Graduation News Segment

 

This past Thursday I did a GRADUATION news segment for WCFN 49.  (I know, I know... I've been BUSY!  I usually have my news segment posts up the SAME night as the segment but it's been crazy and blogger has been down, so I have a good excuse!) 

In case you missed it (or if you feel like watching it again) you can click HERE to see the clip.

So, my little sister graduated from Eastern Illinois University with her master's degree, smarty pants, and I hosted a little reception at my house with some yummy cupcakes.  I just took everything I did for her party and took it with me to the news, with the addition of a few items.  I started with a gold frame my mother-in-law gave me and spray painted it white.  Then I took pictures of Ashley from her kindergarten, high school, college, and grad school graduations and hung them in frames using blue satin ribbon I stapled to the back of the frames. 

In case you can't see it, the cupcake toppers say Congrats Grad.

I had originally seen these ADORABLE graduate cupcake toppers on pinterest (which by the way, I LOVE.  If you need an invite, e-mail me and I'll send you one!)  so I looked her up on etsy and Laura of QueenBeeInspirations so graciously sent me these to use for the segment.  LOVE them!  You can find her etsy shop HERE or on Facebook HERE.  Go LIKE her and tell her Pirates-n-Princesses sent ya! 

Have you LIKED Terri of Terri's Treasures yet on facebook?

She's amazing.  She sent me these adorable little graduate cake pops that I jazzed up with a little blue gown.  She isn't shipping during summer months, but definitely go like her!  The things she can do with balls of cake is amazing!  Super creative!  You can follow her blog HERE. 

I made three different cupcakes for the segment, my super moist white cupcakes, which you may notice look a little yellow due to me getting just a tad bit of yolk in the batter, and then my devil's food chocolate chip cupcakes with a chocolate ganache on top.  The other ones I made with the Congrats Grad cupcake toppers were my latest Martha Stewart cupcakes, Blueberries and Cream, but I'll share those in a later post this week.  

I topped the white cupcakes with stinkin' CUTE cookies from Christina of Cookies Are My Canvas over on facebook.  Go LIKE her!!!  She's absolutely wonderful and so super sweet.  She recently quit her job to do cookies full time and I think she made a very wise decision!  And you know what I LOVE best about her.... she's from Arkansas and we have a Harding University connection, where I went to college, so we're automatically BFF's.  Check out her blog HERE to see the amazing HU cookies she made!  LOVE them!  Plus, she adds just a hint of SPARKLE to the cookies, which unfortunately doesn't quite show up in the photos. 

Then on the other chocolate cupcakes I topped them with cream cheese stuffed strawberries, which we demo'ed on the news.  (I got the idea for those HERE.)  Then on the other ones I made little diplomas from Pepperidge Farm creme filled Pirouettes and tied a little red ribbon around them.  Super cute.  Super EASY!  

 The navy with white polka dots table runner is courtesy of my sweet friend, Nancy, of A to Zebra Celebrations where I do a little contributing.  It really pays off to contribute!  You must go check out her blog and see the adorable Leopard Princess Party she recently hosted for her little girl!  Amazing.  Go check it out HERE.

 Here I am with Jennifer.  We had to get a non-blurry shot this time!

She's so sweet!  I always look forward to seeing her on my visits!  :)

 {Do I have something on my face?} 

 

And I was thrilled to have my sweet grandma come along this time as she's feeling a little lonesome after my grandpa's passing.  It was a good distraction for her.  We had to enjoy one of my Blueberries and Cream cupcakes before the rest of the crew came in and devoured everything! 

And three things I learned, or actually just came to believe even more:

1) God is GOOD.  It was raining on our way over to the station and on our way I just kept praying, "God, please let it stop raining long enough for us to unload all this stuff so I don't get wet and look like a wet, shaggy dog for the segment.  (Ok, so maybe I didn't exactly say that last part, but I was praying for the rain to stop!)  And what do you know?  It stopped right before we got there and we were able to get everything in without getting wet.  God knows my hair turns to complete frizz in rain/mist/drizzle. 

2) It's so nice to make friends with other party/event planners!

AND

3) The camera really does add 10 pounds!  My sweet grandma had to point that out to me as we were watching it back at home.  Gotta love that woman!  LOL!  

Stay tuned... I've got LOTS of things to share soon!!!!!!