RAPUNZEL PARTY at HOME…


I loved it when one of my favorite COOP party at home mommies asked for a Rapunzel party as Rapunzel was my favorite princess when I was little. Also as I only have two (amazing sons) it is always with glee that I decorate and put together a girlie party! Juliet & I really wanted to make sure that the colors were vibrant and bright but not too Lakers (an LA basketball team for all our International bloggers!). So we used purple and yellow and also incorporated some pretty greens and pinks.

We used Rapunzel’s hair as our table runners and tied a small braid to each of the goodie bags. The goodies included tiara’s and tutu’s and wands for all our little princess’s. Juliet put together some gorgeous flowers and the whole effect was more RAPUNZEL than LAKERS so we were thrilled. Our beautiful birthday girl was over the moon especially when Rapunzel herself appeared!!

Finn’s FIESTA!


My son Finn usually goes for a small sleepover at home for his birthday party. This is his last year in elementary school though — so I urged him to have a blow out with the whole class. We have a Taco vendor that I love so I said how bout “Finn’s Fiesta!” He reluctantly agreed (he’s not a showy kid — as I said he’s prefer 2 friends at the house as opposed to shaking his maracas in a sombrero with his whole class… but I digress!!) Here’s the thing that is so so fiun about a FIESTA party — the COLOR!! I mean — honestly — you can (and I did!) use just about every fabulous fun color you can imagine somewhere in a fiesta themed party! I went for it in the color — and the GLITTER (naturally and as always !) department! I even Glittered the giant balloons (this was a first for me and I LOVE how the turned out!) I got the most fun busy colorful material I could find and used it for table runners… and then just went crazy glittering limes and lemons, planting succulents and cactus in salsa tins…. I also used Food containers (beans!) for the flower arrangements. A trip to Olvera street scored me a few little skulls and dia de los Muertos trinkets … I artfully placed ALL these goodies at varying heights (I love a pine box riser!) fro the main centerpiece of the table.   Mini Maracas on each place setting, sombreros on the sodas, paper flowers and garland with the Glittered balloons and my hand painted brick background… I mean — this party was OTT! And so fun. The MOST fun element I thought — was the Margarita glasses (with cactus stems) with candy sprinkled rims (instead of salt!) Courtesy of some warm white chocolate and an extra large container of jimmies all over my kitchen the night before the party!) Everyone got sombreros, of course — the birthday boys momma (moi) and favorite baby sister got extra special hot pink and gold ones… I also hand made her the flower headdress (Frida-esque) with some silk flowers and hot glue on a stretchy headband. Gorgeous cupcakes by Julie at Blue Cupcake — again and always steal the show. So gorgeous!!! We Fiesta- ed like there was no Mañana… and I am so so happy my little boy got to have one last bash with his sweet elementary school friends!!!

SHABBY CHIC TEA PARTY…

Nothing says little girl like the PERFECT Tea Party! I had the pleasure of putting together a divine Shabby Chic Tea Party for some lovely COOP clients gorgeous one year old daughter London. There were so many sweet elements to this party and a lot of handmade details.

The amazing Julie from Blue cupcakes took care of all the fabulous sweets – like a ruffle smash cake and petite cupcakes on single cake platters. Because it was a tea party I  thought it would be a good idea to have some milk in little bottles personalized with the name of our birthday girl. I WANTED THE PERSONALIZATION TO EXTEND TO LITERALLY EVERYTHING SO I also added ribbon and labels to the water bottles as well.

 I used doilies on the bags again with personalized tags and placed shabby chic roses in small vases.

 I loved scouring antique stores for the vintage tea cups and tablecloths which I used over the always chic burlap runners. I really feel that it was a SMASHING Shabby Chic Tea Party SUCCESS.

PURPLE HAZY

When it came time for my little girl to turn one… I needed a unique theme to celebrate the most special little girl I know.  We call our sweet little lady Hazel, Hazy… so I thought I would just go with a simple PURPLE HAZE theme. I just wanted it to be extra beautiful … fresh flowers and purple purple purple! I hand painted the watercolored party hats (which I hot glued fresh flowers to on the day of the party! So pretty!) and dip dyed the table cloths myself the week of the party… but I still need a WOW moment! I was driving back from a luncheon with my brilliant business partner when it hit me… the Jimi Hendrix PURPLE HAZE poster. I love that image…Jimi’s face with that mad fab multicolored afro! THAT was IT!!! The big WOW moment I needed! I had a friend print a black and white image of my Hazy on canvas, which I then hot glued to a larger piece of canvas. I painted the background blackest black and then got to the fun of spray painting the afros!! I ADORE how they turned out. So cool and fun — and the three of them behind the birthday girl at cake time made SUCH an impact. I have one of the paintings hanging in my house now — I love it so!!! All the super cool guests got afros and groovy round shades… and I hand made feather headdresses for all the little and big ladies (mommies!) at the party. I have a “there is no such thing as too much glitter” mentality…. so I went absolutely bananas in the glitter dept! Glittered the champagne bottles, glittered the champagne glasses, glittered the burlap goodie bags… glitter, glitter,glitter! I also made a large burlap flag pennant Banner that said (in gold glitter, natch!) SWEET HAZY… and believe it or not that #1 light up marquee sign… I made it with just foam board spray painted gold that I glued into the shape of a 1 and poked string lights through as the bulbs. It turned out great, I think! One of my other favorite features was the balloon chandelier I did over the bench in the play area. I did purple and tie dye (Lucinda found those for me!) and silver helium balloons with different pictures of Hazel throughout her first year hanging from each one. I tried to be sure to include all the guests in the pics as well. It turned out really lovely — and was so fun for people to find their picture with Hazy in the mix!!! The super amazing Julie from Blue Cupcakes did all my cakes and sweets. I ONLY use Julie for my events — and I think you can see why! She’s a true artist! I was so so happy with the party. Everything looked frilly and girlie and fabulous… and artsy and glittery and wonderful. It was all that I wanted it to be and more!!!!

WIGGLES PARTY at HOME

When my 12 year old was two he ADORED the WIGGLES.  So much so that we actually brought our 3 day old baby Grant to a Wiggles concert rather than disappoint our little Wiggle fan!!!  So it really took me back when a mom recently requested a WIGGLES themed party at home for her beautiful daughter.  Apparently there is a whole new cast of Wiggles and they are making quite a splash with the newer generation!  I was thrilled to design this party.  I went with red and yellow as my base colors for the party look.  I sprinkled in some blue an purple to make sure all the characters colors were represented… but mostly it was bright yellow and red…. which I think looked great.  I hand made a paper chain out of polka dot paper (haven’t done that since elementary school I don’t think!!!).  The paper chain along with the Happy Birthday banner made a fun festive backdrop to the treat table.   The cupcakes were from Julie at Blue Cupcake and were beautiful, as always.  For the kids seating table, I  used one of my new favorites — the red dotted table runners — over solid yellow cloths.   I did Microphones with  wiggle colored dotted bow on each place setting and found a vintage Wiggle Big Red car toy that I put on a riser (with flowers too, of course) as the main centerpiece.  Speaking of flowers — I told you I was going to use those fab gumball flowers again!  Re purposed from Gracie’s Sweet Shoppe party — and they were just darling with this theme as well!  The birthday girl got a special party hat and everyone else got yellow dotted cone hats that I jazzed up with a glitter circle and a pic of the Wiggles.  The wiggles logo was on the cups — which were also wrapped in dotted ribbon.  I love the flowers on this party too… red and yellow, bold an bright!  I am really loving how it all turned out!  Call us today to book your PARTY AT HOME and we will bring a COOP party to your backyard!!!!

An intimate dinner for the people I love…

There is SO much JOY in helping people create memorable events to celebrate the ones they love but when given the opportunity to work on your own event it is truly AMAZING… Coming from Australia I live very far away from my family and I am often terribly homesick for them. But over the years I have found friends in Los Angeles who have truly become the family that I have found for myself. So it was with so much LOVE that I created a very special dinner party to celebrate all of the wonderful people I am blessed to call friends.

I love GOLD and WHITE as a color combination and I love using feathers as decor so it was with all of this in mind that I created my dinner party oh and glitter too!!. I knew I wanted to use some rustic wood elements and as I live in Laurel Canyon I possibly wanted to incorporate the peace sign . I found a fantastic branch in my garden that I knew it would make  a wonderful chandelier. I had originally thought to hang hand glitter dipped feathers only from the wood but as I had elements of lace throughout I realized it may be better to hang lace material and ribbon as some bird flu phobes may not like all the feathers over the dinner table. I did sneak feathers into vases on the table as well as in the table setting head pieces. I also found an old wooden plank near the trash cans and realized that it would make a FANTASTIC table runner – which it did. Oh and the price was right too!! As we live in a small CABIN I knew I didn’t really have the room for a fall bar so I thought the bathroom next to the dining room can be the bar. So I made a burlap and lace banner that said “Le Bar Le Bain” and hung it over the bathroom door. I filled the bath tub with ice and VOILA the perfect bar.

I glittered white roses with gold and made ice-cubes with them I filled little vases with my favorite flowers – peonies of course and I hand wrote each of the menus wanting it to be as personal as possible.

When guests arrived I had one of my TALENTED COOP employees shoot a Polaroid and then put the photo in a SNOW GLOBE which I had decorated with gold ribbon it really was the PERFECT parting gift and very easy to do.

When it came time to create my peace sign of lights outside the living room window I just couldn’t get the shape right and really wasn’t feeling it. My husband Todd then said how about a heart and honestly at first I thought “nope a hearts too cheesy too obvious”. Todd then said lets give it a try and I am so glad he did. In every picture you can see the heart reflected in some way and it really sums up the entire magical evening – pure heart!!!

BARBIE Party

We did this gorgeous BARBIE party for a lovely little girl a little while back.  Mom was SUUUUUUUUPER pregnant — ready to pop any second and wanted us to handle it all for her… which we did… beautifully, I think!  We always go for the bolder/ modern choices at the COOP — and Barbie was no exception.  Instead of the cheesy Barbie themed plates and images — we stuck with the cute ponytailed Barbie silhouette.  We used the silhouette on the birthday banner, the flower vases, the goodie bags, the plates, the napkin holder… you name it.  Wherever we saw an opportunity to make a cute Barbie statement — we did!  We also made the two centerpieces with the same silhouette.  I made the vases with some gorgeous sparkle tulle wrapped around vases — then hot glued gold poms along the top for some extra pizzaz!!  I love how they turned out.  Our amazing Julie from Blue Cupcake did the Barbie Cake… so old school (I am pretty sure I had the ice cream cake version of this cake from age 4 to at least age 9!!)  Old school made super fab by Julie!!!  She took the old concept of the barbie in the cake skirt and took it to a whole new level with the gorgeous gems.  She’s an artist, for sure.  All the Barbie girls got Tutus, a load of pearl necklaces and super cool ray ban style shades adorned with pearls.  So girlie-glam!!!  Photos are all curtsey of the fantastic Bebe Jacobs… she’s simply wonderful!  Hope you enjoy!!!

Gracie’s Sweet Shoppe

My friend’s daughter Grace is one of my favorite little ladies… and absolutely my FAVORITE COOP client!  She always has very clear ideas of what she wants — and it’s usually something fab.  She did the Dolphin, Donut, Disco party — and the Mod Safari in turquoise and red in the past.  I always love her color choices especially!  For this birthday — she’s a bit older now so it was a pool party/ COOP Party at Home.  She just wanted Candy, candy, candy — no goodie bags, per se — just a big fabulous candy bar (we did goodie bags — but they were empty waiting to be filled with candy candy candy!!!)  I am so annoyed that I didn’t have a flash on my camera because the party was so so gorgeous — but my photo skills really were lacking on this one!  But I did want to share just a few (albeit sub par!) shots — as it was such a fun day, for such a fun, sweet little girl!  She chose lavendar and red as her color scheme and I simply ADORE how it looked together!  The red and white striped runners, napkins, birthday banners — all really looked so beautiful up against the lavender backgrounds.  I did candy bracelets on the juice cups (never enough Candy, remember!!) a HUGE candy bar inside (where I had no good lighting for photos unfortunately!)  Funnily — I spent DAYS upon DAYS wrapping red and white beach balls in cello and ribbon tie-ing the ends for a hard candy look.  They were so cool looking — I FILLED the pool with them.  Went back up to the party area to finish decorating — and the lifeguard UNWRAPPED them all!  Such a bummer!  But I had to laugh.  I guess she thought they were all new beach balls that needed to be opened.  At least Gracie got to see them before the disaster!  I also made what seemed like 100’s of the gum ball flowers which I just LOVE LOVE!  I have used them for other parties since… I just adore them so.  OK — so that’s it.  Candy Party at home!  Hope you think it’s sweet!!!

COOP News!

We created the COOP as great place for moms (and dads and nannies and grannies!) to hang out and play or party right alongside their kids.  We wanted to create a space that adults would love as much as their kids did.  And we are so so proud to stand here 5 years later KNOWING that we did just that.  And for that – we thank you – all our wonderful customers.

The demand to have a COOP Party has grown beyond what our weekend spots can accommodate. We have tried to figure out the best way to accommodate for the growing demand – and over the past year we just closed whenever we booked a weekday party. This worked for us – but, sadly, we don’t think it worked great for our day to day customer. >We know people found it frustrating when they showed up on a random Wednesday and we were closed for a private party. So we went back to the drawing board…. And we have a new solution:

Starting February 1st, The COOP will be doing private parties and playdates every day of the week EXCEPT Tuesday. Tuesday is the only day we will be open for drop in play… but we will ALWAYS be open on Tuesdays! We promise to NEVER book a party or event on a Tuesday. If you want to play… Tuesday is your day!!!

If you want to party or host a private playdate – you can now do so during the week!  After school birthday Parties ON your child’s birthday!  Private Pizza Party after a half day at your school!  Give us a call 818-760-9613 and we can get working on the PERFECT celebration just for you!

COOP Party at Home… Little Rockstar

We just did this COOP Party at Home for a clients beautiful little girl’s first birthday.  The family is beyond lovely — and the extended family that were all in attendance on the big day were SOOOOOO FUN!  It was such a fun celebration for a fun little girl.  I swear — I have never met a more good natured 1 year old (and I HAVE a one year old!!).  All she does is smile and laugh and dance.  LOVE her.  It’s tough at 1… because they don’t really have very solid interests just yet.  Mom said all she loves is music.  Music and dancing.  WE were lucky enough to score TWINKLE TIME to perform a set for the little ones in the back yard — which was a HUGE hit!  For our decorations — we just kept it simple and music related.  Did Stars on the goodie bags for the mini rock stars… and LOVED the pinwheels made out of sheet music that we used for the centerpieces on the tables (along with some glittery stars and gorgeous flowers OF COURSE!!!)  I think my favorite thing was the star garland (made from sheet music as well!) we hung with the Happy Birthday Banner over the treat table.  First of all… I mean — how gorgeous does that look!?  It looks like a party at a French country estate, right!  Love how it came together.  Love love love this family — loved how the party looked and was so so happy that they were just THRILLED to have had the COOP make their day so perfect!