Shea's Palm Springs Fling: The Tote Bag

Several months ago now, my girlfriends and I headed out to sunny Palm Springs for my 30th birthday. We had a blast and, although we were there for my birthday, I wanted it to be about my friends too! That is why I curated the perfect collection of goodies for my girls, and put them in an adorable tote bag (designed by me and printed by my good friend Frankie with Go 2 Print Ink). Because you can never have enough tote bags am I right? Plus, it makes boring things like grocery shopping a little more fun when you have an adorable tote to carry your groceries.

Lets get into it, shall we...

1. Pink Flamingo drink float- These are a Palm Springs MUST. They keep your drink afloat while looking oh so adorable.
2. Custom Name Straws- With names like Shea, Danica, Stefana, and Kimiyo, to name a few, it's safe to say most of my friends never find their names on a keychain. So I thought it would be cool to get some custom name straws made (in pink of course). These straws were extremely reasonably priced (especially considering they were totally custom and made to order) AND they arrived SO quick. I will definitely be buying from them again.
3. Mini Perrier Can- I knew that some drinking would be happening and I wanted to give everyone a nice refreshing drink as an option as well. These cans were too cute to pass up and, add a cute paper straw with some bakers twine... perfection.
4. Mini Sofia Champagne Can- A PINK can of champagne?? It as a no-brainer.
5. Gold Flamingo Bottle Opener- You had me at gold flamingo... but then add in that its a functioning bottle opener and I knew I had to buy them.
6. Flamingo Towel (similar)- This wasn't something I had planned on buying (because towels aren't cheap). But Forever21 had them on clearance and they were too good to pass up.
7. Pink Heart Shaped Sunglasses- These little guys gave me a scare. These were the only MUST HAVE item in the bag. The pink heart shaped glasses were kind of the theme of the whole weekend. They were on the invite, they were on the tote, they were on the cake, they were everywhere. BUT... since they were coming from Hong Kong, they almost didn't make it in time! I think they ended up arriving a day or two before we left... THANKFULLY.
8. Custom Name Tags- These were something I whipped up on my Cricut Explore Air. I wanted everyone to know which tote bag was theirs without having to go through each one. Each bag was essentially the same, but with the custom name straws and tumblers it was nice to know whose was whose.
9. Flower Crown Headband (similar)- I'm a big proponent of all things flower crown. I wore one for my bridal shower. I wore one for my wedding. I even had a flower crown making station at my best friends baby shower! So these were obviously a must.
10. Custom Palm Springs Tote- I needed something to put everyone's goodies in! So a tote bag was an easy decision. A less easy decision was, what they were going to look like. After some tweaks and changes, I landed on this design. I sent it over to my friend Frankie at Go 2 Print Ink and he created something that was my EXACT vision. He even surprised me by making the inside of the sunglasses a black glitter. So perfect.

**Correction**
When I originally wrote this post, I TOTALLY forgot one of the best things included in the tote! The custom tumblers! The tumblers themselves were a Target dollar spot find (Thank you Bryanna for searching several stores until we had enough). Then, using my Cricut Explore Air I added everyone's names in hot pink (AND in the same font as the invites and totes of course). These were a hit and the reason I forgot to include it originally is because I've been using it ever since!

And that's it! Everything that was in my "Shea's Palm Springs Fling" tote bags! I still love everything that was in them and hope all my girls did too. Now... the question is... what is my next party going to be??

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Shea's Palm Springs Fling

A few weeks ago I turned the big 3-0. I imagined it was going to be similar to waking up the day after your wedding, you're happy but also devastated because the highlight of your life is now behind you. Weirdly enough, it wasn't. I was strangely ok with it. In fact, I had been saying I was 30 for months before. Also months before is when I began planning for possibly my most epic birthday party yet. When I say months before, I don't mean two or three... we're talking NINE MONTHS. My husband turned 30 in April of last year and I planned a day of golf for him and his friends and they had a blast. So it was then that I started planning my own 30th too!

Palm Springs has become near and dear to my heart. My brother and I spent our childhood going out to Palm Springs to visit our grandparents. Then my family built a house on a man-made lake out there and then, as you may already know, Sam and I got married out there! I knew that's where I wanted to spent my 30th. I rounded up a group of my favorite girls, rented a house via airbnb and crafted my little heart out.

The theme was all things pineapple, flamingo, cactus and palm tree. You pretty much couldn't look anywhere without spotting one of them.

As always, I enlisted the help of my friend Erin to create some awesome invites and, true to form, she did NOT disappoint... I mean... LOOK AT THEM! (The Cactus address tag was an afterthought that I, of course, created using my Cricut. )

Here is a better look at them, front and back.... Adorable right?

Danica and I got out to the house earlier than the other girls so we were able to set up. I had goodie bags waiting for everyone. I wanted the weekend to be just as much about my friends as myself!

Personalized tote bags (more on those in a later post), pineapple cups and flamingo straws!

Palm Springs tote bags adorned with a gold glitter pineapple wearing pink heart shaped sunglasses. Using the invitations as my muse, I designed these tote bags and sent the design over to my friend Frankie from Go 2 Print Ink and they came out even more perfect than I could have imagined!

A few of the treats inside of the totes... Custom tumblers (that I made using my Cricut of course), custom name straws (most of my friends, much like myself, have very unique names, so getting something with our names on it is rare so they were all ecstatic), and of course pink heart shaped glasses!

The airbnb was adorable but I of course had to decorate it. 

Gold mylar is always a must. 

And it's not a Shea party without a photo backdrop (and how cute are those inflatable cacti?!)

Love these girls!

We spent the evening sipping on champagne, girl talking and playing an unhealthy amount of  Heads Up (wild, I know). 

Saturday we had a pool party and my mom even stopped by!

After some fun in the sun we headed to All Tressed Up for a day of pampering (thanks to my husband who footed the bill).

Everyone looked amazing and we headed to a yummy dinner at Las Casuelas (the same place Sam and I had our rehearsal dinner!)

Roman at Over the Rainbow Cupcakes (who also did our wedding cake) created the most INCREDIBLE birthday cake for me, I mean... just look at it!

Getting a good group photo is much harder than you would think.

How gorgeous are my friends?

Standard bestie pic. 

Yes, I made custom temporary tattoos for everyone. 

We headed to drinks at the Riviera after dinner. 

And after drinks... yes... more Heads Up. Haha. 

On our way out we stopped at the Cabazon Dinosaurs, which I had surprisingly never done, followed by a nice girls afternoon shopping at the outlets. 

It was a wonderful weekend spent with wonderful people that when far too quickly. 

This is 30.