Japanese Inspired...

We have always been inspired and intrigued by Japanese culture and tradition, especially with Kellie's sweet girls being part Japanese! We just feel in love with this gorgeous Japanese Mother's Day inspired photo shoot that we spotted on My Little Jedi. The colorful Chiyogami (Japanese paper) and gorgeous fabrics and colors used are just beautiful! We love the bento boxes and the brightly colored cupcake liners that held the festive Japanese candies! What a lovely way to serve tea...from a pink tea pot served with hand painted chiyogami pattern cookies and cupcakes. We have often thought about creating a "Japanese inspired" illustration, this may have just given is the inspiration we needed!

concept {cookies, cakes and styling} created by Spoon and Fork

photography by Teresa Simonetti

Washi tape...Endless possibilites

Washi tape....love it!! We are sure you have heard of this fabulous Japanese, decorative tape that has taken over the craft world! It comes in so many amazing patterns and colors...some is even glittered! There are so many ways that it can be used from cupcake flags, to cake buntings to making packages pretty!! Have you used it, if so what have you done with it? We just ordered a bunch of it...can't wait to start using it!






photos via: sbchic.com, parcelpost.wordpress.com, 100layercake.com,shopsweetlulu.com, papercrave.com, cutetape.com

"Candy" Globes

Yay, thank goodness its almost the weekend! It's been a long busy week! So we thought we would leave you with a fun little diy! We love party decor and have to admit we may have a slight obsession with paper poms, globes, crepe paper, garlands...ok we could go on forever! This is is super easy way to add a little fun to your next party...especially if you are having a candy themed party! This is so simple, all you need is a paper globe, tulle and some ribbon! Just get whatever size globe works for your party and just cut your lengths of tulle accordingly. For the small globe, we used about 6 layers of tulle that was about 12” long. Simply put your tulle through the metal part that secures your globe, make sure each side is even and tie a ribbon around the tulle to create a wrapper look. {You can stuff your globe with tulle as well, if you feel that you can see inside the holes} Pull the ribbon to meet the paper on the globe and tack it on with a small dab of glue from your glue gun and you have yourself a “candy globe”! {You can even make them with poms}

"This Makes Me Happy"

Ok, so we just came across the most sweetest little Etsy Shop! We are so smitten we just had to share it with you! Frances, is the creative mind behind "This Makes Me Happy"! Her shop will make you so "happy" especially if you are into gorgeous handmade party decor with pretty colors, a touch a glitz and pinch of glitter!

Sweet Pastel Palette

With spring in full bloom, what better time for using all of those gorgeous pastels! We just love the soft, dreamy, feminine feel of a pastel color palette. With Easter this weekend we thought we would do a little round up of some of the most beautiful pastel desserts and party decor for you to enjoy!

photos via: plumprettysugar.tumblr.com, stylemepretty.com, etsy, hstm.com, plentyofcolour.com, passionforbaking.com, concretehoney.blogspot.com, trueevent.com, sweetestoccasion.com, bakersroyal.com, bakersroyal.com, pinterest.com

Cascarones

Have you ever heard of cascarones!?! They are glitter or confetti filled eggs...considered to be good luck when you break them over someone's head! They are so colorful and fairly easy to make! There are a lot of fun tutorials out there for making these, but we thought this one from one of our favorite French blogs, Griottes, was pretty fabulous! Although, they were made for Christmas in this tutorial, we thought they would be such a fun alternative to regular dyed Easter eggs!

Materials: Eggs, a needle, paint and a brush, glitter

Drill your eggs gently with the needle, a small hole on top and a small hole but slightly larger on the bottom. Shake the egg hard, and then blow into the top hole on top of a bowl, the egg will flow into the bowl.
Wash and dry the egg.
Once dry, paint them with acrylic or spray paint. Let them dry and apply a second coat if needed.
With a sheet of paper, cut a small cone and place it into the larger hole. Create a funnel and pour the glitter into the egg. Close the hole with a small piece of masking tape.



diy and all photo via Griottes: www.griottes.fr/}

"Sweet Sleepover" 11th Birthday Party

This past weekend Kellie's daughter sweet Annabella celebrated her 11th birthday! She had such a successful and fun-filled sleepover last year, that Annabella decided she wanted another one this year! So the theme became, "A Sweet Sleepover"! To set the tone we used our "sweet shoppe" invites! At the party the girls decorated cake boxes, decorated their own personal mini cakes that they got to bring home and share with their families, had a candy hunt, opened gift with oven mits on their hands...yes challenging but so much fun!

For decorations we played off of the color palette on the invites, pink and aqua...always a pretty combination and perfect for an 11 year old! We created our own tassel garlands that we strung in multiple locations! We even put one on each girl's chair, where they sat to decorate their cakes! There are so many great tutorials online for creating tassel garlands, we used on from Visual Vocabulary, found here. We also ordered paper poms from our favorite pom vendor, Paper White Designs! We made a mini letter garland that read, "11 is sweet" and an oversized cupcake flag topped our ruffled caked. We also purchased a super fun metallic, aqua backdrop so that the girls could take silly photos in front of it, of course they loved it! We even took photos of them holding their cakes in front of it.

We didn't necessarily have a "sweet table" but more of a "sweet area"! We set up pink wooden boxes that the girls had their cake decorating supplies in and were able to decorate their cakes right in the boxes. They also helped to avoid a huge cake mess! We really wanted to mimic the illustration on our invites, so in the middle of the table we set up 3 pedestals with desserts that Annabella picked out for us to make! We made a tall ruffle cake, cookie dough cupcakes {umm yea they are amazing}, brownie pops with a shimmered polka dot and of course what party would be complete without french macarons rimmed in pink sugar on top of a bowl full of jelly beans! Above the table we set up 3 apothecary jars on a shelf filled with candy they girls could take home.

The "sweet sleepover" was a success and a great party for an 11 year old girl! Although, I have an idea that Kellie may be taking the next year off from hosting another sleepover ;)