Recap -Blake's Bday Party

(Blake @12 months; the morning of his bday party)

Four weeks ago we celebrated Blake's bday! We invited family and friends over and we had a few toddlers running around the house as well. Everything turned out perfect! Family and friends had a great time and everyone enjoyed the food and decorations. Here are a few pics from the event.

I created a birthday banner and a banner for his high chair. I purchased the paper from JoAnn's Fabrics and used stickers for the letters and scalloped scissors.


I decided to have a dessert table and set up an extra table with white linen and a paper runner that matched the poms poms. I created the tissue paper poms poms a week earlier and purchased the green gum drops, green rock candy and lollipops from Party City. I baked sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, cup cakes and made chocolate covered pretzels the night before.





This was my first attempt at creating royal icing sugar cookies. Let me just tell you, you tube is definitely your friend when you are trying something new! I also stalked the blog Bakerella for two months for inspiration! She is amazing! Blake had a lions, tigers, and bears theme, so I tried to stick with brown and green colors throughout the decorations.

Everyone sang happy birthday to Blake and we all waited in anticipation as he explored his cake. This was his very first time eating cake!! I was soooooo nervous! LOL.

Mr. R and my father watched anxiously and provided moral support.

Once he took the first bite of the sugary goo, he was hooked! His outfit was pretty much ruined, however, I took my handy dandy baby wipes and wiped away all of the frosting. Once I tossed it into the washing machine, it was like brand new. Tip to all new moms and ladies in general: baby wipes will remove any stain. I mean ANY stain! Keep them handy.


Here is a pic of the other babies/toddlers that were there to celebrate. Blake has his eye on my friends 6 month baby girl the whole night. He was such a gentleman, he shared all of his birthday toys with her.


Let me leave you with another quick tip: if you happen to get a heat/water stain on your table, do not fear. Did you know if you use an iron and a cloth, the stain will lift right up?! It helps unlock the moisture. Try it for yourself. A white heat stain showed up on my breakfast room dining table and I will be doing this tonight! I posted a video below.

Talk to you soon!

Valentino 365 Days a Year

Well not in my closet, but I can experience his rich designs online anytime I want now!! Valentino's online fashion archive is the first of its kind! The project entitled "The Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum", is 3D and has over 5k documents. It is amazing!! You know how I just love to drool over couture fashion and Valentino does not disappoint. Wednesday night in NYC the stars came out in great numbers to support the launch.

Bonnie Morrison and Peter Som

Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig

Among the many stars, the newly minted "It Girl" by magazine Town & Country, Shala Monroque, was present.

Shala Monroque

She is the talk of the town....and the things people have to say.....more on that later!

You can download Valentino's virtual museum for free! The online magazine, LuxeCrush, revealed some of the items included in the museum:

"Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress when she married Aristotle Onassis, Julia Roberts’ vintage Valentino Oscar dress in 2001 and the gown Elizabeth Taylor wore to the premiere of Spartacus in 1960. Those other designers like Gucci and Prada can plan their paltry brick-and-mortar museum monuments, the wily Valentino has one-upped them by skipping the cost and limited space-constraints of a real museum for his infinite-capacity and geographically-unbounded virtual museum."

Here is a video of a quick tour of the museum. Enjoy!!

Photo credit: BFAnyc.com

Presentation is everything!!!

I just had to post this video of the Chanel pre-fall show on 12/8. Karl Lagerfeld and his team created one of the most beautiful runway productions I have seen in a long time. Banquet tabels, the chandeliers, the candles, the flowers, oh my! Enjoy!!

First Haircut and Steps

First haircut@11 months

I promise I have not dropped off of the face of the earth. All my free time is taken up by this little man! When he is finally asleep, I am either cooking, cleaning, or trying to organize a house that looks like a twister just touched down. I guess that is what you call living right?

On 11/6/11, Blake received his first hair cut! Mr. R was more sad to see his little afro go than me. I told him it was time to let it go!! He did very well! I thought I would he would cry and pitch a fit (thanks to the many you tube videos), but he did very well! He was very calm.

3 weeks later (11/20/11) he decided to take his first steps!! Of course I was beyond excited because that meant he would be walking in time for his 1st birthday party! Talk about right on time! Here is a short clip of Blake getting the hang of it.




I will post pics of the party next!

Fall

(source)

Nothing says Fall like a great pair of boots. Love it!!

Planning a Party

So I received a phone call from hubby today and he wanted to know who I had on the guest list for muffin's 1st birthday party. I pulled up my excel spreadsheet and told him I only had 28 names so far.

Mr. R: 28?!!
Mrs. R. Yes. I want it to be intimate.
Mr. R: That isn't intimate. Intimate is like 8 people.
Mrs. R: Um ..that would only be your family. No.
Mr. R: Why not?
Mrs. R: Because TC has to be there, remember we went to her daughter's 1st and 2nd birthday party, and KH has to be there because she threw the baby shower for me and ......
Mr. R: Ok, ok, ok, but we agreed it would not be a big production.
Mrs. R: It won't. I have decided to do some things by hand, so I won't be spending a lot of money. I will have a separate desert table just for the kids and another table for the adults with food we will love and ......
Mr. R: Two tables? What?!!
Mrs. R: How many adults want to eat cupcakes all day? We need real food. Now back to my plan......


It sort of went downhill from there. Mr. R finally agreed to let me run the show. Muffin will only turn 1 once right?!! I know, I know, most people say that he won't remember this event at all. However, I will and I would not be able to sleep at night knowing that if I just spend an additional two hours I could have made so and so....you know how it goes. So I will spend the weekend trying to find the perfect picture to place on his invite and send it out to guests. What mother doesn't go over the top for her pride and joy? Mr. R should be happy that I am not like this mom on the video!! Her daughter's 1st birthday party came with a $12,745 price tag. Now some would say that is over the top.

Have a great weekend!!

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

That is my life right now! Full speed ahead! I have so many things scheduled on my calendar this month. Selecting the silent option on my phone for all of my appointment alerts is an art form now. I feel like a zombie when my alarm goes off at 6:30am and I do not hit the bed again until 11pm. The amazing part is I am still functioning. How does Michelle Duggar do it? Is she really human? Seriously.


Well my little chocolate muffin was a lion for Halloween. He had a great time, but it was clearly a day for all the parents!!


Apparently there was a baby explosion in our neighborhood. There are at least 8 couples that had a baby between October 2010 - February 2011. At least my muffin will have lots of playmates!!



I have two book clubs this month, three Junior League meetings, hubby will be out of town at least 9 days this month, dealing with extended family over the holidays, and I have a birthday party to plan for my lion cub. Even with all of this going on, I still have not missed the latest current events/gossip:

1. Kim and her pretend wedding/marriage and now divorce. Surely you guys have seen this new twitter thread that is not going away any time soon. I hope this means her reign on reality tv is coming to an end. Please, enough already!!!!

2. Princess Charlene of Monaco responds to rumors that she was a runaway bride.

3. A wedding proposal that floored the soon to be bride. Literally.

4. I am in love with the new show Revenge. Surely I am not the only one right?!! I love the characters, the set, and the story line. Even hubby asks me who is next on her list!! LOL.

5. C. Wonder had a grand opening in NY and the decor is absolutely divine to look at! The colors are so fun! Anything you can think of, he has it! I cannot wait to place an order online.

Let me get back to planning a birthday bash and trying remain sane!! Mr. R made me assure him I would not go over the top for muffins 1st birthday.

Who me? Over the top? Never.
:)