{Event Recap} Zzzebra 33rd Birthday Slumber Party

Since my husband was scheduled to be out of town for my birthday weekend, I decided I would have a big girly celebration! I know kids' events are all the rave right now, but let's face it, we're all just big kids at heart! I think everyone of us deserves a big extravagant party. So I unleashed the party planner in me and became my own client.

A few months back I found some adorable zebra plates at the dollar store. I loved them and knew I had to get them for some future party. These fabulous plates became the beginning of my theme!


With zebra on the brain, I chose to pair it with a purple and green. I didn't want to throw the traditional hot pink and zebra party. I wanted a different color scheme that would be fun, funky and girly!

Having a color scheme and girly slumber party theme, I set off to design the invitation. Invitation designing is one of my favorite aspects of party planning. It's typically the first glimpse into the party that a guest will get and I think first impressions are so important! For the finishing touch I used a standard white outer envelope but added a zebra envelope liner.


As I started accumulating items for the party, I was having difficulty deciding what to do for the favor, without breaking the bank. I had lots of ideas but nothing affordable. Then, I struck gold! I LOVE the Target bargain bins! I always peruse them whenever I shop because they have so many amazing, little, affordable finds. I found purple and black damask boxes, eyemasks in both purple and a black and white stripe, purple and black damask pedicure sets, lipgloss and nail polishes! I cleaned out 3 Targets to assemble my favors.


Next, I contacted Rebekah over at A Blissful Nest to help me design the rest of my printables. I sent her my invite and she re-sized it all for the rest of the printables and added a cute little black band to the design.


Sandy of Sandy's Baking Memories (soon to be Firefly Confections) agreed to design some cookies for my dessert table. She was amazing to work with. We emailed back and forth to figure out the design, then she let me know as she completed each step of my cookies, including emailing me pictures! They turned out so cute! I love the ribbon she tied to it.

I also relied on a few of my friends to assist me with filling out the food and dessert table. I knew I wouldn't have time to make a cake for myself so I called up my friend, Fenella. She agreed to create the fabulous cupcakes I wanted and they were everything I imagined and more!


I continued to look high and low for items that would create a fun, youthful and yet elegant atmosphere for the party. I lucked out because Target is currently FILLED with zebra prints. I filled out the rest of my decor with items from Ikea and Michaels. My favorite new additions, however, came from the fabulous Layla Grayce. I won a gift card to their fabulous store from a giveaway on Kate Landers Events and got myself some beautiful new serving dishes and definitely put them to good use.

My guests’ ages ranged from early 20’s to early 40’s so I really wanted an event that would be fun and energetic for the younger crowd and nostalgic for the older girls. Keeping that in mind I tried to design each room with a slightly different mood. The first room was the lounge. This room had a dessert table, beauty bar and a big comfy couch with lots of floor pillows in front of a roaring fire.















Brownie Hugs


Cherry Bon Bon Cookies


Grape Rock Candy


Cake Pops
(both had yellow cake but the purple was dark chocolate frosting
and the green was buttercream frosting)


Chocolate Covered Zebra Cookies (tutorial)
with Regular and Chocolate Milk


Candy Jars

Next was the game room. In this room I had "Dance, Dance Revolution" and "Guitar Hero" set up and ready to be played.



I also set up the snack and drink tables and displayed the favors.




Sangria, Apple Vodka in an ice sleeve and Scooby Snacks in ice shot glasses


Grape and Lime Jello Shots


Purple People Eaters and Apple Martinis



The final rooms were a make your own pizza station I set up in the kitchen and the dinning room, which was set with chargers so people could sit and eat as they finished assembling their pizzas.







Of course my favorite part by far was spending the
evening with some AMAZING friends and family!






Enchanted Events & Design: party styling, photography, printables
A Blissful Nest: Collaborated in designing the table printables and door sign
Firefly Confections: Eye mask sugar cookies
Fenella Higgins: Cupcakes

{Giveaway} #1 - Free Zzzebra Printables! - ENDED

Yay! My 33rd Birthday slumber party was posted on Pizzazzerie today! I'm hosting two giveaways in celebration of being on this wonderful site. For the first giveaway I'm giving away a FREE copy of the following printables, which I designed with assistance from the lovely Rebekah of A Blissful Nest, to all of my blog followers!








If you'd like a copy of these for you to print at home just leave a comment with your email address or send me an email (info@eeadesign.com). You must first be a public follower of this blog to receive the file so make sure you include your blogger name when you email me! You will then receive 3 PDF files with all of the files above.

If you like these printables, but prefer not to make them yourself please stop by the EEAD Etsy store and have them customized and made for you!

If you send a request and don't receive your files within 48 hours please check your spam folder. If you still don't have the email please let me know so I can make sure it gets to you. Enjoy!!!

This giveaway ends on February 14, 2011 February 17, 2011 (extended)!

And stay tuned for a full post on this blog about the slumber party and a tutorial on how to make the zebra cookies!

{Giveaway} #2 - Win a Zzzebra Birthday Favor - ENDED

The second giveaway I'm hosting, for the premier of my Zzzebra Birthday Slumber Party, are two of the favors from the party! Two entrants will each win one of the favors which include:

1x Purple and black damask favor box
1x Purple and black damask pedicure set
1x Lip gloss
1x Nail polish
1x "Beauty sleep" eye mask



TO ENTER:
You MUST first be an EEAD Blog Follower (click on the follow option on the right sidebar of this blog to join)! Then leave a comment on this post for EACH entry below that applies to you (up to 3 comments/entries possible). If you only leave one comment you will only get one entry into the contest. If you want to enter more than once please leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Leave a comment if you're an EEAD blog follower.
2. Leave a 2nd comment if you're an EEAD fan on Facebook.
3. Leave a 3rd comment if you share this giveaway on Facebook or blog about it!

Deadline to Enter: February 14, 2011.
Winner will be announced next Wednesday, December 15th, 2011.
Unfortunately, this giveaway is only open to US residents.

{Event Recap} Studio E Showcase

I'm sorry for the long wait between posts lately. I try very hard to get at least one post up a week. I've been so busy lately with events and orders that the blog has gotten a bit behind. This week should be a bit more exciting as I have several posts coming up, including two more GIVEAWAYS!

To start the week off I wanted to share with you one of my recent events, the Studio E Showcase table! I was very excited to work on this table because Studio E is run by one of my most favorite people in the whole world, Dina Buglione. Studio E is an intensive acting workshop. Members of Studio E are serious, dedicated actors who are looking to develop their skills and further their careers in entertainment.

There are two showcases for which I got hired to design tables. Yesterday, was the parent showcase and on Wednesday will be the showcase for industry professionals. I loved the instructions Dina gave me for the table design, "Design whatever you want!" What an amazing client! I decided on a "Shooting Star" theme and here is how the final table looked all set up.


The few requirements Dina gave me was to have enough food for 70 people and to include a donation jar for Studio E. Because the showcase was in the morning I chose to serve breakfast style appetizers: swirl loaves, green chile corn muffins, mini cinnamon rolls, pigs in a blanket, bagels and cream cheese, and cream puff pastries.



The drinks were water bottles with customized labels and coffee, tea and hot chocolate served in cups with a Studio E sticker.



The table was a huge hit! When the show started all the parents filed into the theater to watch the performances and the kids swarmed the food table while they awaited their turn on stage. I heard a lot of comments, especially from the kids, such as, "Oooh, this is heaven!" That makes all the hard work so worth it!



Here are a few more photos for you all to enjoy.


If anyone is interested in learning more about Studio E ...
Studio E Blog
Studio E Facebook Page

{Giveaway} 200 Facebook Fans! - ENDED

This is a thank you post to all of my Facebook fans. With their help, I finally hit and passed 200 fans. As promised I'm going to give something away to celebrate. I thought a cute little Valentine's Day note card would be appropriate since the big day is only two and a half weeks away.



If you'd like me to email you a file of this image for you to print at home just leave a comment with your email address or send me an email (info@eeadesign.com). You must first be a follower of this blog OR a Facebook fan to receive the file so make sure you include your blogger or Facebook name when you email me!

This giveaway ends on February 11, 2011.

{Inspiration Board} Bumble Bee Birthday

I'm excitedly working on a bumble bee birthday party for a sweet, soon-to-be two year old girl, Samarra. I've been bouncing ideas back and forth with her mother until she stumbled upon an adorable bumble bee cake (#6 in the inspiration board below). The inspiration exploded from there and I found so many amazing ideas from just a little research. I created this invitation for her that I wanted to share with all of you (look for it shortly in my Etsy shop).


I'm going to be focusing on a soft yellow, white and light green with small accents of black to keep it light and girly. Here is the inspiration board I created to get the feel for the overall theme:


1. Cookie pops by Ava Cakes
2. Bee cookies by Etsy shop Baked
3. Zazzle Bee Invitations
4. Bee hive drink dispenser sold at Pier 1 Imports
5. Bumble Bee Tutu by Etsy shop ChristiCreations
6. Bumble bee cake by Cake Chester. This is the image that inspired the theme!
7. Bee truffles from a party styled by Bella Fiore Decor posted on TomKat Studio's blog
8. Bumble bee tag by TomKat Studio
9. Drink printables by WH Hostess
10. Favors from a party styled by Bella Fiore Decor posted on TomKat Studio's blog
11. Lollipops from a party styled by Bella Fiore Decor posted on TomKat Studio's blog
12. Utensil wraps styled by A To Zebra Celebrations
13. Bee invitation by Etsy shop TomKat Studios
14. Ribbon chairs styled by WH Hostess
15. Bee invitation by WH Hostess
16. Bee cake table created by A To Zebra Celebrations
17. Table styled by Scissors Paper Cake and posted on Imprintables
18. Bee hive balloons from Coolest Kid Birthday Parties
19. Yellow Jell-o Centerpiece from Rachael Ray
20. Bumble Bee Shaped Edible Hard Sugar Decorations by Paradise Cupcakes on Amazon
21. Sign for hand crafted bee antennae by A To Zebra Celebrations
22. Vases styled by WH Hostess

One last Christmas post!

So I shared with you my Christmas table design back in December in my Reuse, Recycle, Revamp Your Holiday Table post. However, by the time Christmas morning rolled around the design had took on a few changes that I wanted to share with all of you.

One of the biggest changes I made was because everyone who joins us for our Christmas breakfast is a couple I try and pick out at least two ornaments as the place cards so that each couple will get two different ornaments to bring home with them. This year I chose four different ornaments in complementing colors (black, blue, silver and white).

I also changed the centerpiece design because Santa brought me a new one to use on Christmas morning! I think I might just ask Santa to bring me table decor every year now. I also bought fresh flowers.

And of course the other change was that this table actually had food on it!

I made all of the dishes from my Williams-Sonoma Breakfast cookbook.

-Eggs Benedict
-Roasted Tomatoes
-Red Flannel Hash

A Girl in a Chair Soiree

So here is my very belated recap of "A Girl in a Chair Soiree" event that was put on back in November at Rancho Las Lomas by Your Wedding Day Magazine. Unfortunately, the holidays took over and I never got a chance to do a write up on this event.


This event brought the guests behind the scenes to view the magazine's photo sets for the next issue. The sets were highlighting new trends of 2011 fashion, editorial and decor. It was really exciting to see everything live and in person. The photos always look so beautiful laid out in the magazine, but it really brought a whole new level of understanding of the design with this experience. Being able to walk up to the tables and dresses, traverse the space and seeing all of the details from every angle was a real treat.

Each of the sets focused on a different wedding destination. The design was meant to embody that location and the new trends for 2011 of each of the areas.

Team 1: Wedding Jeannie, French Buckets, Glow Concepts Fine Linens, Duke Photography, Tange Designs, and Superfine Bakery
Location: Mexico
Inspiration: wood, leather, succulents and lace

Team 2: Crown Weddings, Karen Tran Florals, Simply Posh Design, Sweet Cheeks Baking Company, and Caroline Tran Photographer
Location: Hawaii
Inspiration: tropical

Team 3: jesi haack weddings, found, Inviting Occasion, Paper and Thread, Studio EMP Inc., and My Sweet and Saucy
Location: San Francisco
Inspiration: Urban

Team 4: Unique Elegance, Tic-Tock Couture Florals, Gourmet Invitations, Superfine Bakery, and Raise the Cake
Location: Vegas
Inspiration: Glamourous va-...va-voom

I'm looking forward to getting the "Your Wedding Day" issue with this photo shoot to see how the designs translate into two dimensional images. Of course no photography was allowed on the sets so I can't share any of the images with you.

The event itself was put on by LVL Events and Hitching Post Public Relations, catered by 24 Carrots and held at the beautiful Rancho Las Lomas in Silverado, California. I've run an event out of this location before so it was wonderful to get an opportunity to return and just enjoy the site.

Now I'll delve a little bit into the event's catering. There were passed appetizers throughout the evening and I think I was able to catch most if not all of the options available. I have to say the food was definitely enjoyable. Here are the items I was able to sample.

Shrimp on a White Bean Crostini - I wasn't able to get a picture of this item but it was tasty and easy to eat while standing.

Chicken Noodles

I loved the presentation of this item. The take-out box made it easy to carry around without spilling anything. It was also pretty tasty.

Mashed Potatoes with Beef

This was my favorite dish! The beef was cooked really nicely and it looked very appetizing on the plate.

Fish served over a Rice Cake

This was my least favorite dish. It looked nice but I found it to be bland. It needed a bit more seasoning.

Lobster Tamale Martini and a my self-served coffee

I wasn't impressed with the Martini. I loved its presentation, but taste is what's important with food. It wasn't bad, but the flavors didn't stand out. I did enjoy the coffee bar. There were a lot of options for customizing your drink and I enjoyed my cup.

BBQ Pork Slider

This dish was difficult to find. It was being snatched up every time I saw it. I'm a huge fan of sliders and Hawaiian sweet rolls so this got a plus in my book. Again it could have used a little bit more flavor in the sauce to really make it stand out but it was an enjoyable bite.

I really enjoyed the night and got to meet quite a few new event professionals. Although the one negative detail that I noted from the night (and overheard quite a few other guests mentioning) was the table linens. They were beautiful (as you can see from the food photos) with lots of beading detail. The beading, however, made it very difficult to set down a drink glass. The uneven surface kept encouraging the glasses to tip over. So if you're dead set on using a beautiful beaded linen for a cocktail table I suggest adding a glass topper to show off the detail while still giving your guests the convenience of a flat surface on which to set their drinks.

Me and Jami (one of my best friends) at the end of the night