My friend Kia threw her son a first birthday party a few weeks back.  The party was decked out with all sorts of details and DIY projects.  As co-owner of Baker’s Bliss she also made all her own cupcakes for the party!  Party details as told by Kia…

For my son’s 1st Birthday I wanted to do something different and something fun.  Hopefully, along the lines of cost effective as well.  I looked through a variety of themes of things to do and most of them felt too kiddy.  As every parent knows the first birthday party is more for the adults than the kids and so I wanted a fun theme that all ages could enjoy.   I searched the internet high and low and ultimately fell in love with the posts I had seen from different moms who had decided on the “one year in a flash” theme.

I didn’t have a lot of time to put the party together being a full time mom of 2 plus my full time job left me with not that much time to put the grandiose party on that I wanted too.  However, my bestie and business partner Rebecca was in town to save the day.   And so began the party planning….

First, I made a list of what I wanted to do.  It was hard to come up with this list because I really wanted to do all the ideas I had seen on the internet.  They ranged from photo booths and custom chalkboards to custom banners and cupcake stands.  All of which I thought was ridiculously creative and cute, but I had to be realistic.  I really had about 3 days and unlike most of the other party planners I had intended on making my own cupcakes because that’s just what I do!  So these are the things I decided I was going to do for the party.

Decorations:

  • Custom Banner (What better way to say you are 1 then a year of pictures to remind you)
  • Custom Cupcake Toppers
  • High Chair Banner
  • Balloon Display
  • Photo Booth
  • Custom Thank you Cards
  • Custom Water Bottles

Food:

  • Dessert Table complete with custom chocolate covered Oreos in the theme colors and “camera” sugar cookies.
  • Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream
  • Vanilla Bean cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream
  • Pigs in a blanket for the kids
  • Veggie Tray
  • Fried Chicken
  • Queso Dip
  • Chips

This all seemed pretty overwhelming so I ended up ditching the Photo Booth.  I simply just didn’t have the time or the energy given the list of other things that had to get accomplished.

For the Banner, Thank You Cards and Cake Toppers I needed photos!  It was already Wednesday and the party was Saturday so I had to come up with the photo digging through all my digital memorabilia over the last year and get them printed and ready really by Thursday.  CVS photo online to the rescue!  I uploaded the pictures and picked them up at the CVS down the street from me the next morning and it was only .19 cents a picture!   This really came out very cost effective since in addition to the 12 pictures I needed 24 cupcake toppers and 20 thank you cards.

Here’s how the banner came out:


Here are the Thank You Cards:

And the Cupcake Toppers:

Here’s how the dessert table turned out:

You can see my nice balloon display courtesy of Party City.

Admittedly, most of the food items I purchased them from the local super market.  The Fried Chicken was purchased the hubby and then he made the veggie tray and queso dip.  I made the pigs in a blanket and here is what the food table looked like.  The table display was done by my friend Monique!

The chocolate covered Oreos were a big hit and proudly displayed on the right and the custom water bottles on the left.  After all the work it all turned out great.  We all had an amazing time.  I hope you enjoy the pictures and the ideas.  It was a great party!

Check out the Baker’s Bliss website or like them on Facebook.  Thank you Kia for stopping by and sharing your party tidbits with us!!

Happy Party Planning!

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I have a little bit of an obsession with Food Network.  If there isn’t a show recorded on DVR that I want to watch, Food Network is my next go-to channel, followed by HGTV.  Food and home improvement … you can clearly see where my passions lie.  One day while blogging and watching Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten was cooking her “Perfect Roast Chicken“.  I quickly made a mental note that I must make this dish.  An opportunity quickly presented itself and I adapted the recipe just a little.  This dish is well … absolutely DELISH!!!

Not only is this recipe super yummy, but totally falls within the healthy cooking/eating category.  WIN WIN!!!  And just to add one more log to this amazing fire (yeah I’m horrible with analogies, but I try!) it is also a pretty cheap dinner menu item that will impress!!  So I hope you enjoy the Tasty Tuesday recipe this week.

Ingredients:

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme (and/or rosemary)
1 lemon, quartered
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted (can be substituted with olive oil)
2 large yellow onions, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
4 Yukon Gold Potatoes cut into quarters

When you get the chicken home remove the chicken giblets and pat the outside dry, salt it inside and out, wrap it and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Preheat the over to 425*.  Place the onions, carrots, potatoes and some thyme in a roasting pan.

Pat the chicken dry and liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, lemon, and all the garlic.

Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.

Tie the legs together with kitchen string.  Place the chicken on top and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken cover with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes.  I suggest putting this in a bowl, because the juices will seep out of the chicken as it rests.  I did this on a cutting board the first time and literally juice all over the floor and my dog, Sophi, was seriously pleased about this!!!

Allow the vegetable to continue cooking.  Slice the chicken and place it on a platter with the vegetables.  I like to pour some of the juices over the chicken/veggies.  The rest of the juice/gravy put in a gravy boat … I promise your guests will appreciate it!  This serves about 4 people.

Happy Cooking!

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Despite living in the District of Columbia I often forget to take advantage of all the touristy things there are to do.  One afternoon the husband and I went to see the Korean War Memorial.  As we were walking towards our final destination I snapped the photo below.  I didn’t even realize how the white puffy clouds seemed to pop in the beautifully blue the sky!  It’s funny how sometimes a picture can highlight details that I didn’t notice/appreciate in person.

Have a great weekend.  Happy Friday!

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Right around the time of Super Storm Sandy the husband and I hung three photos in our hallway.  The other weekend my friend and I took a trip to Michael’s to purchase stuff for my friend’s baby shower I am throwing in February (more on that in the next couple of weeks).  When we were there we did a little extra curricular shopping as well!  It’s hard to go to Michael’s and only buy things that were on the list.  That place has so much fun stuff it’s crazy.

I love the look of “floating” photo frames and with the 40% holiday sale in full swing at Michael’s the justifications of purchasing them was complete!!  I picked out two 5 x 7 and one 11 x 15 frame.  I guessed on what sizes would look nice as add on(s) to the hallways photo gallery.  The husband and I hadn’t even really talked about what other pictures we might add to the wall.  Either way I figured three was a good a number.

For the big frame we picked this 8×10 wedding photo.  I feel slash felt really narcissistic putting up this photo, but I really just love it.  It’s a real smile (not just smiling for the camera in fact I think I was laughing at the husband doing something off to the side) and you can see the whole lobby of the St. Regis hotel.

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For the smaller frames we did a 4×6 of our honeymoon in Positano, Italy and a fun picture from the wedding.

I think this picture is probably my husband’s favorite from the wedding.  I had always promised my husband we would find a spot for the picture and a little over a year later I did!  My sister did the details for this after the photographer made the little stick figures.

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And can I just say that taking pictures of the hallway is kind of hard … I mean really hard to get a good shot.  I think I need dimmer lights in the hallway to help with lighting for pictures.  Ohhhh husband I have a new project for you hehehehe! =)

I’m not really sure how many more photos we are going to add to the hallway gallery, but I really like the new additions.  This will probably be one of those decorating projects that’s not ever 100% completed.  So we shall say phase 1 and 2 are complete (for now).

Phase 1:

Phase 2:  The extra three pictures make the big wall look a little fuller, which is good.

So what do you think? Do you like the mix and matching of frames?

Happy Decorating!

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Each time we go to New York to visit my husband’s sister and her husband or when they come to visit us we do a little day trip someplace.  It’s really fun and this summer when they came for a visit I had a specific day trip already planned before they even arrived!  We packed a picnic lunch and headed to Great Falls Virginia for the day.  Since we had planned an all day out door adventure we brought the SophDog with us to Great Falls as well!  Sophi is surprisingly good a fitting her little paws in between the rocks and climbing around.  It was a great day and this is one of my favorite pictures from the day…

I’m definitely looking forward to the warm weather returning so we can head back to Great Falls for some picnicking and hiking.

Happy Friday!  I am so glad this was a short week … aren’t you?!

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