Fabulousness - Spring and Easter Edition - Part 1

 I am loving all of the spring party ideas out there...Between Easter Eggs and springtime flowers, there are too many fabulous ideas to post, so I am splitting the posts into a Part 1 and Part 2! 

Prepare for fabulous springtime and Easter party inspiration!!!

 

One of the most important events this spring? Well, its the royal wedding of course. My friend Hillary and I were just discussing the possibility of having a party to celebrate the nuptials of Will and Kate...If we did, we would HAVE to get these British inspired party treats from Bushel Peck Paper. I just discovered this shop and I love it! (Side note: Will is totally losing his hair, but Kate is just stunning - I love her clothes and would love to be her for a day....if just for her accent! Cheerio!)

One Lump or Two cupcake toppers...you could even put these in your scones for a tea party :)

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Perhaps you can use these paper cones for fries or "chips" as they are called in England?

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A few cheery party stickers...

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I found this easy DIY paper hydrangea wreath on one of my favorite sites, Lily from Swanky Chic Fete. It's perfect for spring parties, or just to hang on your door for the Spring season!

 DIY details for the hydrangea wreath...

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I ADORE this font from "Kevin and Amanda/Fonts for Peas," one of the best sites for free fonts. I think it's great for spring party invitations or anything fun and whimsical! 

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Lets check out a few Easter ideas....I can't even stand all these bunnies - it's so cute!

I love these bunny printables from Wants and Wishes Etsy shop:

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Or how about these FREE (yes, I said FREE) Easter printables from my gal Jess at Party Box Design. If you are hosting an Easter party, you must take advantage of these adorable printables!

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More Peter Cottontail, this time from Icing Designs ...this is so simple and would be such a cute party favor! Check out their tutorial HERE.

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Finally, another cute DIY project from Swanky Chic Fete...told you she rocks! I absolutely LOVE this twist on a traditional Easter basket. This project is easy and cheap - can't beat that! 

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Seriously....there is so much adorable Spring and Easter cuteness right now I can hardly stand it! More to come in Part 2!!! Have a HOPPY weekend (sorry...I couldn't help myself!)

Blond Brownies

 Today we answer the age old question: Do blonds really have more fun?

Blond Brownies, that is. Like any good, quality American, I love a rich, decadent, chocolate brownie. But sometimes you want something different. So when I mentioned to Mr. Fo that I make "blondies" for our weekend treat, he suggested I make his mom's Blond Brownies. Not exactly blondies, but a similar concept. Since I have never eaten a bad dessert from my mother-in-law (Susan), I took his advice. 

After researching a few recipes, I noticed that traditional blondies have butterscotch chips in them, so I was surprised that Susan 's recipe didn't. But it was just fine without them, believe me on this one! 

(Click on this image to make it larger)

I adore this caramel color! You just know this is going to be good. NOTE: As you can tell, I used an 8 by 8 inch pan to get thicker brownies. This adjusted my baking time...instead of 25 minutes, it was almost 45-50 minutes until the center wasn't liquid. It worked out nicely because it gave the brownies a delicious crunchy crust.

After you let the brownies cool, which is nearly impossible, dust them with a little powdered sugar. You know, just because. Why not, right?!

I mean, are you serious? I want to cry right now for 2 reasons: 1) There are no more blond brownies at the house since we ate them all this weekend and 2) we finished an entire pan of brownies in 2 days. Whatev.

Another exciting (not really) tidbit from my weekend that I thought you might enjoy...lavender nail polish. Take a look at my mani/pedi color:

That's right, it's lavender. It's an OPI color called "Done out in Deco."

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I know you think I'm crazy...but guess what, it's totally in! I have seen lavender nails advertised in many a magazine this season. You don't believe me?

 Check out this link called: 2011's 6 Coolest Nail Polish Trends

You know I will be sporting this for Easter...it's the perfect Easter egg color. Blond brownies and purple nail polish...those were the highlights of my delightfully low-key weekend.

As for the answer to that age old question, do blonds have more fun...I'm a brunette - I think you know where I stand on that one :)

Ladies Home Journal .... brings the spring....

NOTE: Excuse the construction as I work to make this blog BEAUTIFUL! It may look a little odd for the next few days. I appreciate your patience!

A quick post here as I am short on time, but long on inspiration!

I purchased the latest Ladies Home Journal mag recently...for one reason, and one reason only:

Mariska Hargitay aka Detective Olivia Benson graced the cover. If you don't watch Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, well, I am sorry. I heart Olivia Benson...and I bet Mariska is pretty cool too.

Little did I know that Detective Benson would also bring me several fantastic spring and easter tablescape ideas! I will now share....DUN-DUN. (That was Law & Order music)

 Tablescape #1...Easter eggs in nests...perched on cake stands...with branches?! It keeps getting better :)

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Close up of the eggs...click HERE for the Ladie's Home journal tutorial on how to make these fab eggs...

Lately I have been in LOVE with wheatgrass ... I love how natural it looks, and it's perfect for Easter!

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 How cute are these Easter bunny placecards? The template is HERE!

The grass napkin rings are perfect for any spring table setting...

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Finally...the perfect Spring welcome? How about my best friend Kalle's new baby girl Loah...born just a few days ago with a full head of gorgeous hair! Welcome to the world Loah, I love you already...

Hope you are having a great, spring-y week!

Moss!

Before I preach on here, let me just say I really do like Pottery Barn. I like walking through the store and wishing their tablescapes were my tablescapes. Their catalog is excellent night time reading. I give their whole style an A+. But their pricing? It can be ridonkulous. Hence where I got my post inspiration. 

I pulled a Pottery Barn catalog from the overflowing periodical stack on my nightstand. (Sorry Mr. Fo, you married me AND all my periodicals.) As I flipped through the pages, letting the warm Pottery Barn images soothe me to sleep, I am jolted awake by THIS:

Individual Moss Letters for a whopping price of $79 EACH!

Oh Pottery Barn...I laugh in the face of your over-charging....mua-ha-ha-ha..

These moss letters have been used as DIY monogram items at weddings for years now, and I have always loved the look of them. I have also loved the DIY PRICING of these letters. Let's take a moss tour through blogland and compare some pricing, shall we?

Here's a lovely DIY project by Elizabeth Anne Designs. Total cost? Under $10.00

Another DIY version by Project Wedding. Total Cost? $14

Or buy your own pre-made from this Etsy shop....for a total of $30!! Wouldn't you love to have those letters in your kitchen?

While I'm at it, and because it is about to be wedding season in a few months, here are some other gorgeous things you can do with moss. 

Moss balls lining the aisle

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Moss to hold your escort cards...

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Moss used in centerpieces around the table numbers...

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Moss used with candles

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Tell me you are not in love with moss right now? However you use it, save a few bucks and DIY! Pottery Barn is great, but moss letters for $79 each? That's just silly.

Periwinkle and Raspberry Bridal Shower!

Hello all! Apologies for a lack of posting last week, things have been busy here in my world! I am still tweaking my new website/blog and will be debuting it as soon as possible. I'm pumped!

I am also pumped about how my bridal shower turned out this past weekend. The weather in Charlotte was absolutely gorgeous and was perfect for celebrating a happy bride to be. 

So...periwinkle and raspberry are the bride's wedding colors, which is what I did for the shower colors. Here are the official Pantone colors for periwinkle and raspberry:

So, we are really talking about a light blue color and a fuchsia color...you will see many variations of these colors in my pictures, so bear with me. The exact colors are reallly hard to find! 

Let's take a look, shall we?

The main design element to the shower was based off the invitation. I wanted a simple monogram invitation, and Stacey from Etsy really delivered. Check out her shop HERE! Stacey was really great to work with, and even made me custom stickers and allowed me to use the monogram image throughout the shower! Thanks Stacey!!

Here's the invite:

So now you have the inspiration ...

I went a little crazy with tissue paper flowers, but this time, I made them into pom balls. For the front door, I created hanging pom balls to welcome the guests:

 

I also used the pom balls as centerpieces for the tables:

These are all made from Styrofoam balls. Make your individual flowers and use the floral wire to place each flower into the Styrofoam until the surface is covered. I used one big ball per table and elevated it using a pedestal vase. The other balls are styro balls that are simply cut in half so the bottom is flat and lays flush on the table. This is key because you can get different heights and you also don't need to make as many flowers!

 

I loved how they turned out! The mother of the bride liked them so much she took them home with her to use at the rehearsal dinner this summer! I was so glad because they do take quite a bit of time, and I probably would have tossed them due to utter lack of storage space.

Thanks to Stacey, who sent me the pdf image of the circle monogram, I was able to use it in several aspects of the party. Below, as chair decor:

                 

And as mantel decor:

I also used the stickers Stacey created on candles, cups and on the muffin/cupcake wrappers. I ordered these white scalloped cupcake wrappers from the new Etsy shop: CupcakeExpress. Ashley was excellent to work with and her cupcake wrappers are so adorable! 

The shower was at 12 p.m., so it was perfect for brunch food. I did a breakfast bar with a combo waffle bar, yogurt parfait bar and muffins, coffee cake and fruit. I created a blue ribbon backdrop and decorated it with pom flowers. The K and the D were cardboard letters that I spray painted and hung from the wall. Note: I was so pumped to find the spray paint color - it was called Raspberry! Needless to say, it looks quite different than the Pantone raspberry. All of these companies need to be coordinating with each other so we can get consistent colors ha! 

I was really happy how the backdrop for the food table turned out.

To wash it all down, I created a mimosa bar. This was inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Eat Drink Pretty, who created a champagne bar for her sister's bridal shower.

I made K cookies for favors, I think they turned out well! I am improving my royal icing skills, and have found the perfect sugar cookie recipe: Dorie Greenspan's All Occasion Sugar Cookie

I love these napkins that I found at Old Time Pottery for 99 cents each!

Of course, I did a signature Jackie Fo bathroom flower.

And finally, for a little comic relief - I created trivia based on the couple. The winner gets a prize, and you get to see how many people really know the couple!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Have a great week and I will be back with more posts this week!