Kelly the Culinarian: A Birthday Countdown: The 30 for 30 Project

Sunday, March 16, 2014

A Birthday Countdown: The 30 for 30 Project

This week, we celebrated Tim's milestone birthday: the big 3-0! Sadly, we had to have an "observed on" birthday because he was out of town for the actual date. I wanted to make it special since he'd be celebrating alone and it was one of those birthdays that end in zero. I planned his birthday celebration for a loooong time and wanted to share our 30 for 30 Birthday Countdown Project. It was a labor of love, but save yourself some time and learn from my mistakes.


The 30 for 30 Project was my little invention for counting down to Tim's 30th birthday. Every day, he opened a little token or treat with a cute note to let him know 30 reasons I love him. Sounds corny, but it was really sweet. I started the project back in November with a spreadsheet of ideas of items to buy with potential notes to go with it all. I ended up with more than 30 ideas, which is great because I couldn't find all the items I had in mind. I started with shopping at a party store that carried all types of candies. I also picked up bags there for each item. Looking back, I wish I would have purchase colored paper lunch bags like these: SRM Stickers We've Got Your Number, X-Large, Black (affiliated link) because these plastic bags were semi-transparent. Oh well, live and learn.

Next, I went to a dollar store and Big Lots to pick up the remaining items on my list. I purchased adhesive number stickers on Amazon and wish I would have bought these SRM Stickers We've Got Your Number, X-Large, Black (affiliate link) instead. You'll need two packages.

After I bought everything, I got organized with post-it notes before using index cards to write out the notes.

I photographed each gift before I packaged it up into a labeled bag (see why I could have used the larger numbers. Sigh).


Next, I prettied up a cardboard box with wrapping paper, ribbon and my closest approximation of a craft with the homemade sign. I added a card explaining everything and that ended the first phase of the gift-giving bonanza.


However, since Tim was out of town, I wanted to get together something that he could open on his birthday while he was away. For his actual birthday, I got him 30 Sam Adams and a Sam Adams glass.
Since that doesn't travel very well, I took pictures of it and paired it with the pictures from the 30 for 30 project and printed a photo album of the whole thing using an online retailer that I got a Groupon for. It arrived looking awesome with plenty of time to package it up and put it in Tim's suitcase before he left.
In case you want to repeat this for someone in your life, here's a photo album of all the gifts and notes, and here's my original spreadsheet of ideas with notes.

Questions? E-mail me.

4 comments:

Katie @ Live Half Full said...

It turned out so adorable!!! I will save this for Rich for when I turn 30. ;)

Losing Lindy said...

what an awesome idea!

Valerie said...

That is so sweet and thoughtful! I will have to keep this in mind when Tyler turns 30! :-)
Valerie

Candace Karu said...

Such a fun idea. What a lucky birthday boy!