First Gift of Christmas

I just love the story of The Polar Express! I found this wonderful site that is the "official" sleigh bell company for Santa. Today they have a special code for 10% off anything on the site. SHOPEARLY is the code. I just ordered Santa's Classic Gift set with includes a giant sleigh bell with leather strap, red velvet gift bag, gift box and downloadable Santa letter and Polar Express party kit. They even have bells for weddings and you can even hear a sample of the bells sweet sound. Go to http://www.magicalbells.com/ I can't wait to have a Polar Express movie party with my kids and their friends.

Vintage Shopping

I love this site! Very vintage and funky like Anthropologie but very affordable! Save 15% NOW through Monday! www.shopruche.com

Surf and Safari

We celebrated Sheridan's birthday by having a safari themed party at the Santa Barbara Zoo. The colors were fuschia, orange and lime and it was reflected in the decor, cupcakes and favors. Since balloons are not allowed in the zoo (it's a hazard to the animals) I used paper lanterns to decorate. I tied them onto bamboo poles and added a banner I bought on Etsy.

I used chocolate brown tablecloths with satin runners in fuschia, orange and lime. I used raffia placemats, colored plates and napkins and made custom chocolate animal shaped lollipops. Even the water bottles had a custom giraffe band and "Go Wild" sticker. I got the glass vases from the Dollar Store and wrapped it in giraffe print scarpbook paper. I bought funky feather branches from the flower mart and Gerbera daisies from Costco to complete the arrangement. I spray painted plastic animals in fuschia, lime and orange and then "glitterized" them and they sat on the table with natural sea shells which was a nod to the fact that we were on the shore.

The guests stuffed different kinds of animals and dressed them in zoo keeper outfits. I machine embroidered nylon shopping bags with each guests name so them could carry their new friend home in it. We played Feed-the-Frog relay and Cottonball Scoop. We even had a rabbit named Peter come and visit the kids.

Lunch was pizza and we had cupcakes for dessert. I forgot to take some pictures of them because my wonderful friend, Jen Wilson, is a professional photographer and took pictures for me. After opening gifts, the entire party took a ride on the zoo train.

Sheridan loves animals and had such a great time at the zoo! Her lion shirt is from WalMart and it is an Eric Carle design. I will post more pictures from Jen when I get them :)

Fairy Party

My sweet daughter is turning 9 on Friday so I thought I would share a few of her past birthday parties with you. For her 3rd birthday, we had a fairy party. When I was "researching" her party, I came across an advertisement in our local magazine for a business called Party Wishes and they had a fairy party. I thought I would call and get some "ideas" from them but the package rental was so amazing, I rented the whole party!

Now this probably sounds familiar to you since my business is called Party Wishes. After I rented parties from this company for 3 years, the owner, Toni Roberts, asked if I wanted to buy the business since her husband was transferred to Northern California. Of course, I agreed and have been the proud owner of Party Wishes for 3 and a half years.

Now Toni didn't stop being creative when she sold her party business and moved...oh no! Toni is the owner of Design Dazzle and is celebrating her one year blog "birthday"! She was just voted one of the best baby blogs by InStyle magazine!

The amazing cake was made by Reva of Reva's Sweet Art and has been featured on Amazing Wedding Cakes on WE TV.

The fairy party package includes costumes for the girls to wear, all of the table decor, favors and games and stories. The girls play with bubbles and go on a fairy treasure hunt.

Don't the little fairies look adorable? Sorry the pictures aren't the best quality. They are scanned prints and I can't believe it took me so long to go digital! I will post more pictures from birthdays past this week...stay tuned!

Marina's Parisien Soiree

My tea group, Table for 8, celebrated Marina's 50th birthday with a French-style party at Suzie's house. Pink feather boas, candlelight and ribbons were everywhere to create a magical and romantic mood. We are a group of 8 women who started a tea group 5 years ago. We meet for tea at least once a month at a local tea room or at one of our homes. We are a very close knit group and decided to celebrate birthday milestones in a big way. In February, we celebrated another members 50th birthday with a Breakfast at Tiffany's party.

We served hot hor d'ourves, wine and cheese fondue. Of course, it wouldn't be a party unless there was a tiny disaster. The chocolate chips had melted in the fountain so I turned on the fountain and it worked perfectly. I decided to add some more chips to melt and the chips clogged the intake and started spinng chocolate ALL over the table like a giant spin art! The 25 guests thought the table looked much better with the chocolate already on the food anyway. I have such lovely friends!

We gave out feather fans as the party favors. This is my fabulous tea group, Table for 8!

The backyard patio was filled with white lights, candles and mirror balls on silver ribbons.

We read passages from some books "Girlfriends" and "The Velveteen Rabbit Principles". Suzanne read a letter from Marina's friend in Paris that was written in French and English. Marina shared with us that this was only the 2nd birthday party she has ever had in her life! We were so glad that we could have such an amazing honor to celebrate a wonderful and generous friend.

Inspiration Part II

I got more love from Blogland this week! Jamie at Giggledust Parties sent me some pictures of her daughter's Night Owl Pajama party. She told me that she was inspired by my "bed table" from my slumber party. Here is what she had to say...

I just wanted to share some photos with you from my daughter's recent birthday party. The theme was "Night Owl Pajama Club" and the activities of the party centered around the girls becoming members of the Night Owl Pajama Club. Night Owls love to stay up late, dance in the dark, hang out with their friends in the Night Owl Clubhouse and eat cupcakes and ice cream sundaes.

One of the inspirations for my party was your "bed" table that you offer for your slumber party. I just loved this idea and the girls thought it was so much fun to be eating on a "bed."

You can read more details on my blog.

Thank you for your inspiration.

Seriously, go check out her site. She is new to the children's party planning family but I KNOW she will be a huge success. With her creativity, her mother-in-law's sewing talents and her handy man husband, there isn't anything they can't accomplish!

Inspiration

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

This blogging thing constantly amazes me. I am so honored when I get emails from people, lovely, talented people, telling me that I am an inspiration to them. WOW! That is the highest compliment I could get! Here are some pictures from Tricia of her daughter's princess party that she sent me. She told me that I had inspired her. Here is her story...

So in honor of Sofia's two passions in life (cupcakes & princesses) I decided to have an intimate party at home. I focused my attention on THE DETAILS. The countless DETAILS. Oh, what a labor of love exists in the DETAILS!

My party colors were light pink, hot white & white. I tried to carry the colors all throughout. I tried to incorporate the princess & cupcake theme consistently, as well. The ceiling featured floating pink & white party poms. We had balloons everywhere. I created simple but elegant floral arrangements with roses and mini cupcake cards. I decorated the staircase with pink tulle & ribbons & my favorite pictures of Sofia from the past 3 years.

Every party guest came dressed as a princess for Sofia's party. I created a "throne" from cardboard & a pink tablecloth & pink feather boas, and put it underneath a white mosquito net. My husband created a whimsical frame from cardboard, and we painted it & decorated it for the princess throne. Each guest had their princess portrait taken & I was able to customize their thank-you note with their picture. We decorated magic wands and crowns with glitter and played "pin the princess on the castle" and had a princess parade and a cupcake pinata. And we danced as only princesses could.

Our table settings featured adorable cupcake china I found on clearance at TJ Maxx. I even giftwrapped the juice boxes with cupcake wrapping paper. And I used candy bracelets as napkin holders. The peanut butter & jelly sandwiches were heart-shaped, as were the cheese sandwiches. I baked customized "Sofia" tiara cookies in pink & white. We had a colorful cupcake tower with a pretty princess cake on the top. For the children's goodies, we put customized stickers on pink chinese food take-out containers and attached ribbons & balloons to each one.

In honor of Sofia's birth mother in Guatemala, I wrote & framed a little note to her which was surrounded with roses on a table at the party.

Many thanks for all of the divine inspiration I received from your site! Also, here are my featured Etsy sellers! I will forever support the amazing & creative Etsy artists!

1. Party Poms by Prost to the Host: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7199184

2. Happy Birthday Banner by AEScrapbooking: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7665322

3. Custom Cupcake Stickers by LittlebeaneBoutique: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5375234

4. Mini Cupcake Cards in the flower arrangements by Auntie's Card Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5322093

I hope that Tricia can now be an inspiration to you!

Just paying it forward!

Don't throw away those candy wrappers!

Eating all that Halloween candy should be good for something, right? Make a decorative pail for next year. I bought inexpensive 6" metal pails but you can go bigger depending on how much candy you ate!

I trimmed the wrappers and then just Modge Podged them artisticly on the pail.

Let dry and add a festive bow. I passed these out to teachers before Halloween with the flowering plants. You could also use these as favor buckets for parties or make large ones to hold next years candy hand outs. The possibilities are endless it just depends on how much candy you are willing to consume!

Now, go eat some more candy for the sake of crafting!

Halloween Children's Tea

First, this gorgeous ghost costume by Martha Stewart was my inspiration for my own costume. But I was not about to pay $150 for it. I made my own for $40. I LOVE to sit on my porch to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters and decorate my house like Disney's Haunted Mansion. This year I covered myself in white tulle and had a black light on me. People thought I was a hologram and I had adults "get in my face" to see if I was real! You can see the effect in the last picture of the post. On to the children's Halloween tea!

I hosted 2 seatings at the Tea Gardens, a local tea shop, for children and adults, dressed as the Queen of Hearts. I got to be rude and (sort of) yell at people. We played Halloween bingo, toilet paper mummy wrapping, eyeball on a spoon relay races and spider ring toss.

Kids came in costume and came with parents and grandparents. I even had tables with all adults. They enjoyed delicacies such as PB&J witches fingers and chicken curry ghost sandwiches.

I love that Spiderman wrapped up Bat Girl in TP!

Here is Chasen dressed as a geek in front of our graveyard in front of our house. See the hitch hiking ghosts from the Haunted Mansion? I got them at Disney.com a few years ago and they are my prized possesion! OK, here is the money shot....

I am the glowing blue figure on the right. I danced and waved my arms all night. (my shoulders were really sore this morning!) I have the soundtrack of the HM ride playing in the background while I pass out the treats and a blue light illuminating my cemetary. Hope you had fun yesterday! Now, onto Thanksgiving!