{Giveaway} Winner of Marit Erickson Jewelry Design Earrings!

Congratulations to comment #3, Gail
Thank you to everyone who blogged, Facebooked and entered this giveaway. And, of course, a HUGE thank you to Marit of Marit Erickson Jewelry Design for the beautiful earrings.

Halloween Happy Birthday

What could be more fun then a Birthday with a Halloween theme! Happy October! I decided to do a write up on hosting a Halloween birthday party since I attended one this past weekend and found out that one of my followers used her EEAD Halloween giveaway items at her daughter's Halloween birthday!

This is such a great theme since there are so many great Halloween party ideas for all age groups. For young kids you can focus on fun, festive aspects of the holiday like candy, fun music, and costumes. For older kids you can move more into spooky and creepy with scary movies, evil monsters and villans. For adults you can go with a haunted elegance. For this post I'm going to explore ideas for the younger age bracket. I hope they help give someone ideas for their own festive birthday party!

Food & Recipes

Martha Stewart's Deviled EggsSimple and yummy, even my husband didn't mind making these for a party.


Martha Stewart's Orange Jack-o'-LanternsLove this idea! Martha suggests sorbet but you can use them to hold any yummy concoction. The birthday party we went to this weekend filled them with fruit salad for the little ones.


Martha Stewart's I Scream Sandwitches


Martha Stewart's Candy Corn Sugar CookiesFestive and easy to make, especially if you buy some premade dough!


Witches fingers in dirtYou can't go wrong with chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos and gummy worms


Creepy Pasta BakeJust add crab legs, mushrooms, and quail eggs to your favorite baked pasta dish


Activity Ideas
1) Costumes
Family photos

Halloween backdrop photos

Or a costume parade!
2) Apple Bobbing

3) Pinata (filled with candy and/or toys)

4) Musical chairs with Halloween music

5) Mummy wrap race (with toilet paper)

6) Haunted house/maze - for smaller kids you can use card board boxes decorated and attached together
7) Pin the tail on the donkey with a Halloween image (nose on the witch, tail on the black cat, etc)


8) Face painting - this can go well with costumes or if someone shows up without a costume they can still feel part of the theme

9) Spider yarn web - get the kids in a circle and pass a ball of yarn around to form a web

Crafts
1) Coloring books or pages with Halloween themes
2) Pumpkin carving/decorating

3) Cookie decorating - pre-make sugar cookies in Halloween shapes and let the kids decorate them with icing, sprinkles, etc.
4) Felt decorating - pre-cut shapes for pumpkins, scarecrows, bats, cats, witches, etc and give the kids some glue

Real Parties
Sara over at Dandy Delights posted some pictures on her blog of her daughter's Halloween birthday party this past weekend. She took advantage of my Halloween giveaway and got herself some free cupcake toppers and goody bag tags to help decorate her dessert table. Look what a great job she did (and it was her first dessert table too)!





Oliver had his 1st birthday party at a park. His mom and dad did a great job of decorating fun and festive food for everyone as well as having lots of fun games and activities (parachute, pumpkin decorating, and coloring).

{Giveaway} Marit Erickson Jewelry Design - ENDED

Marit of Marit Erickson Jewelry Design is donating some beautiful earrings from her shop to one lucky reader of my blog. When I saw these I immediately thought of my "Spring has Sprung" collection and knew that this was the perfect giveaway to coincide with announcing it.

Happy Earrings


Handmade, one-of-a-kind pair of sterling silver and glass earrings. These happy earrings have a nice three-dimensional design to them, and measure approx 2.675" long. Green glass leaves dangle independently from behind the flowers. The silver "stems" are slightly distressed for texture.

Aren't they amazing! I love all the great metalwork in her designs. All of her designs are so unique I think they'd make a perfect bridesmaid gift! Check out this great mermaid pin.


So here is how to enter and win her beautiful Happy Earrings:

TO ENTER:
You MUST first be an EEAD Follower (click on the follow option on the right sidebar of this blog)! Then leave a comment on this post for EACH entry below that applies to you.

1. Be an EEAD follower.
2. Be an EEAD fan on Facebook.
3. Be a Marit Erickson Jewelry Design Facebook Fan.
4. Go to Marit's Etsy shop and come back and leave a comment saying what your favorite item is.
5. Share this giveaway on Facebook or blog about it!

Deadline to Enter: October 20, 2010.
Winner will be announced next Thursday, October 21, 2010.

{Product Line} Spring has Sprung!

I'm really excited about my new product line! It's overcast and gloomy in Los Angeles this morning so hopefully this line can brighten everyone's day. I think this is the perfect design for a sunny spring bride.

Spring has Sprung Collection


I was inspired by the standard cupcake topper design. They always reminded me of little flowers sticking up out of the cupcakes. I thought they would look so cute as escort "cards" all lined up on a registration table like a field of flowers. Each guest could find their name with the table number printed on it and "pluck" their flower to find their seat. There could even be a cute little holder at the tables for the guests to "replant" their flowers.

Escort Flowers

From this basic design I worked with the flower concept and came up with the rest of the items in the collection.

Save the Date


Invitation


Cupcake Toppers


Card Box


Table Numbers

For the favor tags I wanted to do something else a little different so I decided to make them double-sided! One side has a cute little thank you message to your guests and the other side has the couple's monogram.

Double-sided Favor Tags

I hope you all enjoy this collection as much as I do. Look for it in the EEAD Etsy shop soon or you can email me about it.

Come back tomorrow for an exciting jewelry giveaway!!! Marit of Marit Erickson Jewelry Design is giving me some beautiful earrings from her shop to one lucky reader of my blog. So stay tuned!

{Event Recap} The event that started it all

Six years ago today I threw my first big event (and married my wonderful husband).

Engagement Photo by Claude Laviano with Giselle Macfarlane Photography

It's not my most polished event because, after all, I'd never planned an event before. However, it's still my most memorable. Of course it is, it's my wedding!

I enjoy looking back and remembering all the little details and dwelling on the mistakes but as my first event it gave me a great starting point! I learned so much about planning, organizing and everything that makes up a wedding. I'll delve further into all these points in future posts, but for now I'll just share with you some of the details that made up the day.

Color! This was my main inspiration. Getting married in the fall I wanted to have some darker but also vivid colors to work with. I finally decided on Cranberry, Eggplant with touches of Gold. Every time someone asked me my colors I got this weird questioning look when I told them. Was I the only one who could envision this looking wonderful or was I completely crazy? I'll let you judge for yourselves, but I couldn't be happier with my bold contrasting colors.

The Invitation by Enchanted Events & Design


The Dress from Jobyna's Bridal


My Bridal Bouquet by Flora by Fauna


The Groom's Boutonniere by Flora by Fauna


The Programs by Enchanted Events & Design


The Ceremony


The Favors
Boxes of cookies and custom match boxes


Escort candles for each guest by Enchanted Events & Design


The Tables


Yum, The Cake by Jaqki's Cake Creations


The Head Table
With our Swarovski toasting flutes and my bridal bouquet

The Vendors
Cake: Jaqki's Cake Creations
Florist: Flora by Fauna
Hair & Makeup: Sherry with On Location Beauty
Location (ceremony/reception): Calamigos Equestrian
Paper products: Enchanted Events & Design
Photography: Claude Laviano with Giselle Macfarlane Photography
Wedding Dress: Jobyna's Bridal

{Guest Feature}Trick or Treat Table by Gwynn Wasson Designs

Here it is (even earlier than I promised), the amazing Halloween table design by Gwynn of Gwynn Wasson Designs. Check out the ghost cupcakes I made for her on the table (see the post below for a tutorial on how to make them)! Definitely stop by her site for more pictures and a second Halloween tablescape she put together. And the best part ... she's giving away both sets of her Halloween printables for free to anyone who follows her blog!!!

{Tutorial} Ghostly Cupcakes

So my good friend Gwynn over at Gwynn Wasson Designs asked me to make these ghost cupcakes for one of her Halloween tables (next week I'll share pictures of how she incorporated them into her amazing design). I was super excited to help her out! The original idea came from Martha Stewart. She has a tutorial on her site, but I modified it a bit to make the assembly a bit easier and of course added pictures.


Ingredients
1) 1 box of cake mix (flavor of choice)
2) Standard and small cupcake tins
3) 1 canister of frosting (flavor of choice)
4) 2 lbs of white fondant
5) Black fondant, or black icing coloring
6) Water and a small brush

Follow the instructions on the box of cake mix for baking cupcakes. Make an equal number of standard and small cupcakes. I use cupcake liners for my standard sized cupcakes so it's easier to handle them once assembled. I recommend baking them at 25 degrees less than the box recommends (so if the box recommends 350 degrees I'll set it to 325 degrees). This will require a longer baking time but the cupcakes will bake up flatter and more evenly.



Next I take one standard sized cupcake and one small cupcake and I cut the tops off of each one.


I then take the icing and spread a thick layer onto the top of each cupcake. I prefer to pipe my icing using a 12 or 2A tip, but spreading it on with a knife or spatula will work just as well.


Next turn the small cupcake upside down and place it on top of the standard size cupcake so that the two layers of icing are touching.


Then spread more icing over the small cupcake so that it's fully covered. Again you can pipe this or spread it with a knife.


You're now ready for the fondant! If you haven't used fondant before it's very easy. It's very similar to play dough in consistency. You can either make your own fondant or buy one premade like Wilton's. Premade is easier but more much expensive and in my opinion not as tasty as a homemade fondant. I prefer to make a homemade marshmallow fondant when I have the time (see below for the recipe).

Roll out your fondant with a rolling pin until you get your desired thickness (about 1/8"-1/4"). Then cut a 6" circle out. I used a 6" round cake board to get a perfect circle.



Once you have your circle of fondant, pick it up and drape it over the top of your cupcake tower. You can then arrange the bottom of the fondant into the soft folds of the ghost. If it's not long enough play with the edges a bit to thin out the fondant and create a bit more length.


Next, you will need a small amount of black fondant. If you didn't buy it premade you can make some by adding black icing coloring to the white fondant. I recommend wearing some gloves while kneading the color into the fondant unless you don't mind staining your hands. Start with a little coloring and add more as you knead it until you get the desired color.

Then, break off a tiny bit of the black fondant and roll it into a circle in your hands. Flatten it with a finger so you have a small disc of black fondant. Take your brush and dip it into the water and brush it onto the backside of the fondant disc. Place the disc onto the ghost where you'd like the mouth to be located. Repeat this step two more times for the eyes with slightly less fondant. You can also use chocolate covered sunflower seeds but these you should affix with royal icing and I think it's easier just to make some black fondant instead of a batch of royal icing. Plus with fondant you can get creative and make different shaped mouths and eyes!



Marshmallow Fondant
1 lb white mini marshmallows
2-5 tbsp water
2 lbs powdered sugar
½ cup vegetable shortening

Place marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the marshmallows on high for 30 seconds. Stir the mixture and microwave again on high for 30 seconds and stir again. Continue doing this until the mixture has melted, usually about 2½ minutes.

Place ¾ cup of the powdered sugar on top of the melted marshmallow mixture. Now generously grease your hands with the shortening (palms, backs of hand, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the marshmallow mixture onto it.

Knead the marshmallows as you would bread. Add the rest of the powdered sugar slowly and continue kneading the fondant. Re-grease your hands and counter as needed. If the mixture is tearing easily, it is too dry, so add ½ tablespoon of water at a time until it softens up. It usually takes about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball.

Double wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight.

Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of shortening, wrap in a plastic wrap or Ziploc bag.