Hello!! I'm Back!

Hello - I can't believe how it's been since I last posted! And so much has happened since then! The kids went back to school, we had Nienna's postponed birthday party, my eldest daughter turned 18 and moved into her own flat, my mum went into hospital for an op and my sister and her son came up to help me out with her and my Grandma!!! Phew!!
OK, so tonight I'll just share some of the photos from Nienna's very girly pink Cotton Candy party. I must say that this party turned out exactly how I imagined it in my head and I was so pleased with everything. I really went to town on the small details and they paid off - although I discovered that the piping bags I had were of very little use what-so-ever! I'll be looking for some tips in that department if you have any to share.
First up - I decided to get really creative in the kitchen and make my own chocolate cupcake toppers in the shape of the cotton candy and lollipops I designed for the printables.

Piping with candy melts really isn't easy as they set so quickly and the oil from the chocolate was just being squeezed through the material of the piping bag!! I was a bit disappointed with these until I turned them over and this was the result I got!!

 Not bad for an amateur! I also attempted cookie pops and macarons for the first time too!! I like to live dangerously! My macarons were something of a disaster, albeit a rather yummy tasting disaster!

The photo below shows the table setting with a cake pop, cookie pop and name pop alongside a little vase with pink gerbera and a mini milk bottle with pink paper straw (and flag).

Each girl had a doily place mat and Nienna helped me to add half a small doily to each of the vases and the milk bottles too.

I think the different shades of pink flowers worked really well on the tables and instantly added a professional touch with the need for any fancy flower arranging skills which is something I don't have!

The mini Pick and Mix table was a huge success as usual. I honestly suggest having something like this at the next party you throw for your kids. It doesn't have to cost the earth as you can pick up good offers on sweets in the supermarkets and the discount stores are fantastic for sweets too. I used a couple of small fishbowl vases, one tall candle holder type glass, some plastic cocktails glasses from Poundland and little sandwich paste jars with party circle tags on. All the sweets were pink and the little pots in the middle are ice cream pots from Home Bargains.

As it was a very girly party, I provided some make up from my rather pathetic stash for them to play with!! They also had nail varnish which had a little pen applicator and a stash of gems built in to the bottle!! They each got to take one of these home along with a hairbrush and these fabulous handbag gift bags which had lots of goodies inside.

Now, no self respecting Cotton Candy party would be complete with some candy floss!! Thanks to my best friend who lent me her candy floss machine.

And here we have the birthday girl with her candy floss and her birthday cupcake as I didn't make a big cake - far too many sweet things to eat already!

Here's a lovely photo of the girls getting stuck into their cake pops after their lunch.

I'll leave you with other photos of the day and next time I'll share some photos from Lorien's 18th Birthday Horrible Histories party.

Night all, take care
Suz xx

Tutorial - Mini Cupcake Stand

Good Morning to you all. Well. it's been awhile since I posted as I've been busy with a craft fair and getting organised for Theo's birthday party (it's his birthday today - can't believe my baby is 10!!). I had to have some enforced time off after getting a steroid injection in my knee last week too! But I'm back now and have a lovely tutorial to make a mini cupcake stand using one of my printables. These are a really cute way to display some cupcakes or perhaps you could just make one and have the special birthday girl/boy's cupcake on it.

Firstly, download your free cupcake stand printable here, and print out onto card.

Cut out around the outline of the stand. Leave the white ovals in the middle. Score along the lines. Score down through the white ovals too as you will need to fold these bits.

Turn over and apply glue to all areas except the tabs at the top. Now you need to concertina fold the stand together to form a cross shape. The white ovals should be together.

You can now cut out the white ovals.

Fold down the tabs at the top and apply glue to each. Place scalloped circle on the top.

And there you go, a lovely mini cake stand. I hope you have fun with it.
Hugs
Suz x

Pirate Tea as easy as 1, 2, 3!!

Avast me Hearties! Come join me in an adventure on the highs seas!
I do love a pirate theme so we had lots of fun last night when the kids had a couple of friends round for tea. I have some tips for the most easy party ever and even a recipe to share with you today!

At the beginning of the week, I decided to add a pirate them to tea for the kids, so I sat down and thought of  what food I could do and some piratey names! I didn't want party type food so decided on baked potatoes with beans (Treasure chests filled with rubies!), carrot sticks (peg legs!), sweetcorn (pirate teeth!) and chicken dippers (Golden nuggets!). I also included potato waffles (pirate rafts) and spaghetti hoops (pirate hoop ear-rings) as my son doesn't like baked potatoes! So , really easy and nothing I wouldn't normally make but livened up with cool names!

 I used the circle tags from my kit to make little picks for the treasure chests.

 Food trays are great for serving and labelling food so the golden nuggets, peg legs, rafts and treasure chests  were served up in these.

 The gold teeth and pirate ear-rings were served in some plastic serving bowls and I used some menu cards to label these.

 My trusty mini milk bottles were brought out and labelled with each child's name (no more wondering who's cup is whose) and of course a pirate straw flag was added to each! I also re-labelled some water bottles with Salty Brine labels. A popcorn treat box was filled with some large chocolate jazzies and sweetie necklaces as treasure for after the main food.

As an activity to keep the kids busy, they made and decorated their own cupcakes. These were then popped into cupcake wrappers and a cupcake topper was added.

Everything was served up on the table with a treasure chest and jewels (this was from a treasure hunt game my son has which we played before eating). The kids really enjoyed it and it was pretty easy to prepare and clean up afterwards.

The Golden Nuggets were home made and you can get a free recipe sheet here.

So, I hope this has helped to give you some inspiration for any pirate themed party you have and also show you that entertaining can be easy! And don't forget that once you have your printable package you can use them over and over again!
Take care
Suz x

Easter Lunch

Well, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and enjoying the Chocolate!! Apologies to any of you on diets who are managing to be good (a big well done to you as well!!).

I organised a little last minute Easter lunch and treasure hunt for my two youngest and their friend who stayed for a sleepover last night. Luckily I had a few bits and pieces left over from last year - cups, plates and napkins but most of it was designed, printed cut and assembled this morning!!

First up, and idea I've been waiting to show you for a couple of weeks now! A few weeks back I posted about my new mini milk bottles. Now these are really cute and I love them but at about £12 for 6 they're not cheap and being glass there is always a risk that one or more will get broken at some point. So one day as I was washing out jars for recycling an idea struck me that the right sized jar would make lovely little bottle glasses for parties. The jars I've used are sandwich paste jars (luckily Theo has an obsession with sandwich paste at the moment so I've got quite a few!!). These jars are only slightly smaller than the milk bottles and the kids thought they were the milk bottles so an excellent result there!

I tied circle tags onto the necks of the jars using green and yellow curling ribbon (from Hobbycraft's Easter range) and popped in a green straw with a straw flag on. 

Next up, I made up some popcorn boxes and emptied a packet of crisps into each.

These little boxes have now been secreted away to the den in the wardrobe where things are just a little too quiet!!

I simply added a sandwich pick (circle tag taped to a cocktail stick) to a plate of sandwiches and added some tomatoes and cucumber at the side. Very easy but effective.

And to finish off, some cupcakes with toppers. These are shop bought cakes which I had in (99p from Home Bargains and great for lunch boxes too!). 

So a lovely little lunch and very easy to do. I'll be completing some more items in this kit for a more substantial and better planned party and they will available from the website in time for next year. 

I hope this post has given you more ideas for planning parties or even just special lunches and teas for when the kids have friends round! With this in mind, I think I'll design some mini tea party kits in a few different themes that can be used any time of the year. 

So for now, it's a goodbye from me and I hope you enjoy the rest of the Easter weekend.

Hugs, Suz x