MODERN MINION MADNESS

                           

We recently created the CUTEST party for actor Donald Faison and his beautiful wife CaCee Cobb’s son Rocco. Rocco LOVES Minions so it was MINION  MADNESS over here at the COOP. We really wanted to keep the design cool and modern so we went with navy and white runners (using easy and inexpensive wrapping paper) and yellow everywhere. We love using 14 inch balloon letters to get our theme across so we spelled “One in a Minion” in balloon letters and placed it on a yellow backdrop. As we were blowing the balloons one of the i’s popped so we improvised with a yellow honeycomb banana shape and it made it even cooler. The place settings were enhanced with fresh lemons and the modern Meri Meri plates made everything POP. Outside we used Minion balloons to set the scene with paper fans to add the decorative elements. Julie of Blue Cupcakes created the most AMAZING Minion cake and everyone went crazy over it. All the little Minions went home with their very own Minion friend and some cool Minion googles”.

HARRY POTTER Magic....

The COOP chicks are so blessed to have wonderful customers that allow us into their GORGOUS homes year after year to help them host fabulous soirees.  How can you not have a gorgeous party with this spectacular yard! Seriously?  This is one of our favorite clients – and honestly – this space makes it pretty easy for us to bring on the gorgeous-ness!  Our lovely birthday girl was turning 7… and wanted to celebrate withah HARRY POTTER party.  We were thrilled to accommodate – and love how it all turned out.

We went with gold, black and white as the main color scheme.  I hand painted geometric table cloths – which I LOVE and we made the ribbon backdrops and chair backers – mom loves how they blow in the breeze… and we agree!  We also did the birthday girls name in big gold balloons along the hedge – which looked pretty magical.  We stuck with our modern take on kids parties with the goodie bags and chose to do a very simple silhouette of Harry with a glittered (of course) birthmark.  I love how they turned out.

For the table – we wanted a WOW factor – we have used dry ice in drinks before and considered this as an option here – but decided we’d get more bang for our buck to use it in the cauldrons on the tables.  Spooky Sorcerers brew times two! Next to each caldron was a pile of spell books that we made and some flowers and succulent plantings in pots painted to match the table runners.  Each table setting had some Harry Potter specs with a candied black marshmallow with the potter mark lightning bolt sticking out the top.  So awesome and a great 3D effect on the plate!

My personal favorite crafted goodie was the “Snitch Sips” – we completely covered a small stryo ball in gold glitter, stuck some feathers in either side – and voila!  The absolute PERFECT snitch straw topper to place in the glittered bottles on the table – and on the food table in the actual drinking cups as well!

At the food table the mini cauldrons filled with a dollop of ranch dressing and carrots and celery were a healthy and fun snack… to go with the fabulous food provided by Heirloom LA- which always does a beautiful job.  Speaking of beautiful – the flowers were gorgeous too!  We wanted something dark and moody and were thrilled to find the dark hydrangeas and blood red coxcomb at the farmers market to complete our vision.

Zebra Entertainment provided us with “Dancer” the Barn Owl and “Hootie” the Great Horned Owl  and a wonderful docent who told the kids all about the gorgeous magical creatures.  We also had an amazing spell session with Harry Potter and  Draco Malfoy courtesy of Action Events.  The AMAZING Snitch Cake and magical cupcakes were provided by Julie at Blue Cupcake, as always and Bebe Jacobs captured all the magic on film.  It was an all around  gorgeous, magical experience!

MODERN RODEO

Anytime I can find a way to incorporate my golden horned bull skull into a COOP party -- I am excited!!!  This party we designed and created for one of our favorite COOP clients.  She actually had the very FIRST party at the COOP - before we even officially opened 7 years ago an has kept partying with us every year since!  We love our sweet Gracie girl!  This year Grace wanted a wild Rodeo party (mostly because she wanted a mechanical bull for everyone to ride... which we happily obliged!  SOOOOO Fun!!) WE started thinking we would go the traditional bandana and hay bale route -- but the COOP chicks don't like to do anything the traditional way!!  WE asked Grace if we could do our spin on it and make it a MODREN Rodeo -- and she agreed!  We LOVE how it turned out!  WE stuck with a very cool black, gold and white color scheme and worked from there. I hand painted the geometric table runners and pennant banners and made that gorgeous white and gold ribbon curtain (that we have used at least a 100 times since because it is so gorgeous!!) WE hung the Bull Skull on the window so he was peeking through the gorgeous curtain.  LOVED IT!  We went with fabrics tote bags -- per the Bday girls request an hand stenciled and glittered them with the bull image. I also did a lot of cactus painting on foam core and placed them around for good measure.  I LOVE them as well.  Julie from Blue Cupcake did the amazing and delicious cupcakes that matched perfectly -- as always.  Sometimes I feel like we share a brain! WE got the stress squeeze bulls and glittered their horns for plate display -- and also hand painted pots to hold some gorgeous succulents. I just love when we have a client who lets us do our thing.  It's much more fun for us -- and I think the result is always a million times better when we let our creative juices run wild!!  Hope you enjoy the pics!!!

SUCH a PRETTY PRINCESS SOIREE...

We had SO much FUN putting together this gorgeous Princess party for the divine little Princess Charlotte! Everything was PINK/PINK/PINK and Julie of Blue Cupcake created the most beautiful Cake to top it off and of course her cupcakes were incredible (I mean cushioned delightfulness). The Princess Party is one of our most popular parties at the COOP.  This one is a Whole COOP and Caboodle package -- so it has all the extra bits (ribbon curtain , fresh flowers, big balloons, cupcakes, adult food, fruit platter, etc) but the theme version is just as gorgeous!  We love it to be SUPER PINK and frilly an fabulous - and have always had VERY happy little Princesses when they see the gorgeousness!  Call us to book your gorgeous Princess Soiree today!!

MAGICAL MERMAID SOIREE

We have a fantastic client who lives on top of the world here in Los Angeles.  Her yard is so exquisite — there really is not much you need to do to make it spectacular — but we manage to add a little sparkle every year!  The other thing about this wonderful client is she always calls us the week before the party — her hubby has a difficult schedule to pin down so they basically operate a week out!  Which always adds a wee bit of panic to the prep!!  This year her daughter wanted a Mermaid Soiree…  and we were thrilled to help create a magical Mermaid party for her. Mom wanted it to be very muted and simple and gorgeous — very French is how she described it.  She doesn’t like bright colors or anything overpowering — just wanted something ethereal and light and gorgeous.  I love a sophisticated take on a kids party — so I was thrilled at her decision/ direction.  I decided on a primarily white and silver color scheme — with bits of lavender and pale french pink for a little splash of color.  I had seen these gorgeous white Mermaid vases at Home Goods the week before and couldn’t believe my luck when I went back and BOTH were still available!  The party was during peony season so I knew those vases filled with white peonies would be a spectacular simple elegant centerpiece.  I wanted a bit more wow — of course — and decided I’d create a “bubble” runner surrounding the mermaid out of various sized honeycomb tissue balls.  I LOVE how it turned out — to me it looks like she is crashing out of the ocean on top of a cresting/ white cap wave.  I wanted the individual table settings to sparkle as well — so I used silver glitter dipped glass milk bottles with alternating  tinsel or “bubble” topped straws, glitter dipped forks, wavy edged silver and pearl colored plates topped with pearl and shell necklaces.  The crowns at each place settings I hand made as well — and loved how they turned out.  I used the stiff felt pieces from my local craft store cut them into a crown shape — sprayed them with adhesive and covered them with white glitter for EXTRA sparkle.  Then I hot glued different starfish and shells on each - so each was a beautiful special unique creations the kiddos could wear and take home after the party!  I added silver and white and lavender ribbons to the backs of all the chairs and the 2 giant Birthday Balloon bubbles at the head of each table as well.  The food set up was simple and elegant — I loved how my drink containers looks like fish scales!!  Heirloom LA did the catering — and their presentation is always SO gorgeous.  I did a hand painted HAPPY BIRTHDAY on a foam roll — cut out and stuck on the window surrounded by silver, white, pink and purple paper tissue fans as the backdrop here — for more of the bubble effect.   The treat table centerpiece was the gorgeous naked cake by Julie at Blue Cupcake which I festooned with flowers to match the flowers in all the vases I provided.  Simply gorgeous - and insanely delicious, as always!  I hand made a creme burlap banner that read “Leticia’s Lagoon” and hung it above the treat table, and flanked the yummy goodies with glittered mermaid goodie bags — that held a glittering Mermaid Tail and a hand made mermaid wand to match the custom made crowns for all the mini mermaids to take home (Boy got Pirate booty!!) .  I also brought my hand painted teepee from home and added some fringe and sparkle to that to create a lovely little mermaid hideaway for anyone who was NOT swimming in the pool with the REAL LIVE MERMAID.  She was SUCH a treat for the kids — they loved her and it added such a magical element to the afternoon!  All and all it was such a gorgeous party — the guests were all thrilled, and mom has already told us she’ll give us a week notice when the next birthday rolls around this fall!  Thanks to Greg Fiore for the fab photos!!!

RAINBOW UNICORN

This Party ended up looking SO Fabulous -- I just had to share!!  I am so so in love with the main table... I just love it!  I hand painted a watercolor table runner for this one and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  I am not actually much of a watercolor artist -- so I was pleased that it turned out as I imagined it (believe me -- that is not always the case with my creative projects!!) I am all about a show stopping centerpiece at the COOP - and I think this is one of my favorites ever.  I had made this ribbon garland for the Magicland party last year and have always LOVED the bold bright colors -- so I decided to repurpose it into a rainbow.  Always flying by the seat of my pants -- I initially thought I'd use dowels to hold it up -- but the top was too heavy and it wouldn't hold an arch... so I decided I'd attach it to a hula hoop.  When I was at the 99 cent store to get the hula hoop -- my eye landed on a POOL NOODLE and I KNEW that was the best option.  I zip tied that gorgeous ribbon garland up an down the pool noodle and then stuck dowels into the end holes and "planted" the dowels in white vases.  I can't believe how much I love how it looked!!  I am also super crazy about the rainbow unicorn vases -- in front of the beautiful cupcakes by Blue Cupcake.  I found these cheap sort of ugly putty colored horse head vases and spray painted them glossy white.  I made unicorn horns out of a beautiful gold paper and glued them to the horse heads, added a beautiful array of colorful flowers for the mane and voila!!  2 Rainbow Unicorns were born!!  I used pillow fill for the clouds, made a variety of rainbow unicorn images for each place setting (and the front of the goodie bags as well)  and the table was done!  So so beautiful.  I used the ribbon backdrop I made for magicl
and party as well on the back wall... and then simply glittered the small wooden letters gold for a simple pretty birthday banner.  This was a magical magical party and I hope you enjoy the photos!!!