THE DAY MY LIFE CHANGED If you could think of a single moment in your life which had the most impact on you, what would it be? It could be perhaps the day you received your first bonus paycheck, the day you bought your first car, or perhaps the day you got married. For me, it happened November of 2012: the day I became a mother. For that single, magical moment, I brought another human being into life. Suddenly it seemed that the world had changed (or I changed and the world stayed the same; it...

THE MOST DARING BIRTHDAY PARTY I’VE STYLED Children’s parties are typically “boxed” into certain conventions, or what I call the three L’s: it should be lively, loud, and lurid. At least, this held true until event styling came along broke all conventions. Today, I’m going to show you a party that took things even a step further. Welcome to Hailey’s All-White Party. A special thank-you to Little Heartbeat for these amazing pictures! A dreamy cascade of...

THE THEME THAT NO ONE DARES TO TRY Sometimes we are so preoccupied with the fantastical and aspirational that we fail to appreciate the things that are right under our noses. Take, for example, choosing party themes. Who would have thought to do this type of party: Welcome to Cady’s Filipino Fiesta! A BIG thank you as always to Happy Folks Studio for these amazing shots. In my so-far 3 and a half years of styling, no one asked to do this type of a party. But yes, that’s right. Party...

JACK JACK’S FIRST BIRTHDAY: A TSUM TSUM FESTIVAL For any of you who have watched anything Disney in the past few years (practically everyone I suppose!), you might have come across these cute, little critters Disney calls “Tsum Tsum”. It’s basically all the famous Disney characters, magically transformed into these squat, circular, and elongated pieces of stuffed toys: “Tsum Tsum” is derived from the Japanese word tsumu, which means “to stack”...

DISNEY’S LATEST ADVENTURE: AN EXPLORATION OF POLYNESIAN CULTURE When I first saw the trailer of Moana, I was giddy with curiosity to watch it. Not just because it seemed to have great original music and a feisty heroine, but because of the richness of Polynesian culture that it shored up. From just watching the trailer, and seeing the setting (island), people (tatooed, robust, black-haired tribes), and the demigod Maui, I instantly recognized the movie to be about the Pacific Islanders, a...