Bachelorette cooking class invitations...

My friend Heather is getting married next month. We are not exactly the types for a bar-hopping-with-a-veil-on-the-head sort of bachelorette party, so I found something better-- a cooking class!  And then I found a set of three wooden cooking utensils at Ikea for 49 cents (not kidding-- Ikea is so great!), and came up with this cute retro-themed invitation:

I tied the three utensils together and tucked the invitation and an RSVP card in between.

It was so fun for people to receive this in the mail.  We came up with great menu and there are so many fun things to do with this theme.  Heather is going to love it!

Bridal shower invitations...

I have been busy lately.  My best friend Heather is getting married in June and I have had a lot of projects lately. I made these invitations for a bridal shower my mom is having this month. We were going for something festive but not too girly, and I think these were perfect.

They had navy calligraphy ink and slid into the little pockets. We have been brainstorming polka-dot themed food and decorations for the last two weeks. It is going to be so cute!

More Baby Bee details...

Baby Bee's mom assured me that she didn't think I went overboard with bees, but I was worried for a while.  Here are a few more Baby Bee shower details...

The Baby Bee sign.  I have always wanted to make one of these, and I loved the way this one turned out.  The bee wings are glittered.

Bee logo name tags. It took me a while to come up with an idea for cute name tags. I printed out the bee logo and wrote names in calligraphy, then tied a tiny bow with the ribbon and stuck them together with a glue dot.  They pinned on with a corsage pin.  I made corsages with pink spray roses for Mom and Grandma-to-be.

A sheet with the bee logo for recording gifts that I mounted on white cardboard...

Calligraphy signs for the Baby B wishes jar and the "guess how many bees" game...

And of course lots of flowers.  I used yellow roses, orange gerbera daisies, pink spray roses, orange and pink snapdragons and tulips, and some yellow filler that was perfect for the arrangements.

Baby Bee food...

As I mentioned, in spite of the dog's cookie rampage the Baby Bee shower turned out perfect.  Here are more details on what we served...

The table-- we served tea sandwiches, mini quiches, deviled eggs fruit skewers, scones, strawberries filled with cream cheese, bee cookies and mini beehive cupcakes.

The beehive cupcakes were a big hit. I just piped buttercream onto the top of them with a wide tip. Then I took yellow M&Ms and piped frosting stripes onto them, stuck them into the frosting and added a couple of almond slivers for wings.

We also had a mini candy bar with yellow, pink, and orange candy.  I made little calligraphy signs with the bee logo.

And finally, more bee cookies.

Dog versus bee...

I am a big fan of edible favors. Mostly because you know someone will almost always eat them, whereas other favors tend to get thrown away. (Yes, sorry friends, I probably won't keep that wedding mug you hand out at your wedding. Nothing against you, I just like my mugs to match...). So my original plan for the Baby Bee favors was cut-out beehive and bee cookies. Actually, it was not just a plan-- I fully implemented it and I had 20 that looked just like this:

 I have large craft table in my garage and I have a habit of piling all of my projects on it, so when I finished packaging them, I put them neatly in a bag and set that bag on top of my table.

When I did that, however, I forgot that (1) we put the dog in the garage when we are gone and (2) the dog loves cookies. She is a really good dog and has never really chewed on anything but her dog toys, so it didn't even cross my mind that the bee cookies might drive her crazy. But they did... and she attacked:

And when I came home my garage looked like this:

The dog had eaten 15 beehives, who knows how many bees. She was on a major sugar high (kind of funny) but otherwise unharmed, and not sick in the least. She even licked up crumbs as I cleaned up, and she never licks crumbs.

After I cleaned up her mess, I had to think of a plan b for the favors. I had a lot of bees but not enough hives, so I repackaged them in smaller bags with smaller tags and just one bee cookie. Fortunately they still turned out cute:

But now you know what happens when Dog takes on Bee... if it is a cookie, the bee has no chance!

Baby Bee Invitations...

Last week I gave a little preview of the Baby Bee shower that I hosted this weekend.  One of my good friends has a last name that starts with the letter "B" and I have been calling the baby "Baby B" ever since I found out she was pregnant.  They are probably going to give the baby a "B" first name too, so I thought a "Baby Bee" shower would be perfect.

When we heard Baby B was a girl, I decided a color palate of yellow, orange, pink and gray would be nice, and I found the perfect ribbon from May Arts.  I designed the little bee in inkscape, and wrapped it all up with the ribbon and a "baby bee" tag in a Papersource petal enclosure.

The calligraphy is mine, scanned into Inkscape and colored gray to match the rest of the invitation.  I mixed up some gray ink to address the invitations.  This was the first time I had done a return address in calligraphy and I loved the way it turned out.  I also got lucky at the post office-- they just happened to have the perfect extra-postage stamp for the square envelopes!

We also thought something like a guest book would be nice, so I made little notecards for people to sign with their wishes for Baby B.   At the end of the shower, we wrapped them up and sent them home for mom and dad-to-be to read together.

Stay tuned for bee cookies, behive cupcakes, how to turn a yellow M&M into a bee, and what happens when a yellow lab takes on bees!

I love donuts...

It's true... they are so good!  Maple bars especially.  We even gave donuts as favors at our wedding.  I have found two fun doughnut-related things lately.  The first is the Smartplanet Mini Donut Maker:

Now, I really don't need this and I don't want another kitchen appliance, and donuts are so cheap I'm not sure why you would go to all the work to make them, but this is only $25, gets four stars on Amazon, and seems like it would be fun once or twice.

One of the other reasons I do not want Item #1 is because I found this shop called Dough a Deer that makes the cutest mini doughnuts in all flavors and colors and ships them to you.  I am crazy about it-- just look at this orange doughnut from them.  I want an excuse to order donuts!

Thinking turkey...

Now that November is here, it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving.  We are hosting this year.
Last year we grilled the turkey and it turned out great:

Pretty nice, right?  My husband gets all the credit for this one... it was really good.  All of my sides were good too, but I think I was a little too ambitious with the menu:

It turned out as good as it sounds (yes, carrot souffle is amazing!), but I'm looking for simpler recipes this year and less time in the kitchen... more Thanksgiving planning coming soon!

Halloween costumes...

Yes, I dressed up my pet for Halloween.  Meet Chica, the fire dog!

Cute, huh?  Unfortunately, she's not as crazy about her Halloween costume as I am... both she and my husband are thoroughly embarrassed.

Happy Halloween!

The cutest fall salad...

I saw this on The Kitchn today:

It is a vertical pear salad from The Novice Chef (which I'd never heard of, but looks like a really great food blog).  Isn't it the cutest salad you have ever seen?  So creative, and I love fruit in green salads.  It would be SO great at a fall wedding dinner.  I was thinking of doing soup instead of salad for the first course at Thanksgiving this year, but I love this so much I may have to reconsider...

Martha's Oreo Tower

This was in the September issue of Martha Stewart magazine:



I love it!  I really wish I had an occasion to make one, but the how-to says it takes 20 packs of Oreos.  Unfortunately I don't really have an occasion for it because our dinner parties are rarely more than 6 people.  What about a cookie bar at a wedding though?  This would be the cutest centerpiece ever!
(Image credit: Paul Costello for Martha Stewart Living, September 2010)