Spring Picnic In The Park.

When the weather starts warming up and the thick yellow pollen disappears, it's the perfect time of the year to get out and have a spring picnic in the park. The weekend was made for family time together at our local park. We styled this shoot with a soft color pallet in mind... pastels and natural wood elements were our key ingredients. The morning of our shoot, we baked a simple boxed white cake and minimally iced it in the "naked" style with icing out of a container. Keeping everything as simple as possible allowed us to remain stress-free.

[the last two pictures in this first set of three were taken by Jenny Wilburn]

If you've been following my blog since we've moved back to South Carolina, you'll know that Trader Joe's is my favorite spot to pick up inexpensive, quality flowers and greenery. Now if only TJ's could open up in Myrtle Beach, my life would no longer have to consist of driving to Wilmington or Charleston to pick up my favorites. It's well worth the drive to purchase affordable cheese and other favorite TJ's products. Thankfully, Aldi is here in Myrtle Beach, and that is another favorite grocery store of ours to purchase affordable fresh fruit, drinks, and crackers. Is there any shoot complete without a trip into Target? We picked up these Cadbury Shimmer Mini Eggs for our picnic photo shoot to keep with the subtle spring/Easter theme.

My family is troopers to support my photo shoot whims. It can sometimes be challenging to get kids excited about sitting still for pictures, but having the food available for them to snack on during this shoot and to eat while we shot pictures kept them preoccupied and in good spirits. It was important to remain flexible for this entire photo shoot as the purpose behind it changed, 30 minutes prior to the shoot the actual location changed, and I seemed to have forgotten so many details in the rush of getting out the door. Like so many times in life, unexpected things come up and it's important to just go with the flow. 

Picnic Rug - {Home Goods} :: Wood Cake Stand - {Home Goods} :: Cake - Julie Ann Events :: Extra Large Acacia Wood Paddle Board - World Market {here} :: Assorted Cheeses - {Trader Joe's} :: Assorted Meats - {Trader Joe's} :: Fresh Flowers and Greenery - {Trader Joe's} :: Crackers and French Baguette - {Aldi} :: Fresh Fruit - {Aldi} :: Lemonade - {Aldi} :: Cadbury Shimmer Mini Eggs - Target {here} :: Styling - Julie Ann Events :: Outfit Details - {Target} {H&M} {Forever21} {Target} Thrifted

Baby Shower Invitations For Twins.

We threw an intimate baby shower for our dear friend who was pregnant with not just one baby, but two! Oh, baby baby! Twins are on the way. For our shower invitations, we immediately went to Etsy in search of the perfect invite that would capture the essence of our event. We purchased these cute invitations from {My Confetti Printables}. We loved that not only the invite was part of the package, but also two card inserts to encourage guests to bring books and diapers to the shower. A thank you card in the same design was included as well for the mother to be to use to thank all of the guests who gave gifts. Sound like a big package? It didn't stop there. There was also printables for envelopes as well. Just wanted to give My Confetti Printables a huge shout out for providing such a beautiful package. Be sure to check out their other designs as well. 

Watermelon Cake Made Out Of Real Fruit.

As parents, we've been trying to make a conscious effort to eliminate sugar in our daughter's diet. With her birthday coming up, she requested a cake, but we decided to make a watermelon cake and decorate it with fruit. This all fruit cake was a big success. Not only was it healthy, it was delicious, and she never missed having a cake slathered with frosting and baked with sugar. We used fruit that was in season at our local grocery store. Sliced up strawberries, cantaloupe cut outs, and blueberries were the perfect accessory to the watermelon base.

Valentine's Day Party.

Here in Hong Kong, Valentine's Day is overshadowed by Chinese New Year and doesn't get much recognition. Valentine's Day typically falls on the same week as Chinese New Year. Most people leave the country for the holiday and shops close down for the week. However, I thought it would be fun to put together a small Valentine's Day themed party for some of the kids who stayed in town. Thankfully, the weather was perfect and we were able to set up the party on our back patio.

To cut back on the food prep, we asked each family to bring a snack to contribute to the playdate. Our friends brought fresh fruit and the cutest strawberry-banana fruit leather that they had made themselves and rolled up into Valentine's Day treats.

I had been struggling with sickness leading up to the day of the party, so I went with purchased foods from our local bakeries. Sugar donuts got a festive holiday bunting topper, while the traditional Hong Kong egg tart was placed in Valentine's Day cupcake wrappers and topped with a coordinating heart topper.

We decided to give the kids a sugar rush with their drinks. By dipping the cups in vanilla frosting and then covering them with sprinkles, it gives the rims a festive touch. We filled each cup with strawberry cotton candy and then filled the cups with Sprite. The cups are typically filled with champagne poured over the cotton candy, but since this was a kid party, we kept it alcohol free.

We had a few crafts lined up for the kids to make during the party. The first activity was a painting project using the erasers on the ends of a pencil and watercolor paints. We had the kids cut out a heart shape, lay the cutout on a new sheet of paper, and then paint dots on the edges of the cutout. Once the kids had gone around the heart shape cutout, we removed the cutout and a pretty heart silhouette was left on the painted sheet of paper.

We had purchased some wooden woven hearts that the kids were able to use their imaginations to craft with, as well as some other paper hearts that they could attach to anything of their choosing. For the girls of the party, we purchased some pink tassels to sting onto a chain to make a necklace for them to wear.

Another Year Older.

Someone's having a birthday in the Julie Ann Event's house this week, and that someone would be me. I'm turning 37 and it means that we will celebrate as a family! Bring out the party balloons, the birthday dresses, and the party crowns. The last two years has seen Julie Ann Events take a major spot on the back burner. Knowing that we were not going to be in Hong Kong long, made the thought of growing a business back from the ground up in a new country intimidating. So I didn't promote Julie Ann Events here in Hong Kong. We're planning to move again at the end of the school year, and I am really looking forward to diving back into event design when we hit American soil. Here's to another year older, to life experiences I wouldn't trade for anything, and to making every day a party!!!

Hello Kitty Party - Activities For Kids.

We set up a small craft center for the children to participate in during the party. We've thrown parties and attended parties where sometimes the organized craft/game stations work, and sometimes the kids who are attending just aren't interested in them. However, this time around, the kids were really involved with every activity we had planned.

I made each child a little party bag that held their materials to make hair bows and also doubled as their party favor bag to take home. Tomorrow I will do a post on what we put into their bag.

As we waited for all the party guests to arrive, I had the children start on coloring pages that we had printed off from the internet. There are plenty of online sources, but you can find some by clicking right here {source}. We also designed our own little packets for the crayons that the kids used to color with it.

My friend, Meg, gave us the cutest Hello Kitty cookie cutters. These have got to be some of the cutest Hello Kitty cookies out there! I love how she sits up. We gave the kids an icing bag full of pink icing, and a couple jars of sprinkles for them to decorate their Hello Kitties with.

Our final activity for the children was to paint their fingernails. I was walking through Toys R Us and came across the cutest Hello Kitty nail polish. It came as a set of three with a large Hello Kitty figurine that we actually used as our cake topper. My daughter was super excited to get to paint her fingernails with her friends at her birthday party!

Hello Kitty Birthday Party - Dessert Table.

The day of our Hello Kitty birthday party, Hong Kong was experiencing a torrential downpour. We were hoping the rain would let up by late afternoon, so we could go with our original plan of setting up outside on our balcony, but the rain kept falling. We moved our party inside, and unfortunately did not have great lighting for our pictures!

We set our dessert table up in front of our wall of windows and hung the backdrop we made. The backdrop was a bit of a trash to treasures project. One day as I was walking through Kowloon City, I rescued a wooded frame that a restaurant was throwing out. I then painted the frame white and attached paper fans that we purchased from Sham Shui Po.

For our dessert table, we purchased a Hello Kitty ferris wheel from Maxim's Cakes. Inside each compartment, we served little Hello Kitty cookies gingerbread cookies that were a grocery store purchase. We served glass bottles of  lemonade with Hello Kitty straws. Strawberry wafer cookies tied with a pink ribbon were an automatic festive addition to the table. To add a little bit of healthy to all that sugar, we customized skewers of fruit, by cutting out each the name of each little attendee.

Hello Kitty Birthday Party.

I have recently discovered that designing a party in Hong Kong is like learning a new language because it is a completely different experience from event design back in South Carolina! From running around Hong Kong looking for vanilla icing and then looking for powdered icing sugar to trying to keep the giant number balloon from flying up into the sky and away from me while I transported it from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon Peninsula, this party was definitely a learning experience for me and my staff. This week we will share on the blog our Hello Kitty party and the activities that we had the party guests participate in.

An Intimate Family Birthday Party.

As an event designer, I've always thrown parties for my two kids on their birthday. Some have been larger than others, but we've always had a party. I longed for the simplicity of a an intimate family birthday dinner to celebrate our children instead of doing something big. Personally, I really love small gatherings with the ones you truly love.

My son turned eight and finally my wish for a small birthday celebration was granted. We decided this year that we would not throw him a large birthday party because we are going to be flying to Korea for a long weekend so that he can see Paul McCartney in concert. He's ecstatic. The Beatles are his favorite band, with his top three songs being - Eleanor Rigby, Yellow Submarine, and All Together Now. Instead of spending the money that would have gone towards his party, instead it will be put towards the trip.

We were fortunate to have my parents visiting us here in Hong Kong for his birthday, which made the celebration that much sweeter. I hung up the "Happy Birthday" banner I made for his first birthday party and baked him a cake of his choice. He opened presents, spent the day exploring Noah's Ark, and ate chocolate cake! For all of us, it was a wonderfully simple celebration!!! My event designer heart breathes a quiet sigh of relief with how much I enjoyed the time together. But that being said, a party is still really fun too!!!!

Confetti Pancake Breakfast.

For Easter we showed you a confetti cake we had made with the silhouette of a bunny on it. We love confetti here at Julie Ann Events. I have always thought a confetti themed bash would make a great first birthday party. It is a festive gender neutral theme for that first birthday. We are continuing the confetti theme for today's post as well.

Confetti pancakes. You don't need a fancy pancake recipe to make these. We used our simple buttermilk pancake recipe and added the sprinkles to each cake while the first side was frying. No matter what age you are, waking up to these on your birthday morning is an automatic celebration!

The Red Balloon Party - The Birthday Girl.

The Red Balloon Party - Details.

We kept the decorations simple for The Red Balloon Party that we styled. We made a string of tassels out of tissue paper that we hung above the kid table. White spray paint was our best friend for this event. We purchased black letters at Hobby Lobby to spell out the birthday girl's name and then spray painted them white to coordinate with our color scheme.

We served our guests a drink made out of fresh strawberries, a simple sugar syrup, and ginger ale. Belinda, from The Party Garden supplied us with paper straws and wooden forks, that we covered with scrapbook paper.

Party crafts for the kids included making a balloon face and also creating a stained glass balloon out of red construction paper, clear contact paper, and tissue paper. Having a Silhouette Cameo came in handy, and made cutting out faces and balloon shapes quick work.

Even though we had a couple organized activities for the kids to do, they had the most fun running around with their own balloon playing catch. We heard a lot of popping balloons throughout the party from different children!