30 and Fabulous

Procrastination is my middle name. This is another post which is long over-due. My step-daughter's 30th Birthday was last January and it's only now that I got the time to blog about it.

Remote Party Planning

I'm back!!! Yes, I have been A.W.O.L for a long time, so what else is new? "I'm too busy" - is not just an understatement of my real predicament, it's the ultimate lie! Anyway, I just don't feel like blogging. I did make several attempts but inspiration was nowhere to be found. But now that I am back it only means one thing. I'm inspired!

Yes, I'd been busy event planning for my dearest cousin Joey's birthday celebration in Los Angeles, California. No, I didn't go to California. Oh, how I wish. I just organized her party remotely. And yes, there is such a thing. I organized her party with the aid of SKYPE.

Bringing Sunshine on Friday

Friday is my favorite day of the week because every Friday morning at work we have free breakfast.

It's one of the Sunshine Committee's projects to recognize and show appreciation for the staff's hard work.

Bridal Shower Party Favor

Steph's Bridal Shower was not a disappointment considering the effort that her sister and Mom put into it. We did surprise her.

The food was delishhhhh and the party was small but intimate. I cannot take credit for anything but the candy bar. Which to tell you the truth, was a practice for my "real" candy bar for the wedding.

Steph's Bridal Shower Candy Bar

Last May, my step-daughter married her long time love-of-her-life boyfriend in an intimate family wedding at the Barn. But this post in not about it. (Spoiler ALERT! I will have a separate blog for the said wedding.)

This is about the bridal shower that we secretly planned for her. Her favorite sister H (she has only one sister. LOL) and most of her loved ones conspired to throw her this party. It was well-planned and as expected memorable.

I originally set up the candy bar by the window. But since it was around 4 in the afternoon and the afternoon sun was directly shining through that window, I had to find another place to set the bar up because the chocolates started melting.

And I realized the arrangement is too boring.

The first set up.

I made the tags/labels myself that match her Wedding Invitation (Another spoiler ALERT! I will have another blog about the invitations. So watch out!)

 The apothecary jar is a DIY that I found in Pinterest.

Who wants melted chocolate? No one, right? Unless you love chocolate shakes. So, I rearranged the dessert tables where all the goodies are placed and found the perfect space for my DIY Dollar Store apothecary jars.

Setting up the candy bar at the dessert table is perfect since everything sweet and yummy are at arm's length.

And most importantly, the table is placed against the wall so no melting happened.

Hmmmm... that tag is upside down. Didn't notice it until now.

Now, the tag was fixed. I did notice it after I took several photos. LOL

And the poor chocolates were saved from melting. And if ever they did melt... they melted in our tongues. LOL

The Veggie Salad Bar

The Veggie Salad Bar is not your grandma's salad platter. It's not even "old school" salad platter.

It's the level up in "salad" department. So yeah, I upgraded the salad bar into this new "veggie salad bar".

I'm trying my best to live a healthier life style so the salad bar duringHubby's birthday was a refreshing take to set up a different kind of salad platter.

Those cute glasses containers where I put the celery, baby carrots and cuke sticks are votive candle holders I got from the Dollar store.

The green and blue bowls are also from the Dollar store. They compliment the color theme of Hubby's birthday party.

Cutting the pineapple in this particular way made an artistic presentation for the salad bar too.

And I put the dressing in that blue goblet that matches the setting too.

At the end, I realized that this salad bar is not just an upgrade in healthier lifestyle but in party planning as well.

Candy Bar

The Candy Bar is always a big hit in parties especially for those with sweet tooth. I'm not really a big fan of candies but I love setting up candy bars for parties.

The Candy Bar is always a main stay in every party that I organize.

We have a "decorative well outback" and I used it to set the candy bar. Last year when B celebrated his 11th birthday with a Dino Video War Theme party, I trimmed the roof with the personalized birthday greeting banner.

With some cute items I picked at the Dollar store, I came up with some awesome containers to hold the candies.

And I made some personalized party favor bags too.

It's indeed a sweet way to celebrate a loved one's special day.

June Birthday Party 2

Two weeks after my Sweetest's birthday celebration, we had B's 12th Birthday Party. This year I did a MineCraft Theme party.

Just like last year's Dino Video War theme party, I made his birthday invitation which I sent online this time since we don't have much time to mail them anymore.

This year, instead of candy bar I made "S'mores Bar" so we can make our own s'mores.

I got 3 different sizes of marshmallows.

And a propane lamp to toast the marshmallows. The kids enjoyed making s'mores and so did my Sweetest.

And just like every birthday party he had in the past, I made personalized party favors.

I made some "Microwave S'mores Kits" for the guests to bring home. I found something like this in Pinterest. But I made my own version.

I put together graham cracker, Hershey's chocolate bar and marshmallows in a plastic favor baggie and tied it with a string and a special instruction card in MineCraft theme too.

I also made some personalized chocolate candy bar wrappers in MineCraft Theme (same as his invitation card) and wrapped them in Hershey's chocolate bars.

Then I revised the writings on the back of the wrapper. Notice the part where you see the "Ingredients". LOL.

AND I was able to commission my Sweetest to make me a watermelon jug to put the lemonade. I supposed to make the watermelon juice or a concoction of such but I didn't have time anymore so I just put lemonade in it.

B's sisters made The Crawler Cake. As always, they come up with something really awesome and yes, something that B can relate to.

Of course we need candles to blow. I didn't want to ruin the cake so I came up with gumballs in mason jars and put the candles in it so B can blow them to make a wish.

June Birthday Party 1

Yes, this is a very very long overdue post of my Sweetest's birthday party. As I have mentioned in my previous post, I will have two separate posts for that June birthday celebrations so I can share how it turned out.

So here we go. This year we [my stepdaughters and I] decided to make it simple, small and intimate. It was so small that there were only 6 people who attended, including the birthday celebrant. B was not there because he was with his mother.

As usual, the girls made an awesome cake for their father. It was a blue fondant cake with hand-painted flower design.

Aside from the fondant cake, H baked some chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. They were delishhhhh. I had 3 of them in one sitting. shhhh.

Compared to last year's celebration, the desert table is small and simple too. I just made a fruit bouquet as the center piece of the table.

While, I arranged the veggie bar in the center of the dining table that served as center piece too. I put the veggies in individual desert stemmed glasses that served as containers.

Having the salad bar in the center of the dining table was as good way to serve the veggies. It was more convenient for us to fix our salad that way when it is at arm's length.

As for the banner, I didn't make a long one that says "happy birthday". I just make letter cut-outs of my Sweetest's name and laid them down on the desert table for a change.

AND yes, I made his favorite bacon wrapped scallops for appetizers.

I think this is the best party we done so far because we didn't do a lot of preparation compared to last year's.