Easy ways to dress up your Holiday Cakes!

For the Winter Issue of Bird's Party Magazine, I shared some simple ways to dress up your holiday cakes!

No matter the size or theme of your gathering, nothing dresses up a holiday table like a gorgeous cake! The holidays are the perfect time to add some glitzy sparkly drama to your dessert with a few products that you can find at your local craft and party supply store.

Use a homemade or a plain cake from your favorite bakery and add these decorating supplies:
-Wilton Color Mist Spray in silver, gold and pearl
-Wilton White Sparkling Sugar
-Sixlets candy in white and black
-Lindt White Chocolate Truffles
-number candles
-optional: pinecone floral pick

If you are planning a winter themed party, this snowy cake is sure to add some sparkle to your festivities! Start with a cake frosted white and stack white chocolate truffles on top (to resemble a pile of snowballs). You can use a bit of frosting to adhere them together if needed. Next, cover the entire cake, including the truffles, with the Wilton Pearl spray. Finally, sprinkle white sparkling sugar over the entire cake for some extra sparkle.

If you want to add some GLAM to your dessert table, use the Wilton Gold spray. Frost your cake simply in a rustic style and then completely cover with the spray. Top your cake with a festive pinecone floral pick or use some seasonal fruit if you prefer. If using a glittery floral pick as shown, be sure to completely seal it with a clear food safe sealer to keep glitter from getting on your cake.

To ring in the New Year in sweet style, serve this fun and festive cake! Use the Wilton silver spray to completely cover your cake and then use black and white candy Sixlets to create a fun border. For the 2013 topper, use birthday candles and trim off the wicks. If you can’t find the candles in colors you like, use additional edible spray to color them to your liking.

 For more holiday entertaining ideas, be sure to check out the Winter Issue of Bird's Party Magazine. 

Photography by Wendy Updegraff Photography

Valentine's Day Parties {Round up}

I decided to keep things simple for Valentine's Day this year and am planning on a "sweet heart" breakfast for my girls instead of a party. But I wanted to share a few of the pretty Valentine's Day celebrations done by my sweet Piggy Bank Parties crew members...

Mariah of Giggles Galore always puts together the sweetest parties and her Valentine's Day Kissing Booth Party is no exception! Check out all the adorable details over at Giggles Galore!

You can always count on Cineca of Dreamin' N Details to rock the cute details of any event. Her Valentine's Rustic Love party does just that! So many sweet details & I especially love that frame backdrop!

I love that Aimee of Aimee Broussard Events created a special Valentine's Breakfast for her sweetie! Don't miss the beautiful personalized placemats that she "whipped up"...they are super FAB!

Mayra of In Flight captured the soft romantic aspect of Valentine's Day with her Vintage Valentine Blush inspiration shoot! I really love that she shows how easy it is to take a beautiful romantic theme and also make it kid friendly!

I work with such a talented crew of creative minds and we recently collaborated on a Vintage Valentines Inspiration shoot! In addition to the fabulous ladies mentioned above, the collaboration also featured projects from Do & J Driver (the creative force behind Piggy Bank Parties), Tara the Shindig Diva, Jenny of Crossing the Bugger-Dixon Line, Dorothy of Life is Sweet in Michigan and me! The crew was also joined by two fabulous sponsors...Lynlee's Petite Cakes and Sweet Temptations! We had so many fabulous ideas that they had to be split into two posts...check them out...Vintage Valentine's Inspiration!

I hope you enjoy a Valentine's Day full of LOVE!

Friday's Fabulous Five {Kids' Valentines}

Friday's FABULOUS FIVE is baaaaack! 

Happy Friday!

My kindergartner is all excited to hand out Valentine Treats this year so I've been rounding up some cute ideas! Here's FIVE fun treats for the school kid crowd...

Now at our school, sweets are not allowed so this "non sweet" Valentine from Disney's Family Fun is perfect! Plus it encourages kids to write...something the teacher will appreciate!

Another great "non-sweet" Valentine is also perfect for the boys! This fun one from The Crafting Chicks also includes the {free printable}!

But if you are looking for some sweet Valentine treats, I'm in LOVE with this fun Fortune Cookie Valentine from Martha Stewart. The cookies are felt but the treats are real!

For some cool rockin' Valentines, I love this Pop Rocks idea from A Small Snippet! She has also provided the {free} printable tag as well!

And finally, I adore this next idea that uses a picture of your child. Not only would this idea from Funky Polkadot Giraffe make a fun class Valentine, but it would be pretty cool for the grandparents as well!

So there you have FIVE FABULOUS Valentine ideas for the kids! 

I hope you have an awesome weekend!

Giving Thanks

Happy Friday! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday full of family, friends & lots of yummy food! I certainly did and am sharing a few pictures from our day...

I used turquoise, gold, cream & some burlap for my colors. I spray painted two deeply discounted pumpkins for my table.

My little pilgrims from Publix (a grocery store) will always be on my Thanksgiving table!

I made simple place cards from leaves we collected and burlap, tied with a ribbon.

Some Dollar Tree vases filled with inexpensive carnations and decorated with burlap and ribbon were part of the centerpieces. I used extra leaves to fill in the table as well.

The kids had their own table. I covered in with brown kraft paper, paper plates & cups and used free printables from Shindig Parties to Go to decorate them. 

I made each of the girls' a feather headband.

I realize I took NO pictures of all the food we made (and there were LOTS), but I remembered to take picture of (most) of the desserts ;)


Like these DELICIOUS Bailey's Trifles...

Turkey cookie pops for the kiddies...

The birthday cake for Grandma, which was a pumpkin cake with Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue & candied pecans...

Mini pumpkin pies were a big hit!

But of course, though I loved the decorations, the food & the sweets...the best part of the day was spending time with my family!

My beautiful girls...my oldest daughter (left) and my Goddaughter...my youngest refused to both wear her headband and be in the picture!

But none of it would be possible without the loving help of my best friend...my incredibly wonderful husband!

And now that Thanksgiving is over...

time to get my Christmas on!

Wishing you all a FABULOUS WEEKEND!

My Thanksgiving Menu

With 9 days left before Thanksgiving, I finally finalized my menu! I thought I would simplify things this year and maybe serve a few less dishes, but who was I kidding??? I didn't have the heart to cut down the menu. So here is my Thanksgiving Menu...for 10 adults and 3 sweet little girls! 

First Course

Antipasto: My husband's family is Italian and every get together always includes this yummy collection of meats, cheeses, artichokes, peppers & olives. 

Image from www.saraskitchen.blogspot.com

Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots: I knew I had to make these as soon as I saw them on a bacon party featured at Piggy Bank Parties. I found the recipe on Recipe Girl.

Deviled Eggs: I make a pretty traditional southern-style deviled egg with the addition of some bacon...because bacon makes everything better!

Photo from FoodNetwork.com

Salad: To make us feel better about all the carbs we are going to ingest.

Photo from FoodNetwork.com

Fruit Turkeys: I saw these and thought they would be fun for the kiddies at their table. This cute idea is from Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons.

Dinner

Turkey: What else???
I've made about 12 Thanksgiving dinners now and am hooked on dry-brining my turkey. Best JUICEST bird ever and I'll never prepare it any other way!! You can read all about this easy method here.

Photo from What'sCookingAmerica.net

Baked Sweet Potatoes: I'm so over the whole marshmallow concoction (sorry), so I thought I'd try this yummy recipe based on Ruth's Chris' recipe. The recipe is from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Twice-Baked Potato Casserole: Instead of mashed potatoes this year, I'm excited about this recipe from Paula Deen found on Food Folio. It's Paula...really...you know it's going to be good!

Baked Eggplant: This will be made by my Italian Mother-in-law. It is incredibly delicious and smothered in cheese and her own sauce (that's spaghetti sauce to you non-Italians).


Sausage & Apple Stuffing:It's been a few years since I've made this and I couldn't find my recipe. But this one from Good House Keeping sounds pretty delish!

Green Bean & Artichoke Casserole: I'm not too keen on the fried onion & soup version of the green bean casserole. But I love this recipe I found a few years ago on Allrecipes.com. It reminds me of stuffed artichokes and everyone always gobbles it up!

Cranberry Sauce: Before I met my husband, I used to make this fancy shmancy cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries and Grand Marnier and it was delicious! After I got married, my husband informed that the only cranberry sauce he was interested in made a schloooop sound when you poured it out of the can and has ring marks on it. So now Oceanspray handles our cranberry needs!

Thankful Rolls: I always want everyone to say what they are thankful for (ummm...it IS Thanksgiving after all) and I try to come up with new ways to do it every year. This year, I'm in love with this idea from The Girl Who Ate Everything! You bake notes in the rolls and everyone reads & completes them throughout the meal...fun!

Dessert:

My favorite part of any meal!

Flan:My family is Cuban and like any other Latin American family, flan is a staple at every gathering. My brother has mastered my mother's recipe and so this year he is charge!

Mini Pumpkin Pies: I wanted to try something new this year, but knew I couldn't stray too far from pumpkin pie. So I'm making these mini pumpkin pies found on Makes and Takes! They are made in a cupcake pan and perfectly sized for individual portions...plus they are cute!

Pumpkin Cake:
On Thanksgiving we will also be celebrating my father's and my mother-in-law's birthday, so a cake is in order. I thought this Pumpkin Spice Cake from Joy of Baking would be perfect. But instead of the cream cheese frosting, I'll be making this Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Swiss Buttercream from Sweetapolita!

I also wanted to make something fun & cute for the little ones. These easy Turkey Cookie Pops are adorable!

That is it! Whew!!! Writing all that down made me realize I have my work cut out for me. Time to make my shopping lists and my time-lines to get this all done!

I hope you are ready for your delicious feast and find the moment to give thanks for all your blessings! Oh and don't forget to wear pants with some elastic in them ;)

GOBBLE GOBBLE!!

Friday's Fabulous Five {Back to School}

Next week my sweet baby girl heads off to Kindergarten! I seriously cannot believe it is happening and now truly understand what they mean when they say "in the blink of an eye". I blinked and now my baby is leaving...

But luckily, there are all kinds of inspiring ideas out there to help make heading to school the memorable and fun event it should be! I'll still be crying thank you very much...but I'll still manage to make the first day special :)

Here's Five Fabulous Ideas to celebrate your child's first day of school!

I LOVE the idea of taking a picture of your child every year on the first day of school. But I love the idea of having a ready made sign for them to hold even more! You can find these cute ones at I {heart} Nap Time for every grade.

A first day photo is a fab idea most definitely, but how about capturing what's inside their little heads too? I love the idea of editing your photo to include your child's faves! This idea and photo is courtesy of Zoot.

I've seen many printable lunch box notes out there, but I really want to be able to share my own sentiments with my daughter. That's why I love these lunchbox notes from Picklebums. They are super cute, but leave room to write something more personal!

This next idea isn't actually a "First Day" idea, but still a great "Back to School" one! Since I'm am completely new to the whole school routine, I know I'm going to need some ideas to help keep us organized. And if it can be cute too, then I'm all for it! How adorable (yet practical) are these Dry Erase Clipboards found on Design Dazzle? 

Finally, you might want to start your relationship with the new teacher off on the right foot...say with something a little sweet? It can't hurt right? ;) Love this cute "Smart Cookie" idea from the girls at eighteen25. Head over there for the free printable to make your own!

Five Fabulous ideas to start your school year off right! I hope it's a great one for you and your kids and I hope all the 1st time mommies like myself have a box of tissues handy. 

Have a FABULOUS WEEKEND!