PINKALICIOUS

AS promised... some GREAT photos of our recent Pinkalicious Party courtesy of our fabulous photographer Greg Fiore (gregfiore.net). I posted a few of the photos earlier -- but here you can see why it's always better to have a PRO shoot your party! Greg's photos are so wonderful. Pinkalicious is one of our most popular parties for the little COOP chickadees. All the girlie girls love the over the top explosion of pink! Pink wigs, pink boas, pink tiaras.... so fun and just gorgeous. This particular party was kind of a COOP and CABOODLE in that we really did all the extras -- the big birthday balloons, the gorgeous fresh flowers, fruit platters, adult pizza... and blue cupcake did the fabulous cake. The party turned out beautifully -- and the birthday girl was thrilled! She's a regular COOP kid -- so we knew she's have fun... but even she was impressed with just how gorgeous and PINK the party was.

CONSTRUCTION COOP and CABOODLE

Here are some pics form a recent CONSTRUCTION themed COOP and CABOODLE party. The WHOLE COOP and CABOODLE package is our totally full service package -- where we handle everything (including adult food and cake) -- and you get all the "extras"... fresh flowers, face painter, big birthday balloons, etc. It's our most full service an fabulous party... and we can do just about any theme you or your little one can think up! In this case... the birthday boy was super into Construction trucks so we went with that as our theme. Our major colors were black, yellow and orange -- which of course match our COOP colors just perfectly! Guests were greeted by two enormous birthday balloons anchored with construction cones (we had some outside as well -- I loved how they looked!) In the main room, I did "road" table runners -- and on the outside food table I simply uses strips of yellow duck tape on black tablecloths for a "road" effect. The main table had the cupcake tower from the amazing Julie (blue cupcakes.com), which is always gorgeous and a big hit.... as well as some beautiful flower arrangements in yellows and green and white. The gifts were out on the table when the guests arrive -- ad we bagged them up before cake time for everyone to take home. The gifts were fabulous -- and the mom was sooooo impressed. She said several times "Your gift bags are amaaaaazing!". That always makes me happy. For this party -- all the kids got an adorable construction vest, a construction cone sippy cup, a construction hat and a pull back construction vehicle. Quite a score for the partygoers!! The kids were crazy about them -- and they looked so adorable in their vests and hats. I also used some actual construction trucks in the decor -- which the birthday boy loved! Another super cute addition (and I don't have pics unfortunately) -- was these small construction hats that were used as snack cups... filled with goldfish. So cute. All in all -- another GREAT party at the COOP!

Our very own COOP Pony...

How much do you LOVE this child sized reinvention of the Eero Aarnio Pony Chair? The Giddy Up kids chair is just DIVINE and is perfectly at home at the COOL ole COOP! Come play with ours or get your very own from wwwlittlenest.com.

A touch of paint..

BEFORE ABOVE - AFTER BELOW

Over the Thanksgiving break the COOP closed for two days to celebrate...but while everyone was busy enjoying their turkey I got busy at the COOP! When Juliet and I were in the construction process at the COOP circa September 2008 we knew we had to do something cool and unexpected on the main wall behind the counter. We both searched for ideas and had all sorts of good ones but nothing felt quite right. One day while flipping through my former favorite magazine (former only because they discontinued it!) DOMINO, I came upon a tiny picture from the 60's of a gorgeous bohemian socialite in an apartment with this super-cool graphic on the wall behind her. I showed it to Juliet and we both agreed that it was EXACTLY what we wanted so we got busy creating our very own COOP version. We had my husband Todd do the very precise taping and I remember giving him such a hard time because it took SO long and then our friend Megan painted it.
Recently the T.V. show "PRIME SUSPECT" shot at the COOP, and they wanted to put a plastic cover around the base of the counter that matched the wall - we said sure and then liked it so much we left it. So it was over Thanksgiving that I decided to improve upon their plastic version myself, and after six hours of taping - before I even started to paint I sure was wishing my husband was there! But the proof of my labor is in the pudding, or I should say WALL!

ANGRY BIRDS...

We did our very first Angry Birds party just a few weeks ago and it was FABULOUS!! The mom on this one was an absolute dreamboat - loved all my ideas and was happy to let me run with them. I decided that the space needed firstly to be super colorful so I went with the red polka dot table on the main table and happy tulips. I stuffed a bunch of Angry Bird toys in the glass cylinders and it gave a really COOL effect. I ordered a fantastic banner from Etsy (how much do we LOVE that site) and I also did two of the very special ginormous balloons. Julie from Blue Cupcakes took care of the DIVINE cakes and she even bought along our very own flying eagle. All the lucky little Angry Bird lovers went home with their very own stuffed toy, a slingshot (of course) a colorful boa a button and some additional Angry Bird lovelies from mom. I can't wait to score more top points with the next one!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How incredible is it that it is already 2012! 2011 was a fantastic year for the COOP and for Juliet and I but I know that 2012 is going to be even better for us all. Over the holiday break I decided to host a party of my own - my husband and kids are so used to seeing me scurrying around and staying up very, very late to arrange other peoples parties that it was with great joy that they saw me do it for them! I decided that no Christmas Eve party would be right without a little snow - even in Los Angeles, so I set about finding the perfect (fake) snow. I wanted it to feel and smell like the real deal and I found it in a company called SNO WONDER (www.sno-wonder.com). It was super easy to make - just add water and voila, snow in Los Angeles. I wanted my dining room to be like a winter wonderland too so I added the snow there. I had beautiful glitter candles and my dear friend (who also happens to be my business partner) lent me her beautiful crystal Christmas tree's. I added beautiful white flowers in tiny crystal vases and the effect was pure magic. Outside I put pockets of snow along the bushes along the deck and two of the super large balloons it was FABULOUS! I even had our beautiful COOP employee Lindsay help me make sure everyone had a lollipop champagne cocktail and she dressed the part too.
A very, very happy and prosperous New Year to you and yours from the COOP and ours x