1st Birthday: The Props!

The silver bucket he's sitting on? It held paper fans at our wedding! The backdrop is several yards of an inexpensive velvet kind of material draped over the gate on our front porch. It'll show up again at the party in something fun I am planning! Notice some snack looking things sitting in his lap? Yup, that was the only way I could keep him sitting in one spot! If you look close he even has a little crumb on his chin, which I choose not to Photoshop off because it was too cute, and so him to always be eating those "greenies" we like to call them. Not to mention his uncooperative hair! I rubbed in some baby lotion and attempted a little comb-over, but you better believe it doesn't stay like that for long! I love his fly aways!

Strong men need heavy things to lift! And since a baby safe barbell is not a thing they tend to sell anywhere, it was of course time to make one. It cost around $12 to make...Styrofoam seems really expensive for what it is! But very simple. I cut a thick dowel to size, and pushed it into the Styrofoam balls. Then I paper mached a few layers on the balls to give myself a good surface to paint and also to keep them from mashing. After the mache was dry I glued the dowel in with some school glue and spray painted the entire thing black. The unevenness of the mache ended up giving a really cool effect of old iron weights! I added the "1" on in Photoshop.