I’ve been working on a lot of things behind the scene and I am sorry for the lack of posts.

The month of January came and went and I can’t believe February is here.

I received pictures of the cutest 1st birthday party ever.

My little niece turned one and my sister in law did a great job at creating this amazing party !

She decided to go with a Picnic theme and came to me for ideas.

The result was beautiful!!

The pictures are from the talented Helio Campos, a Brazilian photographer that lives in Brasilia.

The party was done by my sister-in-law herself , with supplies from my Etsy store and all the customized party goods done by the talented Tudo de Bom company, in Brasilia.

I loved the colors and the mix of textures, the bird houses used all over the decor, the fabric tulips, my paper straws used on the Pinwheels and all the CANDY, oh boy, they look divine!!

I even spotted my favor tubes.

Hope you are ready for some eye candy images.

Credits:

Paper goods and Paper straws: Clemens Designs

Personalized paper goods (favor tags, invitation, etc): Tudo de Bom Arte e Festas

Photography: Helio Campos Photography

You can see more pictures here

Happy Wednesday!!

A couple of weeks ago I saw this post on Makes and Takes about hot chocolate on a stick and although I’ve seen it in a few parties before, I never done it myself. So I decided to give it a try and make them this year. I wanted to give something extra to the whole idea so when I saw this monogrammed mugs at my local Anthropologie I just knew that the hot chocolate sticks and the mugs were made for  each other.

The recipe given by Jane from Makes and Takes is very easy to follow, so easy I made a batch right before making breakfast.

Here is the recipe as written on Makes and Takes

Hot Chocolate Blocks

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• One 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 3 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped or in chips (Jane note: I actually used 1 cup 60% cacao chips, 1 cup semi-sweet chips, and 1 cup milk chocolate chips)
• One 4-oz bar unsweetened chocolate (broken or chopped into smaller pieces)
• Wooden or cookie/lollipop sticks
• 8″x8″ pan, lined with parchment paper

Heat the cream and sweetened condensed milk over medium-low heat until it starts steaming, stirring periodically. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Stir and let sit for 10 minutes, then put back on medium-low heat and stir with a whisk until chocolate is completely melted and shiny. (At this point you could add some flavoring…vanilla, hazelnut, peppermint, whatever fits your fancy!)

Pour chocolate into prepared pan and spread chocolate as level as you possibly can. Let sit overnight (12 hours or so).

Adding a note here, I used Nestle Toll house Morsels – a bag of the dark and a bag of the chocolate milk  (it was a bit over 3 cups); and also used the same brand for chocolate chunks- dark instead of the unsweetened bar.

Jane also used homemade marshmallows  and I just went with the store bought ones.

I followed the recipe and waited 12 hours before I cut the chocolate fudge into squares.

Here is how they looked:

Once they were bagged and tied with a fabric ( I wanted them to have a rustic feel to it so I used  fabric I had from the Sock Monkey baby shower  instead of ribbon) I placed 2 of them inside the mugs and created a card with directions for the chocolate – used the text from Make and Takes (click here to download the cards with directions) but added a bit of Clemens to it

The result was one sweet gift.

I have to say I loved making it, and the best thing is that I was able to give a little something to  the people we care without going over budget.

Gotta love that!!

Here is the result:

So what do you think?

And in case you still have people on your list you can put this together in less than 24 hrs.

I used mugs from Anthro because it was convenient but your local Dollar Tree can be just as good. What matters here is the thought and the effort you put into it.

A sweet idea, just my way of wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!

For the full post on how to make the Hot Chocolate on a stick visit Jane’s blog Makes and Takes

Rudolph, the reindeer with the red nose…

As I was minding my own business something just flew by me and before I knew it there he was…

The cutest Santa’s helper of all…

He came to help my Joshua deliver some goodies to his friends

and oh was I thrilled…

Just thought I would show you what I created for Joshua to give to his friends.

Once again very budget friendly, stickers and candy, what a kid doesn’t love that?!!

And the fact that Rudolph is bringing it makes it way special.

Have yourself a sweet and Merry Christmas!!

I was asked to plan a baby shower for a sweet mommy-to-be expecting her first baby – a baby girl. The grandma’s to be were the ones hosting the shower and they wanted the party to have a wintery feel to it.

A few months back I came accross a post from Hostess with the Mostess where Jennifer created this adorable Yarn Pom Snowpeople and I knew right away that I wanted to create that for this baby shower too. It was just too YARN cute!!

I went with an apple green and fuchsia color and the first thing I created was the invitation. From there I started to work on the SnowLadies ( so easy to make and came out so adorable!!) and the rest was history

I created a dessert table using a vintage iron Corsican crib.  Once again may favorite cake stands came to play and oh did they play… I just love how versatile they are…a change of ribbon and voila…PERFECT!!

We had baby vanilla cupcakes, baby jars with coconut custard, pink and green M&Ms, Coconut bonbons and Hazelnut bonbons. Delicious!!!!

S’mores wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbons were placed on each table set with a little poem chosen by the family.

I also did a diaper cake ( my second one, YAY) and I love how it came out!And I also made table runners for this party ( NO SEWING REQUIRED) using just fabric, ribbon and a hot glue gun

I had a so much fun creating the special things for this shower and I hope you enjoy how it turned out.

Credits

Event styling, design and printables ~ Clemens Designs

Floral Centerpieces ~ Twin Brooks Garden Center

Happy Saturday!!!

Let me just tell you that timing is perfect, because today I have the privilege of being  part of simply the best giveaway EVER. I’m talking about The Great Grape Glittery Giveaway that’s happening right now at The Purple Pug website.  Kristy put together an amazing giveaway with over $2000 worth of prizes from amazing vendors. The giveaway starts today, and goes until November 11th.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Head over to her site (click on the picture above), see the amazing prizes,and  who knows, you might be one of the 53 winners :=)

Good luck and happy Tuesday!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

I went with the same color I used for the invitation. I made a personalized wreath using fabric and the baby’s name Caleb (yep, Gigi did her thing).

We wanted to have a diaper cake ( my first one) instead of the cake – there were cupcakes instead made by Gabi Walker, and I just love how it all turned out.

I was so excited to show off my newest acquisition - a mirrored dresser that I found at Homegoods ( I just heart that store so much!!).

Instead of having the clothesline with the oneses I decided to use the vintage frame I got at Material for The Arts the last time I was there and display the oneses inside as if they were some Art. There were mason jars decorating the tables and my favorite party item: red stripped paper straw ( love the vintage look paper straws bring to any party)

We sent guests home with chocolate covered honey breads wrapped in ribbon.

There were also  personalized thank you cards with M&Ms and handmade crochet monkeys by avapapernewyork

Pam Rodrigues was in Boston on that day photographing Bella Angel’s 1st Birthday so my dear friend Joyce Walker was the girl behind the lens this time.

Hope you like all the details.

I had so much fun styling Juliana’s party. Congrats amiga on the arrival of baby Caleb ( he is now almost a month old)

If you need paper straws or looooove the Monkey invitation please stop by my Etsy shop

Hope you have an amazing Friday!!!

His birthday party was scheduled for a couple of weekends ago but Irene decided to show up uninvited and we had to postpone for a week later. And let me tell you it was just the perfect day for the most important person of our lives.

I decided to have the party at our own backyard and to cook the food myself – note to self: Catering!!!- dear internet please remind me of this next year .

The theme, as I mentioned here, was airplanes and the color orange. I created the design for the party making paper airplanes out of polka-dotted paper.

I worked with my sister-in-law, owner of Tudo de Bom Arte e Festa and we created a logo that was used throughout the whole decor.

I also wanted to forgo the whole idea of a “dessert table” and went with a “cubed display” instead.

I sent kids home with their own suitcase, hand stitched and personalized with each kid’s name on it. Inside we had Joshua’s favorites:Playdough, markers, stickers, fruit snacks (Cars, of course), and a blank canvas.

We had a blast, Joshua loved every minute of his party. There was an appearance by his favorite characters, Elmo and Buzz. I have no words to describe his face when he saw Elmo coming down the stairs. It was priceless!!

We had ice cream cone, cotton candy, face painting, tattoos, glow sticks, airplane shaped sandwiches, popcorn…so much fun!!!

Hope you are in for a load of pictures…Pam Rodrigues Photography once again rocked my world!

Thank you so much to everyone that joined us as we celebrated our son’s 2nd birthday! You are all very dear to our hearts!

Happy Wednesday!!

WHAT????

Yes, indeed!!

Here are a few more images from the shower

This invitation is now available on my Etsy shop

You can see my full post on this party here and here .

I would love for you find us on Facebook and become our friend.

Have an awesome Friday!!

a year has passed since I did this last…

and I can’t believe that my little baby is turning 2…

as I design the invitation for his birthday party I’m found with one request, made by the birthday boy himself:

Airplanes and the color Orange

Yep, my nearly two-year old son had told me that he wanted an Orange Airplane themed party.

His 2 favorite things in the world.

The airplanes I get it, he loved them since he was a tiny baby ( although in my heart he’ll always be that baby) but how did orange became his favorite color….not sure

The party is at the end of the month and the design for the invitation was not what I had in mind at first.

My first idea was to make something like this

Source here

But then the airplanes I got at Michael’s (over 35 of them) were not sturdy enough and I realized that they would be broken by the time they reached their destination.

So… I went with a more vintage feeling and here is how it turned out – and I have to say I’m in love with orange polka-dotted airplanes

The airplanes were hand folded and I hand stitched each card.

I’ll be adding this invitation to the etsy shop later on this week.

What do you think?

Happy Tuesday!

My inspiration came from her love for Sock Monkey and with that in mind I created the whole design for the party. The shower is in a couple of weeks but I had to show you how the invitations turned out.

This the first project Gigi  ( YES, I named my Silhouette ) and I done together, and all I can tell you is that she is a lifetime kind of partner

I am just bananas over this invitation!!!

This item is now available on the shop.

Happy Wednesday!!