23 days to go...

Monday, September 7, 2009


young at heart

It must be the month of birthdays in our family! Wishing my dad a very Happy 65th Birthday, and I found the perfect cake topper!

IN GOOD COMPANY SHOP

BIRTHDAY CANDELABRA

Traditional birthday candles are fine for a kid’s cupcake, but they don’t help create a special mood for that certain someone. If you want a little ambience to go with that chocolate truffle cognac cheesecake, then our Birthday Candelabra is here to help light the way. It’s an elegant candle with three wicks – but who’s counting?

Available in Pink or Silver.

12.5cm tall.

R50 each

THE REAL GOOD LIFE

Friday, September 4, 2009

on the farm

REAL GOOD PARTY ADVICE

For favours, I also used boxes that our Brie cheese comes in, and filled these with biscuits and pretty flower magnets, which were sprinkled on the table…

For the birthday cake, supermarket mini loaves of chocolate and carrot cake were iced and decorated with sugar mushrooms and chocolate sprinkles.

Our darling little girl enjoying her cake!

THE REAL GOOD LIFE

on the farm

REAL GOOD PARTY ADVICE

I made my own “Amy Atlas” inspired Dessert Buffet:

As I am no baker, and it was just the four of us, I made a “centrepiece” instead of a cake out of fabric boxes (keepsake boxes that were already in Bailey’s nursery), added some fake grass and cute wooden daisies. Imagine if this was a cake!

My Christmas glass jars were filled with all pastel shaped sweets, chocolates and biscuits.

For flower arrangements, I bought garden tea roses from the supermarket, repotted these in my orchid ceramic pots. What is so nice about having used garden flowers instead of cut, is that I am going to replant these in my balcony window boxes to enjoy throughout the year and remember this special day!

Instead of packets for guests to fill with candy, I used my old jam jars decorated with pretty fabric.

For the backdrop I “loaned” my daughter’s nursery curtain (it desperately needed ironing anyway!) and for the pictures these are actually wall stickers – which are reusable! The HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner is also from the Partiesbyhardie set.

more to come…

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.


26 days to go...


happy b-day!

To my darling daughter Bailey, Happy 1st Birthday!

We love you so much,

Mommy, Daddy and big Sister, Zara

Sing along with our musical candle!

Twist the base to the left and happy birthday music will start to play. Looks fab on a cake and is perfect for all birthday parties.

Musical Candle

Contains: 1 candle and 1 plastic musical candle holder.

R50 each

40 days to go...

Thursday, August 20, 2009


hip, hip hooray!

Happy Birthday Bunting, beautiful bright colours, brilliant decoration for anyone’s birthday, party or no party. In fact, it should be a standard item for all offices, that way you can spruce up that grey little cubicle for your colleague! And while I think about it, all you teachers out there this is compulsory for the classroom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUNTING

Birthday bunting with 16 triangular pennants

Size: 5m

R60 each

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