Archive for the ‘ life ’ Category

Doesn’t etsy always have the loveliest prints? i love this one from TypePoster. A perfect sentiment for the weekend. Have a lovely one. xx

Isn’t this peach and black Valentino number just beautiful? Found via Buscut, It has such feminine detailing while still being ever so stylish- as only Valentino can.

We’ve been busy bee’s here of late. Not only are we busy with Spring and Summer weddings, but we celebrated Miss Ella’s 5th Birthday on the weekend. She chose our Buzz Buzz Bee invitations last July (while i was standing on a ladder decorating for her ladybird party!), and has done nothing but talk about her bee party ever since!

I was brave and made the cakes myself this time. Ella and I had fun in the kitchen playing with fondant – it’s the first time I’ve made a cake with fondant, so I’m happy with the way they came up! Some pics below of the dessert table and party, I hope they inspire you for things you can do with our buzz buzz bee party theme.

Food made for the dessert table included Honey Joys, Yo-Yo’s, Ginger-Bee’s and Buzz Cakes. Guests sipped on nectar and were given little ‘sweet as honey’ jars of sweets to take home. Entertainment was provided by Disco Pop Parties – the busy bee’s disco! And we finished up with a bee pinata.

The detail list

Invitations – Alannah Rose Buzz Buzz Bee Party Invitations

Printable Party - Buzz Buzz Bee Party Hats, drink bottle labels, tent cards, sweet as honey labels, by Alannah Rose

Empty Honey Jars – Star Gift Ashburton (these are plastic as I was concerned about glass and five year olds!)

Cake – Made by me! Fondant supplies etc from West’s Cakes

Bee Pinata – The Party Stop

Flowers – Camberwell Florist

Ella’s Bee Dress – The Kids Window (note these are large size dresses, we had to do some alterations to it for it to fit)

Garlands and Fabric – Spotlight – the garlands are wool – about $4.00 for 20 metres!

Bee Cookie Cutter – Baking Pleasures

Entertainment – Disco Pop Parties

A special thank you to Amy Atlas and her team for featuring our party today. Amy is a fabulous source of inspiration. We’re looking forward to seeing her book when it’s released and excited that she is heading out to Australia! Visit her blog for details.

Morning everyone! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. This week we’ve got some more new york posts and some inspiration for you, I hope you enjoy!

Today’s beautiful find from the National Stationery Show in New York was Cake Vintage. I had seen their paper place mat range before, but was stopped in my tracks by the stunning paper table runner and vintage spoon chandelier. Vintage theme occasion anyone?

A family run business based in Nashville, Cake is all about Vintage, and what’s not to love? From their charming door knob collection (where it all started) through to their pretty paper, linen, tableware and lighting ranges, everything about Cake is beautiful and designed with love.

La Esquina would have to be one of my New York favourite restaurants. Australia could really take a look at New York restaurants, about the experience they create, the mood that is set. From the moment we entered La Esquina, we were on an adventure.

To get to the restaurant, you enter through the Taquira – a grungy retro take away style store. We sidled up to a man on a chair and mentioned we had a reservation (you’ll need to book 3 weeks in advance to the day) and were sent down some narrow, dark stairs. From there we were directed through the kitchen (yes!) before we found our way into the brasserie.

The lighting and decor was dark, exotic and intriguing – a perfect contrast to the brightly lit upstairs Taquira – and fitting for the mood they were trying to set – exclusive, hidden. The service at La Esquina was amazing, and the food incredible – I really loved all the crab and lobster they serve in New York – crab taquidos – delicious!

Give some thought to the lighting when planning your next event – what sort of mood do you want to project?

There’s nothing I love better than beautiful Typography combined with lovely words -  isn’t this print (by Seb Lester via Creative Review) elegant?
Speaking of Van Gogh and Starry Nights, I finally got to see the real Starry Night at MOMA during our New York Trip, took my breath away.

Another find from the National Stationery Show in New York. For me, Figs and Ginger really stood out at the show, their work was different, quirky and eye catching, not to mention displayed beautifully.

All of Figs and Ginger’s items are made in the mountains of North Carolina with sustainable harvested wood. I especially love the cake toppers and wedding bunting, and how perfect are the coat hangers? I see many wedding shots of beautiful bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses hanging on a not so nice coat hanger – these are the perfect solution!

I’ve got so much to share about the New York trip! We saw plenty of inspiring things to do with all things paper, fashion, art and party, but we also ate plenty of delicious food! The food was amazing, the venue’s beautiful and the service impeccable.

One of our favourite lunch spots was Balthazar. A bustling, beautiful restaurant in the heart of Soho, New York. This restaurant is always busy, whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner, so book ahead, or be prepared to wait at the bar – champagne anyone?

I ordered the Warm Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tart, and the Baby Beet Salad – both of which I’m still dreaming about, so I’m a little delighted that I just discovered you can purchase the Baltahazar Cookbook! It even has the beetroot salad!

They also cater for private functions – what a perfect spot for an event based around fine food, friends and old world charm.

If you are heading to New York, put this one on your list. x

I came across this sweet idea via Family Chic, so sweet and simple. I’ve always loved these little paper parasols, would be perfect for the front door to welcome little guests to a Rainbow Party. See how to make your own here.

Well here we are back from a lovely weekend and a fantastic and fun rainbow party!
Alannah had an amazing time, she was so happy the entire day, and I  thought I’d share the pics with you.

Keeping with our our rainbow theme and inspired by the book ‘You, Me and the Rainbow’ I introduced a heart element into the invitation design as well as some of the design elements in keeping with the rainbow ritual in the book ‘sending a rainbow from my heart to yours’.
We were both really excited about this theme, it was so much fun to work on.
Above: Our new ‘wrap me in rainbows’ party invitations created especially for this party; Miss Alannah loving every bit of her 6th Birthday; ‘wrap me in rainbows’ party hats
Above: Rainbow party hats – Alannah loves party hats, so these were a special request from her, now available as a printable party file;
Favours – guests were given ‘Cookie Love’ take home rainbow gingerbread hearts; The kids party table – one of my favourite things and a fabulous find that I used for this party were the garlands – you can’t see much of them in the pics, but I strung them all over the roof, mainly in white, with some bulk colour for the rainbows. These were not actually garlands, but strings of wool! Yes wool, it’s called snowball and you can purchase it in 25 metre lengths in a multitude of colours from Lincraft or Spotlight for around $3.50. A bargain!

Above: The Sweets and Candy Table – The hanging cloud with rainbow hearts was purchased from etsy seller The Rainbow Room, Clara very kindly adjusted the design to have hearts rather than rain drops for me; The Cake - I first saw the rainbow cake over at my lovely friends Hip Hooray, for instructions to make head on over to Whisk Kid. For our version I wanted Alannah to be involved – she finger knitted the wool decoration to wrap around the cake, and chose the unicorn on top out of selection of few cake toppers I found on etsy – this one came from the very talented Bunny with a Toolbelt. The number six was purchased from spotlight and I glued some printable paper with spray adhesive to the front so it would tie in with the other stationery pieces.

Above: The food - as we were having an afternoon party I didn’t want to make too many different dishes for the dessert bar, so we went with cupcakes – topped with the rounded tip of a candy cane, rainbow bark – white chocolate with crushed candy cane on top, heart shaped fairy bread – always a favourite, and rainbow striped gingerbread hearts – these took a fair bit of time to make, but I’m super pleased with the outcome even if I do say so myself! An assortment of coloured lollies were also added included smarties, jelly beans and twizzlers – rainbow coloured licorice!

Above: More sweet treats; Drink bottles – were dressed up with printable drink labels in our wrap me in rainbows theme

Above: The rainbow cake – it worked! It really is simple to make, and very effective – the papparazzi were in force!; Sweet Treats – I printed up little treat bags and filled with candy for guests to take home

Above: More Gifts - I couldn’t resist making up these  little personalised pocket mirrors to match the invitations. The poem on the hessian bag was ironed on with t-shirt transfer.

Entertainment - I wanted to sit back and enjoy the party this time around so I organised for Stephanie from Fairy Flutterby to entertain the guests. Stephanie is a fantastic entertainer and talented face painter. She kept the girls laughing with a magic show, dancing, games, facepainting and balloon sculpting – what more could you ask for! I highly recommend her.

More Details:

Stationery - All of the stationery items used in this party are now available for purchase through Alannah Rose as printable party files, you can view our ‘wrap me in rainbows’ printable party invitations and matching items here. So if you’re wanting to replicate this look, you can simply purchase the files and print off the paper pieces at home.

Twizzlers - from Sugar Station

Ribbon Cake stands from Tracey Lau

Rainbow Candy Cane - Big W

Cake Supplies – Wests

Rainbow Twine – The Twinery

Finally – A very special thank you to my mum, my husband, my two gorgeous girls that make me smile every day, my lovely friend Kerrin, and the mums that helped me on the day.

And finally to Amy Atlas who featured our little party on her blog today with the sweetest words – I’m so flattered! – I’m ever inspired by Amy’s work, and thrilled that she has featured one of our party’s again.

Today we’re getting ready for a little 6th birthday celebration for my daughter. The theme she’s chosen is rainbows, and whilst there’s so many rainbow parties around and it’s a popular choice, it’s a choice that’s dear to our hearts and especially special to her.

Last year when she started prep, we went through a lot of separation anxiety, two terms of it actually (in Australia that’s half a year), there were tears every morning at drop off, and I mean EVERY, which was distressing for me, distressing for her, and difficult for her teacher – a Mr – who handled her absolutely amazingly and took her on his knee each morning as I pried my fingers out of her grip.

At some stage amongst all the tears I had a chat with my Aunty, a school teacher who had just been to a talk by Petria King – a well-known author, inspirational keynote speaker, teacher and facilitator. Petria’s talk was about the rainbow ritual and accompanying story book You, Me and the Rainbow. A story and ritual developed by Petria to help children deal with challenging, sad or distressing news. My Aunty thought it might be worth a try with our separation anxiety, so I ordered the book and away we went.

Well, within a week of reading the book every night and doing the rainbow ritual, Alannah was going off to school, wrapped in a rainbow and not a tear in sight!

Since then, she’s been obsessed with rainbows, we talk about them a lot, and every now and then when she’s feeling a little unsure, I send her rainbow from my heart to hers, and it’s enough to give her a little more confidence to head off to whatever it is she’s doing.

I highly recommend the book, it’s a beautiful story with a purpose, and it’s certainly one that’s become special in our home. So tomorrow, we’ll be sending rainbows around, I hope you all catch one too.

Stay tuned for the pics – we’ve had so much fun with the theme rainbow, Alannah has even finger knitted some of the decorations, which is so incredibly sweet.

For more information on Petria King, the Rainbow Ritual and You, Me and the Rainbow, please click here.

This week I was thrilled to attend a little soiree held by the lovely girls at Bride to Be magazine. Held at the Pavillion at Como House, it was a lovely afternoon. I’ve fallen in love with the Pavillion, it’s an intimate room, simply decorated to provide a blank canvas for your own theme, and it looks out over some of the beautiful gardens at Como House. It’s perfect for engagement parties, small cocktail style weddings, birthday parties, bridal or baby showers and events.

Catered functions are run by Bursaria Fine Foods, and I can testify that the fare I tasted this week was simply delicious. I found this sweet image on their gallery, so pretty!