Pink Baking Saturday

I enjoy cooking. When I was single, I would throw dinner parties to highlight my cooking skills. I had subscriptions to Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines. I would make homemade tomato sauce with pancetta, rosemary and porcini mushrooms and simmer it all day. I would make the ravioli and run it through my gourmet pasta machine. My pear sorbet with pear compote was famous in my circle of friends. But, I must say, I would much rather BAKE than COOK.

A few months ago , I discovered this blog, Bakerella, who shares my same passion. I made her cake lollipops for my birthday a few weeks ago. Recently, she posted a recipe of brownies with chocolate chip cookie dough baked inside and covered in chocolate ganache....ooohhhh baby!

She makes the most artful cupcakes. She claims she is not a professional, but just look at these beauties! How cute are these for Easter?

Here is one of her famous cake lollipops
with a bikini-clad Teddy Graham.

Are you kidding me? It just makes me want to throw
a pool party just so I can make these!



Wondering what to do with pink stuffed Oreos?
Make a pink panda bear cupcake of course!

Cake smothered in Reese's Peanutbutter Cups...oh my!

This will be Matthew's birthday cake in September!



Is your mouth watering yet?

What do you like to bake?

Go and bake something for someone you love today!

Of course after you check out more fun pink stuff at Beverly's.

Happy Pink Saturday!

Purple Makeover

When my daughter was 2 we moved to a bigger home. I decorated her room in Shabby Chic- Pink & Green. I'm a lover of pink, as you know, but my daughter, not so much. Well, maybe the pink but NOT the green. She is a purple girl. I recently re-did her brothers rooms and now it is her turn. She wanted purple with pink accents. I was a bit hesitant at first but I must say the color is growing on me!

The color on the left is from Lowe's and it's called Sassy Lilac. It was the first color I chose and Sheridan loved it. Not quite convinced, I ordered some samples through the Pottery Barn website. They are Benjamin Moore paints...the middle is Lily Lavender and the one on the right is Lavender Lipstick.

The Sassy Lilac is on the wall the Lily Lavender on her bed. At first, I was going to paint the bed white with white bookcases on either side of the bed. But with the bedding being mostly white, I decided to paint the bed Lilac Lavender. The pink on there is French Pink from Home Depot.

I want to paint the ceiling a soft grey. It's a lot harder to pick than the purple!I had a portrait of Sheridan done a few years ago in a fairy outfit.

It just happens to be purple, so it will be hung over her bed.

Doesn't it look great on the purple wall?

Should I paint the frame silver?

Here is the bedding I got from Layla Grayce website.

The brand is Pine Cone Hill.

It has Sheridan's purple and my cottage style.

I thought it was a good comprimise.

The bed skirt and one of the Euro shams is in the stripe and the quilt, curtains and other Euro sham is in the toile. The curtains are a bit sheer, so I will be adding a black out fabric to give them a little more weight. I might also make another set of panels in eyelet to go with these.


Here is a bookcase I got off of ebay. The seller just happens to be 25 minutes from my house so I can pick them up and save on shipping costs.

We will be cleaning everthing out of her room this weekend and hopefully painting next weekend. I'll keep you posted on the progress!

Look What the Tea Cup Fairy brought me!

On Friday, I received a call on my Party Wishes line. The message was from a lady who said she was on her way to drop off some tea cups to the Goodwill but noticed I hosted tea parties and wanted them to go to a good home.
I called her back on Saturday morning, hoping to catch her before she went to Goodwill and she told me she would be happy to bring them by my house.

She said that they belonged to her Mother-in-law and HER children didn't want them.
DIDN"T WANT THEM? What kind of crazy talk is that? I don't understand such nonsense when talking about tea cups!

Aren't these just adorable? The one with the pine and plaid tartan has a chip on the base of the cup but otherwise, they are all in nice condition.

I gave the woman a box of scone mix to thank her for her generosity. She seemed to be quite shocked that I had offered her something in return but happy to receive the token.

I LOVE getting phone calls like that! Thank you Tea Cup Fairy!

Pink Valentine Swap Saturday

I must admit, I was feeling a bit stumped on what to post for Pink Saturday. Luckily, this fabulous package arrived Friday afternoon. I joined Heidi's swap for a Very Vintage Valentine swap. I had such a great time with her Christmas swap, I decided to join this one as well.

The package is from my swap partner, Jenni in Texas.

Unfortunately, this talented girl doesn't have her blog up yet so I am unable to give you the link.
I lifted this beautiful box out of the mailer!
Look at that adorable tag Jenni made for me!

Now this box isn't super big. I'd say it's about 8" square and I swear it must be a magic box because all of this was inside of it!

I truly don't know how she packed it all in! She must be a genie or an organizational wizard.

Vintage valentines, cupid ornament, vintage buttons in a red heart box, Pink M&Ms (they lasted one day), vintage mini cake molds, red sparkly heart, heart shaped cookie cutters, key to someone's heart, heart ornament, vintage gloves....did I forget anything?

Oh yes, a vintage vase with a red rose and Cinderella's glass slipper.

And a little sleigh...

And an angel pin, a white ceramic heart...

Look at the adorable hand-made tag!

And another one!

I was truly blessed! Thank you, thank you, thank you Jenni!

These are just lovely. I treasure all of it!

Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the swap items I sent to Jenni.

Hopefully, she can take some and send them to me :)

Please go to Beverly's blog to check out more fun Pink.

What happened to the Tooth Fairy?

As a mother of a 14, 10 and 8 year old and former dental assistant specializing in pediatric and oral surgery, you would say that I have more experience with lost teeth than your average parent.

Sheridan's lower right cuspid had been hanging on for dear life for way over a month. The other day I asked my daughter if she was going to pull her tooth soon. She said "tomorow". The poor tooth was looking like a fang, slightly outside of the normal row of teeth with another tooth growing in behind it. Of course, it didn't receive the cleaning attention it deserved so you can image the state it must have been in!

Tomorrow came and I reminded Sheridan of her promise. She marched into the bathroom and tried to do the deed herself. She came out of the bathroom a bloody mess with the tooth still attached. She asked for my "professional" help and quickly abliged. I truly love pulling teeth! Scary, I know. I lifted it off the gum tissue and she asked "did you get it?" and I showed her the tooth. She cleaned it off and ran upstairs to put it in her tooth fairy pillow.

This morning, she came downstairs and said in such a pitiful voice with her head hanging low, "the tooth fairy didn't come!" My husband and I looked at each other in shock! Ooops!

I fell down on the job! How could I have done this? Guilt took over and I quickly ran upstairs to put $2 in the pillow instead of the customary $1 and a note from the tooth fairy. I bought some tooth fairy notes online several years ago to have on hand. I'm so glad when I plan ahead like that!

I took my oldest to Junior High and when I came back, Sheridan had found the money and the note and everything was good again!

Have you forgotten to do your "job"? What was the fallout?

Secret Admirer

Abigail from A Piece of Cake has had a secret crush on my blog

and has gifted me with a lovely blog award.

Of course, when such a honored is bestowed upon you,

there comes great responsibility.

Here are the rules of which my followers will have to abide by:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show
GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this
award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person
from whom you received the award.

And now to announce my own secret crushes....

1. Mo's Cottage
2. Cottage Rose
3. Polka Dot Moon
4. The Beehive Cottage
5. Pink Slippers
6. The Stone Rabbit
7. Under a Blue Moon
8.Queen of Good Intentions
9. Pumpkin Petunia
10. Me & My Insanity

Thank you Ladies for being such an inspiration to me
by being so generous with your creativity!

(Ooo!...I just rhymed! Creativity is already started to ooze out of me!)

I'm a finalist!

Kendra over at My Insanity hosted a blogoversary party where her readers could display fabulous party ideas. She is having a hard time picking a winner and needs YOUR help!

My Backyard Movie party is nominated and if you really want to :)

Please vote for my party!

I would appreciate the validation!

Just click on Kendra's icon above...thanks so much!

Pink Candy Saturday

After the holidays, I start planning for my kid's upcoming birthdays. The first birthday doesn't come until June but, you know me, I'm a planner. I love to surf the web looking for fun and unique themes and ideas. The one idea I am just crazy about is a dessert table. These are becoming super popular at weddings, showers and birthday parties.

For Chasen's birthday in June, we are having an Adventure party.

We will be going to Camp Valley Trails where

Sheridan and I went to Leader/Daughter camp in November.

The kids will go on the zip line and climb the rock wall. We will even add the campfire and s'mores. I have already ordered military shoulder sacks for each child from

Oriental Trading and I will machine embroider their names on it.
I will fill each one with a water bottle, trail mix, compass, flashlight and granola bar.
I have also purchased camo outback hats and camo bandannas.
Needless to say...no dessert table.

Sheridan picked an Ice Skating party for her theme in November. We will skate at the local ice rink and rent the party room there. Here is where I get to have my, I mean Sheridan's, candy bar with white, silver and blue candies. I bought the invitations from Anthropologie a few years ago in anticipation of this theme. (She picked it herself with no coaxing from me!)
The pictures that you see are from Amy Atlas. She is a party planner in New York and specializes in Dessert tables. Check out her other fabulous tables.

I pulled the following off of the Real Simple website:
Candy buffets are always a welcome treat at parties and weddings, and they seem to instantly bring about that wonderful "kid in a candy store" feeling, no matter what your age! As much a party decoration as they are an edible treat, you'll quickly discover that there's definitely a right and wrong way to do candy buffets. Here are some guidelines to help make sure you end up with a display that looks as sweet as it tastes!
You'll need:
• Several glass containers in a variety of shapes and sizes
(bowls, jars, vases, canisters, pedestal servers)
• Candy• Candy Scoops• Small cellophane bags or mini boxes for guests to fill with candy
• Ribbon, labels, and other embellishments to decorate the jars

How much candy do you need?The number one thing to keep in mind when creating a candy buffet? Don't skimp! Instead of thinking in terms of how much candy each guest will actually eat, it's best to think of your candy buffet as a decorative element and focus on creating a display that looks visually stunning, just as you would do with flower arrangements or other "regular" party decor.
For Large parties or weddings:8-10 types of candy / 15-20 pounds each
For smaller parties or occasion showers:7-10 types of candy / 6-10 pounds each
The quantities above are a general guideline, but the more abundant and full the candy buffet looks, the better!

Do you plan parties 6-11 months in advance or do you wait until 2 weeks before?
(that would just give me a heart attack!)

I hope that you are inspired by these fabulous ideas!
Check out the other fun pink stuff at Beverly's.

More Party Ideas!

Kendra over at Me & My Insanity is having a blogoversary and to celebrate she's linking everyone's fab party ideas! I couldn't resist and limited my contributions to 5 or maybe 6 :)

Check it out and wish her well!

Bowling Birthday Bash

I turned 44 on Sunday, January 11th, and my sweet girlfriends took me to Lucky Strike Bowling Alley and Lounge in Hollywood. What a super fun time we had! We ordered drinks and appetizers-Coconut Shrimp and Artichoke Spinach dip with pita chips. For dinner, we had mini cheeseburgers, tomato and cheese smores and turkey and brie sandwiches. We bowled for 2 hours, I opened some wonderful presents and we enjoyed some cake pops that I had made. See below for how I made them. After bowling, we took a stroll around the block to look at stars on the Walk of Fame and to Mann's Chinese theater to see the hand and foot prints in cement. What a wonderful birthday! Thank you so, so much ladies! I love you very much and count my blessings everyday that I have such wonderful friends!

Roaming Hollywood Blvd.-it was about 73 degrees outside.

I'm not sure why Debbie had a coat on!

Ready to bowl-baby! Those are giant tv screens over the lanes. They had the USC/UCLA basketball game on. I really wish they would have had the Golden Globes on. Good thing I recorded the show!

Tomato and cheese s'mores

Midi bacon cheddar burgers. They go great with martinis as well as beer.

Marina very happy about her spare!

Here are the cake balls that I made. I got the recipe from Bakerella.

I used chocolate cake (my fav) and they were very fun to make!


I made some tags on the computer and cut them into strips.


I punched holes in the end and tied them with ribbon onto the cello bag with the cupcake pop inside.

My friends ate them up! I even handed them out to our waitress and the totally cute guy behind the shoe counter. :)