New Collections Coming to the Shoppe!!!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

I'm baaaaaack :)  I've been a bit MIA over the past couple months, but I've been a busy little bee getting some exciting new things ready for the shoppe. This week I had an amazing photography lesson with Nicole Benitez of Nicole Benitez Photography. I set up four collections to get new pics  and learned so much from sweet Nicole. If you happen to be in San Diego and want to learn how to take gorgeous pics, I would HIGHLY recommend hiring her for a mentor session.

The four collections that I shot are the train party, ahoy, it's a boy baby shower, superhero and vintage airplane. They will be listed in the shoppe over the next couple of weeks but here are some sneak peaks.





I've got give HUGE props to Stevi of Hey There, Cupcake! who made the darling cake and cupcake toppers.  Her sense of style is second to none! Plus, she just opened an etsy shoppe called Hey There, Sugar! so you don't have to be in Southern California to use her goodies.

Can't wait to share the rest of the pics with you! Be back soon!


XXOO

Solemates {Meet my Missoni flats}

Wednesday, September 14, 2011


Yes, I am referring to my feet and my new Missoni flats. A bit ridiculous I know, but I've been dreaming about these babies for quite awhile now and we almost didn't connect. I arrived at my Target at about 8:20 am and the shelves were bare. I was crushed. Until, I saw an employee carrying out a stack of shoe boxes to the hoards of women standing around anxiously awaiting more loot. Everyone stood there a little frozen when he set them down, but not me. I dashed towards the shelves and snagged the box not knowing what size they were. Alas, they were a size 8. Hallelujah! I also got some goodies for the girls but missed out on the dress and mugs I was dreaming of. Oh well!

Even my two year old knows good fashion when she sees it, mission accomplished!

PS: What are your thoughts on buying Missoni for Target on Ebay? Obviously hate the jerks that cleared the shelves just to resell, but are you joining in on the boycott? {For the record, there were 20,000 listings for Missoni for Target on ebay when I wrote this, grrrrrrr!}

Quinne's Rainbow Hot Air Balloon Party

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

I've been dying to share these pics with you. Quinne's Rainbow Hot Air Balloon Party was featured on Hostess with the Mostess yesterday (yay!) It's been so tough holding back these pics from you guys. I'll be going into more detail about the party over the next couple weeks but here is the full post from HWTM.  Hope you love it! This party cost me many sleepless nights and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Most importantly, the kids had a blast!

Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
UM…ya. I am pretty much dying over this ridiculously adorable Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party! Created by talented interior designer/graphic designer Paige of Paiges of Style – in celebration of her daughter Quinne’s first birthday – the level of creativity here is just above and beyond!
The bright, happy colors, the way-too-cute treats (every single one is so creative and can you even believe the level of detail on those cake pops?!), the oodles of DIY details – including a fabulous ruffled burlap backdrop, colorful rainbow ribbon garland, homemade “hot air balloon” table centerpieces, & more – the In-N-Out Burger menu, the matching ruffled rainbow bloomer on the birthday girl … what’s not to love?! As always, Paige tied everything together with coordinating paper details that adorned everything from the french fries to the crayon containers. And guess what…this entire printable paper package is available in her etsy shoppe!
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Read on for more happy, colorful photos + all the creative details, vendor resources/credits, & links to DIY tutorials…
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
Hot Air Balloon Birthday Party
*****

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Paige

::
“When I started thinking about Quinne’s first birthday, I knew I wanted it to be fun, colorful and be a play on the fact that her first year “had flown by.” I have two girls 16 months apart so Quinne’s first year had been quite a roller coaster!
I love the rainbow color palette but I wanted to incorporate hot pink since she is, after all, a girl! I had so much fun mixing the vintage hot air balloon with more modern chevron stripes and rustic burlap.
INVITATION
I think the invitation is so important and sets the stage for the event. I wanted to include a photo of Quinne but didn’t want it on the invite so I used a photo of her on the envelope liner, our friends loved it! See the tutorial here.
GREETING THE GUESTS
To greet the guests, my husband and his mom made a rainbow balloon arch using a tutorial found on Design Mom. Next, the kids got to pick a party hat with their favorite trim and sign Quinne’s hot air balloon book. Just like Charley’s monkey party, I had our guests sign a children’s book that matches the theme of the party and asked them to predict what Quinne will be when she grows up!
DESSERT TABLE & TREATS
I decided to focus mostly on the dessert table. The colorful chandelier was the starting point and I knew it needed to be grounded with a burlap background. I made both of the exposed layer cakes over a few days before the party… talk about lots of food coloring! Quinne absolutely loved her cake, she even took a break from chowing down to give it a hug – so sweet! (And don’t worry, she didn’t eat the whole thing.) I topped the cake with a darling fondant hot air balloon from Modern Luxe Events.
The #1 favorite of our guests were the hot air balloon cake pops. Kris with kCreative Cake Pops exceeded my expectations with the detail on these cake pops. I couldn’t believe the gorgeous colors were and how much they really looked like hot air balloons! Another one of my favorite desserts on the table were the beautiful macaron towers by Baked. Nanci made my vision come to life with the colorful macarons and each color was a different flavor – yum! Nanci also made the gorgeous sugar cookies and red velvet cupcakes, were such a hit. I made the rainbow jello in mason jars (again, over the course of a few days) and used twine to tie colorful mini spoons on the jars.
FOOD
To take the stress of prepping & serving food during the party, I sent my husband out to pick up burgers and fries from In N Out Burger just before the party started. Our guests LOVED it and it was inexpensive and so easy! Of course, I have to label and repackage everything, so I bought striped candy bags from In the Clear to rewrap the burgers and made paper cones to display the fries in. I displayed the food and drinks on an old door I found on the street in my neighborhood (!) and added the concessions stand banner. I spent about $8 to make the rainbow fabric garland that hung behind the food. I love a custom label so I wrapped the water bottles in custom labels that I sell in my etsy shoppe.
TABLES
We set up kids-height tables for the kids to eat at and lined the tables with homemade hot air balloons. I spray painted strawberry baskets brown and used twine to tie a helium filled balloon to the basket.
ACTIVITIES
For activities, we hired a family friend who is a professional balloon twister (aka makes balloon animals) at Downtown Disney. The kids LOVED him and all waited in line for their turn. I also had a custom hot air balloon pinata made by Whack. Now it hangs in our playroom and looks so fun! One of my best friends painted the kids faces and we set up our little bounce house. I designed custom coloring pages for the kids. One of my favorite things at the party was the crayons I separated and placed into tomato paste cans with custom labels.
CLOTHES
I’ve always got to color coordinate our clothes for the party. I spotted this fabric and knew it was absolutely perfect for our party. I sewed each girl a dress (the morning of the party – crazy I know!) and had custom bloomers made for Quinne by BloominBloomers. And my brave husband sported a matching necktie while I pinned on a flower in the same fabric.”
*****
VENDOR CREDITS:
– Party Design & Styling: Paiges of Style
– Stationery Details: Paiges of Style – available for purchase right here
– Photos taken by Carly Taylor Photography and edited by Paiges of Style
– Cake Pops by kCreative Cake Pops
– Macaron Tower, Hot Air Balloon Cookies & Cupcakes: Baked
– Fondant Balloon Cake Topper by Modern Luxe Events
– Custom Hot Air Balloon Pinata by Whack

Which Navy for our Bedroom Walls?

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

We're just finally getting settled in at the new house, almost two months later... Luckily, I actually really like the neutral color the whole house was painted so my hubby dodged the painting bullet. Until, I saw this photo this past weekend...

The kitchen of Sara Tuttle, love!

And now I'm OBSESSED with painting our master bedroom navy blue. I painted two samples on the wall last night, and I think I know which one I'm going to use but I want your opinion on which one.


Alright so what do you think? Old Navy or Bold Blue? I definitely want it to be a deep, rich navy but I don't want it to ever get confused for black. Here are a couple more shots.



Love this pillow but not sure it will work anymore...

And here are some other inspiration shots, I'm so glad we have painted white trim in this house, it makes my heart pitter patter and will surely set off the dark paint. 

Home of Lulu DK, via Caitlin Creer. Definitely adding some whispy white window treatments

Oh, I love this photo, so gorgeous!

Alright so what do you think? Old Navy or Bold Blue?

HUGE sale in our etsy shoppe

Monday, August 08, 2011

I am so excited to have 1000 Facebook fans so I'm having a HUGE sale in my etsy shoppe. And, of course, I didn't want our blog readers to miss out on all the fun.

Are you ready for it? Everything in the shoppe is FORTY PERCENT off. Yep, 40% off! Use the coupon code 'FB1000' when you check out with your purchases. The sale lasts until Wednesday at midnight.

Tweet it, Facebook it, just spread the word!

And, here is one more sneak peak from Quinne's party. I'll be sharing the whole shebang soon, very soon!

Photo by Carly Taylor Photography

And I promise to be back more regularly. We've moved, been sick {twice}, been out of town and most recently, I was helping set up the Hostess with the Mostess Wonderlandia party {which was spectacular}.

XO