I promise this is not evolving into a party blog...I'll leave that to the experts. My dear friend Coco is having herself a little party this weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her 30th birthday, and her husband Jim asked me to help out with "the look". Coco is a natural beauty, she is kind, sincere, and a appropriately goofy. When we lived in Montclair (Oakland), we were their down-the-hill neighbors, our kids are friends, and we spent several days a week at each others houses. Our moving away was pretty hard on both of our families, so we were beyond excited when Jim took a counseling job at the junior college up here - they'll be our neighbors once more this summer! Right around the time we moved, Coco bought the supplies for us to make one of my paper lanterns together, but we never got around to it, so I'm surprising her with this gilded version for her birthday. The party is at Campovida's Oakland tasting room, a reclaimed wood and brick clad space, located near Jack London Square. I went for a Kate Spade inspired palate of gold, fuchsia, royal blue, and teal. I found these sparklers in the same colors for a little late-night fun, and we're doing a photo booth including big white C O C O prop letters set against a pretty gold sequined backdrop. The be-tasseled lantern will hang prominently with more draped garlands and some giant clear balloons filled with gold confetti placed around the room. To make the paper lantern watch this video tutorial, glue in a second layer of smaller papers, and apply multiple light coats of gold metallic spray paint, and check out the how-to for tassel garland below.