Easter Peeps!

{Easter weekend was busy and my family and I made lots of great memories}  

Check out our First Annual Easter Egg Hunt. 

Don't forget to check out the matching invitations from my last post!

The morning of the Easter Egg Hunt I lost some 'steam'. It had been a long week at work and I had every intention of being prepared the night before the egg hunt but alas, I got some rest instead! So the morning of, instead of making cake pops from scratch (minimum 2.5 hours) I bought some tim-bits (doughnut holes), stuck in the candy stick, dipped in white chocolate and topped with sprinkles! (voila - cake pops in 20 minutes!)

A tip with cake pops is to dip your candy stick in chocolate before inserting into the doughnut hole (or handmade cake ball). Also, purchase some styrofoam to stick the end and sturdy the cake pop). 

Favours! I love party favours so much I think half of my pinterest boards are party favour ideas.  Easter peeps on a kabob stick, with cheveron scrapbook paper and a clear cookie bag. Super, super easy but really colourful and fun.

I love chocolate. I'd like to say "who doesn't" but I have shockingly met people who  DONT.  Seriously, unimaginable. These bird nest inspired confections are super easy to make for next Easter. Melted chocolate (I used 2 bags of foiled easter eggs, unwrapped, dropped into a microwavable safe dish, heat and stir until melted), gluten free corn flakes (my daughter is gluten intolerant) topped with mini-mini eggs (I found these at the drugstore in the candy aisle).  

Bunny Bait: mini-coloured marshmallows, Easter Peanut M&M's, white chocolate, sprinkles

To add colour to the egg hunting area - my husband and I tied balloons to golf tees and pushed them into the grass around the backyard. It adds so much colour and reminds me of big colourful Easter eggs.

Something about Easter and blowing bubbles...I think my Mom used to always put bubbles (and new pj's) in my Easter basket. I purchased mini-bubbles for all the kids, something to distract them from eating all their chocolate after the egg hunt was finished!

Thanks for stopping by! M

(Photo credits to my rockstar sister Miranda Armstrong Photography - like her on Facebook)

Amber's Tea Party Baby Shower

Last May, I hosted this Tea Party baby shower for my best friend Amber. She looked so adorable pregnant and now she has a beautiful baby girl named Styrling. Her sister, Alisha, is the owner of Mirus Photograhy. She does amazing photography, please check our her website www.mirusphotography.com or her blog www.mirusphotography.com/blog

 I had this vision of a shabby yet chic tea party with whimsy pink and lilac decor. Burlap was the perfect back drop for the 'shabby' and I hit up Micheals to create the pink and lilac bunting banners. For a tea party some essentials must be in-hand: french macaroons (pink and purple, of course), scones with jelly, sugar cookies, petit fours, and to add a modern flair; cake pops. A couple of my previous students (when I taught part-time at Fanshawe College's Culinary Program) created the tea-pot cake (pink velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, it was Y-U-M) and the beautiful petit fours. My friend Michelle and I made the cake pops together and tied little ribbons around the sticks.

The Buffet Table

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I love to have something 'extra'. I came up with the idea to have a manicure station at the shower. The signature manicure "Pink Sparkle" - I found the Essi polish at Wal-Mart.  No need to hire anyone, my cousin (in-law) Laura does great mani's and she offered to do all the manicures for the day!

Cake pops and French macaroons

Special touches - the babies name hung over a wagon holding little teddy bears

A special seat just for the Momma to be

Great shot of the table:

I found the mason jars at a local Salvation Army to make the flower centrepieces. To make the vases; find ribbon that matches your theme  (in this case pink sparkly ribbon and burlap) and tie around the jar. I used a little hot glue to hold mine on perfect. To save money on flowers I went to the local farmer's market 10 minutes before they were closing up. They were more than happy to sell me most of the flowers for half the price. I spent under $70.00 for all of centrepieces

I love to bake and I have an awesome recipe for sugar cookies. A week before the shower I  baked 50 of these 'one-sie'  sugar cookes and iced them with soft pink royal icing. Then adorned them with little pink sugar pearls like a pearl necklace (the Mom-to-be is VERY girly - I knew she would like it). Then I picked up these little pink favour bags from Micheals, used the same cookie cutter to stencil out the white onside glued to the front - and found the free "sweet baby girl" sticker template on the internet. I loved, loved, loved how they turned out!