The Pancakes and Pajamas party was one of the signature High Effort/Low Effort parties, in which the same party theme is presented two different ways.  As you might have guessed, one involving just a little bit of effort, and one involving considerably more.  Both are gorgeous.  Both are inspirational.  In Festivities magazine, we present these signature High/Low parties to show that you don't have to go over the top with details and desserts to have a fabulous, memorable event.  

Adorable peanut butter and jelly themed party by Frog Prince Paperie.

Last summer, I had a lot of fun meeting up with Mindy of Mimi Marie Designs.  Writing this blog and getting to know other creative types around the country and world has been an amazing experience.  But when you find out that one of those people actually lives just a few miles away--that's just icing on the cake.  

I volunteered to make some cookies and sandcastle lollipops and cupcake toppers for Mindy's daughter's mermaid birthday party.  

Have you seen this cartoon by Poofytoo floating around the internet lately?

My older daughter went back to school 3 weeks ago.

When Paula from Frog Prince Paperie came up with the idea for Festivities magazine, she conceived of a publication that not only featured glorious, over-the-top celebrations, but also inspiring simple parties.  Easy.  Inexpensive.  Parties that only take a few hours to put together, tops.

This weekend is going to be a whirlwind of activity!  Fun activity, but insanely busy.  At least until Sunday, when I fully expect I will spend as much of the day sleeping as my 3 year old will allow.

I love color. Bright, bold, beautiful color. But there's an exquisite beauty to tone-on-tone palettes that get their interest from playing with texture. That was part of the inspiration behind the whole Secret Garden baby shower I styled last year.

I've been hard at work on the next issue of Festivities magazine, and have been baking up a storm, trying all sorts of recipes, finding just the right one for the parties.  For the last few days, I've been trying different recipes for pralines.  One batch tasted great, had the right texture, but I crystalized it and got an unattractive bloom over the top of the pralines.  Not good enough for a magazine photo shoot.  I tried another recipe, this time Emeril's.  

Did you like the paleontology cupcakes I made last week?