Ben's Wild Rumpus

I'm so happy to share this first birthday party with you. This is my first full party production as Jackie Culmer Photography and Design! Ben's mom, Judy, chose my full party package which included design and consulting on concept, invitation, custom party signs and tags, decor and styling, shooting the event, and finally, a mini share site of the party's slideshow, and album design. When Judy first met with me for her consultation, she wasn't sure what sort of theme she wanted; she just knew she wanted it to be fresh, unique, and modern. I came up with the idea to center the theme around the classic children's book, and now movie, Where the Wild Things Are.

The decor took cues from the movie with natural wood elements, moss, and twigs. We didn't want it to look too wintery as this should be a fun occasion in the spring, so I chose to pop in yellow as a throwback to the monsters' yellow eyes in the book. This turned out to be a perfect fit for the venue, The Little Prince Kid's Cafe, which had multi colored wood floors and nice, bright white walls and furniture. The cake table I styled served as the main focal point for the party. The cake was created using the invitation I designed for Judy, and elevated on a "tree stump" riser to bring in more of the woodsy feel.

I incorporated a few sayings from the book and movie to create custom signs to display around the event, including "We'll eat you up, we love you so!" around the cookie favors and buffet table, and a custom buffet menu that had the quote, "...from far away across the world he smelled good things to eat." On the invitation, we used "Let the Wild Rumpus Start" on the front, and "he sailed off through night in day in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are" on the back which included directions to the venue.

As part of Korean tradition, Ben was given five different objects to choose from (a stethoscope, microphone, money, golf ball, and book) to predict his future. I created a sign incorporating a phrase from the movie and tags to customize this special event. Guests were given a raffle ticket and invited to place their ticket in whichever jar/object Ben might choose. Ben chose the golf ball (which I'm sure made his father VERY happy!) and a winner was chosen from the corresponding jar to receive a copy of Where the Wild Things Are and two plush dolls.

It was a fun day full of loving family and friends. I was honored to be a part of it! Happy Birthday Ben! If you are interested in the party package or just photography for your small event, please contact me at jackie@jackieculmer.com or visit http://www.jackieculmer.com/.

Happy (Vietnamese) New Year!

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of the Vietnamese and Chinese New Year. It's the year of the cat if you're Vietnamese and rabbit if you're Chinese. I have no idea what that means for me, but I'm excited to celebrate with all the food and festivities. We have much to celebrate as our newest addition, Baby Kate, turns one month old tomorrow! My mother will be coming over today with some Vietnamese dishes that are traditionally eaten during this time. We'll also be taking Marisa to check out the Tet Parade and Festival in Little Saigon to hopefully catch a dragon dance and some fireworks.

It gets pretty crazy in Little Saigon around this time (think Disneyland at the height of summer + Asian drivers = chaos) but the flower market is full of beautiful yellow forsythia bundles, pink blossoms, exotic fruits, food, and lots of fun little toys for the kids. Here are some spots to check out if you dare to put up with the traffic down there...

The flower market on Bolsa between Magnolia/Brookhurst

2011 Tet Parade, http://www.westminster-ca.gov/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=438&targetid=1

The Tet Festival at Garden Grove Park, http://tetfestival.org/

Gifts for Teacher

Just a quick post today, I've been so behind from battling a lingering cough and trying to keep up with Christmas. Today is Marisa's last day of school before Winter Break. This is her first year of preschool, so it's my first year to come up with gifts for her teachers. I JUST finished putting them together and thought I'd share before I go deliver them!

I bought the red mini baking dishes at TPT Home for just $2.99 each and filled them with chocolate rum balls (I figured the teachers could use a little rum after chasing all those 2-3 year olds!) and chocolate chip gingerbread cookies. I wrapped each dish in cellophane and tied them on the ends with bakers twine from Sur La Table. I finished each off with a red ribbon and tag.

To make the tags, I sprayed some mounting adhesive to some wrapping paper, stuck it to some card stock to make it stronger, and used a 2 inch hole punch. I was going to fill the center with a smaller scalloped card stock punch to either put the teacher's name or write "Jingle Bell Bites" (because who wants to write balls on a cute tag?), but in the end I decided it was cute enough as is and that I would include my Holiday card with a note to each to each teacher to thank them.

The ladies in the administration office are receiving a small bucket of homemade biscotti with walnuts, chocolate, and candied ginger. All of the recipes I used can be found on MarthaStewart.com. The recipes are very easy to make and follow, but I found I wished I'd doubled or tripled each recipe. When you're giving them away as gifts and filling containers, they go quick! And of course, you've gotta save some for yourself to enjoy. Also note the chocolate gingerbread recipe is time consuming because you have to chill it for two hours and once you've scooped out the dough, it needs to go back in the fridge for 20 minutes to make sure it's cold, so plan ahead and make room!

What are you gifting to your teachers this year?

Orange County Family Photography - Holiday Mini Session

I've known Amy and Nate for a while, but I never had the pleasure of meeting their little cutie. I think the last time I saw these two, we were in a bar and none of us had kids. How time flies. Now I'm pregnant with my second child, and so is Amy - congrats! Thank you for letting me capture your beautiful family for your holiday card this year!

Decking the Halls

Marisa and I have been reading Fancy Nancy's Splendiferous Christmas since Thanksgiving. She was more than ready to go pick out our tree and help decorate it this past weekend. This was the first year she could really participate, so I was excited to document it with my camera. We get our tree from Armstrong's Nursery. Not as fun as the hay rides in the Christmas tree farm complete with petting zoo and hot cocoa like I had as a kid growing up in Texas, but I always feel confident we're getting good quality trees that will last until the New Year. Here's Marisa picking out our tree and getting excited as Daddy brings it into the house...

Grandpa stopped by to help decorate as well. They were so cute doing it together, I was able to refrain from dictating exactly where each ornament needed to go! (Okay, I admit, after she went to bed, I might have rearranged a few.) We completed the tree the next morning. I saved the tree topper for Marisa because it's a huge part of the Fancy Nancy Christmas story.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Post Thanksgiving Catch Up

Hello Readers! Christmas season is in full swing at our house, and I never even had a chance to reflect on Thanksgiving. Here are few snapshots I quickly took before we sat down to dinner.

For a Christmas table setting, change out the gold pumpkin placecard holders for some ornaments or spray paint some pinecones gold. And always invest in candles, especially tealights and tealight holders! Candles are a great, inexpensive way to create atmostphere.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it on here, but I happen to be 8 months pregnant. After Thanksgiving, I don't know if it was the tryptophan in the turkey, or my growing baby, or just the fact that I cooked for two days and had to clean up Thanksgiving without a dishwasher, but I couldn't keep my eyes open for days. Somehow, that didn't seem to stop me from getting caught up in the black Friday/weekend sales. I went to Williams-Sonoma and picked this up for myself...



All-Clad d5 Stainless Steel Sauté/Simmer Pan, 4-Qt

This baby is now on sale for $129.95, which is half off! I used it to make fried stuffing balls with my leftovers and know it will come in handy in all kinds of situations. This week also, all cookware (excluding what I just bought, of course) at Williams-Sonoma is 20% off with the code WSCOOK20, so go check it out!

Orange County Family Photography: Holiday Mini Session

This is going to be a big post, sorry! I just couldn't help myself, I loved so many things about this shoot and had to share. I loved the purple and yellow colors, the special silver Tiffany's bubble session, and all the love Mommy and Daddy have for little miss B.