Vendor Spotlight- Christmas Party with Tunky Monkey

Good Morning Ya'll!
Boy do I have treat you guys this week! So I have rounded up some really good parties to share with you over the next couple of days:) Since Christmas was yesterday I wanted to keep with the theme and share with you some cute Christmas parties. This first party was submitted by Melissa of Tunky Monkey's Sweet Treats.  Melissa is based out of Portsmouth, Virginia so if you are in that area you should check her out. Every year, Melissa likes to give back to the community by hosting a party to in her words "give back to those who need a little extra sweetness in their lives." This particular party was given to celebrate her local military community. I for one think that is a great way to give back, celebrating those that have or are putting their lives on the line to protect this country.  I celebrate Melissa for taking on such a task especially during the holiday season when we all know just our regular lives can be a little hectic. So without further ado here are the pics!

Vendor Credit: Melissa- Tunky Monkey Sweet Treats
Website: TunkyMonkey
Blog: http://TunkyMonkey.blogspot.com
Twitter: @TunkyMonkey
Pinterest: TunkyMonkey


I will be featuring another post a tutorial on gingerbread houses by Sunny Duran this evening!

Peace & Blessings
Kima

Party Spotlight: Honey Bash-Mermaid Abby Party

Good Afternoon Ya'll! 

In an effort to blog more, I am going to be doing a few different things. This post will be showcasing another party like my last one. Since I am on contact and work with a lot of different party stylists, I thought it would be nice to showcase some of them a week times a week. I will also for November highlighting some Thanksgiving related printables/items from party folks. This blog will be evolving into something a little more than a place to showcase my work, it will be a place to go for all things cake related whether its new products, printables for cucpakes/cakes or parties! 

This post will showcase the work of Holli who is the Founder of HoneyBash based out of Washington. HoneyBash is a printable shop where you can purchase different printables for your party. Everyone knows the printables help tie the party together! Holli also do party styling and I will be showcasing her Mermaid Abby Party. Here is what Holli had to say about her Mermaid Abby Party: 

When the Mother of my daughter’s best friend asked me to plan her daughter, Abby’s 4^th birthday party, well of course I jumped at the opportunity.  I know Abby loves mermaids, so immediately I knew we would be using the printables from my “Under the Sea Mermaid” collection.  When planning a party, I always start with an inspirational piece, a theme or in this case a color palette to compliment the obvious theme.  Abby loves pink and the color blue was the obvious choice to set the tone of the party. 

I wanted to create something that had movement and was sophisticated yet adorable enough for a bunch of 4 year olds to get lost in their own imaginations.  Immediately I knew I wanted to create a sweets buffet and I was just looking for a reason to repurpose my old hutch.  With just one coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I was able to achieve that aged beach look I was looking for. Because this hutch was chalked full of sweets, I strongly advise to always offer a treat bag, or in this case a treat box which I adorned with a simple starfish, for the kiddos to take home.  I also handmade white chocolate shells, which I already had the molds from my own wedding and I handmade the white chocolate blue “under the sea” lollipops from simple molds I found at Party City. A couple of my favorite finds were the gorgeous French meringues and the turquoise foil wrapped honey mint chocolate disks I found at Trader Joes.  I found a ton of fun candy from yours truly, Kara’s Party Ideas and I picked up the rest of the candies in the Easter sale section at Target. 

When planning an event, I always like to hand make something special for the guest of honor to keep.  I learned how to make paper medallions at my monthly girls craft night, hosted by the amazing and talented Melaine Thompson of My Sweet Savannah….so I simply embellished with a starfish, “wish” carnival tags, painted pink matting and a simple Ikea frame.  What a sweet way for the birthday girl to remember her 4^th birthday.  I also painted and glittered a cardboard crown from Hobby Lobby and topped it all off with this handmade blue ribbon garland, mixed with multiple colors and textures, to add that movement I was looking for. 

One of my favorite aspects of this whole party was the gorgeous, gorgeous ruffled table cloth, designed to mimic the colors of the ocean, made by my dear friend Uriah Gentry.  To vertically flank the food table, I created length with these handmade tulle and tissue poms, mixed in with blue paper lanterns.  With this party, I tried my hand at many DIY projects (for all you DIY’ers) and tried to repurpose my printables for multiple uses.  These beautiful blue glitter vases are actually pickle jars, which I painted the insides with Modge Podge and topped off with Martha Stewart fine glitter I had on hand.  My bottle wraps were used for these Starbucks glass jars (yes I drank them all), and were wrapped around pretty ruffled pink ribbon.  And I just adore these cute little seahorses I cut on my Cricut, which wrap around these paper straws perfectly. 

The cake table may be one of my favorite elements of this party…so simple, yet delicious.  The cake was made by my favorite local bakery.  Miss Aspen, of Oven Monkey Bakery, always sends me out the door with a smile on my face.  In this case, she mimicked the design on my printables to top the cake off perfectly.  Abby’s Mom and I made these yummy pink ombre cupcakes and I found these amazing candelabras at a garage sale to display them on.  Since my straws were already in a happy place with the cute seahorses, I used the paper straw flags to create this simple flag garland.  I love this effect and could be so cute used as cake bunting as well.  Now these tricky little medallions were harder than they look (hint: measurements must be perfect).  I found this fun little tutorial on The Tomkat Studio blog. 

Each girl was sent home with a full candy bag, mermaid bubbles (wrapped in the “Under the Sea” bottle wraps) and sweet flower soaps.  Abby is already planning her 5^th birthday party, time to start planning!

xoxo,

Holli Fedewa

Party Styling – Holli of HoneyBash

Printables – HoneyBash, www.honeybash.com

Photography – Lena Peterson, http://lenapetersonphotography.com/

Cake – Oven Monkey Bakery, http://ovenmonkeybakery.com/

Ruffled Table Cloth – Uriah Gentry, Creatively Chic Studio, http://www.etsy.com/shop/CreativelyChicStudio?ref=shop_sugg

Paper Lanterns – Target, www.target.com

Candies, Kara’s Party Ideas & Target, www.karaspartyideas.com

Jello glass containers – Kara’s Party Ideas

Glitter jars, birthday medallion, ribbon swag, paper straw bunting, tulle and tissue poms, sea urchin pink lanterns – Holli of HoneyBash

Stay tuned to see what I have for you tomorrow!!

Peace & Blessings 

It's the Season!

Wedding season is officially here! As a baker this is the season that I love because not only am I contacted for regular cakes ( like birthday cakes) but wedding cakes as well. Tomorrow I have not one wedding cake tasting but two! So if they both go well.. that makes wedding four and five so far! God is definitely good to me! There is no other way I can explain it but its all God, how else can my business take off so fast after I decide that I really want to do this full time since I am home with Jayden. And speaking of the little man, he is getting so big so fast.I can't believe that is he almost 5 months already. It still feels like yesterday some days that I just had him. He is really starting to show his personality now and moving around more, though he still hasn't mastered to roll over yet. He tries to talk all the time and makes lots of noise which is so different because other than crying for the first almost three months he really didn't try to talk or make noise. Getting him to sleep on his own is still a challenge but we are making strides. He will now sleep by himself during naps, but at night he still wants to snuggle up under mommy. And I am such a sucker for my child that I let him. I know once he hits six months I am really going to have to force the issue with him sleeping by himself and being around other people because the last thing I want is for him to develop separation anxiety. It is already a problem some days now when I leave, my husband tells me that he cries for a little bit and gets upset. So we are going to have to think about putting him in daycare even if its only one day a week so he can be around other babies and people.
I am constantly trying to figure out new ways to market my business to its fullest potential to bring in more customers and now I have posted a discount on Google and will be putting it on Facebook for any couple that books a wedding with me between now and April 20th I will be giving a 10% discount on their wedding order and that includes cupcakes and dessert buffets as well as edible favors. This up coming week is going to be interesting because I have a cake tasting on Monday for a birthday cake to be delivered on Saturday in a camouflage theme. So I have come up with this really cute idea. The cake is going to be 3 tiers covered in camouflage fondant. I also will be making chocolate animal figures to place around the cake. I also purchased a hunter and a miniature tent to go on the cake as well. I think once I get it done it will be so cute. The client ordered it for her husband who is an avid hunter so the theme should be perfect. I also have a 1st birthday cake to do next week as well. This is going to be interesting because I am mixing pink with green due to the customer's request to have shamrocks on the cake for St. Patrick's Day. Both of these cakes are due on the same day which my dedicated hubby will have to deliver for me since I will be in New Jersey for my friend's bridal shower and my brothers' girlfriend's baby shower (which I decided to host not really realizing how busy I was going to be). I am also taking Jayden with me and doing some dessert catering so this going to be a jam packed week and weekend. Then I have to get ready when I come back for another tasting on the 27th for a big order. I will tell you more about that next week but it will be exciting because I will using some of my event planning skills.
On the event planning front, I know I announced some entries back that I have decided to add on event planning to my business which I am still going to do just not as soon as I would like to. I think I want to start with some of the smaller aspects of event planning first to get my feet wet and take the course to become certified in event planning before I start doing it full time along with baking. So I will be offering (which is already up on my site) specific event planning services for now like custom place cards and invitations. Also linen coordination and custom centerpieces, the more creative hands on side of the business. I think I will do those kinds of things for the rest of the year and then next year start with smaller events like bridal showers and baby showers and work my way up from there. Because doing a full scale wedding takes a lot of time and effort to make sure it goes off with out any issues plus Jayden will be older and not as needy as he is right now. I have also added some things to the konfection side of the business which just makes sense to me. I have added edible favors which are very popular right now and why not since I do dessert buffets now. The couple I met with last weekend is interested in cake pops as edible favors. I am going to see if the couple coming in tomorrow are interested to. I also will be offering mini cakes, which are cakes but just smaller (4 inch rounds) which are perfect for someone wanting to order a couple of personalized cakes for someone or for an event and they will go perfectly on the dessert buffet menu. They would also look so cute at a wedding, having a traditional wedding cake and then have some smaller cakes or they could even be used as centerpieces. I think by the end of the year, I will have a better handle on my business as far as what works and what doesn't and then I can move forward to build it up and hopefully God willing that  I will have an actual storefront in a couple of years. That is the ultimate goal for me. To be able to have my own bakery storefront that provides a one stop shop for couple looking to plan their weddings and for other looking to have someone not only dessert cater their event but to plan it as well. I think that is an untapped market waiting for someone to fill it and hopefully I am that person. :) So for now Good Night and God Bless.