Archive for the ‘Pink’ category

 

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The 100 000 Hits Party was sponsored by La Petite Fleur. This is my sister Heather’s flower and gift shop, located in Uxbridge, Ontario. She is an amazing florist. She puts colours and textures together in artful, unique, and stunning ways to create one-of-a-kind designs for every occasion. She uses that same eye for design to fill her store with beautiful, stylish home decor products and gifts. Let’s just say I do all my Christmas and birthday shopping for myself from her at La Petite Fleur, as in “I’d like one of those please, oh and that would look great in my living room…”. For this party she worked with me to come up with exactly what I wanted. I asked for pink and a little glitz, and she sure delivered!

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For the dinning room table, where the food was served, she suggested three beautiful, low, and matching arrangements. We wanted to echo the linear quality of the chandelier, by creating a row of flowers.

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It also tied in with the beautiful runner I created out of ribbon. I went to my local fabric store and bought lengths of ribbon in different textures and shades of pink, along with some sequins for the glitz factor. I love how it turned out, and I’m sure it’s something I’ll be able to use time and time again.

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For the fireplace mantel, Heather worked with the candelabra that I already had, and stunning pink orchids. If you wanted to create a similar look at home, without the candelabra, you could use a vase of twigs as your base.

Heather began by cutting the orchid off the stem, very close to the base of the bloom.

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Then she used a pearl headed straight pin, and inserted it through the back of the flower.

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She was then able to tie a piece of clear fishing line to the pin, and hang it on the candelabra.

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The finished product was simple and stunning.

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Heather also brought the beautiful glass candle holders, that we used on the mantle. They can also be hung. Wouldn’t they be gorgeous in a tree on a summer night in the garden?

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The mantle looked great, in all it’s sparkly, pink glory!

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In the kitchen we wanted to add an easy arrangement, that tied in with the pink and glitz. Heather came up with using orchids again and floating candles. She submerged several blooms in a glass bowl, and added beautiful mercy glass floating candle holders. We dressed the rest of the table with some more ribbon, orchids, and a beautiful mirror garland.

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I loved working with Heather, (not just because she’s my sister, but for that reason too ;) ) because she has an incredible eye for detail, and yet a fun-loving ease about her. I love how all the arrangements she did were different, but tied together by the use of orchids, and the colour pink.

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La Petite Fleur was kind enough to also bring a “sweet” take-home treat for all the guests. Heather brought a pretty little jar of local, organic honey for everyone.

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Check out La Petite Fleur located at 45 Brock St. West, in beautiful downtown Uxbridge, Ontario. Heather’s store is a full service florist, where she’ll work with you to create beautiful, memorable pieces for any occasion. You can also order on-line here, for your convenience. Have a look at her new blog, where she features all her latest projects, products and how-to’s. Her store also offers a full line of wonderful classes, from basic to advanced floral design, cooking and entertaining, and gardening. On her website you’ll find a full schedule for all her up coming spring classes, like this one on how to make a spring wreath.

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When life is a party, it’s good to know a good florist, and mine is amazing! ;)

 

This post is linked up at Under the Table and Dreaming, Blue Cricket Design, and at Tablescape Thursdays at Between Naps on the Porch.

No. 1 -The Mini Burgers

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Life is a party, if we make it one, so when I rolled around to 100 000 hits recently, I thought why not celebrate. Since beginning this blog, about 10 months ago, it’s been a wonderful journey, and I’m very thankful to all my readers for showing up at the party, so to speak.

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Friday night I got together with 10 readers for a night of fun and celebration. Over the next 10 days, I’ll be sharing all the recipes, decor ideas, and party inspiration from our girls get together. Here’s a picture of all 10 of us (well 9, one dear friend and follower came down with a sinus infection and had to cancel at the last min., we missed you Jen, feel better soon).

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From the top: Kim (from Restoration House), Jennifer, Myself (Dannyelle), another Danielle, Stephanie, Heather my sister (from La Petite Fleur), Heather, another Heather, and Connie (from Telling His Stories, and who took lots of the pics for me ;) )

I had a great time with these amazing ladies, including Kim of Restoration House. She has a great home decor blog, and if you haven’t read it yet, you should check it out. My sister Heather and her store La Petite Fleur supplied all the beautiful flowers as one of my new sponsors, and will be featured tomorrow.

Over the course of the evening we shared some great food, cocktails, and fun, which I’ll be sharing with you over the next several days. One of my new favourite party foods are these Mini Burgers.

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To make the hamburger patties, use whatever your favourite burger recipe is. We started out with a couple of lbs. of lean ground beef, added dry onion soup mix, and formed into mini patties. It’s that simple. Top Tip: Make them nice and thin, or you’ll end up with mini meatballs, rather than burger shapes after you cook them.

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I found mini-burger buns at the Metro, yeah! Last summer, I had to get a bakery to custom make them mini size, with a 3 doz. minimum order, now they’re regular in-stock at my local grocery store, awesome!

Earlier in the day I caramelized some onions, by cooking sliced onions over a low tempurature with a little oil, worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar until they were golden brown.

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We toped the mini burgers with swiss cheese, some of the caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, and a little HP sauce. So yummy!

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We served them with Kettle chips, for a cocktail size play on burgers and fries.

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Life is a party, with these mini burgers.

Be sure to check back again tomorrow for a great flower arranging tutorial, and 9 more days of partying fun!

This post is linked up at Tatertots and Jello, Whipperberry, Under the Table and Dreaming, and Be Different Act Normal.

I am so excited to have over 100 000 hits on Life is a Party! In less than 10 months, I am thrilled to have been able to share some party and life inspiration with so many people. Life isn’t always perfect, but I truly believe that it is what we make it, so why not make it a party! Thanks for joining in on the journey with me.

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I think it’s time to celebrate, because that’s what we do best around here. I am so appreciative to my faithful blog readers, so I’d like to invite you to a 100 000 Hits Party!

If you are a follower, and live in the GTA and are free on the evening of Friday, April 1, you can enter to win an exclusive invite to our amazing celebration! Winners will be revealed on Friday, March 25. Guests will enjoy an amazing evening and go home with some great goodies!

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Let’s keep the party going! The 10 exclusive party guests will be invited to join me in bringing a birthday gift for a less fortunate little boy or girl. The gifts will be donated to the local Salvation Army, to be distributed in the community, and help keep the party going!

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The party will be for 10 exclusive guests who are “Life is a Party” followers, and feature 10 amazing menu items. 10 x 10 = 100 ways to celebrate

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The party will be featured here on the blog in 10 Special Posts, sharing all the decor, drinks, and food with tutorials, recipes, and some great sponsors! Even if you can’t make it to Toronto, you’ll be able to share in all the fun right here!

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So, for your chance to win an exclusive invite to the party April 1st, make sure you are a follower (or join at the side), and leave me a comment below. I can’t wait to hear from you, and thanks again for visiting!

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Friday night Grandma and friends came for a family Valentine’s Day celebration. Nothing too fancy, but it doesn’t really take much to make a kids day.

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Maddie was very excited to eat in the dinning room, because in her mind that means a party!

I found some fun napkins at the dollar store, and these cute heart containers, which we filled with some candies. The girls decided to make little “place cards/Valentines” for everyone.

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I used my pink table runner, and added some cute metal hearts to the white orchid.

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I love these simple glass tea light holders, sitting amongst some Valentine confetti.

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My girls LOVED these balloons from Dollarama, and played with them for a long, long time.

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The menu was simple but delicious. We had some veggies and dip, homemade hummus and pita chips, “make your own pizza”, and opened a bottle of wine. ;)

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The cutest detail; I cut the pepperoni out with a mini heart cutter.

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It looked so sweet.

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For dessert we had fruit and cream cheese dip.

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We also had a sweet little heart shaped ice cream cake from Diary Queen.

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And if anyone had any room left, there were also some goodies from our favourite local bakery.

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On second thought can we just skip the fruit? Just kidding.

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This was a really simple party to put together, my guests cooked their own dinner, dessert was from the store. All we really did was chop up some fruit and veggies, and grate a little cheese. The decor was all stuff I had, or picked up that day at the dollar store. Sometimes over the top and months of planning is amazing, but sometimes all it takes is Mom to declare that it’s a party, and move the meal to the dinning room!

I hope you feel inspired to do something special, but simple for the ones you love this Valentine’s day, because life really is a party if you make it one!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This post is linked up at Under the Table and Dreaming, Between Naps on the Porch, and Tatertots and Jello.

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Yesterday was a snow day here, and my little girls needed an activity to keep them busy for awhile. I remember my mom making us play dough as a kid, but I had never made it before. It was super easy, and has already provided hours of fun! And to make it extra special, we added glitter for Valentine’s Day, and almond extract for a great smell!

There are tons of recipes on the web, we went with this one from Kinder Planet:

PLAYDOUGH RECIPE

You will need:

* 1/2 cup salt
* 1 cup flour
* 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
* 1 tablespoon oil
* 1 cup water
* food colouring

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What to do:

1. Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring all the time. When the dough has a good consistency, take it off the heat and allow to cool.

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I added about a tablespoon of almond extract to the ingredients to make it smell extra special too. My girls loved it. I didn’t add the food colouring at the beginning because I wanted to make two colours out of one batch. So, when it was done cooking, rather than leave it to cool I divided it into two balls and added food colouring and sprinkles to them and kneading it until it was well mixed.

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The finished play dough turned out to be really pretty with all the glitter, and smelt great too. I dug out all my Valentine’s Day cookie cutters and the girls had a great time creating, while I got on with another project. ;)

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I think this would be great for a Valentine’s Day party activity also, and you could make cute containers of it for everyone to take home as a favour. The possibilities are endless! With pink, glittery, sweet smelling play dough, life really is a party!

This post is linked up at A Glimpse Inside, Somewhat Simple, Between U & Me, Fireflies and Jellybeans, My Delicious Ambiguity, The Treasurista, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Chic Cottage, and Under the Table and Dreaming.

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