"Mummy, this was the happiest day of my life!"

Wow! Yesterday was the busiest event I have ever hosted. I was up, dressed and made up before the sun came up and didn’t get to bed until midnight, slipping into my little angel’s bed with her for a quick cuddle before I crashed to sleep.

So the day started with a bang, well a crash actually when a three tier plate stand full of beautifully decorated ruffled mini cupcakes smashed on the floor. While I fought back tears my little girl says “It’s ok mummy, do you want a hug?”. Sweet.

Once the tables were in place, we dressed little Liana in her beautiful white dress, soft pink wrap¸ the veil I wore for my First Communion and flowers, complete with sweet white shoes.

We arrived at the church and upon seeing all the other girls, none of which were wearing veils she turned to me and begged to take it off. Of course I let her, but then we had a big problem. The veil was held into her hair by a daggy pink hair tie (which wasn’t ever going to be seen) however now was on full display for all to see. What to do? What to do?

Thinking quickly I ripped one of the ribbons from the flowers and tied it around her hair, unfortunately the ends were ratty and there was not a pair of scissors in sight! I just closed my eyes opened them again and pretended I couldn’t notice.

All the little girls and boys stood outside while all the parents found their seats and awaited their walk down the isle. I cried like a baby! My little big girl looked so beautiful walking with her best friend Pheobe who was sharing the day with us and her family.

After the service the Church hosted a little morning tea for all the children to enjoy while I raced home to set up four tables for everyone’s arrival.

I had about 10 minutes to lay out the table, make the macchinetta coffee complete with heated milk and take all the photos. My mum poured me a glass of Champagne while we got busy and before I could get everything out the guests arrived! Quickly I snapped only a few photos and here they are.

This is how my little girl looked at the Church

She looks a little nervous

With her cousin and Sponsor - Stephanie

Back in the garden, best friends opened presents...

Liana disappeared and was back five minutes later in some play clothes she found! So typical of her.

Then the girls laughed and played ALL DAY LONG... evidence...

In the little lounge hideaway I made for them, they stayed for hours!

 And cut their cake ....

And we sipped milk......

Strawberry Milk in Sharnel Dollar Design Bottles + Details Details Straws

And these are the 'Social Page' Shots :)

Liana's two favorite people, Daddy and Mummy.

And what did the boys do? Of course they played with guns!

I wish I could have taken more and better photos with all the food and gifts and decorations but there was just NO time. But that is it. All over now. I can not wait to sleep and rest and eat the left over cake for dinner :)

More about this event and preparations can be read here.

Credits go to:
Details Details for decorations, supplies, straws, napkins, bunting
Sharnel Dollar Designs for ideas, inspirations and little bottles
Imprintables for magically beautiful invitations
The Cupcake Courier for decorations, sugar hearts, the cupcake courier

P.S Here is a photo of the ruffle cupcakes just as I finished them

Big Fat Croation First Holy Communion Mk 7 ~ The Bonbonniere

I am not fond of the word Bonbonniere, it sounds so daggy. But yet to find a better word.

So here you have it. The Bonbonniere for Sunday.

Glass tubes, ribbon, stickers all provided by Details Details.

Filled with Fruit Mentos on the left and musk sticks cut to size on the right.

The girls at Details Details even offered to put these together for me, but I decided to keep all that fun for myself!

Our Homemade Morning Tea Menu

Magnolia Bakery's Three Layer Vanilla Cake with Fresh Raspberry Frosting
Piped Italian Lemon Biscuits
Traditional Biscotti by Zia (Italian for Aunty)
Pikelets with Home Made Jam and Double King Island Cream
My Cupcakes iced with Butter Cream and Decorated
Raspberry and Apple Slice by Rebecca (Mum of Liana's Best friend and fantastic baker!)
Chicken and Almond Finger Sandwiches by Rebecca
Chicken and Cashew Cakes by Rebecca
Cheese Cake Lattice Slice
Home Made Sausage Rolls and Gourmet Mini Lamb Pies
Custard Tea Cup Shortbreads

If you have any other delightful recipes which you could share with me, please do. This is a European event, and would not be right if I did not have huge amounts of food and lots of left overs to send home in little packages. (yep, thought of those too)

Event Planning

Huge change of plans on the event front.

No dessert table now. Mainly because everyone will be arriving at the house at the same time! It dawned on me last night while making huge Martha Stewart Pom Poms and I starting thinking about the day's timeline.
Stupid o'clock - Get up, showered, dressed, make up, hair. Children up. Dress miss in her dress, straighten her hair, fit the veil. Dress the boys. Make all beds, tidy house.
7:15 am - Leave home for the Church
8 am - Service begins and my little girl makes her First Communion
9:30 am - Arrive home along with everyone else
9:30 am - Party begins.

So where is the time for set up? Getting everything out of the fridge? Displaying things beautifully on the table? etc ? etc?

THERE IS NO TIME!

So I am just going to do what I can do and this is how it will go.

Adults: Two long tables filled with yummy goodies, tea cups, flowers and hanging pastel pom poms
Children: Coffee tables (child height) covered in all of the above, under a tree in the garden with bright hanging pom poms.

I will have everyone meet in the front garden. Champagne with apricot or peach nectar. Strawberry milk for the children. This should buy me 15-20 mins to boss my sisters around to within an inch of their life to get everything laid out perfectly.  Then I will invite everyone upstairs for the reveal!

Well that's the plan.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

Big Fat Croation First Holy Communion Mk 6 ~ Prep Has Begun

I will post a few things here as I go because that way I will not forget and also so we can watch how it comes together.

Rose Jug: Black + Spiro
Tea pot: Liana purchased this at a garage sale with her own money for $2
Tea cup: Antiques Fair Brisbane 2007
Teaspoon: Robert Gordon from Peters of Kensington Online
Cake stand: Pink Milk Glass from Donna Hay General Store
Milk bottle: Sharnel Dollar Designs via My Life My Loves
Bunting: Available at Mama's Home or Details Details
Table cloth: Passed down from my grandmother, circa 1940s

Imprintables Invites are in the House!

Nathalie at Imprintables is a star!

Here are the invite confirmations which arrived this morning. Quickly snapped it on the phone to get them up on the blog ASAP!

I'm so happy :)

Big Fat Croation First Holy Communion Mk4 ~ Its O.K.

As every Mummy knows, it sometimes becomes difficult to meet the demands of life. I'm there. And last night when I hit rock bottom a ray of light came in the form of a tweet by Sunny Mummy Stacey and her blog post HERE. I felt exactly the same way! I'm hungry for rest and some 'me' time too. And I too have been through the heart testing, with nothing 'medical' to report. It was stress. And this heart problem comes and goes depending on my stress / tired levels.

I have a major life project on the go at the moment and this is taking a lot of my time and energy, along with work and kids and it was time to slow down. And today I did. I have stayed in my PJs all day. I have watched Breakfast at Tiffanys, Dirty Dancing and Bridget Jones Diary.

Anyway, decided it was time to take a breath and just order a few things in for the Big Fat event and not beat myself up over it. It's coming together, not with my usual strategic coordination which is akin to the Presidents Inauguration, but its going ok.

Little Liana is off to the Family Mass with her Daddy this afternoon to learn all things Catholic and I am staying home. That's ok. I will not stress.

Here are some of the things I picked up at Mama's Home down the road from me in Windsor, Brisbane yesterday.

Paper Eskimo Party Flags (in lieu of the ones I was attempting to sew) these are great because you put them together yourself and can include what ever colours suit!

For the little little ones.

I am still to source some little bottles for strawberry milk for the older girls and some sweet straws. I am sure Sharnel from My Life, My Loves can help and you can follow her on facebook at Sharnel Dollar Designs - complete party stylist.  

{Sharnel Dollar Designs}

Although, I am sure if I fail to deliver on expectations, I will have this to contend with...

Japanese Tea Party

Photos: Ian MacPherson

If you are looking for beautiful custom made invitation, Nathalie Rivet of {Imprintables} is the girl to talk to. She is busy working on a new website at the moment, so the best place to see some beautiful creations and ideas is her BLOG. 

Being a follower of the Imprintables Blog brings beautiful images and ideas to your screen on a regular basis and I can never wait to see Nathalie's next post.  The images above she sourced from lmnop which is an online magazine and blog. Please go HERE to read the full story behind the images above. Just beautiful!
Here are the links to the people who created this Tea Party
LMNOP Productions
Tee Pee Jr {Beautiful Kids Clothes}
Madame MO {French Co. bringing Japanese stationary to Australia}

If you are looking for all kinds of things for a party theme, visit Kawaii For You will post about this online store soon as it's so great!

Anyway, back to me and the Big Fat Event. Nathalie is currently producing the invitations which have been loosely based on these....

Sorry there is so much to take in with this post, but there was just so much to share!

Can not wait for next week when my invitaitons arrive and I can share them.

Homewares & Heartwares

Saturday morning brought the flinging open of the Black+Spiro store to their one day sale. It was madness. I was only able to take one quick shot before braving the crowd inside to see what I could find. I arrived five minutes late at 9:35am as there was a traffic jam down Brunswick street (due to the sale) only to find that most of the good stuff was sold. It was madness. Great bargains for those who lined up from 8:15am I've been told. I must admit, I am not that dedicated. I scored myself some rose jugs which will work in with The Big Fat Croatian First Holy Communion in a few weeks time. And a couple of bits of fabric which I am sure I will turn into something down the track when I learn to sew or bribe someone else to sew something for me!

My Black+Spiro Vintage Jugs

Then I headed south for a mission of mercy. Without going into the North-South Side Debate* and upsetting anyone but this is kinda how it works. South is ok, deep south is dodgy, deep deep south is very dodgy. Yet way south is where Polo is played served up with seafood and Veuve (if you get their alive). I had to go deep deep south and it was scary. One guy was staring and actually pointed at my car. I felt like saying "Yes, its a Volvo. Yes, it has personalised number plates. Yes, I have only one set of piercings. Yes, my kids are wearing shoes" You get the picture. I won't post the photo I snapped down there... lets just say a rats tail is NOT a suitable fashion statement for a 3 year old boy!

On the way back I took a WIDE loop and stopped into Lily G for the first time since the new owner has taken over. I didn't alert to having 'insider knowledge' of the store by telling anyone I have been following the Lily G blog for years as there were lots of people in the store and I was happy to look around and observe. I was very impressed!
Don't you just LOVE these custom made cushions.

Also in stock are beautiful French etched glasses from the movie Coco Avant Chanel. I tried to get a photo of the glasses without looking like I was casing the joint but it blurred. I am purchasing some for sure! Just need to work out how many I can fit into cupboards!

Then I stopped off at my local thrift shop and bought five silver rimmed saucers which are just perfect for little candle plates and tea pot holders (must post photo) they were $1 for all five.

One of my silver saucers

(with a cameo by some fabric I purchased at Black+Spiro Sale)

The afternoon was filled with completing Mother's Day orders for some yummy Mummies and Grandmummies.

Here are some more cupcakes I made and snapped a pic before the delivery. It is so great when clients bring their own Cupcake Couriers to be filled with 36 cakes by me. Get one HERE and yes, I know I harp on about these, but they truly are fantastic.

Mothers Day 2010 will go down as THE WORST of all time. Without going into too much detail the highlight was hearing the lovely Liz sing "My Favourite Things" accapella as the opening to the Mother's Day Service at Church and lowlight was breaking out in hives all over my neck at face which kept me drugged in bed most of the day. You DO NOT need to see a photo of that!

*** The 'North / South Debate is the ongoing argument that living on either side of the river is better than the other. I offer informed opinion to this cause as I spent the first 25 years of my life in the south and the last 7+ years in the north. I would not move south unless something pretty darn special called me there! But that is just me

Big Fat Croation Holy Communion Mk3

OH NO! Today after a couple of less than perfect baking events last night, I woke with a fright.

I haven't chosen the invitations!

There are too many to choose from and with work and baking pulling me away from this momentous occasion event planning, some intense planning time will need to be dedicated this weekend.

I have lots of ideas on how things are going to look and what I will bake and how I will arrange things and where people will sit and who they will talk to and and and and.... see rambling! I need some time to clear these thoughts and put them all down on my little event planning "Task List / Run Sheet" so that all is clear to everyone else, should I get hit by a bus on the way to the church.  The best thing about that is that my family can use all my good planning on a beautiful combined First Communion / Wake! And I would have things MY way ;)

These are a few of the things which have made their way from maybe to confirmed on the list. Click on photo to enlarge.

Photo 1 - The little girl as seen this and would like a cluster of carnations made into a beautiful bouquet. However she doesnt want them to die so I am either going to try and source some classy fake ones (classy fake, that's an oxymoron!) or use one of the many trusted Martha crafts and make something out of tissue paper? I don't know. I may just need to talk her into real ones and dispose of them before she has to witness the decay. Its funny how a little girl's mind works!

Photo 2 - Donna Hay Pink Milk Glass Cake Stand from Donna Hay General Store. One word, CLASSIC! Jealously overcame me when I saw Sharnel at My Life My Loves & The Cupcake Company owned a set of these and I decided then and there to track them down! Three are on their sweet little way from the Donna Hay General Store in Sydney (list of products HERE). YAY!

Photo 3 - The cake. So this is a Martha Stewart cake. But in lieu of the lemon cake she has used, I am going to make my trusty Magnolia Bakery cake and layer with Martha Stewart's Swiss Meringue Buttercream and pipe with the special technique. Testing in due course!

So there you have it. You can read more about this Big Fat event HERE.

My very own Veruca Salt!

I am so happy to have found a few new blogs today. They have brought a huge smile to my face when the weekend had been less than perfect. One I just had to share today, but first some ramblings.

The 'Daddy' has gone overseas for 10+ days and the little 'daughter' said "Mummy, my heart is breaking because daddy is away"
I felt so sad for her even I had tears in my eyes.
Half a day passed, then...
"Mum, you look stressed. You better get some help around here because I am going to be a handful this week and you will have to cook all my favourite dinners you know"

Well I had news for her! When I politely informed her she would be eating what I had meal planned for the week (which was written on our kitchen menu board) my little angel turned into Veruca Salt from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory! I don't need to air any more of my dirty family secrets just now, but I am sure there will be more as the week continues.

So.. back to beautiful blogs.

At Ada and Darcy Kellie Collis finds some of the most beautiful photos I have ever seen in blog world. I am so grateful for her posts most days.

You can find both of these blogs now on my blog roll over here ------------------------------->

Such Pretty Things

Lots of party themes and such pretty little crafts to make.

I am making some of these for the First Communion Event

Look at the way she has set this table! Magic!!

Hand cut napkins out of pretty fabric with pinking shears. Simple but great idea!