June 16, 2013

Hi there Danielle –

My teenage daughter’s birthday is just around the corner, and I’m a full-time working mother with absolutely no time to plan an extravagant party.  Do you have any suggestions on how to make Maggie’s day extra special without a bunch of fuss or time?

Sincerely,
Sarah B.

Dear Sarah:

Time is precious and a limited resource so celebrating your daughter’s birthday should be about creating a memory and connecting with family and friends. I’m a huge advocate of doing what you can with the resources and time you have and then outsourcing the rest. My daughter, Carlyle, just celebrated her 14th birthday and here are some ways I was able to create a fantastic party while cutting a few corners without compromising my vision or creativity:

Pastels brighten up any kind of party, and they’re my daughter’s favorite colors so I ordered confetti sugar to decorate several items being served.

This delicious, rainbow-colored layer cake was made by Sophie's Uptown, a neighborhood cafe and bakery, owned and operated by my dear friend, David York, who is also dedicated to saving Atlanta's homeless animals.  www.sophiesuptown.com

To add a little panache, we decorated ice cream sugar cones with the confetti too.   To simply dress up the ice cream cones, melt some chocolate of your choice such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate. Dip the mouth side of the ice cream cone into the chocolate for a decorated rim or  spread some chocolate with a pastry brush on the desired spots, and shake on or press on sprinkles or other elements. Consider regular sprinkles, confetti sprinkles, sugar crystals, sugar pearls, sliced almonds, chocolate crispies, crushed cookies and mini chocolate chips. While the chocolate hardens and secures the decorations in place, scoop small ice cream balls in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry and place them in a decorative container.  Once you've made enough ice cream balls, put the containers in the freezer until you're ready to use!

To keep the pastel theme going, we used colored sugar to decorate stemless glasses, made from extremely durable polycarbonate (won’t crack, shatter, break, cloud or discolor).  Theses glasses are perfect for poolside parties, picnics,  barbecues and clumsy teenagers!   To make my life a bit easier, I purchased raspberry, pink lemonade from our local grocery store and polka-dotted paper straws from an online vendor like http://www.shopsweetlulu.com/item/Polka-Dot-Paper-Straws/16.  

Decorating the table can be a no brainer if you follow these guidelines:  1.  Use no fuss but stylish table linens.  Tablevogue is my choice -- it's the only table cover designed to provide a secure, tailored fit for your folding tables!  Their innovative, patented design takes your table from functional to fabulous in a matter of minutes.  Please visit www.tablevogue.com for more information and inspirational ideas. Also, if you use my name as a promo code when checking out, you will receive free shipping. 2.  To add a pop of color to the table, why not buy a few yards of your favorite patterned material and quickly make a table cover?  I used seer sucker in yellow and took clear tape to quickly hem the edges.  3. Instead of using paper napkins, I chose seer sucker in colors of pink, yellow, blue and green.  A great website to purchase this accouterment is www.dotandarmy.etsy.com.  4.  Flowers and an assortment of balloons will add another decorative dimension so use as many as your heart desires!  5.  It's always nice to have party favors; think of something that you can use to decorate the table and your guests can take home with them once the party is over -- I used bubblegum necklaces from Charmois Craft Party at http://www.etsy.com/shop/CharmiosCraftParty.  

I hope this is of help to you!  Remember to create memories and don't sweat the small stuff.  Happy Birthday, Maggie!