Featured on The Party Wagon! Our Irish Step Dancing Party

Looking for our Irish step dancing party?  We moved it, and the whole blog, over to Tikkido.com.  Join us over there for all the fun and new content!

Featured on Amy Atlas! Gingerbread 2011

We're delighted to have our annual gingerbread house decorating party featured on the Amy Atlas blog this morning!

We'll have the full post with tons of pictures and all the details tomorrow!

In the meantime, do you remember last year's Swedish themed gingerbread house decorating party?

And the Sugar Plum Fairy birthday party, where all the kids decorated gingerbread houses as an activity?

Feel free to browse those to get your gingerbread fix until the full post of this year's party tomorrow!

Real Parties: An Egyptology/Archaeology Excursion (Part 3, the Fun!)

Looking for the Egyptology party post, part 3?  It's at its new home on Tikkido.com!

Real Parties: An Egyptology/Archaeology Excursion (Part 2, the Desserts!)

Looking for the post on the Egyptology birthday party desserts?  It's at its new home at Tikkido.com!

Real Parties: An Egyptology/Archaeology Excursion (Part 1)

Looking for part 1 of the Egyptology party and all the fun details?  It's moved to its new home over at Tikkido.com.

Featured on Amy Atlas! Our Egyptology Party

All of the blog content is now over at Tikkido.com!  Come visit and see what I've been up to lately.

Real Parties: A Fall Gnome Birthday Party

Are you looking for the Gnome birthday party?  The blog has moved!  This post is now available at Tikkido.com.  And check out all the new content while you're there!

Sneak Party Peek

I'm furiously working on the last-minute details for my daughter's 8th birthday this Saturday, but I have a ton of exciting stuff coming up!  Here's a little sneak peek at the invitation:

Can you guess what the theme is this year?

Real Parties: Star Wars and Astronomy at Pottery Barn Kids

Looking for the Pottery Barn Kids Star Wars party post?  It's moved over to Tikkido.com.

Real Parties: The Secret Garden Baby Shower (And Happy Blog Birthday!)

This August, I was delighted to have the opportunity to create a baby shower to welcome a new little girl into the world.  When the hostess told me that the theme was The Secret Garden, I was utterly delighted.  That Frances Hodgson Burnett novel had been one of my very favorites when I was young.  Turns out, the theme wasn't actually a reference to that children's book, but I still used it loosely as my inspiration to create a magical scene of a garden that felt almost like something from another world.

I immediately thought of the Chanel 2009 runway show, and knew what I wanted to do for my backdrop.  A garden wall of paper flowers, all white.  I wanted to play with texture, with light and shadow, more than color for this party.  I'll be posting a tutorial for how to make one of these show-stoppers for yourself, and you'll be amazed at how inexpensive and easy it is.

I wanted pink to be the predominant color of the desserts (it was a shower for a little girl, after all!)

Raspberry mousse is a delicious, delightfully pink dessert.  And any excuse to use my mini trifle dishes is a good one!

The brush-embroidery cookies were so easy to make, and looked so amazing (if I do say so myself!)!  I also love how my mirrored cake stands came out, and I can't wait to share the tutorial for those as well.  They added just the right sparkle and flash to the display.

The cupcakes were inspired by Zalita of Cupcake D'Lights.  Her cupcakes always astound me, and are so amazingly creative and detailed.  Head over to her Flickr stream for some serious beauty and inspiration.

When thinking about pink confections, I remembered these biscotti.  Pink pillows of deliciousness with a light vanilla and anise flavor.  The subtle sweetness of this traditional Italian recipe is absolutely addictive.  Good thing the recipe made a huge batch--plenty of cookies for me to taste test.  You know, for quality control.  Many thanks to the Zappanti family for sharing their family recipe with me for this party!

I carried the paper flowers theme through the table tents as well, using simple paper punches to create a miniature version of the backdrops.  Wouldn't these make absolutely stunning place cards for a wedding?

Pink Lemonade Tea Cakes were a fun and successful experiment.  I created the recipe as a riff on Russian Tea Cakes/Mexican Wedding Cakes.  All that buttery, tender goodness with a bright citrus flavor and pretty pink color.  Want to learn how to make them for yourself?  Pop over to The TomKat Studio blog for a how-to post and the recipe!

The lemon tartlets weren't pink, I know, but the flower shape and lemon flavor made them irresistible for the party.  

This was a baby shower, after all, so I created this simple, but utterly adorable onesie bunting.  

The beverages had white-on-white textural floral signs, too.  

As did the simple thank-you tags.  It's amazing how much elegance and dimension one little paper flower can add to a package!

Savory snacks included pork tenderloin mini sandwiches with a horseradish mustard spread.

Cheese and crackers are so much more special when the crackers are homemade rosemary sea salt crackers, and the plate is garnished with adorable miniature champagne grapes and raspberries.  

The bacon, date, and goat cheese streudel was a huge hit, and was so simple!  It's a great make-ahead appetizer.

For an activity, I came up with the idea of making custom paint-by numbers canvases.  The design was inspired by the bedding the mother-to-be had registered for.  Each guest at the party could paint a piece of the picture using the easy color-coded canvas and paints.

And after adding their contributions to the artwork, the guests signed the canvas.  An activity, a gift for the parents, nursery decor, and a loving memento of the people who came to celebrate the new baby, all rolled into one!

I'll be starting the series of how-tos for this party tomorrow, so be sure to come back for lots of great info!

And I have to note that this post marks the one year anniversary of my blog.  What a marvelous adventure this has been so far.   Thank you so much to all my readers for your comments, support, and friendship.  Here's to many more years to come!

Real Parties: The Perfect Rainbow Pool Party

Looking for all the details of the rainbow pool party?  It's moved to its new home over on Tikkido.com!

Real Parties: An Amazing Atlantis Birthday!

Looking for all the fabulous details from Marnie's magnificent Mermaid/Atlantis party?  It's moved to its new home over on Tikkido.com.  Check it all out there!

A Neapolitan Ice Cream April Fool's Day Party! (Part 2, the Celebration)

Presenting part two of the Neapolitan ice cream themed April Fool's Day party!  Today is all about the details and the activities--the party, in other words!

First, the scene was set.  TopIt Cupcakes is already gorgeously decorated, with its Neapolitan pink-cream-brown striped walls and adorable tables with pink chairs.  I didn't have to do much to turn this venue into a party.  I merely draped the tables with cream colored linens and set out the flowers.  I used these charming floral containers that look like ice cream cones (from Joann Fabrics):

And I also used these stainless steel classic ice cream sundae cups (courtesy of my mother, who owns every type of serving dish anyone could want.  Ever.):

When the guests arrived, they were greeted by a sweet little apron decorating each girl's chair.  Its Neapolitan stripes, lacy flower, and girly ruffles set the tone for the party to come.

But as with everything in this party, all was not quite as it appeared at first glance.  The center flower on the apron was actually a removable hair clip!

After that initial surprise was revealed, we went on to our first activity, decorating the aprons.  I'd cut ice cream cone and scoop shapes out of felt, and let the kids loose.  White sequins were also provided for sparkly, sprinkly fun.

We hung the aprons back on the chairs to dry for a bit, while we went on to our second activity.  I'd been looking for an excuse to buy and play with the Fimo dough that turns into erasers when baked, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  Just play dough?  Just a sculpture?  No!  It's an eraser, too!  With a group of seven and eight year old girls, this was a HUGE hit.

It was even a big hit with my almost-two-year-old (who insisted on being included in the fun at this point)!

For our third activity, we went on to do what TopIt Cupcakes does best.  The girls strapped on their aprons...

...went through the extremely difficult process of picking just one delicious cupcake...

...and had a blast decorating the cupcakes themselves!

But the best part of any party, by far, for me?  The happy faces.

Tomorrow I start posting the tutorials, beginning with the post popular request, the sugar cookies that look like scoops of ice cream.  Come back and learn all my secrets!

Real Parties: A Harry Potter Extravaganza--Part 2, The Celebration

Looking for Part 2 of the Harry Potter birthday party post?  It's moved to its new home on Tikkido.com

Such earnest concentration!

Real Parties: A Harry Potter Extravaganza--Part 1, the Dessert Table

Looking for the Harry Potter party?  It (along with all of our content) has moved to its new home on Tikkido.  See the whole party there.