I finally picked a winner for the Skip the Borders giveaway and it was comment #7, Gill. She'll be getting an e-book sent to her. Cheers, Gill!
Since I didn't want a picture-less post, I've included this cocktail cookies that I made for a friend's birthday a while back. The request was for cosmos in the colors of pink and black. They came out so cute. :) I haven't had the time to do cookies for the kids birthdays etc. and I miss making them. Fun!
JT
We decided to have another party this winter for no reason other than we really like to bake. The "we" I'm referring to is myself and my youngest sister Deirdre who is conveniently in town to help. This time around, it wasn't a strictly cookies party like last year. We had cookies, and plenty of them, but also cupcakes, pretzels, brownies, etc.
The look I decided on was lush, forest floor, with a traditional, chic twist. Does that make any sense? It did in my head anyway. And I think that's how it came out.
It was very nice to be able to share the work of all the baking. My husband invited like a million people but since it was a holiday weekend, enough people were away and couldn't come that it wasn't too overwhelming.
It was a simple, casual, open-house-type party where you could drop by whenever. Plenty of Aurora's friends came. We had one little craft for them to do: decorating rocks with paint pens. So simple, but they loved it and it was appropriate for toddlers to teens.
As far as the decor goes, I designed and printed the labels myself. The jars are lined with various green print fabrics stabilized with interfacing. I glad to say I didn't have to buy a single piece of glassware. The greenery is a combination of fresh and moss. The invitations can from the $1 bin at Michaels, if you can believe it. I paid more for postage. :)
JT
As I mentioned, the day was darned near perfect. Here's how it went:
Set-up, and more frantic set-up in the morning.
Then, we had gorgeous face painting as the kids arrived.
The craft project was painting unicorn or dragon t-shirts with freezer paper stencils.
There were many creative outcomes.
And, though the pictures don't show it, you should believe me when I tell you the smocks were a rainbow of solid-colored t-shirts (from Goodwill). Yes, that's how far I take it.
Next up was a treasure hunt for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. HUGE hit. The kids were running all over the house and yard hunting for the next clue.
I made them all up, and they even rhymed.
They were hidden in places like the mailbox, a backpack, the climber, and the pot of (chocolate) gold was in the fireplace. Such a simple activity that was so much fun. I'm sure we'll do one again at the kids' request.
After that it was time to enjoy treats and cake.
I have to say I think people were more impressed with my ability to cut semi-intact slices of the overly tall cake, than with my ability to bake it. :)
Then afterwards the kids enjoyed some running and playing in the yard on such a beautiful day.
I can hardly believe my little girl is 6 (and really now, she's half way to 7!)
Haven't come up with a definite plan for next year yet...I'll keep you posted.
JT
I've been holding on to these pictures for a while now. I just really needed to edit them down a bit. There were so many good ones that I find it nearly impossible to choose.
Anyway, as the title implies, this year Aurora chose a unicorns and rainbows party. Actually she chose unicorns and I convinced her to add the rainbows by describing the candy buffet. She had been reading this series of books about a unicorn school and was really into them. And who can't get behind that idea? And for the boys, dragons were permitted to attend.
While the party followed a VERY hectic summer and Theo's party, it went off with very limited hiccups. Much less stressed out that at Theo's. That's not to say it wasn't a boatload of work. This stuff doesn't just happen, people. :)
The day was darned near perfect. Great weather. Great Friends. Great fun. The kids enjoyed a day full of sugar as well as a craft and even a treasure hunt for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I asked everyone to come dressed all in one color so we could be our own rainbow...
You'll find the sources and inspiration at the bottom of this post, and I'll be back soon with a summary of the day's events.
Photography: Evan Foster
Invitations: custom made by me
Dessert Table: inspired by the infamous Amy Atlas
Uncicorn cookies: made by me, inspired by this photo
Yarn balloons: made by Aurora and me, tutorial found here
Paper mobiles: tutorial found here
Cake: made by me, lots of inspiration around the web
Craft: freezer paper stenciling (tutorial found here), used unicorn clip art found here, and a dragon I drew
Face painting: Bella Facia
Favors: a bag filled with a unicorn lollipop, mini unicorn (or dragon) coloring book (available on amazon), set of mini rainbow markers, rainbow and unicorn stickers, wooden unicorn to color and a sewn matchbook notebook (tutorial found here) - plus a whole container full of the candy!
Yes, I know Halloween is over. I shall not apologize for being approximately one holiday behind, especially since I still haven't blogged Aurora's September birthday pictures.
Anyway, these are just a few little halloween loose ends. First the yummy cookies I made for Theo's class. I tried to reduce my work by only using two icing colors, but, yes, they still took more time than 3-year-olds could possibly care about. My problem is I freaking love sugar cookies. Yum! So I'll make for any ol' reason ...
Next, this is a halloween wall quilt my mom made for me. Gorgeous, right? It's from a kit from Keepsake Quilting a few years ago. I think it's a brilliant use of batiks. I kinda don't want to put it away now.
And finally, a peek at my little costume. I've got no pix of me in it, so you'll have to deal. I made the top with my new serger. :) If you're wondering, the words are Aurora's "word wall words", so that makes me... yes, a spelling bee. It's pretty lame that I feel the need to explain that, but no one really got it, which is mostly a reflection of the limited creativity I put into it. But it was quick, cute, and totally appropriate for an elementary school party.
I have intentions to be back before Thanksgiving, but just in case...
I am thankful for all my awesome readers!
JT
Yum, yum, yum!
The day before Valentine's Day we had a Cookies and Milk party for some friends and family. As I mentioned before, really it was for no other reason than I love to bake and I love to style parties. So, fun!
Ever since I saw this post, I've been wanting to have one of my own. One of my favorite details was the retro paper straws from Kikkerland. I baked probably more than 700 cookies so there was plenty for everyone to take some home with them.
The kids decorated their own heart sugar cookies.
And I made a matching hostess apron to wear. It was loosely based on the Flirty Skirty pattern.
I cannot tell you how many I ate that day and the week following. But, I could totally eat more. Like a lot more.
The favorite of all the guests was Martha's Carrot Cake Sandwiches from the Cookies book.
But the infamous NY Times Chocolate Chip ones were also very popular (and really a meal in and of themselves).
JT
We've been doing quite a bit of it lately. See, we hosted a Cookies and Milk party for a bunch of our friends the day before Valentine's day. Was it just an excuse so I could bake an absolute TON of cookies? Who can say?
Of course there will be a post on the whole party forthcoming soon, but here's a little behind-the-scenes look at the baking. First, yes we made plenty of delicious cookies like these:
Those are Double Butterscotch. Yum.
And every time I tried to bake all week, the kiddos happily offered to "help". Theo's repeated phrase was: "It's all about I want to taste it". But one evening to give me a little break from all the tasting, I had the brilliant idea to let them go all out playing in the flour.
Messy, but cars racing through flour were a perfect distraction. :)
And here's a little peek at the pretty pictures from the party. Those Chocolate Chip cookies make my mouth water just looking at the pic. Sigh. Why can't someone discover that eating an almost entirely cookie diet is good for your health and weight? I can attest: it is not.
JT
And now on to the events of the day.
First came set-up. It was a total scramble since I had so little time. It was definitely a treat to have the party on a farm, but I will hesitate to have another away from home because it took so much advance planning.
You can see the tent area we had. It was really nice that it was a separate fenced area since the farm was crowded that day.
I mentioned we were so lucky to have a nice sunny day, but, man, it was windy. Everything had to be tightly secured down.
When the guests first arrive the could feed the animals carrots or do some coloring of farm pictures. Guess how much coloring was done?
Next it was time to go peach-picking. While waiting for the hay ride, there was much silliness and some rousing games of ring-around-the-rosy. Then we loaded onto the hay wagon and enjoyed a scenic ride around the farm.
There was a little instruction on which peaches were ripe and we were dropped off in the peach groves and got to roam about filling our little baskets. With a little help from the moms and dads, the kids had a great time.
We had a little wait until the hayride came back to get us, so the kids did a little tree climbing...
Then we headed back to the tent for food and treats.
There were a variety of sandwiches, fruit kebobs, and snacking stuff.
The yellow jackets turned out to be a huge problem. They were everywhere. We couldn't put out the food until the last second and they swarmed the sweet stuff. I had planned on peach lemonade in a big punch bowl, but we quickly had to nix that idea because they would go crazy for it for sure. Luckily, I had back-up juice boxes. The idea of the bees eating the food didn't gross me out (you can see the little holes they ate in the candy below) but I was worried one of the kids would get stung because they're so aggressive. We lucked out and no one did. Had I thought of it ahead I would have brought sugar-water traps to put out and lure them away from us...
Candles were hard to keep lit...
But we pretened.
The cupcakes had little versions of cakeballs like the cake pops I made based on Bakerella's apple design. The pops were adorable, but seriously time consuming. Luckily my baking sister was in town to help me out.
The ice cream was another snafu. We rented an ice cream cart and I called ahead to reserve the dry ice and they said don't worry just come by and get it that morning. Well, I went by and they were out! And no on else was open on Sunday. So we had to make do by keeping the ice cream in the farm's freezer then just using regular ice. It was pretty melty. That was me trying to be relaxed about the details and I learned I'm just better off obsessing and forcing them to take a reservation.
After the food, the kids got to enjoy all the activities. The farm was having it's fall festival and we bought wrist bands for all the guests. That meant as much hayriding, tractor "train" riding, pony riding, hay pile climbing, bouncy house jumping, and corn kingdom playing as they wanted. Theo would have ridden around on that "train" all day if we'd let him. And Aurora loved the ponies.
Then we just let the party peter out. We took down the decorations and packed up, but a bunch of the families stayed as long as they wanted.
My two kids were totally exhausted but very happy by the time we got home. (So was I, now that I think of it...)
JT
All photos are by Christianne Ebel.
Here at long last are the details of Aurora's 5th birthday party.
The theme: peaches and cream
The location: a farm
The activities: peach picking, eating ice cream, and much more.
I'm happy to report that we were blessed with gorgeous, sunny (if somewhat windy) weather. That's the totally stressful part of planning an outdoor party away from home. I had all of 1 1/2 hours to decorate the tent. Not pretty. Thankfully I had some helpful family around. The tent had giant peach paper lanterns strung up with felt leaves.
I also made some fabric garlands that ran across the support bars with mini peach lanterns hanging down. Totally didn't anticipate the amount of wind so it was hard to get a decent picture, by my friend Christianne did it again.
The yellow jackets dug all the sweets I made: cupcakes, fruit bouquet, peach shaped cake pops (a la Bakerella), and take home candies.
The tables were covered with plastic (stapled because of the wind) and then fabric runners. I love all the different peachy fabric I was able to collect for this party. I used them for the runners, for garlands, for the buffet tablecloths and to line the baskets. I wanted it all to have a patchwork-y feel so I used a lot of different prints. I think I could cut up the tablecloths and made an adorable quilt someday.
The centerpieces were wooden boxes (my dad made them) that I painted and put chunks of wheat grass in. I originally saw the idea here. I love that they were fresh and green but not floral arrangements that would be expensive and have to be made the day before. The flowers are made from Raffia with little looms that I first saw from Cathy of Cal.
The peach picking meant everyone got to go home with their own fabric-lined basket full of peaches.
And since my daughter loves it so much, we had an ice cream cart (a whole issue, read part 2) with cone wraps to match the color scheme.
I designed the invitations and all the signage myself.
Please tune in soon for Part 2, run down of the events of the day...
JT
All photos are by Christianne Ebel.I have a new plan for Christmas. A plan of cuteness. I'm challenging myself to make/buy a super-cute "being" each year. Last year I got these.
And this year I have a new fella.
Please, someone come up with a good name for him. I'm terrible at that kind of thing.
He's handmade from a pattern by Aimee Ray in her etsy shop (I don't see it right now, but I'm sure it will be back). I had plans to make a bunch of mini ones (he's 8" tall) as ornaments, but it's clear that's not going to happen this year.
In other randomness, there were requests for pictures of me dressed up with the bag from last post. I wish I could say we got some good shots, but we snapped a few on the way out the door in only 2 minutes, and this is the best.
Finally I made an over-the-top cake I wanted to share. (seen both partially frosted and complete)
Now it wasn't the richest cake in existance, but I'm calling it "over-the-top" because of all the steps involved. Not my usual cake-from-a-box with frosting-from-a-can. Now I usually only do that, because that's what I LIKE and I love to bake so I was up to this challenge.
It was based on some specific requests from my 4-year-old niece.
Here's the breakdown with the recipe links:
2-layer yellow cake - Duncan Hines from a box
Chocolate mousse filling - SO good you could eat it by itself
Martha's chocolate ganache covering the whole thing - I think this may have helped with the stability since the filling was mousse. (This isn't the exact recipe, there was no corn syrup)
Whipped buttercream frosting - I loved this and I don't really like whipped cream type frostings. I prefer the sweeter buttercreams. This was like 1/2 way in between.
Overall, it can be summed up in one word: YUM!
JT
