Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

one last book: faves by melissa chappell

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

I’m so excited about this book Faves by Melissa Chappell. I was hoping to feature it last week with my giveaway, but I just got all of the details yesterday. Melissa was the chef at my husband’s Trophy Husband party last year. The food she prepared was amazing and we all had a lot of fun helping her. She is a huge fan of fresh, healthy food and I can’t wait to have some of her secret recipes. The book has six sections: light meals, desserts, salads, salsas, sauces & dips, and smoothies. Ahhh… I have been waiting so long for this cook book. You can pre-order right now on her blog and the book will be released in September. (I already pre-ordered a few.)

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giveaway winner (books)

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Happy Monday! I finally picked a winner for this giveaway. I added up all of the numbers and then put the total in the Random Number Generator. And the lucky winner is:

Tessa (who said): WOW!! How cool. I would love to try some of these out!

She has already been notified via email. xoxo Brittany

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county fair sneek peek

Friday, August 13th, 2010

More Back to School ideas on Monday. But I wanted to post this cute picture from the County Fair party last week. For the whole photo sequence check out Nicole Gerulat’s blog. I was dying laughing as I watched the whole thing happen with these two adorable twins.

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splish splash, another summer bash

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Sorry for the light posting and no newsletter this week. I’ve been slammed with two parties. Here are a few shots from yesterday’s water party. And for those of you who aren’t signed up for the newsletter, there’s still time to join us. Click on the RSVP envelope on the right hand side for all the details.

A big thank you to my mom for all of her help, Nicole Hill Gerulat for her fab photography, Sara Westbrook for styling, Jill Swensen for assisting, Cheri Robinson for the cake, and Dusti Ondryas for the cookies.

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introducing partyschool 101: the newsletter

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

This is a sticky post. Scroll down if you are looking for the latest…

I’d like to introduce my charming Partyschool 101 newsletter that’s filled with gorgeous photos and adorable ideas just for you that I won’t be posting on my blog. Join me for 8 weeks as I teach you the abc’s of throwing a great party. Sign up for the exclusive access to my tips & tutorials in the right hand column with the rsvp button.

Make sure and check the box for “partyschool 101: a charming newsletter” in the sign-up form. Oh, and it doesn’t matter if you sign up after the rest of us have started, I’ll start sending you the summer series from the beginning so you won’t miss a thing. Check your in-box next week for the first issue!

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sneak peek, and an apology

Monday, April 26th, 2010

I was in sunny California all last week doing some party photo shoots with the beautiful Sara Westbrook and the amazing Nicole Hill Gerulat. We put in long days and long nights and I didn’t have any time to post here. I wanted to put up more of the Mad Scientist Party, and I thought I’d be able to squeeze it in, but you know how it goes. (I’ll continue with that party this week). For some sneak peeks of what we did in California, check out Nicole’s blog. Or click here or here. We had so much fun and I can’t wait to show you more of these fun photos soon.

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what i’m doing: two floral arranging classes in one month

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Do you ever see those cute flower bunches at Costco or at an outside market? What do you do with them once you get home? I usually take my bouquet and cut off the ends and put them in a vase. I fool myself into believing that they are “wild” and “naturally” arranged. That they look good like that. Um, no. They don’t. I recently took two different floral arranging classes from two completely opposite teachers. One from an extension program through a local university and one at the Art Weekend that I recently attended. The first teacher was an old school, east coast professor type and the other was a hip, self taught wedding florist. I liked them both. And I will admit that with taking just two basic classes, I feel confident that I can now turn a simple bunch of flowers into a decent arrangement. Don’t get me wrong, flower arranging is a total skill that takes time to master. And I’d always prefer to have a pro do it for me. But in the comfort of my own home, surrounded by my four adoring kids who basically think everything I do is genius (they’re still young, okay?) I definitely have enough confidence to make some centerpieces for us. This is a fun and relatively inexpensive hobby and I would recommend a class like these to anyone. Did you see that Jane Packer has classes in NYC? Good thing I know a cool brother with an apartment there… And sometimes Eddie Ross will post a floral arranging class taught by him. I love Eddie Ross. Oh, and p.s. telling a professional florist that you buy flowers at Costco and just trim the ends and then throw the whole thing into a random vase is like telling your photography teacher that you always shoot on auto. They look at you horror stricken. Horror stricken, like you just admitted to a horrible crime. So if you find yourself in a similar situation, keep that little bit of info to yourself.

Three things that I learned:

1. Don’t make your arrangements too tall or else people will move them off of the table. Both instructors mentioned this.
2. Choose your vase and THEN find flowers that will look good in it. Interesting, since I always do the opposite.
3. Put your greens in first in a nice even distribution. No, put your greens in last to fill in the holes. Some contradiction between the two teachers, so either way is fine, I say.
autumn flowers
spring flowersOkay, I totally arranged both of these centerpieces. (Keep in mind that I didn’t get to choose the flowers, they were provided at the classes, so don’t judge.) And my photography is improving too, right?

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what i’m reading: jane packer’s guide to flower arranging

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

flower arranging book
I love beautiful flower arrangements. So one day when I was at the local bookstore I bought this book: Jane Packer’s Guide to Flower Arranging. I’d never heard of her, but this book is amazing and full of gorgeous photos. Jane makes every arrangement look so easy and effortless. A bit above my skill level, it isn’t too intimidating and it’s perfect to take your florist and say, “I want that one.” Bonus, now I know the difference between a hand tied and a wired bridal bouquet. She even has classes in NYC. I think I need to take one this spring…

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what i’m doing: the art weekend & spark the event

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

I have such a fun weekend planned–all starting tomorrow! It’s packed full of so much craftiness. The amazing & super sweet photographer Nicole Hill Gerulat and her awesome crew are putting on The Art Weekend. I’m signed up for 5 classes: Floral Arranging, Photo 101, and Tabletop Photography on Thursday. And on Friday I’m taking Screenprinting and Bookbinding. Nicole has rounded up so many fabulous teachers that I wish I could take MORE classes.

Unfortunately Spark the Event is also this weekend. (Our fair state never has cool stuff like this. Why oh why did they both have to be the same weekend?) Anyway, I am overlapping classes a little bit on Friday so I’ll be hurrying back and forth between the two (luckily both events are in downtown Salt Lake City). Hosted by the darling & talented Rhonna Farrer, Margie Romney-Aslett, Jefra Linn, and Elizabeth Kartchner, Spark is going to be a once in a lifetime experience. They have rented out the historic monument site This Is The Place that is full of cool old buildings. It is Utah history to a tee. They are offering a bunch of mini classes on Friday. And on Saturday, there is a fabrics class, jewelry class, photography class, and a paper crafting/journaling class. I’m even making a weekend of it and staying in a hotel in the city to save on driving time. Anyone else going to one or both events?

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what i’m doing: halloween cookies at viking

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

cookie class 2
Maybe I should name this post: A trend that I don’t think will last. I took the designer cookie class workshop over the weekend at my local Viking Cooking School. It was fun. Chef Bryan from a local TV station was our chef. I hung out with my amazing design assistant Kara while we decorated Halloween cookies and learned some cool techniques using sugar cookies, fondant and royal icing. But even without eating any of the cookies, I’m pretty sure fondant on a cookie is a bad idea. Sure, it can look pretty (don’t look at my cookies for an example of that) but everyone knows that fondant doesn’t taste good. And cookies are supposed to taste good. Honestly, I don’t know where this trend is going. Let’s rank frosting by taste: 1. fondant (not so yummy) 2. royal icing (better, but really not yummy) 3. buttercream (yummiest). My prediction: I don’t see much of a future for cookies covered in yucky frosting. Proof: even my somewhat-sugar-starved kids wouldn’t eat them.

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