My Sister's Sweet Sixteen USO Party

My baby sister turned sweet sixteen yesterday but Saturday night she had her big birthday party. When we had originally asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday this year, she was kind of undecided but a few days later, she told us she wanted a USO themed party and, boy, did we make that happen.

I created the invitations using InDesign and some pretty nifty scrapbook paper we found (they cost less than $2 total to make!) and hit the Dollar Tree. Luckily, her birthday falls right after Memorial Day and a month before July 4th so patriotic decorations are in full bloom. We bought literally all of them. 

However, the most important part was preparing our outfits. We asked everyone to dress in a 1940's inspired outfit and everyone seemed to have a good time picking out exactly what they were going to wear. (Me included!) 

Here's the final product:

 She did her own hair, because she is awesome at styling hair, but I did her makeup. I was upset that the Revlon BB Cream I used on her wasn't quite the right shade but otherwise, it turned out pretty well. It's also very hard to apply lipstick on someone else, especially when it's cheap NYC lipstick (guys... just spring for NYX... NYC lipstick is pretty much garbage, as I learned yesterday) that does not go on smoothly. I made her apply the lipstick and I evened out the edges with a lip brush and we also lined her lips before with my ELF clear lip liner to help prevent feathering. I still wouldn't want to take a close-up of it but she still looked fabulous.

I decided to go as Rosie the Riviter because this blue dress was too perfect for it. I probably should've worn wedges but I was also in charge of teaching nearly 10 teenage girls some basic swing dance moves at the party plus helping our mom behind the scenes with food, driving to pick up photos we had printed of all the girls, etc. My new Steve Madden sandals did the job.


I used my Revlon Colorstay lipstick and it performed magically. After eating, drinking, talking, and swinging all night, I only had to retouch once (before I went to the store, of course). I would definitely re-buy.

 Anyway, once again, happy sweet 16 to my sister!