Jen Bowles Design

Ebby's 15th Birthday Cupcake Crawl: and the winner is...

Ebby and I are fans of Four Weddings and as of this summer, Four Houses on TLC.

When I realized we were making 4 stops on the Ebby's 15th Birthday Cupcake Crawl (Sweet at Downtown Crossing, Cakeology, Finale at Park Plaza, and Georgetown Cupcake), I devised our own version of their scoring.  We had a total of 8 guests completing scoring sheets.  Of course we had an overall impression score, from 1-10.  Then we had three categories:

• Atmosphere
• Taste
• Customer Service

Just like on tv, I had the girls rank each bakery in each category, from 1-4.  I assigned point values to the rankings (10pts for 1st, 7pts for 2nd, 4pts for 3rd and 1pt for 4th) and tallied up the scores.  Very above board, almost scientific really.  Let's see the results...

Overall Impression Score (1-10)

I'm going to share the average overall impression score for each stop:

 

Overall impression average: 8

 

 

Overall impression average: 6.5

 

 

Overall impression average: 5

 

Overall impression average: 8

 

I think we can see there's a two cupcakery race going here...

Now, for the individual categories.

Atmosphere

I told the girls to consider the decor, the seating, and the overall feel/style of each bakery.

Here I'll be listing the total amount of points for each stop for this category.

Sweet had the highest score for atmosphere with 71 total points.  The girls love the pink and brown decor, especially the tufted pink leather banquette seating. 

Cakeology came in 2nd for atmosphere with 59 total points.  The girls loved the bright colors, funky seating and fun touches (hello, Panda trash can in the bathroom!).

Finale had the lowest score for atmosphere, garnering just 11 points.  We were there just before they started seated dessert hours.  That meant we were relegated to the outdoor seating.  The bakery portion of Finale was a bit dark and moody for our scorers tastes.

Georgetown Cupcake came in 3rd place for atmosphere with 35 points.  The space itself is clean and inviting with the cupcakes prominently displayed.  And oh, there's a bedazzled green Kitchen Aid mixer!  However, with plenty of company inside, it felt very crowded and we had to enjoy our cupcakes outside, a few doors down.

Taste

A very important category when scoring a cupcake!

Once again, Sweet scored highest with 71 total points for taste.  The favorite flavors  here were Cappuccino, Honey Lemon and Dark Chocolate.  The cake was moist and flavorful and the cake/frosting ratio was pleasing.

Cakelology finished 3rd in this category with 32 total points.  Chocolate and Red Velvet were popular flavors here.  Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes here, but when forced to choose, other stops ranked higher.  In the small sample I had here, I found the Red Velvet cake to be tasty but the cream cheese frosting was too heavy for my liking.

Finale finished last in the taste category, again scoring 11 total points.  The cold temperature of the cupcakes and the overpowering amount of frosting contributed to the low ranking.  The taste was actually pretty good, once things got to room temperature.

Georgetown Cupcake also scored high in the Taste category, earning 62 total points from our guests/judges.  With the greatest available variety of flavors, we were able to sample several different cupcakes.  Among the favorites were Mint Oreo and Red Velvet (which was actually green for a special Red Sox/Green Monster charity promo).  Least favorite flavor (Ebby & I agreed): Vanilla Birthday cake.  Too plain for our taste.  Everything else was moist with a good balance of flavors.  The frosting to cake ratio was very good along with being light and fluffy.

Customer Service

We all like to be treated, well, like Royalty, right?

Sweet ranked 3rd in the Customer Service category, tallying 35 total points.  Though the shop wasn't crowded, our ordering was disjointed and confusing.  They didn't have a bathroom and did not make any suggestion as to where to go.  The staff wasn't rude by any means, but they weren't overly friendly.

At Cakeology on the other hand, the two staffers were quite friendly and accommodating.  With a total of 65 points, they came in 2nd in the customer service category.  They apologized profusely for the 'Cash Only' snafu (their credit card machine was down) and gave the Birthday Queen a free cupcake.  They also helped me refill the girls' water bottles and had a large, clean bathroom.

Once again, Finale brought up the rear of our scores with just 8 total points for Customer Service.  Apparently Royalty doesn't like being kicked to the curb.  The staffer who served our cupcakes was pleasant but not overly welcoming.  On the other hand, the two times I called the bakery ahead of time (to find out about hours and pre-order cupcakes), the people I talked to were very friendly and helpful.

Coming in first place for Customer Service was Georgetown Cupcake with 68 points.  Apparently I'm not the only one who appreciates free stuff ☺.  All of the staff members we encountered (line wrangler, cashier, cupcake expediter) were very friendly and also commented about Ebby's birthday and the sashes.  Even though this was by far the busiest bakery, the staff did a great job making us feel special.

*                            *                                    *                            *                            *

So there you have it, all of our scores for Ebby's 15th Birthday Cupcake Crawl through Boston.  Did you do the math?  Have you figured it out yet? 

The winner, in a very close race, is...

Final rankings:

• 1st place, Sweet:  177 points
• 2nd place, Georgetown Cupcake:  165
• 3rd place, Cakeology:  156
• 4th place, Finale:  30

Congratulations Sweet!

Sweet certainly has the cutest shop, most adorable packaging and coolest seating.  I must admit though, I thought Georgetown Cupcake would win.  I mean, they have a tv show and delicious cupcakes ~ in the past I've had some less than stellar cupcakes at Sweet.  It was a good day for Sweet though who overcame low customer service scores to take the crown in our very important, very official Ebby's 15th Birthday Cupcake Crawl!

No worries though, I'm sure the other bakeries will be given a chance at redemption during future visits to Boston...especially Georgetown Cupcake!

Over the next week I'll be posting more details about the rest of Ebby's {awesome} party ~ do check back!

Thanks for stopping by,

P.S.  In case you missed it, read all about Ebby's 15th Birthday Cupcake Crawl here.

Ebby's 15th Birthday Cupcake Crawl through Boston

I first proposed the idea of a cupcake crawl as a birthday party theme to Ebby sometime over the winter. 

I guess I like to think ahead.

At first I had thoughts of renting a large van and driving to several local cupcake bakeries here on the South Shore.  Then I found out how much it would be to rent a large van...

So the idea evolved.

We would walk, we would go to Boston, and there would be a British theme.

The British theme was Ebby's idea.  She's very much into all things British right now.  In fact her main birthday gift is a bedroom re-do with a British theme ~ very handy for reusing party goods.  When we realized it was also the Queen's Jubilee and the London Olympics this year, having a British theme to our Cupcake Crawl seemed so on point.

Since I have somewhere around 30 pictures to share from this portion of the party, I'd best get to it...

For the guests' arrival, I set up some lawn games and a photo spot in the front yard.  We lucked out and had a beautiful summer afternoon: sunny, warm but not too hot, and no humidity (yay!!).

With a total of 9 girls plus myself, there was no way everyone was going to fit in one car so once again this year I enlisted the help of my mom, aka Bubbe.

Bubbe and her crew christened their car 'Cupcake One'.  My car was therefore 'Cupcake Two'.

We drove into Boston and parked in a somewhat centrally located garage.  Once out in the daylight, we headed for a shady corner so I could hand out sashes to all the girls.   I made Ebby one that said 'Birthday Queen' and everyone else's said 'Minion' (her idea). 

The sashes were a fun, royal touch and definitely added to our faux celebrity status as we roamed across the city.  I also made British/cupcake themed pins to go on the sashes.  After each stop on the crawl, I handed out a pin for them to add to their sash.

Then it was time to get the Cupcake Crawl started!

Stop #1 was Sweet in Downtown Crossing.

Sweet had a nice selection of mini cupcakes--all the better for sampling and not filling up.  Ebby had a Cappuccino mini which she said tasted like French Toast.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the offerings here, particularly the ample and stylish seating.

Before we could head to our 2nd stop, we had to make a pit stop (visit to the restroom). I quickly weighed the options and sent the girls to the Omni Parker House hotel. 

Turns out when you're wearing a tiara and sashes, you can pretty much do what you want ;-).

Relieved and refreshed, stop #2 was just around the corner:  Cakeology.

There was a brief moment of panic when we saw the handwritten 'Cash only, sorry' sign posted on the door.  Luckily I was able to take a loan from one of Ebby's friends (thanks Ellie!).  Good thing someone had the foresight to bring some cash!

We had Cakeology all to ourselves and they even gave the Birthday Queen her cupcake for free.  Minis were popular here as well.

Also popular--the sprinkles in a jar on the condiment table.

Again, no complaints about the cupcakes here.

Time to hit the road again.

Our journey took us through the Boston Common.  The perfect spot for another group photo...

Natives being photo-bombed by foreign tourists ~ that was pretty funny.

We also had a few reverse photo bombs as I was trying to snap a few candid shots with my phone while we walked...

We finally made it, unscathed, to stop #3:  Finale (which, ironically, was not our last stop).

To be fair, Finale is not a cupcake bakery per se, they are a dessert restaurant that happens to sell cupcakes.  My original plan included a visit to Izzy's Curly Cakes on Charles Street. However, after  stopping by there during my afternoon at the Beacon Hill Art Walk in June I decided it was:  too small, too out of our way and too pricey.  Sorry Todd English.  At any rate, the cupcake selection at Finale is limited but I'd pre-ordered 6 chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.   Two of the girls split a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting.

The pre-ordered cupcakes had been stored in the fridge and were cold when we got them.  They also had a lot of frosting.  These shortcomings would later be reflected in the scoring.

Oh yes, there was scoring.

Not yet though, time for more crawling and photo ops.

But first another bathroom stop at another hotel (The Park Plaza).  Classy hotel bathrooms make excellent impromptu photo booths...

Then, we started our crawling again.

Ooh, a random, tiny fountain.

Soon we were on Newbury Street where we encountered our first cupcake crowd of the day at stop #4:  Georgetown Cupcake!

Yes, even royalty has to wait in line once in a while.  The staff was very friendly and does a great job of handing out menus so you can have your order ready to go.

They all looked delicious.

This was the only stop where everyone got a whole cupcake--and then some.   I ordered  the 9 cupcakes and when the cashier saw Ebby's tiara and sash he gave us 3 more cupcakes at no charge.  Thank you very much!  And then when the cupcake expediter was packing our order she put in another extra cupcake (Mint Oreo) and told me to go ahead and select 3 more of my choosing.  So we got 13 cupcakes for the price of 9.  Now that was sweet!

The seating inside Georgetown Cupcake is limited at best, especially on a busy Saturday afternoon so we took our cupcakes and walked a few doors down to this lovely stoop.  In total defiance of the 'No Loitering' sign, the girls sat down and enjoyed their cupcakes.

As I said, a tiara and sashes allow you to get away with almost anything. 

We did leave a path...

In my defense, it's at least partially an office building and I didn't think there would be much foot traffic on a weekend.  There were 4 or 5 people that came through during the 15 minutes we were there.  Nobody said anything to us--nor did they shoot us any icy glares.  See, Boston is a friendly city!

Georgetown Cupcake was our last stop of the Cupcake Crawl.  Our route back to the cars took us through the Public Garden, another lovely spot for photos.

 

Soon enough, Cupcake One and Cupcake Two were loaded up and headed for home where the party continued.  The Cupcake Crawl through Boston was a success.  As to which bakery scored the highest...come back tomorrow and see!

Thanks for stopping by,

Ebby's Birthday Party: Sneak Peek

It's that time of the year again.  Bowles Birthday week is fast approaching.  Three kids, two birthdays over three days. I'm getting a jump on some handmade decorations for Ebby's sure to be totally awesome blowout bash party...       

Yep, our party decor was inspired by my Spartina 449 tote bag ☺.

More details over the next couple of weeks...

{See posts about Ebby's 13th birthday party here, here and here}

OMG 70! Birthday Party

Last month my mom had a milestone birthday:  she turned... 70.  70?? OMG!!

{not-a-great scanned copy of the invitation, created by me}

I couldn't let such a big birthday go by without some fanfare, so I convinced my mom to have a party.  Now if I was a really good daughter, I'd have planned & paid for it all on my own and just had her show up ;-).  But I'm an only child and I know my limitations.  It all ended up for the best for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that one of my boys was in the hospital for 4 days and was discharged just 72 hours before party time.  Luckily we have some good friends that jumped in and helped out with the final preparations!

My mom did an awesome job with the decorations.  She was awash in a sea of patterned paper, glitter, and punches for weeks beforehand.  Take a peek at some of her fabulous creations...

The centerpiece of the main party table was this beautiful faux cake that my  mom created using cardboard, cardstock, dimensional stickers and loads of ribbon and fun embellishments. 

For each and every guest, my mom made what she called an Honored Guest badge.  She was burning up the lines on her Martha Stewart scoring board for days ;-).  I'm not sure what she had more fun doing:  creating over 30 unique badges or pinning them on the guests as they arrived!       

Here's a shot of the table, all set, complete with white twinkie lights that may or may not be snowflake lights that my mom likes to leave up year round...

Throughout the house there were colorful paper pinwheels of all sizes and patterns.  They added a touch of festiveness and whimsy, just the mood we were going for.

My contribution to the decor was an OMG 70! banner that was strung in the living room.  Please pardon the poorly lit iPhone pics.  I used some of the same patterned paper from the invitations on the front, along with ruffled crepe paper and a lovely pale seafoam mini ball fringe.       I backed the pennants with pages from a vintage children's magazine--published in September 1940, the month and year my mom was born.

Along with my lovely assistants (Ebby and My Cousin Laura), we put together these fun party favors.

We saw the idea at our local scrapbook shop and loved it.  I purchased the specially colored "chocolate gems" at Fresh Market and we got the bags at our local shop.  Once I did some research and made a paper funnel to slide the M&Ms into the bags, the work went pretty quickly.  They are great favors and can be adapted to so many different occasions.  If you're interested, here's some info on how to make them and here's a link to an online source for the 1"x8" cello bags.

Before we knew it, it was time to set up the desserts.  I put myself in charge of making all the cupcakes in my mom's requested flavor combinations.  We had four different cupcake creations:  Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream, Chocolate with Chocolate Buttercream, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, and Lemon with Vanilla Buttercream.  They were all, dare I say, downright delicious.  I mixed and matched recipes from the Cake Mix Doctor books, I checked out 3 of them from the library.  The frostings were all from scratch which is one of the CMD tenets. 

My mom also ordered a cake from a local bakery which was a fun addition.   And it gave us something to stick sparklers and candles in for my mom to blow out☺.

It was a wonderful party, full of love, laughter and lots of sparkle.  When my mom declared it her best birthday ever, I knew we'd achieved success.

 

Ebby's Party: The Mall Scavenger Hunt

{A few weeks ago we hosted a party for Ebby's 13th birthday.  With my mom as my able bodied co-hostess, we threw one pretty rockin' bash.  This week I thought I'd post about a few of the party details.  Today it's the Photo Booth, you can read about the Sweets Table here and the Photo Booth here}

While I was most excited about the Sweets Table/Dessert Buffet, Ebby was definitely most excited about the mall scavenger hunt component of her party.

A mall scavenger hunt may not be an original idea, but it was certainly fun and a big hit with the girls.  Here's how ours worked...

Preparation:

1. Google 'mall scavenger hunt' to get ideas for items to put on the list
2. Mall recon.  The day before the party I went to the mall by myself and walked all over with a notepad and a pen, taking copious notes and plotting deviously difficult items for the girls to look for ;-)
3. Make up The List.  This was fun.  There were 3 different types of items on our list:  things to find/do and photograph, free things to collect, and mall specific questions to answer.  I assigned a point value to each item and had a bonus section in case anyone had extra time.
4. Print out the list and keep hidden.

Now, for the actual scavenger hunt...

We had 8 girls and 2 chaperones (me and my mom) so we split up and took two cars to the mall which is only about 15 minutes from our house.  Once we got to the mall, we met up inside. First, Bubbe let each girl select a handmade paper award ribbon that she had crafted.  They were beautiful and so festive.  Everyone put on their ribbons and I divided the girls up into two teams of 4.   The ribbons also identified the girls as scavenger hunt participants, but in a subtle way {Bonus:  another take home party favor}. It was hard to get them to settle down to pay attention to me but finally I was able to go over the ground rules:  no running, no shouting, be respectful, don't be disruptive.  Then I handed each team a digital camera.  Good thing we have plenty of them around...The rule with the photographs was that at least one team member had to be in each of the photos and each team member had to appear in at least one photo.  I handed each team a list (folded), a pen and a small paper shopping bag.  We synchronized our time pieces and told them to be back in the starting spot (a comfy area inside the mall with a couch for me and Bubbe) in one hour.  Off they went!

Here's a sample of some of the things that were on each team's Mall Scavenger Hunt list.

Photos:

•  Ronald McDonald
• something with Dora on it
• using the hand dryer in a public restroom
• wearing a hat (bonus:  tiara, double bonus: boa)
• trying on a pair of high heeled shoes
• Taylor Lautner
• a bicycle (a real one)
• with a uniformed security guard or custodian
• with a store employee who is wearing a name tag

Free Things to collect:

• store credit card application
• 2 different business cards
• chopsticks
• catalog from a mall store
• a stranger's autograph
• something with the number 13 (because it was Ebby's 13th birthday) on it
• application for mall Kids Birthday Club

Questions:

• how much is a medium strawberry lime up at Cuppy's Coffee?
• how many flavors of Jelly Belly jellybeans are there at the Candy Zone?
• how many skee ball machines are at the arcade?

Bonus items:

• where is the tallest gumball machine in the mall?
• get a discarded receipt from a mall store
• take a picture with Smokey the Bear

Both lists were identical and I didn't tell them anything about going in order or not, just that each team had to stay together.  During my recon visit I made sure to include things that were spread out all over the mall.  I had a dual purpose for that:  make the hunt take the full hour and make sure they got plenty of exercise so they'd be tired for the sleepover part of the party :-).

Ebby's team showed up at the designated 'checkpoint' first, about 5 minutes early,  with every item on the list complete including the bonus items.  The other team checked in right at the one hour mark, missing just one item but with an interesting story.  There were prizes involved (granted, not terribly exciting ones) so there was definitely the air of competition.  I looked everything over  and declared Ebby's team the winners--which only meant they got to pick out the prize bag first.  The other team also got prizes though did have to replace two of the prizes when we realized two of the girls couldn't chew gum because of their braces.  Oops. 

The Scavenger Hunt was a total blast, I would definitely do it again.  In fact, I think Ebby would be amenable to having one every year.  A total bonus:  while the girls roamed (in a controlled and respectful manner) around the mall, Bubbe and I got to relax on a comfy mall sofa. Now that's what I call a good party activity.  In fact, I think I can safely say that the mall scavenger hunt was so good that it can best be described as wicked pissah.  

So that's a wrap on Ebby's 13th Birthday party. Thanks for checking things out and I hope you got some fun ideas for your next celebration!

Ebby's Party: The Photo Booth

{A few weeks ago we hosted a party for Ebby's 13th birthday.  With my mom as my able bodied co-hostess, we threw one pretty rockin' bash.  This week I thought I'd post about a few of the party details.  Today it's the Photo Booth, you can read about the Sweets Table here.}

Another party trend I've been noticing around blogland (or is it Blogland?), is the use of makeshift photo booths.  My favorite one was at Eunice & Daniel's wedding featured this past Spring in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine.  So many inspiring ideas! 

While we weren't having a wedding, I still wanted to do a photo booth.  My plan was to drape a backdrop (fabric, a sheet, etc.) over the zip line in our backyard, set up a camera on a tripod and have at it.  Once again, the rain forced a change of plans.  Our new location:  my office/mudroom. I couldn't find the fabric I was going to use, so I ended up hanging a crocheted white table cloth over our pantry doors.  It wasn't quite as long as I'd have liked, but it was fine.  The girls certainly didn't mind. I was only disappointed because I felt  the photos would've turned out better outside, in the natural light of our green backyard.  Oh well...next time!

A few days before the party I invited my mom over to do some prep work for the photo booth.  She made mustaches on a stick and I made a chalkboard talk bubble. 

For the mustaches, I first downloaded a template with several great mustache shapes.  The one I used was created by photographer & designer Lisa Welge, found on her blog.  Instead of using felt, we opted for brown fun foam.  My mom traced the shapes with a marker and cut them out.  {One note:  the side of the fun foam she traced onto had some marker still on it so I used that as the back side, however, on a few of the mustaches marker sort of rubbed off onto the girls' upper lips.  A pen probably would've worked a bit better.}  I had previously used spray paint to paint some wooden dowels in the party colors so my mom just added stripes to the dowels with acrylic craft paint.  When everything was dry I used Fast Dry Tacky glue to attach the foam mustaches to the sticks.  I love how they turned out, so fun for photos and a take home party favor!  

The chalkboard talk bubble is another idea I've seen on several blogs including Elsie of  Red Velvet Art.  I whipped ours up in no time with materials I had on hand.  Here's what I did:

1. Went to the garage.
2. Found a leftover piece of thin wood, it was like pegboard without the holes...
3. Looked for the jigsaw.  Couldn't find it.
4. Spotted the sabre saw, decided to use it
5. Grabbed a piece of chalk and quickly drew the talk bubble shape on the wood
6. Propped the wood on my pair of $1 metal yard sale saw horses and cut around the outline like a crazy woman.
7. Used my Mouse sander to smooth out the rough edges.
8. Painted with 2 coats of chalkboard paint using a cheap foam brush. Might've even been 3 coats.
9. Let the paint cure for a day then primed it for use by rubbing the whole thing with chalk and then erasing it.
10. Use & enjoy

Of course we needed a few more props. On party day I gave Ebby a plastic tub and sent her to pick out items from our collection of dress up clothes.  Yep, one more reason I still have dress up clothes in our basement, even after the remodel.  She got things like necklaces, hats, sunglasses, wands, crowns, and of course a hot pink fluffy boa.  I'm not exactly sure where that came from...

When it was time to take the photos at the party the scene was controlled chaos to say the least.  The girls had a great time dressing up, writing messages and setting up scenes.  I had a great time watching their creativity and craziness in action!           

Speaking of creativity and craziness, take a look at a few of the group shots.

Take 1:  It's a mustache!

Take 2:  It's a uni-brow!

Ah, goofiness on camera.  The whole reason we had a photo booth ;-) !

The next & final party post:  The Mall Scavenger Hunt

Ebby's Party: The Sweets Table

{A few weeks ago we hosted a party for Ebby's 13th birthday.  With my mom as my able bodied co-hostess, we threw one pretty rockin' bash.  This week I thought I'd post about a few of the party details, starting today with the Dessert Table.}

Sweets tables seem to be all over the internet these days (thank you Amy Atlas).  I see them on blogs, on flickr, everywhere. 

How could I not be inspired?

How could I not do a sweets table for Ebby's 13th birthday party?

Obviously, I had no choice in the matter ;-).

I started collecting inspiration, decorations  and yard sale serving pieces this past spring.  Although the party colors started off as Black & Pink in the very early going, we soon decided on Turquoise and Lime, or as Ebby prefers, Blue & Green. When Bobby Law (aka Mr. Bowles) was at Pearl River Mart in April I may or may not have been in constant phone communication as I sent him all over the store to buy paper lanterns and rice paper daisy decorations... I jotted down menu ideas, presentation ideas and even bought a robin's egg blue flat sheet at a thrift store during vacation on Hilton Head because I knew it would make a great tablecloth.

For the actual sweets, I wanted to do the baking myself.  I figured I'd better not overwhelm myself with too many goodies, so I mixed in several store bought sweets as well.  Pretty much if it was blue or green, I bought it and put it in the Party Box.  In my quest for blue & green goodies I even went a little crazy on a few items, paying $5.99 a pound for 'chocolate gems' (m&m's) in the bulk section of Fresh Market because they were the perfect shades of blue and green.  I lucked out with a couple of items as well.  For example, I found Cookies & Cream Hershey kisses that had a great blue & silver wrapper.  The items I did bake were fairly simple and many could be made a day or two ahead.

On party day there were plenty of clouds around.  I was hoping the weather would hold out for us.  Unfortunately it started raining about a half hour before the guests arrived, forcing us indoors.  Luckily our dining room is painted green so things looked just fine in there.  My mom brought two beautiful bouquets of hydrangeas from her yard, which helped give that 'bringing the outdoors in' feel to the buffet. 

My mom and I set up the sweets table while the girls enjoyed pizza and pink lemonade in another room.  When we finally called them in, they were beyond excited.  We had Ebby blow out the candles on her cake and then we let the feasting begin.  There definitely seemed to be something for everyone.  The best part:  they were able to eat the leftovers the next morning at breakfast.  Really, is there  that much difference between the sugar content of a muffin and a cupcake???

The Menu

• Blue Velvet Whoopie Pies: really red velvet, but we changed the name to fit in with the party theme
• Dipped Oreos: I melted blue and green candy wafers and then coated half of each Oreo, garnished with colored sugar or white candy balls
• Chocolate chip cookie bars: very popular, even though they were neither blue nor green
• Cupcakes: I used yellow cake mix but added pudding mix, vanilla and extra egg & oil per the Cake Mix Doctor.  Topped with homemade buttercream, these were delicious.  Best cupcakes I've had all summer, if I do say so
• Cookies & Cream kisses: 1 word: addictive
• mini York Peppermint Patties
• Tootsie Pops:  I bought a box of 100 for $7.99 at Costco and picked out all the blue & green ones to serve at the party.  Yes, I did.
• Green apple licorice:  another Fresh Market splurge, didn't go over so well but at least they looked good
• Blue & Green M&M's: I bought the dispenser at a yard sale for $2, so fun and built in portion control (hahahaha)

Decorations

• All of the rice paper hanging decorations came from Pearl River Mart in NYC
• I made the Happy Birthday banner last year and plan to put it up every year for Ebby's birthday.  Luckily it looked good with our spread.
• Letter E's were all from Ebby's room.  I repainted two of them to match our blue & green theme--which was fine because we're also re-doing Ebby's room.  Guess the color scheme...
• Polka dot table runner is just a folded piece of fabric from Jo-Ann that I really need to sew.  Love its punchiness though.
• 13 cake topper is two  99 cent wooden letters from the craft store.  Actually the 1 is a sawed off K.  I waited until a few days before the party and couldn't find a 1 anywhere.  I covered them with Martha Stewart turquoise glitter--and didn't serve the girls from that part of the cake, just in case
• Birthday candles are from Target.  I'm pretty sure.

 

Serving Pieces

• White ruffled cake stands, set of 2 from Costco, $9.99.  Love them & wish I'd bought more!
• Glass bead cake stand:  a gift several years ago from my mom
  
• Everything else is a yard sale find.  I spray painted the tray for the Oreos (used a paper doily for serving).  It's just a melamine tray that originally had watermelon slices on it.  I also spray painted a ceramic candlestick to use as the base for the white lace plate stand.  I was going to glue it, but I never got around to it...
• Paper goods came from Target 
  

So there you have it.  Ebby's Blue & Green 13th Birthday Dessert Buffet.  I really enjoyed putting all of the elements together and am pleased with how it turned out.  Next year though:  outdoors!

 

Up next:  The Photo Booth

Handmade Thanksgiving Decorations

eta:  Linking up to my first party--ever! This post may be from last year, but I plan to use the decorations again this year☺

 We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year for 14.

More like 13 for the main course, Ebby's not much of a fan of Thanksgiving food save for rolls.

This weekend I completed two Thanksgiving decor projects.  One exciting thing about both these projects (as least to me) was that I was inspired by my supplies and materials to create them.  I read so many blogs and browse so many books and magazines it seems sometimes it's hard to feel like you're being creative and (somewhat) original.

Project #1:  Napkin ring placecards

This project came about when I decided we should have cloth napkins this year.  I went to the fabric store and bought all that was left on the bolt of the green & white polka dot fabric.  Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough to make generously sized napkins.  But I was going to make it work.  I cut, ironed and pinned the first napkins and brought it to my sewing machine.  My sewing machine did not feel like making napkins.  It felt like make birds' nests.  And by birds' nests I don't mean cozy little twig and grass abodes for winged creatures.  I mean the thread tension was messed up and the bottom thread was way too loose, making a mess and using a ton of thread.  I tried to fix it but then gave up.

Next morning it was on to plan B.  I used the fabric still, but in a different way.  I cut it in strips and wrapped the strips along cut pieces of a wrapping paper roll I had brushed with tacky glue.  While those were drying, time to stamp.  I stamped the acorn image with black ink (I think I need a new black ink pad...) and then colored it with colored pencils.  Next, I punched the acorn images out with a handheld scallop circle punch.  I mounted the acorns on squares of dark brown paper using foam tape for some dimension. Then came the part where I cut individual letters out of 3 different vintage books to spell everyone's name on each individual tag.  I highly recommend tweezers and insanity for this part of the project. Of course I found it oddly relaxing.  I used my Crop-A-Dile (awesome tool, btw) to punch a hole in fabric covered napkin ring and then tied the tag to the ring using a $1 spool of ribbon. Finally, inserting a cloth napkin (that you happened to find in a set of 12 while cleaning your dad's basement) and you're good to go! 

Project #2: Thankful tree

This project was inspired by a few things including my Jenni Bowlin thankful stamp, a yard full of twigs and the empty white thrift store vase that was sitting on top of the bookshelf.  Taunting me.

I knew I wanted to make a mini 'Give Thanks' flag to put in the vase.  I usually like to stitch around the edges but whereas my sewing machine and I aren't currently on speaking terms, I just inked the edges with VanDyke brown ink.  I had some floral foam in stock in my art area and cut a few pieces to fit in the bottom of the vase.  Next I went outside and gathered a bunch of branches.  I worked on the deck table and stuck the twigs in the floral foam while trying to create somewhat of an organic, sort of but not really balanced shape.  I stuck the Give Thanks flag in the foam and headed to my workshop.  To create the 'thankful' tags, I stamped onto cream colored cardstock in a few different colors.  I trimmed off the excess and then mounted the stamped image onto Autumn Splendor paper (Making Memories, on clearance at Michaels for $1.39).  I used my Crop-A-Dile again to put eyelets in the top and then tied some ribbon in a knot for some softness.  In order to be able to hang the tags all over the tree I used earring wires I had stockpiled from a wine charm making phase a few years ago.  I was thinking myself quite clever when that worked out. I'm hoping that come Thanksgiving I can convince people to write something on the tags--something they're thankful for would be great, but also just their name (sort of like a guest book tree) or a quote or some random words of wisdom or humor.  You never know what you're going to get with this crowd ;-)
 

There you have it, my handmade Thanksgiving decorations.  All that's left to do now is make the handmade food to go with it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Pretzel Party!

So I had an idea.
My idea was to make pretzels with the kids.
And a few of their friends.
Over vacation.
I didn't do a lot (or any really) advance planning--ok, I did buy yeast on my last trip to the grocery store, but that's it.
It all came together very nicely on Tuesday afternoon.

Here's how it went down...
#1.  Invite over some pretzel makers.
We had a total of 8 kids.  Ebby had a friend over from the night before, our 2 neighbors, my 3 kids and my pal Marianne from NY was in town and she was able to come by with her two daughters, Abigail and Isabelle.  I love when things work out like that.

#2.  Make some decorations.
This was pretty funny.  About an hour before party time, Ebby and Danielle whipped up a couple of signs and some name tags.

#3  Set up the supplies.
I dug out my stash of aprons and rustled up enough for all of the female chefs.  As I suspected, the boys weren't really interested in wearing aprons .   I also spent some time surfing the net to find a good pretzel recipe--because the 2 kids cookbooks that I have that I know have pretzel recipes were nowhere to be found. After settling on a recipe, I gathered the ingredients, mixing bowls, utensils, baking sheets and individual work mats, a.k.a. plastic laminated placemats
#4.  Let the party begin with some dancing.
#5.  After all of the guest arrive, start making pretzels!    One thing I found out:  during a pretzel making party is not the best time to run out of flour.  I had just about enough for the 2 batches of dough that we made (one for the girls, one for the boys), but not a lot of extra flour for sticky hands...The kids had a great time and made some really cool shapes.  I was very impressed with their creativity and dexterity--Abigail is quite the pretzel dough braider!
#6.  Be impressed with all the pretzel shapes   
#7. Boil the uncooked pretzel dough.  This is an optional step but I highly recommend it. Supposedly it helps with the texture of the pretzels after baking when you boil them first.  Mostly though it was just fun to watch the shapes rise up in the boiling water as they cooked : )
#8  Bake up your creations.  We had cinnamon sugar and sea salt to use as toppers.  We did brush the tops of the pretzels with an egg wash before adding the toppings.
#9.  Admire and ENJOY!