Sweet Shoppe Valentine's Day Ice Cream Party

 After the craziness of the holidays, I had started thinking about having a Valentine's Day themed ice cream party for my girls and their friends. As I started looking around for ideas, I saw that Anders Ruff, had already designed a DIY printable package for that exact theme! BINGO! I totally had to grab it and boy was I excited about everything that they had included. There was 33 pages of printable goodness inside! One thing I loved that they created a activity sheet with a crossword puzzle, tic tac toe game, and some room to color. This also did double duty as a place mat too! Even better!!! The backdrop was created by using tissue paper garland from Shop Sweet Lulu. I also purchased the pink stripped paper straws from them too. 

Another activity I thought of was making candy necklaces. I bought the plastic hearts at Target (dollar bins) and filled them with candy. I took already made candy bracelets and cut them so the kids could string their own :)  

As part of the Anders Ruff party package, included these tags. I thought they would would be the perfect size for my fudge and caramel jars, it worked out perfectly! I also stuck a party circle on top of the jar too. 

I found this pretty sparkly heart garland at Michaels for only $3.74! 

My original thought was to buy these ice cream glass jars for the kids to eat their ice cream, but then I realized that was not practical. Sooo...even better, put the toppings in them. I had M&M's, sprinkles, mini marshmallows, malted chocolate balls, gummy hearts, and Twizzlers. These were purchased at the Dollar Tree. 

I used some of the patterned paper to wrap the whipped cream can and added a party circle. You could also add a label which said Whipped Cream but I ran out of time! C'est la vie! 

I love that there was some pre-printed labels includes such as the Pink Lemonade. 

I found these cake batter truffles on Pinterest last week. My first thought was that they looked like little ice cream balls with sprinkles. A few days later I realized they would look super cute in a cake cone. Perfect size too. I love it! They are delicious too! 

This party was definitely SUPER SWEET! :) 

Vendor Credits: 

Printables: Anders Ruff 

Tissue Paper Garland & Stripper Paper Straws: Shop Sweet Lulu 

Photography: Moxie Photography 

New & Exciting Changes!

When I first started this blog, I just wanted to share my ideas and things I had created with others. I wanted it to be for those who needed a little inspiration, just as I have when I look at other blogs. It's kinda a bit of this and that, but one thing that is my passion is planning parties. Even when I worked in corporate america, I always helped out with planning team events & social gatherings. It allowed me to get a little creative with my job. If you look at all the blogs I follow, it's mainly party planning stuff. Whether it be a baker, a graphic designer, stylist, photographer, they all have the same theme, PARTIES! So, after thinking about it for a while, I have decided to change directions and gear my efforts towards styling children parties, baby showers, bridal showers, and even milestone birthdays. My new company name is called Southern Styled Event Design and I will be available to style celebrations in the local area of Charlotte, NC. In addition, I will be posting and sharing party planning tips and ideas.

Thank you for joining me on my journey and I can not wait to celebrate with you! 

Nicole

Cheers to 2012!

I love a good year in review post and reading what has been accomplished in 2011 and also goals for 2012. So, here goes my list!

In the beginning of 2011, I caught the mom-gone-photographer bug. I starting picking up our good camera and learning how to use it. My husband has helped me learn about the technical things and using the camera in manual mode. At first, I had no idea what I was doing but I am learning and I am pretty happy about where I am with my skills. My goal was to document our life through photos but in a more candid way, and I believe I have done that. My goal for 2012 to is become an even better mom-tographer!

In June, we moved to North Carolina. I was a pain to pack it up and move but its the best thing we did this year. I am so happy here. I love our house (even though its technically not ours) our neighbors have been awesome and actually talk to each other. We even had a block party over the summer, lots of fun! Taylor started Kindergarten and she has an awesome teacher. She is doing so well too, she is one of the top 3 readers in her class! She also lost her first tooth, two actually.

I got very crafty and started cooking more this year. I used my crockpot more than ever. I became very inspired this year by reading lots of blogs, from crafts to recipes to photography. Thanks also to Pinterest which has made my list of projects a mile long! :)

Here is a quick photo recap of our year.....

Beach outing in March in Florida - I love her crazy hair! 

My oldest graduated pre-K and started Kindergarten in the Fall 

In June we moved to North Carolina

Movies in the park over the summer

We spent a lot of time at the pool this summer! Taylor learned how to swim :) 

We had a Snow White birthday party for Teagan's 3rd birthday. It was a hit and this party was even featured on Kara's Party Ideas. What an honor! :)

We enjoyed seeing the leaves change in the fall 

We went to fall festivals and rode horses, not ponies, horses! 

Strawberry Shortcake & Supergirl for Halloween 

Both girls take dance class

Working more on my photog skillz

Taylor all dressed up to see the Nutcracker.  It was my first time and we both loved it!! 

 On the kids Christmas break, I hosted a movie in our basement for the neighborhood kids. A Polar Express pajama party! The LOVED it! 

What a great 2011! I didn't realize all we had done. All the fun times we had.

I have lots of ideas for next year and looking forward to sharing them all!

Have a safe & happy new year :)

I'm still alive!

It's been sooo long since my last blog post! Ever since Halloween, it's been non-stop...between working, taking care of the kids, crafting, planning my sister's baby shower, & laundry it seems to never end. I'm amazed how some people seem to keep it all together around the end of the year! But, I know the word "seem" is the key word here. We can't do it all, and although it may seem that way we need to remind ourselves to take a breather. For me, I had to put blogging on the back burner because I had so much else going on.

So, what's been new with me? Well, we had a fun filled fall with several festivals, pumpkin carving, and trick or treating. I planned and pulled off a very successful winter wonderland baby shower at the beginning of Dec. I will work on getting that post up soon! Now, we get ready for winter break. I have some fun things planned, like a Polar Express Pajama Movie Party next week for some of our neighborhood friends. Nothing formal, just kids in their jammies, hot chocolate, popcorn, and The Polar Express. If you have not seen the movie, I HIGHLY recommend it! Maybe bake & decorate some cookies and see the new Chipmunk movie (it looks so cute!).

Here is a photo recap of the past 2 months!

I can't wait to come back refreshed and better than ever in 2012!  

L,

Nicole