Pink Poodle Saturday

Ooh La La! This is my French Poodle Tea Party!

I made the pink flower topiary with black feathers that sits next to Fifi Poodle after and exhausting day of shopping. The placecard holders are Poodle shaped frames covered in pink crystals. The placesettings consist of silver chargers, lace doily, Poodle ceramic plate and rose and ribbon napkin holders. The tea cups and saucers are pink with black polka dots.

The girls get to dress up in hats, feather boas and long black gloves with rhinestone bracelets.

Even the boys enjoy a Parisian spot of tea.

Part of the party includes stuffing of puppies. I have pink and white poodles and couture outfits for the girl guests and

yellow and black Labs and tuxedos for the boys.

Guest enjoy a "tea" scavenger hunt through the neighborhood, French Maid relay and making Eiffel Tower white chocolate lollipops. They are just so darn cute!

Update on my mom: She was diagnosed with Stage 2 ovarian cancer on Oct 21 and she is still in the hospital. She will be getting a port inserted for her future chemo treatments.

Thank you SO MUCH for all of the support and prayers.

It has been overwhelming and my family truly appreciates it!

Please visit all the other lovely pink posts at How Sweet the Sound

Happy Pink Saturday!

I've been Tagged

I've been tagged by Joanne of My Cottage in the Making. I am to pick my 4th photo album and the 4th picture. This so happens to be a picture of me with a Super Model. What every woman wants...to be photographed with a Super Model when she has been sitting for 4 hours and hasn't had a chance to re-touch her make-up. (Like that would have helped!) It's Paulina Porizkova! I met her when she was on Dancing with the Stars. It's taken with my camera phone, so it's pretty bad.

Let me back up a little...November 2006. My mom's neighbor, EC Pauling, is a director for America's Funniest Videos. I mentioned to EC one day that my kids LOVE AFV! We TiVo it and watch them over and over. She invitied us to a taping of the show. I took my 2 sons, Matthew age 12 and Chasen age 8, my niece Katherine, 15, and Chasen's friend, Kinzie. We had the VIP treatment by getting to go into the studio before the rest of the audience. The stage manager noticed Chasen playing air guitar to Ozzie Osbourne that was blasting in the studio (Irish middle child with spiky flaming red hair in a tie and sport coat) He was jumping ALL over the stage. The manager approached us and asked Chasen if he wanted to be on TV with Tom Bergeron (silly question!) Tom came out to say "Hi" to Chasen and Matthew got a boo-boo face. Tom asked if they were related. "Yes", I said, "Brothers". So he invited both of the boys to do the segment with him. The segment was "Head, Gut or Groin" and it aired on Jan. 7, 2007. The kids are still getting approached because it is in major re-runs.


After the show, we all got to go backstage and meet Tom. I mentioned how much we loved DWTS and he invited us to be his personal guests for the upcoming season. So I picked the second show of the season before the eliminations. My niece and I also got to go backstage to the Green Room to meet all of the dancers. What a thrill! I'll show you a couple more...
Cheryl Burke (and my giant boobs)

Katherine and Laila Ali
Julieann Hough and my niece-Don't they look like sisters?

The Green room-it's not green but beige. Yummy food and open bar...WOO HOO!

Another great person to be photgraphed with- Miss USA Shandi Finnessey

I look like such a troll!

Katherine and the season's winner- Apolo Anton Ono

My niece Katherine, Heather Mills and Myself

( I look related to Heather. Must be my English blood!)

Edyta is so, so sweet! And tan!

I look like I just crawled out from under a rock.

That I was under for a VERY long time :)

I will tag the following bloggers...

Dana from The Stone Rabbit

Cindy from Cute Pink Stuff

MaryJane at the Beehive Cottage

Lidy at French Garden House

Witchy Pink Saturday

After 2 months of planning, I finally hosted my Witches Tea! My friends were fantastic; they all came dressed in their best witch attire-some more than others. 2 of my friends came with green-face and I didn't even recognize them!

I swagged raggedy fabric from my patio cover and paper witches hat lanterns. I hung my Martha Stewart chandelier I made over the small table and over the larger table I hung an iron chandelier with gourds and pumpkins. I made the table underskirt out of muslin. I torn it up with some dull scissors and tea stained it with cinnamon orange tea-yum!

Here is a picture of all of us with our pink boas (they wore them specifically for Pink Saturday)

Don't we look fetching!

We are showing off our colorful leg wear!

The menu consisted of cucumber, roast beef and chicken salad on pumpkin bread sandwiches. Belinda made some yummy pumpkin soup and Suzie brought mushroom pinwheels. I served apple and pumpkin scones with spiced clotted cream along with Autumn Orange Spice tea.

For dessert, I made Mandarin orange mini cheesecakes, brownies and madelines.

The cute tag is from Karin at Creative Chaos

Broomstick pens were tucked inside the napkins.

Even the spiders enjoyed the tea!

I just had to have this Bethany Lowe Hobgoblin dinnerware!
Marina & Suzie

This is beautiful Marina without the green make-up

I put the witch necklace party favors in mini cauldrons that doubled as place cards.


Everyone had so much fun and asked me when we were having another dress-up tea. I really needed my girlfriends this week because my mom went in for surgery on Tuesday night and had a tumor removed that was the size of a softball. She was diagnosed with Stage 2 Ovarian Cancer and I have been with her at the hospital all week. I barely had enough time to pull the tea together "at the last minute" but it was so worth it. My friends are so supportive! It was a nice diversion for a few hours.

Thanks for visiting...don't forget to take a peek at the other "pinkies" at

How Sweet the Sound

Light the Night

Chasen, Sheridan and I had the honor of joining Team Evan at the Light the Night event at Bridgeport Park. Evan Gabor is my neighbors nephew who is only 3 with Leukemia. Light The Night is the nation’s night to pay tribute and bring hope to thousands of patients battling blood cancers and to commemorate loved ones lost.

They served dinner from Stone Fire Grill and had a bounce house for the kids. They announced they would give you a pint of ice cream for a pint of your blood. The kids thought that was a great idea, so I went to sign up. I filled out lots of paperwork and went to have my vitals taken. I was too anemic to donate blood! I guess I better start taking some supplements!

We held red balloons lit from inside. White balloons were those who had survived cancer and the gold ones were for those we have lost. We were cheered on by the Valencia High cheerleaders and they recognized Sheridan from the day before.
Please consider giving a donation on my webpagehttp://www.active.com/donate/ltnLosAn/2387_donnasue65

Fairy Pink Saturday

I love being a children's party planner. One of my favorite party is my Enchanted Fairy party.

I made the fairy tree centerpiece. It was a plain, white metal tree until I got a hold of it! I painted is green and then sprinkled glitter on it. I glued pink roses on it and hung them in the glass candle holders. I tied pink silk ribbon on the branches along with fairies dangling from the tree. There is also a robin's nest in the center of the tree and the fairies are guarding the eggs.

The centerpiece also has a moss and fern covered branch running through the center of the table dotted with pink hydrangeas. The table also has a healthy dose of glitter sprinkled all over it!
I love the porcelain fairies scattered about the table. There are also giant pink polka dotted mushrooms sprouting up under the tree.
The pink petaled placemats hold Mary Cicely Barker plates. I spray painted the willow napkin rings green and then glued on hydrangea petals on it along with a sprinkling of glitter.
The girls get to dress up in flower-petalled tulle skirts, pink fairy wings and flower garland head bands. The little fairies go on a scavenger hunt and pop bubbles with their butterfly wands. They hear a fairy story and make candy necklaces. It is such a magical party!

Please check out the other Pink Posts at How Sweet the Sound.

BOO!

Brownie Girl Scout Troop 118 decided to BOO! each other before Halloween. To "BOO!" someone is to leave a gift on someone's doorstep, ring the doorbell and RUN! Inside the gift is instructions on how to BOO! other friends (sort of like a chain letter) and hang the BOO! sign on your front door to let everyone know that you have been BOO!-ed and you don't receive more.
I got the poem and door sign from this website. Sheridan's swap partner is Emily...here's what we put in her basket...

Everything is in a plastic witch cauldron. Inside there is a can of Hot Chocolate mix, Ghost socks that light up when you move, candy bracelets, Pumpkin carving kit with stencils and spider rings.

Here is some Pumpkin Poop disguised as candy corn.
Sheridan and I made the giant 8" gift tag with my Cricut machine. We used the Plantin Schoolhouse font. Then I decorated the tag with ribbons by stapling them on. I made 2 more baskets for Chasen's friends- Parker and Hailey.

This always adds to the excitement of the season!

Signed, Sealed & Delivered

They're out! I just finished delivering my Witches Tea invitations. I sent my friends "Save the Date" emails back in August and thank goodness I did. I think it was a combination of perfectionism and a busy family schedule that has delayed the creation of these. I knew I wanted a vintage look, I didn't want to spend a lot of money or time (since I had to make 12 invites) and I wanted them to look fabulous! Let me tell you how I put these together...

I used vintage orange bias tape, ready-made black note cards with ivory envelopes, Cosmo Cricket Haunted Gothic paper, distress ink, Stickles gold,black stamp pad and clear rubber stamp.

I bought the vintage reproduction postcards on ebay. I trimmed the bottom of the card off so I would have more room on the front of the card. Next, I added Stickles in Gold to the edges of the postcard. I smeared it around with a toothpick. I really wish I had it in black. But it was backordered for several weeks.

I typed up "Come for a Spell" on my computer with Fiddums Family font and then I used my clear stamp to make a frame around it and then cut around it.

I tore the Gothic paper and then used my distress ink on the edges and then I curled the edges of the paper with my hands.

This is the inside of the card using the same font and same distressing technique. Then I glued a bias tape strip to the bottom of the card and made a seperate bow to glue on top.

This is a close-up of the front of the card. I also used a velvet brad at the top of the stamp.

This is the back of the envelope. I bought vintage "witch" stickers to seal the envelope and then tied with more bias tape. I used the same font to address the envelopes and I also distressed them with the ink. I hand delivered them, but unfortunately, I have very busy frineds and none of them were home :( Hope you like the invites, now to get ready for the actual tea party!

***I just received this wonderful email from one of my invitees...I just wanted to share!

Dearest High Priestess,

This has got to be the most spellbinding invitation I've ever received!!! You are sooooo much fun!!! Even my husband was impressed!! I can't wait.....who in their right mind wouldn't come!! I'll be there!! (Can I bring something??)

Love,Marina

P.S.How did I ever get so lucky as to be included in your little tea group?