Santa was good to me this year, and I couldn’t be more happier with the thoughtful and generous gifts I received.  Wanna know what I got?

My early Christmas present was my new Nikon d5100 camera

My favorite perfume Carolina Herrera Parfum Spray

Dance Wii {need to jump start my cardio, what better way than to dance!}

 A new iPhone 4s and cute phone case.  I was due for an upgrade a year ago, but was holding out just in case a newer model was going to come along.  My family surprised me and made the decision for me, woohoo!  Now I can facetime with my grandson Carter!

And something only an interior designer could want…12 chavari chairs in silver

Goodbye plastic Costco folding chairs hello chavari! {this picture was taken after we had cleared the dinner and all my pretty decorations, but don’t they look great?}

What a difference they made this year at our Christmas dinner for the extra seating.  Should of asked for these years ago.  And they stack 7 high, so they store nicely.

Which I immediately put them to use for my this inspiration pin for our Christmas dinner {I even already had those cute polka dot cups to use}

What I got for Christmas is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

The thing I am most excited about is how I was able to re-create this inspiration picture form BHG that I pinned on Pinterest

Oh how I fell hard for this centerpiece.  I just knew I wanted it on my table.  I saw the boxwood wreaths on sale at Joss & Main online right after Christmas and got giddy over finding them so soon. So I anxiously waited for them to come in the mail.  When they finally did, I was just a tad surprised.  They were smaller than what I had expected, and I hoped that my glass cake plates I already had would work.  Well, two out of the three did, and so I went on a hunt for the third, the smallest one.  Luckily, it only took me 4 stores to find the perfect small glass cake plate, Pier One had just the right size

I was shocked when I found the silver bird at HomeGoods, I wasn’t even looking for it and there it was!  It was if this centerpiece was meant to be

I liked adding a little bit of depth and color when I decorate, so I changed it up a bit from the inspiration picture

I got the little glittery reindeer ornaments at Steinmart, they are just so cute the way their heads are looking up at the arrangement

I used the Christmas plates, glassware, place mats and most of the other stuff on my table I have had from years past.

I even kept the runner on the table that I used for Thanksgiving and just added glittery birds, ornaments, xmas greenery, and some fun green pear candles

I did buy these two large reindeer this year, {Homegoods, where else?} they were just so striking I couldn’t pass them up.  The height and the size works really well in the room, plus I love the pop of color it gives the table

I added just a tad of greenery and glitter to my chandelier

I love the overall look of the whole table

I guess I had an eye for reindeer this year because I bought this white reindeer head from West Elm.  I put it on my buffet where I will put all the desserts come Christmas day

Whew that was a lot of pictures! Gotta love a new camera! But wait there is more!

I am finishing up my hot chocolate/apple cider station that I did last year, which was a huge hit.  I don’t know if I will have time to post about it before Christmas, but here is a glimpse of how it is coming along

Ok, I am done with bombarding you with pictures.  I hope you were able to stay with me on this long post. I don’t know about you, but I am running way behind on getting prepared for Christmas. I still have lots of wrapping to do, {actually all of my wrapping to do, who am I kidding} food shopping and a few decorating details I am hoping to get done.  Christams comes way too fast every year, I would just like for one year to be done by now…oh well, there is always next year right?

Linking up to My Crazy Beautiful Life Holiday Link Party

Christmas tablescape is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

Santa Hat Brownies

“No problem” I said, “I will bring them!”  She was SUPER excited.  I decided to follow this recipe which seemed simpler because they used melted white chocolate chips for the white on the hat

I was hoping to buy ready made brownies, but decided, like an idiot,  to make my own,  Well,  in my baking skills kinda way, from a box mix.   To eliminate cutting out circles from a large pan of brownies,  I decided to pour the batter into mini cupcake pans.  Fail.  Where I went wrong I have no idea. I greased the pan, I pre-heated the oven, I left them in for as long as the box said.  When I took them out of the oven, they were hard as a rock,  and wouldn’t even come out of the pan with a sharp knife! Seriously, I am so not a baker!

I had also decided to make some Christmas styled parfaits that I pinned on Pinterest.

Christmas Parfaits

So while the brownies were baking, I made a red velvet cake {boxed mix}.  Again, following all the directions to a “T”.  Yeah, well, that didn’t turn out so great either.  The whole bottom of the cake was burnt.  Here it was 6:00 in the evening, I hadn’t showered, and the party was an hour and I at this point had NO dessert to bring.  So like I always do when something doesn’t turn out the way I had planned, I try to think of a plan “b”

Since I already had the strawberries, all I needed was a bottom to sit the strawberries on and some type of white top for the hat.  And it came to me.  Oreo cookies!  I always have those on hand and today was no exception.  I pulled apart the oreo cookie very carefully keeping the thin frosting part in tack on one side of the cookie.  I put the strawberry on the top of the icing, and split a tooth pick in half and attached a mini marshmallow to the strawberry.  I really didn’t know how these would taste, so I figured I better display them really cute, since that is one of things I am actually good at, unlike baking.  I added red and green sprinkles to the dish along with some white snow like sprinkles.

Ta Da!  My “plan b” Santa Hats

Now that those were done, I needed to finish my parfaits.  I decided to cut the burnt part of the cake off and cut the good part into cubes.  I used the rest of my strawberries, and added vanilla pudding {colored with red food coloring}.  I just layered them in cute glasses that I had used for my parfaits on 4th of July.  I topped these off with the other half of the Oreo cookie I had left over.  I ran out of vanilla pudding, so I made a cool whip with white chocolate pudding for the remaining parfaits.  Crumbling up the over-cooked-brownies as a topper.

And just in case they might not of tasted good, I made sure the presentation was super cute.  I added Martha Stewart Christmas tape around the small glasses and glued together some felt into a santa’s hat to the plastic spoon like the original pinterest picture.  And then set them on my “go to” cake stands.

These are the only pictures I have of my “plan b” desserts.  Since I was running so far behind, I wasn’t able to get out my NEW camera and take pictures.  My friend took these for me at the party.  And oh yeah, SHE LOVED them.  As did everyone else.  I think it was the presentation really.

But if you aren’t a baker like me, I think my Oreo version works just as good, and is just as cute.  Except either you have to tell people to watch out for the toothpick when they bite into them {like I did at my friends party} or add a little frosting or something to the marshmellow to make it stick to the strawberry.  I think I am going to stick to decorating, and leave the baking to my sister, who really is the baker in the family.

Santa Hat & Parfait Desserts is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

My daughters Shannon and Tara threw their Dad a 50th birthday party awhile ago.  I offered to help them with the decorations and let them have the party at my house, but the rest was up to them.  They really wanted it to be personal, to represent who their Dad was rather than throwing out a bunch of “Happy 50th Birthday” decor.  Being that their Dad is from Oregon, went to Oregon University and is an avid runner we decided to incorporate all of them into the party decor.

It was challenging to put all these interests together without it seeming too disjointed.  I of course knew nothing about the Oregon Ducks, but I liked their colors, yellow and green and thought that was a good starting point.  Since their Dad likes to run everyday, I thought it would be cute to use a running shoe and grass as the centerpieces.

I bought the shoes at the thrift store, and used potted rununculas in plastic yellow pots I got at Michaels.  I placed them on some fake grass to keep with my green and yellow theme.

It was Shannon’s idea to have a card that her Dad’s  family and friends could write down their favorite memory and advice.  I enlarged an Oregon Duck shoe on one side and the questions on the other.  Super easy, I just did it in Power Point. {you can click on any picture to get a closer look}

We put one at each chair along with wrapped silverware with the Oregon logo

I bought this cute sign and put it on a street cone to welcome the guests as they came inside for dessert.

I love to put together a desert table.   But my family will tell you, I tend to go over board and end up with half of the desserts after the party is over.  I can’t help myself, to me it is all about the finished look, like accessorizing a room.  The finishing touches is what makes a room and a party in my book.

I made a yellow paper t-shirt banner in Power Point and added “Oregon” and the girl’s Dad’s favorite saying “fit 4 life run 4 fun” on the front.  I hung it in front of the dessert table with yellow ribbon.

I placed fake grass on the top of the dessert table and then added fun green and yellow candies, cookies and desserts

Had to add in some yellow rubber ducks

Making the boxes to give the table some height was super duper easy.  I used square boxes turned upside down that I got from Michaels, and wrapped scrapbook paper around the sides and then used the shoe print from the advice cards on the top.  I wrapped a yellow ribbon around different size glass jars with the Oregon “O” in the middle.  Simple but cute.

These ice cream cones with cotton candy inside of them were hard to do.  Probably won’t do these again, but they sure did look cute on the table

I fell in love with these Bubble Up soda’s at World Market and the yellow Now and Later’s.  I know this doesn’t really have anything to do with running or being “fit” but dang, they sure were cute on top of the square white cake stand

I ordered these custom candy bars off of Etsy.  Loved these!  It really gave the dessert table a personal touch

I also ordered these custom bracelets for the favors {yes I did favors for a 50th birthday party..ok sometimes I go over board}.

The dessert table really brought all the colors and theme together for the party {I did put some Cliff bars with the other desserts to bring in the “fit”}

I don’t know if I could ever do a simple party, especially now that I found Pinterest,  I am constantly pinning so many cool ideas.  Speaking of Pinterest, I now have a button on my side bar where you can follow me on Pinterest if you so desire.

All photographs taken by the talented Tara Sierra Photography

Oregon Ducks Themed Party is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

The theme was vintage and “C”.  “C” because they are going to name their baby Carter, and vintage because I feel in love with the cute pictures in this 1941 children’s book I got off eBay.

I used the picture on the right for the invitations that I posted about here

I decided I did not want to do the shower at my house.  Having a party at your home is a lot of work, and I just wanted a break from that, so we choose to do the shower at a local resort, The Rancho Bernardo Inn.  They have the most beautiful grounds, impeccable service and the best food!  Plus Shannon’s dad just happens to be the banquet manager, which was icing on the cake.  We choose to do the food outside on this lawn area that had a beautiful fountain as the focal point.

The desserts, games and opening of presents were held in a separate room right off the fountain area.  The fountain area was just so beautiful by itself, it made my job of decorating so much easier.

But being the over achiever detailed orientated fanatic that I am, my design details consumed me.  In my head I knew that I wouldn’t have to worry about setting up, cooking the food and serving it, so I really focused on the details, making myself crazy with a new idea everyday.  Case in point.  I had been eying this chair idea for awhile that I saw on Hostess with the Mostess. 

So two days before the shower, I pulled the trigger and decided I would do this to the chairs.  Big mistake!  Evidently I hadn’t really thought about how many strips of ribbon and fabric each chair would need.  12 strips per chair, and I had 40 chairs.  I had already bought the fabric and ribbon when I realized how much work this was going to be, so rather than scrap the idea, I decided to just do every other chair.  But let me tell you, that is A LOT of strips, 240 to be exact.  Not to mention the time it took us to tie each strip to the chair in a very short window of setting up.  But you know what?  It was worth it.  It really just added the extra touch I wanted to the tables.

I used bright colors so that it wouldn’t look too weddingish.  The hydrangeas are a silk pomander that I sell in my Etsy shop.  We just didn’t have the time to tie the knots perfectly and cut the ends off, so we went with the more casual look than what was in the inspiration picture.  Seriously, this was SO time consuming, we are lucky to have pulled it off.

I wanted to incorporate vintage children’s books for the center pieces, but finding the right ones and the quantity was turning out to be a challenge.  So I made my own.  I got fake books from Michaels, and sprayed them Heirloom white and then lightly antiqued them with brown acrylic paint.  I printed out a scaled down version of the front of the vintage book I used for the invitation, and sprayed glued them to the front and back of the fake book.

I got the cutest blue pitchers from Ikea and wrapped some lace and yellow raffia around them and centered a handmade “c” button I bought  from LiDDesignsSupplies on Etsy in the middle .

I used the florist at The Rancho Bernardo Inn, Inn Florals, to make all the arrangements, boy did she do a wonderful job!  She got my concept and then some.  I couldn’t of been happier with her design!

On each table I laid a different “c” letter that I either made myself or bought off of Etsy.  I also put two little white mini milk jugs on each side of the books with flowers and added burlap runners.

The favors.  I loved how they turned out!  I wanted to come up with a favor that started with a “c”.   I couldn’t believe it when I found these memo coffee cups from Fishseddy.com I had seen these fun cookies around Easter and thought it was such a cool idea!

So I contacted Gina at Jimemmajack Cookies who makes them.   I wanted to find out if she could make me a “c” to put on the side of the mug.  After talking, we decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to do because of high risk of breakage transporting them to the shower, so she came up with another idea.  She actually printed the shower invitation on a cookie instead.  All edible of course. Oh.My.Gosh.  They turned out so cute!

I added a candle to the coffee mug, wrapped it in cellophane and tied it with ribbon and a crocheted blue flower from DoilyMania on Etsy.

I inserted a “thank you” tag that I made inside the cup and then placed them on the tables.

I wanted to do something unusual for the guest book.  I had seen this idea of using a wedding puzzle guest book on Bellapuzzlestoo on Etsy.

But these were specifically for a wedding.   I needed to come up with a baby shower puzzle guest book version.   So I bought two kids puzzles from Michaels that had large puzzle pieces

I flipped them over and attached a tag I made with instructions on what to do with them.  I put them on the folded napkin at each seat.

I laid special ink pens that don’t run or smudge around the table for the guests to write on the puzzle pieces. Now when Carter does these puzzles, he can have his mom or dad read to him the messages on the back.  Such a great keepsake.

For fun, I had mimosas and apple juice tray passed in glass baby bottles that I got at Big Lots.  I cut off the top of the nipples and inserted blue stripped straws.

In addition to the mimosas, we had fresh lemonade and ice tea

and these wonderful strawberry spritzers that were so refreshing tasting.

And the food?  To die for!  Here is a small sample of what they served…makes me hungry looking at it. {I had seconds of that chicken tortilla soup, yummy!}

Since I have already made this post so darn long, I will do a separate post on the second half of the baby shower where we had the most beautiful dessert table and room setting.  But for now, I can’t help myself but to leave you with a picture of  Carter’s mom and dad to be and more pictures of the shower.

“C” is for Carter Baby Shower is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

My idea was to make a flash card style invite.  I found the perfect vintage picture for the front of the card which got the ball rolling on the rest of the design.  Which was my first problem.  I am no graphic designer, and pulling graphics and text together seamlessly is not as easy as it looks.  I seriously must of made 20 different styles, colors and fonts before I settle on the final style.

The front looks like this {they have already picked out the baby’s name}

The backside was the most difficult side.  Getting your important facts on there without making it look like a bunch of text on a page  is hard.  Not to mention that there are so many fonts to choose from, finding the right one was overwhelming.

I think it looks vintage and similar to a flash card.  Spending 26 hours on the design and layout, not so good.

The theme of the shower is book-themed.  Shannon is a teacher and loves books.  So as you can read on the invite, I suggested to bring a children’s book in lieu of a card.   I enclosed a book plate I made to stick inside the book.  This task was probably the easiest, I printed my design out on 8 1/2″  x 11 ” label paper and then cut them to size.

Now on to the envelope.  A while back I had ordered a shirt from Anthropologie.  When I got my package in the mail, they had put my receipt into the cutest white paper envelope that was sewn together.  I even saved it because I thought it was so genius.

{you can tell I have had it for awhile.  It is looking rather tattered and the string is missing for the clasp}

I thought it would be cute to sew the envelope for the invite just like Anthro did but use writing paper instead. Well, that turned out to be a challenge.  I first bought some kids writing paper at the dollar store and the size was all wrong.  Luckily, my daughter Tiffany, who is creative and a whiz on the computer, created me the perfect writing paper.  She even found a cursive font to match and typed in all the addresses! I I had to do was print the paper and fold.  That was a life saver.

Then it was time to sew.  Stupid me, I decided to use card stock for the inside lining.  Big mistake.  I should of gone with what Anthro did and used regular weight paper. Much easier to work with and less bulky.  I couldn’t find the right color in regular size paper, so I bought 12 x 12 scrap booking paper.  Luckily, Shannon came over and offered to  cut the paper to size for me.  Another life saver.

Enter my basic, I don’t know how it works, sewing machine.  It decided to have an issue with the bobbin and needless to say, what should of taken me an hour took me four hours! I kept having to re-thread the bobbin every time I stopped a stitch.  UGH! Nice words were not being said when I was sewing these to say the least.

Honestly, I was attempting a zig zag pattern, kind of looks like a zig zag. {this is a mock up envelope, didn’t think it would be a good idea to post real addresses for the WWW to see}

You can kind of see where my bobbin was messing up on the side seam, but oh well right?  I just had to give in and let them be what they were.  I had to do 50 of them, and they never would of been mailed out if I focused on that and tried to make them perfect.

I ended up using glue tape to close the darn thing.  I even went to the post office to make sure it was up to their standards for mailing.  I don’t know how well they are going to hold up going through the post office, hopefully everyone will get it in one piece.

Overall I am ok with how they turned out.  So glad they are done and that I stuck with it.  But lesson learned, never again will I attempt to make 50 invitations and envelopes.  Being an over achiever is over rated, I must stop.   I will leave the card making to the experts and buy them next time.

On a side note.  I had forgotten to post about my wonderful Mother’s day, so I will leave you with some pictures of me and my girls from our day.

Me and my youngest daughter Tiffany

Tiffany, pregnant Shannon and me

All three of my beauties, Tara, Shannon and Tiffany.

Then here we are walking to our car from brunch, and Tara is being silly behind the camera telling her sisters to act like she is the paparazzi, so the girls are all posing for her and then..

here is me yelling at Tara.   She was walking backwards snapping her paparazzi pictures,  telling the girls to pose like this and like that, really getting into the moment.  But little did she know, there was a golf cart right behind her full of people that she was about to walk into!  I had to yell at her to stop before she fell over backwards into the golf cart.  It was fun, and made for a good laugh.

I couldn’t ask for better daughters, they treated me like a queen on Mother’s day.

Linking up for these fun parties

http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/ {her button isn’t working}

Over Achiever Baby Shower Invite is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

I put some colorful plants in the planter at the front door and added a metal carrot stick

Pulled out the “faux” topiaries and added some real flowers in my ironstone pitcher for my kitchen island

I love the way the bunnies are looking up at the fresh flowers

Got most of my main table decorated, still need to add some more napkins and hopefully try putting flowers in the top of the apples {an idea I saw on a blog that I want to try, but we will see if I can actually get to it}

I just love decorating a table for Easter, all the bunnies and spring colors are so fun to look at

I added my HomeGoods banner to the chandelier that hangs over the dining room table.  Just makes it so much more festive.

So, just in case I get too busy before Sunday and don’t get another post up,  I wanted to wish you all a fun filled Happy Easter to you and your families!

A little Easter decorating is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

This is how they did it.  Shannon went to her 20-week ultrasound, and rather than asking the baby’s sex, she asked the ultrasound tech to write the sex on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope.  Then Shannon and Nate gave the envelope to their baker,  Camille at Cubby Cakes, who had already prepared the cupcakes the night before.  Once Camille got the envelope she inserted  either blue or pink candy in the middle to correspond with the sex of the baby, then she frosted the cupcake in a gender-neutral color to hide the color of the inserted candy.  All of us family members were waiting at their house wearing pink or blue to show what we thought the baby was going to be. I wore blue, even though I was secretly hoping for a girl, I just thought the way Shannon is carrying the baby it was a boy.

Since I was going to do some decorations, I asked Shannon to come up with a theme, (that always makes it so much easier to decorate right?) Shannon liked the theme “what’s it gonna bee?”.  We can’t take credit for this cute saying, we saw the concept on the internet and we just thought it was too cute and had to use it.

I know how I am, and if I would of started making stuff for this party ahead of time I would of probably gone to the extreme.  So I intentionally waited until the day of the party to pull it all together. It was just the right amount of decorations, but not over done, but got you in the mood for what was to come. The first thing I did when I got up in the morning was make this banner

I got some yellow canvas fabric from Joanns and attached vinyl letters that I made with my expression machine

Since I don’t have a Silhouette machine I had to get creative for the artwork.  I added the bee graphic by finding an image on Google and printing it on a sheet of clear label paper.  I then cut around the shape and tore off  the paper backing and stuck it on the fabric.  My daughter Tiffany free handed the dotted lines with a sharpie connecting the bees at the bottom.  I finished it off with ribbon on the bottom and ties for the top.   A couple of weeks back I had picked up these baskets that  reminded me of a bee hive and sprayed them yellow. I glued a $2 black Wal-mart plate to the top to make them into cupcake stands.  Adding a couple of bees to tie in the theme

I picked up the best smelling white hyacinths at the nursery and put them into inexpensive felt baskets from Michaels and added some pre-made fabric flowers also purchased from Michaels.  I took 4 plates from their cupboard and set the flowers on them as a centerpiece for their kitchen island. Simple and cute.

I added some more potted plants with the coordinating ribbon and the extra bees I had leftover.  The cupcake table was looking a little bland, so I used the extra ribbon to drape underneath the stands and a sunflower pomander I had in my Etsy store stash.

Now it was a waiting game for the cupcakes and the soon to be parents to arrive.  Here are some our  family members dressed in their pink or blue attire

Nate wore blue, and little Layla wore pink cause she loves pink!

My daughter Tara was on the pink team, but Lucas, Layla’s little brother was on the blue team.  Even Daisy, Shannon and Nate’s dog, got to get into the spirit of things and wore a pink vest.

My other daughter Tiffany and my nephew Connor were on opposing teams

Shannon decided to go with both colors, but there was a little more pink than blue if you ask me!

Camille did a beautiful job on the cupcakes.  The bees were so cute on top!  I wish I would of gotten a better picture of them close up, but at this time the anticipation was getting to us all and so the cupcakes weren’t sitting very long for me to capture a lot of pictures.

On the count of 3, all of us family members with cupcake in hand, frantically bit into the cupcake.  Here are the parents to be biting into their cupcakes

Looks like Nate is pretty happy..

Shannon, well she was taking a second look, I don’t think she believed what she was seeing

Nate was beyond ecstatic.  His dream come true.  Shannon, well it took her a little while to adjust, because she thought secretly all along that is was a girl, but now she couldn’t be happier. 

Don’t you just love that bubble sign?  I was so honored that Gail from MyRepurposedLife had her daughter Jamie send that to me.  I had mentioned it to Gail how fun it would be to use it at Shannon and Nate’s gender party and the next thing I know it arrived in the mail!  Wow, I was speechless, thank you Gail and Jamie! Gail made a bunch of these for Jamie’s upcoming wedding, you can see how she did it here. She is one talented lady with a Dremel tool!

Now that we have the answer to “what’s it gonna bee”,  it’s time to start planning. I have raised 3 girls, so this is going to be so new to me to have a grandson!  Shannon and I didn’t waste anytime and have already gone out shopping for an inspiration piece for the nursery.

A blue and white striped Avery rug from Pottery Barn Outlet, let the decorating begin!

Going to share this over at Amanda’s

What’s It Gonna Bee? is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

These are their engagement Pictures.  They met at college, he playing baseball, her playing soccer.The ceremony and the “dog of honor” Details of the reception

The Wedding Cake

The movie stars…yep they got published in a magazine.  Recognize the bathrooms? Yep those I designed and so I guess I was published to!  Happy anniversary Shannon and Nate, I love you.

My Daughter’s Wedding is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

clockwise from bottom left:
Damask Napkins – Plum Party
Printable Takeout Box – The Posh Event
Vintage Painted Bottles – Garrafaria
Damask Plates – Impress In Print

and for dessert… Damask Cake Stand – Polyvore

Damask Delight: Meal Time Finds is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.