Ashlee's Pink Poodle Party

Our gorgeous little girl, Ashlee, just turned five and we celebrated with a Poodle Party!  Her chosen color palette was pink (of course!) and I snuck in some black & white to add a touch of elegance.

I created a small dessert table using some gorgeous striped fabric from Fabrics and Trimmings for the backdrop and I strung some poms poms across it.  Because I always manage to tear the tissue paper pom poms when fanning them out, I made these ones from a plastic table cloth.

I designed a new printables collection with a simple silhouette of a girl walking a pink poodle.  To frame the silhouette graphic I used scalloping and stripes in pink, black & white.

The dessert table was filled with musk sticks, marshmallow clouds, pink popcorn, raspberry mushrooms, strawberry oreos (with poodle paw prints), chocolate cupcakes and cake pops.

I baked the cupcakes in black & white stripped baking cups from Paper Eskimo.  I decorated them using three varying shades of pink frosting to create an ombre effect.  For the cupcake toppers, I punched out party circles using a 2" scallop punch.  

The very talented Alison from Alison Lawson Cakes made a stunning (and delicious) pink ombre buttercream swirl cake.  

For the seated table I used a pink tablecloth with a black runner that was adorned with crete paper rosettes that I made in three shades of pink.  I made about 140 rosettes all up for the runner.  It was quite time consuming and a little a lot painful from a few little slips of the hot glue gun, but I was happy with how it turned out.

Each place setting included a mini milk bottle wrapped in fabric, a square black plate and a black party hat trimmed with pink tulle and a 2 inch scalloped party circle.

The table centrepiece was a bouquet of gorgeous hand cut pink poodles on cookie wands also made by Alison of Alison Lawson Cakes.

The Birthday Banner was strung with 'pearls'.

Ashlee’s birthday outfit included a beautiful poodle tutu created by Atutudes, teamed with a lace trimmed black singlet.  I used a crystal poodle ornament I found at Christmas time to make the cute necklace that added just the right amount of bling to the outfit.

As the girls arrived at the party, they were all given their very own plush poodles.  They then made their new friends some collar ‘bling’.

The girls then enjoyed grooming, feeding and playing with their poodles in ‘The Pampered Poodle’ and ‘Poodle Palace’ that I made from appliance boxes.

After indulging in sweets from the dessert table, the girls finished off the afternoon with some beautiful face painting by my fabulous friend, Mandy...

A pinata...

and cake!

  
Plus a little bit of chocolate for all the girls.

I really enjoyed putting the whole party together and the girls had a whole lot of fun!  A big thank you to my wonderful husband for listening to all of my never ending party-talk and for capturing our special memories with such beautiful photography! 

I have added the Pink Poodle Collection to my shop, so the printables are now available!

Vendors: 

Printables & Styling - Ashlee Rae www.ashleerae.com

Photography - Jason Sievers www.jasonsievers.com

Cake & Poodle Cookie Wands -  www.alisonlawsoncakes.com

Striped Backdrop Fabric – Fabrics and Trimmings http://www.etsy.com/shop/fabricsandtrimmings

Pink Poodle Tutu - Atutdes http://www.etsy.com/shop/atutudes

Liar Liar!!!

I have to confess...
                                    I lied to my sister for nearly six months!!!  

But, there is good reason for all the lying...

My GORGEOUS sister's 40th Birthday.  Danielle (and my parents) live on the other side of the world from me...Atlanta, Georgia USA to be exact.  And all of the lying centered around a surprise visit to the USA to celebrate Danielle's 40th birthday.

It was way back in October last year that David (Danielle's husband), my mum & dad, Jason (my husband) and I started to plot Danielle's birthday celebrations. There were a lot of secret emails, phone calls and Skype calls between us all...I can't believe that we managed to pull it off and she had absolutely no idea.

We surprised her by sneaking into their basement and calling her via Skype video.  While Jason and David were talking 'golf' (that was our cue) Ashlee and I snuck upstairs to surprise her.  Needless to say, there were lots of tears, laughter...and relief that we didn't have to lie anymore!

It was time then to celebrate with a PARTY!!!

My incredibly talented mum styled a beautiful sweets table and made all of the desserts herself!

In the months before the party, we sent out balloons and cards to Danielle's Aussie and out-of-town friends and family so they could write birthday messages.

For some photo-fun my oh so handy dad built a freestanding photo booth.  Here's a peek of some of the family pics...

I am so glad that I was able to be there to celebrate with Danielle.  With only 21 months age difference between us, she has without doubt been the most amazing sister and friend.  She is vibrant, kind, generous and truly beautiful in every way.  I am so thankful to have been blessed with the perfect sister.  Happy 40th Dee...Love you always and forever!!!