I have found my new favorite shop and I get all giddy just thinking about it! If you haven’t been to InvenTori, you must go. The adorable vintage boutique is located in Sherman Oaks on Ventura Blvd. and is full of everything from cake plates and scented candles, to unique antiques and adorable children’s clothes. I am not even coming close to describing all the treasures you can find. They even have a section for pups! My assistant came home with THE cutest silhouette dog bed during our latest visit. Each time I go in, something new has found it’s place among the favorites.

At the beginning of the month, Intertwined and I had the pleasure of setting up a few tablescapes to bring some Halloween spirit to the store. I am a huge fan of Intertwined. Part of their “about us” section embodies exactly who they are and what I’ve seen them do is truly magical. “We strive to elevate the brilliance of your love through an exquisite event that showcases your style. Let us handle the planning, so you can enjoy the moment you ‘become intertwined.’” How perfect is that? You must check out their portfolio and stay in touch via their blog.

For the tablescapes, the goal was to utilize as much of the items sold in InvenTori as possible, giving shoppers ideas on how they can create their own gorgeous tablescape or Sweet Station. There are so many beautiful pieces to choose from!

Intertwined transformed the antique table into something straight out of a magazine. With place settings, folded napkins decanters, a natural runner and lavender sprigs to personalized menu’s by Cherish Paperie, every detail was well thought out. I definitely want to recreate this look at home. All the plates, goblets, medicine bottles…pretty much everything used in their setting was “picked” from various locations around the shop. It was fun seeing the girls flit about and see how creativity in motion.

I called upon The Polka Dot Pickle to create an adorable fabric pennant banner and some of the paper goods. She also helped with the covered embroidery hoops that we used as decor. I am in LOVE with this new shop and cannot wait until she’s back from her honeymoon to see what’s next. She can sew just about anything, is a crafting queen and is pretty much a creative genius. Aren’t the spiders hanging from the banner just the perfect touch? You can see it happily hanging over our cake from last year’s Love at First Bite dessert station.

For the candy station, we used cake stands, mixing bowls, a vintage scale to display the sweets. We wanted to include some gourmet candy items along with the traditional Halloween favorites. The table is full of everything from pumpkin spice malt balls, candy coated gumdrops and candy corn to sour candies, gummy frogs, pumpkin creme mellows and huckleberry taffy. We also have our Halloween Sweet Skewers in shop! To enjoy, simply ask for a favor box and you will be handed a black cat take away to fill with all the treats you want for only $7.

Now on to the giveaway!! If you have or are planning on stopping by InvenTori, do it before October 31st. Snap a picture of either display (we’d love to see you in front of it) and email it to info@sweetsindeed.com. We’ll post it on our Facebook page and enter you into a drawing to win a dozen of our Holiday Sweet Skewers. We have some fun Hannukah and Christmas ones coming out soon. We will announce the winner on October 31st!

Trick or Treat!!

I am a self professed Alice addict and I LOVE all things Alice in Wonderland and not just the Disney version, the original Lewis Carroll stories as well. When I was asked to design a sweets and treats station for an adorable 4 year old’s birthday, I was excited. When I learned it was Alice themed, I was ecstatic.

I started with one of our custom table tutu’s and had a pinafore made to look like Alice’s dress. Of course we had to hang lanterns over the top and 2 velvet chairs adorned the ends. Later, the birthday girl sat in the red one and blew out her candles.

I really wanted to create custom teacup cake stands so went on a hunt for the perfect pieces. You can find tons of white cups and plates at thrift stores, dollar stores and Home Goods. Use E-6000 glue to adhere the pieces together. It won’t foam up and after 24 hours, they’re pretty sturdy.

I did try painting them with all the approved and recommended porcelain and china paints but with them already being glazed, it was hard to get rid of the streaky look. I decided to adorn them using various stickers, ribbon and decorative scrapbook pieces. I loved how they turned out! You could use just about anything and make them match any color palette or theme! They quickly became focal points on the table.

The kids filled custom favor boxes with edible and non-edible treats. Of course you have to have “Eat me” cookies but I wanted them to look as similar to the ones that Alice ate as possible. I love how they turned out! We ordered the Mad Hatter Marshmallow pops from The Marshmallow Studio after seeing them at the HWTM launch party and thought they were adorable.  I also had to have hedgehogs so I called upon Vanilla Bake Shop to adorn their mini cupcakes with little critter and design french macarons as “painted red roses”. They did an amazing job on the cake as well! Photo props and tart shaped erasers went home with all the guests.

That’s enough about that…on to the photos!! I’ll be acquiring party pics from the photographer soon but in the meantime, here’s our set up photographed by The Pixel Studio.

I am so excited to share this post with you. We were honored to be a sponsor at the first annual Plush show at the Vibiana in Los Angeles this past weekend and it was so much fun! I knew from the first contact with Jina and her team that this was going to be like no other “baby” show. Just the name, Plush-The Posh Little Urbanites Show, says it all. Jina is a mom herself and is very up to date on all the latest trends, best baby gear and fabulous children’s products. Plush showcased the top vendors in the belly, baby and toddler industry and there were a slew of amazing products on hand for guests to purchase at fabulous discounted rates.

We met some amazing vendors, fans, and made lots of new friends. Check out Petit Nest, Project Nursery, Layla Grace, Fresh Chick Design Studio, Little Crown Interiors, Oopsy Daisy, The Pump Station, and the Plush blog for more posts on vendors who were there and photos from the event. I didn’t get a chance to photograph other set-ups but let me tell you, there were some adorable designs out there and some killer products!

We decided to use this opportunity to give a sneak peek into a whole new children’s line that we are launching. We have been working round the clock on our new online store and will be offering lots of Sweets Indeed originals to everyone! This Circus station is the first of what we like to call “Party Stations”. It is a candy buffet station with non-edible treats as well. The perfect balance of sweets and take-home treats.

We worked with a phenomenal illustrator, Sophie Hogarth, who came up with the original Circus characters. These characters and some fabulous fabric patterns became our inspiration. From popcorn boxes, lion tamers taffy, and pinwheel fabric favor boxes to clown noses and funny photo prop pieces, this table was a hit with parent and kids alike!

A special thank you to the following companies for helping to make our table and giveaway’s a success. My absolute favorite candy supplier,  Candy.com provided all the candy for the take-away boxes and table. They are truly your one stop shop for all things sweet and they’ll ship anywhere! Tom Clark Confections donated the delicious gourmet popcorn. You can purchase direct from their site.  Vanilla Bake Shop created the amazing cakes! I am always impressed with how they coordinate with our vision. My fav!

We will be offering complete party packages in our new online store so check back soon! For now, you can purchase individual items through our etsy shop.

We hope you enjoy the show!!

All photography by The Pixel Studio.

I have some new obsessions that I just couldn’t resist sharing. I recently worked with a team of amazing vendors on a special shoot for Ruffled and thanks to Sweet Emilia Jane, I am now addicted to two things: Pinterest, and tissue fringe. I have been using Adobe Illustrator to create idea/inspiration boards for years. It’s quite time consuming and I still end up printing pages and pages of photos to paste around the studio. Pinterest (as best described by the site itself) “is a virtual pinboard – a place where you can create collections of things you love and “follow” collections created by people with great taste.” It’s so simple to use as you can “pin” anything you like on the web and add it to any “board” you create. You can also “follow” other creative geniuses and see what’s cooking in their minds. Just be sure to find the original source before pinning. We always want to give proper credit.

I have started using Pinterest as a place to collect inspiration for future projects, feed my creative streak, and sit in awe at all the magical boards that other people are putting together. If you follow us at our Pinterest account HERE you may catch a glimpse at the inspiration behind some of the sweet concoctions that we are working on.

Pastels

Gypsy

Another new obsession I have is with…tissue fringe. Sweet Emilia Jane brought shades of tissue paper to a recent shoot and showed me how to put together a tissue fringe backdrop. It is so simple to do and makes THE perfect backdrop and decor for just about anything. I couldn’t find a tutorial online so I just may have to create one to share in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled for our shoot on Ruffled where you may catch a glimpse of the one we handcrafted in the photos! You can also buy tissue draping at several online stores. Just search for “tissue fringe drape”. Here’s some tissue fringe eye candy that I couldn’t resist sharing!

Tissue Garland via Shop Sweet Lulu

Fringe paper tissue bundles via Mykonos

Wish Cupcake Toppers via Little Pumpkin Papers

Adorable fringe lined emergency kit via Southern Girl Academy

Tissue Fringe Chandelier and decor via The Knotty Bride

Of course we had to show some Confetti System love!

Colors we put together for an upcoming event.

Happy creating!

I cannot believe it’s already almost MAY! Wow time flies. Mother’s Day is next weekend and we have an adorable box of sweet treats for all the mom’s out there. Not only does this make a great Mother’s Day gift, you can send it to any special lady in your life. Not just mom! You can find these treats and many others in our ETSY SHOP.

This gift set includes a dishwasher safe, handled mason jar mug filled with strawberry cream piccolo’s (strawberry licorice tubes stuffed with a sweet creme filling). We love packaging that can be re-used and re-purposed. Enjoy your favorite beverage, pot a plant, or keep trinkets in it! Tasty cinnamon roll taffy fills the decorated glassine bag and you will also receive 4oz. of our gourmet chocolate bark in custom packaging.

You may choose from the following chocolate bark options:
Milk Chocolate Pretzel
Milk Chocolate Oreo
White Chocolate Coconut Lime
Dark Chocolate Coffee w/Espresso
Almond Toffee

Your treats will come packaged in burlap with a gingham bow and we’ll even include a personalized note to your special someone. We only have 12 sets in stock so they are definitely a limited item.

We also have one of my personal favorites…Hammond’s Mini Ribbon Candy. This 6oz. bag of ribbon candy includes savory flavors like Bubble Gum, Cotton Candy, Very Berry, and Pineapple. Talk about eye candy! These look so cute displayed in a candy dish for all to enjoy.

Thank you for stopping by and Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing women out there.