This past weekend was chock-full of birthday festivities.
We were celebrating my husband's birthday and
then a "drive-by" birthday party for
my nephew's birthday.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the day of my husband's birthday
was a usual chaotic Friday leading into getting ready for dinner that night.
You can click on this link, to find out some fast fashion hacks & deals I
found, that helped get me through the night.
I went into the fashion for that night, but didn't get the chance to discuss
the stellar gifts we got for the birthday boy!
My husband is extremely low key and low maintenance,
except for his expertly crafted BEARD!
He takes great pride in it, as he should.
Gift wise, I knew my dad was getting him a whole beard kit
already and quite frankly I had purchased one in the past for him.
I really wanted to get him something unique this year and the girls
requested Daddy get something "super cool".
No pressure at all.
Thanks to a completely random conversation with a friend
about my new craft/hobby of wood burning
(I know it sounds weird don't worry I'll explain in another post soon)
and the gift-giving gods above, I managed to find a completely
unique set of gifts!
If you don't know already, I have a love for themes.
Themed parties.
Themed outfits.
Themed GIFTS.
If I give you a gift you should know I put my whole heart and soul into it.
Not just to make it cute or pretty, but I truly try to find things that I
feel like really speak to the recipient. Moreover, if I can connect it to
a particular memory we have it's even better!
Like I said earlier, my husband is low key. He loves sports and we have managed to completely "Sports" him out in last decade. I would say second on his list is food.
We love trying new food and food presentation.
Pre-kiddos, we would watch hours of Chopped, Iron Chef,
and Anthony Bourdain. We would throw dinner
parties with friends & family and try to make some of the
bougie food we had seen.
He also loves barbecuing, which comes in handy since
he's the owner of NYC Fireplace & Outdoor Kitchen.
So now that you fully grasp his love of food and my love of
themed sentimental gifts, you know where this is going right?
... PROBABLY NOT!
Because I even surprised myself on this out of the box idea!
The main gift that spawned from my wood burning craft convo
with my friend, was getting him a
He can now brand his buns!
(sorry the mom jokes flow freely at this point)
Anyway...
The Etsy Seller I used, SOLIDink3D, was great to work with!
He was very nice and helped me create the perfect design off of an image
I found online, that literally could've been taken right off my husband's face
because it looked exactly like him!
The Design:
The process of creating and shipping these custom pieces
takes a few weeks. We're still in the middle of process but are
very excited to receive it shortly and I will
absolutely post a pic of it!
This is by far the most unique gift I've ever given and if you
are on the hunt for a gift for the BBQ-er in your life, you
can't go wrong with one of these!
SOLIDink3D has many other ready-made
Branding Iron options.
You can check out his
page for more :
Now I know what you're thinking.
What is "Beard + Brimstone" ?
You'll come to find that my general design style when it
comes to our Interior Design is what I like to call "Hotel Chic".
It's not just Glam, Rustic, or Contemporary.
In some places it's a little bit of all of those things.
It's this fusion of all different hotels, lounges, and bars that
my husband and I admire.
It basically morphed into it's own branding.
That said, every great boutique hotel has a great eatery to go with it.
Thus spawned "Beard + Brimstone".
A rustic grill/eatery with stellar smoked foods, and manned
by an especially handsome chef!
To complete the gift, I called Dessy over at
to create a Custom Iron On for an apron
I found on Amazon to match.
It came out PHENOMENAL!
Sal loved everything and was completely surprised!
When the Branding Iron comes in, I will definitely post a
picture of him in action with all his new gear
and post it on my Instagram.
BIRTHDAY #2
Dessy didn't just hook me up with this Iron On Vinyl
that weekend. She also helped me with my other
little man's birthday!
My nephew is obsessed with Toy Story,
and really can we blame him??
For his Toy Story themed Birthday Parade,
I made Woody themed cupcakes favors for him.
made these awesome custom labels for them.
Side Note: I did this order strictly for my nephew, as I've taken a break from professional baking since COVID started. Nevertheless, when I start business back up, I will be restructuring my baking to go along with my plant-based life. It will take some time as I am reconfiguring all my original recipes. For now, I'm not taking any orders but if you are in need of some cake work I have a lovely & talented referral for you in Andrea of DreaCakesNYC .
Now, let's get to more gifts!
One of my great passions is Gift Wrapping.
That may sound silly to some people, but when I was little and my
mom would take me into Macy's, I would always want to go to the gift wrap department to see what new designs they came up with; and don't get me started if they were actually in the middle of wrapping a gift.
My day would be made!
For me, children's gift wrapping is my favorite because not only
do I need to think like a child while doing it, but they also appreciate the
magic of it. Gifts are so much cooler when they are equally as cool
on the outside!
My nephew's favorite character is Woody.
Every gift inside was Toy Story themed, and I took the Woody
theme to the outside of the gifts.
The bottom blue represented his blue jeans.
The next layer, I used yellow gift wrap and made red plaid by using
red artist tape to simulate Woody's shirt.
For the middle layer, I used white gift wrap and hand drew cow print
with a black sharpie.
Green wrapping paper was used for the top layer and I
put googly eyes and a sharpie mouth, to make the aliens.
Isn't everything more fun with googly eyes?
I think so!
The whole thing was topped off with a red
bandana and rope to tie it up.
My gorgeous little man loved his gifts and cupcakes
and of course the best part was being able to spend
time with him, his brothers, and my family!
It has been so long with the insanity of the pandemic, but my
brother & sister-in-law did a great job of creating a small COVID safe
party that was still just as much fun!
The kids had a stellar time and completely passed out
when they got home which was an added bonus!
Birthday boy weekend complete!
... for now
April & May are the craziest months for our family with,
quite literally, birthdays every week!
For now I'll take a breath, until my Mother's birthday this weekend.
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