New Article & Giveaway!!

It's official! The Mermaids of the Lake e-zine is one year old today! I was so excited to be asked to write an article for their newest issue, and you can find it here. (Thanks, Mermaids, for a fun opportunity!) If you are hosting a bridal shower during the upcoming "wedding season," I hope you will find some inspiration with this "Beach Bliss" bridal shower theme, plus other easy DIY hostess tips!

YAY!

Oh, and do you remember my post awhile back that mentioned a fun giveaway coming up in May?? Well, it's May 1st, so I'm going to spill some of the beans now...

...To celebrate the publication of my first article, I've decided to have a FIRST-EVER Creative Entertaining giveaway!! The only catch is that this giveaway is only for FOLLOWERS of this blog (you can see a list of current followers on the right side of your screen). If you add yourself to the list, you'll be in the running to win this giveaway. You have until Saturday, May 16th, 11:59 p.m. PST to enter. So don't run the risk of forgetting... just follow now!

So, what am I giving away?

Well, those are the beans I'm not going to spill, YET. :-) (I'm on vacation and I feel like holding up the suspense just a little bit longer...) BUT, what I WILL tell you, is that this will be a fun gift pack for the ultimate summer hostess!

Thanks for your readership...or is it followership? :-)

Easter Wrap-Up

One of the blogs I follow, Bakerella, showcases Bakerella's claim to fame: cake pops! She made many styles of Easter cake pops, and my friend and I attempted to make some for Easter. I know that was several weeks back, but I wanted to share the fruit of our labor. They turned out cute!

We used chocolate cake mix (it was what we had on hand), chocolate candy melts, white candy melts, Good 'n Plenty candy for ears, white spice drops for bunny tails, and frosting pens for the face. We chose to make cake pop "truffles" because we thought it would be a little be easier to transport to Easter lunch (and they fit nicely in a glass dish). We did try one "pop" on a stick, but it promptly fell apart, so we stuck with the original game plan of not using sticks. One tip I would pass along to anyone who wants to try this is to use a light colored cake mix if you are going to use a light colored candy melt to dip the pops in (otherwise, you'll see the dark cake through the light colored coating).

Check out the Bakerella blog for cake pops for all occasions!

Giveaway- Quick!

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that there's a very cool giveaway going on over at Embellish Essentials. You can enter between now and Saturday, April 11th @ 11:59 p.m. PST. The prize is for a scrapbook prize pack worth over $50! If you're a scrappin' queen, you know that's a lot of fun waiting to happen!!

I just so happen to know those girls running things over at Embellish Essentials, so tell them I sent ya! {wink} They are a start-up business, so keep your eye out for them if you're into paper scrapbooking.

Event Designing with Color Palettes, Part 2

Several posts back I showed you some ideas from MarthaStewart.com about using different color palettes to set up your event design. I promised to post some photos of a real-life example I did. I don't have as many photos as I thought I did, but here are a couple so you can get the gist of the color scheme.

This was a "Golden Birthday" theme. For those who don't know what that is, one's golden birthday is the day when the age someone turns is the same as the day in the month he or she was born. For example, my golden birthday was my 21st birthday, since I was born on the 21st day of the month. The examples below were from a party I threw for a friend of mine on her 26th "golden" birthday.

I used the colors gold, black and white throughout the event. The colors are reflected in the invitation, tablecloths, table decor, and the cake. I also incorporated a Parisian theme as well, hence the Fleur de Lis on the invitations, table, and cake.

In case you're interested in the other details, I provided cheese, crackers and grapes for appetizers and the fixings to make croissant sandwiches as a light dinner. We had lemon drop martinis as the signature drink. Take-home favors included handmade chocolate (milk chocolate and white chocolate) candy suckers in the shape of the Eiffel Tower and a mini spa gift (white sugar body scrub with a white or gold loofah). As you can see, I kept with the color palette as well as the parallel Parisian theme with every detail of the event.

I apologize for taking so long to get this post up!!

Must Have: Wine Glass Lamps

You have got to check these out!!

I was checking out the Everyday Celebrating blog and came across a post from a couple of months ago talking about these AWESOME wine glass lamps (click here for the original post). I immediately fell in LOVE, so I had to post about them!

How simple, yet so amazing at the same time! I am personally one of those people who loves candlelight as a way to set a classy tone for a social engagement.

You can buy these shades, called Gorgeous Helen, from WishingFish.com. They are sold as a set of three for $14.00. Click here to go straight to the Gorgeous Helen shades.

What do you think??

Chocolate Giveaway

Hey, check out the Mermaids of the Lake blog. They are giving away CHOCOLATE from the Chocolate Apothecary, a fun chocolate "pharmacy" in Spokane. The link to the post is here. You can enter the giveaway by posting a comment on that post, and while you're at it, tell the Mermaids I sent you! :-)

Easter

Easter is just around the corner, and I came across this fabulous idea from Martha Stewart that I just had to share!

I love this concept because it is so simple and easy to do! Notice how the same bunny shapes on the garland are also used as cupcake toppers.... and notice how those same shapes were cut out of the paper used to make the favor bags. For instructions on how to make the garland, click here.

This is a versatile concept that can be applied to any theme or holiday. Pick your shape, cut it out of the paper used to make favors, and put those cut-outs to work as decor. Voila!

FYI- Easter is on April 12th this year!