Who doesn't love the Mouse?

Garden Party



Being an event planner is turning out to be one of the most rewarding ventures that I have ever embarked upon. When I talk to a client or potential client I try to immediately visualize how everything  should come together. Then I do a rough table sketch to get my ideas out of my head before they disappear. Then each day I try to make something happen. Because I work full-time my biggest challenge is time management and since this is something I really hope to grow and expand I am really conscious of not waiting until the last minute to get things done. This weekend we had a baby's first birthday party with a garden theme. The Mom wanted a lot of Spring colors and wanted a playful look. So we (my niece is my partner) came up with this look and I am so happy how it turned out. I think I am able to use my scrapbooking background to create a unique touch to my parties.

 

Here are some of the details:

So one of my favorite elements of this display is the row of paper flowers. I found this awesome tutorial and after reading the directions over and over and over again I decided to jump in and give them a shot. I found the perfect colors using a Colorbok paper pad from Walmart. Not too dark but not pastel. Then freehandly I started cutting the petals, I glued them down with a glue gun and created the various shapes. Creating a variety of centers for the flowers also added another layer of wow that really became the focal point of our display. I created a subway art poster with some really fun facts about the guest of hour and framed it to be a part of the centerpiece.

For the tabletop I wanted a grassy look as authentic as possible so I got a piece of artificial cut at Lowes to fit the top of the table. We use clear acrylic trays and cake stands to help the beauty of the grass reflect throughout the display. We also had a tulle skirt around the table for an additional touch of girlieness.

 

 

Now that we are doing events I see things in a new light when I am shopping. I am always looking around to see what I can use in my next display. One day Groupon had these Ferris Wheel cupcake holders that I just had to have. I love that they spin and really added that playful touch that I was looking for. I think the adults were more amazed with them than the children, lol. Instead of cupcakes, each one contained a vanilla cake ball, soo yummy.

 

I cut the baby's initial using foam board and painted it a pretty pink. Then I made a small arrangement inside of one of my glitter jars. I think this is one of the coolest techniques, you just mix some mod podge with glitter, swirl it inside of the mason jar and let it dry. Now the drying time can be as long as 3 days buy the results are fantastic. She was so in love with these, the Mom took them to work for her desk.

 

There were a lot of sweets, including chocolate pops, cake pops, cake balls and chocolate covered oreos. We also adorned the tables with lollipop flower bouquets that the kids really enjoyed.

 

 

And the guest of honor had her first cake pop, and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Overall minus some minor glitches I would say this party was a great success.

 

 

 

Zoo Day

Even though it is super cold today,  we were blessed with a warm day on Easter Sunday so we took a trip to the zoo. I went with my husband and his grandson. Our trip really made me miss the days when my daughters were young enough to take to the zoo and seeing the delight in their eyes as they were able to meet animals from all over the world.  Philadelphia Zoo is America's first zoo and you can tell that the staff really loves the animals.  There have been many upgrades to the Zoo since my daughters were little and I really had a good time.  Money and time well spent.

Pocket Letters

I got my first pocket letter yesterday from my scrapping sister Barb.  I was so excited!  I can't wait to use every thing in here, perfect for cards or to accent a scrapbook page. I am not usually one to jump on a scrapping fad but I must admit that I sent a couple out to my friends and yes they are addictive.  I am even thinking about joining a couple of swaps. Have you jumped on the pocket letter craze yet?

My Other Obsession

True Confession- I spend a lot of time on Instagram aka The Gram and if you are really cool you just call it IG, lol. If you are on IG let me know so that I can follow you :)

Back at it......

No really! This is no April Fools joke. I hate letting so much time pass by between blog posts and to be honest I don't even have a good excuse. I have not been scrapbooking for a very long time and I really miss it. I haven't even been card making :(. My usually unobservant husband even commented today that my card rack looks pretty bare, lol. So I took a deep breathe today and I am going to try to refocus. Good news is that my treats and party planning endeavors are taking off. The waves of orders are very unpredictable, I go from no orders for 3 weeks to about five in two weeks.  I am still learning but I absolutely love doing it. So for right now I am going to participate in some Sketch challenges especially since a few of my scrappy friends like Wendy, Rochelle, Brenda and Monique are on the design team. These ladies always inspire me and their passion for scrapping is unwavering.  This is the Sketch and the details can be found on their blog here. I am challenging my self to complete this layout by Saturday April 4th, wish me luck!

Learning to Drizzle

I would have never thought that just drizzling chocolate could be so challenging. Can't wait to give it a try again although I don't think that I did too bad for my first time.

New Venture

I am trying my hand at the edible treats/ decorations. This week I made my first batch of sugar cookies and decorated them. I did some things well but there is a lot of room for improvement. Right now I am playing around with getting the right recipe. The one I tried this week included baking powder so they rose up a little too much to be decorated easily but they tasted really good and that is important to me. I would hate to serve something pretty but that did not taste well. So I have another recipe that I am going to try next. For the icing I found a buttercreme icing recipe that was again tasty but because the recipe also included shortening it did not dry all of the way. It was only dry to the touch so when the cookies were stacked the design was messed up. Also I think I make it a little too thick. Getting the icing on the cookies was definitely a bit of a challenge but I felt like I got into the swing of things the more I practiced.

I was really super proud of myself that everything was made from scratch! I got a candy-apple red T-fal mixer for Mother's day a few years ago and to this day I think it is my most favorite gift. And now I am putting that mixer to good use! Tonight I will be playing in chocolate making cake pops, chocolate covered oreos and chocolate covered strawberries. I will share pics soon. I have my first official gig (a baby's baptismal) on November 23, 2014, wish me luck!

Big Shot Winner

Look what I won on an Instagram contest sponsored by Sizzix! I can't wait until it arrives.

Baby Fever

Every once in a while I get baby fever and the quickest cure is to be around a baby so I volunteered to watch my friend's 5 month old baby girl. She is so precious especially when she wasn't screaming her lungs out. I must say however that my fever has gone away. I will see her again the next time I need a fix, lol.

Candy Cake

I think every one of my nieces and nephews are going to get one of these for their birthday eventually.  This one is for my daughter's boyfriend.  He is a big fan of my crafts and was really surprised when I gave this to him. He is a really nice young man even though he is a Miami Heat fan. Lol!

How Could I Resist

AC Moore has $5 paper pads! How could I walk out without one? Okay two, but that is it.........unless I go there again tomorrow,  lol!

Night Market

In a city full of food vendors and talent it is such a joy when the two things come together. The Food Trust puts on a vedor faire of food trucks that converge on one area for a night time food extravaganza! I love to try something I never had before so I opted for the jerk pork belly with pineapple mango salsa and jerk chicken quesadillas, it was scrumptious. My girlfriend played it safe and opted for a crab cake and she loved it, said was very meaty, few fillers. There were thousands of people out last night as the weather was on point. Then we stuck around for some entertainment, including a pop-up parade. It was just too much fun for a Thursday night!

 

 

Happy October!

I absolutely love the fall. The air is crisp and refreshing. It is apple season, which happens to be one of my top 5 fruits -  I even found candy apples at the Reading Terminal Market. We can turn the air conditioners off and save on the power bill. And the holidays are right around the corner. This year I decided I will decorate for Halloween,  might even get a costume too. I am also trying my hand at cookie making and my first gig will be a baptism in November,  stayed tuned for pics. My mojo has picked up a little and I was able to create a few cards and my customer ordered 3 more. So far October looks like it is going to be a  super busy month.

Pop Up Mickey

I am supposed to be making four cards for a customer,  instead I am trying to get some ideas out of my head. This is going to be such a long night! I just can't focus. In the meantime I did complete this pop up card that I have been picturing for a while now. Simple Stories Say Cheese line is the most versatile Disney line I have ever seen. Shout out to Simple Stories!

Marriage at First Sight

So has anyone been following this show? I just heard about it and am trying to catch up on it now.  Basically these people signed up to participate in an arranged marriage. It is done pretty scientifically with  several different types of therapists conducting the interviews and matching the couples. The interesting thing is that two of the couples are still together and only one of the couples decided to divorce at the end of the experiment. Interestingly enough the couple to divorce is the black couple. I mention their race because I wonder when they were matched did the experts take cultural differences into consideration. In looking at the interviews I immediately saw that they were both very head strong people, which I thought would be a clash. He is also ex-military and not that it is a bad trait, I have found most military men are very domineering and this young lady did not look like she would take being dominated. The funny part is they both said those are traits that they are looking for but I think sometimes people are not honest about what they want in a partner. Like I run into a lot of men who say they want a settled woman but in all reality being settled gets boring and then they use that as an excuse to cheat I might not necessarily agree with the science of matchmaking but the romantic in me still believes in love at first sight. What do you think?


You can read more about where they are now HERE. The six month reunion show airs on September 16th.