Eating with animals!

It really is no surprise that I fall in love with cute animal stuff.  For some reason, I'm just attracted to it - I can't really explain why, but I've always loved cute animal stuff.  When I was a kid, I had a gigantic collection of stuffed animals.  My mom devised a way to store them - we hung a hammock from the ceiling in my room over my bed and put my animals in it.  If we hadn't devised this storage solution, there would have been no place for me to sleep on my bed.  I distinctly remember when we had to clean out my stuffed animal collection to get rid of some old ones to make room for new ones.  I remember one time that I agreed to get rid of a few animals, I woke up in the middle of the night and was crying because I didn't want to get rid of any.  I snuck into the closet and took back the ones I thought I could part with.

I saw these plates at West Elm some time ago, and absolutely wanted to buy them, but my Husband, the voice of reason, asked, "Do we really need them?"  Of course we didn't really need them, but they are so cute!  I really wanted them, but refrained from buying them.  Until... they went on sale for $6 each.  And.... we have four of them now to mix in with our regular plates.  Husband actually really likes them too.  There is something so whimsical and cute about these.

When I pulled them up to include here, I see that there are four new versions of them now...  Love the bunny and badger and rooster and blue jay!   Uh oh, I may need a set of these too.

These cute owl mugs, also from West Elm would make a happy addition to the animal collection.  I love the metallic gold one - super cute!

If ceramic plates aren't your thing, West Elm has these darling melamine plates (and serving trays too)!

Anthropologie also has some absolutely adorable animal stuff too!

Love these animal plates - there 10 designs to pick from, including a parrot, butterflies, a monkey, a lion, a cheetah, a little girl, an owl, lady bugs, a bunny (my fave), and a humming bird.

These little dessert plates are absolutely adorable.  There are several designs to pick from too - giraffe (my fave), lady bugs, red birds, owl, bee, chameleon, humming birds,  and a praying mantis.  I love the slightly different shapes of each of these plates, and the varying borders for each.  Imagine getting one of each of these - love love love!

And, these canape plates are super cute!  Not every one of these is an animal, but there are several in the collection - dog, horse, love birds, narwhal (one of my faves), octopus, bee, unicorn (one of my faves), and zebra.

I can't possibly use all of these plates, but, hey, a girl can dream, right?

Finally, I saw these foxy juice glasses the other day in the Paper Source catalog.  I love getting this catalog and looking at all of the cute little things they have.  But, these glasses really stood out.  They have tea towels, aprons, and a variety of other adorable fox things to go along with these glasses.

If you are in need of any little animal tchotchkes, Kikkerland, has a TON of amazingly fun, cute, and inexpensive things.  I picked up this little hedgehog toothbrush cover over the weekend.  I could spend lots of time and money ordering from this site.

And, hey - eating with animals is way more fun than eating with a boring white plate.

who doesn't love a Giraffe?

So, who doesn't love a giraffe?  Show me someone who doesn't smile a little when they see a lanky-legged little baby giraffe.  Or even a gigantic stable-footed giraffe.  I mean, they are adorable, right?

I seem to be having a newly-ish rekindled love affair with giraffes!

And, it seems that everywhere I look, I am finding a ton of giraffe stuff that I am obsessing over.

Over Christmas, my sister sent me a link to this super cute sweater from LRG, and of course I just had to have it.  It's oversized, comfy, and thankfully not too itchy.  I was concerned with the itch factor because of the mohair content, but it hasn't been an issue.


My sister also gave me this darling little giraffe trinket tray from Anthropologie.  I have it on my night stand, and it is the perfect place for earrings and rings to live.

Something about coming home to this little cutie and putting my hoop earrings around its neck and some of my rings into the tray just makes me happy.


Anthropologie always has a ton of cute stuff, and they have a few other adorable giraffe items right now.

How about this fun little giraffe bust made from layers of cement bags covered with vintage French book pages.  If giraffes aren't your favorite, there are other animal busts to pick from.

This adorable Paul & Joe dress is on sale right now.  Definitely not something you can wear every day, but it is totally cute.  If too short for you as a dress, put on over skinny jeans or leggings and voila! enough coverage, and still super cute!

This cardigan from Anthropologie is also so cute!  You can have a giraffe give you a hug all day long!

Need some giraffe for the guy in your life (or for you, as I wear men's t-shirts frequently, especially for the gym) check this little gem out (from Urban Outfitters).

Need a little giraffe jewelry to adorn yourself with?  

These 2 necklaces might foot the bill.  

I have this one from J.Crew Factory.  I wear it all the time, and love it.  It is pretty small, and is on a long-ish chain.  At only $12.50, it is a steal!

And, this one, from Urban Outfitters, is equally as adorable.  And, is only $16.  This one is on a shorter chain - 16".

Giraffes even made an appearance (along with some other animals) at my wedding.  I wish it was in the form of a petting zoo, but the husband wouldn't let me go that far.  And, on second thought, having a petting zoo at a wedding might be a little messy.

For our escort cards and table numbers, we used a variety of animal ink stamps (we purchased from The Paper Source).  Each table had an animal label and the escort cards had the matching animal.

The animal stamps were small, so we stamped them on paper, cut them out, then scanned them and enlarged them so they would be suitable for table numbers.  We printed them out on card stock, then glued them together so the animal was visible on each side.  Then we glued them to straws (as stakes) to be put into the centerpieces.  The stamps fit onto the escort cards as-is, so no extra  scanning & printing was needed. 

We had multiple mini-desserts in addition to a cake.  We needed some way to label everything, and I thought it would be cute to use animals.  We found these gigantic animals on Amazon, and then made and printed the labels ourselves and tied them to the animals with the same baker's twine that we used on the favors.  There were several animals that didn't have labels on them but that were scattered about the table for added decor and cuteness.  

The cake toppers are Jonathan Adler ceramic giraffes that I bought years ago.  We made a green tie out of felt for the "boy/groom" giraffe, and a little veil out of elastic and tulle for the "girl/bride" giraffe.

And, the animal masks we found at Diddam's party supply store for the photobooth were a HUGE hit!

Animals aren't for everyone, but I LOVE them.  They can be cute, funny, fuzzy, furry, warm, cuddly, and slightly absurd (but in a good way, especially when used in moderation).


Wedding pictures taken by the amazing Ginny (and her husband Mike) of Retrospect Images in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Desserts made by Sweet Tooth Confections in San Jose, CA.  Photobooth by Photo3lements.


UPDATE:
This is just plain wrong.  Prevent inbreeding by sending your excess giraffes to another zoo, not killing them.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Zoo-staff-get-death-threats-after-giraffe-killing-5220920.php