oh goodie designs

65th birthday celebration

January 27, 2012 By jo anne Leave a Comment

A Very Festive 65^th

My mom, Linda, turned 65 earlier this month. Her birthday request was to have a dinner party for her and some of her girlfriends. Specifically, she wanted my sister, Blythe, and I to host and cater a party for her and her girlfriends….

Blythe and I had hosted and catered Mom’s 6oth birthday five years ago which was a great success. My sister and I really enjoy cooking and entertaining, but we also know how much work goes into making it perfect! Mom asked then if we could do another dinner party. We requested five years to recuperate.

We planned the menu from appetizers to desserts and spent all day Saturday cooking and decorating. The food was yummy if I do say so myself: appetizers of hummus and Kalamata olive tapenade, tomato bruschetta with goat cheese, and a yummy brie with orange-fig marmalade, entrees of pork tenderloin and shrimp and orzo pasta, roasted potatoes, asparagus and field green salad, and not one but FOUR desserts! The desserts were the best – Bananas Foster Cheesecake, Crème Brûlée, Lemon-Champagne Bars with Strawberry Brûlée topping, and bright pink Macaroons by bon~bon.

Fourteen of Mom’s friends came to celebrate. They all had a great time eating, visiting, and laughing. Mom’s guests were very complimentary of everything, and several ladies commented that they felt like they had eaten “out”. Blythe and I even had to politely decline a couple of other catering offers!

Serving Mom and her friends was truly a pleasure, but once every 5 years is our limit.

We promise – we’ll do it again for 70.

Pagette

Pagette Callender Photography

Filed Under: celebrations, photography friday Tagged With: birthday, catering, desserts

accepting help

January 26, 2012 By jo anne Leave a Comment

“No thanks, I’m fine”

Why is it so hard to accept help?

For the past two weeks, I have been down on my back because my back gave out. I was unable to stand up straight, unable to pick up either of my children, unable to walk further than about 20 feet and it took me several movements to be to get myself to stand or sit down. I could hardly stand at the sink to wash a dish, certainly could not sweep the floor and could not get in or out of my car by myself. The only time in the past two weeks that I felt any relief was soaking a hot bath at the end of the day, which I needed help to get out of.

But that wasn’t even the hardest part of the past two weeks. The hardest part was accepting help. Friends and family would call to check on me and offer help and my first instinct was to say, “no thanks, I’m fine”. I had family members calling to volunteer to drop everything in their lives to come and stay with me and take care of my family (thanks Mom and Nenny). I had a sister and a sister-in-law rearrange their work schedule to be able to come and sit with me and care for my sons, put laundry away and cook dinner (thanks Jo Anne and Cecilia). My husband took time off from work and made sure our boys were still getting to do fun stuff and getting clean at the end of the day (thanks Danny) and in-laws who cooked for us and also cared for the boys (thanks Memaw and Pepaw). And countless friends called to offer support and encouragement (thanks Ariel, Deanna, Alison and the rest of the gang).

I know there are many reasons why folks don’t ask for help and/or reject help when it’s offered. The reasons range from wanting to be in control, afraid of being rejected, a perception that asking for or accepting help is a sign of weakness and the list goes on. For me, I think I was in denial initially and never thought my back pain would last so long.

My challenge for us this week is to accept help! Ask for it and accept it. As I stated earlier, my first instinct was to politely decline the offer. Quickly, I realized that I could not do this without my “village”. I needed every ounce of help that I received and I took great comfort in knowing that my friends and family wanted to help. Each of my “villagers” stepped up and I am so thankful for them.

So, allow those folks in your life to help you from time to time. No one can do it alone and, furthermore, I don’t think we are meant to do it alone. If accepting help is difficult for you, start small. Ask a close friend or family member to assist with something small and feel the gratitude. If you feel like you do not have your own “village”, then create one. Look around and notice those who are caring, consistent and stable and begin building a friendship. Be the first to offer help.

I think accepting help is especially important if you have a new baby, are planning a wedding, moving, grieving the death of a loved one or a relationship or are involved in any other high stress life situation, you are not alone…or you don’t have to be. Engage your village or start building your village before the next storm comes.

Janel Perez, M.S., L.P.C.

Filed Under: thursday therapy, Uncategorized Tagged With: asking for help, help, helping others

super bowl 2012

January 24, 2012 By jo anne Leave a Comment

are you getting your game plan ready for your upcoming Super Bowl party?

image via candy.com

i love to watch the game and especially the commercials. I look forward to this game day and celebrate with family and food!!

imagine that!!

Team up with candy.com for colorful array of concessions

and you will SCORE big!

Filed Under: candy, supr bowl, Uncategorized Tagged With: candy, super bowl

organizing your baking supplies

January 24, 2012 By jo anne Leave a Comment

Hi all – I’m so nervous!! Write for a blog???? Me???? But sweet JoAnne was very kind (and wouldn’t take no for an answer) and said I didn’t have to write much. . . . .so here is my very first effort at “blogging”.

Here in Texas, at least in San Antonio where I live, it seems that with the passing of the Holidays winter goes as well, even though it has only just started. We wait for Spring and wonder if we can put the kids’ jackets back in the attic or keep them out a bit longer – maybe ‘til February. So, it’s possible that is why I feel Spring cleaning coming on. OR maybe it’s because this is the way all of my decorating supplies look right now after Holiday Rush:

Holy Big Mess Batman!

So I’m cleaning. Organizing. Getting all my ducks back in the rows where they belong. I will feel better and not overwhelmed when the next big order comes in. Here’s how it looks – all clean and tidy (thanks to a trip to Michaels where all of the organizational boxes were on sale!). Now I can create without headache. J

Bye for now – Tammy

visit Tammy on Favebook!

bon~bon

Filed Under: baking supplies, tuesday with tammy Tagged With: baking supplies, organizing, sprinkles

chinese new year

January 23, 2012 By jo anne Leave a Comment

great Chinese New Year inspiration from

Jonathan Adler

are you a dragon?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: chinese new year, home decor

balloons as decor

January 23, 2012 By jo anne Leave a Comment

up, up and away!!

I am loving all the balloon inspiration out there today.

image via geronimoballons.com

I believe this to be the year of the balloon!! I have used balloons this past year more than ever. Especially the large balloons. I ve used number balloons to use as decor at birthdays, and of course the polka dot kind are oh so sweet.

I say, if used corectly, balloons can make a big impact on your event decor.

follow my pinterest board

up, up and away!

Filed Under: balloons, children's parties, party themes, pinterest Tagged With: balloons at parties, childrens parties, event decor, helium balloons, wedding decor

potty party party poopers

January 21, 2012 By jo anne 1 Comment

A Cup of Jo

Weekend Ramblings of a Serial Stylist

i will admit when i saw the post for a “potty party” i did say to myself, “i’m not even looking at that one” and kept scrolling down my newsfeed.

later that day i saw what was many kind words going out to a fellow party girl and thought i should do a little reseach on what’s going on here. i read through the blog of another who was so very angry about this potty party. it was funny, witty, i laughed, i giggled. then i read the mean comments going on over there and was appalled. seriously?

well i had to see the potty party now – so i jumped over to

Creative Juice

who styled the party and was rather pleased with what i saw. a cute color coordinated party for boys and girls. beautiful photos of beautiful children. just what a blogger/party stylist wants to see in a feature party post. i thought “this is cute. why is everyone so upset?”

image via hostess with the mostess

(she was featured the next day…and that was no accident!)

there’s always a reason to party in my party planning world so who’s to say that a mom can’t throw a party for her potty training child?

i loved the details and thought that went into this party. too bad other people who can not see the time and attention to detail had to take the time to take away from our attention to the details.

as a party stylist, i appreciate a reason to party and if that means we throw a grand potty party so be it.

these kids are happy and having fun and that is what a party is all about. anything that makes a child happy and feel positive about themselves IS a reason to party.

i am also very impressed with how Creative Juice handled all these rough comments. that would have been enough to make me wave the white flag but a cheerful attitude and sence of humor go a long way. a lot longer than ugliness and hate.

i say potty on!

Filed Under: a cup of Jo, children's parties, party themes Tagged With: pink and blue, potty party, potty training, pre-school party

fairy garden toadstool party

January 20, 2012 By jo anne 1 Comment

Bright colors and charming details are what this party is all about.

To celebrate Libby Lou’s 1st birthday, Jenn of Portraits by Jenn created a whimsical fairy garden party. Inspired by her invitations purchased seperately, she contacted us to create a party suite for her guest’s favors and display.

Erica of Sweet Prints and Harper Gray designed these beautiful toadstool graphics that matched the invite’s colors and feel. Keeping it young and whimsical we made cupcake toppers, favor labels, banner,waterproof drink lables this adorable door sign and food tents.

We just love how this party turned out and with an amazing photographer as a mommy, Little Libby Lou is precious in every shot.

Thanks for including us in this event. We look forward to working with you again. And it goes to show if you have a vision, we can help bring it to life. Great job on the party, Jenn. We would have loved to see Libby smash into her cake!

See it featured here and full vendor credits at Kara’s Party Ideas too!

Filed Under: graphic suites, harper gray, printables Tagged With: bright color birthday party, childs party, fairy garden party, first birthday party, smash cake, toadstool party, whimsicle fairy party

family photos

January 20, 2012 By jo anne Leave a Comment

The Digital “Shoe Box”

image via simplicityphotography.com

Our family “snapshots” are my favorite photos, and more often than not, they are my favorite photographs to frame and display. That still leaves me with tons of pictures to use in some way. Consequently, my external hard drive has become a digital version of the photo “shoe box”.

….Oh, so you have one of those too!!

When I was growing up, I remember the boot boxes under my parents’ bed that held literally decades of photographs! My sister, Blythe, and I would occasionally peruse through them, talking about the recent pictures, as well as the ones that predated us by 10-20 years, often not sure who was in the pictures. In our 20’s, Blythe and I embarked on an enormous project as a Mother’s Day gift: secretly snatch the boxes from under my parents’ bed (with Dad’s blessing), organize the thousands of photos, and put them into albums to give to Mom as a gift. We managed to pull it off, slipping the pictures into albums in some sort of order that made sense to us. Mom loved it!! We filled 5 large albums with photographs! (Incidentally, as the oldest of 4 children, I had the most pictures by far and filled nearly an entire album! It was quite and interesting family experiment!!)

Fast forward to the digital age… Where are all of your family photos?? Are they on tons of CD’s or on your computer’s hard drive? Do you get them printed and store them in the “shoe box”? Or are they still on the media card that is STILL in your CAMERA as you read this?? Ummm, I think I might be guilty of all of these…

As I said before, I am a former scrap-book devotee. I have many albums of my children’s early years, Christmases, school activities. I cherish these albums, and I hope that my boys will, too, as they grow up. I might even let them have some of them one day….maybe, if they’re nice to me.

In recent years, I have found it harder to keep up with my “traditional” albums and consequently have turned to “digital” options for my albums. Making photo books online is quick, easy, user-friendly, affordable, and can be as detailed or simple as you make it. What I most enjoy about making photo books is that I can make anything from a “Year in the Life” albums for grandparent Christmas gifts to an album of my sons’ favorite art projects. I also love that they are more the size and thickness of regular books, making them much easier to store and display. And the CHOICES!! There are multitudes of online photo book companies to choose from! I have personally used Shutterfly, Picaboo, Mixbook, and Snapfish for our family photos, but there are many, many choices on the web!

My absolute favorite projects are our family vacation albums. This is a great way to showcase all of your great vacation photos (I always take lots and lots) and is a unique way for your family to reflect on the great memories made on the vacation. We have albums from beach trips, San Diego, New York City, and Disneyworld to name a few. I think a vacation album is the best souvenir of all!

Bottom line: Do SOMETHING with your pictures!! Don’t leave them in an actual or digital shoe box. Start working on that digital album. I’m starting a new project today!

Pagette Callender

click here to visit her on facebook

and www.pagettecallender.com