Happy New Year {Yadda Yadda}

13/01/201711/04/2017

Hi De Ho folks and a hearty New Year wave from Mama Bear. Another year has bulldozed it’s way into our lives and there isn’t much point trying to hold it back screaming ‘too soon! to soon!’ I confess I am a tad frustrated. I still feel caught up in the cyclonic turbulence of Christmas and it’s ensuing obligations. My feet are running and I haven’t had a moment to take a breath and even begin to think about what another year means to me. My house is a stark reminder of the chaos I feel.

Not to say that I haven’t enjoyed the festivities. Our Christmas season was lovely. Family, church, swimming, a trip to the cemetery, good food, sweet treats, visitors and a squeak of party styling, all of which culminated into a family friendly New Year’s bash at our place for 80 people. We had a jumping castle, camp fire, guitars, water bombs, chicken chasing by the wee ones and a pot luck dinner.

Surprisingly I hadn’t given much thought to the dessert table I wanted, in contrast to last year where I was pumped about my Summer Boho New Years Eve party . This year I threw a few things together almost at the last minute, choosing a more traditional theme while still keeping true to my love of boho, adding a bit of golden sparkle to jazz things up.

Desserts were simple. Jars of Eton Mess and Nutella cheesecake mousse pots, Tim Tam pops and white chocolate and passionfruit cupcakes kept all of the guests happy.

I decorated mason jars with gold edged white stickers and feathers found at the two dollar shop. Each guest wrote their name on the tag and kept their glass for the night. Dessert styling does not need to be expensive. Often the cheaper shops can have items that look stylish when combined with more expensive pieces like a nice cake stand for instance. I also found a remnant of gold sparkly fabric at Spotlight which became a stunning table runner.

Two days after the party, I took our 4 year old daughter to the doctor, on a public holiday mind you, to get antibiotics for an ear ache. Imagine our surprise when he spotted two silver balls in her ear! What followed was three days of hospital visits an hour away, many hours in waiting rooms and finally a consultation with the specialist who eventually decided to take her into theatre to get the balls out. What we thought were two small edible silver cachous turned out to be 7 (yes 7!!) magnetic ball bearings! The mind boggles.

Happy New Year indeed.

Hopefully things will settle down now. I am desperate to get off the treadmill and somehow find a snippet of time to breathe, dream, create. Oh, and tidy the house, face the washing pile of mountainous proportions, put the Christmas tree away, pack away the party props, try to find the lounge room floor, take the dog for a walk, plan our homeschool year and oh yes, enjoy my children.

Yadda Yadda.

Retro Spring Brunch

28/11/2016

I recently read somewhere that orange is the new black. I don’t really like black but I’m happy to hear that orange is now fashionable. I have a bit of a bower bird attraction to retro orange and am guilty of collecting more than a few funky pieces. Last year I styled a rustic orange baby shower and since then I have longed to create a fabulous retro orange bridal shower using my vintage kitchenalia. If there are any adventurous brides out there who would like a quirky retro kitchen bridal shower, let me know!

In celebration of the arrival of Spring here in Australia, I hosted a Ladies Spring brunch. The perfect excuse to bring out my collection of vintage thermoses, servingware, funky trays, seersucker tablecloths and tins.

I kept the menu simple, serving fruit and yoghurt compotes in vintage glasses, banana bread, an assortment of bruchetta, french toast, savoury damper rolls, strawberry & passionfruit curd muffins and fruit. Obviously I had to include cupcakes, so I made my delicious Lemon curd cupcakes with meringue cloud frosting, which will appear in recipe form this week on my blog. For my gluten free guests I made a delicious almond and orange cake.

When styling my dessert tables I love to make food tag holders out of salt and pepper shakers. This is an easy and economical way to make something original to suit your theme. All you need to do is twist floral wire around a glue stick (or something cylindrical) a few times to create the holder, and wind the end around your shaker. I purchased these tags to match my invitations from Artful Happiness on Etsy. Using a simple alphabet stamp I labelled the tags to create cheap and quirky food labels.

Instead of putting a bunting across the front of the food table, I tied some pretty gingham aprons together to keep in with the vintage theme. For the backdrop I bought a peg board from Bunnings, which my son painted white. I hung a retro curtain across the top and pegged my vintage cooking utensils underneath.

With all of my styled parties I take great pleasure in providing my guests with special take home favours. For this Spring brunch, I boxed up lemon curd cupcakes tying vintage yellow fabric and string around each one. I also baked and wrapped small loaves of banana bread for guests to take home. I set these treats out on a white buffet and hutch decorated with retro sifters and kitchenware.

The tables were set with retro seersucker tablecloths and fabric. Each place setting had a vintage plate and coffee cup. I put yellow and white flowers in cute 70’s glasses.

I love including children in my adult parties and set a separate table with cereal compotes, fruit juice pop tops wrapped with vintage fabric, muesli bars and glass jars of sweets for the kiddies to take home.

I think I have satisfied my craving for retro orange and am now able to resist buying any more pieces. Although I saw this really cute tin toy cash register on Instagram, in orange of course, that keeps calling my name…

Have a great week. xx

Rustic Horse Party

06/11/201606/11/2016

What a wonderful afternoon we had a few weeks ago for my daughter’s 11th birthday. Last year she had her first ever birthday party, which was a spectacular Vintage Rainbow theme. This year, with a bit of encouragement from Mama Bear, she chose to have a horse party. She is animal crazy, and I love the idea of a rustic horse theme. Of course, to make it authentic, we needed to find somewhere to give the kiddies a horse ride. My expectations were blown out of the water by Jo and her amazing team from Seahorses Byron Bay. They provide up to ten beautiful horses for guests to enjoy. Even young children can groom and feed the horses before going on a spectacular ride along the glorious beach of Brunswick Heads.

The birthday girl’s favourite colour is aqua, so I designed the dessert table with a pop of colour to offset the rustic elements. I found leather fringing at my local Spotlight store, which gave the table a country/cowboy look. The old horse shoe tied to the fringing provided a central focal point to the front of the table.

One of my favourite elements of the dessert table was the horse favour jars. I had glass jars left over from our son’s Vintage barefoot wedding and I bought a bag of cheap plastic horse toys which I glued onto the jar lids and spray painted aqua. Such an easy way to make unique and quirky take home favours that will be a lovely keepsake for your guests. I filled my jars with chocolate covered and natural pretzels, Chex cereal and Maltesers.

The sweets menu included peanut butter Tim Tam pops, sticky date cupcakes with expresso chocolate ganache, assorted lollies and a banana cake with peanut butter frosting. Popcorn and potato chip bags were also added to the table. For a light lunch, I offered ham and cheese or coriander chicken rolls tied with aqua fabric scraps to keep in with the theme.

As delicious as the sweet treats were, the highlight of the party was definitely the horse ride. Jo assigned a horse to each of the riders, and a helper for the younger children. Charlotte immediately fell in love with her horse Candy. After time spent putting on helmets and being instructed on riding, it was time to mount up and follow the trail to the beach. Excitement levels were high! Seahorse Rides are perfect for the whole family and no riding experience is necessary. From my four year old to my husband, everyone in our family was able to enjoy the experience together.

After their spectacular ride along the beach, riders were encouraged to spend as long as they wanted grooming their horses and feeding them apples. Jo didn’t need to ask the kids twice! They have never been so up close and personal with horses and the intimacy that was shared between them was beautiful to watch.

Our horse party was such a success. The children were literally beaming the whole afternoon, long after we came home. Special thanks to Jo and her incredible assistants and horses, for giving our children one of the best days of their lives.

Bohemian Sunset photo shoot

05/08/2016

When my beautiful young friend asked if she could come over to make flower crowns with my girls, two words immediately popped into my mind. Photo shoot. How could I let such an opportunity pass me by? Never! And as hubby and my two ninja black belt Taekwondo legend kids were off kicking butt in the UK World championships, I reasoned that this was the perfect time to bake and create.

I’m always on the lookout for potential photo shoot locations. My overactive imagination sees dessert tables looking fabulous just about everywhere, even on the road side. Each time we drive past this paddock on our way to church, all I can see is how fabulous it would look with a dessert table in front of that rustic barbed wire fence and open plain. My backdrop did not disappoint. To make an even more dramatic contrast, I used my pretty milk glass collection and stunning hot pink sequin tablecloth to add a sparkle in the sunset. The occasional toot toot from cars driving past added to our joyful Saturday afternoon frolic.

Autumn inspired Dessert Table

26/06/2016

Autumn is my favourite season. Actually, it’s a toss up between Autumn and winter. I Often walk past our lovely neighbour’s house and am always struck by the beauty of their deciduous trees which are one of the few signs of seasonal change here in our sub tropical climate. It just so happens that they also have a feisty horse called Mosey in a rustic paddock directly behind the trees. Each time I walk past I tell myself that one day I am going to set up a dessert table right in front of Mosey’s yard.

A few weekends ago I got the opportunity I was looking for. It all started with a bunch of beautiful burnt orange roses. I was buying flowers for a cake order and spotted these incredible flowers. They literally took my breath away! Right then and there I decided to throw together an autumn inspired dessert table the next day. It was Friday, and my only window of time to do the shoot was Saturday afternoon. Yikes!

I won’t go into all of the details of how I managed to pull this off, except to say that I am a fast worker ( I have to be with the crazy life I lead! ), I love styrofoam dummy cakes and I roped my girls in to help me bake. I have also been thinking about this dessert table for many months (my happy place) and knew exactly what I wanted to do. I always create an inspiration folder of ideas for shoots I want to do…the old fashioned way with paper, glue and scissors, and I narrow down what I’d like to do, with what I can realistically achieve.

I love involving my younger girls in my creative pursuits. From helping me bake to modelling in my photo shoots, I am hoping to pass on my passion of creative styling, love of vintage collecting and baking to my daughters. Plus they are very cute models.

Crisp red apples, juicy oranges, caramel corn and ginger kisses. Chocolate kahlua cake, choc chip peanut butter cookies, orange and poppy seed cupcakes, spicy gingerbread cake with poached pears and nutty trail mix all featured on my Autumn dessert table. These are some of my favourite winter foods and flavours.

It was a whirlwind, but I think we created a few memories and managed a delightful afternoon with my girls.

Vintage Barefoot Wedding – Part 6 : The ceremony

26/05/201626/05/2016

This is it. At long last here is the beautiful vintage barefoot wedding of my son and his precious new bride. I hope you have enjoyed walking through each element of this journey with me. It has certainly been an adventure. I was honoured to be so intimately involved with the organisation of this wedding, not to mention revelling in my Happy Place as chief dessert stylist. ( You can see my previous wedding posts here: Sweets table, Dessert table, Drinks station, Finishing touches and Getting ready )

I loved everything about the theme of the entire wedding. The whole barefoot and braces thing reminded me of a rustic Hobbit wedding, and the ease and joy that encompassed the day was quite akin to a celebration of Shirefolk.

I would like to thank Ryan Ferguson Photography for capturing the heart of the wedding so beautifully. I especially loved the spontaneous and intimate moments that were immortalised through your camera.

The wedding venue Baileys on Fernleigh was so perfect. Thank you Lisa for opening up your heart and home to our family and about 120 other people!! The care, hard work and attention to detail you put into your amazing property makes for the most exceptional wedding experience.

My new kindred heart and friend, Ann from Grace My Table provided the most gorgeous props, bistro chairs,shepherds crooks, tea cups, tea service and so many other little things that helped to make our wonderful day even more spectacular. Ann, how can I thank you and your family enough for all that you did for us. I hope one day we get to do other events together and play with pretty china. xx

There are so many friends and dear ones who I could thank right here. To all of those precious people our lives who made a difference in bringing this spectacular wedding together, Thank You. Thanks to my special friends, including Grace who did an all nighter making floral head wreaths, Kathie who worked tirelessly to make the most insanely gorgeous afternoon tea spread for us, Lara who helped me in my kitchen with the cutest new baby in the world, and those who simply gave me a hug right when I needed it, thank you. I love living life with all of you. And to all of our loved ones who came to share in this celebration of love….Wow! What a day it was!

Now sit back and soak up the best vintage barefoot wedding ever…not that I’m biased. xx

“May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.”

-J.R.R Tolkien

Vintage barefoot wedding – Part 5 : Getting ready

15/05/201615/05/2016

I guess every mother feels the same when her child gets married, but I confess as I sat looking through these photos to prepare this post, I was fighting back tears the whole time. So many different emotions were rising up from deep within me. Firstly, such an overwhelming love for my brand new Daughter – in – Love, Chloe. She is truly so beautiful and so dear to my heart. I am thankful to God for hand picking her to join our family, and so happy that my son has found so rich a treasure.

I was also beaming with pride at seeing my whole family involved in this wedding. Our six beautiful daughters and two gorgeous sons were in the bridal party, and my precious hubby was the pastor who performed the ceremony. It doesn’t get much better than that!

My heart swelled as I saw the pure joy on my son’s face as he prepared for his wedding day. It truly was the happiest day and I couldn’t be prouder of my son and his choice in so precious a wife. “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favour from the Lord” Proverbs 18:22

Once I finished setting up the reception marquee, I raced (yes, raced in my heels) up the hill to see my treasures getting ready (Talk about multitasking!)

Such a joy.

The pictures tell the story here, so I will leave you for now and see you next time with the wedding ceremony.

(Note: I can’t help but chuckle at the difference between the girls and the boys getting ready! The photos speak for themselves. Enjoy. xx)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…..

Photography : Ryan Ferguson Photography

Venue : Baileys on fernleigh

Tea cups, shepherds crooks and ceremony chair hire : Grace My Table

Bridesmaid dresses handmade by Soho Mode

Makeup : Inner Beauty

Vintage Barefoot Wedding – Part 4 : Finishing touches

06/05/201606/05/2016

Here we are in the final stages of preparation for our family wedding of the year! Everything is in it’s place, the finishing touches are being made and we are all set to go. I am getting excited about showing you the beautiful ceremony, which will be my next blog post. Hooray! For now, here is an overview of the marquee so you can see the bigger picture of how our reception area came together with all of the dessert, sweets and drinks stations.

Caleb and his sweet bride didn’t want a sit down dinner for their reception. They chose to have delicious wood fired pizza made on the premises by Olive and Luca for guests to eat around fire pits outside the marquee. Some indoor seating was provided for guests who wanted to eat at a table.

We were so blessed to have Ann and her family from Grace My Table loan us some of her gorgeous china plates, cutlery, vintage bistro chairs and other styling props.

You may notice I am a big fan of fabric garlands. They are so easy to make and dress up any space, big or small. They also bring unity to a chosen theme.

Caleb spent months planting succulents in glass bottles, pottery mugs and timber planter boxes he made. Handmade hessian and lace runners added a simple country touch to the tables.

Do you like my shoes? I was a bit excited to find them and think they matched my dress perfectly!

Mama Bear all dressed up and ready for the wedding. Just enough time to put flowers on the wedding cake before heading up to see how my beautiful girls are going.

Let the wedding begin!

Photography by Josie Richardson Photography

Venue Baileys on Fernleigh

Additional vintage tableware and bistro chair hire Grace My Table

Vintage Barefoot Wedding – Part 3: Drinks stations

01/05/201601/05/2016

Is there anything in the whole world prettier than a tea cup? Sigh.

Right from the outset I knew I wanted tea cups to be a significant feature of this wedding. My beautiful Daughter-in-love is a huge fan of tea and loves to drink from a tea cup, so I had the perfect excuse and justification to hunt and gather some fine English pretties. Score.

Part of my vision for the reception was to create a homely atmosphere, where guests felt like they were having afternoon tea in our home. I wanted them to feel so comfortable that they would linger and enjoy all of the treats at their fingertips. It was important to me that real tea cups and coffee cups were used. Tea just doesn’t taste like tea when it’s sipped from a styro or cardboard cup. The presentation of the cups was also something I gave a lot of thought to. I picked up an old vintage dresser from a farm sale for $40, which I have used many times as a drink station. It’s perfect. I also found a more retro dresser in the op shop, which matched my lovely vintage coffee sets. Using a liquid chalk pen, I wrote “You’re my cup of tea” and “Coffee is always a good idea” onto the dresser mirrors. All of these finishing touches added to the vintage charm of our wedding.

Let me show you the tea, coffee, hot chocolate and drinks stations.

My favourite tea is Love Chai Tea, so I used a selection of their pyramid tea bags for the tea station. Their French earl Grey is without a doubt my favourite and incidentally makes the best cupcakes. I love my vintage enamelware and this cute tin was perfect for used tea bags.

Another goal for the reception was to have tea and coffee available as soon as the guests arrived after the ceremony. I spoiled them a little by adding a hot chocolate bar to the beverage stations, complete with chocolate spoons and a gorgeous wooden suitcase filled with homemade cookies to snack on throughout the evening.

I love the idea of guests having one glass that they use all night, so I decorated over a hundred mason jars and bottles with sweet cardboard heart tags on which guests wrote their names. The bride and groom had their own special vintage glasses to use. Stripey yellow straws and fabric buntings matched the vintage theme beautifully. As presentation is so important to me, I set up all of the mason jars onto a white buffet and hutch, decorating it with yellow fabric garlands.

As you look through all of these photos, I hope you can feel the love that I put into each and every detail of the drinks stations at this very special wedding. I also hope that you are inspired to choose a theme and have fun creating your own unique event or party. xx

Vintage Barefoot Wedding – Part 2: The Dessert Table

24/04/201624/04/2016

The main dessert table for our son’s Vintage barefoot wedding was the centrepiece of the whole reception. I used three old doors as the backdrop, with doily bunting draped across them. I used my vintage yellow fabric to make panels for the glass door in the middle, which tied in with the Sweets table, bringing cohesion to the theme. I also used a gorgeous yellow chenille bedspread as the tablecloth. White wooden letters saying SWEET AS brought a touch of fun to the display.

The menu consisted of white chocolate or peanut butter Tim Tam Pops, lemon meringue shots in pretty vintage glasses, vanilla cupcakes, Nutella cheesecake mousse pots, chocolate covered Oreo biscuits and a rustic chunky monkey peanut butter and banana chocolate cake.

For months before the wedding I collected vintage glass salt and pepper shakers which I used as food card holders by wrapping wire around the tops of each.

Vintage side plates sitting on top of an enormous wooden spool were available for guests as they enjoyed their selection of desserts.

Photography: Josie Richardson Photography