Paper Dolls

I'm getting ready for an early Halloween costume party in a few days, so needed some inspiration.  I think I've figured out what I'm going to be for Halloween, but some of the costumes that are available for purchase really had me wondering who comes up with these ideas!?  Some are too clever and some are just too strange.  But that's Halloween for you! Here are some fun and funny costume ideas I found: Bollywood Kid's Costume Garden Gnome Costume Homage to Fay Wray!  King Kong-esque "Unhand me you beast!" Costume My kid would die if my husband and I went out in public like this, but I love these Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head Costumes. Like what you see?  Head over to The Party Works and browse page after page after page of costume ideas for your entire family (pets included!).  Click on any of these costume faves to see more, or visit them through Sweetest Whimsy's affiliate link :

Are you loving the NFL Pink Campaign right now?  Their "Crucial Catch" partnership with the American Cancer Society is pretty awesome to see on the field, with all the teams so visibly decked out in bright pink accessories to raise breast cancer awareness throughout the month of October.  Football on TV was never so stylish! But did you also know that the NCAA teams have also gotten in on the act?  You can help raise awareness about breast cancer by supporting your favorite team! Fight like a Longhorn! Guys show their Pink support too! Burnt Orange goes GREAT with Pink So proud to be a Longhorn!  If you support a different school or several, you'll find all of the NCAA teams' Breast Cancer Awareness gear at Beyond Graduation's Breast Cancer Awareness page .  Beyond Graduation also offers the official NFL Pink campaign stuff too! Since I'm a Texas girl, I have other teams I can support too: Dallas Cowboys in NFL Pink Houston Texans in ...

Yesterday I was lamenting my girls growing up (too fast!) and getting too old for cutesy Halloween costumes, or really playing dress up in general.  Just last week we cleaned out their dress up trunk and although we didn't give everything away to charity, the trunk is not as full as it was!  Either they outgrew their tiny princess costumes or they were just too 'babyish' for my 8 year old to consider wearing.   Cinderella Doll Dress for 18" Dolls However, they are not yet "too old" for dressing up their American Girl dolls !  I just discovered this website recently, and loved it so much that Sweetest Whimsy became an affiliate seller for this amazing online seller, Everything Princesses .  This online shop was literally created for Moms like me! Medieval Doll Dress for 18" Dolls As the name implies, Everything Princesses sells practically EVERYTHING Princesses!  How I wish my girls were little again, so I could order everything!  From tu...

Today's Halloween TRICK is courtesy of Luna Bazaar , a decidedly elegant collection of wedding and party decorative accents online, via Pizzazzerie , an entertainment ideas website I probably visit waaay too often!  Image from LunaBazaar.com I can't stand how cute these are!  The fact that they are DIY means that even someone who rarely dresses up her house for Halloween (that would be me) can do this. These adorable-yet-scary ghosties are made from those traditional wedding paper honeycomb bells used in a totally new way.  Some scary eyes and mouth features and cheesecloth (for some reason I've got lots of cheesecloth, never used, at my house) and make these quite ghostly. White 12 Inch Paper Bell Honeycomb Decoration Where to buy these honeycombs?  Luna Bazaar , of course!  And they're even ON SALE right now!  I'll take a dozen ghosties, please. You'll find our link to Luna Bazaar on Sweetest Whimsy's website , or you simply click ...

Welcome to Day 1 of Sweetest Whimsy's 31 Days of Tricks & Treats!  The trick or treat of the day will be posted either here, on the Paper Dolls blog, or here , the Sweet Spot blog.  Who knows what you'll find each day in October?!  (I'm sure I don't.  And I totally mean that.) SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE Today's little TREAT is a trip to my favorite online Halloween costume shop, The Party Works !   In addition to offering all things party related, they also offer a mother lode of costumes for everyone in your entire family.  Yes, EVERYONE.  Including Fido: Monkey Dog Rider Pet Costume Bloomin' Snout Pet Costume Need I say more?  In addition to pet and human costumes for all ages, they also offer Plus Size costumes , which is a nice nod to a large portion of our population. One really nice thing, from a budget-conscious parent's point of view, about this online shop is that The Party Works offers the same costume in dif...

Sweetest Whimsy is now also an affiliate for Luna Bazaar!   Luna Bazaar offers GORGEOUS and truly unique decor and gifts for weddings and parties.  Perhaps you've seen their stuff in Martha Stewart Weddings or Amy Atlas's blog? What I love about Luna Bazaar is how different and colorful their selection is!  Wouldn't this be a memorable table decoration as well as party favor?   Silver Mercury Glass Vase (cup design) from: Luna Bazaar They're really known for their paper lanterns .  Lanterns in all colors and sizes, literally!  I love this one: Harmony Design White 36 Inch Paper Star Lantern from: Luna Bazaar But I think this is definitely my favorite!  It's a place card holder that your guests can take home and use as a photo holder.  They come in several different designs, with beautifully bejeweled detail. Place Card Holder (bejeweled dusky rose and blue butterfly) from: Luna Bazaar You can visit Luna Bazaar's websi...

I've had a nice long break from my Sweetest Whimsy blogs this summer and now I'm back! And with new items from my Carlson Craft paper and gifts website ! Carlson Craft, ever mindful of the up and down economy we live with, has rolled out another aspect of their Simply Sensible line of invitations and accessories: Simply Sensible Party ! Now you can get amazing deals on party invitations, in addition to the great wedding packages already available. Some of the products featured have actually been some of my favorite designs these past few years, so I'm happy to see them offered in small quantities, for those of us who like intimate gatherings, and at such good prices. The printed invitations start at less than $2 each for small orders to only 63 cents each when you order 100 or more pieces. Printed invitations are total time-savers when you're inviting a crowd or when you something more memorable than an emailed invite; who has time to fill out all those fill-in invi...

Hello, dear blog, it's been such a long time! My attentions have been distracted of late, so my various blogs have been sadly neglected once again. I am officially "back" from surgery and recovery, so my life is again busy, busy, busy! I'm happy to say that the past few weeks have been busy with wedding paper orders and cake designs for clients. Nice to get back into the swing of things with orders. Today's 'Shopping Talk' bit is not about some cute paper stuff I already offer, but some really cute stuff that Sweetest Whimsy is about to debut! I've long wanted to offer some non-personalized items in addition to my core product lines of personalized papers and gifts, but haven't quite been able to narrow it down to a single or few collections. The problem was, of course, that I like too many things! But I can't sell everything, nor would it make sense to venture off in too many directions. Sweetest Whimsy is first and foremost about perso...

I have a slew of friends' and relatives' birthdays coming up in the Spring, including mine and my kids', and sometimes find myself scrambling for a birthday card! I have several methods I use to stock my greeting card supply: Making my own cards, which is lots of fun, but also time-consuming and I never seem to make enough of them at one time! Delegating the card-making to my children, who also love to make home-made cards for friends and family. Purchasing cards for different occasions. If you're the card-buying sort, like I am sometimes, you might like the convenience of buying an assortment of cards at once. Although I do love to browse a card shop in search of the perfect card now and again, I also like having different cards ready to go when I need them. Another reason to buy all at once? The savings! A collection of 25 birthday cards or 25 all-occasion cards from Sweetest Whimsy starts at only $20! That's less than $1 per card, and the cards are printed ...

And just like that, another week or so goes by without any blogging! But I really have a good excuse this time--hospital stay and recovery time! I had a double surgery Monday, was released on Tuesday and now slowly getting back to my regular self. Prior to the surgery, I had a few days of annoying, required pre-op tests and "prep." Thus, these procedures have consumed my life for several weeks already! So now I am confined to bed/couch this week with no heavy lifting or driving allowed per doctor's orders. In any case, it's nice to be back in my own home again and surrounded by my favorite people and things. And now I have time to blog again! Today's product spotlight focuses on a very specific--and special--wedding theme: the destination wedding. Thirteen years ago, when my husband and I were considering different wedding ideas, a destination wedding, either in the Virgin Islands or Hawaii, was our first choice. However, after a few months of mulling over the...