The Last Person to Join Facebook

Apparently, I'm the last person in the world to join Facebook. (Well, actually not....Kristi & Vicki aren't on it YET, until they read this post!) Since I blog for real estate and my TomKat Studio blog (and soon Project Nursery), I consider myself quite familiar with "social networking". Well, apparently I was NOT, until yesterday. Is it impressive if I have 60+ friends on my first day? Am I cool or is this normal? I found some old cheerleading photos on there, my childhood best friend in New York, long lost cousins, all sorts of random people. People are coming out of the wood work....and finding me! I have mixed feelings about people knowing where I am and what I'm doing at any given moment, but hey, does anyone really care?

This could get a bit interesting. I mean the photo option alone has me puzzled. What do I post? Homes? Kids? My creative projects? Mix it all together in one place? Mixing all my contacts together in one place? Interesting, but makes sense. So now I write about my blog on my facebook page, and I blog about facebook on my blog, and this all could get a little complicated. I guess I'll figure it out, but in the mean time I'm LOVING it! As if I'm not glued to my computer enough! My 3 year old will have to go to daddy's computer and "write on my wall" to get my attention!

CLICK HERE FOR MY FACEBOOK PAGE

Okay, gotta go join Flickr now. Next thing you know, I'll be on Twitter. Craziness!

Anyone on those yet?

"Ultra-Crafty Party Planner Extraordinaire!"

What a compliment! I'm jumping up and down with excitement! Melisa from Project Nursery has asked me to become a contributor for their fabulous blog! She has been following all my projects at TheTomKatStudio, and she has dubbed me their "Ultra-Crafty Party Planner Extraordinaire"! Why, thank you! I'm so excited for this opportunity!

In case you aren't familiar with Project Nursery, it is a really great blog on all things kids & baby, with a focus on decorating, including baby rooms and family-friendly living. It was the first "creative" blog that I started following, and is still one of my favorites. Since I started following it a few months ago, their hits have gone from 10,000/month to over 100,000/month!

They are always looking for fresh, fabulous nurseries to feature so my first quest is to find a few! Email me if you have a fabulous nursery (don't be shy!) or know someone who does!

{image via project nursery - kidsstuffworld.com}

Boutique: Chicky Bella Birthday Bash!

My favorite local baby/kid boutique, Chicky Bella is celebrating it's 2nd birthday tomorrow! They are offering great promotions, discounts and even giving away a coveted Petunia Pickle Bottom Touring Tote (as well as other prizes!) I'm happy that Lisa, the owner has kept the store up and running, when so many boutiques are going out of business! Congrats, Lisa!

Chicky Bella is located in the Gilbert Town Center, south of Warner, off Gilbert Road. They carry a great selection of baby, kids & maternity items! I just bought an adorable children's apron there for a birthday gift, and it was a hit!

You can also visit the Chicky Bella online store at http://www.chickybella.com/!

Cool Website: Pandora - Internet Radio

My husband told me to go to pandora.com and type in a music artist that I like. I typed in Natasha Bedingfield (my favorite song is "Angel" right now) and this amazing system then created an automatic playlist of artists/songs that I would like. If you don't like a song it plays, just select the "thumbs down" button and it will remove from the list and move to the next selection. If you love a song it plays, mark it with a "thumbs up" and it will factor that song into the mix. It constantly updates based on your preferences. You can read more about it on the site, but basically the guys at Pandora have analyzed the musical attributes of thousands of songs, therefore enabling them to provide customized playlists. And....it's FREE!

I have been listening to my first playlist while playing on the internet for two hours now, and I only nixed one song! I love it!

It's kind of fun to have great music going while you're blogging away! :)

Birthday Party: Our Little Cupcake!

Now that I am in party-planning mode again for my daughter's upcoming 2nd birthday, I thought it would be fun to write about her 1st birthday party, which was themed "Our Little Cupcake"...

I made the invitations with scrapbook paper and then inserted them into vellum envelopes so the address would show through. (I'm sure the post office loved it!) Her photo and the little heart on top of the cupcake "popped" off the invite, and I hand cut all of the pieces to create the cupcakes. I even put some glitter sprinkles on the cupcakes....but hey, it was my baby girl's first birthday, I had to go all out!

My mom made it her mission to make the perfect "big" cupcake for Kate's main cake. I had found a cupcake cake pan, but it was just too small, so my mom practiced several cakes, and ended up using a throw-away foil pan to create it! My mom took cake decorating classes when my brother & I were young, and I've always loved looking back at pictures of the amazing cakes she made us when we were kids. I've love to take a class one day, as well. We also made a variety of cupcakes in different sizes and flavors! I am a cake plate fanatic, so it was fun to pull them all out for one event!

My sister-in-law, Nicollette always gives my kids the poshest presents. A few weeks before the party, she told me that she had Kate's attire all taken care of for the party. Most people would say that I couldn't handle that with my OCD, because I have to handle every little detail. However, I completely trust her and I couldn't have asked for something better! I was more than estastic over the outfit! She bought her an aqua Kaiya Eve tutu (frills galore!), along with a custom bling tank made by Pouty Pants with a cupcake with Kate's name in it (look closely!) This outfit was incredible and too perfect for her cupcake day!

I made coordinating decorations with the same fonts/colors that I used for the invitations. I am lucky that her birthday follows Valentine's Day, and I found perfect cupcake plates, napkins and placemats at Target. Also from Target, the little pink satin purses for favors and the heart tablecloth. I filled the purses with lollipops, cupcake notes & the princess cell phones from the Disney store, and made custom name tags for each guest.

I also set up a cupcake decorating station for the kids to decorate their own cupcakes. It was a huge mess, but lots of fun!

This year's theme?!? LOLLIPOPS!! Send me your ideas!