Lilac Babyshower Featured by "Catch My Party"!

Thanks to Catch My Party for featuring another of my parties as the "Party of the Day" on their website!

Buzz Lightyear Rocketship Featured by "Catch My Party"

This Party Wall is really taking off (excuse the pun)!!
The rocketship from my son's Toy Story Party was featured by the Catch My Party Blog!

"Mod" Thanksgiving

I absolutely adore this "mod" Thanksgiving table from my favorite blog of all time, Hostess with the Mostess!! For our family Thanksgiving this year, I planned to go a little more traditional--just yesterday, I had my son help me gather up acorns, leaves and other items from our back yard for our tablescape (more on that later)--but I love this collection so much, I absolutely have to incorporate these printables...as well as my son's natural treasure! So, I'm changing my theme from "traditional" to "traditional/mod"! I hope it will look great, but who knows, it may just come out looking confused...we'll see soon enough!!

Lilac Baby Shower

Do you remember the sneak peak of the lilac baby shower from a couple of weeks ago? Well, the shower was this weekend and it was a huge success! At the last party I featured on the blog, the Halloween dessert buffet was the star of the show. At this shower, a different type of (inedible) cake served as the focal point! :-)  I used lots of paper flowers throughout as the uniting theme. The party favors were lavender recipe cards (lavender ice cream, cookies, brie, salmon, vinaigrette etc.) and sachets of lavender.

Diwali Recap

The Indian festival of Diwali was this past weekend. This is the rangoli I made at our house. Rather than using the traditional colored powder used in India, I used colored sand (from the local craft store to make my rangoli). 

Here is the rangoli at night, lit with diyas.

I also made swastik and om symbols with tea light candles.

Some floating candles in a copper bowl, surrounded by more diyas.

I created a centerpiece by placing votive candles in a copper bowl. 

I placed the bowl on a piece of saree fabric and placed flowers around the bowl.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle!

So, I just have to tell you about this Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle recipe! I am so excited about it because my mum insist on making Trifle for holidays--including Thanksgiving! (Yes, she is still a pure Brit, despite having lived in the US for 12 years!) Now we can combine our love of Trifle with pumpkin/gingerbread goodness! And pumpkin screams Thanksgiving way louder than jelly and custard! ;-)

What a great alternative to pumpkin pie for this Thanksgiving! Thanks Paula!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-gingerbread-trifle-recipe/index.html

Note, in my opinion, this recipe still meets the mission statement of this blog, because it is oh-so pretty to the eye (and I'm sure, the tongue). But, if not, who cares? It's my party (blog), and I'll cry (or do) as I want to!

I've been featured by Birdcrafts!

I'm so excited to report that Birdcrafts featured my Halloween dessert buffet yesterday! Yippee!! Thanks Bird!!

Well, it's been an action packed weekend with Diwali and the babyshower I was hosting. I'll be posting photos soon, so check back for those!

Project: DIY Halloween Dessert Buffet

I'm a huge fan of Amy Atlas (who incidentally was a lawyer before building her dessert buffet empire)! And who doesn't love her candy/dessert buffets. Since Halloween is all about tricks and "treats", it's the perfect holiday for a dessert buffet. Of course, Amy's marvelous creations are not in everyone's budget--this includes my brother, who asked me to help him design a last minute "budget" friendly dessert buffet for his Halloween party. The challenge was to create a buffet with the visual impact of a couture dessert buffet, but for under $50. Here's what I came up with.

I used black polka dot gift wrap for the backdrop, with white muslin draped over it to create the effect of cobwebs.  I made a "treats" banner out of scrapbook paper, card stock and ribbon, and stuck a few fake spiders on the banner.

 The centerpiece is made from a dead plant, which has been sitting at a secretarial station in our office for, well, about 2 years! I stuck candy corn all over it! I also made a creepy candy forest using Twizzlers, graham crackers, and candy corn--I saw this idea in a parenting magazine!

Marshmallow pops are so easy to make. Just put the marshmallows on lollipop sticks, dip in white chocolate and twirl in a bowl of sprinkles!

Rather than buy cupcakes from a bakery, I made some coconut cream cupcakes at home and dressed them up with coconut flakes and orange and black sprinkles. I made the cupcake wrappers and toppers out of candy corn themed scrapbook paper. 

Using another idea from the parenting magazine, I made witch boots out of cardstock. The pretzels were dipped in candy-making chocolate and drizzled using Wilton purple candy melts.

I used some square vases, trimmed with polka dot ribbon, to hold candy corn and orange jelly candy.

These Oreo pops were my favorite thing on the whole table! To make them, you simply pull the Oreos apart, insert cookie sticks, put the Oreos back together, let them harden in the fridge for a couple of hours, dip in melted chocolate, let them harden again and then drizzle with Wilton orange and purple candy melts. I wrapped the pops in small plastic bag, glued polka dot ribbon bows on the pops and displayed them on a stand, which I made from a box lid covered in black gift wrap.

I filled small cocktail glasses with Reeses Pieces.

I hung these orange and black bird cages over the table. I found them at the craft store for $1 each! What a steal! I cut crow silhouettes out of black cardstock and stood them up in the cages.

The party was yesterday and my brother called me today to let me know how the party went. I was thrilled to hear that his guests were blown away by the dessert buffet! :-)

This party is linked to: