Recently I worked with Natalie at Southern Belle’s Charm to help create what turned out to be an incredibly unique and fun party. The little guest of honor’s favorite book was “I Stink” – a book by Kate McMullan all about GARBAGE.

And Natalie had a hay day coming up with all sorts of garbage-related party goodies, from book invitations to trashy wreaths, to fly shaped cake pops and trash can favors. Here are a few pictures from the party, but be sure to pop by her site to see the rest!

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My daughter begged for a Christmas party this year—lucky for her it doesn’t take much excuse for me to start designing an event! It was a fun experience planning this party; Maddie was there every step giving her input on what games to play, what food we should eat and what we should drink and give out as favors.

 The front rooms of the house were decked out for the party in red and green with a “Chilly & Cheery” penguin theme.  I handmade virtually everything in this party from the paper ornaments (tutorial here), ribbon rosettes on the aprons, paper trees on the tables, chair backs and wreaths (see the how to here).  These were all great touches that anyone can pull off with a little effort.

We had a table full of fruits and vegetables for the kids, and a small sweets table. Edible Details sent the cutest little fondant penguin toppers for our cupcakes that the girls later put in front of their gingerbread houses. Renee of Bees Knees Creative sent some adorable (and delicious!) sugar cookies that perfectly matched our little penguin graphics. Both these penguin-shaped sweets were huge crowd pleasers!

And all those red stands? I’ve said it before–there isn’t anything a can of spray paint can’t fix. I picked up some footed bowls and a candle stick at Goodwill and painted the outside (not the inside where the food goes!) The striped plate came from Wal-Mart.

Other items on the table were peppermint fudge covered oreos, divinity (a favorite southern candy), white chocolate drizzled popcorn with m&ms (“snow crunch”), and chocolate cookie dough truffles. The favorite on the table were the “snow cones.” I dipped a large marshmallow in candy melt, rolled it in coconut and then placed it on a tiny ice cream cone and topped it off with a red m&m. Easy and fabulously fun! I’ll put up a pictorial tutorial soon to show you just how it was done.

Quick, easy favors around the holidays that look fabulous and are unique but are inexpensive are sometimes just a Christmas miracle. But if you can take something simple, like homemade hot cocoa, and put it in interesting packaging, like a test tube, it becomes something that might create gift-envy.

Every year I make a giant container of this homemade hot chocolate recipe and we drink it for a good part of the winter. It’s the perfect powdered cocoa, and great for gift giving! Use the cocoa mix as a gift and attach the recipe on a tag for your lucky recipient.

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NORTH POLE COCOA

• 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 3 ¼ cups instant nonfat dry milk
• 2 cups instant chocolate drink powder
• ½ cup malted milk powder, chocolate flavor
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ¾ cup non dairy creamer (regular or flavored)

Mix ingredients thoroughly and store in airtight container.  For drinks: Combine 1/3 cup mix with 6-8 oz. hot water or milk.

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If you’d like a “haute” chocolate favor, you can’t go wrong with hot chocolate on a stick. The Giver’s Log gives a great how-to tutorial on their site, OR if you’re like me and the idea of tempering chocolate sends you running, they’ll also make some for you if you visit their shop at The Ticket Kitchen. 

We are in a very small (five families) playgroup for my son, and it was a wild coincidence that three of were all sorority sisters, albeit at different colleges. Much joking has gone on the past year about our little sisterhood.  When Courtney’s birthday came around and she really wanted to celebrate, we decided to make it fun and play on this bond of ours. We made up our own sorority (Mu Theta Mu a.k.a MOM) and made her a pledge for the evening…creating a “Birthday Rush” for her.

Before taking a 4-hour limosine trip through Melbourne, we had a nice dinner with all Courtney’s favorites. There was lots of pink, fancy little appetizers, liquor infused cupcakes and beautiful macaron favors from Sucre Azucar. Beautiful AND tasty. Like melt in your mouth fabulously good.

A refreshing tray of mojitos was served up while we waited for dinner to finish.

The centerpiece for the table was created with a mirrored tray, a dozen tea-light candles and about 25 tiny vases. Each vase held a gerber daisy and the resulting mound of daises was really wonderful. Once the sun went down, we lit the candles (which reflected off the mirrored tray) and the whole arrangement simply glowed! Thanks again to Patti from Buds, Etc. Floral Studio for the herculean effort that went into finding just the right shade and enough of the gerbers for the arrangement.

Activities at an adult birthday party? Of course we did! You can’t have a pledge without asking them to do a few silly things. We draped her in pink boas, pacifiers, glow sticks, and let her refuse to wear an embarrassing t-shirt. Courtney was in love with Maddie’s tiara by Tradewind Tiaras from her birthday party, so we also let her wear that for the evening. We made her eat a goldfish and say the greek alphabet before the match burned out. And while we were out we had a little bag of mingling activities for her to complete. Turns out you CAN use the word “shinizzle” in a 90 second conversation with a stranger at least 7 times.

All in all, it was a memorable evening! The gerber daisy printables (Modern Daisy) at Courtney’s party are now available in the Esty Shop, with or without the “Birthday Rush” theme.

WITH GRATITUDE TO MY VENDORS:

Photography | John McLaughlin

Photo Editing | Jill Luecht Photography 

Macarons | Sucre Azucar 

Flowers | Buds, Etc. Floral Studio

I think most moms give keeping the kids off processed foods and feeding them natural, non-dyed and preserved foods that might actually be good for them things a shot. Our household actually did a pretty good job at this until we hit preschool where we couldn’t control every little thing that went into little mouths…the biggest culprit being all the little parties and all the little bags of candy that traipsed home with our darling from the classroom.

Enter Sweet Petes. They are an all-natural sweet shop that produces fabulous confectionary creations without any artificial colors or preservatives. Hard candy lollipops, meltaway caramels, organic exootic hand spun cotton candy in flavors like bubblegum, cheesecake, blueberry and cinnamon and delectable chocolates are just some of their offerings that will get you nods of approval when you pass out treats at your next party.

Sweet Pete’s Mentidents looked sinful as well–organic nuts and dried fruits atop a nice little cushion of chocolate. A delightful way to get your daily dose of anti-oxidents.

They’ll have a full service website up around the end of July, but in the mean time, you can email them with special orders!

Here is a neat little tutorial to make matchbook notepad favors from the Inspired Bride. These have such potential as party favors–for little kids to take along in the car along with a pack of crayons, or in an adult party bag with birthday bands and patterned paper–the only limit is your creativity! Click on over for full instructions.