Quarantine Birthday

I think, like most OC moms out there, placing the whole community in quarantine made my nerves and emotions off the charts. Nung March pa start ng lockdown pero we never anticipated or even had an inkling that this dreaded virus would still persist by mid July. 

My daughter’s birthday is on July 13, and as sad as the situation is, I would very much still like to give my daughter a memorable birthday. We decided to go with the Frozen II theme because she loves the movie (trust me, the word “love”  is an understatement); in fact her first word at 1 year and 6 months old is “Elsa” – may halong selos kasi una pa niya nasabi ang Elsa kaysa sa Mama.

One of my coping mechanisms is to create something out of anything. I am a Fashion Designer and an avid crafter; and while I am very much aware that this pandemic affected a lot, the fashion industry was one of them. It pressed pause on my brand launch as I made room to help produce PPEs, but this did not feed my creativity. The PPEs are well, for the lack of a better term, monotonous.

Since it’s just me, my husband and our toddler; hindi ko kayang “Magic-in” ito (when I say Magic, I meant Cram). I have to find time to make my vision into a reality while watching our toddler frolic around the house — and toddlers are toddlers... they are really curious and very active, kailangan talaga bantayan. 

I started planning exactly a month before the big day, with the help of Pinterest (of course), I get to pin pegs and get an idea of materials and things that may be helpful for the theme. I saw heaps of ideas and most of them, I know very doable without breaking the bank. So, yay! Party On!

It took me two days of “okay ka lang?” questions from the hubby, as he caught me maybe around four to five times in those two days, staring at our living room, our dining room or at the ceiling. I am not lying when I say my brain is now brimming with ideas but I need  to settle on a canvass to work on.

The living room won.

Then being the addict that I am, I sketched out first how I would re-arrange the living room into an Instagram worthy quarantine birthday, then listed down all the materials I would possibly need to make this happen.

The backdrop.

I saw this one post on Pinterest about making a birch tree’s as a decor – reminiscent of the time Elsa and Anna were in the enchanted forest. That pin directed me to a page where she just actually made them out of rolled paper and paint. Meron tayo niyan! Ah well, si toddler pala. I remember one of her ninong’s gifting her a Montessori inspired table that comes with a roll of paper.

So we exhaust what we have. I rolled out the paper and started painting (using her tempera paints and paint brushes too), even the kiddo and her Anma (grandma) joined in the fun.

The number 2.

Inspired by another Pinterest post, I have always been curious how to make a balloon Mosaic, actually considered making this number mosaic thing nung first birthday pa niya, In between finalizing her first birthday theme (I was big into Llama’s back then) and wanted a Llama Balloon Mosaic, but hindi natuloy, so revisiting my old pins for her first birthday, I decided to pursue learning how to make it.

Using old boxes of big appliances (AKA the washing machine box) and boxes from doing groceries (plastic bag replacements) I drew a big number “2” and started cutting it. The small boxes I tore up and cut in half to make them the sides that would contain the balloon inside.

I used my fashion knowledge here too, as to how to make the boxes follow the curve of the “2” – oh did I mention that Glue Gunning was my best friend at this stage of the decor designing. After finishing the entire number “2” frame, I just had to paint it, using a hardware store bought acrylic paint, this time hubby helped with the painting too.

The Machine.

Okay. Obviously I can’t totally make everything by hand. I have had the Silhouette Cutting Machine since 2017, I used to have an online based, crafting and sticker shop too. I kept my machine after finding out we we’re pregnant because we needed to fix our room to make way for the baby. So I haven’t seen my machine for a very long time. Apart from cutting sticker paper and iron on vinyl, I have never tried cutting any other mediums besides those 2 things, so I really had to do my research and practice.

Like I have mentioned before, I have always been an avid crafter (so most of my supplies have been with me for quite sometime now), I practiced on my old cardstocks until I reached the outcome that I wanted. With this machine, I was able to cut the name of my daughter and using the same font from Frozen.

I also cut, the 4 spirit elements and tied them to nylon strings in different lengths, so they would look like buntings. I also used this machine to personalize the lootbags (now this is unnecessary, pero sobrang natuwa ako kasi I learned and mastered cutting thru cardstock plus I maximized the space of every remnant of cardstock from the other decors I made, I was killing three birds with one stone.

The Diorama.

This one was a last minute decision and was really not part of the designing plan. My intention was to find an interesting way to showcase her birthday cake. Initially the base would just be placed on top of the lazy susan where the cake will be placed and will be surrounded by the characters; but knowing my crazy thoughts, they flourished into something more.

The base was made out of another used box I opened up, the mini trees are actually real twigs I asked from a neighbor who trimmed down their big tree, again, with the help of my trusty glue gun, I stuck the twigs on the box. When all was dry and sturdy, I spray painted everything white. When it was dry, I just stuck the leaves with my handy dandy glue gun.

The lootbag.

Actually, isa pa ito sa mga last minute decision ko. To lootbag or not to lootbag? Mommy is having so much fun, so go for it na. If di natuloy ang COVID and if it were a normal setting, I imagined setting up an area for the kids to make them busy (while the parents chill and make chika), thus the idea of the DIY table. This DIY station is where the kids would make anything and everything Frozen 2 related.

I was imagining a long table with all art materials there and Frozen 2 busy kits where they would make their own Frozen 2 hair bows (for the girls) and make their own personalized keychain (for the boys). So since it’s a quarantine party, I have decided to just send the lootbags to the kids nalang.

The Food.

No brainer, I just ordered our birthday meal - our Menu consists of the quintessential birthday staple - a Filipino Sweet Style Spaghetti, Pork BBQ, Lumpiang Shanghai, Chopseuy, Rice, Beef Morcon (oh not so basic, but we just wanted to taste this) and her Birthday Cake.

Finally, Things I bought.

I am not going to pretend that everything is all made from scratch. There are certain things I needed to buy to make my vision fully realized.

One of those things are the leaves, these real life looking leaves you see in the background and the diorama, I bought them thru Shopee, and it did not disappoint, a pack of 100 leaves costs Php 69. I got one of each color.

I also purchased balloons for the balloon mosaic, I bought a pack of 10 pcs per color of orange, light blue, blue, fuschia and purple all for Php 150.

Perhaps the most expensive things I purchased were the raw materials for the lootbags, the leather canvasses, the felt, shrinky dink film, the keychains and the clips, these cost me Php 1000.

And the verdict.

We’re pretty much happy with how the living room styling turned out, aside from the fact that this made my whole month busy happy preparing, I know my daughter enjoyed her birthday so much that she was all “wow” with every detail up to the ceiling.

I knew it will really take that much time preparing for the quarantine birthday I had envisioned. I was so happy that I get to express my creativity (nang hindi nag-ca-cram, is a bonus) and see how this creativity make you resourceful (and perhaps revive my sticker and crafting shop – wink wink).

At the end of the day, the most important thing is that we were able to celebrate her birthday, make it memorable and seeing her happy is the most precious and priceless thing we could ever get.