I absolutely love the vintage striped paper straws that you can now find from many retailers.  They're so cute!  Colorful!  Not plastic!  But really, why stop there?  

A verdant cave of dappled light, elegant brunch fare, real china, crystal, and beautiful decorative touches.  The Blush tea party was an event straight out of a little girl's fantasy.

recipe for a classic, from scratch (no canned pie fillings!) apple pie.

I recently made some surfboard cookies for a little boy who was turning four and having a luau themed pool party.

Tutorial for making a sprinkle covered cupcake invitation, and a free download for printable sprinkles themed scrapbook paper.

You'd never know it from reading my blog, but I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Give me salty goodies any day! But there's just something about cotton candy that still gets me. Whenever I buy it for the girls, somehow it becomes a lesson in sharing with mama, and I eat at least as much as they do.

I didn't even end up using these sprinkle and chocolate enhanced ice cream cones at the Sprinkles party (the mini ice cream sandwiches ended up being a better idea for our celebration), but this was just way too cute and easy not to share.

I like creating height on my dessert tables.  Often I do that with floral arrangements, or with cake stands.  And sometimes it's fun to do it with the actual food.  

I like coming up with fun, thematic ways to present the favors at any of my parties. At the Sprinkles party, anything polka-dot and colorful pretty much fit the bill, so there was a lot I could buy off the shelf. But for the favor bags, I had a fun idea for something truly custom, inexpensive, and a fun craft project for the kids, too.

I'm a sucker for a big, soft cookie. Give me that over a thin, crispy cookie any day. And one of my favorite recipes is for a big, soft, sugar cookie--a recipe that came from my grandma, a baker and cake decorator of some renown in Iowa in her day.