Have an Egg-cellent Easter!

This post is just a quickie today to wish all of my readers a wonderful Easter!

Annnnnnnnd, since I can't wait to share this with you, here's a peek at what I made to bring to a potluck Easter dinner tonight.  These Rice Krispies egg-treats are fun for kids and adults alike.  They were super-easy and fun to make!  Check out the Rice Krispies website for fun and creative ideas.

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Spring Update

Oh, where have I been?? The first four months of the year are usually difficult for me to maintain regular blog postings because that is my busiest season of the year at my day job. One major event down, two more to go! I recently completed a successful fundraising auction/anniversary celebration dinner, so I will post a recap of that event and pictures about in the coming weeks.

In addition, I'm working on getting some real life wedding stories to recap for you as well. I'll keep you posted on those.

Seeing as Easter is RIGHT around the corner, and if you're as busy as I am, it might have snuck up on you! I will be posting a couple of creative Easter ideas as well as some Spring decor and entertaining ideas for you.

First up: Eggshell Votives!

Photo courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

I saw the above photo and thought this was a festive idea as yet another way to incorporate eggs into our Easter celebration. Follow the link here to get instructions on how to make these votive candles. Quick tip: hot glue your wick to the bottom of the shell before filling the shell with wax (this will prevent the wick from floating in the wax).

Next Up: Chocolate Eggs!

Photo courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

This one's for the die-hard chocoholic! Warning: this project is somewhat labor- and time-intensive... but HOW can you resist the charm and beauty of your own chocolate eggs inside a REAL egg shell?? Follow this link to get the how-to from Martha. The instructions tell you how to create a chocolate shell within the egg shell so you can fill the shell with ganache (recipe provided). Be sure to read the comments for the instructions to get some good feedback and tips on how to make this project a little bit smoother the first time around.

**Both of these ideas can pull double-duty as table decor and favors. Consider making these as nice take-home gifts for family and friends by wrapping each in colored cellophane and a brightly colored ribbon.**

More ideas to come!

Photofetti

Image from Photofetti.com

CHECK.THIS.OUT! What a fun addition to your child's birthday, a wedding, anniversary, graduation, or other celebration... Photofetti is photo confetti that you can customize with your own photo(s). They will mix your Photofetti with colored accent pieces to match your event and voila, you've got a party!

Visit Photofetti here.

Valentine's Food Fun

Whatever your plans are for Valentine's Day, here are a couple of quick and super-easy ideas involving festive food for the occasion.

Pick up a metal heart cookie cutter at your local store and use it to make a heart-shaped breakfast for your sweeties. This works well for pancakes and eggs. You can also use the cookie cutter to cut hearts out of slices of toast. Don't forget to spray the inside of the cookie cutter with a little bit of cooking spray so the food doesn't stick to it.

Another fun food idea is cutting shapes from brownies and putting a dollap of frosting on top. Wilton has combo cutters in two shapes, "minis" and hearts. I used the minis cutter for these Valentine treats for my co-workers. You can find the minis combo cutter here and the hearts combo cutter here at the Wilton website (see photos below). These cutters are so easy to use, and the three...yes, THREE... batches of brownies I made were cut up in a snap!

(Hearts combo cutter and minis combo cutter. Photos courtesy of Wilton. Links to photos are above.)

Last Minute Super Bowl Idea

I was shopping at Cabela's a few weeks ago (it's an outdoor sportsman's store) and saw a display that they had set up for the Super Bowl. I really liked the "football field" they created, so I grabbed a quick shot of it on my cell phone (sorry for the photo quality).

You can recreate this same idea on a green table cloth or table runner to make it a fun tablescape. Use your creativity to add goalposts and team spirit. Don't forget to leave room for the yummy finger foods! If you are still in need of some ideas for your game-time eats, check out my previous Super Bowl post here.

Stop and Smell the Roses

This sweet display of roses is a sample centerpiece for an upcoming fundraising event I'm working on. We have such wonderful people who are sharing their talents with us to help us create a wonderful event. The inspiration for this event is the organization's 50th anniversary, so the color gold is being used to commemorate the "golden anniversary." Complimentary colors of red and black are also being used throughout the event.

As the event draws closer, I'm grateful to have this centerpiece nestled between my computer monitor and Rolodex. The roses make me smile, pause, and take a deep breath before I jump into the next task. I encourage you to take some time this week to stop and smell the roses... to relax and take a deep breath before moving on. :-)

Glassware

In my day job I plan fundraising events for a non-profit in Washington state. We have a big auction coming up in a few weeks, so my days and work weeks lately have been looong. At any rate, I came across a really cool company in Oregon that is helping us out by printing custom champagne glasses for our event. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find someone who printed on glass. That was an interesting dilemma, and thank goodness we found a company, even if they are several hundred miles away from us.


Introducing: Tri-S. This company does some amazing print work for breweries and liquor companies (unfortunately, I am not able to re-post any photos from their website, so you'll have to click the link and check out Tri-S for yourself). As I was talking with them the other day, I discovered that they've also done custom print work for weddings and other personal celebrations. One couple had an image of their dog printed on beer glasses along with their names and their wedding date as favors for their wedding guests. I thought I would share the idea with you all and provide you with a quality, reputable, and environmentally responsible company that can handle the job.