Camping Themed Party {with bonus Christmas Craft!}

I'm not much of a party person, but I wanted to acknowledge and celebrate my youngest on his very first birthday. I thought about simply buying a cake and calling it a day, but instead I did a little crafting and created a space and some snacks that were fit for a day of camping!

I started off the throwing-together-of-the-birthday-extravaganza at Goodwill. Love that place. I found the plaid there in the form of a fitted bed sheet. I proceeded to rip and cut it up until I had a table runner, ornaments, and specialized decor for the food and drinks. The sheet was half off, too. Score.
I also found the large plaid bow on the top of the tree and two plaid table napkins there for half its price as well.

The Menu:
Live Bait (Tackle box full of gummy worms)
Bird Food (Chex mix)
Tall Trees (Pirouline Cookie Sticks)
Bacon Ranch Turkey Sandwiches
Mud Cups (No bake cookies)
Meats, Cheeses, and Crackers
Hot Chocolate
and of course- water, wine, beer, and cake- because you can't celebrate birthdays without those.

My son shares his birthday with his YaYa. How special!

As I mentioned before, much of the decorating was done courtesy of Goodwill. The rest was derived from around the house and the great outdoors. I walked the length of the back yard in search of fresh greens, pine cones, and branches to fill the space. I found a lovely branch with pine needles still attached to hang over the table. The other branches I used to display photos of the boy in celebration! I tied scraps of the sheet fabric sporadically on them and added bobber ornaments that I made by using a hot glue gun to adhere an ornament hook to it.

That's not the craft I wanted to show you, though...

How To Make Country Christmas Filler Ornaments For Your Holiday Decor

You'll need:
*hot glue gun with hot glue sticks (duh)
*Styrofoam balls
*burlap ribbon
*plaid fabric (don't purchase fabric, y'all- seriously. Go to Goodwill and look for large sized Men's plaid shirts or maybe you'll get lucky like I did and find a whole sheet!)

Directions:
*Cut fabric in one inch wide strips that will wrap around the entirety of the ball
*Glue the beginning of the strip to the ball and the end of the strip over that
(Note: Don't make it much longer because you'll start to have ends showing all over the place. Not good, my friends.)
*Cover the ball completely
*Knot burlap at the top in a bow or tie like fashion and glue it down (don't burn yourself) (And if you do, don't start aggressively whistling Good King Wenceslas because you will soon question your sanity)
*Finally, loop a Christmas hook through the burlap and you've got mass Christmas decor for cheap!

Merry Almost Christmas (21 Days!)
and a very, very happy birthday to two of my favorite people. You both mean the world to me. Love ya!