1st Birthday Party (Mickey & Minnie Mouse)

Birthdays, Costco, Disney, DIY, Inspiration, Inspiration Boards, Kids, Life, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Orange County, Parties, Planning, Re-cap

Looking back at this past weekend I realized that I never did a recap of my daughter’s 1st birthday party. I planned tirelessly for several weeks without realizing that the week before the party I was going to get a terrible cold. The day of the party everything that could go wrong did for but nonetheless we had a blast. Hardly anyone knew that I was involved in a hit-and-run accident on my way to the venue. My original cake that I stayed up all night working on along with 60% of my desserts were ruined as a result of the accident. My little Buttercup refused to take a nap that day and was super fuzzy. About 10% of the desserts that made it through the accident began to melt. Would I change things about that party? Absolutely. Would it really matter to anyone but me? Probably not. Like I previously mentioned here the day of the party is dedicated to fun. I had a blast watching everyone put on their Mickey & Minnie ears, playing carnival games, and mostly I enjoyed celebrating with those I love. Without further ado here’s a little glimpse at the party we thew my little Buttercup last year.

Invitations: DIY

Venue: Newland Barn

Pinata and toys: Los Angeles Toy District

Taquero: Water store on Dale St. and Chapman in Garden Grove, CA

Food and drinks: Costco

Carnival Games: Amazon

Well there you have it folks bits and pieces of the party we thew my little Buttercup. Will she remember it? No, but will I tell her how much I loved planning it. On another note I really need to start taking more photos of all the DIY things I do.

Please refer to my two Pinterest board for more inspiration. HERE and HERE

Please stay tune in the following weeks for a re-cap of this year’s Frozen extravaganza.

Check out my Pinterest board for my little Buttercup’s 2nd birthday party HERE.

Life: A Hello Kitty Baby Shower (dessert table)

Baby, Baby shower, Baking, Buttercream, cake, Cake Balls, Cake Pops, Cakes, Dessert Table, DIY, Life, Parties, Pinterest, Sweets

A few months ago my half-sister approached me and asked me to help her with her son and daughter-in-law’s baby shower. If you have been following my blog you know that she had me by the time she announced that it would be a pink Hello Kitty baby shower. I helped her out by doing the dessert table for her.

I began a baking a week before the baby shower because I’ve learned from previous parties that sugar cookies work better with royal icing when they are completely dry. I used Sugarbelle’s recipe for sugar cookies because I’ve always had good results with it.

Once completely dried I placed the cookies in cellophane bags and I added pink ribbon that I already had.

I worked on the Hello Kitty cake the day of the baby shower. I baked a Hershey’s chocolate cake and frosted it with a buttercream frosting. I use the Hello Kitty cake pan mold and I loved how the cake turned out.

My mom loves chocolate covered pretzels so I had to include those in the dessert table. I purchased the pink baskets at the Dollar Tree and the Hello Kitty in front of the baskets are actually stickers placed over cardstock.

Another must have item in any dessert table are chocolate covered Oreos which I love.

I made the same type of sign I did for my daughter’s 1st birthday dessert table.

The sign says:

The dessert table will be open after Dinner!

Please use the tongs, chose what you like!

Leave some for others, Please be polite!

Here’s the final dessert table. I baked brownies, cake pops, cake balls, brownie bites, and cupcakes. I used Billy Vanilla, Vanilla recipe for half of the cupcakes. My niece and sister decorated the background.

I hope you guys enjoyed the dessert table I created for baby Natalie. I’m glad to say that last week my nephew and his wife had a healthy little girl.

DIY: Mickey and Minnie Mouse Gumball Machines

Birthdays, Disney, DIY, Life, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Parties, Uncategorized

Update: Thanks for stopping by and checking out out the centerpieces I made for my daughter’s 1st birthday!

One of the cutest projects I did for my daughter’s 1st birthday party was the Mickey & Minnie Gumball Machines. I received so many compliments from this project and it was pretty easy to make. I followed Damaris’ directions on how to make these colorful centerpieces and they turned out super cute. For complete directions on how to make these please go HERE. Please enjoy the photos I took of the process.

Tips:

I filled the gumball machines with candy from the Dollar Tree.

This project is easy but be aware that it requires a lot of time to dry.

Be prepared to get glitter everywhere!

White buttons- Michael’s.

Door Knobs for lids- Ikea.

Minnie Bow- Fabric Barn.

Fish bowls- The Dollar Tree

The remaining supplies – Moskatels

Here’s a few answers to the questions I have been asked:

I used Mod Podge to seal the paint.
The bowls are 6 inches you know the kind you can find at any dollar store.
I’m not sure how much I spent on the materials but most of the supplies can now be fond at any dollar store.
I glued the bowls to the pot with E6000 glue.

Feel free to ask me any questions. I will add the answers on here. Thank you once again for stopping by.

DIY: Mickey Mouse Cutlery

Birthdays, Disney, DIY, Life, Mickey Mouse, Parties, Planning, Uncategorized

Now that the party is finally over I’m ready to post some of the DIY projects I did for my little Buttercup’s birthday. This is one of the first DIY projects I tackled. I was inspired by this photo from Catch My Party.

Supplies Needed:

Cutlery (Knives, forks, and spoons) -> I got these from the Dollar Tree
Napkins -> I used red and yellow ones from the Dollar Tree
Strips of decorative card-stock or ribbon -> I bought the polka dot paper at Michaels when it went on sale
Mickey hands or face -> I used a Cricut Expressions and the Mickey & Friends cartridge to create these
Glue tape or something sticky

(Sweets and Life) DIY: Mickey Mouse Cutlery

If you have a Cricut it’s very easy to make but if you don’t just do a simple Google search and you’ll come across a ton of different templates.

Once you have your supplies you can begin to put everything together. Place your cutlery one on top of each other. I put the knife on the bottom followed by the fork and the spoon. Roll the napkin on top of the cutlery and lay it flat.

Take your decorative card stock or ribbon and wrap it around the napkin. I put a strip of glue tape on the very end to hold it together. I used the same type of glue to put the Mickey Mouse glove on the polka dot paper. Now there you have it all completed. I did about 100 settings with different types of napkin and cutler combinations. You can use this same method with ribbon and using your glue gun to hold it together. I’ve always thought that it was the little things that make parties memorable.

Life: A Hello Kitty Birthday Party

Baking, Banana, Birthdays, Buttercream, cake, Cake Balls, Cake Pops, Cakes, Dessert Table, DIY, Food, Fun, Garment District, Kids, Life, Parties, Pinterest, Pinterest Inspiration, Re-cap

Last weekend we celebrated our little goddaughter’s 7th birthday. She had never had a party and we couldn’t be happier to be able to do it for her. We decided early on to make it a surprise party and we didn’t tell anyone in the Hubby’s side of the family. We were hoping to have a beautiful sunny Southern California day but unfortunately it was extremely cold. It was so cold I had to bring out blankets for everyone to use. I know that if my family from Kansas is reading this they will laugh at us but give me a break 50 °F is cold to us. If you follow me on Twitter or on Instagram you know that I got a cold the day after Thanksgiving. I wasn’t planning on getting sick and as a result I didn’t have time to finish up some projects I had planned to do. Without further ado here’s the small party we had for our little goddaughter.

Birthday banner: Party City.

Hello Kitty hats: I added the Hello Kitty faces to hats from Target using my friend’s Cricut cartridge.

Hello Kitty water: I got the idea from here.

Hello Kitty cotton candy: I bought it at the 99 cent only store.

Hello Kitty marshmallows: I bought them at Daiso Japan.

Banana pudding recipe: Here

Cake and candle: Ralphs

Hello Kitty cake pops: Bakerella

Hello Kitty Piñata: Our local hispanic water store

I hope you enjoyed the little party we threw for our sweet goddaughter. It was a lot of work but it was well worth it. One thing I learned during this party was that if I’m hosting I don’t have time to take pictures.

Life: My cousin is married!!

DIY, Family, Photographers, Photography, Photos, Wedding

Remember how excited I was when I found out that my little cousin was engaged? Their wedding has come and gone and I’m barely getting around to posting about it. I was so giddy to see all the DIY projects that they had been working on throughout the year finally being put together. My cousin’s wedding can only be described as beautiful and I’m sad to say that we didn’t stay to see everything lit up at night. The wedding took place in June when my little Buttercup was about 5 months old and she was absolutely miserable. She cried in the mass as soon as the mariachi began playing and she was bawling so much during the reception that we decided to leave early. We missed EVERYTHING! I know what you’re thinking first world problems but please keep in mind that my cousin is more like a brother to me and I was devastated. We missed the first dance, the bouquet toss, the money dance, and all the fun things that come with the wedding. With that being said I now leave you with a ton of photos I took before we left the wedding.

Did you guys catch all those DIY elements? My cousin, his wife, and a lot of family members out did themselves with all the DIY details. Everything that is wood is DIY from the cake stand to the centerpiece holders. My little cousin did the leather initials in the favors and my aunts sent cookies from Mexico. I didn’t take a photo of the invitation but they too were handmade by my twin cousins. The veil was handmade by one of my cousin’s aunt and her friend. If you want to see the rest of my cousin’s wedding please check out their amazing photographer Valentina Glidden. Seriously go check out Valentina’s beautiful work. I’m totally smitten with the photos she took of my cousin and his new wife.

Venue: Heritage Museum of Orange County

Photographer: Valentina Glidden

Dress: Mon Amie Bridal Salon

Rubber Ducky You’re the One…

Baking, DIY, Sweets

..making chocolate so much fun. Okay so that might not be the right words but this past week they made my cupcakes absolutely adorable. My cousin’s are both pregnant and our family decided to throw them a joint baby shower two weeks ago.

I love baking so I decided to bake something special for them. I made vanilla cupcakes with baby blue butter cream icing.

The design I was going for did not come out right since I never took into account how hot and humid it was going to be that weekend. Let me just say that my adorable duckies that were supposed to bring the design together became nothing but pool of chocolate and icing. Complete and utter failure but still delicious.

The duckies were easy to make and if I can make them in my first attempt you can too. You will need to purchase a candy mold, candy melts, oil base food coloring for added color, and something to stir them with. Once you have your materials then you’re ready to begin. Follow the directions on the mold. Clean the mold. Dry it. Melt the candy melts in the microwave (or in my case melt the chocolate in a double broiler). Pour the melted chocolate into the molds and let it set in the refrigerator. So those were basically the instructions that came with the mold. What I learned along the way was that if you work with chocolate you need to have a candy thermometer handy. It turns out that chocolate is sensitive and one needs to learn how to temper it correctly. Since I used Ghirardelli chocolate for my duckies I found it useful to read what they had to say about melting it correctly. Let me just tell you that I found it easier to work with white chocolate rather than milk chocolate. To get the different colors on the duckies I mixed the colors in a separate bowl and added them first to the mold then on top of those colors I added the color yellow. I used a long pick but you can use special brushes they have at the craft store for this specific task. It was so easy to make especially if you have a microwave where you can melt the candy and then just pour. I hope you guys have fun making your own designs.

I really enjoyed making these and I can’t wait to try other molds. Next time I’ll make sure to check the weather report before hand.

Have you guys ever worked with chocolate before or attempted anything with candy molds?

Happy 4th of July!!!

Baking, DIY, Sweets

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!! I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend. I will have an upcoming post on these adorable duckies…

….and Now Table Numbers! Pt 2

DIY, Table Numbers, Technology, Wedding

Okay like I’ve previously mentioned we decided to go with the photo and number combo for our table numbers. I just couldn’t help myself but the tricky part was trying to figure out how to add the numbers on there. If you’ve been following my journey you must know that I’m a trial and error kind of girl. I first attempted to add the numbers using acrylic paint, then I moved on to playing with the paint program on my pc, followed by going to the store and looking for vinyl numbers, and after much frustration I went back and realized that the individuals before me that had done such a task used Adobe Photoshop. The problem was that I didn’t and still don’t own the program so to get around my little problem I downloaded the FREE 30 days trial.

So, here is what I did for those of you that don’t have time to experiment with it but remember that I’m not a professional and I’ve only had the program for 3 days.

First go to file and open the file where your photo is kept in. Once you click on it the photo should be right in front of you.

Then go to “layer” and add a new layer. Click okay. Then go to the text icon (that’s the one with the capital T on the left hand side). Click where you want to add the number at and play around with the font and size until you get what you want.

To add dimension to our numbers I clicked on the different “styles” on the right hand side. I used the one that made the numbers 3 dimensional.

Once I did that I went into “layer” section and in the “layer style” I added “drop shadow”, “bevel and emboss”, I changed the “color overlay”, and I also changed the “gradient overlay”. After all that is done this is my final product.

In my first attempt I made the numbers orange but thanks to my HBoO help I changed it.

Before:

After:
Here are our table numbers:

I added orange card stock that I had on hand and glued them to a white canvas I had cut down to fit the easels. The photos are 5×7 and I love how they look on the easels. I’m glad we went with the blue ink since it pops out and catches your attention.

Once I finished all the numbers I uploaded them to Costco Photo Center and for $5.99 I had all my table numbers. Oh and for those of you who are wondering I bought the easels at the Art Supply Warehouse for $1. 89 each.

So what do you think of my table numbers?

I’ve been so busy…

DIY, Flowers, Wedding

I’m trying to finish up some project before the big day and haven’t had time to blog about anything lately which is terrible since I have so much to share with you guys. I do plan on telling you about my diy centerpieces, my escort cards, my seating chart and final guest list. I hope that in the next couple of weeks I can share more details. Until then I leave you with a couple of photos of our trip to the L.A. Flower District.

Are you DIY your centerpieces? If you are where are you getting your flowers? Have you ever visited the LA Flower District? Do you have any advice to me if you’ve visited the L.A. Flower Distict?