Guest Blog: DIY My Neighbor Totoro Party!

How I Created my Magical Totoro DIY Party!

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How I Created a Magical Totoro DIY Party!
Ever since I conceived my daughter, I hoped she would fall in love with the magic of Studio Ghibli just as I did. Studio Ghibli is a Japanese film making company who turns stories into art, displayed through animations that are loved by all ages. Before my daughter was born, my husband and I were blessed to visit the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan, where I even purchased a stuffed animal Totoro that my daughter now enjoys. I knew that by age two she would be able to recognize her favorite movie characters, and I began planning… a Totoro party would be a big hit, for her, me, and guests alike!

Food (100% Vegan)

Our Family is Vegan

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Our family is vegan — baby too! So we would never want to serve animal products at an event we are hosting. After checking a few locally owned vegan restaurants, we opted for something cheaper, easier, and something that would be familiar to our guests. Chipotle has great options for vegans, and their party takeout was stellar! I ordered online a few days in advance, and my husband picked the food up about thirty minutes before party time.

We offered a taco bar to our guests with corn, flour, and hard shell tortillas, black beans, pinto beans, chopped lettuce, sauteed fajita veggies, brown rice, spanish rice, and salsa. My mom actually prepared the spanish rice herself, just so we had enough to share. We had about 20 guests, but ordered for 15, and had so much leftover we ate Chipotle for five days straight! It was very affordable. The catering containers from Chipotle are also dishwasher/microwave safe. We kept them afterwards!

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Using themed cookie cutters is such an easy way to add more flair to your party! For my daughter’s party I found Totoro, Calcifer, and a Kodama cookie cutters to use on Etsy. My Nanna’s Christmas cookies were always something I looked forward to most at Christmas time. Since her original recipe wasn’t vegan, I simply replaced the egg with a flax egg and the cookies turned out exactly the same. These Ghibli cookies were an easy treat to make, and a hit with my family who remembered Nanna’s recipe, but any sugar cut-out cookie recipe will work.

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Two additional sides we offered were Abe’s Vegan Mini Muffins, which I picked up from Whole Foods, and fruit. I topped each muffin with a Ghibli Cupcake topper to put them over the top! For her cake, we contacted local bakery Miss Chickpeas and placed an order for a two tier vanilla cake. They asked for a theme, and I told them ‘flowers’. Check out what they came up with! If you have a cute cake topper that matches your theme, try a simple cake design to keep the cake looking beautiful. The large Totoro Topper in included with the Cupcake toppers File as well as the banner files. You can never have enough Totoro.

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Decorations

Leading up to her party and throughout decration-creations, she would look, point, and shout “RAAAAA!” — a big yawn — one of Totoro’s only phrases in the movie. I giggled in anticipation of the party works that were to come. In Texas, the weather during winter is as unpredictable, and can change as much as forty degrees in one day! But I went forward with hopes that her party would be a cool 70 degrees (btw… in the end I was right!). With that in mind, I decided to host the party in our yard, with decorations centered around Totoro, Ghibli, trees, and flowers.

It was amazing working with My Nerd Nursery to start — her cupcake toppers, cake topper, and birthday banners added such a professional finish to all the decorations, and tied in the theme so well. It was as simple as printing, cutting, and decorating! To add a feminine touch to the party, I went to the florist and picked up a few bouquets of flowers. The clear vases I used to arrange them were old pasta and apple sauce jars.

Instead of a photo booth with props, I opted to hand paint a huge Totoro. No one would mistake what the theme was with him standing there! I abducted a gigantic cardboard box from my work’s recycling bin and set to work. First, draw the outline of Totoro and use a box cutter to cut. Afterwards, start with painting the white belly followed by the eyes. Paint the gray and black very last. His leaf hat was from a set of plastic leaves ordered off Amazon. These leaves would be great table decorations for a Legend of Zelda or forest themed party too! The cardboard Totoro was such a fun decoration to make, and I even keep it in her room to this date as a decoration.

Last but not least, my mother in law offered to purchase a pinata for the party. “There couldn’t possibly be a Totoro pinata” I thought. We found this one on Etsy from Pinatas USA!

 Fashion

Fashion
I knew the weather was unpredictable, but hoped for sun and ordered my daughter this adorable hand-stitched Totoro dress from Etsy shop Pipocass! She has so many Totoro-themed dresses and shipped quickly from Spain.

Addition: Check out this amazing Dress artist blog post on this party!

Having a Totoro or Ghibli themed party yourself? Get creative? I went to a birthday party at a friend’s home a month later and she had hand-crafted a Catbus out of a refrigerator box! The kids could even climb inside and look through the windows.For a future party maybe I’ll hide Kodamas around the yard or craft Howl’s Moving Castle.Have you ever thrown a Totoro or Ghibli themed party? Tell us your ideas below!

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Thank you!