Nightmare Before Christmas Party

 The Halloween Party is an event that I look forward to every year! And I LOVE that I get to be a part of preparing this EPIC Celebration. The theme this year was "Nightmare Before Christmas" and it is something that we have wanted to do for quite some time. Here are some of my favorite pics!

I drew Jack's Formula on a chalkboard painted wall. LOVE!

Simple construction paper bat silhouettes flying across the wall made for an awesome entryway.

A little cheesecloth and white glue made for some super cute ghost lampshades on the chandelier.

Faith makes some of the COOLEST wreaths and this year's spider and creepy cloth creation was one of the best, yet!

I know that I made these for last year's party; but, I just couldn't pass up another opportunity to make Jack Skellington cupcakes!

Since the party is for the kids (well, at least that is what we tell ourselves :)), the goodies were also an important element. By stacking books to create levels, it was easy to find your very own personalized  trick or treat buckets full of Halloween treats.

We didn't stop with just indoor decor... Faith's hubby took it to another level by creating the mountain, moon, and a 7 foot tall Jack Skellington! We used these as the backdrop for photos of everyone in costume.

I think Mr Oogie Boogie and his wheel were my favorite elements. So cool!

And eventough this wasn't meant to be a Face Painting event, I saw that pregnant belly and couldn't help myself. Thanks, Amy for playing along!

 

My Picture is in the Paper!

What a lovely suprise to find out that my picture was in the Arizona Daily Star, today for the PAWSH Anniversary Event at Park Place over the weekend! We had a great time painting faces and playing with all of the wonderful animals available for adoption. And it is always fun to get a little dressed up for the occasion :)

Tucson Heart Walk

I was honored to be a part of the 2011 Tucson Heart Walk! The American Heart Association works diligently to promote prevention and awareness of heart disease and stroke and the Heart Walk is a fun way toget the whole family involved. It was a beautiful Spring day and PERFECT for a 5k walk through Reid Park. Find a Heart Walk near you!

One of the best parts of my job is the reaction that I get when in costume. I cannot even tell you how many times people ask to have their faces painted like mine - what a wonderful compliment! This year's Heart Walk was no exception. Thankfully, I was prepared and every time someone asked to be painted to look like me, I had them pose for a photo. Here are some of my faves...

I also had fun with some of the vendors! The folks at the Ina & Thornydale Starbucks were in the booth next to mine and being that Starbucks is high on my list of favorite things, I could not passup an opportunity to show my love. Here is a pic of me and two of the Barristas and the coffee cups that I painted for them :)

I had such a wonderful time at the Heart Walk and hope that I have the opportunity to do it again!

Face Painting

Here are a few of the faces that I have painted...

 

Brunch at the Zoo

This Baby Shower was so much fun! Since the mom-to-be has a toddler of her own, and her friends had toddlers and infants as well, they wanted to have the party in a location where the kids would have just as much fun as the grown-ups. So we decided on the Zoo! The Reid Park Zoo was a wonderful place to have a baby shower!

Here's a peek at the handmade invitations:

The Zoo put together a lovely brunch and we just added some embellishment...

Custom Bottled Water:

A couple of banners...

I still cannot get over these funky animal print paper lanterns

Some party favors:

Of course, we had to have Zebra cupcakes...

Combining a Baby Shower with the Zoo was a really fun way to get the kids involved - and an excuse to play with animal prints. So much fun!



Mad Tea Party

Instead of a traditional Baby Shower, we had a Mad Tea Party at the Z Mansion in honor of our friend Faith's new addition.

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I made all of the invitations and each one was different. I used lots of bright colors and different patterned paper for each hat. It was so hard to choose which one to keep for myself!

The inside of the invitation included this poem that I wrote:

Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!

Go dust off your Fancy Hat!

To Z-Mansion you will fly,

For a Mad Tea Party, my, oh my!

This is a celebration, of course,

A Very Merry Pre-Birthday, of sorts.

Ivy’s sister is on her way

June 7^th, a Monday, is our soiree!

Tea Party dress is the preferred attire

But lucky you, no gifts desired!

Fancy Hats cannot be blandish

Prizes for the most outlandish!

Hope you can join us, please save the date

5:30 sharp, and don't be late!

The Z Mansion's Carriage House was the perfect place for our party! It has a wonderful history and my favorite feature was that this single room had 5 different doors - much like Alice herself encountered :)! As you can see, we chose to use fun bright colors, hung paper lanterns of all different sizes, lit lots of candles, and created funky flower arrangements using various tea pots and other outlandish accessories!

I made most of the food for the event. We had tea sandwiches (including cucumber, of course!), scones with lemon curd (YUM), petit fours, fruit, and veggies.

Maggie made the most amazing red velvet and lemon cupcakes and colored the cream cheese frosting to coordinate with our theme.

Rather than traditional party games, we decided to have a Fancy Hat Contest - look at these super fancy hats! (Mine was the yellow top hat with kitties on top)

Although shopping at estate sales, yard sales, and thrift stores for the teacups was so much fun; it was an even bigger treat to see everyone's faces when we told them that the teacups that they chose to use for the tea party were theirs to take home as a gift!

And here we are, tea cups in hand... Pinkie's up, Ladies!