Bunny Cakes

Non-Fussy Easter Kiddie Table

Decorating the kiddie table at holiday times is always fun for me.  While I may have one or two elements planned ahead of time, the act of pulling it all together is usually very last minute and experimental. This year I ordered adorable bunny chair backers/treat holders from Pottery Barn Kids well ahead of time, but I had nothing else planned.  With 10 minutes till the guests arrived it somehow came together.  The bright green of the Easter grass and napkins is off-set by the neutral tones of the cups, bunny figurines and pastel Easter eggs.  A hint of pink is also picked up by some of the elements (the bunny noses on the figurines & the bunny chair backers, the ruffle of the cupcake liner under the bunny eggs and the speckled pink Easter egg nestled in the bright green grass) which adds a nice softness to the table. The Bunny Eggs decorated by the older boys and the little bunny cookies on the forks bring some whimsy to the serious neutrel tones.  Nothing is fussy and overly kiddie which is probably why I liked how it turned out so much.

-K

Bottega Louie -- Obsessed!

I love Bottega Louie's *Valentine's Day Window Display*.  I am seriously crushin'.  They make me want to move to LA.  I hope they open up something on the east coast, then I might have a shot at visiting them.  Their macarons look to die for (I might have to send myself a Valentine's Day gift).

-K

Our Foxy & Fresh Thanksgiving

Here's a look at our Thanksgiving starting with the kiddie table.  This year we featured paper foxes made by the boys and I (from a Paper Source kit) with pastel pumpkins and gourds piled high on our kid's table.  Our kiddie table used to be non-existent, but thanks to Oliver & little Brooks we have some new inspiration.  The paper table cloth is from Mari Mi (available at Target) and is a remnant piece I just never threw away--I love the sweet little polka dots.  The gold utensils (West Elm) and gold leaves give the kiddie table a touch of sophistication, which is good because my sister sat there for most of the meal.

 I initially created the centerpiece below for our main Thanksgivng table but I ended up using it on the dessert table.

Instead I went with the bright and fresh clippings from our camellia plant which just happened to be blooming.  I can never predict when it will bloom, but when it does it is always a treat because it is usually long after summer has past.  The camellia blooms were tucked amongst orange, yellow and green variegated gourds.  I opted to go without a tablecloth and instead only used cloth green and white toile napkins.

Our Thanksgiving post wouldn't be complete without a picture of the beautiful and tasty turkey prepared by Chef Miles.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

-K

First Birthday Octosquid Party

I have always been 'artistic', but my 'craftiness' didn't surface until later in life.  This means our twin boys didn't have a fancy first birthday.  They still turned out okay (so far).  So 10 years later when little B's birthday was on the horizon (9 months out) you would think I would have been ecstatic to plan a big bash for his first birthday, but I wasn't.  I tried to figure out the root of my lack-lustre attitude, but I couldn't pin it down.  As his birthday got closer (6 months, 5 months...) I still had no big desire to plan his party.  Then late one night as I sat in front of my laptop waiting for some contractors to finish work in our kitchen I came across a spark.

As I was perusing a bento box website for panda stuff for the twin's birthday I spied a cute little octopus/squid figure.  By the time the contractors finished I had already recreated the little guy (now termed 'octosquid' -- couldn't decide if it was an octopus or squid) in Adobe Illustrator and added a sailor hat and cupcake to make him ready for the invitation.  From that point on the wheels for B's first birthday party were set into motion.  I guess I just had been lacking some serious inspiration.  We did not have a big bash and instead kept the party very small.  Even though the party was small I did not skip out on any details because those are the fun things to do!

For B's *Octosquid Party* we set up a small dessert buffet with brownies, sugar cookies in the shapes of sea horses, lobsters and hearts (my octosquid cookies turned out disastrous so I couldn't use them) and mini red velvet cupcakes--all lovingly baked by me.  The centerpiece of the dessert buffet was an octosquid cake baked by A Touch of Sweetness Bakery--it was so cute and so delicious!  I love having homemade cakes, but I found it to be really liberating to have someone else bake the cake because I got to focus on all the other desserts.  For our birthday meal we had Japanese fare with sushi and gyoza from our local Japanese restaurant, rice noodle salad and regular salad with sesame ginger dressing.  As for the decorations we reused the tissue paper backdrop from the Washington to Rome Goodbye Party (only had to replace the pink and gold with blue crepe paper) and reused the tissue heart (again replacing the pink tissue paper).  And finally the favors were little octopus snack containers I picked up from Target and filled with swedish fish and sixlets.

Here are some pictures from the *Octosquid Party* followed by some more details...

As soon as I settled on the octosquid theme I knew I wanted to bring in some Japanese influence (little B is a quarter Japanese after all).  I started with the color palette making it blue and white with a hint of red.  Then we settled on sushi for the meal.  I really wanted to order from our neighborhood Japanese restaurant, but I figured it blow our budget so I looked at other options (Wegman's and Harris Teeter).  Two days before the party I decided to stop by our neighborhood Japanese restaurant and price things out anyway.  I was really surprised that it wasn't much more than the grocery store options.  Plus by going with the Japanese restaurant I was able to order exactly what I wanted and didn't have to go with a pre-selected platter and on top of that it tasted so much better.  I pre-set the table with our serving platters and headed out to pick up the sushi right before it was time to eat to ensure that it was fresh.  I bought a cheap pack of wooden chopsticks which came 6 pairs to the pack but they were all loose.  washi tape to the rescue!  It only took a few minutes to pair them up and keep them together with a small piece of washi tape.

B's bib was made by my sister with fabric I had printed at Spoonflower.  This was my first time having anything made at Spoonflower and in general I was happy with the result.  The colors on the fabric were not as vibrant as I expected, but the printing still looked good and the fabric was a nice material.  

-K

Our Easter

This Easter we had a nice and relaxing late brunch.  We kept our menu simple which added to the relaxing atmosphere.  For our table I reused the daffodils and just displayed some of the bright eggs the boys made.  A few more colorful touches with the salad plates and glasses rounded out our Easter table.  We also celebrated my Mom's birthday with a surprisingly delicious & lite trifle made with angel food cake, lite cool whip and rainbow sprinkles (sorry no pictures)--it was a major hit.  This was the first year little O (my nephew) was an active egg hunt participant which made it a lot more fun as he delighted in finding each egg.  I am looking forward to when all 4 boys will be out there hunting for eggs.  Here are some pictures from our Easter weekend...I always give my Mom plants for her birthday and the beautiful cupcakes were made by our neighbors.

-K

Fuschia Thanksgiving Table

This year I went with a fuschia color scheme with orange and blue accents for our Thanksgiving table.  As always the color scheme was inspired by the flower centerpiece.  Since I usually wait until the day before Thanksgiving to get the flowers I never really get to plan out what the table will look like.  On the day of Thanksgiving the first thing I do is put together the flower arrangement and then go from there.  Since I don't have to do the cooking (thank you Chef M!!!!!) I am afforded the luxury of time to focus on the fun stuff.  I even had some extra time to decorate the kiddie table.

The napkins are a Liberty print I picked up in London...just kidding,they are actually from World Market.  They have pretty tiny pink, orange and blue flowers on them.  And because of the blue on the napkins I decided to introduce the blue glasses.  I only wish I had some fab gold flatware to set out as well.

For the kiddie table I started with a kraft paper base and then layered on gourds, turkeys, decorative corn and fall-colored jewels.  The table was fun enough to keep little O occupied for a while.  The turkey clip art is from Darcy Miller.  If you tape the turkeys to skewers then you can almost add them to anything!

-K

Thanksgiving Kids Tables

If you are looking for some fun ideas for Thanksgiving Tables for the kiddies check out below.  All you need to dress up a table for the kids are some craft paper (love the fringed edge idea) and some turkeys or boats.  Add some leftover Halloween gourds, some crayons and munchies and you're good to go.  For more Thanksgiving ideas check out our Thanksgiving Pinterest Board.

-K

Our Easter Table

When setting up our Easter table I usually let the flowers dictate the color palette, so I am always at the mercy of our local flowershop (aka the grocery store).  I count on ranunculus being available at this time of year and I am usually not disappointed.  They are the perfect spring flower, bright and colorful with buds that look like they will burst open at any moment.  I cannot walk away from them.  This year I combined two bunches of ranunculus (light and dark pink) with two kinds of tulips (a parrot tulip and a soft baby pink tulip) to create our Easter centerpiece--total cost: $33.  I used our pink glasses and white & pink table runner to pick up the dark pink of the centerpiece and grounded everything on a soft blue linen table cloth.  A few bunnies and washi paper easter eggs finished the table.

The selection of ranunculus at our grocery store...check out the new maroon & gold variety and the spikey green variety!  The peachy color in the bottom picture is dreamy, I may have to use those next year.

-K

Christmas Review

It is hard to believe the New Year is upon us...Happy 2012!  You may have noticed my sparse posting during December.  I wish I could say it was because I was so busy being crafty, but the truth is, I was busy not being crafty.  Hubby and I went on an amazing trip to Costa Rica in the middle of December and the rest of my time was spent shopping, getting ready for the holidays, relaxing, playing Apples to Apples and reading the Game Of Thrones series (I just started book 4).  Oh well, I have lots of ideas for next year.  I did manage to take a few pix of our simple Christmas table, decked with tartan and pine cones.

Here's my favorite picture of the evening...little O donning his new hand knit keyhole scarf from mama...

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

K

Halloween Table & Mini Halloween Cookies

I just realized I never posted last year's *Halloween Table*, so here goes...as per usual, ignore the wrinkles on the tablecloth (Martha would be so disappointed).  

Last year was baby O's first Halloween, so I wanted the table to have a fun vibe.  I set the it with an orange, retro tablecloth from Target and added a centerpiece of Halloween treats (brownies, chocolates & candy corn).  I also added black cat buckets filled with plum-colored leaves and bluish berries.  The best part of the table, however, were the little buckets of *Mini Halloween Sugar Cookies* set at each placesetting.  To make the little cookies I used cookie cutters from a Halloween Linzer Cookie cutter kit (can be found at A.C. Moore).  I am hoping to make more mini cookies this year, other than that I haven't figured out what else I will do for this year's Halloween table.

-K