DIY - Edible Chocolate Easter Basket

Hello lovely readers!! I've been very busy working on a few "first" projects - my niece's 1st birthday party, a long time friend's son's 1st birthday party and my very own 1st Easter Egg Hunt!

Today I've decided to post my first feature! I will begin posting DIY features as often as they are submitted to me, or as often as I fall in love with them - as I did with this edible basket!

I've had the pleasure of working with Debbie from Wants and Wishes for Nathaniel's Toy Story Party and currently working with her again. When I saw her tutorial for an edible chocolate Easter basket, I couldn't believe my eyes! Being in the middle of planning an Easter Egg Hunt and being an extreme chocolate lover, this was like hitting the lotto and knowing that pretty soon I'll be getting "chocolate wasted!" :)

Here are Debbie's instructions:

You will need:

mini balloons

dipping chocolate

peeps! chicks or bunnies (I love these)

candy eggs (I used speckled jelly beans & chocolate filled eggs)

1. First you have to melt the chocolate and decide who wins: MICROWAVE vs OVEN. Please follow package directions.

Tip: To to have your chocolate keep that shinny sheen look to it, the chocolate needs to be melted slow.

2. While your chocolate is melting, blow up mini balloons and coat the bottom half of the balloons with shortening. (this will help the chocolate not stick to the chocolate) Use a cookie sheet or plate with parchment/wax paper on it.

3. Roll the bottom half of the balloon in the chocolate, while holding on at the top half of the balloon. I wanted the chocolate bowl to have a little rough feel to it, since it is supposed to be a basket. No two will be alike and this makes it easier as it not supposed to be perfect. You might have to apply more than one coat. If a small area is a little transparent, or you need to smooth a spot out, use the back of a spoon and with a little chocolate on it, swirl in the direction of the chocolate.

4. With the balloon in your left hand, place a small circle of chocolate on the plate/cookie sheet with your right hand. Place the balloon on top of the chocolate disk. Place in the freezer to set faster. When the chocolate is set, pop the balloon with pin and take out the balloon remains.

Fill with jelly beans, chocolate eggs and other candy. Top with a bunny or chick peep. You can package them in boxes, cellophane bags or on top of individual platters at each place setting. Make sure to make these for your Easter dessert table and use with her Easter Printable available at her Etsy Shop.

Enjoy! And please be sure to e-mail any pictures if you try this for Easter or any occassion!

Toy Story 3 Birthday

Hello to all of my wonderful readers!! I'm sorry it's taken me over a month to share with you the details of Nathaniel's Toy Story 3 Birthday Party, but here it is!

As some of you read in my previous post, I started picking up a bunch of things for this party about 9 months before. I highly recommend that you give yourself at least that much time before an event to start shopping for a few reasons. Not only is it easier on your wallet (having to pay for everything at one shot always hurts more lol), you have more time to really look around for different things that will make your party stand out...and hopefully find them on clearance! Also, it's good to be set on a theme/idea so that you're not changing your mind a million times and having to start all over again. (Which happened to me for this party!) I tried to brainwash Nathaniel into having a sports party but he fell in love with the Toy Story movies and he's the boss of his birthday! :)

Of course the clouds design works well with this theme, but because Nathaniel also thinks he's Woody, I decided to use the plaid yellow and red pattern of Woody's shirt, starting with the inviations from Less Ordinary Designs.  I also dressed him up in a Woody t-shirt!

The birthday boy couldn't stop talking about his Toy Story party for weeks before it took place, and when he continued for about two weeks after the party, I knew I did a great job! He even said "Thank you mommy for my Toy Story party!" **Insert tears and melting heart here**

He really enjoyed everything, and rumor has it so did the kids! We played "Pin The Tail on Bullseye" which I dowloaded from Disney Family and "Toy Story Bean Bag Toss" purchased at Family Dollar). Most ideas are in my previous 3rd Birthday Inspiration post, but I will post all pictures and vendor links here as well.

I had a large number 3 cake made at Pasticceria Bruno in honor of his 3rd birthday and the movie Toy Story 3!  I set up Nathaniel's Toy Story toys on the cake table and created a backdrop which I think made the pictures come out so pretty! Next to the cake table were cupcakes, cookies, candy, popcorn and waterbottles with perfectly made labels from Wants and Wishes Designs.

I filled the paper favor bags with Toy Story stickers, pens, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, notepads, a sheriff's badge and a blowout!

I placed a table at the entrance with a framed invitation and picture of Nathaniel in his Woody costume from Halloween. As guests arrived, the children would pick a party hat and look for their personalized Toy Story Fun Book! (Also from Disney Family) On a shelf next to the entrance table were velvet Toy Story coloring posters and Toy Story lenticular puzzles for the kids to choose from! (I apologize for the blurry picture.)

I hung drawings made by "Andy" (printed off Disney Family) all around the room as well as a "Sunnyside Daycare" sign made by my sister! My mother, (who is such a hard worker and always tries to make anything I come up with...or adds the best input ever to make an idea work better) made the piñata and the centerpieces. For centerpieces, we filled vases with candy and had big cut outs of Woody and Buzz on sticks and tied balloons to them. We also had soldiers holding down some more balloons and scattered confetti stickers on the tables!!

One of the centerpieces can be seen behind my nephew....and he's wearing the party hats made by me! You can tell he was having a great time!!

I wanted to take pictures of the kids with props from characters from the movie and then I remembered seeing a Photobooth idea and I challenged myself to create one!  I had to bribe the boys to get in the photobooth, the girls -- not so much! What do you guys think?

I got one of my friends to dress up as Woody (bless him) and the kids were happy to be surprised by the Sheriff! I created certificates for the kids that made them an "Official Member of the Round-Up Gang!"

And now, the piñata!! The topper had combined quotes from the movie and read "You've got a friend in me...from infinity to beyond!"  I also gave out magnets with the same quote.  I don't have a great picture of it...but these are fun!!

Thanks to everyone who was a part of Nathaniel's 3rd birthday party and to Giovanni Garcia for his wonderful pictures once again! A very special thank you to my mother who was my right hand woman for this special event. I love you and appreciate you and all you do! ♥

Nathaniel, I can't believe how fast you are growing but it sure is amazing to watch. I didn't think it was possible, but I love you more and more every single day. I'm so happy that out of all the mommies in the world, and all of the babies in the world, we were picked for each other! I hope all of your wishes come true, not only for your birthdays, but always! I absolutely love every inch of you! You are the smartest, nicest, happiest little boy on the planet, and it makes me happy that you're my little boy! ♥

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life." - Richard Bach

Happy 3rd Birthday baby!! Mommy loves you!!! ♥

My Best Friend's Wedding

It was not only a pleasure, but such an honor to help my best friend plan her wedding!! I was looking forward to every single detail that needed to be addressed/worked on. And staying up late was by no means a choice or an option - I wanted to do it! I remember getting back from her Bachelorette Party in Atlantic City, and after about an hour of rest, we got to tying favor tags. Or was it tying bows? I think the tying bows was at night and we stayed up pretty late, so it must've been the favor tags. Regardless, it was always fun. Tying, talking, tying, laughing, tying, talking. Who would've thought that tying bows would be such fun? :) Our poor fingers... :/ lol

The wedding was originally supposed to take place in Las Vegas. Vegas Baby!! OK, let me stop. But it's Vegas and Ray and Dajilis (further known as "they" lol) love that place. They've been there more times than I can count on both hands, I think. I went with Dajilis back in 2003, they even went to scope out places for the wedding and are going back soon too! Since the wedding was no longer going to take place in LV, we decided that it should be incorporated into the wedding somehow. And then we came across the table numbers. Each table number represented a hotel in Las Vegas and had a brief description of a memory the couple shared at each hotel. They were absolutely beautiful.

It's amazing how things work out.

The colors, back in 2008, when they were first engaged, were supposed to be brown and red. The dress, white, of course. We went shopping way back when and it was something amazing having been there to see her in a wedding dress for the first time. Happy tears. We fell IN LOVE with one particular dress and it was SOLD! Just like that, the perfect dress!!

Once the wedding planning began, the colors changed to brown and blue. And you know what happens next right? You know that "always go with your first choice" thing you learned about back in school when you were taking an exam? That "always go with your gut feeling" thing. That happened...lol! Brown and red again! If I've ever learned something from my best friend (and boy have I learned plenty) it's that YOU MUST LOVE IT! If we go shopping, don't buy it if you don't love it. If we're going to eat, don't get it if you're not going to love it. So of course, don't do the brown and blue if you don't love it....so she didn't! Brown and red it was, and it was beautiful. It was pretty funny when she changed her mind. We had to make a lot of phone calls, florist being one of the first. Aren't the bouquets and centerpieces just stunning?

It's amazing how things work out.

Speaking of loving it. There was no way she wasn't having the pumpkin place cards! I'm laughing as I type this because it was truly love at first site when Dajilis found those. She didn't care, didn't want to hear anything...she needed them! I couldn't agree more. Last minute decision was to lean them against the chocolate boxes that were also at each place setting. (The ones that hurt our fingers tying bows onto.) It was beautiful and went perfectly with her brown and red, fall theme wedding!

So, I signed up to Wedding Wire to make the inspiration boards for this post and it MADE me put a wedding date in. I picked 12/21/12 ... yes, the day the world is supposed to end. I'm single. I didn't catch the bouquet. Laugh.

The wedding cake was supposed to be featured on Amazing Wedding Cakes on We.tv but was not chosen. We are very sad about this for many reasons, mainly because the cake is very pretty and people tend to forget that simplicity is what at most times makes things beautiful. Maybe next time? (My wedding on 12/21/12? lol)

Dajilis and Ray printed out cards with a really touching poem for the ceremony and placed them on the guests' seats. I can not even begin to explain how much I cried at the ceremony. I was in the bridal suite with my best friend before the ceremony began, but once she walked down that aisle there was no escaping the emotion and all the love that was felt in the room. She walked out to Enya - Only Time.
Tears everywhere.

"Something borrowed, something blue, something old, something new." Dalgis, her sister and maid-of-honor, gave her the perfect handkerchief with that saying and had it personalized with "Mrs. R" and their wedding date. I don't know what was better, when Dalgis walked into the reception, or her speech?! She's just wonderful!

We don't have an amazing picture of the favors, but they were leaf wine stoppers and you can see them (a little bit) in the pictures of the table numbers. We placed personalized matchbooks on all of the tables outside on the terrace. Everyone loved them! The seating chart I actually came across on Wedding Bee. What a save! Ray added a leaf watermark and had it framed beautifully. If you recall, for the Bridal Shower, my mom made a card box so she went with the same idea for the wedding. Thankfully, after being duped by first lady on Etsy, Lacey Claire came to the rescue! She's amazing and did a wonderful job!

It's amazing how things work out!

I never imagined I would be so moved right now, but once again I am in tears. Remembering everything that led up to this big day fills me up with emotion. I've known Dajilis since I was 15 years old and in all of these years, she's always dreamed of the perfect wedding. Not big, not small, just perfect with the perfect person. It's every little girls' dream, right? Thing is, my dear best friend at times had doubt. So many ups and so many downs and so many times we all tend to give up. Not Dajilis though. She always knew her worth and knew that as long as she kept her heart open for the right man to come along and sweep her off her feet, it will happen. Every princess finds her frog and I can't even express how happy I am for her. Ray is a phenomenal man. Who better to marry a princess, than the prince himself?

It's amazing how things work out!

Through Dajilis and Ray, I have truly learned and witnessed what true love is. Congratulations again! I wish you all the happiness you've had in the past few years to continue and grow 'til death do you part! Thank you, again, for allowing me to play such a big part in your special day. Such an honor. And thank you for my speech, I know it was beautiful but I really had to use the bathroom and I'm so sorry I missed it. I will always owe you, 'til death do us part too! lol



♥ I love you both so much! ♥

Ray, Dajilis and I would like to thank the following vendors for helping make their day absolutely perfect:

Photographers: Giovanni Garcia and also Romeo Creations
Wedding dress: David's Bridal
Hair piece and veil: Angels Bridal
Make-Up: Glam Gal NYC
Wedding Cake: The Cake Artist
Invitations: Inviting Treasures
Pumpkin Place Cards: Timeless Paper
Garter: Garters By Kristi
Bouquets and Centerpieces: Carolls Florist
Customized Vegas Theme Table Numbers: JoeBen Designs
Card Box: Lacey Claire Designs
Aisle Runner, Favors, Matchbooks and boxes for chocolates: Wedding Favors Unlimited
Favor Tags: SimplYou Design
and last, but definitely not least,
The Richmond County Country Club and their impeccable staff!