Almost every year for my birthday I come up with a crazy theme that my friends indulge me in by participating. Past themes have included; Andy Warhol's Factory, Alice in Wonderland and Night of the Living Dead Party. This year was no different. My theme for my 29th birthday was the Circus. How did I get to that theme you ask? I blame it all on the store
Michaels and their circus themed masks they had for sale.
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| A few of the masks |
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Michaels sold a few more circus themed items including invites and popcorn bags. Thus my theme was born and I spent the next few months planning and gathering for the event. I decided I would be the ringmaster and my friends came up with some great costumes which included; the bearded lady, a snake charmer, tattooed lady, tightrope walker, gypsy, knife thrower, circus goers, etc.
With every party I throw I do it on the cheap, so I hunted for items at dollar stores, value villages (I got my ringmasters red jacket there dirt cheap) and in clearance bins in various big box stores. One of my favourite pieces I made were gold spray painted circus animals. I bought the animals from the dollar store and gold spray paint from Walmart. In fact I'm a little obsessed with spray painting everything gold at the moment.
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| The Elephant - My Favourite |
When it came to food, I wanted to keep it basic and fun. I wanted snacks you would find at the circus and/or carnival. I had peanuts in shells, mini donuts, cotton candy, popcorn in bags, chips, caramel apple lollypops, big whirly lollypops, chubby sodas (which included the flavour cotton candy), mini pogos with an assortment of condiments, veggies and dip and cotton candy flavoured cupcakes as my birthday cake.
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| Somehow all of this became |
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| This! |
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| More Details |
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| I even included face paint! |
TIP #1: Look through what you already own, I re-used the green plastic bowls from a bridal shower I threw earlier in the summer and the elephant tray is from my bar.
The hardest detail to achieve this party, I would say was the Big Top. I knew I wanted to create one and with a bunch of ideas on how to do that, we settled on sheets and crepe paper.
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| Big Top and yes that is a Keith Haring sheet |
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| Another look at the Big Top and me looking silly |
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| Another great dollar store find! |
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| All the animals in their glory and a felted circus scene |
The party would not be complete without a circus-themed playlist. The songs below were mostly inspired by the circus but a few were songs I was in love with.
There's a glimpse into my crazy brain. Cheers!
