Mini Pavlova Love

Mini Pavlova Love

Mini Raspberry Mousse Pavlovas 

My mother firsts introduced me to this recipe. I first had a pavlova when my New Zealand friends made it for a dinner party. It was excellent. As you may already know, a pavlova is a  meringue-based dessert. Wiki tells me it's named after a Russian ballet dancer. Well, this recipe will have you and your guests doing a dance of your own. They are light but still melt-in-your-mouth and insanely delicious! The mini pavlova is the way to go! 

Mini Raspberry Pavlovas

The recipe I used for these two parties was found at Team Time Magazine. Get the recipe here. They are fairly simple to do. You just have to watch the meringue very carefully to make sure it's cooked and cooled just right.

You'll notice that the filling got a little warmer than desired from the photo below because they were sitting out in a kitchen that heated up more than expected, so you will want to keep them chilled until just before serving. 

The first time I served these was at a wedding the shower, the second was at a baby shower. The recipe makes 30 individual pavlovas. 

Mini Raspberry Pavlovas

Ready to Pop Popcorn Favors

For my sister's baby shower in Texas, she wanted to give out Garrett's popcorn from her current home in Chicago as treats. Garrett's has been featured on Oprah's favorite things on several occasions. With the popcorn already done, all it took was a cute (Ready to Pop/Thank You for Popping By) label to bring these favors together. We also sent guests home with Extra and Doublemint gum, as a nod to the upcoming twins.

Garrett's popcorn, one of Oprah's favorite things, also happens to be one of the favorite things of the mom-to-be. So the popcorn was ordered to make for these favors, along with some gum favors.

Garrett's is based in the mom's current city of Chicago, so she wanted to share it with all of her friends in Texas. 

This is what I printed on card stock to make for the labels on the favors.

Extra and Doublemint come also went home with guests.

Kara is Ready To Pop (Baby Shower)

For my sister's baby shower, it was time to get creative. I wanted her shower to stand apart from any others I had done. From unique modpodged tiles, to a library of vintage baby books, to cute favors featuring her favorite Chicago popcorn that we brought in for the event, it was a lovely brunch and baby shower!  Here are few of the highlights:

Decor:

Blocks were made in the nursery colors for the mom-to-be to take home with her.

Vintage childhood books from a family friend's collection and other checked out from the library helped to inexpensively take the dining room into baby shower mode.

Vintage photos of the mom-to-be

lanterns and fresh flowers added to the decor

Dollar Store items such as flips flops, kids sunglasses and colored vases were used on the tables, along with homemade blocks and inexpensive 12x12 floor tiles covered in scrapbook paper. 

Food & Drink

The food had a twin theme- such as the Mini Cinnamon Buns-in-the-oven with pink frosting.

A local baker made these beautiful and intricate shortbread cookies to pass and send home with guests.

Brunch consisted of quiches, crepes, asparagus, as well as fresh fruits and pastries.

Special mom-to-be Kara deserved a special shower for her twin girls, Lindsey and Hope!

This printed sign with details of the shower on the bottom now hangs in the twins' nursery. 

Crazy for Cutting Edge Stencils

I am in love with Cutting Edge Stencils. A few months ago I re-did my entry hall with the Zamira Allover Stencil ($37.95). It took about 6 hours, but I love the final result... and love the fact that I can just paint over it when it's time to make a change. I used a white over my already neutral wall color to create this look. As for the mirror on the wall- that was a fun project as well. It's an all-wood, hand-carved mirror I found on Craigslist that used to be pastel colors. I think the black makes it pop. Not a bad deal for $75.

Zamira Allover Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils

For reference, here is the clean slate when we moved in:

For my friend's house, we used the Birch Allover Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils:

Temporary Wallpaper

I have previously mentioned my passion for wall stencils... well you can add temporary wall paper to that list. I am a fan of anything that is easy to put up and just as easy to take down or change. Do I have commitment issues? Perhaps, but that's for another day! Today, the topic is temporary wallpaper. While the color choices and design options seem somewhat limited, I have received so many compliments about my guest powder room. I bought it from Urban Outfitter, and I must say, some of their newer designs I really like (more so than what was available at the time).

Damsel Wallpaper- Aqua Grey

Used my husband's grandfather's antique level as wall decor.

I would not recommend temporary wallpaper in regular bathroom with a lot of moisture, but it's perfect for an accent wall in a half bath! Loving the Chevron gray that is now available for purchase. Below is the Zee wallpaper, although reviewers say it's impossible to match up.

Urban Outfitters Zee Wallpaper

Unique Guest Book

For our small destination wedding, we decided to do a unique and unexpected guestbook. I found this wooden "we" block at Hobby Lobby for less than $20. I bought the special pen and let people write directly on it. When we got home from the wedding, we sealed it with a satin spray finish. Now we keep it on our mantle and love it!

Wedding Shower Favors

The favors for this wedding shower came to approximately $3 each plus taxes. In addition we made custom labels for the brunch table as well as tags for the gifts.

The favors included buckets, bubble bath and sleep masks, all from Target and priced at $1 for each piece. The end result was adorable.

I found label templates for this party through Cathe Holden's food and gift labels. By using photo shop I added some color to the label templates and used the Riesling font to coordinate all of the labels.

Riesling Font on the labels:
I also used the template to print out a "Sara + Alan" sign above the brunch buffet.
We used left over gift tags for the vases on the table. Floating flower buds in the simple votive holders added more height and color to the table.