Braided Fabric Garland Tutorial on Hank and Hunt

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In case you missed it, I have a super easy, totally cool tutorial up on Hank and Hunt for braided fabric garland.  Chiggety check it out.  It includes a tiny sneak peek of my son's 2nd birthday party which will be up next week. :) And even later next week, I'll show you how to make these garlands out of a t-shirt.  Imagine your husband's surprise when you "upcycle" his old t-shirts in to party pretties. 

Holy Lollipops!

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Have you guys seen this!!!! I'm such a fan of Jonathan Adler. I was just working on my Christmas list, of what I want people to buy for me and I came across the fanciest lollipop holder I have ever seen!! I don't think I eat enough lollipops to justify the $98 but if one of my parties just happened to be peacock themed I may just have to have it. Because it would be too perfect. I wonder if I can talk my four year old out of the super hero party he wants...

Sharon

I heart these napkins but they make me angry

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*I've woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and if you can get through the snotty tone of my post, I really do LOVE this product.

I was perusing the Daily Candy Christmas page, 30 gifts under $30, and I saw these My Drap napkins. I first saw these napkins years ago in one of the cooking magazines. These napkins come on a roll, are made with cotton, and are perfect for when you don't want to use paper napkins, but don't want to rent linen ones either. The great price means you can throw them out after one use but I'm pretty sure you could wash them and use them again (not like, forever, but once or twice more). But here is my problem. For a long time, the website said they were available at Bloomingdale's Home Store but they couldn't be bought online. Other then that there was a store in the UK selling them but I'm pretty sure it said they wouldn't ship to the US. So that left an online store in Spain (where they are made) to buy from and worry about international shipping rates.
So here is this great product that I can't easily get. Look at all the amazing colors they come in! Ideal for kids party, sophisticated adult shindigs and holiday dinners. And then it happened. I got an email from a PR company about this product. It looked like it was finally happening. I might be able to buy them easily after all. They offered more info and a sample. So I emailed back, excited to finally try them out. And then I got no response. What the...
I mean, look at these napkins. They are simply perfect. They come in a cocktail and dinner napkin size as well as placemat size. Fast forward another month. I got another email in my inbox from the same PR company announcing these napkins. Um, hullo! I fired off another quick email. Guess what. No response.
All I want is for these napkins to be available to the masses stateside. So I was over the moon when I spotted a gorgeous picture of them on Daily Candy. I clicked right over to the site and...utter disappointment. Sure I may be able to buy them in the US ($10 shipping seems ridiculously steep for a roll of 12 napkins. The dinner napkins are priced at $35 which I think is more then they used to sell them for at Bloomingdale's. While they have some pretty pictures of the napkins, the look of the rest of the site really does them a disservice. I really really really want this product to do well but I feel like the company is working against itself.

In my heart, I know these napkins could be a huge hit in the party world. But they make me angry.

If anyone has actually seen these or touched them, please let me know. I just know they must be glorious once you get past the website ugliness.

(I am sorry to be so sour. And I, too, find it odd that I can be so worked up over napkins... I think after coveting these napkins for so long I really wanted the website to sing to me.)

Sharon

-All photos via MyDrap

I promise to be back to my old self tomorrow.

A cupcake decorating machine!

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Okay, so maybe it is not actually a machine. But it totally has batteries and makes your life way easier. I was recently sent a Kuhn Rikon Frosting Decorating Pen to review. Have you seen this product? When I was approached about this item I was super excited. In my head, my cupcake and cake decorating is exquisite. In reality, not so much. I was super curious to see if my finished treats would be something I would proudly call my own. The minute I got this pen, my 4 year old son, O, HAD to try it. And when I mentioned it to my friend, Kristin of Meringue Bake Shop, she was interested in it too. So I thought all three of us should try it and give our opinions. I invited Kristin over and set out baking cupcakes and frostings. My son has food allergies so I made sure to bake some allergy friendly chocolate for him and since I was baking for a professional baker, I decided to to also prepare my best recipe, Betty Crocker Cherry Chip - seriously, look in to it, yum!

So the kit comes with one "pen" and three cartridges that you fill with icing. It also includes four decorating tips and a "filler" for adding extra goodness to the middle of your cupcakes. The pen is designed for use with ready made frosting (right up my alley!!!) so they include three plates for filling the cartridges as well. I wanted to make my own vanilla buttercream as well as using store bought so I easily filled one of the cartridges with a baby spoon. I'm pretty sure an offset spatula would have worked too, but the baby spoon was the perfect size!

Kristin helped me fill another cartridge with the Cherry Chip frosting. It's amazing how easy it is (I should note, as long as whatever frosting you are using is the perfect room temperature it is super easy. If the frosting is harder, filling becomes quite messy...). You put a cartridge in the filling plate and press down evenly on the top. The pressure forces the frosting up into the cartridge. Then you just pop it in to the pen.

Here we loaded some caramel sauce to try out the filler. That worked like a charm. And how can anything with caramel in it turn out bad?

As you can imagine, when trying to do a post with a four year old and your 20 month old is running wild, my focus was not well, focused. I didn't get a photo of the finished cake that Kristin did, above. She tested out several of the tips and I thought they came out pretty cute. But I really prefer her normal decorations.

My son was super excited about her work. Or maybe he had had too much frosting. I think it is important to point out, also, that the day we did this, it was about 90 degrees outside and my air conditioner was broken. All of the frosting was a little more runny then usual and I will tell you, that on a previous attempt with the pen, the decorating effects from the tips held up a bit better.
The decorating pen was really easy for my son to use and I wouldn't think twice about having him use it to decorate cupcakes for his own parties. Is that considered child labor? He really enjoyed using it and I think it could have kept him busy for hours. He did enjoy squirting the frosting directly in to his mouth, though, so you may have to stay up on food safety and hygiene when kids are using it...

Here are some of my attempts at decorating with the Kuhn Rikon decorating pen. The two tiered cakelet was my only attempt from the night Kristin was over. With all the baby wrangling, this is the only one that I managed. I frosted some more the next day so I could really see how the different tips worked.

I think that I will use this pen to decorate all my cupcakes from now on. In my opinion, they look far superior to when I try to slap a nice simple coat of icing on the top with a spatula. Here are some things I learned about the decorating pen though:

-Be sure the icing is the right temperature to fill the cartridge. If it has been in the fridge, be sure to give it plenty of time to come to room temp.

-If it is too hot (above average temps here, not like 10 degrees hotter then normal) the designs will sort of slide so the cupcake will look good, but in a more abstract sort of a way.

-There are two speeds on the pen, slow and fast. Both are pretty fast. I think it just takes some getting used to it, but when you take your finger off the button, the frosting still comes out a little so you have to account for that.

-I much prefer this over decorating bags as you don't have to work the frosting down to the tip. The pen does it for you. And when you run out of frosting, or want to change flavors, you just pop in a new cartridge.

Clean up was awesome. And I will totally use this pen again.

Here is the final opinion from my four year old son:

"I tried to put the chocolate in the side of my cupcake and it didn't work very well (talking about the filler tip). I liked the pen. I would use it again. Mom, can we make some frosting today?"

and here is the final word from Kristin of Meringue Bake Shop:

"Using the pen was fun. I can see kids enjoying the shapes that come out of the different tips and feeling like they are creating their own cake show masterpiece. I think it's definitely something for older kids though because it requires patience, hand/eye coordination, dexterity and a level of cleanliness. But I could definitely see having the pen as an option for my cupcake decorating parties. If someone were to buy this, I would definitely recommend getting more tubes for frosting and another set of tips to help make the process of using it go a little faster."

Sharon

All photos are mine.

*I was sent the Kuhn Rikon Frosting Deco Pen for free. All thoughts, opinions and sugar highs are mine.

Nodding Off

Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I am perpetually planning my kids' next birthday parties. Truth be told, now that my daughter is old enough to actually have a voice about what she wants at her next bash, its really difficult for me to let go a bit (thankfully my son is still young enough that I can do whatever I want with his...) And this year, I've found some super cute ideas all in one place. I could plan my next kid's party a thousand times over thanks to the awesome products at The Land of Nod. Many of them have a really cool retro feel - and something to think about - they are all totally reusable for those of you who like to be eco-friendly. Take for instance, their "Your a Grand Ole Flag" Party Banner. At $19.00, it makes a super cute decoration for parties for boys and girls alike. Reuse it for all your parties or when you're done, use it to decorate a bedroom or playroom. Or, if you prefer something more personal, check out their Personalized Birthday Banner or their Personalized Birthday Placemats as well. If you're looking for a party game, they have a great version of the classic pin the tail on the donkey game which includes 32 reusable tails. And for a bit of a girly spin on the classic, try pin the fairy on the flower. For those of you who like to save those precious birthday keepsakes, take a look at their "Happy Birthday to Me" Keepsake Album. Who would have thought that a company known for its great kids furniture could also create such awesome party goods? Too bad N's next birthday is still eleven months away...

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