First Birthday | Teddy Bear Picnic

 

The Teddy Bear Picnic invitation is now part of my Signature line!

Well this post has been a little delayed in the making- funny how life has a way of speeding up just as things are getting good! We celebrated Eli's first birthday back in September and I wanted to share these pics of all the goodies I put together.

During his first year I tried my darndest to have a mini photoshoot every month, including these adorable shots of E with his giant teddy bear. I love the idea of watching him change in size with the ever constant bear in the background. Of course the older he got the less he wanted to sit still for the shots, but I managed to get 10 out of 12 months!

The cupcake toppers- we had chocolate devils food and apple spice cupcakes- yum!

 
I knew I wanted to incorporate the photos into his party and thus the idea of a Teddy Bear Picnic themed party was born. I lucked out and it was a beautiful, sunny and warm weekend - perfect for having a picnic in the backyard. I gathered up all of the quilts and blankets I could find and made sure to instruct guests to bring their teddy bears to the party.

 

Yummy Ham, Cheddar and Apple sandwiches and my favorite pic of Eli from the day.

With a limited budget I found the picnic idea to be perfect for easy to make and easy on the wallet food choices. I whipped up a couple of tasty sandwich options on mini rolls and made a homemade pasta salad the night before. Paired with some bags of goldfish crackers (E's favorite), apples and cupcakes for dessert it made a perfect casual lunch.

 

For the kiddies I just put out juice boxes which were easy for them to carry around outside. But for the adults I mixed up some Papa and Mama Bear Juice, being careful to label it such so no one was confused which juice was for whom. For favors I took a pinwheel and attached it to a bottle of bubbles which I labeled with custom stickers that went along with the theme.

 

I made this banner following this tutorial from the Moda Bake Shop

A few years ago I made a homemade Happy Birthday banner for my nephew and its blue, white and red color scheme went perfectly with E's party too! I got some red gingham fabric at Walmart and put it over a plain white tablecloth for the buffet table. And of course, as I mentioned in a previous post, I had my super awesome cupcake stand from All Custom Gifts on Etsy.

 

Gah! Can you believe how cute those plaid pants are!?

And of course I had to create a little wall display for the teddy bear pics chronicling E's growth over the year. It was a wonderful day and even though E looked at us like we were crazy when we sang him Happy Birthday I think he had a pretty good time, too.

Check out E's party recap on Catch My Party too!

Bridesmaid Dresses Never Looked Sweeter

What better way to ask your BFFs to be your bridesmaids than with tasty, adorable cookies! They are almost too pretty to eat! (note the word 'almost') These creative confections are from The Flour Pot and are made by mother-daughter team Margie and Abbey Greenberg and at a little over $5 they are affordable, too! They also have cookies for ring bearers, flower girls, and several different bridesmaid dress designs to choose from. When presented with one of these beauties how could anyone say no?



Check out all of their other cookie gifts- including favors. They offer shipping all over the world and even take custom orders!


Found via Sweet Designs

I Heart Thursday

Now I have never been much of a baker or dessert cook. Sure I make the occasional cake or cookies (especially during the holidays) but aside from that I don't venture out of my comfort zone. I am more of a 'fly by the seat of my pants' cook that changes the recipe to suite my tastes, or what I have in the fridge that day so I rarely have the necessary ingredients to concoct a fancy dessert.



Well, let me tell you, I am ready to jump headlong into the world of Pumpkin Seed Mascarpone Mousse And Raspberry Tartelettes, Vanilla Tapioca and Milk Chocolate Lime Cremeux, and Snickerdoodle Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches and it's all because of Tartelette. I can't remember how I stumbled across this feast-for-the-eyes-and-stomach blog, but it got bookmarked mighty quick!

It is written by Helen, a French pasty chef living in South Carolina, who not only creates the most fantastical sugar confections you could imagine, but takes the most amazing pictures of them as well. She even sells some of her prints on Etsy! Even though most of her stuff looks far too difficult for my culinary skills, her 'you can do it!' attitude and great recipes make me feel like I just might be able to pull it off.



So the next time you are wondering what to make for dessert, definitely see what Helen has been whipping up over at Tartelette. I am planning on trying to attempt the cherry pit ice cream as soon as cherries are in season- yum!

images courtesy of Tartelette

Best. Cake. Ever.

Yesterday a good friend of mine invited us over for a belated birthday dinner. He promised to make his signature Chicken Marsala and I promised to bring dessert. I never did have a real birthday cake so I decided to go all out. And of course it had to be chocolate, because for me, there really isn't any other kind of cake.

I went to one of my favorite food sites, Smitten Kitchen, and started researching. Eventually I decided on this recipe and, boy, am I ever glad I did.

Here are all of the ingredients ready to go- I even purchased 10" cake pans specifically to make it. Reconfiguring the recipe to fit my measly 8.5" round pans required math, and I don't do math. The extra few inches of cake were so worth it.

I used two different types of chocolate- a good quality semi-sweet bar and some Hersheys unsweetened coco powder. The recipe called for melting the semi-sweet chocolate with hot coffee, something I had never done before, but I have heard that coffee brings out the flavor of chocolate and makes it richer. Boy, were they right.


Unfortunately I was in such a rush towards the end that I didn't take the time to take pictures of the Seven Minute Frosting, or of the cake before we tore into it.

Sorry- I think I am lucky I managed to get a picture of it at all before it was decimated. Mmmmm I am drooling just looking at the picture. Definitely my new favorite cake recipe.

I Heart Cookies

Following in the Valentine's Day spirit I decided to make some heart-shaped Toasted Coconut Shortbread Cookies from this site (one of my favorites). Mmmmm...they smell delicious! But I am going to be good and limit myself to one. The rest are for my dog sitters (my gracious in-laws) this coming weekend, while hubby and I are away in Rhode Island.

Check out my cute apron too!