March 30, 2012

 

Week of Party Books III

We've come to the end of the week and the last of my series of party books. I may have to do this series again sometime because there's SO many great books out there to add to my library.
Cake Decorating Skills : Techniques for Every Cake Maker and Every Kind of Cake. This book is chock FULL of glorious info. 
Dress Your cupcake  Tutorials in fondant and how to make cute cupcakes. Just look at the cover!
Zombie Cupcakes  A must have for your next Halloween party. Crazy creepy cupcake creations and how-to's.
 On a Stick  love this book. Filled with appetizers, meals, desserts, all a stick. You could have a stick food party! 
If anyone has these books, leave me a comment and let myself and the other readers know what you think.  So many fun party books out there. Which books do you think belong on every party girls shelf?

P.S. Although I got all these books from Amazon, I'm a firm believer in supporting your local book store. 







March 28, 2012

 

Woo Hoo!! Wednesday

It's a week of party books and because it's Wednesday, Woo Hoo!! I'm going to high light books by some great party bloggers.  You may already know some of them and if not, click on the little linky's under the books and check them out :)

Cake Pops  This book is bursting with cake pop cuteness. How to's and inspiring ideas in bright happy colours flow from every page of this book.
Bakerella 

Cake Spy  Crazy fun dessert creations. I got to meet the author on her book tour stop in Oregon.  She's as sweet as her book is :)

Cake Spy 

Sugarlicious  Filled with sugar cuteness over load. Bright bold beautiful sugary colours pop out at you. With how to's and tips to help you create cuteness :)

The Decorated Cookie 

Push-up  Pops  Filled with scores of recipes to make your own Push-Up Pop creations. The author isn't making a stop in Oregon :( but I did see her on a T.V. segment and she's adorable and with her book on back order...it's gotta be a hit. 

Pizzazzerie 

If any of you have these books, let me know what you think. Are these books (minus Cake Spy, cause I already own it) musts on my party book shelf?



March 26, 2012

 

Week of Party Books I

I LOVE party books.  I don't own very many but I have a looong list of ones I'd love to have.  Our book shelf is currently full of my husband's books. Sci-Fi, movie, and bio's. Not nearly as FUN as party books. 

To kick off the week of party books, here's the 3 I own. I know, sad, only 3. But I do have a birthday coming ;) **wink wink**

Real Simple Celebrations was the first party book I bought. The parties in this book are more... adult, than the parties I like to throw. I like A LOT more decorations  than what's shown in this book. There are some great ideas that will inspire you and good recipes too. The book shows you everything you need for a party from the invitations to the decorations and food selections. 

The Recovering Sorority Girls' Guide to a Year's Worth of Perfect Parties  was the second party book I bought. This is a cute book. Very basic party decorating but classic. Inexpensive and great for people who weren't born with the party gene. It's full of good party advice that I find so true to how I think.  Like Morgan's rant on non-RSVPer's.   (Only $7.50 at Powell's, one left at the time of this printing)

Party Central-A Month by Month Guide to Entertaining on the Cheap .  Love this book. It's a fun, retro, call the gang over for a party book.  I'm talking cocktail monkey's, pigs in a blanket, Twister and fondue kinda fun. Now these are my kinda parties. 
(Only $2.50 at Powell's, one left in stock at the time of this printing)

All the links will take you to Amazon, which is where I got the pictures of these books and Amazon lets you flip through 2 of them :)  (I have no affiliation with Amazon).  Amazon is a great site, however, I encourage you to support your local book stores :)

Let me know if you pick up any of these book and what you think of them.  

Woo Hoo!! Wednesday I'll be high lighting books by some bloggers you may know :)

March 23, 2012

 

Boys Birthday Party

While everyone is thinking Easter, I'm thinking boys birthday party. My friend Carole's son just turned 11. I asked her what he wanted for his party. Scavenger hunt, donuts, a pinata  and Lego mini figures! 

My friend is sending the boys in groups around the neighborhood on a scavenger hunt. I'll have to get more details from her on what it is they were scavengering for.

Here's some cute ideas for a scavenger hunt party.
From Fowl Single File 

From the Creative Homemaker 


After the scavenger hunt, it's back to the house for pinata bustin! Yep, pinatas are still in. At least out here in Oregon :)


Carole had bought a donut maker and used it at her other sons birthday party, where it was a HIT!  No cake or cupcakes for these boys. They want donuts! 
Babycakes Donut Maker 


Lego mini figures are a BIG hit with the kids. They're SO cute I can see why. I even want one. The Statue of Liberty one :) Isn't she adorable!!! If anyone gets an extra...send her my way :)


Happy Birthday Emryk! Hope you have a great day! And LOOK, the SUN is out :) What a perfect day for a party.


March 17, 2012

 

Second Mini Shamrock Luncheon

One of our sweet co-workers, Amanda was leaving us for a better job so I helped another co-worker, Becky, throw a little party for Amanda.  Two Shamrock parties in one week, come the actual day of St. Patrick's I think I'll just throw on some green and call it a day ha ha 

The white table cloth makes the green pop.  The apples are wrapped with corned beef and were brought by Susan, another co-worker. Now I would have put the chips in a bowl but the bag does lend to the green of the day and when you take public transit to work you have to think about how many times you have to lug stuff on a crowded train. Standing room only.
See my little pots of gold and sparkly hats :)

Becky cut the cheese into little shamrock shapes for that extra little touch, so cute!  Oh look, there's one of my hats again :)

MMm dessert, who doesn't love that. Peanut butter cookies and chocolate cupcakes by Becky. How cute is my little sparkly hat that I put on top the cupcake stand :)
More delicious dessert.  My Irish Cream Cupcakes and the sign I whipped up the morning of the party. Type, print, add sticker, done.   
Can you see my sparkly piggy waaaay in the background on the drinks table :)

Oooh, my peanut butter chocolates, YUM!!!! None of them made it home. They were all gobbled up :) 

Hope you enjoyed another mini St. Patrick's party and got a few ideas for throwing your own mini work luncheon party. 

Now I better get off this computer and actually get some of my To-Do list accomplished today. Although it is fun hanging out with all of you all day. Work out calls and sadly, so does the laundry. 

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!

March 16, 2012

 

Mini Shamrock Luncheon Party

My co-workers had so much fun at the mini Mardi Gras party that they wanted a mini St. Paddy's party. I had 15 minutes, 15 mins to set this party up. I couldn't use the room on our floor and I could only set up on my break this time. Pressures on! I wanted to do so much more but when ya only have 15 mins, what are ya going to do. Enjoy!

Notice the confetti :) Confetti is a staple at all my parties and is much missed by friends if I don't put it out. If it's missing at my parties they let me know.
Cauldrons filled with Skittles, because they're rainbow :) My Old Navy pig, he's so sparkly.
I jazzed up plain gold cups by sticking a shamrock sticker on them. Pack of 20/ $1.00 at a Joann's.
Rice Krispy Shamrocks and Irish Cream cupcakes, mmm sugar :) The cupcake toppers are stickers stuck on toothpicks. Fun and easy.
Party Pinching, this pictures for you. I bought those little duckies when I went up and visited her. SUCH a fun trip. Aren't the duckies cuuute :)
Mint soda. It's a very mild mint flavor and tastes really good. Like a virgin mint julep.
I stuck little shamrock stickers on the cauldrons to jazz them up. My co-workers had fun putting the little hats on their heads and playing poker with the gold coins. "I'll see you 2 gold coins and raise you a hat" " I'm all in" (my friend put the pot o' gold, seen behind the cauldron, in the kitty). Cracked us up! 
Even though I only had 15 minutes to set up this party, we all had a great time, laughed a lot and it was nice was to break up the week. The party was over the lunch hour on Wednesday.
I hope I've inspired you to throw a party together and shown you that you don't need to spend oodles to have a great time. 

March 14, 2012

 

Woo Hoo!! Wednesday

Homemade cupcakes is the Woo Hoo!! Wednesday? seriously? I know what you're thinking, Um, Fizzy Party, cupcakes are not Woo Hoo!!!  Ho, but THESE cupcakes are. 
These are Irish Cream cupcakes and if you eat enough of them, you'll be saying "Woo Hoo!!"

I found this recipe in Celebrate magazine Jan/Feb 2012 issue
Isn't the piggy cute, Old Navy

This recipe has Irish Cream in the cake mix, in the filling, oh yes, there's  a filling and IN the frosting. Woo Hoo!!

Here's the thing though, I sort of didn't realize I was out of confectioner's sugar and this recipe calls for 6 cups. Yep. 
Dough boy to the rescue, that's Pillsbury dough boy in case you were wondering. Always have a can in the cupboard. I just added the Irish Cream to the canned frosting. Tasted good to me. Of course I HAD to sample ;)

P.S. Fizzy's on Twitter now. Bought time huh?


March 12, 2012

 

St. Patrick's Party that wasn't.

Sometimes parties just don't happen. You may have ideas brewing in your head and are really looking forward to putting one on, but it just doesn't work out.  That's what happened to me. I had a St. Patrick's party all planned in my Fizzy notebook, hit the sales at Michael's and Joann's, sent out the invitations and got all maybes or no's.   It happens.  My guests had family coming in from out of state, it was their anniversary or their kids had games, piano lessons etc

The party supplies I bought, on sale of course, will keep until next year. And these party favors...well, they'll keep too. 

 Don't you wish you would have been able to come...

March 8, 2012

 

The Virus Hoard

Hi all!   Blog posts have been a little scarce this week. My Ninjas are busy fighting off invaders trying to get me.  My Ninjas are kicking butt with a little help from running and Kettle Bell work outs.   While my Ninjas are busy flinging stars and chopping the heads off the virus hoard, let's take a moment to be inspired by some Ninja cake and cookies. 
Source 


From Sweet Pudgy Panda 


From My Opera

March 5, 2012

 

St. Patrick's Day and Rainbows

St. Patrick's day has never been a holiday I celebrate. Yes, I have red hair so everyone assumes I'm Irish. I'm not.  But I do LOVE to throw parties so can't pass up an opportunity to throw one.   Last year I saw rainbow cupcakes. Cool! and just HAD to have a party for them.  Yes, I had a party just for the cupcakes :)  Since it was close to St. Patrick's day I threw a combo St. Patrick's/Rainbow party. 

When I threw this party the thought of a party blog wasn't even a blimp in my mind. I wasn't even looking at party blogs.  I'm just a Party Diva and Paparazzi. Which is a good thing. Because I took lots of pictures of the party and can now share them with you :)  I didn't have the help of party blogs or Pinterest for inspiration  like I do now.

You like the way I hid my mans vitamins with the little graphic :) hee hee Aren't I clever. I usually use paper plates at my parties. Easy clean up. But I already had green Fiesta Ware plates (love Fiesta Ware) and the party was small so my guests got to use REAL plates. oooh, fancy :)  Beer comes to mind when one thinks of St. Patrick's parties. And me being the party person I am, had to have beer glasses for the party.  Yep, I bought those glasses just for the party.  Dollar Tree, great place for glasses in any shape.  
I took rainbow streamer paper and wrapped it around the glasses and sealed them with St. Patrick's stickers I got at Michael's
Party Favors! From Craft Warehouse which sadly went out of business last year. LOVED that store.  I took some ribbon from Michael's, wrapped it around the tablet and added a St. Patrick's sticker. Just to jazz it up a little. Hee hee, there's my party check list above the favors. I always make a check list for my parties so I don't forget anything. 
The party table. I made the banner all by myself!  No printer, no Cricut nothing. See, you don't need a lot of tools to make a party. Does my banner look on professional, no.But who cares. My friends still had fun.
I used the rainbow tissue streamers to make a rainbow down the table cover to the pot 'o gold. The Pot 'o gold is my Halloween cauldron filled with gold tissue paper and some St. Patrick's coins. 
My rainbow fruit platter. It was pot luck so that's why the salsa is still in it's original tub. It always looks prettier in a plain dish. 
I LOVE Hostess snowballs and they're green so they had to be part of the party. I used rainbow stickers from Michael's, attached them to toothpicks and ta-da. I wrapped a silver platter in gold tissue paper. 


I'm not a fan of beer. I had it on hand for any of the girls that wanted it but this glass doesn't contain beer. It's cream soda! It gives you that beer look without having to serve beer :)  Sneak peek at the rainbow cupcakes.  I used an empty box I had and covered it with paper from Michael's. 
(you like the Irish flag covering up our picture hee hee stealthy)
Rainbow cupcakes!  I took the cupcake liner off that one so you could see the pretty rainbow colours. 
The reason for the party. Rainbow cupcakes. How pretty are these :)
I hope you enjoyed my party and got some good tips and are going to start throwing more parties. 
Don't forget to leave me some leprechaun love :) I really do LOVE reading each and every comment. 

Linked to Bird's Party