Epicurean Reads

I thought it would be cool to go back through the past four years to see how my party style is evolving. I am a catering manager by trade and I love cooking and entertaining, so people expect a good party. I have received some good feedback about the last birthday party. Someone even said it was like a wedding :) For A's first birthday party we had an Elmo theme. Not sure why...maybe it just seemed very one year old friendly. I made fondant from scratch and I learned how to frost cupcakes. We had tons of people and tons of food since it was a celebration for both my husband and daughter. I was only working part time at the time so I had lots more time to bake and cook. I can't believe how little she was! First Cupcake Ever! I think somewhere between her first and second birthday I made cupcakes for my friend's baby shower. She had a rubber ducky theme and it was smack in the middle of summer. I made fondant rubber duckies and they were cute and tasty. Unfortu...

Sweet Peas and Seashells: S&S Giveaway- You call it, you got it! : The S&S giveaway is officially here, in celebration of the 2 year mark of my little Etsy shop, I'm offering up any item in my shop your litt...

Kara's Party Ideas | Kids Birthday Party Themes: $100 Bloom Designs Giveaway! : ...

It was lots of fun planning this party, even though it was a lot of hard work. I started working on it in December. I made dinosaur crayons in January and I won 2 huge giveaways in early February. Both had amazing sponsors and I used their services to help make the party a success. The first giveaway was from Cakes and Kids   (Thanks Julie!) and I used the credit to her shop to buy a cupcake kit and the Mid Size Bitty Bags. Also, from her giveaway, I won a dozen marshmallow pops from Sassy Soirees . The other HUGE giveaway I won was from Double the Fun Parties . Thank you Jennifer! It couldn't have come at at better time! 3 weeks before the big day. At that point I was wondering how I was going to get everything done by myself with working 50 hours a week, cooking dinner from scratch almost every night, and trying to hang out with my family. I am also a pretty big fan of sleep and I was hoping that I wouldn't have to lose too much. I decided to call upon the services of...

We just celebrated A's fourth birthday on Sunday. She really, really wanted a dinosaur party. I mean the girl likes Star Wars, Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland. I kept asking her weekly for the past 3 months...."what do you want for your party?" The answer always came back "DINOSAURS!" What is a mom to do, right? You all know that I love giveaways and I tend to win a lot because I enter tons. One of the first big giveaways I won was over at Mom Endeavors for her One Year Blogiversary back in September. She had lots of great sponsors, one of which was Sweet Rose Studio . I won a mini custom printables from her and she was nice enough to wait until I had an event to use them for. When I realized that Aurora wanted a dinosaur party, and was serious about it, I searched high and low for the right printables. The problem was all the dinosaur parties were for boys. BOOOO!!! Then Katie came to the rescue. She sent me a few samples of cute dinosaurs an...

Release Me Creations: Release Me Creations 700 Facebook Fan Giveaway Ext... : This is a huge THANK YOU for all of you! Today I'm bringing you a giveaway of epic proportions! For me, reaching 700 Facebook fans was a...

It is time for another MG Party Impressions Giveaway! This month they are giving a way a Martha Stewart Party Supply Package. MARTHA STEWART PRIZE PACKAGE GIVEAWAY!! Go and enter and tell them Donna Sent you!!!