Christmas Tea 2011 ( Part 1)

One of my favorite church events, our annual Women's Christmas Tea was simply amazing and the tablescapes this year were beautiful as I expected. So many people put in so much work to make this event come to life. I feel so blessed to be part of this event again.
About a thousand women attend this event each year and the male members of the church sign up to be our butlers.
I decorated 3 tables, two for my personal guests and one for the church's guests. I'll go into detail for each of my tables in another post but here's an overview of my three tables as well as photos of other tables hosted by some talented women of the church

This is the Rustic Glam table I set for my guests, with gold pine cones and paper mache reindeer.

I have a set of Paris plates I've been meaning to use so I set a Joyeux Noel tablescape

I also set a table for the church's guests where I used my beloved gold dessert stand and nativity scene

The following are a few tablescapes by some talented women!

More photos of some gorgeous tables are on the facebook page

Blue & Orange Headband birthday

If there is one thing that my daughter Catelin is obsessed with, it's headbands. She is always wearing a headband, even when her hair is in a ponytail, she will still put on a headband. So when it came time to plan her 5th birthday, the theme pretty much picked itself.

I wasn't sure how I was going to pull off a headband themed party but then I saw this beautiful party from the always amazing TomKat Studio and decided to use it as inspiration.

Catelin wanted the color scheme to be blue and I added splashes of orange since her birthday is in the fall and to give it a modern feel. I started with a silhouette image by Jessica Weible Illustrations and a chevron pattern by Sprik Space. I added a blue headband and orange flower to the silhouette.

The indoor playground where we had the party provides invitations as part of the party package but I of course, still had to make my own.

We were hoping to have the party at the same place we had Cate's 4th birthday but they were fully booked so we settled on an indoor playground. The downside to this venue was I wasn't able to decorate as much as I had hoped. I wasn't able to set-up a sweets table as I had hoped since there would be a party in the dining room right before our party. I also wasn't allowed to tape anything to the walls.

I settled on making centerpieces for the tables to carry the theme. The centerpieces were white take out boxes that I filled with orange Hershey's Kisses ( on clearance after Halloween), Oreo pops, hard candy pops and a larger version of the cupcake toppers.

I made Nutella, pumpkin and Oreo cupcakes and put some cupcake picks I designed on top




I made favor boxes out of plain white Chinese take out boxes by folding the tops in and adding a thank you sticker on the front. The girls got 2 headbands and a hair clip. The boys got a stationery set and play dough.

My friend Kit of Cupkits Edible Creations once again did an amazing job with the cake. I had seen some beautiful ruffle cakes online and she took the idea and created such a feminine and elegant cake. She also made beautiful sugar cookies with the silhouette made out of fondant.

When I was looking for Catelin's birthday outfit I stumbled on this chevron print Missoni dress on clearance at Target and it was the perfect match to her party theme!

Happy 5th birthday to my sweet baby!

more photos of the party can be viewed on the Facebook page

Free Printable: Allergy Info Dessert Tags

Our family has been blessed to be allergy free but we still have to be cautious of those with allergies when sharing food. I all too often hear people at parties and potlucks ask if something contains nuts and more often than not, they don't get a clear answer.
At bake sales, treats are taken out of their original packaging and displayed on a table so any allergy info listed gets lost in the hustle and bustle of things. At potlucks, I see the same thing happening-- someone has an allergy question and no one can answer it because the person who brought the dish can't be found.
I bring a lot of food to a lot of places so I've decided to label my things to help minimize any confusion. I've designed 3 labels, "Contains Nuts," "Nut Free," and "Gluten Free" that I'd like to share with everyone. I made them in fall colors just in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving.


Even if your treats aren't homemade, sometimes store bough foods are removed from their original packaging so they could use some extra warning.
Print these out and use your favorite puncher (up to 2 inches) to make cupcake toppers. You could print these on sticker paper and have them work double duty to seal treat bags.

Any way you use them, I hope these help you out at you next gathering.
You can download all three labels here

Enjoy!