{MG Party Impressions} Little Drummer Boy Party

Who doesn't love hot cocoa and drums.....???? Well, maybe not the drums but head on over to MG Party Impressions to see the Little Drummer Boy themed party I designed for a little boy's play date!!!!

 

{DC Ladies} New Year's Party Ideas

Hey all!  I'm over at the DC Ladies blog today with a fun post on making your own New Year's Party Poppers! Head on over to check it out!
 

 

{MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!}

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and remained blessed throughout the new year!!!!

{Real Parties} Office Holiday Party - Sweets Station

As it goes, with me being a self-proclaimed 'party planner extraordinaire' (I giggle) - I decided to take the helm this year and plan our department pot luck. (BTW, if you're new to reading this blog, I do have a day job that, albeit I'm grateful to have, it pales in comparison to the job I get full life out of - being a party planner.....EXTRAORDINAIRE!!!!) We usually have one every year, but put the kabbash on it for the past two years because our group downsized a bit, but for whatever reason and I can't remember why, this year we were all gung ho to just have another one!!! Anyhoo, everyone brought in their favorite food dishes and I ambitiously decided to set up a sweets station!!!! Yay me....it was a lot of work - but so fun....and sooooo rewarding (in my head).

I created this printable Christmas Party set specifically for my Etsy shop - but felt compelled to use some of the the printables for the table set up.  I found out early in the summer that the happenin' color for xmas this year would be red and turquoise or light blue, so I went with that for our color scheme.  I used a roll of gift wrap I found at the discount store and my Christmas pom-pom garland as the backdrop.

A great tip on making a sweets table is to go to your local grocery store and pick out what you like and present it fabulously! I found a lot of really delicious treats at my local Aldi (by the by....I love Aldi for this reason only - they have AMAZING treats that you can't get anywhere else, they look and taste gourmet, but you pay a fraction of what you'd pay at a fancy high end food store....just sayin'). 

With the schedule I have right now, I didn't have much time to make a lot of desserts from scratch, but I did have fun dippin' stuff into chocolate and making it look pretty.  I was able to make chocolate dipped pretzels, cake pops and snowballs for my display!

I also was dying to make a hot chocolate bar.  I placed a large carafe of hot chocolate on the display and put a varied selection  of marshmallows on a tiered stand and in glass containers. Guests were also able to use chocolate peppermint sticks as stirrers and crushed mints, whipped cream and chocolate syrup for toppings!

I'm really glad we were able to do a holiday pot luck this year, it's always a blast and I'm especially happy that I was able to spread some 'sweet' Christmas love to my co-workers!

{Cupcake Monday} Candy Cane Cupcakes

Candy Canes and Christmas go together like bees to honey. So, why not top your favorite cupcake with a pep 'o mint?!!! I love these ideas for adding lovely candy canes to holiday cupcakes.

Who doesn't love a Bakeralla treat? Here Miss Angie tops her cupcakes with decorated sugar cones and sprinkles to create a white Christmas tree and places them into a cupcake using a candy cane to support the tree! Cute, n'est-ce pas?  Ya know.....I am a bit partial to the pink sugar 'snow' topping on the cupcake, however.

Not to toot my own horn (TOOT-TOOT) - but I would have to say my Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes are the bees knees!!!!

Simple and fun - a star-burst mint fondant topped cupcake by Cupcakes Plain and Fancy - LOVES IT!

Super adorable and girl-tastic - this pretty-in-pink candy cane cupcake from Created by Diane had me at mmmmmm.......

Karen Tack of Hello Cupcake! rocks - I really love this cupcake decorated to look like a wrapped peppermint - SOMEBODY BREAK OUT THE CANDY BOWL!!!!

Bake and Destroys' candy cane cupcakes with peppermint swirled frosting are just delightful!

And a shout out to my peeps over at MG Party Impressions for their FABULOUSLY decorated Christmas Cupcakes - I'm diggin' the peppermint swirls!

Last but certainly not least, these North Pole themed cupcakes made with a peppermint stick and red candy are super cute and festive - loves me some One Charming Party!

 

{Happy Customers} Pink, Yellow & Grey Whale Themed 1st Birthday

Last week I shared a cute Etsy customer photo with you of her daughter sporting a Birthday Girl party hat from my Whale of a Time Party Kit. The customer, Esther (an absolute gem of a client) wanted the colors changed and it went from me changing the invite to re-working the whole set. I loved the colors and am soooo happy with how everything turned out. She was kind enough to share more photos from the party!

A pennant banner for Miss Jalya!

A fun timeline photo banner of Jayla's first twelve months.  I used my Cricut to create the Whales and letters - this was such a fun project to work on.

A beautiful Wishing Tree was displayed for guests to write their wishes for Jayla!

Jayla's cake - with a fondant topper created to look like the whale in the party set - CUTE!

I love using scalloped cupcake toppers for little girl parties - just darling!

I love using colorful tags for party favors.  Esther sent guests home with #1 shaped sugar cookies - loved these.

Esther also wanted a high chair bunting.  I used smaller flags from the patterned paper I created for the set and added paper rosettes to them and topped the rosettes with party dots!

More gorgeous party details.....

Super adorable and fabulously girly - Miss Jayla - Happy Birthday!

I loved changing up this set for Esther & Jayla and wish them many more fabulous celebrations and wishes!

Photo Credits: DnA Wylie Photography 

 

{MG Party Impressions} Guest Post and Silhouette Cameo Giveaway

Hey all!

While you're reading up on my most recent party post on MG Party Impressions, check out their AMAZING CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY which includes a Silohuette Cameo, Sure Cuts a Lot 3 Bundle and more!

{Rewind} A Little Catching Up to Do!

I must say that I have been one busy girl lately!

 There was a period of time about 6 months ago when my business was super slow and even though I had lots of other things to push me along, I wasn't turning as much of a profit as I'd like to. So, I sent a little prayer to God and the Universe and now, I can barely keep up!

 My Etsy shop is doing very well, I've got parties booked, a holiday show in the works and I'm writing for two other blogs! WHO KNEW????  So, that being said, my own blog kinda took a back burner and I haven't been sharing all these moments with you all - shame on me :(. So, I'd like to share a few moments with you that I haven't as of yet!

 Back in mid-November I participated in a local Holiday Fair in Alexandria, VA - hardly made a dime, but it was a great experience and I showed a few new items! Here you can see my yarn pom-pom garlands and my new premiere line of party hats from my Celebration line. The Celebration line is a gender neutral set that will be available in my shop this month. The hats are more decorative and stylized and the other party items are die cut products opposed to printed.

Here is another item soon to be available in my shop - POOF! Yarn Pom-Pom Wands!  These wands are perfect for fairy parties or princess parties.  I even have a set designed to look like Abby Cadabby's wand.

Here are some items I created for this Holiday season.  I have a story behind the light blue and red color choices.  Back in September I was contacted by an editor from Real Simple magazine about my holiday poms and sent a few samples OVERNIGHT to the city (New York, that is) for them to use in a photo shoot.  I found out they didn't make the cut :(  but WHATEVAH!  they're still cute and the ones I saw in the final photo in the magazine were not the colors they requested from me.  My best guess is that they changed direction with what they were doing for the holiday shoot.

I even made a cute yarn pom pom cone tree!!!! Check out the cute pom gift tags too!

I was also busy working on a LOT of custom orders.  About 25% of my business on Etsy is custom work.  It always makes me happy to come up with something new for a client.  A lot of times, I have designs that I created in my files that I have not added to my store.  Well, a repeat client came to me requesting a pea in the pod set.  I did have something similar but changed the peas to little girls with hair bows! SO CUTE - the client loved it and all was well in the world.  Here is a sneak peek at a set I created for her.

I also get clients who like my design, but want to change the colors, and I'm always happy to oblige.  Here is  an example of that.  I changed the color of my Whale of a Time party kit from pink and blue to pink, yellow and grey.  The client was nice enough to share a photo of the birthday girl in a special hat I made for her along with the invitation and wish cards I custom designed for the party.

If all that Etsy shop work wasn't enough, I done went and started writing for ANOTHER blog.  This time, I focus more on family & kids activities.  Here is a post I wrote around Thanksgiving on kids table ideas.  You can find me writing on there once or twice a month and don't forget to check out my latest post on  MG Party Impressions.

I have a lot more to share, like my contribution to Operation Shower and another darling Princess Party - but I don't have the actual photos to share just yet but you can check out my yarn pom cupcake toppers and garlands directly at the blogs.

I'll be posting more soon about some other fun items new to my Etsy shop and more holiday entertaining and   hosting tips.....I might even slip in a gift guide!!!