Think pink | printables...

The TomKat Studio created these pink party circles for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Her post truly shows the spirit of why I have been posting so much pink this month. Check it out for the free printable and to read a heart-touching essay from a girl whose mother battled breast cancer.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | and sage green...

Pink and green is one of my favorite color combinations and this might be one of the most beautiful ways I have seen the colors used. The rosy pink and sage green are gorgeous together and the details in this dessert bar are amazing. [Found via Pepper Design Blog]

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | princess party...

This princess party from Glorious Treats is too sweet. It makes me want to call my cousins and play Pretty, Pretty Princess. :) Check out this post for more photos.

These cookies would be perfect for Valentine's Day or a bridal shower...

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | vintage Barbie...

Seeing this vintage Barbie birthday party was a complete flashback for me. My sister and I used to always have these Barbie doll cakes when we were little!

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | candy buffets...

I love everything about candy buffets - the colors, the containers, the whole display and, of course, the yummy candy. Here are some great candy buffets with lots of pink candy...

[Setting the Mood]

[Thoughtfully Simple]

[Hostess with the Mostess]

I am particularly fond of the navy and pink one, since it is the same colors we used in our wedding and for our candy buffet.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Graduation party pics...

It's [finally] time for some pictures from Mr. W's surprise graduation party. :)

Okay, so this picture isn't technically from the party, but it is the reason for the party. This was right after he received his Masters in Public Administration degree from KU [obviously].

And this is when I made him put his hood on. Hehehe! I couldn't help it - you get "hooded" when you get your masters, so shouldn't you haven't to actually put it on at least once? It's a good thing he doesn't read my blog though, because I am fairly certain Mr. W would not approve of me posting this picture!  :)

Now to the actual party pictures...all two of them. Turns out I'm not so great at remembering to take pictures.

Mr. W's mom was my partner-in-crime in planning his surprise party and was even nice enough to let us have it at her house. And to order the desserts. And to take care of most of the other food. And to do a bunch of other stuff too.  She was a very good partner-in-crime. :) 

We decided not to do any decorations. We wanted to keep it very low key, since Mr. W had insisted that we not do anything to celebrate - we try to listen to him at least a little bit. :) It was a good thing we kept it low key though, considering he was wearing a dirty old t-shirt...

You can't see it in the picture, but his t-shirt literally had multiple, large, semi-gross spots on it. I kept trying to casually mention that maybe he should change clothes. And he just kept saying "we're only going to my mom's; she won't care." Oh well, his dirty shirt definitely made for a good story. And it was just close friends and family, so they really didn't care.

We all had a great time celebrating [despite the dirty shirt]. We laughed until we cried talking about getting approvals for craft club, hearing Mr. W's mafia man voice and just hanging out. :)

[P.S. The pictures for the couples' shower are coming soon too. I finally went through them all...get ready, I'm pretty sure it'll be about seven posts worth!] 

Graduation party invitation...

Next up in the series of invitations is the invitation for the surprise graduation party for my husband...

Mr. W just got his Masters in Public Administration from the University of Kansas [hence the colors]. :) The invitations were mailed in bright red envelopes with these labels...

Backdrop genius...

Isn't this backdrop gorgeous?

[from Holamama; found via Celebrations at Home]

It definitely proves that by spending a little time crafting you can make a huge impact with very little money. We all know how to make paper chains. And who doesn't have colored paper around their house already?

Simply lovely...

I would love to have an ice cream social and these would be a great addition: Free "Love and Ice Cream" gift tag printables from Eat. Drink. Chic.

This is one on the sweetest baby showers I have ever seen. How precious! I am filing this idea away in my mind for someday when I am hosting a baby shower.

"Sip and See" library baby shower from Swanky Tables

Party wrap-up...

So, I'm a little slow at getting this posted, but considering all that has happened in the past two weeks, I'm doing pretty good. Anyways, here's a recap of the Girls' Night Party, which went GREAT!

I made these cute plates and mugs for the food table. The idea came from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts (which is totally amazing, just in case you're wondering). Martha said to use china and this fancy paint in these cool little bottles that bakes onto the plates. But I couldn't afford china and couldn't find the fancy paint...so I used dishes from the dollar store and the only paint that I could find with a pointed tip. Needless to say, the paint is already starting to peel off, but that's okay because I have fun plans for reusing the plates (watch for more on that sometime in the future). And even though they might not have been Martha quality, the dishes looked cute and fit with the party's theme of painting pottery.This is the food table (obviously). If you ignore all the stuff I had stashed under the table when I took the picture, the "bride-to-be" sign is really cute! I forgot to take a picture of the sign on the door, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was cute too.

And here is the bride-to-be working on the cups she painted. :)

And here are a few of the other finished products (well before they are put in the kiln or whatever happens next) - mine is the baseball one, of course.

Easy as 1, 2, 3....or not

This weekend I tried my hand at making the pretty in pink pretzels I have been so excited about. It turns out Rachael Ray's three ingredients and three directions were a little much for me...but after a few tries I got some really cute pretzels made. Here's what I learned:

• After dipping the pretzels in chocolate, they were a little top heavy and didn't just "hang off the side of a cooling rack." Instead they tumbled over the side of the cooling rack and got the chocolate all smooched up. So I had to prop the pretzels up in between the bars in the cooling rack. (And, of course, a few times one would fall over and have a domino effect on all of them.)
• In the instructions, it says to let the chocolate set about 30 minutes before sprinkling with sugar...but when I tried to sprinkle the sugar on after about 10 minutes, the chocolate was completely set and the sugar wouldn't stick at all. I ended up letting each pretzel set about 30 seconds to one minute instead.
• The sugar on mine did not end up looking nearly as bright as in the picture. If I make them again, I might use white chocolate instead to make the sugar stand out more, use decorating sugar that is more coarse, or skip the sugar altogether and just use food color to tint white chocolate the color I want. (I think the last option would be really cute for a baby shower since the colors tend to be lighter and you could use a few different colors.)

So I guess I am not very easily discouraged because I am already excited about trying out another Rachael Ray recipe: monkey bread minis. This one has more ingredients and steps, so we'll see how it goes. I guess I'm a sucker for cute, sugary foods. :)

by Vivian Jao, found via rachaelraymag

Decisions, decisions...

I have been thinking about the upcoming girls' night party for weeks now and was sure that I had absolutely everything figured out. I am planning to make cute little red velvet cupcakes in white liners with a border of red sugar and cute cupcake flags. See, I had it all figured out - until I got to the cupcake flags, and now I cannot for the life of me settle on what I want them to look like! I swear I am the most indecisive person on the planet! All I know for sure is that they have to coordinate with the invitations. After coming up with about 317 options, I have narrowed it down to three choices (for now)...

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Party preview...

by Marcus Nilsson, found via rachaelraymag

How cute are these? I am planning on making them for the Girls' Night party in a couple of weeks (except with red sugar to match the color scheme). The best part - they only have three ingredients and three steps. Sounds easy enough to me. :) On a related note, I am quickly becoming a little obsessed with the new rachaelraymag website. There are TONS of fun recipes and entertaining ideas.

Only the coolest website ever...

I recently discovered the website Polyvore via an old post on Hostest with the Mostess. I've never really done the whole inspiration board thing before, but with this site it's so much fun I can't stop! The above inspiration board was made to go with the girls' night invitations I made for my friend's party. Try it - you'll like it!

Girls' night...

One of my very best friends is getting married in less than two months and as her matron (still fun to say!) of honor, I have the pleasure of planning and hosting some pre-wedding events for her. Above is the "Internet-safe" version of the invitation I designed for her girls' night. My mom said she thinks they are "quite stylish." And I would have to say I agree...especially for being designed by an accountant. ;)