THE REAL GOOD LIFE

on the farm

Having already had Bailey's Big Top 1st Birthday Bash with family and friends in South Africa for my daughter's birthday, my husband suggested a simple lunch with just the four of us on the real day itself. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to put some party ideas that I had into practice, so here are some photos of Bailey's "Day on the Farm" Birthday Lunch.

REAL GOOD PARTY ADVICE

With her real party already behind us, this lunch was just for the fun of it, so the challenge I set myself was to come up with something beautiful but budget friendly, so here are my “chic but cheap” ideas:

For country looking tableware,I bought bamboo disposable plates and cutlery from the local supermarket.

And I placed these together with linen napkins in woven baskets (that I had been collecting for a few months that contain the baby potatoes I buy).

Little bread rolls were spruced up with a plastic daisy (stolen from the grass centerpiece mats) inserted in the top

Fake grass squares (purchased for Easter) were placed in the centre of the table and I dotted farm animals all around (stolen from the girl’s toy box).

For vases; I repurposed baby food jars. I simply placed them in the dishwasher, and they come out as pretty mason jars. Ideal for mini vases and votive candle holders (and they make great take home favours).

I bought a printable party set (www.partiesbyhardie.com), actually the Girl’s Ocean one (so this can be reused for such a theme) and used the pretty paper to wrap strips around the jars.

For flowers, I was in luck, the local supermarket had a bunch of pink country looking flowers, so when cut up and placed in jars really looked like “professional” and “fancy” flower arrangements.

Apple candles were bought for my Back to School Breakfast, so reused for this party – but one could easily use real apples for the same look. And these can be converted into candles, by simply cutting a whole big enough for a tealight.

For place cards, months ago I had bought zinc garden markers, fortunately I had not used these yet, so they fitted in nicely with the theme.

More good advice to follow with our Make your own “Amy Atlas” inspired Dessert Buffet.