Great Girlie Party Favors!

Melanie from Scout, A Mom's Guide to Stylish Living (whose blog I LOVE & read daily!) is now designing the cutest bows...and you can buy them as party favor packs to match your party theme! This is such a great idea and a very special treat for the young ladies!

The pink and red bows above were made for an Olivia themed birthday and the following bows were created for the ever-so-popular cupcake theme.

Melanie is one stylish and talented momma and I know her bows will sell well! The prices are great and if you order 10 or more, she will throw in a special bow for the birthday girl at no charge!

Visit Melanie HERE or contact her at melbellesbows@gmail.com

{Recipes} Chocolate Pistachio Cake ~ Perfect for St. Patrick's Day!

I apologize for the lack of posts this week! We have been busy, busy over here and the weekend is just beginning. We're headed to our ranch and good friends are coming along. But I did not want to leave you with just one post for the week! Here is one of my favorite cakes that my mom used to make for me and her mom made for her. It is perfect for St. Patrick's Day AND it's simple too! Enjoy!

Chocolate Pistachio Cake

Ingredients:

* 1 package yellow cake mix

* 1 small package pistachio instant pudding

* 4 eggs

* 1 cup water

* 1/2 cup oil

* 1/2 tsp almond extract

* 1/4 cup chocolate syrup...sometimes I add a little more

* 1/4 cup powder sugar

Directions:

* Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a Bundt pan (Pam will work just fine).

* In a large mixing bowl, combine yellow cake mix with pistachio pudding. Add eggs, water, oil and extract and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.

* Put 1/3 of the batter in a small mixing bowl and mix with 1/4 cup of chocolate syrup.

* Pour the two batters into the pan, alternating the yellow and chocolate. Swirl a little of the chocolate into the yellow with a spatula.

* Bake 50-55 minutes; be sure not to undercook. Cool 15 minutes before removing from pan and cool on a wire rack.

* Cool completely and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

{cake images via Bakerella}

This cake is DELICIOUS and moist and stays that way for longer than usual! I would love to know if you decide to bake this!

Have a wonderful weekend and I will be back next week with lots of great real parties!

Real Parties: ROYGBIV

This has got to be one of the most creative parties that I have ever seen! This party is brought to you by Lullaby Lubbock, a blog written by 2 friends of mine who happen to throw VERY unique parties.

Allison's dream is to one day own a candy store and call it roy.g.biv...which would be a candy store by colors. In her words, "If you don't want to eat around the yellows and greens in a bag of sour patch kids, then my store would be the place to come!". So, you can start to see why this surprise party theme was near and dear to her.

Allison's day started with a scavenger hunt. Each clue given to her came with a balloon that in the end made up all of the colors of the rainbow...ROY.G.BIV!!! At the end of the hunt, she was given a tie dye shirt with all of the roy.g.biv colors. I just love all of those details!

The party took place at a skating rink for all of the party guests who are still young at heart.

See their "party heart-y" party which was recently featured on Party Perfect!

Real Parties: Party Like a Rockstar

I have another great boy party to share with you sent to me by Laurie! As I've mentioned before, I am a sucker for houndstooth, so my eye was automatically drawn to these pictures and the party details!

The vases came from the Dollar Tree and Laurie glued houndstooth ribbon to each vase and filled them with Kiss M&M's that she found at Walmart! Houndstooth wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby was used as table runners.

I love this wording!

Laurie used candy molds to make the #1's and she wrapped foam blocks in wrapping paper.

The party was filed with activities. Little party guests walked on a red carpet, decorated guitars from Michael's and there was even a tattoo shop!

To see more pictures from this fun party, visit Girl Outnumbered.

A few party details you might be interested in...

* The houndstooth wrapping paper came from Hobby Lobby.

* Laurie found the KISS M&M's from Walmart which I think was a perfect addition!

* Cupcakes & Cutlery provided the graphics and served as inspiration.

* The candy molds were purchased from Candy Mold Central.

* The red chalkboards were found at Kirkland's.

* The rockstar cake was created by Vicky's Cakes.

Pure Genius: Up Party Inspiration

I mean seriously! Could Bakerella be any more creative?! These are PERFECT for an Up party or you can serve them as dessert this Sunday while watching the Oscars!

Visit Bakerella for the EASY directions...