From the Desk Friday: All Pink Bridal Shower

My niece is getting married and we're throwing her a bridal shower!  My sister in law is the brains behind her upcoming shower. She oozes with creativity! With all of her fantastic ideas and great style it's going to be fun! 


We settled on this all pink design for the invitation. It goes nicely with the all pink shower we have planned.

I am re-doing the invitation section on my website at the moment. In the meantime, if you are interested in using this design for an invitation please contact me.

I have already made this new design available on pingg. Check it out!

Mardi Gras: The Floats

I love watching the Rose Parade on New Year's Day. I love seeing all the amazing floats that were made using nothing but flowers, leaves, grains & seeds. Truly that's talent. One year I even dragged my husband and (at the time) our two little ones on over to Pasadena to check out the floats up close. They were quite spectacular. Seeing all the work that went into the details was fascinating to me. 


But since this post is about Mardi Gras and NOT the Rose Parade...


Did you know that Mardi Gras not only has a parade but also floats?!! In doing some searching around the interwebz I realized that Mardi Gras is pretty much a BIG deal in the south. In my little world over here in SoCal, I had no idea how many cities in the South actually put on festive street parades and parties. 

 um. this is kind of scary

tribute to Marilyn Monroe

 love the glitter over the eyebrows

quite the colorful fish

Poseidon

is that chicken little?

maybe another poseidon?

OK, so these are not as cool as the Rose Parade floats, but still very cool. Personally, I think this just may be the coolest one...

 Yes, those are legos! 

Give me a jar of mod podge, a bit of paint, maybe a few legos and I'm sure my *almost* talented hands could make a float, ... right?! 

Mardi Gras Party: Part 2

Once again I am posting about Mardi Gras, only this time it's all about the food! 


As part of the celebration of Mardi Gras, it is traditional to bake an oval cake in honor of the three kings. Aptly named the King Cake. The shape of a King Cake symbolizes the unity of faiths. Each cake is decorated in the traditional Mardi Gras colors: purple which represents justice, green represents faith and gold represents power. A small baby, symbolizing the baby Jesus, is baked into each cake. 

image via Inspire by Design

While custom holds that the person who finds the baby in their slice will be rewarded with good luck, that person is also traditionally responsible for bringing the King Cake to the next party or gathering.

Moving on to other delicious-ness, you can't really have a Mardi Gras fete without the Cajun food. Personally, I am not fond of spicy food, but I am a HUGE fan of the not-so-spicy Jambalaya - and all the calories that come with it!! 

I came across a "Low" Fat-Tuesday Jambalaya recipe that I have saved to make my family for dinner on Mardi Gras! Doesn't this look yummy? Consider yourself invited! 

And shall we move on to the best part? The sweets!  

If you have never tried a Beignet, you really should. The Beignets are famous and practically a staple at a Mardi Gras fete. Just look at the yummy-ness. A pillow of fluffy goodness all covered with powder sugar ... is your mouth watering yet? 

And if the beignets are not enough, what about these festive mask sugar cookies from Crave Indulge Satisfy. They are almost to pretty to eat! 

Or instead of making your own cookies - you can buy these from Etsy! 

Get on it already and plan your Mardi Gras party! 

Mardi Gras Party: Part 1

Mardi Gras is just around the corner so I thought it was fitting to do a post on this party of all parties. 


Is Mardi Gras just another excuse to throw party? OK, so maybe it is. But the history of Mardi Gras has some religious ties...

According to Wikipedia:

The terms "Mardi Gras" "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday" (in ethnic English tradition, Shrove Tuesday), referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which started on Ash Wednesday.


So in a nutshell, Mardi Gras is an all out binge-fest before you give it all up! In that case ... Let the binge begin!

This year, Mardi Gras is on March 8th. Here are a few tips from around the web to help you plan your Mardi Gras event:

You can't very well throw a party without inviting all your friends. To save a few bucks on printing, check out pingg for some fantastic invitations. 

 

 via pingg

Mardi Gras isn't much fun without a super cool feathery mask! Since I am a DIY-er, I found a pretty easy tutorial from The Flirty Blog on how to make mask.

She took this butterfly mask ... 

adorned it with feathers and ended up with this

super cute, right? 

If you are not a DIY-er and simply want to buy a mask, Etsy is your place for envy-worthy masks. You would certainly be the hit of the party with a mask like this

or maybe some else from of the shop of La Plume de Ville.


And, if you need a last minute mask ... how about printing one? I found this fancy printable mask

Stay tuned for Mardi Gras: Part 2 ~ all about the food! 

From Date Night to Urgent Care

Instead of date night last Friday night, I got to spend the evening in Urgent Care!

My little Prince slipped on the wet bathroom floor during bath-time (maybe that travertine wasn't such a great idea). I still have no idea what my little guy cut his head on...

He was admiring his new eyebrow when I proceeded to snap a few pictures.

Somewhat reminiscent of another little guy I made for pingg.com  ...

When it Rains it Pours

Last week a tornado us!

3 kids.

4 different ailments.

***********

Little Miss had a double ear infection.

She is now resting comfortably. hooray for modern medicine!

***********

Mr. Handsome came home from school last week with a fever. It had me a little on edge because this high fever was not going down. Thankfully, before I was about to head on over to the ER at 4AM, his fever finally broke!

***********

Little Prince had a nasty cough.

Thank you albuterol.

Then, Prince slipped in the bathroom and sliced his eyebrow.

Thank you Dr. Z in urgent care for stitching him up.

My little guy's only complaint was that the stitches were not pink!

He WAS resting comfortably until an ear infection plauged him today.

DRAT!!

Sometimes ....

... finding a beautiful bouquet of roses on the front porch is just the thing to brighten my day!

Re-fashioned Dress

In my recent purging efforts I have accumulated a few projects that were either never finished or never started.

This dress is one of those projects:

While doing a little treasure hunting at a local thrift store, I came upon a dress that caught my eye.

It didn't just catch my eye, I was totally drawn to it.

I absolutely loved the colors of the fabric. And I loved that the dress style was Asian inspired. I HAD to have it!

So I bought it knowing it was a bit large ... see?

(I would like to thank my 3 y.o. for taking this picture)

I dusted off the ol'sewing machine, ripped a few seams, made a few snips, and stitched it all back together to make it fit perfectly. All the while channeling the talents of my friend Carrie.

The end result has become my new favorite dress. And it only cost me $4.00.