Hello Kitty Picnic themed Birthday

So for the past couple of months, I've been planning my daughter's first birthday party. I figured it was May so outside should be nice with the sun out shining at us. For the past week, I've been stalking to weather like a hawk. I even had 4 different websites pulled up on my phone & checked it at least 10 times a day for the past week. It went from 0% precipitation to 50% in about 4 days so I started to have a mini panic inside. By Saturday night, it was still 40% precipitation so I was just hoping and praying that it would clear even for a few hours. Being in Virginia Beach, our weather here has been crazy this past year but I did even call a few other venues in case I wanted to change the location the last minute.  Sunday early morning came and I was so excited to see the hourly forecast of 0% precipitation to about 30%. *Happy dance*

Hello Kitty Picnic was the theme that I had chosen for my little girl. Since I was having her party at a park, I figured this would be a great fit! Between hours on pinterest to get ideas from having my own ideas, I think I pulled off a pretty good one being this was actually my first major kid birthday party.

The cupcake toppers I had used were pretty easy to make. I simply bought HK cardstock, used my fancy scissors and glued it to my choice of colors. Her colors were red, pink & aqua (I used gingham to emphasize the "picnic" theme) I am not a matchy matchy kind of planner so I used a variety of colors and combo patterns for her party but I did mainly use the 3 colors mentioned above and used accent colors of yellow and green. For the guest picnic tables, I used alternating table covers of red gingham, aqua and pink.

I LOOOOVE mason jars for decors. Pictured above were the centerpieces. I dressed them up using a pink tule tied in a bow, filled it up with the green shredded paper topped with 2 felt strawberries (made by my awesome talented cousin) and the mason jar was the holder for my pinwheels. They even spun too because it was pretty windy yesterday afternoon. The pinwheel kit I bought from Michaels but I only used 2 sheets of paper from the packet, the rest I had used my own and made it myself to coordinate with the rest of the decors. 

 These are the silverware I made to compliment her theme. I love details!!! This was just something simple that gave a big impact to her theme. I love these color combo. The "robbin's egg" utensils I had gotten at Party City along with her red napkins. The HK ribbon I got at Walmart and the red polka dot and the aqua ribbon I had gotten at Michaels (my favorite craft store or at least one of them lol) I had these put inside a picnic basket along side my red plates. I had about 3 picnic baskets that I had used for the party as props. One was for the utensils, the second was for the bag of chips and the third I used to put my cupcakes on top of. Picnic baskets were courtesy of my cousin. She had about 2 or 3 more we didn't use lol.

*Side Note* I do not know how many of who have ever tried Wholefoods cupcakes but I am a fan of them and that is where I had purchased them. A lot of my guests had asked me where I bought them  from. The ones I bought were strawberry & cream, oreo and peanut butter. They have vegan selections as well as regular ones and the cupcake sizes are hugeee!!!

It looks like the fan here is in motion because it really was spinning hard when I was snapping the picture. This cupcake holder I had gotten at party city however I did not use them for cupcakes as you can see. Pictured here are strawberries and a pastry puff that was a huge hit!! There wasn't any left!!! The pinwheel was one of the ones I made myself. 

Here are the strawberry & cream cupcakes topped with real fruit, icing stems and my topper. Originally the diameter of the icing is covered with almonds but since I wasn't sure who had a nut allergy so I ordered them without em;) The cupcakes were huge and adding on my topper, these were about 5 inches tall & I didn't want the normal cupcake holder to put these on so I wrapped up a box with red wrapping paper and put these on top and I had the cover of the box wrapped up too and put some cupcakes there as well. I like different levels of presentation;)

Here is the centerpieces of my cake table. She was the perfect touch!!! I loved Hello Kitty as a kid (and I still do!!!) In the good ol' days, she was red pink and white and now I see her a lot in pink so I was glad that I found this one with mostly red and she has a pink polka dot dress on. This is actually labeled as an accent pillow;) You can't really tell on here but those are hello kitty cupcake wrappers that I used for my brownies. The tule added the perfect pink touch to the plain red boxes.

Here is another shot from the side. I was lucky to find some HK crackers with strawberry/chocolate dip & that was a huge hit with the kids. In a separate table I had a box full of bubbles and frisbees, stickers etc that they can just grab and play with but the bubbles were such a huge hit!!! I had gotten the long stick bubbles so the kids had a blast blowing them in the park!!! 

This was an overall a successful party. I didn't get to take as much pictures as I could and wanted to with my Canon but I got the main details on this blog. Now I can't wait to do another kid birthday party. I had such a blast planning this one;) Now 1 more month before I got a wedding so keep on the lookout for that next time;) 

Up, up and away!!!!!

Last weekend was my son's 3rd birthday. I had asked him what he wanted and he stated it plain and simple... "Mommy I want balloons & cupcakes!!!" and that is exactly what he got (and more- since we we're taking him to Great Wolf Lodge as well). Jaden has always been fascinated with balloons just like a million other kids at this age. He oh so loves the movie "Up" and I figured I'd set up the dining area the morning of his birthday. Here is a few pictures of my version of an "Up" inspired table.

 

Our dining table is round so it was perfect for the little something I wanted to do for him. I did not get a good picture of the background but it was a DIY banner that said "Adventure Awaits". The little house I had gotten at Michael's (its actually a bird house), the birthday ribbon I had gotten at Party City. The box that the house is on top of is actually one of his other presents (leggos) that I just wrapped up in colored tissue paper, his other present the Fisher Price kitchen table we left open since the colors matched well with my decor.I enjoyed making the balloon wreath. It took me a couple of days to make it since I only did it when Jaden was taking his nap. I got the wreath base at AC Moore- if I remember correctly this took about 600 balloons. I underestimated the amount and I had to come back twice to get more lol. Some tutorials you will see online says to use one balloon per greening pins but I actually used 2 ballons per pin. It was time consuming for sure but I enjoyed making it. This was a 12" wreath.

A more closer look at the table. If you look closely, you will notice that the 2 boxes where the cupcakes are sitting on top of are wrapped in old maps. I thought that was a perfect touch for this theme. Infront of the cupcakes were 2 sets of play dohs and 2 of his favorite snacks (yan-yan's). I had originally planned on hanging the "Happy Birthday" on the wall but it wouldn't be seen so I had placed it on the table instead. 

The cupcake toppers were balloons of course. There is no other place here in Virginia Beach that actually sells them at the store besides Party, Cakes & Things. I am so glad that they were able to get some in time. They also sell the pastel color balloon toppers as well as many other cupcake/cake toppers and they also have a wide variety of cookie cutters. I actually bought a balloon cookie cutter which I used to mold Jaden's pancakes for his birthday breakfast.

A more close up of the cupcakes  and the cupcake toppers. The green shredded paper you can find at most craft stores. I actually am a fan of them, they add that right touch to certain projects. Not all stores carry a lot of colors but Michael's has a variety of them during the time I went. They were getting ready for Easter season so they had a bunch of colors of them!!!! The boxes were just empty boxes I found around the house that I used to scale up the cupcakes.

 I actually had another plan of putting some "clouds/sky" on top of the cupcakes so I had gotten some cotton candy. Most comes in the tri-color and I had only needed the blue one. I had tried to fluff them out once out of the bag but they were already too compacted in the bag and separating them was not working out at all. I think next time I actually need some fresh cotton candy for my idea to work. Who has a cotton candy machine?!?!?!?! ;) 

This was the face the morning of his birthday. He starred at the table for the longest time. He was so happy and in turn it made me the happiest mommy. He couldn't believe how many balloons there were (he got a dozen more an hour later from my dad and great grandma). He actually ate his birthday breakfast which were eggs and 2 balloon pancakes in the "big table" as what he calls it and yup- he asked for his Ipad so he can watch his movie- "Up".

I hope you all have enjoyed the pictures of Jaden's birthday. Until again.... now time to plan out my daughter's first birthday. I got the theme in mind, now to slowly execute it...  I can't wait to blog about that. Gosh time sure flies and I cannot believe she will be 1!!!  Have a great day to all of you & God bless!!!!

x0x0

It's a Jungle Out There!!!

I love baby showers and this past weekend I had the pleasure to help decorate for another co-worker's baby shower-Adrienne. It was held at the host- Shanda's condo (which I got lost getting there- I'm so bad with directions lol) Her theme was safari. I am a big fan of the poms so I made 4 green poms and 2 white poms. Last time I had used only 9 pieces of tissue paper so this time I had used 12 since it was going to be the full pom instead of half but after making it, I think that the 12 would have been sufficient enough as well. It was starting to get difficult to "fan" it out towards the end. Next time, I would like to make bigger poms, these were only about 6-7 inches in diameter. I had used some brown ribbon to use to tie these up.


I loved the colors that this particular theme had & it gave me a little more room to play with when I made her diaper cake. So I had tried to make a square diaper cake as the base... I had made it however as the days went by, it started to look like an oval so I had to go with plan B. I've never seen a square one done before so I wanted to give it a shot but I was not as successful as I wanted to be but who knows, I'm sure I'll try again soon;)

Here is Adrienne's diaper cake. This consisted of 2 packs of diapers so a total of about 100 diapers. I always use the size 1 diapers which works perfectly in my opinion. These diapers are the target brand diapers which happens to be my favorite. They hold really well with both of my kids and I LOVE it so much better than the other leading brands.

The cake was also a 3 tier cake but I did it a little different than my previous nautical themed cake. Instead of just 1 large circular base, I had divided it into 2 separate smaller cakes. I had done so to give me room so put the zebra and the tiger. This cake also consisted of 4 sets of baby spoons and forks (orange, blue, green and yellow) that I distributed along the cake. Between the first and second tier is 2 blue baby towels. I had used 5 wooden palm trees I had found at AC Moore and just colored it myself. On top of the 3rd tier was 2 medium size baby shampoos/bodywash and on the top is a stuffed elephant and I added a monkey pacifier holder which is on the 2nd tier. The ribbons I got at AC Moore as well along with the wooden block letters.

These were the yummies I brought over. I had seen something similar in pinterest and thought it would be a perfect addition to her theme. I had trouble finding square pretzels so I found round waffle pretzels and used those instead. I had melted the Hershey's hugs in the oven on top of the pretzels for about 4-5 minutes at 250. The blue chocolate candies I had purchased at Party City. They had multiple colors of them. After taking it out of the oven, gently press the blue chocolates  on top and put in the fridge to harden. I had left them in there until I was ready the next day to bring them to the party. Silly me I didn't even taste them but I was told that they were good;) The yellow cupcake liners I had gotten at AC Moore, the shredded green paper I got at Michaels & the green placemat I got at Party City. These were really really easy to make, less than 45 minutes. A really easy yummy snack to bring to a get together or a shower.

And finally here is the mommy-to-be;) Hope you had a great time in your shower Adrienne;) Can't wait to meet your baby Vincent in a few months!!! Hang in there, he will be here soon!!!!

Ahoy!!!!! it's a boy!!!!

I had a great time making these decors for a co-worker of mine- Jen, who is expecting a baby boy- baby Gunner to be exact. Her theme was nautical and her colors were orange & blue. This was actually the first baby shower that I have done (decorated wise, it was hosted by another coworker Melanie & we had it at Angela's house) and I loved it since it was DIY. The stock paper I had gotten at Michaels & the pre-made letters I got at AC Moore.

The 3 tier diaper cake was her centerpiece. I was lucky enough to find some cute nautical baby bath toys (4 pieces) and this was about 75 pieces of diapers. This was actually the first ever diaper cake I have ever made;)  This also had 3 baby wash cloths, baby shampoo, baby comb & baby scissors. The 2 smaller diaper cakes about 12 pieces each also had 2 baby cloths in each topped with half a pom. The poms had about 9 tissue papers each and it was the perfect fluff . Not pictured here but there were 2 other blue poms and 2 white poms on the table as well.

Now this is a Pinterest inspired jello shots. (yes shots but we did have 4 virgins ones for the 2 preggo ladies) Melanie made the mix, topped with a sugared orange slice (you can even use a mandarin orange if you want) and I made these little sails to top off this awesome idea. I actually used the leftover stock paper from the banner I made instead of using just plain white paper for the sails. 

Another Pinterest inspired idea, Melanie and I had the same thoughts about making these, but I give her the credit for making these awesome silverware decor. You can kind of tell but there are cupcakes to the left in the background that also had the sails on them. The cupcakes of course were made by the Betty Crocker of xray- Angela;) They were huge!!!!

With the mommy-to-be Jen. We will miss you & it was great to work with you the past 2 years. Best of luck in Kentucky and keep us updated of baby Gunner!!! You will be such a great mommy!!! x0x0

Mr. Tutera

*Pictured here was from the show on January 16, 2011*




I was so excited that David Tutera was coming back to Virginia on June 13, 2013. He was here 2 years ago and I remember the night before that I couldn't sleep at all!!! I was thinking of questions and actually what I was going to wear... haha yea I know silly me- I'd probably only have 15 seconds with him but in this industry who doesn't love David Tutera??? For those of you who have no idea who he is, he has a tv show called "My Fair Wedding" He transforms a simple idea into an extravagant reality for the bride and groom and their families. I would have to say he is the Oprah of weddings.

The picture to the left was taken at the Uniquely Yours Bridal Showcase that was held at the Norfolk Scope here in Virginia. I always tell my brides that going to bridal show's should be on your "to do" list since there are so many vendors under one roof. They even have cake tastings representatives for many venues, food samples from many caterers and portfolios of the make up artists and hair stylists in the industry. I had a great time seeing vendors that I have worked with in my past weddings be in this show. I always told myself that next time David comes back- yours truly will have my own booth, heck maybe next year even!!! Why not right? It was pretty much a packed house and I found myself saying "excuse me" more than a handful of times. That is such a great thing for vendors!!!I always looked forward into watching the fashion show towards the end of the show and again this year was awesome!!!

*Pictured here on the right was from the show this year on January 13, 2013*


I had him sign his wedding book "The Big White Book of Weddings" and one of my business cards. I wonder if he noticed that I went in line to "meet" him at least 3 times lol. He actually thanked me for waiting in line and commented how he liked the sparklies on my shirt;) He is amazing and I was so happy I got to see him again;) now if only he would have coffee with me one afternoon so I can pick his brain about this industry I'd be a happiest girl!!!

"Dream bigger" is what he wrote in my book and just that I will do, you see he didn't start of famous, he use to be one of those people that would wear a costume and be a singing telegram (read that from one of this posts earlier.) All of us have that "dream" wether its a house, a car or a career, whatever it is- follow it. You may face a lot of tribulations and falls, you must do a lot of sacrifices and go above and beyond- never give up because life is too short for you to ask later "what if".

I will officially start my second year in this business this coming spring. The first year was good to me with a lot of supportive family & friends. I cannot wait for what this second year has in store for me. I'm ready for the challenges and i'm ready to expand my mind. Bring it x0x0

*These are some pictures I took from the show a week and a half ago*