Eat Cake for Breakfast.

Yep, Kate Spade, Thank you for reminding us all on a tasteful tote that it is OKAY to eat cake for breakfast. Because, I DID! A cupcake to be exact and it was deeeeelicious!

Yesterday, on a quick whim, I made champaign cupcakes with fresh strawberry buttercream to bring to our neighbor's house. They just had TWINS and it was time to celebrate!

That is how I ended up with leftover cupcakes in my kitchen and a super delicious (but gym-inspiring) breakfast. Speaking of inspiration, here are a few inspiring thoughts on this wednesday!

I couldn't agree more with all of those! So, happy wednesday people. 

On the blog tomorrow, a DELICIOUS chicken fajita soup that I made for the final cold days in Florida before the heat of spring and summer arrive. YUM. YUM.

Party Nicole

Tory Burch versus C.Wonder

I have a slight obsession with Tory Burch. I will most certainly buy my clothes CHEAP (sometimes Walmart cheap) to afford a pricey accessory from her ever-flourishing brand. I have found that I enjoy owning a few nice items (a purse, shoes, statement cardigan) and then pair it with less expensive (often trendy) items because let's face it, we are all on a budget.

However, I caught wind of a new brand that is, in fact, designed and owned by Tory Burch's EX HUSBAND! It's called C.Wonder. Here's where things get interesting, I LOVE it all and everything is like HALF the price of her brand.

So, I did some research because I am not going to be unfaithful to my favorite lady without knowing more information. What I hear is they are still good friends (from my reliable online sources ha. ha.) and actually work well together at preserving her brand and starting up his own company. His flagship store is in NYC and I will be going there because word on the street is they have AMAZING sales.


While i'm at it, I went ahead and gathered some of my favorites from each brand..then i'll let you be the judge. Who is better?

C. Wonder

Mint of Course (said to be his spring color)

Or....

oh lala...

Pink and Blue...

He has house wear and Tory does not!

His flagship store in NYC..reminds me of a cross between Tory Burch and Kate Spade..

 Tory Burch

Tory's color of Spring is said to be yellow...one of each please!

Here are some Tory mini-combos...

navy blue....

Vibrant BLUE...

Beige and sophisticated...

And there we have it. Ex's who have paired together to empty our bank accounts. Nice work Tory and Chris Burch, nice work. So, what do you think? Tory or C. Wonder? Tough call but hey you could always mix and match!

Party Nicole

Burlap and Lace for Love

Shortly after our wedding last April, a bridesmaid and life long friend said yes to the man of her dreams. It was the happiest day of her life and an exciting one for all her friends and family...especially me. I was excited to share in her joy and pass on all the advice I had about wedding planning and becoming a MRS. Little did I know, I would be given the ultimate position for that exact job...Matron of Honor! Here we are at my wedding last April...SO happy:)

Of course, I said YES YES YES, and quickly got to work on all things wedding again. I was still mourning the loss of my wedding days and this was exactly what I needed to bounce me back into wedding mode. The perspective was a different but, who cares, I've got parties to plan! First on the list, a beautiful bridal shower for my best friend. I quickly volunteered myself for stationary extraordinaire because I have taken a liking creating invitations. I have no clue why, but it works.

The invite design itself I created online and had it printed out at a local copy story for about a 1/4 of the price.

Then I measured the length of a 3 inch thick piece of burlap around the entire invite and did the same with the slightly smaller (1 1/2 inches) piece of lace. I brought both pieces to the back side of the invite and dabbed a SMALL amount of hot glue from the glue gun (careful not to burn yourself like I did) and hold down for 10 seconds or until the pieces all stick to the back. From the front they should look like this...

The format was set for a 6x6 print and therefore a 6 1/4 x 6 1/4 envelope which i found on a place called envelopes.com (go figure!).  They were sold in bulk so I have plenty of left over beige envelopes for my next project and they were a ton less then buying envelopes at Office Max. Here's the whole stack ready to go out! Keep in mind, any size letter that isn't "standard size" (roughly 6x11) cost extra to send in the mail. This size was 0.67 cents.

 Finally, I got very creative with the fonting. I originally wanted to feed the envelops through the printer with fancy printing but I was under a time crunch and frankly I could not figure out what the heck I was doing. So, I went on Etsy and searched for people who do funky calligraphy. Like these...

Then I just copied the lettering for each of the invites and I think they turned out pretty well! This was the bride's......

 I slapped a pretty butterfly stamp on them (happen to be a 0.67 cent stamp exactly) and out they went! Now the bridal shower weekend  is upon us and I can't wait to see Ashley and all of our friends as we celebrate another amazing couple beginning their lives together.

Party Nicole

The Cupcake CRAZE

I have been ABSOLUTELY overwhelmed by the love and support I have received from friends and family over the past week. I have had tons of inquiries, people coming out of the wood work to help me spread my words and my passion, and THREE large orders for cupcakes ALREADY!!! I cannot thank everyone enough for helping me share what I love and make it a reality for me. With that being said, I sent out my first batch of cupcakes yesterday morning and I couldn't help but wonder if this was the start to something big...I mean a girl can dream.

Here are some pictures of my rookie attempt at "branding" my product. What do you think?

On the left we have Very Berry with cinnamon agave butter cream and the right is Red Velvet.

Then I came into work and one of my kidos was wearing this shirt...a coincidence? I think NOT!

Then I just had cupcake on the brain all day. First, I thought about how cupcakes inspire....

    

Then, I thought about how funny cupcake jokes are....admit it...they are funny.

After that, possible cupcake purchases....I mean who doesn't want a cupcake coffee coozie?

And finally, cupcake animal talk. For those of you who don't know me, there are few things in life that make me laugh as hard as when I put words in animals mouths. 

With that being said, thank you all again for the support you've shown me. I hope I can pay you all back in cupcakes and/or other sweet treats someday soon. YOU. ARE. THE. BEST.

Party Nicole