Never a bride, never even a bridesmaid

I believe by now that most people are aware of the fact that I am a single mum. If not well, secret’s out. I’m 36, never been married and never even ever been a bridesmaid. “Who cares?” you ask. I do. I really, honestly do. I just don’t let on that it bothers me.

In between my regular full time job and my daughter’s perpetual accumulation of extra curricular activities,  I continue to squeeze in new personal ventures. All related to anything but finding love. And so, with a life as busy as mine, how would I ever fit a boyfriend or relationship into the mix? I don’t. I just don’t even consider it. However,  that doesn’t stop me from watching hours and hours of  “Say Yes to The Dress “, “Four Weddings” and “Rich Bride, Poor Bride” and feeling a little bit left out.

Event Envy is about celebrating memorable events in peoples lives and weddings are about as memorable as it gets! I often wonder if I’ll be able to honestly relate to what the bride and groom want and understand just how stressful this day can be.

Do you think that your wedding vendors would better serve their clients if they had a personal understanding of your “big day? Or, is their creativity and professionalism enough?

 

Photo Credit: Favor Studio

Advertisements

Ruffle Cake & Custom Bunting

 

So many positive reactions to this ruffle cake that I made for Brooklyn’s First Birthday party.

Vanilla cake with vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

My particular cake has been featured on Catch my Party!!

For as much as I’d like to take credit for this amazing cake design .. I cannot. Martha Stewart posted her cake and then, I came across Sweetapolia’s blog featuring her amazing ruffle creation. So inspiring that I had to try it! And Brooklyn’s birthday seemed like the perfect occasion!

The cake and the Swiss Meringue Buttercream were both vanilla. The buttercream recipe that I use is actually made with meringue powder as opposed to egg whites. Honestly, I’ve tried to make this icing with the traditional egg whites and FAILED miserably! The buttercream was watery and runny. And, no matter how long I blended it, the mixture just would not combine. It was curdled and unusable. Real shame actually! So, after much success with the meringue powder, I’ve maintained my recipe for this decadent buttercream without the use of the egg whites.

Icing the cake took a great deal of time and buttercream. I used 4 batches of the Swiss Meringue Buttercream on this cake. 2 batches to fill the 3 layers and do a skim coat. The other 2 batches to pipe on the ribbons. I have to also say, by the time I’d finished piping around the entire cake, my hand was beginning to cramp up. I *almost* wanted to say “Forget it!” to decorating the top. Alas, I persevered and completed the cake as planned. I’m so glad that I did. It really did finish it off nicely. If you’re interested in trying this ruffle technique, check out this video.

Gah! Cramp!

The bunting was an easy way to create a “birthday greeting” without 1) taking away from the stunning visual impact of the ruffles and 2) without having to add embellishments to the cake itself.

Brooklyn's Bunting

The simple letter designs were done in Photoshop and printed on 100lb card stock. Then the letters were bent over and attached a pretty ribbon that was tied between two skewers. The 2 small butterflies were actually hair clips ~ that the birthday girl can use in her hair after the party! Who doesn’t love that?! Plus, buntings ~ a cute keepsake from your event!

Enjoy!

 

 

Raemi’s 8th birthday party

 

This particular Event Envy dessert table is currently FEATURED on Martha Stewart’s “Dreamers into Doers”

In Oct 2010, I hosted my daughter’s 8th birthday party.  Colors of aqua and purple were the theme. There were 12 girls total and activities included sugar cookie decorating and a variety of games. All the girls (and all their parents) were in awe when they entered my kitchen to see Raemi’s dessert table.

Birthday Dessert Table

I made her confetti cupcakes with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream that were adorned with custom cupcake wrappers and toppers that I designed.

All baking and designs done by me, Event Envy !

Simple aqua sugar cookies were snatched up by the girls!

Sugar cookies with purple heart confetti

And the marshmallow pops were the HUGE hit of the day!

Girls couldn't resist these yummy marshmallow pops

Blue raspberry lemonade was bottled and custom labels were attached. Clean, white bags were filled with warm kettle corn. Apothecary jars were filled with blue raspberry salt water taffy and fruit jellies.

 

Blue raspberry lemonade and taffy & kettle corn!

The girls all left with party favors of cotton candy and  blue and purple bubble bottles with custom labels.

 

Custom birthday labels on these adorable bubble bottles

Cotton Candy containers - party favors

What a great party it was!

Also FEATURED on

 

Balancing Act

Tonight, finally, my daughter told me she’d been working on her Christmas list. Hooray! Yes! Something for me to go by.

As I went down her list #7 popped out:

DS games, You, Just dance... HEY! WAIT A MINUTE...

Line #7 read YOU

So, I looked over at her and said “Me? You want ME for Christmas?”

“Yes!” She replied, reaching her arms to grasp me.

Slightly bewildered, slightly saddened and slightly happy, I asked, “What does that mean? Does that mean you want to spend more time with me?” To which she cheered, “Yes! I’d love it if we could spend more time together!”

Being a parent, we all feel guilt now and then about how much time we get to spend with our children. Speaking for myself, I believe single parents feel it even more. Then throw in entrepreneur and you have a whole lot of work to do in a small window of time.

I spend the majority of my “free time” with my daughter. We play games, we do crafts, we travel about the city and on and on.. I also try to limit the amount of attention I give to my  iPhone, my computer and baking. However, when there is a deadline, my daughter knows that work must get done.Christmas, for as busy as it always is, will forever be a time for family to me. And I will raise my daughter to hopefully feel the same.

This Christmas, I feel that I lucked out! A Christmas list which asks for more “you time” is just fine by me and fits well into the budget.

SAY ANYTHING

One of my all time favorite movies is Cameron Crowe’s 1989 classic “Say Anything” with John Cusack and Ione Skye. I mean, come on! If you can find one 30-something woman today who watched that flick as a teenager and didn’t fall head over heels in love with Lloyd Dobler, I’ll eat my own shoe! No one would ever be able to resist him as he stood outside Diane’s (Ione Skye) window, holding a boom box over his head, playing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes”! You know you loved it. Admit it. And, like me, you probably STILL love it! Memorable even today.

One other Lloyd Dobler moment, a quote, still resonates with me.

“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.”

As I sit at my desk, processing the same papers I processed yesterday and will do again tomorrow and so on and so on.. I keep thinking about Lloyd Dobler. How passionate he was about kickboxing, about Diane Court and about making his life exactly as he envisioned it.

I want to learn new things everyday. I want to have new tasks everyday. I want to meet new people everyday. Hell, I even want a man to stand outside my window and proclaim his undying love for me through the words of “In Your Eyes” (gawd, I adore that song!) Will it happen? Well, I have a personal responsibility to try to ensure the first part is accomplished. The guy with a boom box bit, well, there’s always DVD.

"I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen"

No direction home

I grew up in a household where I was “subjected” to the likes of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, The Eagles and … wait for it .. Tom Waits. I’d heave a big *sigh* and turn up my nose as my parents quipped, “What? It’s good! You don’t know good music! You’ll see. When you’re older you’ll ‘get it’.”

Damn it. (I guess) they were right. That’s not to say that I have Dylan or Morrison on my iPod. I don’t but, I do have it on iTunes (for my mom!) and I’ll admit to listening to it here and there.

The lyrics of “Like a Rolling Stone” are stuck like glue to my brain today and  I can’t shake them.

How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone ?

I struggle with finding (and staying) on one path. A direct path. Is there even such a thing? Direct paths? Huh, I’ve never seen nor been down one. You? I often wonder if this mythical path is the one that entrepreneurs walk along. Or, if wanderers such as myself, who meander and stray, eventually end up at the same successful place that other entrepreneurs end up at. (God, please tell me it’s not Starbucks at the end of the Yellow Brick Road). Ah .. Elton. That’s another one I had to endure growing up.

But, I digress.

If you’re an entrepreneur, did your “business plan” unfold as you thought, dreamed, planned? Or, did you adapt and change as you found necessary? Did you walk a long ways only to find out that, this isn’t want you wanted after all?

Today, I feel like I’m with no direction home, a complete unknown. Granted, this journey has only just begun for me and perhaps fear is what is making me doubt myself. Fear of success is what it is.

Yet, I’ve made a promise to myself to “feel the fear and do it anyway!”

And, to Bob Dylan, “Thank you.” I may not be able to understand a word you sing but, your written words are magic.

Maybe so but, you sure can write.

Ducks rank high in popularity

Yesterday it snowed and December is rapidly approaching. So, you’d think that my kitchen would be all a flutter with reds, greens, snowmen and Santa’s (which, it is) but, it’s also a mad cluttering of yellow and ducks.

Getting my ducks in a row

Regardless of the time of year, people are celebrating baby showers and birthday’s.  (Sorry, Jesus, they’re not trying to infringe on your big month). And my most popular request for these occasions are my adorable duck cake pops and delicious ducky sugar cookies. Both of which take patience, time and love but, it’s all worth it in the end. Hearing clients rave about how their guests reacted in awe upon receiving one of those l’il ducky pop as a party favor makes all those hours of standing at the kitchen counter a distant memory.

How cute are we!?!

For this particular baby shower, sugar cookies with the baby’s initial was also requested. So, following with the color scheme of yellow and blue, I dreamed up these babies!

"M" is for Mason

"M" is for mmmmmm

Thankfully, my evening will not be an all nighter! I only had 24 cookies to make and 12 cake pops to assemble. (Unlike the 140 duck pops I’ve made for a previous order)

140 ducks pops + custom tags for each

Now, I can get on with laundry, tidying the kitchen and living room and .. oh ya … dinner!