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(Just a quick note, we're giving away some beautiful Le Creuset cookware.  Click here if you want more info.)

We've gotten such wonderful responses from our first post on the beautiful dessert tables for girls on our site.  So here is Part 2.  I promise it won't disappoint.

THE OOH LA LA TABLE Melissa & Kellie's Paris in the Springtime Birthday Party

Here's what is on Melissa and Kellie's' table:

• French macarons
• Creme puffs
• Strawberry napoleon
• French palmiers
• Mini cupcakes with french butter cream
• Chocolate Eiffel Tower lollipops
• Apothecary jars are filled with salt water taffy

Here's what is on Sharnel's table:

• Macarons
• Petite cupcakes
• Heart shaped melting moments
• Chocolate milk
• Freckles candy
• Pink clouds candy
• Malted chocolate balls
• Chocolate coated honeycomb
• Chocolate sour cream birthday cake

Here's what is on Jessica's table:

• Lemon cheesecake
• Pink & yellow lemonade cookies
• Pink lemonade cake
• Lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting
• Pink & yellow gum drops
• Lemonheads
• Pink lemonade bubble gum
• Fabric topped jars filled with lemon drops

Here's what is on Linda's table:

• Raspberry macaron tower
• Strawberry Blossom Layer cake  (strawberry cake with Italian meringue butter cream covered in pink fondant and fondant blossoms)
• Fairy Wand Cookies (sugar biscuit with fairy decorations)
• Chocolate macarons
• Butterfly Cake Pops (chocolate cake pops with white chocolate and pink fondant butterflies)
• Pink Fairy Chocolates (chocolates covered in pink paper and decorations)
• Fairy Lolly mix (mix of pink, white and red lollies)
• Musk sticks
• Fairy Dust Marshmallow (marshmallow dipped in chocolate and pink sprinkles)
• Fairy Bite Biscuits (small round sugar cookie decorated with flowers and butterflies)
• Home made rose cordial
• Scones with jam and cream
• Selection of finger sandwiches

Here's what is on Leanne's table:

• Birthday cake
• Cupcakes
• Macaroons
• Bunny cookies
• Marshmallow pops (chocolate dipped marshmallows)
• Oreo cookies
• Coconut ice
• Meringues
• Marshmallows
• Strawberry Milk

Here's what is on Brandy's table:

• Cake
• Owl lollipops
• Mini gumball machines
• Rice krispy treats with pink chocolate drizzled on top
• Pink chocolate dipped marshmallows
• Cotton candy
• Strawberry malted milk balls

Here's what is on on Jane and Lou's table:

• Marshmallows
• Gluten free cupcakes with raspberry puree colored frosting
• Coconut mini cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting
• Coconut macaroons
• Red grapes and watermelon balls on kebab sticks
• Red apples
• Popcorn cups
• Biscuit sticks

Our last dessert table post will be on dessert tables for boys.  Stay tuned...

For more inspiration see:  Dessert Tables for Girls (Part 1) and Beautiful Dessert Tables

I love love Le Creuset!

And the generous folks at cookware.com have offered to give one of our readers a beautiful, white Le Creuset 14" Oval Dish (retail value $49.95) from their dinnerware sets.

What's great about Le Creuset is that it can be used in the oven, the broiler, or the microwave, and it looks great on the table.

For all you cooks and entertainers out there, hopefully this will be a great addition to your kitchen.

So how can you enter to win?

1. "Like" us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, then come back here and leave comments telling us you did so.  (If you already "like" us or follow us, just leave comments mentioning that.)
2. Post about our Le Creuset giveaway on your blog, Twitter, or Facebook page and leave comments telling us you did so.

The winner will be chosen on Thursday, August 5th at 10:00pm (PDT).  Any entries after that won't be considered, sorry.  This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.  We will use random.org to generate our winner.

(Just a quick note, we're giving away some beautiful Le Creuset cookware.  Click here if you want more info.)

We have so many wonderful dessert tables for girls on our site, I've had to break this post down into two parts.

So here is Part 1 of these gorgeous, inspiring tables...

THE VIBRANT TABLE Kim S's Kate's Fairy Garden Party

Here's what's on Kate's table:

• Cake - Decadent Delights
• Cupcakes & mini cheesecakes
• Oreo pops & Chocolate covered Oreos - Sweeties by Kim
• Printed cookies - Sweetopia
• Cake Pops
• Meringues
• Paper Products designed by The TomKat Studio

Here's what's on Lindsey's table:

• Little Debbi heart cakes
• Pink M&M
• Pink Hersey's Kisses
• Strawberry candy canes
• Strawberry Tootsie Pops
• Grapefruit sours
• Strawberry mousse
• Pink chocolate covered strawberries
• Strawberry cupcakes
• Pink swirl pops
• Pink rock candy
• Strawberry wafer cookies
• Watermelon licorice
• Pink marshmallows
• Pink cotton candy
• Pink M&M chocolate chip cookies
• Pink frosted animal crackers

Here's what's on Pamela's table:

• Chocolate covered marshmallow pops
• Sugar cookies
• Good N Plenty candy
• Starbursts candy
• Chocolate cupcakes with pink vanilla bean frosting
• Carrot cupcakes with pink and green cream cheese frosting
• Candy filled wafer cookies
• Pink chocolate cupcake balls
• Fairy marshmallow pops courtesy of Stix N Pops
• White cheddar popcorn
• Fairy favor boxes filled with bottles of "Fairy Dust" (glitter) for the girls to take home and sprinkle in their gardens

Here's what's on Kristina's table:

• Cotton candy flavored popcorn
• Pink & yellow marshmallow swirls
• Pink M&Ms
• Yellow M&Ms
• Pink jellybeans
• Yellow jellybeans
• Cake pops
• Pink and yellow chocolate dipped Oreos
• Assorted pink and yellow sugar cookies from a local bakery
• Rainbow rice crispy treats
• Pink and yellow chocolate dipped pretzels
• Cake & cupcakes

Here's what's on Anneliese's table:

• Orange twirly pops
• Blue and pink gum balls
• Vanilla taffy
• Blue old fashioned candy sticks
• Pink crystal candy suckers
• Red velvet cake
• Chocolate buttermilk cake
• Lemon bundt cake
• Jars of "orange preserves" (orange jelly candies)

Here's what's on Terri's table:

• Cake
• Cupcakes
• Cookies
• Chocolate covered Oreos
• Chocolate covered marshmallows
• Suckers
• M&M's
• Cake balls
• Green candy fruit slices
• Strawberry chocolate covered pretzels
• Pink and green Hershey's kisses

Here's what's on Eileen's table:

• Chocolate ponies by A Chocolate Creation
• Pony decorated sugar cookies
• Lollipop topiaries
• Pastel M & M's
• Dark chocolate Kisses
• Caramel chocolate Kisses
• Large Pixie Sticks
• Bubble gum
• Assorted Wonka small lunch boxes filled with Nerds, Sweet Tarts, etc.
• Lemonheads
• Large lollipops

This week's photo comes from

Kate P's Dr Seuss/St. Patrick's Day First Birthday

The most amazing thing about this cake is that Kate made it herself for her daughter's first birthday.  Incredible!

Kate should definitely get herself on Food Network Challenge.

I love giant balloons!  They are fun, look great in photographs, and are an inexpensive way to add some style and color to your party.

Here are a couple great giant balloon shots from some of the parties on our site.

Leslie B's Trent's Giant 3rd Birthday

Kristy L's J&J's Firetruck Party

So where can you buy these great colorful orbs?

I found a site called Balloon Maniacs! which sell them in 15 different colors (including pink and blue polka dot) for $3.33 each.  And they have some serious discounts on their homepage, so definitely check that out before purchasing.

If you add some giant balloons to your party, please send photos so I can post them for everyone to see.

I think they're so simple and beautiful.

This TRENDS post is all about the gorgeous dessert tables we've seen on our site.  I've highlighted both traditional tables as well as some variations.  So here goes...

THE CLASSY TABLE From Terri G's A 40th Birthday Party

Here's what's on Terri's table:

• Chocolate covered Oreos in a houndstooth print done by Sweeties by Kim
• Strawberry linzer cookies done by Olaha Bakery
• Decorated sugar cookies
• Cake pops
• Oreo truffles
• Licorice candy
• Coconut cupcakes with cream cheese icing
• Strawberry bars
• Chocolate covered pretzels
• "Blinged" out water
• 4 dozen roses

Here's what's on Mandy's table:

• Cake pops
• Chocolate pretzels
• Chinese takeout boxes filled with watermelon hard candies, toffee, and salt water taffy
• Homemade milk chocolate hearts
• Vanilla pudding in shot glasses
• Chocolate dipped marshmallows on skewers
• Large martini glasses filled with bunches of grapes

Here's what's on Kristin's table:

• Red velvet cupcakes with blue colored cream cheese butter cream frosting
• Lemon vanilla cupcakes with green colored lemon butter cream frosting
• Green and blue candy cane sticks and gummy candies
• Doublemint Gum
• Airheads
• Blue heart lollipops from Michael's
• Blue and green foil covered mini chocolate eggs

Here what's on Lauryn's table:

• A yellow and white striped fondant covered cake with yellow and white fondant daisies.  The cake is a yellow cake with alternating layers of chocolate and vanilla frosting.
• Mini cookies 'n cream sunflower cupcakes
• Mini banana chocolate chip cupcakes with fluffy vanilla frosting
• Blondie hearts
• Mini lemon cheesecakes with graham cracker crust
• Chocolate cake pops dipped in yellow and white chocolate
• Yellow and white salt water taffy
• Yellow and white gumballs
• Yellow, white and green jelly beans
• Yellow M&Ms
• Gummy frogs
• Sour gummy apple rings
• Yellow rock candy
• Bags with "Jacqueline HEARTS Scot" printed on them, so guests could take candy and desserts home

Here's what's on Courtney's table:

• White chocolate covered pretzels
• Yellow, blue, and green chocolate candies
• Vanilla butter cream cupcakes
• White chocolate covered strawberries
• Chocolate and vanilla cookies

Here's what's on Leslie's table:

• Key lime pie
• Chocolate pecan pie
• Buttermilk pie
• Rhubarb apple pie pockets
• Mini pumpkin,  apple, and peach pies

Here's what's on Chris's table:

• Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
• White chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies
• Peanut butter filled cookies
• Apple spice drops
• Brownie bites
• Plain milk
• Chocolate milk

Here's what's on Brittany's table:

• Vanilla and regular Oreos
• Banana Moon Pies
• Black licorice
• Hershey's miniatures with custom "bee" wrappers
• Lemon jelly beans
• Blackberry jellybeans
• Black raspberry Now n' Laters
• Bee pops
• Custom cupcakes

See my other dessert table posts: Beautiful Dessert Tables for Girls (Part 1) and Beautiful Dessert Tables for Girls (Part 2)

There are some beautiful, touching, funny photos on our site, so I'm starting a new feature where I highlight my favorite party photo of the week.

This week, that honor goes to this photo from

Joanne W's Tate's Bug Bash.

I love Tate's expression juxtaposed with the festive party table.  Brilliant!

HOW TO TAKE GREAT PARTY PHOTOS

As I've been thinking about photography (and trying to become a better photographer myself), I checked into what some of the experts had to say about how to take great shots.  Here are some tips for all you photographers out there:

Tip 1:  Get down to your subject's level, especially if you're shooting kids.

Tip 2: Pick a plain background for your subject to makes it pop.  (And make sure there are no trees sticking out their heads.)

Tip 3: Move in close and fill your picture with your subject.

Tip 4: Even outdoors, use your flash.  On bright days it will fill in shadows, and on cloudy days it will brighten things up.

Tip 5: Know your flash's range (for many cameras it's about 10 feet).  This way you don't end up with dark pictures.

Tip 6: Turn your camera sideways and take some vertical shots.

Tip 7: Place your subject off-center.  Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid and place your subject at one of the intersections of lines.

Tip 8:  Lock the focus on your camera to take pictures of off-center subjects.  That way your subjects won't be blurry.

Tip 9: Watch the light.  For pictures of people, cloudy days are the best.  On sunny days, pay attention to shadows.

Tip 10:  If you're taking a group shot, aim the center of the camera at someone's chest. That way, the heads appear in the upper third of the photo, and you've filled the photo with people rather than background.

Tip 11: Be a director and get creative.  Add props, use different angles, take a ton of different shots (to increase your chance of getting that one "great" photo), and have fun!

I hope these are helpful.  I'm going to start using them and I'll report back.

Sources: Kodak and weschan.com

I first read about FooDoodlers on Meaghan Mountford's The Decorated Cookie, a great food decorating blog I wrote about in this post.

Use these to draw on your food!

FooDoodlers are markers made of food coloring that you can use to draw on cookies, cakes, pancakes, bread, crackers, marshmallows... you name it.

And when I read that Meaghan recommends them, and was even running a contest on her blog to give some away, I knew they had to be good.

Not only would these markers be fun to use on your own food decorating projects, but how great would these be at a party?  Lay out some iced cookies and some FooDoodler markers and let people go to town.

There were also a couple of creative ideas on their website that I thought were worth sharing:

After a sleepover, put out the pens and let your guests color their pancakes.

If you take kids to a restaurant and want to entertain them, pull out some FooDoodlers and let them draw on their food.

Give your fruits and vegetables more pizazz by drawing on them.

I know my daughter will love these!  In fact, if I don't win them on Meaghan's blog, I'm ordering some on Amazon.

Photo: The Decorated Cookie

Believe it or not, here in LA, we've had one of the coldest summers on record.  This week, however, the weather has changed and it's starting to get hot!

So in honor of good weather, here are some of my favorite pool party ideas from Etsy.

First, an invitation from Lilly Mae Designs.

Next a banner from IE Creations.

Some DIY printable pool party decorations from Paper and Cake.

Pool party cupcake toppers from Toadally Cute Products.

And to make your cupcakes even more decadent, how about some fondant cupcake toppers from Kids Cakes.

A large galvanized tub to keep your drinks cool from brodyandma.

And so no one mixes up their drink cups, here are some chalkboard tumblers from Party Bzz.

Some wooden boats to decorate your pool from duckduckgoosetoys.

And to add a little excitement and fragrance to your party, how about these fizzy pool bombs from Les Treasure.

And finally, so no one goes home empty-handed, some flip flop cookie favors from Whimsical Originals DB.

And shouldn't the kids get something extra?  Personalized beach pails from Bumble Bee Lane.

Stay cool and happy swimming!

We've gotten some beautiful bird themed showers on the site, so I thought I'd highlight some of their most inspiring details.

(In fact, bird themed showers are so popular, this is the second time I've written about them in a TRENDS post.)

Caroline B's Brown + Blue Birdy Shower

A pretty bird's nest wreath to meet guest at the door.

The cute bird logos used throughout the party on cupcakes, drinks, and food.

Wishing tree tags to use on the wishing tree.  (I love wishing trees at showers.)

Tiffany C's Tweet Baby Girl Shower

Another sweet wishing tree.

The gorgeous "tweet baby girl" dessert table.

Another great-looking bird logo used throughout the party on invitations, cupcake toppers, and food signs.

Rachael L's Modern Gray and Yellow "Feather Her Nest" Shower

The pretty and modern shower invitation.

The elegant decor, including this great welcome wreath made of eggs and feathers.

More decor details.  I love the white branches with yellow bird used as centerpieces.

Tiffany N's The Birds and Bees Baby Shower

Pretty robin's egg cupcakes.

Cute bird drink tags.

I love the use of real birdcages as decoration above the buffet table.

If you are planning a bird themed baby shower, I hope these ideas come in handy.

If you've already thrown one, we'd love to see the photos!