Last month, we celebrated Tyler’s first birthday! In Korean culture, there’s a big celebration for getting through the first 100 days (baek il) and the first year (dohl). Bryan and I decided to keep it somewhat casual so we hosted it at a neighborhood brewery and diy-ed most of it.
When I initially sketched out ideas for the dohl concept, I started with this doodle:
I liked the idea of using bubble letters and having animals with party hats. The party was originally going to be at the park, so I also added nature items to the final backdrop. For the backdrop, I purchased two long sheets (?) of linen and asked our local dry cleaners if they could seam the two pieces together. Then I hand-cut the felt designs and simply glued them on. I realized I forgot to ask the dry cleaners to also sew something at the top so I could actually hang the thing (face palm) so I ended up hand-sewing the top part myself. You can see in the photos below some of the behind-the-scenes work along with some of the signage, stickers for the party favors, and future career portraits of Tyler I made for the dohl jabi.
Dohl jabi - the highlight of the event where a child chooses an object that predicts/represents their future. Tyler chose the watercolor set!
We are so thankful for our family and friends who made it out to celebrate with us, especially to my sister and friends who came early to help me set up. And also a big thank you to Esther Lo for taking photos, Maison Du Yeon for the rice cake favors, and NativeKorean for the hanbok and yarn!
Next up, a blog entry about paintings + Inktober/Peachtober… coming soon!