Valentine's Breakfast

Valentine's Breakfast

Cinnamon Roll Hearts 

I'm sure you've seen the cinnamon roll hearts on Pinterest.  While at the grocery store I saw a can of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls on sale so I decided to give it a try.  

Now I've read that you need to get the flaky cinnamon rolls or the hearts don't turn out as well. The ones I picked up were not the flaky ones but I wanted to give it a try anyway. I mean, at a $1.29 I couldn't not try it.  They would look fun on the Galentine's brunch table. 

I can see why you'd want to pick up the flaky cinnamon rolls.  The regular ones don't roll out like the flaky ones do. As you can see I couldn't get some of them to roll out.  And the ones I did get to roll out I could only sort of make into heart shapes. 

Cinnamon roll hearts ready for the oven. 

Aaaand, here's the finished cinnamon roll hearts.  Food blogger I am not. No flawless food pic's here.  Just real authentic food pics. The heart's didn't turn out too bad.  You know I had to add Valentine's sprinkles.  The sprinkles make them pretty. 

The one in front doesn't quite look like a heart and I bet if I used the flaky kind I could have achieved more of a heart shape. 

Perfect heart shape? no. But I'm still going to enjoy it for Valentine's breakfast.  I'm guessing your girlfriends would still eat them too if you served them up at your Galentine's party. 

Have you tried to make cinnamon roll hearts? 

Valentine's Round Up

Valentine's Party Round Up 

Valentine's Day is a great time to spend some time with your girlfriends and I'm bringing you a round up of fun ideas to help you treat your friends with a party. 

BellaGrey Designs has some adorable tags perfect to attach to party favors.  Pick up some baby aloe plants and attach the tag "You had me at aloe"  or get creative with the "Lets stick together" tags and attach them to some nail polish and a nail file. 

How stinkin cute would these lady bug marshmallow cookies be on your dessert table or put them in a cute little box and send them home as party favors.  Get the easy tutorial over at Party Pinching. 

I HAD to include these chocolate covered marshmallow caramel hearts from The Partiologist because hello, caramel and marshmallows!  As a guest I wouldn't be able to pass these up. 

I like Joy in the Commonplace easy Valentine's tea idea. This party shows you that a party doesn't have to be stressful for the host. You can make your own cookies, scones or cinnamon rolls or you can pick some up at the local bakery.  Tea and treats is cozy and makes for easy conversation flow. 

A crafturnoon with friends is my kind of Valentine's party and   Revel and Glitter  shows us just how much fun it is.  From creating cards to a temporary tattoo station you'll be laughing, having a fun afternoon and making deep connections with your friends. 

Show your girlfriends how much they mean to you by throwing them a brunch.  Jordan's Easy Entertaining  threw her friends a beautiful brunch and you can use some of these ideas to throw one of your own.  The story she tells of using her grandma's cake plate really touched me. Oh, and she has free printables for you too ;) 

Oh you know I have some ideas for you too.  A cookie decorating party brings out the creativity in your friends.   Don't forget the bubbles.  My friends had too much fun with them. 

A Galentine's Day brunch can be a really easy party to throw.  Pick up all the food from the store or have your friends bring some to contribute to the party.  

Will you be throwing a Valentine's party for your friends?

Galentine's Cookie Decorating Party

Galentine's Cookie Decorating Party 

Brunch is great for Galentine's Day but this year I wanted to host an interactive party.  Oh I served up brunch, but we also decorated cookies.   I picked up cookies from Delectable Baked Goods for us to decorate.   I could have baked my own cookies but our oven is 20 years old and while it bakes cakes and dinner just fine, sugar cookies never seem to turn out right.  

My friends had so much fun choosing between all the sprinkles to decorate the cookies with.  I chose to decorate some of my cookies with mini hearts and arrows from Wilton  and Petite Sour Hearts from Jelly Belly.

My friend had too much fun with her cookies.  She created little works of art using a variety of sprinkles.

One thing I learned from this party is that not everyone knows how to use pipping bags and piping tips to decorate cookies.  I learned from my mom when I was young. When I decorated this cookie with the swirls and frosting xoxo my friends were asking me how I was doing that.  So while I'm not a cookie artist, you just might be seeing more cookie decorating party's here.

All our pretty cookies, well, almost all our decorated cookies.  We couldn't help it. We ate some before snapping a pic.

Hello sugar high.

This party was full of unexpected surprises for me. Bubbles being one of them.  When I picked up mini bubbles for party favors I had no idea how much fun my friends would have with them.  As soon as they saw them they started blowing bubbles and blew bubbles through out the whole party.

Confetti party poppers were another unexpected nice surprise.   I made them as a party favor.  I assumed my friends had done confetti poppers before. Nope. When they saw them they were excited to try  them.

 As soon as one friend tried one of the confetti poppers she had so much fun she wanted to do another one. And then my other friends wanted to do them too. My floor had so much confetti on it.  

Party props don't always have to be printables on a stick.  Fun balloons and pillows make great party props too.

Are you inspired to host your own Galentine's cookie decorating party?
Shop the look.
Styling, concept and photography: Fizzy Party 
Cookies: Delectable Baked Goods 
Table linen: NW Event Rental 
Heart Marquee: Heidi Swapp 
XOXO Heart Garland: Mailbox Happiness 
XOXO Napkins: Fancy That 
Red Plates: Fiesta Ware 
Hearts & Arrows, pink pearls and mini hearts sprinkles: Wilton 
Petite Sour Hearts: Jelly Belly 
Candyfetti: Sweets Indeed 
Pink Frosting: Pillsbury 
Mini bubbles, XOXO balloons, and all the pillows: Target
Happy Heart Balloon: Northstar Balloons via Oh Shiny Paper Co 
Backdrop: Oriental Trading

Galentine's Party Table Decor

This Galentine's Day I treated my friends to a fun cookie decorating party.  The party started with a brunch of mini croissants, strawberry scones, crustless quiche and fruit. 

I went all Galentine's on the table decor this year.  Pinks and hearts and confetti and glitter of course. Can I even have a party without glitter!? I don't think so. 

It wouldn't be a cookie decorating party without sprinkles to decorate the cookies with. Candy hearts, pink pearls, gummy sour hearts and Candyfetti.

XOXO made an appearance through out the party in the form of garland, swizzle sticks, napkins and balloons. Because I love my friends.

When my friends discovered the hearts and mini arrows they didn't want to stop decorating.  I wasn't sure if my friends would really enjoy a cookie decorating party or not but they loved it. I almost didn't order enough cookies from Delectable Baked Goods.  If you throw a cookie decorating party for your friends, you've been warned 😉

See the decorated cookies in the next post.

If you throw a cookie decorating party I'd love to hear about it.  Pop on over here and leave me a comment or stop by the Facebook page and let's chat about your party. 


Inspired by this party?  Shop the look:
Styling, concept and photography: Fizzy Party
Table Line: NW Event Rentals
Napkins: Fancy That 
Marquee heart: Heidi Swapp 
XOXO garland: Mailbox Happiness 
Sour heart candies: Jelly Belly 
Candy heart sprinkles, hearts & arrows: Wilton 
Candyfetti: Sweets Indeed 
Swizzle sticks: California Lustre
Heart straws:  Sweets and Treats 

For more Galeninte and Valentine ideas follow my Valentine board on Pinterest 

Galentine's Day Brunch

Galentine's Day Brunch 

If you're a morning person like me, brunch is great for a Galentine's Day Celebration.   I usually start the party at 11:30 a.m.   When my friend showed up at the party this year she said, I am so glad you have your parties at 11:30 a.m., I get to sleep in, come over and spend a great time with friends and still have time to get errands done or attend an evening event.  YAY! comments like that make a host feel pretty darn good. 

This year's theme was XOXO.  I saw this gold XOXO at Hobby Lobby and the party started forming in my head.  Pink and gold are the main colours with touches of red.  I'm loving the pink with the gold. How about you?

I love serving brunch for a few reasons.

1. People love breakfast foods. 
2.  The food is easy to prepare.
3. Breakfast foods are my favorite foods. And I'm a picky eater. 

Oh how I love croissants.  So I pick up mini ones from the store.   I could try and make them but it's just so much easier to pick up at a store or local bakery.

I may not make the croissants but I do make the strawberry scones.   I make them into heart shapes by cutting out the scones with a heart shaped cookie cutter.  The heart shape of these turned out WAY better then the last time I made them into heart shapes.   I use Baker by Nature's recipe.   When you make the dough the scent of lemon from the zest smells so fresh and you get a hint of that taste in each bite. My friends like these scones so much they're always happy to take some home.

Along with the mini croissants and scones, I also made a crustless quiche and served fresh fruit.  It's not berry season in February in Oregon so I wasn't sure how these would taste but oh my my.  These berries were bursting with flavor.

You didn't think I was not going to have dessert did you?  No party of mine is complete without dessert.  These Jelly Belly Valentine Jewel Mix didn't last long.  In fact as soon as my friend saw them she grabbed a handful.  Dessert before brunch?  I'm down with that.  This mix is sooo tasty. The combination of bubble gum, cream soda and very cherry is, well, it's hard to stop eating them, that's what it is.

Classic vanilla cupcakes got Valentine'd up with gold flecked heart toppers from Wilton and Candyfetti from Sweets Indeed.  Why am I telling you where I got everything from?  In case you want it for your party you'll know where to get it.

I hope this party inspired you to host a Galentine's Day brunch.  Be sure to come back to see the cookie decorating portion of this party.  My guests and I had way too much fun and you don't want to miss it.

Shop this party:
Styling, concept and photography by: Fizzy Party
Red backdrop: Oriental Trading 
Gold sequin table linen: Joann
Gold XOXO : Hobby Lobby 
Pink glitter candle and xoxo sticker: Target 
Felt ball garland: Mailbox Happiness 
Red glitter hearts, gold glitter box, clear containers holding jelly beans: Michaels
White and red cake plates: World Market
Jelly Beans: Jelly Belly 
Gold flecked heart cupcake toppers: Wilton
Candyfetti: Sweets Indeed 

Gourmet Chocolate

Valentine's Day is coming and chocolates are high on the list for gifts. Do you splurge and buy gourmet chocolates? Are they worth it?

If they're Maggie Louise Confections they are. I had seen these chocolates in magazines and on her Instagram . Her chocolates are beautiful.  Now I'm a sugar girl myself. Not really into chocolate. But these chocolates are so pretty.  So when she had a sale I jumped on it. 

Gourmet chocolates deserve great packaging and these did not disappoint. The box was nestled and insulated inside the shipping box and wrapped in cheetah print tissue.  I love the cheetah print tissue paper but I use bright pink to match my logo. 

The chocolate box is tied with a bow and includes the story of Maggie Louise Chocolates on one side

And a great saying with pictures of the pretty chocolates on the other side.  I loved the insert so much I'm going to have Small Moments create something for me to include with my products.  Great packaging makes people happy. 

How beautiful are these chocolates. Dark chocolate jewels with vanilla bean ganache, white chocolate letter tiles and white chocolate hearts with malted milk ganache. 

I'm not a dark chocolate fan. I know it's good for you but I just don't like the taste. My friends however do like dark chocolate so I served them at my Galentine's Brunch. There was not a piece of jeweled dark chocolate left. 

This post was in no way sponsored by Maggie Louise Confections.   I just always wanted to try these chocolates so I finally bought some.

Would you or have you splurged on Maggie Louise Confections?
Tell me about it. I loved to hear your thoughts. 

Galentine's Day Photo Op Fun

I'm shaking my parties up this year. Adding some backdrops for photo ops, food carts, lessons and some entertainment planned for up coming parties. You're so going to want to be checking in to snag yourself some inspiration and see all the fun. 

For the Galentine's brunch  I got gold foil balloons  (loving them!) from Celebration Lane  and spelled out No Boys Allowed. This was a Galentine's party after all. I'm seriously loving these gold lettered foil balloons. Why didn't I start using them sooner? Good question. 

Don't my friends do the emoji face sooo well. I know right. They've nailed it.  Actually, I didn't think they'd want to be seen all over the net but I really wanted to share the fun we had with you all. And to get you wanting to create backdrops for your parties. I know, I'm so pushy right. Always wanting to inspire you to throw a party. 

As you can see, I haven't nailed the emoji face. That, and you've already seen me. I'm only all over my About page. Which if you haven't been to it you seriously should.

My friend took these pics with her cell and sent them to me so they're not super crisp but who cares. You can still see how much fun we had and how you seriously need a backdrop at your parties this year. 

Think you don't have space for a backdrop. Think again. My house is not large, I don't have a second living room, dining room or family room.  I set up the backdrop behind the couch and when we were all done eating I moved the couch out of the way for some picture fun. 

Add some props like tissue poms, glasses, disco balls, anything that matches your theme. 

Thanks for hanging out and having fun with us!