pink and gold Valentine's Day inspired table

Over the holidays, we were approached by Baby Lifestyles to create a Valentine's Day inspired table for their Feb/March issue! We decide to create something in one of our favorite color schemes...pink and gold! We also wanted it to be really simple and sweet. We made gold glittered heart garlands that we hung from the pink curtains we photographed in front of. We actually loved how they looked kind of of faded into the photos! In front of the table we hung one of our hand-glittered letter garlands, that read...je t'aime in pink and white so that it would stand out against the gold table cloth. We also made 3 heart cake toppers in different sizes to place on top of the white ruffled cake we made and displayed on top of ruffled white pedestals. Mini gold hearts topped a few of the cupcakes and the others were topped with our "je t'aime, j'adore, and l'amour" cupcake flags. We created little food tent cards to place in front of each item, complete with french silk ribbon and coordinating glittered hearts. We found course gold edible glitter and thought it would be great for the cookies...to add a little sparkle! Our apothecary jar was filled with pink and white meringues. Hope you enjoy!

A Parisian Valentine's Day

For Christmas Kellie got me the most beautiful French "bon bon" cocktail napkins...{among other lovely things!} from Sur La Table...one of our favorite stores to spend all day in!! While searching for some Valentine gifts there, to our absolute delight Sur La Table's Valentine collection is perfectly Parisian!! There are so many gift possibilities, how is a girl to choose!?! If you have a friend or a Valentine that loves Paris...Sur La Table has got you taken care of! Here are a few of our favorites!

Check out the rest of Sur La Table's Valentine collection here!

New to our Shop...

Valentine's Day is right around the corner! Can you believe it!?! We wanted our design for Valentine's Day to be something that we could offer all year long! As you may have noticed by our posts last week, we are loving the color combination of pink and gold...and if you follow us at all you know we adore Paris! So, our newest illustration is pink and gold French macarons in a bell jar! This design is offered in invitations, note cards, cupcake flags, tags, oversized cupcake flags and letter garlands! All of these are now being offered in our Etsy shop! We are going to give away a set of our note cards with this illustration...all you have to do is leave us a comment and we will choose a winner at random on Wednesday and announce on Facebook! These would be a perfect gift to give your sweet valentine!!

Valentine's Day...Part 1

We literally can not believe that Christmas has come and gone and we are already onto Valentine's Day! We have been working on something really special this year, that we can not wait to share with you! {Of course, it has a little Parisian twist!} As for now, we are bringing back our "Owl Love You Forever" collection! Owls are really popular this year and this illustration is perfect for Valentine's day or a birthday celebration! Its really girly, glittery and super sweet! We are also giving away a set of "Owl Love You Forever" cupcake flags...just leave us a note on how you would use them and we will choose a winner at random on Friday!

"Les Truffes Au Chocolat"

When we started blogging and reading blogs one of the very first blogs we fell in love with was Tartelette created by Helene Dujardin! Helene's delightful blog can only be described as a feast for your senses! Helene is a former pastry chef for a French restaurant and now works as a food photographer, food stylist and food writer. Her style is impeccable, she has a way of making food look and sound like literal works of art! Today we are lucky enough to have Helene share her Les Truffes Au Chocolat {dark chocolate truffles} recipe with us...a perfect addition to our "chocolate week"! Truffles are such a decadent, luscious and satisfying chocolate treat...perhaps one of the first "mini desserts"!?! They make such a lovely gift, wrapped up in a gorgeous box and are a perfect small dessert to display on a sweet table! Wouldn't it be "sweet" to make these Les Truffes Au Chocolat for your Valentine this year!

"Les Truffes Au Chocolat"

Recipe courtesy of Helene Dujardin

8 1/4 oz bittersweet dark chocolate (chopped, broken, or chips)

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 large egg yolks

1 cup powdered sugar, unsifted

cocoa powder for dusting

Melt the chocolate in a large bowl set over a pot of simmering water (make sure that the bowl fits snuggly over the pot so that very little steam escapes). Stir occasionaly. Remove from the heat and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Stir until completely incorporated. Add the egg yolks and powdered sugar whisking until the batter is smooth.Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. When ready to roll, scoop out balls of ganache with a spoon, roll them in between your palms fairly quickly and set them on a baking sheet. Cover loosely with a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next day, roll them in the cocoa powder and keep refrigerated until ready to eat.Yields 35 to 45 truffles, depending on size.

Tartelette Blog

Helene Dujardin

Please join us tomorrow as we giveaway a "Chocolat" ruffled and hand-glittered letter garland! Perfect for your next "chocolate" party!!

Party Poppers...A New Year's Must

What is New Year's with our party poppers!?! We love them, they are so much fun to hand out a party! They can be made so easily with gorgeous papers and ribbons and filled with "sweets" of your choice! Here are some of our favorite ones and Here is a great DIY if you want to make your own to bring in the New Year with a "pop"!

photos via: stylemepretty.com, afieldjournal.com, rebeccathuss.com, hgtv.com, holiday-crafts-and-creations.com, elseachelsea.typepad

DIY Snowflake Chandelier

We were so excited to have our diy snowflake chandelier featured on Design Dazzle this weekend! We wanted to create something that would look wintery and beautiful over a small sweet table and that could be re-used as a decoration later. We used glittered silver and white paper so when the light hits the snowflakes it shimmers and twinkles...its looks so pretty! Check out our easy step by step diy instructions here!

Candy Cane Ice Cream

Oh how we love the holidays and all of the amazing sweets that accompany the season! We also love a gorgeous Swedish baking blog called Call Me Cupcake! {We are sure you are all familiar with it} Linda is an amazingly talented baker and photographer....which make a perfect pair! Her blog is simply lovely and never ceases to inspire us! She recently posted a perfect holiday treat...candy cane ice cream! The photos are so wintery and beautiful and who can resist a homemade ice cream recipe!?!

100 Ideas of Christmas Wonderful

We were recently asked by Toni of Design Dazzle to come up with a diy project for her "100 Ideas of Christmas Wonderful"! Of course we were delighted to come up with something for her blog and we are really excited to share it with you as well. But...you'll have to wait to see it until it is featured on Toni's blog! We would love for you to take a peek at all of the great holiday ideas that Design Dazzle has been featuring, and we thought we would at least give you a hint as to what we created!

Glitter Ball Ornaments

We just thought we would share a super simple DIY with you today! It is kind of a combination of two previous DIYs we've shared! {The fairy dust pots and tulle pom poms} We used it as a gift idea with our "Nutcracker Sweet" table! They are just simple, clear plastic Christmas bulbs (that you can buy at any craft store), filled with the glitter color of your choice. We added a little tulle pom pom and a pink satin ribbon and they are a perfect little gift, decoration to add to your beautifully wrapped holiday package or of course a traditional Christmas tree ornament!

Materials:
Clear plastic Christmas bulb
Glitter
Satin ribbon
tulle pom pom

Just take off the ornament top and fill your bulb about half way with glitter. You can make a little paper funnel to put the glitter in the bulb. Then just put the top back on, tie a satin ribbon on and glue a tulle pom pom {diy for poms poms here} on the front! How simple is that!?!