Going Hollywood with NickMom's "Take Me To Your Mother"

I've been wanting to share the photos that Hannah and I took of the Art Party I put together for the NickMom show Take Me To Your Mother for quite a while now- but I decided I'd better wait until after it aired as to not piss the Nickelodeon folks off!

It was such a surreal experience and I wanted to share as much of it with my blog readers as possible- because I mean I'm pretty much famous now. Like crazy, totally, can't walk out of the house without sunglasses (not true, I don't think my own mom has watched it) FAMOUS. If you haven't watched it yet- that's the link above! It's really a fun episode- hello I'm in it (albeit the last five minutes- but I'm in it).

Let's start at the beginning. A lot of people have asked me how I "got this gig" and the truth is, I really haven't a clue! I have a feeling the name Miss Party Mom Event Planning conjures way more attention than I was ever anticipating... Yay? I did something right? According to the assistant producer who contacted me, Miss Party Mom popped up when they were searching for party planning moms in California and they liked my work... Hey, I'll take it! They asked me in November to film myself answering a list of questions and send it in to see if I'd be an on-camera "fit"... I can't even believe I'm releasing that "casting tape" here on the blog but I am... I must be drunk right now? Anyway the rest is history- they called me in December and we agreed to film in mid February, 2014.

WARNING: This is RAW Miss Party Mom right here, are you ready for that? I cut it a little short because 10 minutes already seems like quite possibly way too long. Obviously a lot has changed since this vid- our home, my hair, my party planning career goals, etc. but here she is... My casting tape...

In one of the phone calls between myself, the producers and Andrea we decided we would do an Art Party theme for Odin. I was throwing Cormac's {POP! Art Party} in January and would be able to offer them a bit of a deal on that package since it was fresh in my mind and I had so much of the decor at my fingertips. We were in the middle of our big move to Santa Barbara so I needed a theme that was accessible and didn't require me reinventing the wheel... And also, Odin was killing it with his scribbles at that point- so Andrea thought the theme would be a perfect fit for him. I asked Sandy from Sandy Ford Design if she would do the honors of customizing yet another art party package for me- this time for Andrea and Odin- and she knocked it out of the park. I think Andrea was even impressed by how spot on the illustrations were. If you're looking for a custom illustrated touch for your own party- I highly recommend Sandy, she has various themes in her shop.

We filmed the show for two days, both of which were at Andrea's home in Los Angeles. The first day we did the "party prep" which is kind of like a cooking show... I had all of the finished product behind my back and yet on camera we were "crafting it in the moment".... And then, wah-lah, it's done! (I mean I am kind of magical like that when it comes to parties). C'mon... You don't think I would let anymore attempt to actually make a birthday banner the day I meet them, do you? That's like straight crazy. That takes months of me telling you how you're doing it all wrong.

The second day of filming we actually threw the party (Odin's preschool friends and their parents were invited). Of course I got seriously lost on my way to her house on my SECOND day of driving to the EXACT SAME HOUSE. And Hannah, God bless her... She might be worse than me with directions... Have I mentioned we're creative? So getting there late was pretty much the most stressful part of the day, at 8:00am. However once we got there we just hustled like two mad women getting our backdrop up, meeting Mallory from The French Confection Co. (who had our cupcakes, cookies and cake), then setting up our paint brush cake pops and paint palette cake balls from The MaD Cake Pop Shop along with all of our other dessert table decor. As we laid out our dipped and sprinkled fortune cookies by Pixie's Sweet Treats, Odin kept coming up and snatching them- they were definitely his fave! We got all of our desserts set up in record time... Even with a film crew "in our way" asking us to "do things slower" for filming purposes (slow and MPM don't mesh) and Odin (and Andrea!) munching away at the desserts... All I have to say is they're lucky I had camera's on me.

After the dessert table was set, we moved on to the kids eating area where we set up our cookie and cupcake decorating station. Each place setting had an easel cookie with edible ink markers for drawing on it, and a mini cupcake to decorate with sprinkles (also by The French Confection Co.). In the show, you can see my daughter Birdie skipping out on the actual drawing part and just going to town on licking the frosting off of her cookie. That's my girl...

In order to not totally piss off the parents (I mean I was jacking their kids up on sugar right before universal nap time) each child had their own "Odin's Art Party" apron and beret to wear because yes, I'm a mom too- and I'd totally hate me if their clothes were ruined after the party...

The awesome 36" confetti balloon by One Stylish Party was a total hit- the kids were actually obsessed with it- pulling it down and shaking up the confetti... Which I was totally cool and not bothered by at all... HA! In another dimension maybe? Don't worry, I totally kept my cool.

Along side the dessert decorating table, we had another activity table set where each child got a paper mache letter matching the first letter of their name (see how helpful RSVP's can be?!) and a custom made crayon roll made by The Fresh Stitch as their party favor. There were art crates and small boxes full of stickers, Do A Dot markers, washable paint, markers and crayons in the middle of each table for the kids to decorate their letters with. Because the kids were all around 3 years old, it was a great parent/kid activity and the letters actually turned out awesome. I love this idea for a party activity!

All in all it was a great experience. I knew all along Andrea was attending quite a few other "styles" of parties, so I didn't expect the show to be all about me. I'll take my 5 minutes of fame and I'll be looking for my other 10 minutes in the future!

Andrea was genuinely nice and followed up with me to thank me for a great party that her friends truly enjoyed... And to rave about how great the cake was (go Mallory!). Here are some more of the details from party day... Enjoy!

And remember... Take Me To Your Mother is on Sunday nights at 10pm on NickMom!

xo Party or Die xo

kenna

These plastic milk jugs from The TomKat Studio were a perfect child-friendly fit for our "creative juice"... You can see Andrea pouring in to them in the show (and me hovering over her as she does).

One Stylish Party