Pepper Design Blog

One More Reason to Throw a Fall Party…

While the leaves don’t really change here in San Diego, I sure do love the idea of a fall celebration under the red and orange glow of an autumn maple shedding it’s summer foliage. So while I can dream, perhaps some of you can make this a reality!

Here’s a bit of inspiration by Sandra Downie Event Designs that has me oohing and ahhing over the changing seasons {sigh}.

I love the fall colors and the simple, elegant designs (such as those beautiful zinnea and hypericum berry arrangements!). Check out these beautiful favor bags – handmade details created from torn book pages, newspaper and the like will always be a favorite.

Thanks to Kim for sharing this beautiful spread!

Time for Fall Decorating – A Few Inspirational Finds

So the weather is finally feeling a bit autumn-ish around here and while we’re half way through fall I’m just beginning to put up decorations for the season.

I love this time of year! There’s nothing like hot cider, over-sized scarves and pumpkin patches to make my month.

Needing a bit of new inspiration, I headed to my usual virtual hot spots (Martha, BHG, Southern Living, HGTV and even Pottery Barn online vignettes) and thought I’d share my favorites.

I’m all about bringing the outdoors in with natural elements such as fall veggies (gourds, pumpkins and the like) and big branches. You might remember my ‘favorite trends’ post on branches here – but these ideas (above and below images) are just as magical. Plus, these branch examples will last well into winter since most are already dried and dead or faux.

Other inspiring ideas:
1. Filling extra vases, bowls and cake stands with fall leaves, pine cones, gourds, seeds (dried pumpkin, split pea, yellow rice, etc make great vase fillers) and even corks popped from the holidays
2. Hanging orange paper lanterns (extra points if they have black construction paper cut out jack-o-lantern faces on them) in both indoor and outdoor spaces
3. Using pumpkins for more purposes than carving – I love the simple house number paint job the above pumpkins received or the ornament versions hanging from branches (manzanita would be sturdy enough to support them)
4. Wrapping die cut shapes or faux fall leaves around candles or candle holders with twine (real dried leaves would be a fire hazard)

Now I’ll get back to decorating… can’t wait to find more ideas and to begin working on the above!

A Star Wars Party for a Little Jedi

Vesni from My Little Jedi sent over this adorable party from her son’s 1st birthday. Aniken (he’s named after one of the characters) had the perfect Star Wars party to celebrate with friends!

In Vesni’s words: “We had the most wonderful day and celebrated his birthday with our family and friends. The theme of the party had to be “Star Wars” as my son is named after one of the characters.

As for the sweet treats, I organized a mini candy buffet with a colour palette of red/black/blue lollies. The R2D2 birthday cake was made by Catherine from 2 Bites, the personalized chocolate bars and chocolate pops were made by the very talented Niki from Candy Soirees. The star wookie cookies and delicious star feature cupcakes were made by my lovely sister inlaw Suzanna. I also has organized personalized lolly pops from Pink Frosting.

We had inflatable light sabers for all the kids which they all loved & entirely enjoyed. The kids played ‘pin the light saber on a jedi’ game and the winner was presented with a ‘jedi certificate’.”

How cute are these wonderful labels? And that dessert table? By the way, a trip out to Vesni’s blog to check out all of her creative party ideas is well worth it – it’s adorable!