Pea in a Pod Themed Baby Shower

One of my great friends is due to have her first baby in August and I was really excited to be asked to help throw her a baby shower along with her sister in law.  As the gender is a surprise we wanted a nuetral theme and after much deliberation the theme 'Pea in a Pod' was decided on. Once this was decided this set the tone for the colour and decorating.

Pastel green and white were the colours so we based the decorations around the central food table

The bunting flag and food cards were all made out of printable graphic paper which was purchased from DXPI Design on Etsy

We served a selection of savoury items such as finger sandwiches, spinach and ricotta triangles and a pea and mint dip on crostini. For the sweet table we had Lemon Slice, Pea in a Pod Cupcakes, Iced Cookies (The Baby Iced Cookie toppers were made by Charlie's Yarra Valley Cakes)Meringues, Milk Bottle Lollies and Pistachio Macaroon's.

The favours were made from recycled envelopes with the printed paper and labels wrapped around them, tied together with jute. Inside were sweet pea seeds for the guests to plant in their own garden and watch grow

Slider's and Cider's for 4th July

Any excuse for a themed dinner party we decided to throw a US styled affair to celebrate 4^th July . The idea more so came from a cool little restaurant in Adelaide that served four sliders and a jug of cider together. Sliders are basically miniture burgers which you can fill with traditional burger type fair or get creative with alternative options such as lamb and tzatiki and chicken with coriander mayonnaise.

For starters we had a bucket of deep fried chicken wings with garlic mayonaise. Love love love Panko breadcrumbs - they make everything lovely and crispy. For the Sliders we made our own Brioche slider buns. We decided to go with two fillings - one was a beef burger with cheese, caramalised onion, mustard and tomatoe sauce and the other one was a slow cooked pulled pork with winter slaw. Just in case the deep fried chicken wasn’t enough we went with chunky cut chips with paprika mayonaise on the side.

 

Christmas Ideas

I love Christmas, but Christmas in July just doesn't do it for me. It does however remind me to start thinking about what I am going to do at Christmas, for wrapping, food, parties and table settings. I know it's only July but these things take time!


Last year I ordered my wrapping paper from The Wrapping Paper Co. From here you can order bulk wrapping paper for Christmas as well as all other types, ribbon, jute, gift labels and bags. I went with black and white - one design was music sheets and the other a bird design. I just made the labels and gift tags using various Christmas pictures and the font 'Travelling Type writer'.

To tie the table setting in with the wrapping and Christmas tree, I used the same wrapping paper and jute to make my Bon Bons. They are really easy to make just using empty toilet roll holders and bon bon inserts that you can buy from Spotlight, Riot etc. This way you can fill them with more exciting items like mini perfumes and your own jokes. Although apparently my jokes were not that funny. I liked them.



For the table I found a great twig (trust me it's not that easy to find the one just the right shape on the side of the road). I hung this from the ceiling using removable hooks and fishing wire. I then used jute to hang the baubles at various lengths.