Hostess with the Mostess™

Thanks so much to everyone that entered the Divine and Branch Surprise Giveaway !

And the lucky winner of this super cute personalized prize package is:
Stephanie , who said, "I do believe that my pup will love the personalized dish! She is very diva! ;-)"

We hope your pup loves the dish too, Stephanie! Congrats!

Can you believe this artsy bird-themed creation was actually carved from fruits and veggies?! Genius! The festive arrangement served as table decor for one of the food stations at the super stylish, Asian-themed wedding of Lisa Ling and Paul Song. From Lisa’s gorgeous red wedding dress to the fact that her invitations read – “If you’re cool, you’ll dress Asian chic.” – this wedding was anything but typical! Check out more images in her celebrity wedding gallery on InStyleWeddings.com.

{photography by Eric Lamph}

Happy Monday! Thought we’d start the week off right with a fun giveaway from super-cute stationery boutique: Charming Cards ! Charming Cards is based out of Newport Beach and offers both online and walk-in customers a wide variety of personalized stationery and gift items from fabulous lines like Macbeth and Snow and Graham - all of which are hand picked each year at the ultra-popular New York Stationery Show.

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The presentation of these Fruit-n-Fluff Pops is so creative - and something you could easily pull off at your own parties! Even if you don’t want to get quite as fancy with the recipe as this one (sugarcoated frozen apricot Bavarian cream with velvety marshmallows Will Goldfarb ), you can easily incorporate this idea with your own favorite treats. (Bakerella’s bite-sized cake pops would be adorable!)

More tempting ideas from the Brides.com Sugarland gallery…

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I’m loving the offbeat shapes of this Wilma stoneware from cb2 - especially when the different pieces are stacked on top of each other, which makes for a great presentation. Orange and grey is actually a very nice color combo, so the 2 versions would look great mixed as well. A tabletop set with alternating place settings of orange salad plates on grey dinner plates and vice versa sounds especially chic! ($1.95 - $5.95 per piece at cb2 )

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Is it just me, or are these letterpress Funky Monkey baby announcements from Elum just about as cute as it gets?! Available in boy and girl versions.

If you’re on the lookout for some first birthday party ideas, here’s an article I recently did for TheCradle.com featuring 3 theme ideas and general tips for first birthday celebrations. Hopefully this will provide you with some inspiration! {Modern Tyke theme pictured here}

As most of you probably know, hosting a party - no matter how small or large - can easily get a bit pricey, but there are actually a lot of things you can do to keep the credit card bill from getting out of control without skimping on style, thank goodness!

For example, in the image above we used apple green gift wrap to create the table topper, paper napkins folded into pretty 4-pt squares for a dressier look, and faux orchid blooms pulled from reasonably priced stems purchased at Target. (Click here for more info on this Love in Paradise party theme.)

For lots more tips on how to entertaining on a budget, click here.

It can be difficult to pull of a hip & modern version of an animated character. Usually you’re limited to pre-made paper party supplies, but both of these ladies did a great job at creating Elmo-themed parties for little ones that are both age-appropriate, but packed with some serious style!

First up is a super-cute Elmo party from Jenn of justJENN designs :

Seriously, how adorable and creative are these cupcakes?! Click here for step-by-step details on how to recreate them, and for more details on the entire party, including an impressive soft-serve ice-cream bar, check out the post on Jenn’s blog or her flickr gallery .

Next is this adorable "Elmo Chic " birthday party that Courtney of Nesting-Instincts threw for her daughter’s 3rd birthday:

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Thanks so much to everyone that participated in the Loft Party Giveaway! 395 comments…so happy to see you guys loved the plates as much as we do! And the lucky winner is… Vanessa Cavaco, who said: “My four year old bouncing baby boy would love the robot plates…and maybe he would eat more too…”

Congrat’s Vanessa! Please send your shipping to info [at] hwtm [dot] com with “I’m a Winner!” in the subject line