Olivia’s Scooter Birthday Party

October 3, 2012

We celebrated Olivia’s 1st Birthday on Saturday. I think the Scooter Themed Party was a success. I definitely enjoyed myself. We were so blessed to have lots of family in town and lots of great friends. Olivia was very serious, but just took in all the action. There are lots of pictures so I’ll probably share these over the next two days. But, to start, here’s the dessert table.

We set up Lonnie’s scooter outside with balloons on it.

All three of my cute kiddos.

She is really enjoying her new pink scooter.

I had so much fun putting this party together. Olivia is such a blessing and even though she won’t remember this day, she can look back at the pictures and see how much she was loved.

My mom was here for the party, so that meant that I didn’t have to do the cake. She is amazing! The cake was absolutely adorable and very yummy as well.

Olivia definitely enjoyed her cake. Come back tomorrow and I’ll share more of the details and treats from the party.

And a special thanks to my sister in law, Lidy (Hello Lidy), for taking some of these pictures during the party. What I relief to hand that responsibility over to capable hands. It’s hard to throw a party and capture all the moments at the same time. Thanks so much.

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Pumpkin Spice Creme Brulee and Caramel Apple Crepes

October 2, 2012

Ok, I’m officially ready for Fall. And what’s Fall without some yummy treats inspired by the season? This weekend I made two yummy desserts – Caramel Apple Crepes and Pumpkin Spice Creme Brulee. These might sound super fancy and complicated, but they really are so easy. My secret is World Market.

I have long been a World Market shopper. It all started when I was in College. I discovered World Market in Boise, ID and purchased an area rug there for my dorm room. That was 15 years ago (ouch, I feel old), and ever since I’ve tried to make it there as often as possible. I actually make it to World Market at least once a month. It’s not always for their amazing furniture, home accessories, and dishes, but often for the gourmet and international food selection. There are certain favorite items that I can only find there (like Birds Custard Powder, Papadoms, Crunchie Bars, and Tim Tams). I love their seasonal products as well. Right now the store is full of fun Fall and Halloween decor and treats. And it’s so reasonably priced, that I can afford to be stylish.

I bought these cute little pumpkin shaped bake ware dishes to serve my Pumpkin Spice Creme Brulee in. They come in classic orange and this pretty cream color. They would also be great for serving pumpkin or squash soup in, or just cute Fall candy dishes.

This recipe has the warm spices of pumpkin pie, but the ultimate silky texture and creamy taste of creme brulee. What could be better? Using Dr. Oetker’s Classic Creme Brulee the guess work is gone and you know your creme brulee will be perfect. I’m all for making things from scratch, but no one would even know this came from a box. It’s that good.

Pumpkin Spice Creme Brulee
1 package Dr. Oetker Classic Creme Brulee
2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

In a pot whisk together all the ingredients. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring constantly. Simmer and stir for 30 secs. Pour into ramekins or pumpkin bake ware. Let stand at room temperature for about an hour. Sprinkle with caramelizing sugar. Broil for 3-4 mins or torch the tops until the sugar is brown.

To make my table ready for the season, I also bought these beautiful birch bark pillars to put in my hurricanes. And what’s dessert without coffee? How about Caramel Pumpkin Pie Coffee?

Here’s what I bought at World Market that made these recipes so easy.

Another Fall inspired recipe I came up with is these Caramel Apple Crepes. I’m a huge crepe fan and make them often for dessert and breakfast. My Grandpa was a Swede, so I think it’s my duty to my heritage to make great crepes. I made these crepes using Kungsornen’s Swedish Pancake and Waffle Mix. Holy Cow! This was so easy. Just add water – that’s it! The crepes were perfect and my family ate them all and wanted more.

I filled the crepes with a generous spread of Gaucho Ranch Dulce de Leche. It’s a milk caramel spread form South America. I rolled them up and topped them with sauteed apples and cinnamon whipped cream.

Caramel Apple Crepes
1 box of Kungsornen Swedish Pancake Mix
Dulce de Leche
4 large apples, cored and sliced
Juice of one lemon
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 brown sugar
5 tbsp. butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Make the crepes according to the package directions.

Saute the apples in the butter with the cinnamon and lemon juice until they become tender, about 12 mins. Sprinkle 1/4 brown sugar and saute 1 more minute, or until the sugar melts.

With an electric mixer, beat the whipping cream 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and vanilla until it makes soft peaks.

Assemble the crepes. Spread about 1 tbsp. of Dulce de Leche in the middle of the crepe.Roll up the crepe, top with the sauteed apples and a generous dollop of whipped cream.

I had fun with instagram while shopping. It’s such a great way to share your shopping finds and also document and file away future purchase ideas. You can follow my instagram (@jeranmcconnel) here, and you can even follow World Market on instagram. Here’s a few items that caught my eye this week.

World Market often has coupons and lots of special offers with their Explorer Program. I make sure to follow World Market on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, and check their website often. This way I can see any new deals or offers. You can even print out coupons. Every time I shop, I just enter my phone # and I save!

And you should definitely check out the Passport to Style Sweepstakes World Market is running right now. Here’s a little more information about it and how you can enter.

HGTV Passport to Style Sweepstakes

Grand Prize package includes: A $10,000 World Market shopping spree and design consultation with an HGTV Designer
There will also be 3 runner up prize winners that will each receive a $1,000 World Market gift card!
The HGTV Sweepstakes runs from September 22, 2012 until October 26, 2012.
If you share the sweepstakes with 5 of your friends (via FB share or email) you can receive 5 additional bonus entries. This is part of the registration process when entering. Users can also enter daily for more chances to win.
Enter online at WORLDMARKETSWEEPSTAKES.COM or FACEBOOK.COM/WORLDMARKET

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™, but all my opinions are my own.

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Monthly Baby Pictures for 1st Birthday Party Decorations

October 1, 2012

Every month I have taken a picture of Olivia in this black polka dot shirt in my green leather chair. It’s been fun to see how she has grown and changed. I decided to use the pictures as part of the party decorations for her first birthday party. I simply strung up a piece of yarn on my mantel and clipped the pictures to it with mini wooden clothes pins. I think the party guests really enjoyed this. The green chair worked well with my party decorations, but the pictures could easily be all printed in black and white to go with any party color scheme.

I started with her screaming newborn picture and ended with her one year picture where she’s standing pulling the books off the bookshelf.

I actually bought the shirt in 3 sizes so that I could have to same look for all the pictures. I wasn’t very consistent with the position of the camera or angle, but I’m ok with that. I can still see her growth and remember all the stages. I’ll put them in a little album now or maybe even make a little slide show out of them all.

I wish I would have done this for my other kids as well. I’m so glad I have this collection. What are some of the special things you have done or will do at your children’s birthday parties?

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Thrifting Thursday: a nightstand with potential

September 28, 2012

Salvation Army saves the day again. I picked up this small dresser for just $22, I waited for it to go 50% off. I’m going to use it as a nightstand in my bedroom. It will offer a lot more storage and a bigger surface for my lamp and bedside accessories. It has a kind of weird laminate top, but I know how to paint laminate furniture. I’m thinking about leaving it the two tone, it has the potential to look like something out of the pages of a West Elm catalogue.

The hardware is pretty great, I’m going to be keeping that.

What would you do to this piece? Any suggestions or great ideas? I’d love to hear.

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Our Little Scooter

September 26, 2012

I thought I should better explain why we are having a Scooter Themed Party for Olivia. This video shows why. I’ve said that she doesn’t crawl, she hasn’t ever even tried to. She scoots on are butt and propels herself forward with her arm. She kind of looks like a monkey or a baby ape. She’s fast when she scoots, so she sees no need to try any other method.

This is her birthday present. She just had to have this adorable rocking pink scooter.

Scooter from Jeran McConnel on Vimeo.

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It’s a Small World Party

September 25, 2012

My niece, Carolina (Olivia’s almost twin) turns 1 just 3 days after Olivia. I put together some decorations for her It’s a Small World themed party. They are huge Disneyland fans.

And here’s the invitations.

All printables are available at my etsy shop.

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White Nectarine Mint Sorbet

September 24, 2012

It’s STILL warm here in Southern California, so we are enjoying cool treats. Not quite ready to heat up the house with baking and warm drinks yet. But, nectarines and peaches have been super yummy lately. I just picked up some white nectarines at the farmers market. This sorbet is such a beautiful color. It’s silky smooth and just the right amount of sweet, with very little sugar at all. And nothing brightens up flavor like fresh mint – so refreshing.

White Nectarine Mint Sorbet
6 ripe white nectarines
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
juice from one lemon
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh mint

Bring to a broil and then immediately reduce to a simmer. Simmer on medium low for about 15 mins. or until the nectarines and their skins are tender. Puree in a food processor until completely smooth. Chill completely. Pour into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturers directions. A minute before the sorbet is done, add the mint. Freeze in an airtight container until ready to serve.

What’s the weather like where you are? We are still in the 90’s. Are you still trying to beat the heat with cool treats, or are you warming up with all the pumpkin spice everything?

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I love being an Auntie

September 22, 2012

I had to share just a couple pictures of my very sweet new niece. Meet Adelaide Amelia. Adelaide is such a beautiful name and it’s special because it’s my Grandma’s middle name.

Olivia and I drove down to San Diego Tuesday night to meet her. We could only be away for the day, but I’m so glad I got to hold her and meet her in person. There is nothing better then a newborn. Ah, almost makes me want another baby.

See ,she likes her quilt I made. I am so blessed to have so many nieces and nephews. In the last 3 years I went from having none to having six now! It’s so fun for my kids to have cousins. I sure wish I lived closer to all of them.

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Adventures Abroad: Roma (a decade later)

September 21, 2012

I thought I’d share another installment of Adventures Abroad. I just got busy blogging away, and kind of forgot that I was going to share some of my travels with you here on Oleander and Palm. So, this is our trip to Italy that we took just over ten years ago. We were young, brave, brand new parents (Denali was only 3 months old) we spent just over a week in Rome and Naples. Denali was such a great traveller and everywhere we went, people said “Bella Bebe” to her. She bounced along the cobblestone streets in her little umbrella stroller.

This was a fantastic trip, and Italy is somewhere I really want to go back to. We drank amazing cafes and ate gelato everyday that we were there. I have to say that of all the countries I’ve been to, Italy had the BEST food. From the pasta to the pizza, it was to die for.

I had fun flipping through the photo album, looking back at this trip. I took many rolls of film in Italy and more then half of it was black and white. I used to shoot in black and white all the time. I miss film and I kind of want to go back to it sometimes. Do you miss film?

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Fabric Party Goody Bags

September 20, 2012

Every party has to have a goody bag for all the guests to take home. When I was a kid, my mom threw us the most fantastic themed birthday parties. She always decorated a cake, and usually sewed goody bags to go with the theme or colors of the party. She did all this all in Papua New Guinea – the remote, very tropical, 3rd World, island in the South Pacific. When I started throwing my kid’s birthday parties (11 years ago – eek), I wanted to continue her tradition. So, for most of my kids parties, I have sewn goody bags for the guests (I’ll have to find them all and share pics with you sometime).

For Olivia’s 1st birthday, I needed to make something with scooters on it. But, I just couldn’t find the perfect fabric. I wanted something with both the pink and minty green, and I definitely wanted scooters. Months ago I picked up this cute scooter fabric and this sweet minty green floral. I decided to use both fabrics for the bags. I made 12 bags with 1 yard of the green floral, a swatch of the pink scooter fabric, a little square of heat ‘n bond, and 1 spool of grey satin ribbon. I’m pretty proud that the grand total was under $9 for all 12 bags.

These take very basic sewing skills to make. And if you get an assemble line going, you can have them all made in just over an hour. I have lots of step by step pictures for you to follow.

Start by cutting out the rectangles for the bags. Using 1 yard of fabric and making 12 bags, you need to cut rectangles that are 6 1/2″ by 16″. This will give you finished bags that are about 6″ by 7″. Also iron on a piece of heat n’ bond to your accent fabric (mine is the scooters) and then cut out the shape that you want to adhere to the bag.

Fold the bag piece in half and iron on the scooter shape where you want it.

Fold the bag good sides together now and stitch down each side with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Now, fold down about 1/4″ of fabric around the top of the bag. Iron this flat.

Then, fold the top down again, this time just less then 1″. Iron it flat again.

Stitch down the top of the bag. I sewed mine 6/8″ seem allowance (I have that marking on my machine). Turn the bag right side out.

Now you are going to use a seam ripper to open a small bit of the seam so that you can thread the ribbon drawstring through.

Using a large safety pin, thread the ribbon through the opening and tie it off.

And really these are such great keepsake from parties. My kids use past birthday bags for all kinds of things. They store their favorite rocks in some and use them for toiletries when we travel. Do you have birthday traditions for your kid’s parties?