A little bit of us on Earth Day!

Earth Day is celebrated today  April 22nd to increase awareness of the Earth’s environment. It’s a great day to teach kids about recycling and saving energy.

Also wanted to share our  little vacation at the beach. 

We were talking about how we forgot to thank God for the blessings we have.


 We had the chance to just go for a walk along Cocoa Beach. It was so relaxing and awesome! I feel these little moments are such a treasure and I love to keep this memories with my family. There’s something about nature that is so incredibly soothing. 

Have you ever been up early enough where you experience the first moment when the sun comes out? 

It is powerful! All of a sudden, it is as if the lights are turned on. It goes from extremely dark, practically pitch black, to light. The air is so crisp and fresh in the morning. 

 It’s amazing! You should try it some time.

Happy Sunday

Pollen and Allergies

I don't know about you all but here in Florida we are covered in a nice thick blanket of pollen. It's a light yellow wonderland that wreaks havoc on allergies, car washes, and everything else outside.

Canopy roads and oak trees for days. Beautiful. Amazing. Lovely to look at. And in the month of March, everything here in sight is covered with yellow oak tree pollen. :)

I don't know about your city but I do think that most of the city's are landscaping sexist? Most North American cities plant male bushes, trees and plants than their female counterparts because they don't bear fruit or make seeds that drop on the ground the way female trees do. The downside? They create a pollen-saturated environment, which creates havoc for allergy sufferers.

As people with pollen allergies  already know, botanical sexism is alive and growing.

I don't know how much things would change if we change the way we plant trees. But I think I will be out of my home for a few weeks just waiting for the right time to comeback.

The only thing that I plan to do it's take my cats with me and close my house, put my awesome  ADT KEVIN alarm system, I really love it...  and then  I am ready to go.

See you (when I come back)

Credits
1 markhargrovephotography©

Sweet Ballerina Party

My niece, Isabella, has a love for ballerinas. When I was shopping at the mall , I found some fun things that I can use for her birthday, the gasp she took help Marly, her mother, to decide the theme of her 6th birthday - a sweet ballerina party. Isabella's request: simple, LOTS of pink and whimsy.



We decided to to keep the party design simple and the budget small.  I used alot of what I already owned  for styling. 

The party  was held at the clubhouse pool. All the decorations has handmade tutus and we used a lot of pink!! 

The sweets are understandably always one of my favorite aspects of any party and the dessert table matched back to the entire theme. 
The birthday party started out with some mini desserts and lot of delicious cookies that his mother made also cupcakes and  other mini desserts. We served water, juices and lemonade  to drink. 

Isabella's had a very absolutely delicious cake made by a pastry chef. It was black cherry and  hazelnut filling and was  oh, so delicious. 

Each kid received a favor bag and some tutus candies.

Isabella  wore a beautiful outfit and her gorgeous headband was ordered by her mother and was made specially for her. The headband is as beautiful in person too!

The decor:
Pink was the obvious choice for a ballerina party, 
Another beautiful touch was a ballerina in a swing.

 I have a thing for swings and I found this ballerina in 
pink and I wanted to incorporate that in the party.


Pink Tutu Cupcake Tower –  how fun was to dress everything with it’s own tutu

Every detail of the party was carefully designed, and her beautiful photos speak a thousand 
words.

We love how tulle is used throughout the event design, softly emphasizing the ballet theme.

The lovely birthday girl and my daughter:

A sweet birthday cake! 

The invitations:

My favorite party moment was watching her blow out her birthday candles. 

Love you Isa








xox

Raw Carrot Cake {Gluten Free Recipe}

Today I was planning my easter brunch and I was thinking to make one of my favorite cake ever:

 Carrot Cake… 

But I wanted to make something gluten free…. and  I found this recipe from Urbanposer and I think I just need it to share.

RAW Carrot Cake Balls (Dipped in RAW chocolate)

Ingredients:

2 Large carrots, peeled (about 1/2 a pound)

1 large tart apple, peeled and cored

1 1/4 cups dried shredded coconut 

1/2 cup chopped up raisins

3/4 cups finely chopped (with a few larger chunks) pecans or walnuts

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger (or fresh grated ginger to taste)

1/4 tsp nutmeg

pinch of salt

3 Tbls RAW honey

3 Tbls RAW nut butter (almond, pecan, walnut, cashew)

Juice from half a lime

Raw cocoa nibs for decoration

1/4 cup coconut oil

2 Tbls  raw honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

7 Tbls of raw cocoa (add another half Tbls for making a drizzle)

Directions:

Finely grate the carrots and apple. Then press out as much juice as possible by using a fine sieve or strainer. Alternately, you can use a nut milk bag or cheese cloth to squeeze out the juice. Originally, I used my juicer for this recipe and they turned out great. However, I have found that there is MUCH more flavor to the cake ball when I make the pulp by hand.

Add the rest of the ingredients, except the cocoa nibs to the carrot/apple pulp. Mix well.

Roll the dough into balls (about 1 Tbls worth of dough)

Chill the cake balls in the freezer for about 30 min.

While the cake balls are chilling prepare the chocolate...

Start with room temperature unrefined coconut oil (it's liquid point is around 76 degrees).  In a small bowl, combine the liquefied coconut oil, vanilla, honey and cocoa. Whisk together until the chocolate is well combined, with no lumps. I like to let the chocolate rest for about 15 min or so to let the cocoa absorb well into the oil. Depending on the size of your cake balls and the amount you end up with in the end, you may need to double the dipping chocolate recipe. This amount is usually enough for about one dozen 2 inch round cake balls. Be sure to let the excess drip off before removing from the skewer.

Using a wood skewer or dipping fork, dip the frozen cake balls into the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to harden while you hold the stick (it will harden pretty fast), sprinkle a few cocoa nibs or nuts on the top of the cake ball before the top hardens.

Tip: it's common for the chocolate to crack slightly as it hardens. This can be reduced if you leave some space at the bottom of the cake ball without chocolate. That is often where the crack starts. However, if a crack does happen, it is VERY easy to cover it up when you drizzle the chocolate over it later. So don't stress out about that. Can't have chocolate? Don't worry. Just roll the cakes balls in shredded dried coconut or crushed nuts before chilling them.

For the chocolate drizzle, make the same chocolate recipe as above, but add 1/2-1 Tbls more of raw cocoa. This will make it a bit thicker. Using a spoon or a 'candy making' squeeze bottle (get it at any craft store) drizzle the chocolate in thin lines over the cake ball.

Cake balls should be kept in the freezer for best results. Take them out about 5 min before serving. They should be fine for up to 15 min before starting to soften too much. At that point, the coconut oil will become liquid (at around 76 degrees) and the chocolate will begin to melt.

I have also kept them in the fridge, producing a much softer cake ball. They taste great this way, the only downside is they DO melt in your hand as well as in your mouth.

For more details go to the urbanposer blog

and remember: 

Have a great week

xox

Credits:

Urban Poser

Ombre

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I’m totally in love with the ombre look...  

What is ombre you ask? Ombre is a French term meaning "shaded." Usually a multicolored stripe, with colors graduating from light to dark. And as you can see, it looks absolutely AMAZING on any  cake.

So today I am getting inspired with such a tasty trend:  OMBRE Cakes... Enjoy these stunning creations!!

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xoxox

Tron Legacy Themed Birthday Party {Real Party}

The party was held at Roxana's  house – a venue that has a beautiful lake view, pool and lots of room for the little ones. Thankfully the weather cooperated and we were able to have the party outdoors as we planned.

Roxana and I had a lot of fun putting everything together for this Tron's theme party.

Dessert Table
There were a few ‘OMG’ moments that everybody had when they saw the elements of this table together.  Naturally we had blue candy, blue jello shots, mini tiramisu, lots of ribbon and some printables in  shades of blue, black and silver. In order to give the table a little more industrial and modern/villain look, we added some  metal trays and clear plastic trays and of course some Tron action figures.

We put a beautiful display of mini desserts (my personal favorite). We added some tron characters and we placed them on the table. 

We put in the middle of the table a race track that was made with cookies and of course the Tron's  motorcycles embellished with fondant.  It turned out amazing.

There is something really wonderful about fresh fruit, that both parents and children really enjoyed: Mellon Balls and Strawberries!!

CAKE TABLE

The birthday cake was a yummy two tiered cake creation that Roxana made for his son's party with the help of the cake expert in the family, Fabiola, who helped us to put the fondant and the little "pizzaz" to it. 

The filling was Antonio's Favorite ever : Nutella. The cake and cupcakes 
were better than I could've ever imagined. Other cake table elements included, sugar cookies spelling TRON

And also several other smaller cakes made with puff pastry and filled with strawberries. They were delicious and easy to make.

FAVORS:
Roxana made this custom discs for the party and added the neon lights... Simply Amazing!

DRINK STATION
Lot of custom labeled water bottles, Blue juice, and other refresments like fresh coconut

ACTIVITIES
We recreated a scene of the party in the film TRON with a super cool DJ (the birthday boy's dad- DJ Tony P), techno-music and a whole bunch of laser lights and neon effects. The kids had a blast!!!

I forgot to show you the invitations that we found for free and then we added some elements to them... and I loved how they turned out... don't you agree?

Antonio's had such a great time with all of his friends and I think all the kids had a very good time. It was a fun day, can't believe he is already 7. Happy Birthday to you!! We love you very much.