Post Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Cyber Monday guys!!! It's post-thanksgiving and I'm happy to report that I survived this holiday weekend amongst family and crazy Black Friday shoppers! However, I'm on the fence about being happy or sad that I gained about 10 lbs. because of all the food I ate this weekend! Besides that, I hope everyone enjoyed their long holiday weekend! You only live once, right?

So, this year, I was in charge of a few things but the project I held dear to my heart was (drum roll please).....The Dessert Table! :-) Last week's blog gave you a glimpse of the theme I was working with and my little turkey made his grand debut.  Now, to show you how I pulled it all together.....Taaa-Daaa!!!     

Of course, I had to make cupcakes and chocolate covered marshmallow pops:

A Red Velvet Cake Roll: (hmmm.....yummy!)

I whipped up a simple, yet straight-to-the-point art piece and framed it:

And, finally,  I saved the cake for last.  If you recall from last week's blog, I mentioned that I would be attempting to make my very first fondant cake.  Well, as you can see below, that didn't work out so well.  (insert sad face here) Clearly, the cake below is not fondant. (insert crying face here)

Lord knows I tried but it just wasn't in the cards for me this time. So, I must keep trying and trying until victory is mine! Thank goodness my little turkey made up for that! (hehehe) Until then, I'll keep you posted on my progress.  There's always Christmas, right?

I hope you enjoyed! Until next week my friends!

All Set For Thanksgiving - 2011!

Happy Monday afternoon cyber-world! 

Thanksgiving 2011 is less than 3 days away! I hope everyone is psyched and ready to stuff their bellies with good food and spend some fun, quality time with loved ones.  I know I am!

So while I won't be hosting Thanksgiving Dinner this year, I designated myself responsible for the holiday sweets.  I really do enjoy baking and, besides, this gives me a reason to experiment (muaah hahahah....evil laugh)!

This year, I'll be baking my traditional standard cupcakes. I always have fun doing those, so that won't be an experiment.  What will be an experiment, however, is this fondant cake I have planned.  My very first fondant cake! Oh Lord, I get nervous just saying that. :-/ I have a Plan B just in case Plan A is a total disaster so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

In the mean time, I've cooked up these little goodies (cupcake toppers, cake topper, and banner) to add flare to my dessert table! What do you think?



Well guys, wish me luck and stay tuned! I hope it's not too disasterous. Hey....if all else fails, I'll use it as a smash cake for my little one.  At least I'll get some good pictures out of it!

Happy Thanksgiving friends from our family to yours!

It's a Mickey & Minnie Celebration!

Howdy Folks! Hope all is well in cyber world this week!

So, today I bring to you a Mickey & Minnie themed birthday celebration!  This party was thrown for my 8 year old daughter and my 2 year old son. My son is a huge M-i-c-k-e-y fan and my daughter is a fan of all things girlie. So, naturally, she agreed to share her birthday party with her baby brother if it meant adding Minnie to the equation. :-)

Now, planning a party for both a girl and a boy can be tricky. Not only do you have to make the party appealing to a boy but you also have to make the same party appealing to a girl.  There can't be too many "girlie" things going on or too many "boyish" things either. You have to have the right balance for both.  So I decided to go with a color scheme that would be right for both a girl and a boy.

My choice you ask? Red, white, and blue!

Now, I know your thinking it might seem more like a 4th of July celebration than it would a kids party, but there are so many different shades of red and blue that that's not the case.  Trust me! :-)

So, for the blue, I decided to go with turquoise and for the red I decided to go with a deep, bright red.  I decided on adding a white polka-dot theme to the red to make it a little more girlie.  The color scheme of a party really sets the mood so picking the right color scheme is very important.

The rest was pretty easy and fell right into place. All I had to do was decorate everything with Mickey and Minnie, right?  But before that, first things first: The invitation

and these cute size cards

had to be wrapped up in this envelope so the guest knew when and where to arrive!

As for the party, here's how it all came together:

I squared off the main table by using polka-dot bulletin board boarders for an added flare!

Here are a few more up close pictures:

Here's the banner I made and boy did my hand hurt when I was done!

And, now a days, what's a party without a Dessert or Candy Bar?  So here's my rendition of one with the guests of honor, Mickey & Minnie, sitting front and center: :-)

Here are lolly-pops I made in the shape of Mickey's head. I made them in red, baby blue, and yellow to match the colors of the party.

And, as if children didn't need any more sugar to make them bounce off the walls, I filled a few of these decorated containers with M&M's, Oreos, and gummy worms to make them really giddy! (hehe)

That's were this jumper comes into play!

Finally, here's a few more pictures from the party.  

Guest were welcomed to sign the birthday book with their warm wishes.

And here are the birthday honorees!

I hope you enjoyed because I'm already thinking of next year's theme! (hehehe)

Until next week friends!

Teacher College Graduation Party

Good morning and Happy Monday!! I'm so excited! It's almost my one month anniversary and I've made it to my 4th posting! I've managed to keep up with the Monday Schedule too! I hope you've enjoyed the ride so far.

This week, I would like to share with you a college graduation party put together for a student graduating with a teaching degree.  It was a long time coming, so we wanted to make sure it was special.  When thinking of a theme, the first thing to pop into mind was an apple theme. After all, what is more symbolic of a teacher than an apple, right?

With than in mind, I thought it would be a cute idea to have the invitation reflect a Principal's Hall Pass and I designated red and black as the colors for the party. So to keep with the apple theme, I stamped the outside of the invitation with a big red apple and had the Sender's label reflect that the invitation was coming from The Principal's Office to tie together with the invitation. Here is a picture of the invitation and envelope:

and here's what the main table looked like:

When putting it all together, I had to think of what else would be symbolic of teachers? So I wrapped up a few books and tied them up with a cute ribbon and stuck a cut-out in there for added cuteness. Voila!

And what about these personalized pencils from one of my fave stores - Oriental Trading Company?  They served as cute decoration and served as take home favors too.  They were very reasonably priced as well, which is always a plus!

I made little tin favors and filled them with red M&Ms to go along with the pencils.  

and used the little brown paper bags, in the back, as decoration and goodie bags for guests to put their favors in.

I added a few mini chalkboards and used some as prop signs.

   

As guests arrived, they stopped for a photo-op as they signed the Teacher's Chalkboard.

Then guests made their way in and signed the Teacher's Grade Book too, whick served as a cool keepsake.

       



Finally, here is the beautiful cake! It was so beautiful that it deserved it's own photo. :-)

So the rest is history my friends!  It was a wonderful event and one that was fun to plan too! I really love themed parties! Until next week!

Happy Halloween - 2011!!!

Happy Halloween friends!! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

So, aside from seeing the normal goons and goblins walking around over the weekend in preparation for Halloween parties all around town, there was another monster that reared its ugly head and caught many by surprise. What monster might that be, you ask? The 2011 October Winter SNOW Storm which packed as good a punch as any snowstorm in the middle of January! Snow in October was never heard of in the history of mankind until this past weekend! Not in New Jersey, at least, or all of the eastern seaboard for that matter! Some were hit with as much as 19 inches, a State of Emergency was declared by our Governor, and plans were ruined for many more. It's not the worse we've seen but it definitely came as a shock to many.

That being said, Mother Nature cooperated just enough to let us enjoy at least one party over the weekend (one that I put together too, might I add....hehehehe). This party would be titled: Monsters, Mummies, & Eyes, Oh my! It contained all of that and more. Here is a picture:

Now, for a breakdown. Up first are the delicious red velvet cupcakes displayed behind a "Boo" collage;

A tree dubbed "The Eyes are Watching" ;-)

I scored a beautiful, free Subway Art from Eye Candy Event Details and framed it.  It displayed just lovely!

Scary but edible, yummy Witch Fingers!

The children needed something to wash down the witch fingers with so, of course, what better than toxic green juice slurped through skeleton straws to do the job?!?!

I found these cute lollipops at Gertrude Hawk Chocolates, stuck them in a mummy vase and surrounded them with purple gum balls. They were a hit!

And, of course - Eyes, Oh My!

As if there weren't enough sweets, here is the pumpkin cake making it's yummy debut!

And last but not least, what is a Halloween party without fun crafts and toss games?!?!

The Party was sooo much fun!!  Halloween gives us all, children and adults alike, a chance to let loose and be silly so I'll close with showing you all a collage of some of the silly highlights! Enjoy!

Until next time my friends!!!