Last One!

Last October, my mom had surgery to remove a tumor a little bigger than a softball and part of her bowel resectioned. Her diagnosis was Stage 2 Ovarian Cancer. She was in the hospital for 17 days. Every night I would stay with her for a few hours, give her a massage, watch Dancing with the Stars and tuck her in.

Her chemo treatments started in January.


This is Fern taking Mom's blood pressure

After many months of blood tests, transfusions, IV hydrations, PET scans and hair and weight loss, my mom had her final chemo treatment today!

This is Gwen; one of Mom's nurses.

She had a PET scan on April 1st to reveal that she is CANCER FREE!

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers during this trying time for my family.

To celebrate, I made cake pops and passed them out to the nursing staff.

They really appreciated them and I appreciate them for taking such good care of my mom.

You deserve one too! Go ahead... take one!

First I Heart Faces entry

Amy at Living Locurto is the founder of I Heart Faces.

Every week they offer a different theme to enter one of your personal photos.

This week the theme is Reflection.

I remembered this picture I took of Sheridan when I took the kids to Ventura beach to have a photo shoot for my Pirate party. I think it's kinda cool!

Mary Poppins at the Baby Expo

My friend Sandy and I went downtown to the LA Convention Center today to set up my Mary Poppins party for the Baby & Tween Expo this weekend.

I am one of 5 party planners that was invited to compete in a party tablescape competition. The attendees of the Expo get to vote on which party set up they like the best. Here I am wrapping a PVC pipe in white ribbon set in Qwikcrete. It is part of my new Mad Hatter structure and didn't want to repaint it. These are the posts for the carousel horses.

I set the pots on cardboard boxes ( to give it some lift) that I used to haul everything in and wrapped them in tulle. The flower balls that I dyed the other day are on top.

I was up until midnight sewing all of the chair covers and custom tablecloth.

I love that the chair covers look like Mary Poppins skirt in her Jolly Holiday dress.

Each chair has a stuffed penguin. At my parties, guests are able to stuff their own penguins to take home.

Here is the whole set up. The lighting was TERRIBLE! I think they were saving energy and only had minimum lights on.

I also made kites and pinned them onto the black draping.

The roses were cut from my garden this morning.

Each napkin ring holds a custom made napkin and a lollipop.

And now for the competition....

These balloons were so cute! Love the ladybugs and flower pots on top of the columns.

This was set up next to me- High School Musical party.

The owner is a former Laker Girl and teaches the party guests

really fun routines.

I was so happy to meet a fellow blogger...Natalie from Little Shindigs!

She said she wasn't photo ready so maybe on Sunday when we meet up again. Here is a portion of her Marie Antoinette party. So opulent!

She made the "cake" too.

Here is a cute booth across from me and not in the competition.

Bikinis for babies!

Fun playhouse

Custom painted gifts and decor

Get ready....are you ready?

High Heels for babies!

So stinkin' cute!

GORGEOUS diaper bags!

Lots of BLING!

If you are in the area, please stop by (and vote for my party!)

I will be there on Sunday if you want to come by and say "Hi".

Have a great weekend!

Gratitude

I am so grateful to my grandmother for teaching me how to sew when I was 9.

If you have a gift or talent, please pass it along.

Dying Silk Flowers

I am so honored to be 1 of 5 party planners to display a tablescape at this weekend' s Baby & Tween Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

I am going to display my Mary Poppins Tea Party with a few modifications :)

One of them will be carousel horse balloons on PVC pipes wrapped in ribbon with a floral ball as a finial. Since it is such a small ball (4"), I wanted flowers that would lay flat. I went to WalMart and got 4 bunches of flowers for $12. My primary colors for the party are red and pink so the white and yellow daisies were not doing anything for me. I decided to dye them to match the decor. I have never done this before so I was taking a risk. First, I soaked the flowers in water and added boiling water to the powdered dye. I used Rit Dye in Rose Pink.

I used a big container with a big bottom :)

The dye bath was only about 1" deep. I only left them in for a few minutes and then dried them on paper towels.



Since the centers started out yellow, they turned a reddish orange. Close enough for me to go with my red and pink theme.



Here is the before and after. I really like the result! Can't wait to show you lots of pictures of the entire presentaion. I will be setting up on Friday so stay tuned!

Camp del Corazon

Camp del Corazon (Camp of the Heart) was inspired by a patient of Dr. Kevin Shannon. Even though the young man had undergone an operation that dramatically improved the function of his heart, he was still suffering from emotional pain. He was back in school, back in little league baseball, even trying in-line skating for the first time, but he was so embarrassed by his scars that he wouldn’t remove his shirt to be examined by the doctor.
Dr. Shannon felt that if his patient could spend time with other kids who’d had heart surgery, he’d be less self-conscious. He located a camp in Louisiana for kids with heart disease, but the young man’s mother just couldn’t bear to send him so far away. When Dr. Shannon discussed the situation with Lisa Knight, R.N., her solution was simple: “We can do that.” And so they did.
They set about fund-raising to ensure that the medically-supervised summer camp would be free for children ages 7-17 who had heart disease. When Camp del Corazon began in 1995, 49 campers spent three days on beautiful Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. Over the years, the camp has grown to two five-day sessions with close to 300 campers. Camp del Corazon is staffed completely by volunteer counselors, nurses, and physicians who give of their hearts to help these special kids.
Camp del Corazon has grown into a non-profit organization dedicated to providing experiential programs for children and families living with heart disease. Programs include a free-of-charge, residential summer camp, leadership retreats, educational symposiums and family weekend programs custom designed to enrich the lives of their unique population.

Master of Cermonies- Tom Arnold


This Saturday night is the big fundraiser for this amazing organization. I attended last year at Universal Studios Hollywood Globe Theatre and had a great time. There was a silent auction and a very spirited live auction hosted by actor Tom Arnold. This program was highlighted on the the second to last episode of "ER" and the real campers were invited to appear on the show. My friend Jan's 2 kids were there in many scenes. This year Camp is honoring Dr. Sachs who is the consultant for the show "ER".
Mosaic made by campers raised over $4000.00



If you would like more information about this great program, check out their website.

I'm featured on...

I'm so happy that Shannon loved my Slumber Party that I posted.

You can check out her fabulous blog here.

Beach Bound

This week has been insanely busy! My mom had bees in her house on Easter evening and she just had her chemo this week so she was NOT in the mood for that. Exterminator came and said it was a few stray bees following a pheromone trail from a Queen.
Brownie meeting on Tuesday to get ready for Camporee this weekend! Can you guess where it's at? Malibu! It will be in the mountains 3 miles from shore. Here are a few shots I took last year at the beach.

Who knows, maybe HE will be there!

Have a great weekend!

Painted Confections

I have just come across the work of a true artist-Natasha Collins.

I can't imagine anyone wanting to actually eat one of these masterpieces. They are just stunning!

Look at these gorgeous Angelina Ballerinas and the fairy cake with hand painted flowers on fondant and hand made butterflies!

LOVE this bug cake!

I am a HUGE Charlie & Lola fan. (I even have my own Lola coffee mug!)
I can tell that Lola painted the flower one. :)

How about these SpongeBobs? It looks like they are on brownies. I'll have to check with Natasha on that one.

You can see more of her amazing creations on her Flickr site.

Unfortunately for me, she is located in the UK.

Just another reason for me to cross the pond!