PresentPast Collection

You're Invited!

Welcome to the party! Please come in. I hope that you enjoy yourself and have a good time!

You are greeted first by the party favors. Next is the Candy Buffet which is topped with a streaming ribbon banner that reads Bon Bon. Help yourself to all you want!

Please indulge in the chocolate fountain! Or perhaps you would rather have cupcakes and fruit salad, or cream puffs?

Lighter fare is served on the buffet in the kitchen. There is strawberry and apple salad, Chinese chicken salad, Cesar salad, croissants, baked brie and much more!

What a beautiful and happy Bride-to-Be! We all had such a wonderful time. It was like being transported to a beautiful Parisian party! Thank you all for coming! And since this is a party, I wanted to say Thank You to you as well! So I am going to be drawing 5 names on Wednesday, Jan 31st from those who leave comments. I will be sending special party packages full of wonderful little treasures and surprises!

Good luck to those who Win! If you would like to see more photos, I will be posting them on my Flickr account later. Just click on my Flickr banner in the sidebar to get a few more peeks!

UPDATE: I will be picking the winners tonight and post them Thursday morning. So if you still want in the drawing you have to leave a comment before 9pm. West Coast time girls!

Getting Closer to the Big Day

Hello everyone! I'm getting excited because the party is on Saturday. I'm working on all the last minute things that seem to pop up. Today I ordered all white flowers, roses, ranauculas, daisies, double miniature roses, they are all just beautiful. Can't wait to put the arrangements together.

As I was posting this I noticed that it was my 49th post. Which makes my next one the big 5-0. So I was thinking, since I probably won't be able to post until after the party, (hopefully Sunday if I'm not too tired) I would make it extra special. I've decided to make it a party for you too! I promise to post lots and lots of photos from the bridal shower and will have party favors for my readers! So please be sure to come to my next Blog Posting Party! Hope to see you all there.

And also I wanted to say Thank You to all of you who have given me such sweet comments and emails. It's so inspiring to see so much support from everyone!

Presents & Prizes

Getting back to our regularly scheduled program of sharing bridal shower preparations, I thought I'd show you some of the prizes. I didn't think about photographing them before I wrapped them. Ughhh. So I'll describe them to you. There is a glass paperweight with a picture of a vintage birds that says With Love, a small crystal perfume bottle, a jewel box covered with mosiac mirrors and filled with a pair of earrings, a decanter of body glitter and brush with a set of rhinestone barrettes, and a set of travel makeup bags in the party's theme colors. The big door prize for the day is a chocolate fountain. As I'm writing this I'm thinking, yeah, pictures would have been great! Trust me, I wanted to keep all of them! My Mom told me to just go buy some more, like I want to spend even moooore money. The party is this Saturday, the 27th. So this week will be filled with finishing up the final plans. I'll try to post again this week. I've been working on my cupcake tower and I think it's coming along nicely.

The Man Can Cook

Thought I'd share with you a recipe that The Man likes to cook. He got it from our local Trader Joe's demonstration kitchen. The samples they make always smell so good and he very rarely passes one up. This one is for Steel Cut oatmeal. I believe it is called McCain's. Don't worry you can find it in most supermarkets. It comes in a metal can. Anyway you cook the oats according to the package instructions. While they are cooking you peel and slice up an apple.

Now of course, you don't have to use one of these contraptions. But The Man loves kitchen gadgets. I usually do it the old fashioned way. Next you saute them in real butter, not the fake stuff, along with some brown sugar until they are tender. After that you stir in some pecans or walnuts, whichever you choose. Lastly you put your oatmeal in a BIG bowl and place the apples on top. Sometimes he adds milk as well, but not today. This is great for a cold winter morning. Hope you give it a try, and hopefully I explained it well enough for you to understand! 

Quiet Time

We interrupt the regularly scheduled party planning post to bring you this. A cup of comfort and a book I've been waiting to read. I ended up ordering this from my local B&N because they never had it in stock. It was worth the wait.

Have you ever had a dessert soooo delicious that you couldn't decide if you should eat it quickly because it's THAT good or....eat it slowly, savoring every bite? This is what The French Inspired Home is like for me. I decided to savor it, slowly. Intentionally not reading the entire book in one sitting.

First to say the photographs are amazing would be an understatement. They capture the timeless beauty of vintage while showing us how to use it in our homes today. The book captures the spirit of living a vintage lifestyle.

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the writer, she has a store in Hollywood, French General. It is full of vintage beads, ribbon, millinery flowers, ephemera, glitter, cabochons and notions of all kinds from all over the world. In addition to vintage items she carries new linens, bath and laundry products as well as other home items. If you can't make it to the store, I suggest you buy yourself a treasure from the website.  Perhaps a notions kit, or a jewelry kit? Just a little something for you to enjoy. For me, I'm going to force myself to close the book. But only for a little while. I look forward to the next time I open it and pick up where I left off. That time needs to be uninterrupted, quiet and all to myself. I hope all of you can have some time for yourself, just to relax and be transported to a beautiful place. Enjoy!  

Favors Galore

First off, I have to say Thank You! To all of you that have commented on my blog and emailed me with such sweet feedback. I can't believe how many hits I've had on my little blog and my Flickr photos this week. Sorry I haven't been able to respond to all of your notes but I wanted you all to know how much it's meant to me. Nice to know that there is such wonderful support and kindred spirits out there in cyberworld.

Here is the final product of my craft-a-palooza day. I didn't get to finish the paper candy cones or the cupcake tower, so there will be more to post this week. Every guest (57 at last count) will be taking home one of these Frenchie vintage inspired candles and matchbooks. I'm also giving them candy bags to take home that they can fill up themselves at the candy buffet. Anyone know the French word for candy buffet? I suppose I could Google it.

Here's a photo of the mass collection that we made. A table full of Best Wishes for the bride and groom. Did I mention that my Mom's the greatest! She helped me all day! It ended up just being the two of us and we had quite the little assembly line going. And had lots of fun, we kept saying things like, "these are adorable", "these are soooo cute", "they're gonna love them". It was so funny to keep patting ourselves on the back. I'll leave you with a few more photos and will try to have more this week of the paper cones and cupcake tower. Wish me luck!

Craft-a-Palooza Day

Today is my all day crafting session. Or at least until I can't go anymore. Last night I cut out hundreds and hundreds of pieces of wrapping paper for the candles and matchbooks. In addition I cut out all the ribbon and tulle to try to save us some time today. Should go smoothly. When I'm done I'll post some photos of the final product!

So how many candies can you buy in blue, white, silver and black? This is just the start of my stash. I have bags of blue, white and black M&M's on the way as well as other delicious and colorful morsels. If any of you know of a candy that's in this colorway please feel free to let me know. I can't decide to get Jordan almonds or not. They are so hard, when I've had them I always think I'm going to break a tooth. I can't seem to see the appeal of them, but of course they come in my colors! And they are the signature wedding candy. What do you think? 

This is a sampling of the wrapping paper I've collected. I got several of them at Borders bookstore and a few from the Target Christmas collection. I hope to have some left over to use during the year for other projects and gifts.  Well, guess I better get to work. On today's agenda is candles, matchbooks, paper candy cones, and possibly the cupcake tower. If I'm lucky.

Bridal Shower Mode

Right now I'm in full Bridal Shower Mode. My sweet step daughter is getting married in February and I'm giving her a French/Parisian themed shower for 50+ people in a couple weeks. I live, eat, drink, and dream bridal shower. Most of my conversations with my loved ones involve bridal shower topics. What will the food be? The desserts? The favors? The decorations? You get the point. And all of these topics have many sub-topics which include, which ribbon, paper, cream puffs, cupcake tower, tablecloths, etc, etc, etc. Obsessed is not the word. There has to be another.....maybe consumed! Even The Man drove to Burbank for me to get the right dinnerware! So to relieve some of my family I will share details with you.  So, here is the color scheme. Black, white, silver and pale blue. Which can be the most difficult color to find. There are waaaay too many shades of blue out there. When I go shopping my eyes gravitate to these colors, no matter what I'm shopping for. At the grocery store oooh I see candy in those colors, candy buffet to follow. At Sam's club I see cupcakes, cupcake tower to follow. I'll be serving a full luncheon with salads and delicate Frenchie food. Also a dessert table filled with petite yummies and for the younger 20-something set a full candy buffet with you guessed it...only black, blue, white and silver candies. I can't wait to show you!

 

This week I'm working on some of the favors for the guests. These are a few prototypes under construction. I'm going to have a table filled with candles and matchbooks. And I have some glitter letters to dangle above that will say "Best Wishes" or "Best Wishes for the Bride and Groom". Aren't those WISH tickets the cutest things ever!

Oh, I almost forgot to show you that I found a little something for myself. Just what I need to keep all my snippets of papers, ribbons, and those receipts. For now I think I will refrain from adding them up. No need to spoil the fun, right?

Well, that's enough talk for today. I need to get out of the house and get some more shopping done. Prizes, I need more prizes. And waiting for me at home will be these. Don't worry I have reinforcements coming Friday to help. Thank God for Mom's and friends!

Birthday Surprise

We're back from our holiday vacation. Florida was beautiful, and the everglades were like being in another world. There is such amazing plant and animal life. Birds, fish, alligators and turtles all living together in a wonderful habitat. And believe it or not, it's very peaceful. Calm, quiet and extremely relaxing to ride through the twists and turns of the water and trees that seem to go on forever.

I had a birthday while we were on vacation and thought I'd show you what The Man surprised me with. He had the waiter serve it to me all wrapped up on a dessert platter.  Completely Surprised! I didn't even expect a gift because vacations at Christmas time aren't exactly cheap. But he had other plans and picked this out for me before we left and snuck it across the country in his luggage. Just for me. Lucky, lucky girl. And of course, I'd marry him again in a heart beat! Even without the bling.