Busy Bee Birthday Shop

There's a party going on at Gallamore West!

2011-03-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends! I haven't disappeared, even though it sure looks like it. I've been busy blogging away at our family blog,

http://gallamorewest.blogspot.com

and I've been contemplating what to do because I've gotten really good at regularly updating that blog, but with three little ones I'm not sure I can handle two separate blogs. I've slowly been moving all of my previous posts from here over to that blog. But I don't want to lose all of you following my blog!!

How about you come join me over at Gallamore West?

Pretty, pretty please?

It's Football Time!

2010-09-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

My husband grew up back east though and is a BIG Redskins fan. Since we don't get to see too many Redskins games on TV out here on the west coast, he was so excited that their season opener was on TV out here that we decided to host a Redskins party last night with some good friends to kick off football season. I seriously can't believe I did all that work for a football game that the Chargers weren't even playing in... just joking, I love the guy and I love hosting parties, so it was all worth it. Plus the Redskins beat the Cowboys... ahhh, icing on the cake! I made this banner and the other printables from paperandcake.com. This is the 2nd time I've used one of their printable parties and I LOVE them! I loved being able to edit the text with the printables. We used my husband's football pictures from when he was a kid as part of the decorations! We had two galvanized drink tubs... one for the adult drinks and one for the kid drinks. The touchdown tea from the Rookie tub was a big hit! One of my favorite party details was the green astroturf runner! These little labels marked all the food for the RED Skin potato bar. For dessert I made chocolate rice krispy footballs and Red Velvet cupcakes (since it was a RED Skins party after all!) It was a great night with wonderful friends and I wish the Redskins a great season... almost as good of a season as I hope the Chargers have. Go Bolts! And Redskins :)

Silhouette Give Away!!

2010-08-23T23:35:00.000-07:00

Ever since my friend Jen won the Silhouette giveaway on HowDoesShe.com recently ( I KNOW, she is sooooo lucky!!) I have been wanting one of my own. Tonight on Kara's Party Ideas, one of my favorite party sites, she is hosting a Silhouette giveaway!!! Hop on over and leave a comment so you can try to win it too! Look at what Jen just whipped up on hers for the 1st Day of School today... adorable!

Calling all little ladies!!

2010-07-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Looking for an adorable theme to host your little girl's next party? Tweedle Dee Designs is a super cute blog that has FREE ladybug printables. So, so cute! Flutter on over and print them :) Click here to see all the free ladybug printables!

Me and my SWEET tooth!

2010-07-22T23:28:00.000-07:00

Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE cupcakes. I have spent countless hours in the kitchen trying out different cupcake recipes and countless times I've been disappointed by the results... until I got this book. I realize this book is not new- I got it the minute it came out, just never had a chance to share my love for it until now! Every single Martha recipe I've tried comes out perfect, every single time. Martha gets two thumbs up from this cupcake lover! Even though I know both of these books have been out for quite a while, now that I've had such sweet success with Martha's cupcake book I think I NEED this one now too!

Ooh La La!!

2010-07-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

For the past year or so my life has been a whirlwind... a fun whirlwind, but a whirlwind nonetheless. I'm so grateful to have some time to breathe, catch up on things I've had to put on the back burner, and spend more time with my boys. Way back in March I hosted a French Bistro themed Bunco night for our Bunco group. It was a really fun night... and I'm finally getting a chance to post a few pictures!

Happy 4th!

2010-07-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

4th of July is my favorite holiday... the patriotic colors, the warm summer weather, the way it's soooo easy to incorporate fun for the kids into the celebration. I love everything about it, even when it's celebrated 4 days late due to a sick little boy. So we celebrated a Happy 4th on the 8th! My two little cuties in their 4th of July shirts (from Crazy 8... love that place!) I LOVED these free printables from lilboandco White chocolate covered Oreos... yum! Hostess with the Mostess printables are always fabulous! Alison's brownie pops were a hit! Horray for a healthy boy!! And of course, we ate our corn on the cob in style thanks to Heidi!! Happy 4th of July (on the 8th)!! We loved celebrating with our good friends.

Time to celebrate!!

2010-07-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's hard being the one who plans all the parties because when it's time for my own birthday, who does the planning? Normally we do something nice as a family and I love it, but I don't always spend time with friends or get a break. This year I got everything I wished for... time with good friends, time alone (with a good book and a pedicure to keep me company) AND special time with my family! The tricky part for me was planning something for myself with friends without making it about ME, ME, ME... I didn't need gifts, just time to relax and hang out with some of my favorite girlfriends. I had seen a "Favorite Things" party on a blog forever ago (sorry, don't remember where!) and loved the idea of getting to share some of our favorite things with each other. Throw in a few of my favorite appetizers, favorite drinks and desserts, and of course favorite friends (with my favorite show, The Bachelorette, on) and it was a fabulous night!! I was so relaxed that I forgot to get a group picture and I had also wanted to get a picture of all of our "favorite things" that we swapped. It was such a fun assortment of things, from mascara to crock pot and vegetable steamer bags and everything in between!

Happy Birthday Jake!

2010-06-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

We celebrated our sweet son Jake's third birthday with a backyard sail boat party! It was a beautiful, relaxing day full of fun friends {and little swimming pools, a water table, squirt guns and water balloons}. I bought the Sail Away pdf file from paperandcake.com and loved it! For favors, we had a red, white and blue candy bar for all of the guests, along with books for each friend {from the $1 section at Target!} We love you, our silly sweet Jakers! I used the "Life's a Beach" Cricut cartridge for the front door decoration, as well as the "Jake" banner and lots of little details {sail boats for the candy bags, water bottles, and thank you cards}. The adorable straws above and red/white polka dot cupcake liners below are from bakeitpretty.com. The cute little straw flags are from the Sail Away collection from paperandcake.com. The "fish and chips" were really dolphin and whale shaped chicken nuggets with fries! This adorable sail boat shirt is from myduckduckgoose on etsy. Thanks for stopping by to check out Jake's party!! Have a great weekend!

So behind!!

2010-06-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

I've neglected this blog for MONTHS and MONTHS!! :( Every time I thought about getting caught up, I got overwhelmed... so I'll just catch up with this exciting news and move on from here. Welcome back!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

I have so much to be thankful for this year- a wonderful family, amazing friends, and most of all, my little boys who are my whole world. Here's my sweet Sam ready for preschool with a batch of turkey cupcakes! I think Sam has a future doing something creative... here is the cupcake he decorated all by himself! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

5,4, 3, 2, 1... Blast Off!!

2009-11-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

My sweet son Sam turned FIVE last week!! I can't believe he is already five years old. He really wanted a Buzz Lightyear party and I really did not want to do a character party. I think we came up with a great compromise... little details with Buzz Lightyear and green aliens from the Toy Story movies, and plenty of rockets, space details, and coordinating colors {royal blue and lime green} to pull it all together! Many more pictures and party details coming soon! I had a photographer come take pictures of the party and I should be getting them tomorrow... I can't wait to see the pictures myself!

All Aboard!!

2009-10-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the pleasure of coordinating this fun Train Party that included tons of bright colors, fun activities, and special touches for our sweet friend, Evan. This sign greeted party guests at the front door... Party snacks were set up along the buffet like a train, each snack with a train inspired name. These adorable little candy trains decorated the tables. The birthday banner was a huge train I cut on the Cricut... too long to get in one picture! These train labels from Parties by Hardie were PERFECT!! They come as a pdf file so you can print as many as you need! I used them for the water bottle labels, and tags for the train shaped chocolate candies, the train cookie favors, and to decorate various galvanized tins around the party. Love, love, love these labels!! The cupcakes were wrapped in train themed paper and topped with fondant trains from Sugar Robot on etsy.com Party favors included these train sugar cookies that I made. White chocolate molded train candies I made {and somehow managed to get to the party before my little Jake ate them all!! Silly boy learned how to push a chair around the kitchen to reach up and grab the good stuff!}... And these party bags for the kids! Inside each bag there was a model train kit, a wooden train whistle, and a train lollipop, along with some other sweet goodies. It was a fun afternoon for all of the guests who visited Evan's train station!! And now it's time to move on from trains and on to rockets... my own little man is turning five VERY soon!!

Feeling the love in blog land!!

2009-10-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm a few days behind here (okay, more like a week and a half... because I'm up to my ears tagging TONS of baby clothes and such for this BIG consigment sale next weekend!) so I just now saw that Jake's Farm Party was featured on one of my favorite party blogs, Simply Creative Insanity!!! I'm thrilled that she featured Jake's party- thank you, thank you!!

Happy Fall!

2009-09-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

The boys and I celebrated the beginning of Fall with a Caramel Apple Party! We're still waiting for fall weather here, but ever since I first heard of this party theme last fall, I started thinking of fun ideas. To keep it fun and minimize the chaos, both of my boys chose just three of their favorite buddies to invite over.

On the menu: -Bacon, Apple, Cheddar Quiche -Apple Streusel Muffins -Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches (with apples and pecans) -PB&J sandwiches for the kids, shaped like apples -Apple slices with caramel cream cheese dip

To drink: -Hot spiced apple cider -Chilled apple cider -Coffee (I searched for caramel apple creamer, but couldn't find it... bummer) -100 % apple juice boxes for the kids

Sweet Treats: -Red apple cupcakes -Green apple cupcakes -Red apple cookies -Red apple cake pops inspired by Bakerella

Apple Craft for the kids: Caramel apple making was the main event. I invisioned sticky, gooey messiness, but thanks to the kids being well-occupied with the train tracks upstairs in the toy room, they came downstairs at different times so it was easy to help them make their sweet apple creations. And no party would be complete without party favors! I was going to have them stamp their own favor bag with apples dipped in paint, but since it was too hot to do that outside and I couldn't handle having all those little ones with paint inside, the bags were plain. They were filled with yummy apple inspired treats. And moms deserve party favors too!

There were plenty of fun little details, but my favorite detail of them all is this apple drawing that welcomed our guests on the front door, drawn by my 4-year old party co-host Samuel. Happy Fall everyone!

Featured on one of my favorite sites!!

2009-09-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Shannon, for featuring sweet Kendall's Fancy Nancy Soiree on your site last week! I love Creative Parties and Showers. I seriously check it every single day. So it was really exciting to see one of my parties on there!!!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away!

2009-09-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

How cute are these?! I got the idea from here and thought they were the cutest little cupcakes ever. I made 35 of these for another Back to School training {last month- Somehow I had this saved as a draft and forgot to publish it, so better late than never!} for the teachers at a local elementary school, along with some cute water bottle labels. It *almost* made me miss teaching... okay really, I just thought it woud've been fun to get a fun cupcake like this back when I was teaching 2nd grade!

Rice Krispie pops!

2009-09-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

I love, love, love cake pops! Bakerella really has perfected the art of cake pops... oh yes, it's art! I cleared my schedule last night to make her adorable apple pops (pictures coming soon), but if you're short on time and still want that "cute" factor, why not try these? When baking desserts for a rehearsal dinner a few weeks back, I needed something "cute" but also quick and easy. And since it was 129 thousand degrees outside that day, I needed something that wouldn't melt in the heat. I came up with these little Rice Krispie treats on a lollipop stick. Cut with a heart-shaped cookie cutter and tied with a simple ribbon, these little cuties did the trick!

Give-away time!

2009-09-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

I found a cute new party blog!! This girl has super cute stuff and she's brand new... and she's having a give-away. So hop on over to her blog and leave her a comment by Sunday night to be entered to win!! If you win, I'll make you coordinating cookies for your next party :)

A sweet rehearsal dinner

2009-09-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to bake the desserts for a rehearsal dinner a few weeks ago. The color scheme was so fun to work with and so was the happy couple. I wish I could be as laid back as they are... especially on the night before their wedding!

Apple Cake Pops

2009-09-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Oh Bakerella, how I love her! Everything she makes is perfectly adorable and delicious. These little cuties are also on the dessert menu for our Caramel Apple Party! Hope mine come out half as cute as hers.

It's Apple Season!!

2009-09-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but we are SO ready for Fall here. The boys and I are celebrating the beginning of the season this week with a little Caramel Apple Party! They each chose a few of their favorite friends (and their sweet mamas) to come over for brunch, apple craft, and caramel apple making!! I wish we could've invited more, but we're trying to stick to a budget here... something I'm infamous for being really, really bad at doing! These adorable apple cupcakes are on the menu for dessert. I found them here and love any excuse to make them! More apple pictures coming soon!

Arghhh, Matey!

2009-08-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

These pirate hat chocolate lollipops were so fun to make! 35 of them for a Back to School training for the teachers at one of the local elementary schools. Need some cute favors for your next party... ask me about these little sweet treats!

Sweet Sydney!

2009-08-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had the pleasure of celebrating our sweet little friend Sydney's 5th birthday at the bay in beautiful San Diego. I made these fun little cupcakes and toppers to celebrate. I'll be adding lots of cupcake toppers to my little shop soon... they are so cute, simple, inexpensive, and a great way to add detail to your next party!

Flower Girl Party!

2009-08-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

Every girl deserves a birthday party... even if you are a 27 year old mama! Here are a few details from my SIL's birthday party in San Diego this week. The bright, fun colors were perfect for her casual pool & pizza party. Happy Birthday Mandy!

The King of the Jungle Baby Shower!

2009-08-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my cute little nephew, Zach, is already over six months old... time goes so fast! Back in December, my mom and I hosted this baby shower for his mama. It was full of zebra print and other jungle animal prints, we worked animals into the games, and even the food had names that went along with the theme. It was a fun break from the usual baby blue baby booties! There's the cute zebra striped invitation on the right... The water bottles were wrapped in various jungle animal prints. Food that matched the theme {all with cute little labels on jungle print paper} And these cute little monkey cupcakes were fun too. We had a small candy bar with homemade sugar cookies {giraffes and elephants} for the party guests to take home. The take out containers for the candy were one of my favorite party details! And the cookies were a hit too! Even some of the gifts matched the jungle theme... so cute! It was a great baby shower for Mandy and we're thrilled that it was a success!

Oooh... I'm loving this!

2009-08-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today while blog surfing, I clicked from here and there to there to there and ended up here... Bake It Pretty I have a little wish list of all the little baking pretties I want {need}!!

Looking back... Farmer Jake's Barnyard Party!

2009-08-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

Our son Jake turned two back in May. Because he loves animals, his birthday party theme was a Backyard Barnyard Party. It is one of my favorite parties because of all of fun little details, so I thought I'd share some of those details here on my new blog! This E-I-E-I-O sign greeted our guests at the front door. Our front entry way {along with a couple of accent tables in our house} were decorated with farm decor and adorable farm pictures of our birthday boy! Our loooooong counter in our kitchen serves as the best party/food serving area ever! It has three windows above the counter, perfect for making a banner in three sections, one to hang above each window. Here is the "Jake" section of the "Happy Birthday Jake!" banner. I had fun with my new Cricut cutting out little farm animal accents for the plastic ware that I wrapped in the napkins and tied with raffia. I made these water bottle labels with scrapbook paper that matched the paper in the birthday banner, favor tags, and other party signs. For the farm food we served chicken strips, pigs in a blanket, bbq beans, bbq chips, farm fresh watermelon, farm fresh rolls (yes, I baked them myself!) and of course, Farmer Jake had veggies from his garden to eat :) I made little signs labeling all of the food with scrapbooking paper and attached the signs to kabobs wrapped in raffia. Jake's cake display was by far my most favorite party detail! I made this barnyard using cardboard from our new tv and spray painted it white. I hot-glued craft sticks to make the barn fence and I used hay from the bales we had in the backyard as decoration. My sister in law and I decorated the barn {I used the big Wilton cupcake for the barn!} and I baked strawberry cupcakes {the pigs}, vanilla almond cupcakes {the ducks}, and chocolate cupcakes {the cows}. It was so much fun watching the kids {and the parents!} oooh and aaah over the cake display!

For activities to keep the little farmers happy and busy at the party, we had three stations set-up. The kids made their own paper plate farm animal craft {from Oriental Trading}, they played barnyard bowling, and they fed the farm animals {the paper bags had duck food in them and the galvanized tin had milk bones for our dog!} Opening gifts and taking group shots of the party guests worked great with this barn backdrop I painted {don't look closely... I painted it on our driveway on a windy afternoon while hoping Jake would take a long nap}. And who doesn't love party favors? For most of the kids, I wrote their name on a cow bell {from the dollar section at Target back in January!} and tied it to a kraft bag that was filled with fun farm stuff, including one of my special recipe sugar cookies shaped like a sheep.

The babies had their personalized cow bell tied to a farm animal one-sie. And for the adults I made pig, cow, and roster pops to take home. We love our little Jakers so much and were thrilled that he enjoyed his 2nd birthday party! {Mmmm... root beer floats are ready to be made the background!}

Christmas in July, anyone?

2009-07-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

{This baby shower actually was in December a couple of years ago and I just wanted to revisit it because I've got Christmas on my mind. I know, it's 100 degrees today and my boys are covered in popsicles, but what can I say? I love Christmas!}

I was struggling with hosting a shower at my house during the holidays because it was too close to Christmas to NOT have my tree and decorations up {it's a tradition around here to decorate the day after Thanksgiving}. But I really didn't want it to be remembered as a "Christmas" theme baby shower. So I decided that I would keep my decorations up, but minimize them a bit and rather than hide our Christmas tree, I incorporated my Christmas tree into the shower by hanging the party favors from the tree!

I put away all of our wrapped presents {I do not wait to wrap it all on one night like so many people do, but rather wrap the gifts as I buy them so that they look gorgeous under the tree all December}. Instead I placed the prizes for winning the baby shower games under the tree.

The theme of the shower was "A Baby is Brewing" and it was perfect for a baby shower in the winter! It was a cold, rainy day and we enjoyed hot coffee, tea, and hot chocolate inside my toasty home. These little cups were filled with chocolate covered espresso beans and were the place holders at the dining room table. One of the games we played was "Baby Memory" where the guests had to match words and then won a candy bar that corresponded to the word they matched {i.e. if you found two cards with the word "contractions" you won a package of Whoopers}. It was a great game for our small group of ten friends. We enjoyed petit fours with the letter P on them {because the soon-to-arrive baby boy's name was Parker!} and this amazing cake from this bakery. I truly enjoyed hosting this baby shower for my sweet friend, Michelle. Thanks for taking a little trip down memory lane with me. Now... who is ready for some early Christmas shopping?!

Coming soon... a popsicle party!!

2009-07-31T00:19:00.000-07:00

{photo by vanesscipes via flickr}

What could possibly be better on a hot summer afternoon??

Will you accept this rose?

2009-07-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Watching The Bachelorette is my guilty pleasure. I rarely watch any tv so I didn't even know that a new season of The Bachelorette had begun until about a month into it, but as soon as I started watching, I was hooked! Here are a few of my thoughts on the outcome...

Cupcake, anyone?

How in the world did Ed's short green shorts show up here?!?! Oh wait, those are my two year olds jammies... they're probably the same size. Just joking... best wishes Jillian and Ed {she should've chosen Mr. San Diego though!}

It's a Fancy Nancy Soiree!

2009-07-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

Ribbon, ruffles, butterflies, and mini teacups were all part of this 4th Birthday Soiree {that's a fancy word for party} inspired by the Fancy Nancy book, Bonjour Butterfly!

The invitations set the whimsical, fancy mood of the party. The paper used for the invitations was used throughout the party. Personally I'm a big fan of birthday parties held at home {there would have been a handmade banner and a million paper butterflies hanging from the ceiling!} but during this So Cal summer heat wave, having Kendall's party indoors at a party place was definitely a great choice.

The Birthday Girl wore a Fancy Nancy dress that was absolutely adorable!

Even her shoes were fancy! Kendall's favorite color is purple, so the table decorations were these adorable butterflies tied with light purple ribbon, fancy party beads dangling, and... These mini teacups with purple and pink swirled lollipops decorated the middle of each table. Each lollipop had a cardstock letter cut from the Cricut glued on it. One set of tea cups with lollipops spelled ooh la la! and the other spelled out Kendall!

The birthday cake was served on these fancy plates that matched Kendall's dress {the only item purchased from the Fancy Nancy party collection}.

Of course for a fancy soiree, regular Costco water bottle labels just won't do! I removed the store labels and replaced them with customized labels using the same paper used for the invitations and favor labels. Ribbon tied on each bottle made them extra fancy.

Stupendous Swag Bags... so fancy and fun!

Little scalloped favor labels tied with frilly ribbon {Thanks for fluttering over to my Birthday Soiree! Love, Kendall}

Favors for the adults are always sweet... butterfly shaped sugar cookies {my secret recipe} with a sweet little butterfly embellishment attached to the favor tag and ribbon.

And I couldn't resist posting this silly picture of the birthday girl's mama and I having our moment on the birthday throne!

Bonjour, Butterfly!

2009-07-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

I am sooooo wishing I had a Fancy Nancy Birthday Party for myself! Seriously, Fancy Nancy is THE cutest little theme for a little girl's birthday party and I am thrilled to be able to help sweet Kendall {soon to be 4 years old and seriously the cutest little thing I've ever seen!} fulfill her Fancy Nancy dreams. Here's a sneak peak... more pics coming in a few weeks after the big soiree!

Let the party begin!

2009-07-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

{photo from holiday_jenny on flickr}

I have been having so much fun staying home with our boys these past few years. My days are filled with cookies and milk, playdoh and markers... as well as parties, crafts, cupcakes, ribbon and other such fun stuff. It is so much fun that I'm starting this blog dedicated to parties, crafting, and my sources of inspiration for pretty little things.

My goal is to just keep doing what I'm doing now- small party planning projects and such for family, friends, and friends of friends. So on that note, today I'm opening a little, tiny etsy shop. Really very tiny... click on Busy Bee Birthday Shop samples on the top right and it will take you to my little etsy shop! I have dreams of going BIG someday, but for now I'm going to enjoy every sweet little kiss from my boys and follow my new motto... keep calm and have a cupcake. Hope you enjoy my new blog!

You can sign up to follow this blog on the right side ---> and who knows, I just might start tweeting someday {but since I can't even set my own alarm clock, that would be really wild for me!} Check back often for party pictures, crafty ideas, and more fun stuff!