenting in making our the name banners in our shop in this double-layered look, and enjoyed doing the same for little Miss Cora, giving her special garland an extra bit of style and texture. The glitter gold played so beautifully off of the vintage rose print!

These multilayered banners are something I love making, and there are so many options!!! We are planning to add a variety of them to the shop in the next little while, and are just having a bit of trouble deciding exactly which options to offer {there are soooooo many!}. If you have something in mind that you’d like to see, we’d love to hear about it. :)

What do you think? Would you like to see more of this rich, layered look in our pieces? I’d love to hear!

customer love: winter baby shower

March 1, 2015 Elizabeth Smillie

Customer love time again! I love seeing all these fun ideas, don’t you? For today’s customer love edition, I have some photos that a customer{who happens to be an event planner} sent to share with you! Paula chose a variety of our snowflake items, and used them as part of this gorgeous winter- themed “Baby It’s Cold Outside” baby shower:

The snowflake stir sticks were a custom order for Paula, and they turned out so amazingly that we are planning to add them to our shop soon!

Paula shared more photos of this amazing shower here on Facebook – I love it!

Do you have photos that you’d like to share? If so, you can either email them to me at elizabeth@pltmarket.com or tag them with #thepathlesstraveledmarket on Instagram {as long as you have a public profile :)} – we’d all love to see your ideas! Also, I often send “thank you” coupons to the lovelies who let me share their photos with you – so if you’re looking for a coupon for your next order, sharing photos is a great way to get a discount!

edit: we have added the stir sticks to our shop! You can now find them here.

customer love – a gorgeous baby shower for twins!

November 10, 2014 Elizabeth Smillie

A few months back I was contacted by a woman who was throwing a baby shower for her friend who was having twins {a boy and a girl!}. She wanted the colors to be gender neutral {but not boring}, and our Navy, Mint, Coral, Cream and Gold Confetti Garland caught her eye. She loved the colors, and had a few ideas of other things to add to round out the decor she had in mind. But first Andrea had one important request – the decorations had to be in Texas by the following Saturday. Wow-ee! I was in love with the idea, though, and we made it happen. :) Andrea wanted a bunch of paper pinwheels in a variety of sizes, and in colors to coordinate with the garland. I had been wanting to make some for a while {have you seen the pins of some of the lovely pinwheels floating around Pinterest? Soooo gorgeous!} and was delighted to have a good excuse to learn how! Everything got made up quickly and shipped in time to arrive with a day or two to spare {I love FedEx!!!!}. Afterward the tea party, Andrea sent me these photos of how everything came together: She threw a gorgeous affair, didn’t she? The baby shower had a tea party theme, and the food she served looks amazing.

I love how Andrea used the garland as a front drape for the buffet table – it added such a classic, elegant feel to the party!She requested some custom cupcake toppers in mint and coral, and once they arrived she paired them with these lovely navy blue cupcake wrappers for a clean and elegant look. {if you’d like to achieve a similar look for an event, we have since added cupcake wrappers to our shop!}

Andrea, the party was absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much for allowing to share in the joy of the occasion us by sharing the photos, and blessings to the new mama and babies!

Do you have photos that you’d like to share? If so, you can either email them to me at elizabeth@pltmarket.com or tag them with #thepathlesstraveledmarket on Instagram – we’d all love to see your ideas! Also, I often send “thank you” coupons to the lovelies who let me share their photos with you – so if you’re looking for a coupon for your next order, sharing photos is a great way to get a discount!

products featured:

Navy, Mint, Gold or Silver and Cream Confetti Circles Garland

Custom Cupcake Toppers

Custom Confetti

Custom Paper Pinwheels

customer love – Winter ONEderland Birthday edition!

January 31, 2014 Elizabeth Smillie

Do you remember the custom snowflake cake garland I posted the other day?It was part of a batch of things I put together for a darling “Winter ONEdarland” themed first birthday, and I was so excited to open the email full of photos that the mama sent after the party! Look at how darling it was!!! The colors she used were pink, blush, cream, white, glitter gold and aqua. Jaclyn emailed asking if the Confetti Circles Garland‘s colors could be tweaked a tad (my answer – “of course!”), and from there we added some Large Snowflake Garlands, a few custom garlands that were a combination of the two others (love this idea! and when I get a free day or two I might add a version to the shop – they’re so sweet!)

For the cake topper, Jaclyn had the idea of combining two of the Snowflake Dessert Toppers with a mini version of the Confetti Circles Garland and the result (again!) was absolutely gorgeous and had me wondering why I hadn’t added something like it to the shop already. Amazing job Jaclyn! I love everything about this! :)

p.s. I often send “thank you” coupons to the lovelies who let me share their photos with you – so if you’re looking for a coupon for your next order, sharing photos is a great way to get a discount!

baby fix

June 5, 2013 Elizabeth Smillie

because I’m sure you all needed a good baby fix today :) you’re welcome <3

Gah! This precious one keeps getting sweeter! Just when I think she’s reached the limit for the sweetness allowed in a single baby, she gets sweeter. And cuter.

I apologize for the quietness around here the past few days. There are so many things that I’ve been wanting to share with you {I have How-Tuesday posts coming out my ears!}! Somehow when I signed up for the Hobnob Market I completely forgot that May and June are wedding season. And that Ian’s birthday is coming, too. And well, life keeps moving, the hours of the day tick by and sometimes I choose to spend my free moments cuddling this darling and reading “Go Dog, Go” over and over. And I know you understand. :)

I’ll be back soon. ‘Till then, how’s the beginning of your summer? I’d love to hear!

weekly shop update

January 9, 2013 Elizabeth Smillie

How have you been? Wonderful, I hope :)

Things around here have been wonderful, exhausting, exciting, busy, sometimes overwhelming (okay, overwhelming more often than I’d like to think), but wonder-ful.

With scenes like this, how could it not be? :)
Olivia just turned 6 weeks old {where did those weeks go?} and has begun to laugh a bit. Little things like a baby’s laugh can really brighten your day when you’re covered in said baby’s spit-up. :) And the other two are still completely smitten with her!

But this post is supposed to be a shop update, not a baby update {but baby updates are a bit cuter and sweeter, yes?} :)
So …. did you see on the facebook page that I’ve put the silhouettes back in the shop? If you were wanting one (or more!) and didn’t get it before I discontinued them, contact me and we can talk about it.
As long as I’m talking about the facebook page, have you been seeing my updates in your feed? Chances are, with the changes facebook has been making, you might not … so, if you’d like to change that {you would, right? :)}, after you “like” the page, hover over what is now the “liked” button, and select “Get in news feed.” That way you’ll be able to see when I post new things like coupons{!}, flash sales{!}, or random photos of a cute little baby. :)

screen shot of the work in progress

Next up – our brand new web site {coming soon to a computer/mobile screen near you!}!
My sister {who is really gifted when it comes to tech-y things} has been helping us put together our own web site. It should be ready to go live in another day or two, and I’ll let you know when it does. It will be an integrated shop/blog, a site that has all of our web stuff on it {even Instagram pics :)}. We are working to make sure that when you head here to the blog, you are automatically re-directed to the new location, making the transition as seamless as possible. Oh my, I’m so excited!

There are some other things I was going to tell you, too ….. but I can’t remember right now. Oh well, they can wait until next week. :)

<3 p.s. can you believe it’s just a month until Valentine’s Day? I’d better start helping the kiddos make their cards and gifts for the grandparents {things like that can take a while when they are more interested in cutting up the finished products than in the idea of giving them away}!

Elizabeth Smillie

The Path Less Traveled

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