This & That

I have a crazy-busy week ahead and won't be able to share much until I get through with it so I thought I'd check in and show you a few things that I have been working on.

Cookies for wedding welcome bags including monograms and wedding cakes:

Ballet birthday party cookies (some day I will share more about my long-time love of ballet but for now I just wanted to document these while I was thinking of it.)

And primary color/circle themed baby shower cookies:

Thank you Lindsey, Lisa, Char and Sarah!

This week will bring everything from Twilight to college football to legos to super heroes to 30th birthday to 2nd birthday cookies. Whew! Looking forward to sharing all of those as I go.

Have a great week everyone!

Elegant Bridal Shower Cookies

It is always a pleasure to make cookies for one of my new favorite friends, Trish. In fact I am most proud of some of the cookies I have made for her. Feeling like I know Trish through reading her blog, I have observed that our styles are similar. Therefore when she gives me the go-ahead to be creative, some of my favorite cookies are born. In fact, the bow and monogram cookies I created just for her last month are now some of my absolute favorites.

This collection was in honor of a very special occasion...Trish's younger sister's bridal shower. The colors were gold, ivory, white and cappuccino with an elegant invitation as inspiration.

The absolute best part of making cookies for Trish this time around was that they came with an in-person delivery. Not only was I able to meet someone I would undoubtedly spend a great deal of time with if she lived closer, but I also had the pleasure of meeting her precious baby girl.

It was such a fun meeting that I only wish could have lasted longer...

Thank you Trish! It really is always a pleasure.

Message in a Bottle Rehearsal Dinner

For the past few years, I have spent a week in September in Bald Head Island, NC with my family. One of my mom and my greatest pleasures during our time there is hunting for sea shells. Year after year we comment on the abundant supply to choose from and continue to bring buckets full of our beautiful treasures home. The question my dad continually asked us was what exactly we were going to DO with those shells. .

And although we never really had the perfect answer, thankfully my brother eventually provided one for us.

Last summer he proposed to my now sister-in-law by burying a message in a bottle in the sand during their beach vacation. It was such a romantic gesture that my mom and I decided to run with that theme for their rehearsal dinner this past weekend. We knew we had the shells...we just had to determine exactly how to use them.

(The happy couple with the parents of the bride and groom during the celebration.)

Thankfully I had two fabulous helpers on hand Friday, my cousins, who were my decorating assistants.

Our guests were greeted with a sign explaining the proposal and informing them that they could find their table number in their individual glass bottles. We filled each one with sand, a shell from BHI and stamped the corks with the numbers.

Continuing the theme, table numbers were displayed on bottles. Since you rarely find flowers growing on the beach, we decided to grow wheat grass to flank our lanterns on the tables. Each container had a burlap rosette with a shell and I made individual rosettes to top each napkin.

The shell topiaries were my mom's first attempt at "crafting" in a while. She was a natural. :) I will do a mini tutorial on these another time as I was very happy with how they turned out.

One of my favorite parts was the beachy cake we ordered from Simply Cakes by Allison. Ali made a delicious coconut cake (the bride and groom's favorite) and managed to fool everyone with her elegant candy shells. The cake was a big hit and enjoyed by my family for the rest of the weekend.

And of course it should come as no surprise that I made cookie favors for everyone. Sand dollars and sea shells seemed like the perfect compliment to the evening.

Finally a special shout-out to Mr. Preppy Cookie, who took a great deal of time creating a wonderful slideshow documenting the bride and groom's memories to share with us all.

It was a memorable celebration and the best was yet to come. I am coming down off of such a high spending the weekend with family and friends...wish we could do it all again this week! :)

CONGRATULATIONS Mr. and Mrs. C!

Showering My Future SIL

A few weeks ago my mom and I co-hosted a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law. We chose not to have a theme per se but instead followed the colors from the invitation, tiffany blue and hot pink. We wanted the shower to be feminine and fun.

I made a chalkboard out of a frame from a craft store to greet the guests at the door with the countdown to the big day.

And of course I could not resist making carrot cupcakes (the bride's favorite) with wedding dress cookie toppers.

Our menu for the 2 p.m. shower included:

Assorted Pita Sandwiches
Tortellini and Tomato Salad
Cheese Platter
Spinach & Artichoke Cups
Fruit Platter
Carrot Cupcakes
Funfetti Cakepops

However the HIT of the menu was the champagne punch. We could not have served enough of it really! Many thanks to my friends Katy & Merritt for the excellent recipe (and Hillary for the reminder about it!) This is a definite keeper.

Champagne Punch
1 frozen Pink Lemonade
1 frozen Limeade
Add at least 1 bottle of Seltzer
Add Cranberry Juice till it is a pretty pink color
Add more cranberry juice and more seltzer to taste
Garnish with sliced lemons and limes (I froze these in advance)
Serve Champagne on the side

(Note: We tripled this recipe for about 15 people though we could have even served more.)

Decorations included photo garlands, paper poms, framed photos of the soon-to-be newlyweds and flowers we arranged ourselves.

We played a "How Well Do You Know the Bride" game which is always fun...especially when the bride really has to think through her responses. :)

And our bride was generously showered with beautiful gifts by her friends and family.

Would you expect anything other than cookie favors?? I made wedding cakes topped with hearts for the occasion.

It was a wonderful afternoon celebrating someone who I am so very happy to have join our family.

Congratulations Rachel & Jeff!

"Country" Bridal Shower Cookies

When a friend told me that she wanted cookies for a "country" themed bridal shower, my assumption was that she would ask me for paisley print cookies or something of the sort. However when she told me the decorations involved mason jars, lemons and sunflowers, I knew the cookies would match exactly. So I ran with those three things as the theme and loved what came out in the end...

Thank you Kim!

Love Birds

We have made a LOT of engagement/wedding cookies around here. Typically we stick to the classics - engagement rings, bridal gowns, wedding cakes, etc. Once in a while though someone chooses something different than the norm. So when a friend asked me if I had any ideas for cookies for a pink and green themed engagement party, I suggested love birds. She was game and I went to work, creating the love bird itself and bird cage cookies to compliment.

In the end I was really happy with how they turned out and hope they went over well at the party.

Thank you Katie!

Shades of Purple Bridal Shower

A few weeks ago I attended a wedding event for a very special friend of mine. It was a small gathering including some of our Alpha Phi sorority sisters and involved a purple-themed cocktail/dessert party and a monogram shower for the deserving bride-to-be.



Tiffany is having her bridesmaids choose their own dresses within a palette of purples so the hostesses ran with that as the theme for the night.

The evening's signature drink was a lavendar martini, orginially discovered at another sorority sister's bridal shower last year.



I was not about to pass up the opportunity to contribute a dessert or two to the shower. I made a few A-Phi and ruffle cookies in shades of purples to add to the table alongside chocolate cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese buttercream frosting.




At the bride's request, we gave the game we played at another friend's shower in February a second go. (This is my new favorite bridal shower game!)



The dessert table was so pretty and no detail was spared.



I love the "Monograms and Martinis" shower theme and always enjoy to see what creative gifts people come up with.



Of course my uber creative friend Kelly came up with the fun idea of personalized mason jars with chalkboard tops (we may need her to do a tutorial on these for us sometime soon!)



It was such a nice celebration in honor of one of my favorite people. Looking forward to TJS becomming TJSR in August!

Engagement Party

One of these days I am going to dig up photos from our engagement party in December of 2006 to share with you. It was before I knew what blogs were and long before Pinterest, so my mom and I were just able to use our own creativity and have fun puling together our ideas for the affair. It was such a fun night that I will always remember...the first "event" of our wedding.

Whenever I hear about engagement parties, my first thought always goes to my own. Knowing full well how special they are, I was happy to have the chance to make cookies for one a while back. For this one we decided on rings, champagne flutes and monogram cookies in a "peacock" palette.





Hopefully the newly engaged couple loved them.

Thank you Amanda!

Say Yes to the Dress!

It's nearing wedding season! While the majority of wedding celebrations in my circle of friends have passed, I am thankful to have a few very special ceremonies to come this year. (Random fact: I believe from 2007-2009 my husband and I attended over 30 weddings!) I love a wedding and also enjoy the events leading up to them.

Recently a friend co-hosted a "Say Yes to the Dress" bridal shower. I took that theme and ran with it, "designing" several different wedding gowns along with a replica cookie of the bridesmaid dress. We decided to add a few purple touches as an ode to the wedding decor and wrapped up the set with wedding cakes as well as a few engagement rings.





Thank you Jackie!

Here Comes the BRIDE - Bridal Shower

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of attending a beautiful bridal shower in honor of a very deserving bride. Sadly I forgot to bring my camera and had to rely on my phone for photos. So the photography may be lackluster, but the event will certainly shine through.


Of course I walked into the party wearing the EXACT Lilly pattern the guest of honor chose to wear. Ever gracious, she was thrilled by that!

The hostesses put together an elegant white dessert table. I could write an entire post (maybe I will) about the delicious desserts they created. From cake to cookies to candy and more, everything was delicious. I literally had to force myself to walk away from that table.


No detail was spared. They had champagne poured over blueberries, a "blessing tree" for us to share a sentiment with the bride and groom and perfect handmade white decorations. It was such a thoughtful, sophisticated theme and I was impressed as always by my friends' creativity.


The game we played was equally creative. Instead of the typical "questions" game, they took it to the next level by interviewing both the bride and groom. Statements from both were written on a gameboard and we were able to circle the silhouette of who we thought said what.


And of course I was happy to provide the cookie favors. The hostesses only requests were "white" and "glitter" so I went with just that and also incorporated the bride's future monogram.


It was such a fun time with sorority sisters and friends who I do not get to spend enough time with. Thank you Corri, Tiffany and "Sister Linda" for a wonderful afternoon.

And Kara - you know I could not be happier for you!

And They Lived Happily Ever After...

This past weekend we packed up and headed to our cousin (and more importantly close friends') wedding. My husband grew up with the groom and had the honor of returning the favor of serving as the best man in his wedding to his lovely bride.

While I was not the one giving the speech, I WAS the one bringing the cookie favors.


If you have not attended a wedding in western PA before, you may not know about "the cookie table." This was certainly not something I was familiar with until I married into a Pittsburgh-based family. It is a BIG deal and requires planning for one dozen cookies per guest. The bride and groom's friends and family filled the table with sweets (and not one was left behind!)


The groom's sister, a rising baking star in my opinion, took her cookies to the next level with lime basil and chai creations...


I stuck with my own sugar cookie recipe and made the favors for each guest. I could kick myself for not photographing these before a hasty panic at the end of the night, but you will get the idea. I made 5 different wedding cookie favors, channeling the bride's dress, the wedding cake and three varieties of monogram/love cookies.






The most important part of the day, however, was of course gaining a good friend as a family member and seeing a current family member happier than I have ever seen him.


Congratulations to the newlyweds!