OLIVIA party :: Food and favors

According to Olivia's Rule of Life #100, "Red is the very best color for absolutely, positively everything!" It wasn't difficult finding party-friendly red foods. We served sliced watermelon, cherry tomatoes, chips and salsa, white chocolate dipped strawberries and bagel pizzas with mini pepperoni as a kid-sized topping.


Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting towered above the assortment of red foods. It was my mom's idea to add red hots to some of them. I loved how they turned out! I took a shortcut and got organic chocolate cake mix that was on close-out at the grocery store and then just made the frosting from scratch at home. I baked the cupcakes the night before the party and then frosted them the day of. The damask-patterned baking cups and picks came from Oriental Trading, and the black and white candles were from Hobby Lobby.

Again, taking a cue from Olivia's Rules of Life, I framed this saying, "Never miss a very important party." Along with the frame, I staggered our little red pail favors on a white tray and filled them with red swirl lollipops and Olivia stickers.

Our guests liked picking these up on their way out the door, and there was enough room in the pails to put the kids' crafts. My next post will give you the scoop on the crafts and other party activities!

To get all the Olivia party posts, click on the tag, "olivia" below.

Robin Bird Birthday Party

A bird theme was a natural choice for my mother's 50th birthday celebration. After all, her name is Robin! Held in the autumnal outdoors at Daingerfield State Park in East Texas, family and friends gathered for a weekend to honor this wonderful woman.

Gift Table | I created this framed 8x10 collage tribute in Adobe Photoshop, using scanned photographs from my mom's childhood layered with digital scrapbooking papers and embellishments. Going along with the bird theme, the text in the collage is a passage of selected verses from the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6:

"Look at the birds of the air ... are you not worth much more than they? ... Do not worry then ... for your heavenly father knows you need all these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will take care of itself."

The wooden frame is from Michaels. Paired with a simple glass Mason jar full of wild goldenrod and a sea blue table runner on clearance from Target, the gift table was complete.

Place Settings & Centerpieces | Guided by a color palette of yellows, blues and browns, a gingham fabric covers the picnic table and large glass jars filled with goldenrod and tied with ribbons serve as centerpieces. Small baskets (bought at Cost Plus World Market on 90% off Easter clearance) were filled with raffia paper and sprinkled with faux robin's eggs. Casual plates--already on hand--reinforce the color scheme.

Dessert | Adapting a recipe for Hummingbird Cake from Country Home Magazine, these cupcakes feature cream cheese icing topped with toasted almonds and coconut for the "nest" and three M&Ms Premium Chocolate Almond candies that mimic the speckled blue of robin's eggs. The cupcakes were displayed on a Wilton Cupcakes and More Medium Dessert Stand.

Happy 50th birthday, Momma!