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Friday, December 21, 2012

Wrapping Party



 If there is anything more satisfying than being with good buddies it's being productive with good buddies!!!  :)  Last night I gathered some of my wonderfully beautiful and funny old college girlies together for one of my favorite kinds of parties...a wrapping party!!!   Everyone showed up at my house in their pajamas, a couple of rolls of wrapping paper in hand and boxes and boxes of presents to wrap.  I supplied the tape, scissors, ribbons, embellishments, etc.

I LOVE this kind of party because it makes wrapping SO MUCH FUN!!!  Grab a glass of wine, laugh with your friends and get yourself organized!!!  Christmas is FIVE days away so we got down and dirty, rolled up the sleeves and wrapped those boxes like there was no tomorrow (and then celebrated our productivity with a bowl of soup and a glass of wine)!! :))

Check out the pics of the wrapping goodies station I set up...


I used Amanda's pink snowman collection from Amanda's Parties To Go.  I love this set because its so girly but still Christmas-y.


I had a variety of different package toppers.  I love using inexpensive ornaments to embellish presents and I also made little paper circle fans out of scrapbook paper topped off with wooden embellishments found at Michaels.  Those turned out so sweet and super cute!!!

The backdrop of the "gift wrap goody table" included different decorated packages.  I wanted to give some examples of how to use the embellishments to spice up your presents...when I was setting up the table my daughter said, "Mommy WHY are you putting presents up there like that??" (in a tone like you've lost your mind!!)  Yes dear, your mommy HAS lost her mind (a long time ago actually)...accept it.  ;)  


Ummmm tape and scissors!!  HELLO!?!?  Can't have a wrapping party without plenty of each!! ;)  





How sweet are these little gift tags from Amanda's collection?!

Pretty fabric bows on cupcake stands. 

One of my girlfriends was examining the tape and asked me how I got the decorated paper inside the tape.  All I did was pop the roll of tape out, then I took the paper that was already in there and used it to trace the shape out on scrapbook paper, cut it out, stuck it in there and replaced the tape back...




 Lots of ribbon on hand!!!!





 Happy Wrapping to you all!!! 

 oh yeah, and Merry Christmas too!!!  :))




Thursday, December 13, 2012

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...


Last week my best buddy requested a smorgasbord of wonderful Christmas goodies for a party she was throwing for all her teacher friends. I had SO much fun working on this order.  Sometimes I swear to goodness gracious I'm still an 8 year old child who gets giddy over the thought of cartoon-like, colorful Christmas sweetness...



How precious are these Christmas tree and gingerbread men cake pops?!!? LOVE~
And I was LOVING the oreo snowman pops!

No party is complete without a cake (or cupcakes)! ;)



Rice Krispie treats and Santa Claus Hat cake "balls"




Thursday, December 6, 2012

Pancakes and Gingerbread

Ok, so seriously this definitely made my list of all time favorite cakes!  Love the way it turned out.  Charlotte is turning FOUR and wanted a party where her buddies and she could decorate gingerbread cookies and munch on pancakes. :) 

Soooo, the pancake/gingerbread girl cake was born.  Now THAT'S a custom cake!!! ;))
































Monday, December 3, 2012

Ugly Sweater Party!!


This past weekend I threw my third annual trophy husband party: theme-UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATERS!!   It was such a blast!  My favorite type of party is one where people are forced to dress silly to fit in.  Its an instant ice breaker as the moment guests walk through your door everyone is laughing at each other. ;) 

I had SOOO much fun putting together the dessert table for this party.  It was a bit of a challenge b/c obviously I wanted the table to be UGLY, but then again I didn't.  ;)  I used a lot of different colors and patterns to create a mismatched/yet somewhat coordinating theme.  Who knew ugly could be so challenging!?!?


Lauren, from Lauren Haddox Designs shared her Tacky and Mustachey collection with me.  It fit perfectly with my theme.  I loved the addition of mustaches!!  Since it was also a trophy husband party it totally fit!



I don't normally "do" cookies.  I looked into purchasing some, but at $5/cookie (at the lowest) I figured I'd try my hand at them.  Let me just tell you, $5/cookie AIN'T enough!  These little suckers are time consuming!!!




My FAVORITE addition to the table were these little sweater push pop desserts.  SO awesome!  I purchased the sweaters from Susans Sweaters on etsy.  They're Barbie sweaters, hand knitted and then I got my hands on them and tackied them up. (THAT was FUN!)  Under each sweater is red velvet cake and cream cheese icing in a push pop.







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Ooooh, aaaahhhh, chocolate covered oreos with chocolate transfers.  Who knew an oreo could be so festive??




















My friends would disown me if I had a party without cake pops (everyone's fav) so naturally, plaid cake pops.





Ok, so I cheated.  I printed off ugly sweaters onto icing sheets with my edible ink printer, attached them to fondant and stuck them on cupcakes. Not too much work here, but they're super cute non the less!






And since adults don't typically attack desserts quite like kids, I left some boxes out on the table so they could "stache" away some treats for later (i.e. their kids).  That worked!  The dessert table was 100% cleared by the end of the night as guests left with their boxes of goodies.








I set up a cheesy photo booth with a winter background purchased at Oriental Trading, some silly photo props, and of course, a blow up Santa to pose with.


 And as if ugly sweaters weren't enough tackiness, I played on the mustache theme with these sweet little things (also found at Oriental Trading).


 Doesn't the mustache just ADD to the charm of Mr Jeff here???


And since it was a trophy husband party I had to create games for the guys to compete against each other for title of #1 TROPHY HUSBAND.  

Let me first start off by saying we have the BEST, most COOPERATIVE group of guy friends EVER!  They truly are trophy husbands!!  Such good sports!!  (I can never have a normal party, with normal socialization)

 We did a version of dizzy bat (a trophy husband party tradition).  We split the guys into two groups and created a relay race.  Using wrapping paper as "the bat", they had to spin around 4 times with an ornament in their hand.  A few feet away from the start was a little Christmas tree.  After they were done spinning they had to RUN and place their ornament on the tree and then run back.  Once they reached the end the next guy could start.  HILARITY!!!  They were all over the place, some even fell from too much dizziness. (so funny, like pee in your pants kind of laughing, just saying)



   Next, was blind folded gift wrapping.  The guys were given a box (I used cracker boxes, mac n cheese boxes, etc) to wrap.  (I pre-cut the paper so no one got hurt!)  We blind folded them, put them in pairs (they had to share tape), and gave them each a box, paper and a bow.  This was also a race. Whichever team finished first (both guys had to have a fully wrapped present, topped off with their bow) were then judged on which present of the two was most presentable.  This game, again gave us girls some awesome laughs.  It was belly busting watching these guys (in their ugly sweaters) try to share tape, find their bows, etc. Just awesome!



The final game we played was "Holiday Sausage".  In this game the guys were asked questions like "What was your favorite toy to play with as a child?" or "In your opinion, what was the biggest issue facing this 2012 election?" and the only answer you could say is "holiday sausage".  You're not allowed to laugh or smile when you give your response.  Funny game, but if you ask me the guys had WAAAAY too easy of a time keeping a straight face.  These men are hard to break!!

So, after these three games the trophy husband was named.  Jeff Gordon, pictured below in the red sweater vest (talking smack to the other team after dizzy bat).  His team won the wrapping paper dizzy bat race, he was first to finish his present in blind folded gift wrap and he didn't once smile/laugh during holiday sausage....so there it is ladies and gentlemen, JEFF GORDON, your 2012 Trophy Husband.

Me and my hubby (in our mustaches)....sometimes he is so handsome I just can't take my eyes off him!!!


Awwww, and my sweet little Charlie boy....the first one to pass out for the night!!!  Sweet boy.

What a FUN time!!  
Get yourself out there, put on an ugly sweater and HAVE A PARTY!!!  Great time guaranteed!!!!