Now, let’s be honest, we all love those beautifully piped sugar cookies, but who in the world wants to pay $3 a cookie for them?!  I am here to tell you that while they do require ‘time’ to make them, they are not difficult!  BUT they are fun to decorate, and is a  wonderful family tradition to begin with your children! {Yes, children can do this too!}

Cookie classes have been a really popular event each year, with at times having nearly 100 cookie class requests! So this year, I’m getting prepared, early! With everyones schedules becoming incredibly full around November and December with holiday plans and cookie exchanges, this year I am starting classes early!

{Starting classes early}

I thought it would be fun to begin cookie classes this year in October! And because I always like to teach classes that are useful and relevant to the moment, classes will be geared toward the particular holiday or season we are entering! October will been Halloween or fall inspired, November will be Thanksgiving or fall inspired and December will be holiday inspired! This way, you can join a class which will allow you to use those cookies for a family gathering, event or school party – and your contribution will be all done, and amazing!

{What will we learn?}

Besides having lots of fun, you will learn basic piping and some additional advanced techniques for sugar cookies! Each guest (see notes for Mom & Me)  will be given 2 dozen cookies, with 4 designs, where you will learn to not only pipe, but also learn 3-dimensional piping, sanding & other techniques. This will allow me to instruct the entire group on 4 cookies, and allows guests the opportunity to practice what they’ve learned on the additional sets. This means that while everyone is practicing, I can help one-on-one with questions and fine-tuning!

{What is a class, and its cost?}

I teach all of my classes in a super fun, relaxed, social-gathering – kind -of- way! They can range from open classes in my space or they can be a private class of your friends, family or mom & me, at my space or yours! Each attendee will receive 2 dozen cookies, use of supplies, 2 hours of instruction & time to complete their cookies, as well as, a take-home recipe & instruction booklet. The cost of the class, per person, is $30.00 {see Mom & Me, below, for separate pricing}.

 {Mom & me classes}

Wondering where I’ve been?

Time sure has flown by, but i’m back in the swing of things!

As many of you know, we moved from Nevada to Chattanooga, TN! Aside from all the work involved in a big move, this move meant that after being in a year-round school system, my children actually had summer break for the first year ever!! While they had no idea what ‘summer break’ actually was, I was super excited to show them! Soo, after what seemed like 5 years of NEVER-ENDING SCHOOL, I decided to take the entire summer off to enjoy my children, travel to see family, enjoy endless hours of playing wii, late nights and do all those summer activities our children haven’t been afforded over the past 5 years!

So now that we are all settled in from our big move, and all 3 kids are now full-time back to school, I am officially back to work! I truly am excited to be back to work, but even more so, for the changes I announced back in the spring! I won’t delve into all those details again, so if you’re interested in the journey of Perfectly Posh being redefined and split into 2 businesses, you can read it here {my big plans}.

While Perfectly Posh will only be taking a  few custom cakes and sweets orders, we will be offering classes regularly. If you’re local to the greater Chattanooga & Northern Georgia areas, gather up your friends and family, host a playgroup, celebrate a birthday, holiday or shower! Our classes are so much fun!

Give us a jingle to schedule a private class, or sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know as we schedule open classes. We offer a variety of classes covering basics to advanced techniques, including:  how to frost a cake,  piping & filling cupcakes, crafting cupcake toppers, beautifully iced holiday cookies, and yes, even how to work with fondant! Perfectly Posh has a fresh new look since the spring, so visit us here {PerfectlyPosh Sweets & Soirees}!

And finally, if you’re interested in weddings as much as I am, please join me as I’ve just created my new separate wedding planning business here: Facebook {Olivia Grace Events} and it’s website {Olivia Grace Events}, it’s brand new, but I will begin tomorrow to blog on all the lovely details of weddings, as well as share the details of my clients weddings.

I am incredibly excited to be afforded the opportunity to follow my passions, and hope that you follow along with me!

So for those of you just getting to know me….. I LOVE PARTIES, no really, I LOVE PLANNING PARTIES. I will take any reason to have a gathering, and make an event out of it! Birthdays, game night, I even get excessive when putting together a garage sale…. you name it. I am a lucky lady, with 3 beautiful kiddos and many clients that I’ve been able to style parties for over the past, eeek, almost 11 years!  Between having 2 girls, a boy &  clients too, I get to create parties that run the gamut!

{Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr………..you ready to plan a party?}

So since I’m taking Perfectly Posh into the direction of teaching, I thought it would be fitting to blog my way through the creation of his party! While you may or may not be planning a “pirate party”, this series of posts will not only be fun to peruse, but also will give you ideas, know how and techniques to use in other themed parties!

So in this series, we’ll start with today’s post, where I’ll share all the ideas that I have collected as of this point, and try to nail down some plans! Then I’ll share subsequent posts about shopping, preparing props, how-to’s on cookie decorating, games, food & party layout, and then of course the full reveal of the party! This is one of those times, where I’m thanking my lucky stars for Pinterest. I mean, life couldn’t get any easier with pulling together a barrage of pirate party inspiration that I just love! What ever did we do before Pinterest? {The thought is just scary}

{brainstorming, and a little Pinterest how-to}

Anytime I plan a party it starts with pulling together a million ideas. I think this is my favorite part, just pouring over ideas and checking out what amazing moms & party experts have done in the past. Luckily for us, we have Pinterest. Just jump on there, type whatever your searching for, and voila, there you have it. Find images that inspire you, and save them to your own inspiration boards. In this case, you can access the Pinterest board that I’ve created and  fittingly named “Pirate party.. arrrrrrr!”  While Pinterest is an amazing resource for inspiration, don’t forget to search the web, crazy as it is, the entire world is not yet on Pinterest! So once you find some other amazing ideas, be sure to use your ‘pin it’ button {that you can get here), which will allow you to pin most other images found on the web, onto your inspiration boards, click, done. No more trying to find a page you’ve favorite’d, or saving tons of files to your computer. Now isn’t that wonderful? And not to mention, other lovely pinners will thank you for sharing it with the Pinterest community!

 

{pirate inspiration}

Ok, so did you check out the link I gave you for my pirate inspiration board on Pinterest? Aren’t the ideas amazing! I’ll be adding to them, and narrowing down the ideas as I go along, and then I will begin to turn ideas into my own concepts!

So after I pull together my inspiration board, I take a look and see what style I {my child, or clients} are drawn too, and try to decide upon the style. I believe that parties need to have an on-going style, whether its vintage, natural/rustic, simple, playful, cartoony/character related, etc., that is carried through the entire party. So, pick a style within your theme, and try your best to stick to it, the display/decor will look much more pulled together and cohesive.

In this particular case, with a pirate theme, I’m going with a natural – think Pirates of the Carribean feel.. without the characters.

With any party, I first look to see what items I already own, that I can can use, re-purpose or make/build — because no one wants to spend a fortune on a party!  I’ll be looking for details like a treasure chest, gold

coins, pirate dress-up items {etc.} to go with items I luckily already have: old wooden crates, burlap, fishnet, skulls from Halloween. These items will serve to style the party, as well as provide a backdrop for fun photo ops!

I’ll also be enlisting my husband in some projects to create props such as a one-dimensional table top shape that will look like a boat (looking for shape here to be covered by a tablecloth, not the actual boat!), and of course, someplace for those pirate flags to sail!! {I’m sure hubby will be glad that we’re not doing something elaborate, like building a concession stand like in years past, hee hee!}

So now that I’ve gathered my inspiration, and decided on the style, this week I’ll work on my to-do list! I’ve learned over the years, the more I can accomplish in advance (props, decor), the more I can enjoy myself the day of the party! Parties are intended to be fun and create memories, not a stressed-out momma!

{Tune in for more next week!}
{Image credits:   top 2 images found on Pinterest (original author unknown) & bottom image is from Pinterest, originating from www.LoraleeLewis.com , pirate invitations found on Notable Nest }

Ah, my 2nd blog post! Thanks so much to everyone that read the first post about my new journey! While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed making cakes & sweets over the past 3 1/2 years, I’m moving the business toward making less sweets, and teaching classes part-time instead. I love teaching, and this change allows me to being working full-time on my new wedding planning business, Olivia Grace Events!

Each week I’ll be sharing a post or two, to share recipes, and tips on how make pretty sweets, and yes, how to pull everything together for an affordable party! We all love a great party, but there’s no need to get crazy on the budget right?

I think we’ll start with sugar cookies!

They’re an endless canvas of creativity, and even better, these are one of those sweets you can make in advance of your event, and not be scrambling around doing them last minute! Who needs more stress? So let’s start with something super simple, the cookie itself! 

After trying many, many, many (you get the point) recipes for sugar cookies, I kept going back to good ole’ Martha Stewarts recipe for “Ideal Sugar Cookies“, it has great flavor and they’re soft, not like the usual suspects that are good for use as frisbees in order use up the leftovers. You know the ones. Ick.  BUT as much as I LOVE the flavor and texture, I made a little tweak. So, if you’re making sugar cookies to just whip on frosting or eat them straight from the oven, the recipe for Ideal Sugar Cookies is perfect, BUT if you’re looking to get fancy and decorate cookies, you’ll need to omit the leavening agent in the original recipe (see mine below), and voilà, they taste great, they’re still soft (read, no frisbees here!) AND they keep nearly a perfect shape!

Keep an eye out for next weeks post, which will teach you a fun way of decorating sugar cookies, that is not so intimidating…. and then we’ll move onto the world of piping cookies!

Best wishes!

Trish

Here is the recipe I use to make my decorative sugar cookies! I say, on the safe side, this makes about 12 good sized cookies.

Trish’s Sugar Cookie Recipe

(Slightly tweaked from the original, delicious Martha Stewart “Ideal Sugar Cookies”)

Ingredients

Eeek, my first blog post! I’m so excited and scared to pieces at the same time! I was pretty sure I was going to be the last person in the whole wide world who’d join the blogging world! What in the world did I have to write about? Who in the world would listen? Funny the things rumbling around in our brains, holding us back… that voice has been kicked to the curb. There is so much amazing, beautiful, quirky, loveliness to share!

But first, this week, it’s all about me. I’m spilling a few beans. Grab your sweet tea and sit down for a bit, this one is super wordy, because it’s really 2 blog posts in one, but that’s because their relative, and I’ve got lots of news to share! I promise, I’ll keep the next posts much shorter!

Um, no I’m not a risk taker……

Many of you saw pictures, comments & teases here and there about a business workshop I had the pleasure of attending on March 3,  in Nashville, TN through Amber Housley Inspired. To be honest, I was the biggest skeptic. I remember thinking this will be great, but am I really going to get my monies worth? Do I make the investment, there are lots of other things I’d really like to spend that kind of money on. I really struggled with this. While I was contemplating signing up for the workshop, I signed up for Amber Housley’s Inspired newsletter. I got this email from Amber entitled, “When was the last time you took a risk?”. Um, I don’t do that. Yep, exactly. That’s exactly why I decided to sign up. How was I ever going to build a successful business and move past being a “mom with a frosting spatula” (hee-hee, Sara Rose!), if I couldn’t take a risk. Done.