DIY Christmas Gifts

With Christmas only a few weeks away, you might be wondering how you can thank the many special people in your life without blowing your budget...  Personally, I love baking for my daughters' teachers and coaches. I mean, who doesn't like Christmas cookies?  So, I came up with this unique way to present my cookies. If you wanted, you could add a gift card to a favorite coffee shop or book store...

I found most of my supplies for this project at orientaltrading.com

These cute, wooden trays can be left plain or painted any way you'd like. I'm a lover of everything chalkboard, so the choice was easy for me. 

First I spray painted my trays gold, and once that dried, I painted them with 2 coats of chalkboard paint.

While the paint was drying, I started my baking. I've made cookies similar to these in the past using a gingerbread boy cutter turned upside down. That works fine, but I spotted this letter A cutter and knew it would be even better. I hand cut the antlers out of rolled fondant, but you can get creative if you're short on time...food writers would work great if you wanted to draw on some antlers, broken pretzels would work, licorice strings...you get the idea! 

So here's the cuties all wrapped up and ready to be gifted. As far as DIY gifts go, this one is both easy and reasonable. You can even customize it by writing the teacher's name on it. 

Have fun baking and crafting, and Merry Christmas!!!❤️

*The trays, chalkboard paint, mason jars, red chocolate candies, red striped straws, gift bags, twine, and candy jar (that I turned into a snow globe of sorts) can all be found at Oriental Trading.

I received items from Oriental Trading. The review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience with the products listed above. I was provided the samples free of charge by the company or PR agency and I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation was received for this review.

xo

Fall Ball- 12th Birthday Party

My daughter, Kati was born on October 31st, and loves a good Halloween themed party. This year she turned twelve, and wanted to do something somewhat different with the theme; glam it up a little.  We decided on having a Birthday Ball with rustic Fall elements, while keeping in mind the classic elegance of a royal ball. We decided on a neutral palette: peach, white, light cranberry, with some silver and gold accents thrown in.

Knowing how important the invitations are for giving guests the first glimpse of the party theme, I went right to Love Greyson Events. https://m.facebook.com/pages/Love-Greyson-Events/159595124051005

Valerie brought my vision to life with beautiful water colored, floral invitations. 

I carried the water color element into the sweet table backdrop, which was a light washed floral painting with the words, “This Ball Doesn’t End at 12”. The beautiful script letters were made by Sweetly Chic Events. http://sweetlychicevents.com/

Everyone’s favorite element of the party was the sweet table. My husband, Matt made caramel apples which were a huge hit! I added beautiful, edible leaves by Sugar Robot 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SugarRobot

which made them even more irresistible. Our talented friend, Trudy made flawless meringue mushrooms that tasted as good as they looked. I made chocolate cake balls shaped like little, white ,Cinderella pumpkins, and sat them in a bed of ground graham crackers. These were so easy to make, and were served in tiny, plastic martini glasses which was so fun for the girls.

The birthday girl invited everyone to dress up for this party. She greeted her guests wearing a beautiful silver tutu adorned with rhinestones, hand made by my favorite tutu designers at Atutudes.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/atutudes

The tablescape was set with fine china, ornate silver candleabras, holding glass pumpkins, and an autumn table runner comprised of Styrofoam leaves, pumpkins, and gourds. I sprayed this with a gold glitter spray paint. it didn’t change the colors, but added a hint of shine which I loved! I placed a cute, collapsible paper pumpkin place card on each place setting, It looked adorable, but they did need to be taped down because of the wind gusts we were experiencing during set up. Except for the wind, we had a beautiful day; the sun was glistening through the pine trees, and made for some beautiful photos.

The party was set up at a quaint, local farm. The rustic, stone farmhouse, and surrounding acres of woods lent itself perfectly as the backdrop. I thought it would be fun to add some natural elements to the décor, so I used gold spray paint to give pinecones a more glam look, bought some moss covered mushrooms from the craft store, and used pretty, fabric fall leaves ordered from Oriental Trading. http://m.orientaltrading.com/

I scattered them around the grounds, and display tables; it added a nice contrast from the fine china and elegant, peach sequined table linens by Candy Crush Shop. 

http://www.candycrushshop.com/

This tablecloth was so ridiculously beautiful in person...

As the guests arrived they made floral crowns with supplies I bought at the craft store, and the dollar store. I’m all about saving money, but the crowns turned out so nice that they didn't show it at all. The girls wore them throughout the party, so I knew that was a craft win! 

   (I had to snap a photo of this cutie with my iPhone).

 I also set up a table of edible jewels: gumball necklaces, candy bracelets and ring pops which the girls took home as favors. Thanks for stopping by! xo

All photos by Expressions by Nicole Marie

http://expressionsbynicolemarie.com/

I received items from Oriental Trading.

 This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience with the products listed above. I was provided the samples free of charge by the company or PR agency and I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation was received for this review.

✨Kati's Fall Birthday Ball was featured in one of my favorite magazines, Bird's Party!!! You can view the ezine by following this link:

http://www.birdspartymagazine.com/m.index0.html

While you're there, keep an eye out for my Monster High Cupcake toppers...

Photo credit: Sara G. Photography 

https://instagram.com/saragphotobucks/

Hi Mom, I'm on TV.!!!

Hey everybody!  Sorry it's been a while but I've been having one heck of a busy summer.  Both of my girls are on the local pool's summer swim team, which means practice EVERY day (no weekends, thank God!!) I had my kitchen and dining room made over for a new TV show, and I've had some pretty cool orders, I'll have to share them with you soon.

Wait a minute, rewind to the TV makeover...
That's right, my kitchen was selected out of scads of applications to be made over for the new show, Knock it Off!  This makeover was SOO needed because whether you know or not, I run my business out of my home kitchen.

Here's one of the pics. I sent to the designers and stars of the show, Monica and Jess of the popular DIY blog, East Coast Creative.  Pickled pine cabinets, laminate counter tops, and those floors!! No wonder they chose us! ;)

I don't want to give too much away because our episode airs TONIGHT at 7 EST on the Live Well Network. (Check HERE for local listings.)  Go set your DVR's and let me know what you think!!

SPOILER: If you don't have access to a TV or maybe you don't have cable, you can watch the full episode HERE right now....Shhhh, don't tell everyone else!! ;))


Oh... PS, Happy National Ice Cream Day!!  Check out this "COOL" cookie tutorial I had featured on timetoplaymag.com