Baby Shower Tea Party

This weekend I hosted baby shower tea party for a friend. Here are the details...enjoy xoxo.

Tea bag invites I created.

The decorations.

Momma to be's place setting.

The table.

The spread. Scones, devonshire cream, quiche and fruit.

The momma to be with the pretty pink tea! 

Delicious tea options.

Tea time!

I had the ladies write funny or encouraging 

notes on diapers for those middle of the night changes.

Raclette Dinner Party 2014

Last month we hosted our 4th annual progressive raclette dinner party. We start with appetizers at the neighbors and then end with dinner at our loft. Always a good time. For pics from past years click here and for instructions on hosting your own raclette party click here.

Ready to party!

Drinks at the neighbors.

So much cheese!

And the Meyer lemon iced raspberry yogurt cake I found here.

Easter Dinner

Hope you all had a happy Easter! We hosted dinner at our house with 2 other couples. It was a beautiful low key day starting at church, then having appetizers/dinner and spending the rest of the afternoon in our courtyard playing bocce ball and basking in the sun. 

The Easter candy bar!

Appetizers and champagne cocktails. We had goat cheese/honey with crackers, deviled eggs, and homemade caramel Chex Mix.

The colorful table...I grew these little pots of grass in less then a week!

Each person had a mini Easter basket filled with candy on their plate and a dyed egg with their name on it as their place setting.

Ready to eat! Ham, bacon wrapped asparagus, rolls, scalloped potatoes, and a colorful salad.

The fun (childish:) dirt cups I made for dessert.

E loved her Easter basket...still playing with the empty plastic eggs 4 days later.

DIY Chandelier Do-Over

I have had this Urban Outfitters chandelier for over 4 years now and I loved it but am ready for something new. I haven't found another plug in chandelier I have loved so I thought I would change up the one I have by adding chicken wire of course...ha! Here is what I did...

My chandelier before.

I needed chicken wire, yellow paint and a brush.

I painted the chicken wire the same color as the chandelier.

After letting it dry I molded it in a circle around the chandelier and attached the wires together.

My final project! I love how it is different enough to keep me happy until I find something else.

Before and After...have a fabulous rest of the week! xoxo

Evangeline Turns One!

After weeks of posts about party prep leading up to this I am finally posting E's party pics! I love this party planning stuff so when I decided I wanted to throw a 1st birthday party for our little lady my creative wheels started turning. Of course a hundred ideas came to my mind and I finally settling on the bright colors. I had seen a bright colored mural in our neighborhood that I thought would be a great backdrop for a photo of her. After taking the picture and actually having it turn out I was excited to go with this theme! (above is the photo we used for the invitations)

Party favors and party hats!

Bagel bar and a bowl of donut holes!

Also a yogurt parfait bar, 'E' shaped Rice Krispie bars drizzled with white chocolate, lots of fruit, a bowl of Cheerios for the little ones and of course birthday cake!

'Happy Birthday to you...'

Yeah, she loved it!

Opening her gifts after the party was over. She loved all the paper and ribbons!

Family photo:)

And the 12 month board from a few weeks ago. (her party was before she actually turned 12 months..therefor the missing photo)

I can't believe a year has flown by and how much love and joy this little lady has brought to our lives. Can't wait to see what's in store for this year. xoxo

Tassel Tutorial

Tassels seem to be all the rage these days and since E's birthday party theme was basically just bright colors I thought tassels would be great for decorating the house for her party. They are super easy to make but I ended up making over 100 so it took some time. I just made a few every night while watching TV and before you know it I had 100+.

Here is my tutorial...

Start with tissue paper, scissors and tape. Cut the paper in half lengthwise then set them on top of each other and fold them in half. Then cut about 1/2 inch stripes almost to the top but leaving the top inch uncut. Then separate the 2 sheets.

Then gather the middle of the paper where it is uncut and twist it. Then make a loop out of the twisted part making sure to leave a little opening to string a ribbon through. Then wrap a piece of tape around the base of the loop to secure it.

Then you can string them to hang.

And I made mini tassels for E's birthday cake...exactly the same way you make the large ones just a little tricky since they are so tiny. Have a fabulous weekend! xoxo

Birthday Cake

While planning Evangeline's 1st birthday party I knew I wanted to make her birthday cake but didn't want to decorate with frosting so I thought I would go about it another way, colored cake layers and mini tassels! I had done the layering before with chocolate cake and strawberry short cake but never with colors. I wanted bright colors to go along with the party theme and found this box mix with bright food coloring included! It was a tie-dye kit but I just used the colors individually instead of mixing them.

I made the cake a few days before, luckily since my first attempt was disastrous (see below). I did it again lining the bottom of the pans with parchment paper and it worked much better! I knew I wanted lots of layers so I just used 2 cake mixes and made the layers really thin in the pan. If you do this remember to bake them less time then it says on the box so they don't burn.

Since I made the cake a few days before I froze them so they would stay fresh. The night before the party I made the frosting and assembled the cake...it was much easier to frost the cake when it was frozen. Then I left the cake out over night so it would be the perfect temperature for the party.

I made a mini cake with ramekins so that E could have a matching mini cake all to herself. I also made mini tassels for the cake topper...I will do a tassel tutorial next week and party pics in another week or 2.

Hope this all makes sense if you wanted to make one for yourself. I was so into party planning I forgot to take pics of all my prep so sorry for less photos and more words.  Have a great rest of your week! xoxo

Both the cakes.

I found this cake mix at Target.

Making the colorful layers.

My first attempt at making the layers...I added parchment paper the second time around.

Playing with the color arrangements.

Letter E

Happy Thursday! A few weeks ago we celebrated our little girl's 1st birthday with a big party. I am planning to share the party pics on here but wanted to have a few posts with all the DIY projects I did leading up to the party. Today I am sharing the letter E I made. I wanted a large statement piece for the food table and thought of a project I did back in elementary school! Here it is...

A large tissued E!

Start with a large piece of cardboard and cut it into the letter or shape you want.

You will also need tissue paper, scissors, glue and and pen.

Cut the tissue into squares...I did about 3"x3" squares.

Then wrap the middle of the tissue around the end of the pen...dip it into the glue and 

press onto the cardboard.

Here it is with all of the tissue glued to the cardboard.

It is super easy just time consuming. Happy crafting...xoxo!