A birthday party for ME!

At the end of last year I had a significant birthday!

Earlier this year I celebrated with friends and family.

Being a party planner (perhaps with control issues) I staged my own event in our backyard.

Here's the invitation...all hand made by me...but you knew that!

The invite pulled out of the front of the box.

The details were on the inside.

There's a little switch on the top of the box (I had to make the boxes from scratch).

Of course there had to be miniatures in there!

But what's the switch for you're wondering...

Well, that switch turns on a little flickering light!

And now the party...

 I wanted to create an outdoor lounge.

Fortunately we had a lovely summer evening for the party.

I found the old door in a roadside rubbish collection a few days before the party.

Hubby was away so Liberty and I had to load it in the car ourselves...I have no idea now how we managed it. That door weighs a tonne! 

I borrowed the little tables and chairs from a friend.

There's my tolerant husband standing. 

He kindly told me he would do whatever I asked to make my party perfect!

Those are all fake flowers I found at op shops.

A real life version of the invitation.

Liberty baked and decorated the cake...and cut it!

 The backyard lounge...we were out there until after midnight it was such a warm evening.

Of course I made take-home cookies for my guests!

The couch came from an op shop. In my haste to re-cover it I forgot to take a before pic. But you can see the old upholstery on the bottom of it there.

Hubby painted it for me and I covered it with fabric also found at an op shop...sometimes when you're op shopping things just fall into place!

After! Just what I envisaged for my outdoor lounge.

I hung some of my prettiest decorations inside the house. 

I was looking after my two little nieces that day and they helped by handing me the decorations while I was up the ladder.

Although they weren't coming to the party they were dancing with delight when they realised they were here for the starting of the party - the start of the decorating!

I used a photo of the outdoor lounge to make the Thank You card. 

I had a great time with many friends at my little celebration! 

Picnic in the Park!

It is almost the end of summer here in New Zealand but the weather this week has been hotter than ever.

So this morning before Liberty left for school I told her I would take her and her two little cousins for a picnic in the park after school.

I look after these two sweet little cousins four days a week.

We also had cupcakes but they were eaten in a flash!

Two older people walked past and were thrilled to see we were having a 'real' picnic, lol!

This little sweetheart is almost two...she wanted to see more of the park!

So we walked to the Winter Gardens.

There was a large group of tourists from China in the Winter Gardens and they all wanted to have their photo taken with us!

At one stage about twenty tourists were taking photos of us! 

They were enchanted with my three little blondes.

I told Liberty that's what it felt like to be a rock star!!

It was a fun way to break the after school monotony...I see more picnics in the future.

Back home for ice blocks!

I found the super cute tin picnic basket on sale at Typo this morning!

Mercedes

Liberty's 9th Birthday - Alice in Wonderland Party

A couple of weeks ago Liberty turned 9!

This year she requested an 'Alice in Wonderland' party.

She asked me to make her an 'Alice' dress...I finished it at midnight the night before the party.

My helpful hubby built me a trestle table especially for the party!

I've done many parties for other people in the past year but Liberty had a lot of her own ideas for her party!

 

We made all the cookies and cupcakes.

 

The birthday cake with a candle in a little tea cup! 

She's a girl with refined taste - she asked for macarons! So I made mini macarons.

 

The party guests all got a china teacup to take home.

The take home cookies.

 

It was Liberty's idea to have the girls make a collage at the party.

 

Everyone had fun!

The results!

The teacup printies are from the Graphics Fairy.

We used Liberty's playhouse as a photo booth.

My wonderful friend Pauline was once again my star photographer.

The girls all had fun making themselves look extra tall!

'Throw the Sugar Cubes into Teacups' was a fun game!

They also played croquet.

There was lots of laughter!

 

Liberty had very definite ideas about how the invitation should look.

She asked me to make a pop-up card.

When I said I wasn't sure I could do that she replied, "But mum, you can do anything!"

As it turned out I discovered I could make a pop-up!

 

 

 

It was another great party and all the little ladies really enjoyed themsleves!

Liberty said it was better than she had even imagined!

 

As for me - I'm all partied out!

Mercedes