{Celebrate} Audrey's Cake & Confetti Party (Part 1)

For Audrey's 5th birthday this year we decided to celebrate it with some cake & confetti!  I wanted the party to be fun, colourful and of course sweet, so what better than with confetti & cake and of course sprinkles!
l had the privilege of collaborating with some amazing women to bring this fun theme together and developed some amazing friendships in the process!  I love how a creative collaboration can bring together people from all parts of the world in the quest to create something memorable and special!

{Celebrate} Sniff, Swirl & Sip 30th Birthday Party

Over the weekend we celebrated my sister in law turning 30 with a sniff, swirl and sip party.  A while ago we had hosted a wine tasting at their home and this time around she wanted to do a blind tasting to celebrate turning 30.  

My sister in law wanted her birthday to be rustic, pretty and with pops of colour so l decided on a doily and kraft paper design for all of the printables.  I added pops of colour with the desserts and using various material backdrops l made that complimented the doily design.  Desserts included salted caramels, vanilla bean cupcakes, salted caramel cheesecakes, honey panacotta's and a lemon layer cake.  The lovely rustic table ware was from Kylie from Sweetpickings Candy Buffets along with the beautiful lemon milk glass cake stand and lemon hobnail vases. 

The lovely and very talented Sarah from The Parchment Place created all of the printables for this little soirée which included wine bottle labels, wine tasting scoring cards, food labels, signs and the invitations.  Guests were all asked to bring a bottle of their favourite wine and $5 to put towards the prize pool for the best 3 wines!  We created covers for the wine bottles using kraft paper, paper doily tray liners and the wine bottle labels and secured them with tape and gold lame string.  Guests were all given a scorecard to then rate each bottle of wine according to it's aroma, appearance, taste, body and finish. 

There was also lots of savoury morsels to enjoy on the savoury buffet and these included chicken pate, smoked salmon, soft & hard cheeses, crispy pork and Waldorf salads served in noodle boxes, mini quiches, falafel's, meatballs, potato wedges with sweet chili and sour cream, buffalo chicken wings and pesto seared beef.  Unfortunately l did not get a picture of the buffet when it was laden with all of the food as this was well into the evening and after tasting 16 bottles of wine l was not in a photo taking state! LOL!

It was such a fun evening and even better that our 2009 bottle of Hentley Farm Beast won first prize!!  I hope you have enjoyed seeing this little soirée that l had so much pleasure putting together and hope you might be inspired to host a blind wine tasting too!!

Have a great week lovelies and don't forget to Bake, Create and Celebrate!
XOXO
Larissa

{Celebrate} To Mom with Love...a Retro Tea Party for Mother's Day!

This Mother's day styled shoot was inspired by some beautiful free printables l found on Yesterday on Tuesday by Free Pretty Things For You .  I think it was love at first sight when l saw these pretty vintage floral printables which evoked a sense of nostalgia and took me back to the 1950's! It reminded me of bundt cakes and jelly slice and pretty little cupcakes with sugar flowers and so off to the kitchen l went to create a pretty retro inspired tea party for my best friend and our little girls!

I have known my best friend since we were 8 years old and it is so lovely that our two little girls also share this same friendship.  Audrey and Ariane are so delightful together and l love to hear their giggles and their conversations as they discuss all things important like Monster High Dolls!! (their current fascination!)  When l asked the girls if they would like to have a Tea Party to celebrate Mother's day....I got squeals of excitement and for them it seemed like a year a way until they would see each other in a week's time!

I had an idea for the girls to create their own edible Mother's Day cards using heart shaped vanilla bean biscuits and edible markers to give to us as presents. 

The girls had so much fun decorating their cookies but l think they also loved the beautiful aprons my best friend made for them using the sweetest Bell & Boo fabric and she even hand stitched their names on them! (so Clever she is!!)

For our little tea party l made lemon curd lamingtons, raspberry jelly slice, earl grey tea-cup-cakes, mini pavlovas, vanilla bean cupcakes and a lemon bundt cake and we drank apple & raspberry cordial.

The girls ended the day gazing up at the sky in a lace tepee l made, sharing secrets and giggling as the sun flittered through the lace and danced on their pretty faces.  We all had such a lovely day out in the garden and I hope this is a memory they will keep forever and a friendship that will be everlasting like my best friend's and mine is!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing this little shoot l put together for Mother's Day and hope you all have a wonderful day on Sunday!  I know l am looking forward to breakfast in bed!!

Wishing you all a Happy Mother's Day and don't forget to Bake, Create and Celebrate!

XOXO
Larissa