In continued tribute to the “Happy New You” and being your best self for 2010, I encourage you to channel your creativity to make you and all you do unique, stylish and creative this year. This goes for every room you decorate, every party you throw (big or small) and every household project you undertake.

My dear friend Sandy is my kindred spirit in creativity, and like me, is always decorating, renovating or creating, and she made no exception this past month when she celebrated her son’s birthday. With Kairo being a huge fan of Diego, Sandy had no problem taking it from there by creating a magnificent jungle-themed adventure for Kairo and his friends and was kind enough to share her wonderful ideas with us.

It started with:

* The invitation, which she made herself using decorative card stock paper, and layered varying shades using pinking shears for a decorative edge. Printed or cutout images of jungle animals and trees embellished the invitation further with the theme.

* Sandy moved on to the loot bags, which were regular coloured lunch paper bags, which she finished using twine and pipe cleaners as handles.

* Holes were then punched to attach them.

* Zebras and paw prints from animal-print textured card stock paper were glued to the bags for patterns. She then filled each bag with toy animals, jeeps, binoculars, flashlights and stickers.

* The cake was created by another dear friend, Maria, who is equally creative. The cake speaks for itself…depicting the whole jungle safari theme to a T.

* The birthday boy was of course dressed as Diego in his vest, backpack and all, with his mom and other attendants dressed in masks depicting monkeys, lions, etc. On arrival the kids had to check in at the nurses’ station/ tourist board (which was a piece of ply board with “tourist board” written on it) where the “explorers” received a malaria pill (jelly bean) and a pair of binoculars before heading into the jungle (the jungle being her unfinished kitchen decorated with leaves, streamers and a palm tree…also a swamp area…blue plastic tablecloth on the floor with rocks, a wooden crocodile and insects). The older kids had animal foam glasses while the younger ones received animal face painting under a sign that read “Beware of wild animals”. Another sign outside the door read “It’s a jungle in there” and there was a “blood”-splotched sign listing missing explorers to really continue the theme.

* For refreshments and food everything was labelled: dirt cups (chocolate pudding with crumbled Oreo cookies and a gummy worm), jungle juice (made to look like mud…eewww!), safari spritzer (green Koolaid with club soda), crows’ nest (cheese balls in a bowl), jungle trail mix, Rhino burgers and crispy worms on a roll (hot dogs sliced and fried to a curl).

* For added entertainment the kids played “pin the tail on the elephant”, a game created by his older cousin Brandon who also created an oversized jaguar with the face missing, into which the kids could put their faces and have their pictures taken. Jungle track races, roaring lions and toss the frog unto the lily pad (also in the swamp) were other games the kids enjoyed.

Now that’s a theme party, and all it took was proper planning and lots of creativity. Great job, Sandy, and thanks for sharing.