Teacher Valentine Gifts

Psssst ... don't tell our teachers, but Mary Ashley and I have been putting together sweet Valentine surprises for Monday's celebrations.

I hope our teachers will savor a quiet moment during the busy school day to drink a cup of raspberry hot chocolate. We tucked a packet of cocoa and a buttercream marshmallow Peep into pretty mugs on sale at LifeWay Christian Stores.

We are thankful for teachers who pour themselves into our children each day and hope this little gift will let them know their names are written on our hearts.


"Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away" (Song of Solomon 8:7).


Gift tag designed by Katy Larson.

Cupcake Party: Wrap-Up

I hope you have enjoyed reliving Mary Ashley's 7th birthday party as much as I have. Many thanks to my friend Allison Hilyer for photographing the day.

Baking and decorating cupcakes with friends was the perfect way to celebrate turning 7.

Since posting for this party stretched more than a week, I am including this final post as a reference to all the great photos, projects and resources that made this such a memorable celebration.

The fun for this party started with the invitation: a sweet paper cupcake tucked into a cupcake box and finished off with ribbon and party information. Find the invitation here and directions for making paper roses here.

A soft color palette of pink, yellow and green created a soothing party space. Find more details on the party decor here.

For directions on making a silk floral cupcake centerpiece, visit this post.

Designer Katy Larson's adorable party printables were the icing on the cupcake at this party. Find out about her party-planning business here.

All the girls donned aprons and decorated chef hats when they arrived. More details about getting dressed to bake here.

Next we baked up some fun; join us in the kitchen here.

Decorating cupcakes was child's play here. And speaking of child's play ...

Unwrap gift ideas perfect for the little bakers in your life here.

Find sweet favor ideas here.

Thank you to the sweet little bakers who helped us bake some memories for Mary Ashley's birthday: (Top row, left to right) Gracie, Emma and Claire; (middle row) Emma Cate, Mary Ashley and Lynleigh; and (bottom row) Lizzie, Emma and Ann Welch. I hope you will join us in the kitchen again soon.

Happy Birthday, Cupcake!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this cupcake celebration. I hope you will all enjoy mixing up some cupcakes soon. We are doing our part by sending a cupcake surprise to the reader who left this sweet comment:

"What a breath of fresh air you are. A dear friend of mine sent me your blog and I have been captivated. I am a southern girl down to my magnolia roots and and have recently been transplanted from Georgia to a state that doesn't appreciate sweet tea, monograms, smocking or magnolia blooms at Christmas. My list could go on but I am trying to be thankful and not have a complaining spirit! When I read your blog it is like sitting on the front porch of my old house with a sweet friend and I can just smell the jasmine and gardenias blooming around us. It has become a treat in my day! I made the raspberry cupcakes this morning and have 'prettied up' a happy to send to my niece because she loves raspberries. They are wonderful! Just wanted to say thank you for appreciating so many southern traditions and for being a bright light in this world. I am changed for 'meeting' you!"

Thank you, Shea! Please let me know how I can contact you.

 

There is more loveliness to come this month with Valentine's Day just around the corner, so please drop in when you need a little love!

Cupcake Party: Silk Floral Cupcake Tutorial

Since we baked cupcakes for Mary Ashley's 7th birthday party, I put together this silk floral cupcake instead of decorating a traditional birthday cake. Our floral cupcake made a pretty centerpiece on our dining room table during the party, and Mary Ashley can display it in her room to remember our special celebration.

Fresh flowers would make a beautiful cupcake, but I opted for silk so I could make the arrangement weeks before the party.

Materials: I purchased all my supplies from Hobby Lobby. To make a silk floral cupcake, you will need 3 plastic foam discs, a glue gun, a serrated knife, three 12x12 scrapbook pages, a paper cutter with scoring blade, silk flowers, wire cutters, tulle and other embellishments as desired.

Directions: Stack the plastic foam discs, and adhere them with hot glue. Use the serrated knife to shave away some of the plastic foam to shape the stack of discs into a cupcake shape. Use the paper cutter to trim your scrapbook paper pages to the height of the tower of discs. Then exchange the trimming blade for a scoring blade, and move across each page, scoring each sheet in 1/2-inch increments. Fold the paper accordion-style along the score lines. Then glue the first page to the side of the plastic foam tower. To start the next page, glue the edge of the paper over the last pleat of the first page you glued to the disc. Then wrap the second page around, securing it with hot glue. Finish the cupcake wrapper with the third piece, folding the edges on each side over a pleat. Clip floral stems short with wire cutters, and insert them into the top of the foam, careful to cover the top edge of the paper liner all around. Work inward from the perimeter, keeping stems a little longer toward the center to create a domed effect. Finish the arrangement with puffs of tulle, ribbons, candles or other embellishments.

Stop in tomorrow for a wrap-up of our cupcake party and the winner of the cupcake surprise giveaway!

Cupcake Party: Sweet Favors

The little girls at Mary Ashley's birthday party were delighted to take cupcakes home to their families. We baked four batches during the party -- vanilla, lemon, strawberry and chocolate -- and the girls decorated them with buttercream icing, sprinkles, roses and cupcake picks. There were plenty of cupcakes to go around, and the girls could not wait to share them with their daddies!

These Wilton 4-cavity cupcake boxes fit our soft color scheme and allowed the girls to take their pretty cupcakes home intact.

We wanted to share our favorite buttercream icing recipe with the girls, so our graphic designer extraordinaire Katy Larson designed this sweet little recipe card for us to send home with the cupcakes.

Beautiful baker Lynleigh looks precious in her chef hat and apron, both favors from our party.

At some point, the paper chef hats will probably be discarded, but I hope the girls will hold on to the aprons. They should get a few years wear out of them, so they will be perfect for joining Mommy in the kitchen. Then maybe down the road they can pass them to their own daughters.

Mary Ashley's Bake Shop was all about inspiring little girls to get in the kitchen to bake some memories, so we hope the girls left eager to make more cupcakes. To that end, Katy designed the label above and suggested I put together bakery bags for the girls.

These were so inexpensive and easy to assemble. I used white paper lunch bags and filled them with pink paper shreds, cupcake liners and sprinkles. And just in case the girls needed a little more inspiration, we had one more little surprise ...

A True "Mix CD"

Mary Ashley's Bakers Dozen features 13 of the Birthday Girl's favorite songs -- perfect for singing along with while decorating cupcakes!

We have a couple more surprises in store for the girls. Katy sent these pretty pastel marshmallow sticks along with pink and yellow cupcake lip glosses -- enough for all the girls to have one -- so we will be passing these out with thank you notes.

Thank you for joining us this week as we reflected on Mary Ashley's 7th birthday party. If you have not signed up for our cupcake surprise giveaway, take a moment to do that here. (Seriously, friends, if I haven't convinced you this week that you need more cupcakes in your life, I don't know what more I can do.) I'll be back Monday to wrap up our cupcake party and announce the giveaway winner.

Have a great weekend!


Photos used with permission of Allison Hilyer Photography

Cupcake Party: Decor

Our dining room reminded me of a fluffy pink cupcake for Mary Ashley's recent birthday party. The dining room table usually stretches the length of the room, but removing a leaf and tucking the table into a corner gave us room for several different party stations. It was not possible to get a shot of the whole room, but I can give you a little tour through the images photographer Allison Hilyer captured of different vignettes in the room.

The front corner of the room, defined by a rug and pink paper lantern, held an apron for each guest.

After the girls chose an apron, they moved to the next station to decorate a chef hat. The back corner of the room housed a play area with vintage pink kitchen, polka dotted table (Home Goods) and baking-themed toys like a mixer and cupcake set.

The left half of the room was a sweet gathering space for the girls to sit and enjoy the fruits of their labor. (Paper lanterns available here in our color scheme of pink, green and yellow.)

The girls returned to the dining room, favorite cupcakes in hand, to sing happy birthday and enjoy a sweet snack.

For this frothy pink tablescape, I used the tablecloth and runner I made for Mary Ashley's "Strawmary Shortcake" 4th birthday. The centerpiece was a large silk floral cupcake, my alternative to a baked cake this year.

Paula Deen's Dot Crazy plates were just right for our cupcake party, paired with Joe's late grandmother's Fostoria, paper napkins from Target, and tags designed by Katy Larson.

Pink, green and yellow striped and polka dotted straws from The Sugar Diva were even cuter with personalized labels from Katy.

A beverage table in the back of the room held extra glasses and straws for our cupcake bakers, who worked up quite a thirst in the kitchen.

Strawberry, regular and chocolate milk were the perfect accompaniment to our birthday snack of cupcakes and fresh strawberries. (Carafes from Publix.)

The girls had their fill of milk and cupcakes as the sun was setting on our afternoon together.

Our dining room had such a lovely pink glow I could not help smiling each time I entered the room -- but especially when I caught a glimpse of the most beautiful part of the room:

The Birthday Girl!


Stop in tomorrow for cupcake party favor ideas, the sprinkles on top of a memorable afternoon. 


Photos used with permission of Allison Hilyer Photography