A night at the Panto

For me the launch of the annual pantomime heralds the start of the festive season. It is the night when colleagues and friends forget about the chaos that comes with this season and gather for an evening of risqué giggles and saucy silliness.

This year’s panto was Romeo and Juliet – an East Coast Story.

Having a ton to do at work didn’t leave me much time to get ready. So I opted to jazz up the outfit I had been wearing that day before dashing out the door.

 

I swopped my huge carry all bag for this metallic bronze clutch. I find it uncomfortable writing and typing with bracelets and bangles hanging around my wrists and since I spennd most of my working day immersed in these activities, my wrists usually go bare. So when I'm not on the job, I pile them on.  

 

 Metallic heals and a statement neck piece finished the look.

 

Ribbons, bows and feathers for Eid

This year, I used shimmery, printed paper, organza ribbons, tulle, beads, rhinestones and feathers in my Eid gifting. It was all about texture and layering!

I started off by making gifts tags - these give packages the last finishing touch and pull the look together. While I had initially decided to go with one packaging look for all the Eid gifts this year, the contents of the gifts dictated otherwise. 

These shabby chic canisters, filled with home made cake pops and marshmallows nestled in tissue paper, made super cute hostess gifts and were also presented to friends and neighbours. 

Eidee is that much more special when wrapped around a slab of chocolate.

Breakfast at midnight dinner party

Weeks and weeks before my sister was due to return home to South Africa after spending 18 months in South Korea, I asked her the same question; what do you miss most about home and more specifically, what foods do you miss most. What she missed most was going to be the theme I planned her home coming party around. 

Her answers were always the same, "besides family, there is nothing else I miss." When pressed about what food she missed most, her reply was always, "scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, flap jacks with maple syrup and carrot cake with real cream cheese icing."

This left me in a bit of a dillema. She was landing in SA at about 5.30pm on Friday evening. Knowing that my family would all be at my home that evening to see her, I didn't want to postpone her homecoming party to the next day so it would accomadate a breakfast menu. So I decided to do a fun, quirky, breakfast inspired dinner party.

Guests were asked to come along in their pjs, and most did!



We wanted to do a fun, cheerful, laid back, shabby chic type setting. Polka dots (on the boxes, banner and serviettes) added a playful touch. We filled Moroccan tea tumblers with slightly distressed roses and dotted them around the table. Boxes added dimension to the table and also introduced pops of colour.



We needed to make sure that the menu was both breakfast inspired but filling enough for dinner. We served Chicken Waffle Sliders, Salmon and Avo Bruchetta, Fritata Cups, Pepperdew Muffins, Chops and Spinach and Feta Parcels.

To drink we made iced teas; strawberry/basil, pomegranate/orange, lemon/lime. We also flavoured water with herbs and fruit.

 
We set up a waffle/flapjack station with toppings like chocolate sauce, cream, caramel, nuts, sweets, chocolate and fruit. We also had fruity frozen yogurt cups (mango, cherry, strawberry and passion fruit), fruit skewers, my aunt's famous chocolate cake and of course, carrot cake slices for dessert.

 

 

50 Shades of Grey bridal shower

I had such fun planning my bff's bridal shower!
I remembered a particular morning when she grogilly dawdled to our usual girls’ Saturday catch up breakfast later then she usually is. Her explanation was that she had been enthralled in the pages of Fifty Shades of Grey 'til the early hours of that morning and was therefore sleep deprived.

Her love of the trilogy coupled with her zealous personality and naughty streak was my inspiration for her 50 Shades bridal shower.

My very talented graphic designer cousin created the invitation.
Guests were also emailed a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey and encouraged to read the book before the shower.

Guests were given a welcome virgin Sangria cocktail (like the ones Christian and Anastasia enjoyed, minus the wine) upon arrival and were asked to write down a fun / romantic / relaxing date idea. These ideas were later compiled and gifted to the bride.

Decor was simple yet striking. I made flower arrangements with champagne glasses, small bowls, glittery jewellery and red roses. These were scattered around to provide pops of decadent colour.

 The highlight of the event was the pole dancing lesson, which was to take place on the patio. Unfortunately an icy wind blew incessantly so rather than have guests shivering against the elemnets outside, we resorted to plan B and had the instrutor bring the pole inside. Bronwyn from Nouveau Dance Studio started by showing us a few basic moves and then moving on to more skilled ones . . . fancy suspending yourself from a pole . . . with one leg . . . upside down? Everyone got a chance to take on the pole while being cheered on by the other guests.

All that dancing and those taxing moves built up quite the appetite. On the menu was

Bow tie me up pasta salad, SUBmissive sandwiches, HumASS and pita, Ben Wae Kebab Balls as well as a range of savouries and delicious home made drinks.

We had a photo booth we lots of props like feather boas, hand cuffs, hats and masks. This was very popular with the guests and we have a huge collection of hilarious photos.



Sweet treats were spread across the Guilty Pleasures Dessert Station and served with Anastasia's beverage of choice; Twinings English Breakfast tea. Among the many tempting treats on offer were vanilla cake pops, red room of velvet cupcakes, soft mellow limits, hard candy limits and forbidden fruit.

Each guest went home with a party favour containg lip gloss (a nod to Christain's famous line - stop biting that lip), nail art and Vajazzle stickers.

 



Sam's 'Sexy and She Knows It' Birthday bash

One of my dearest friends celebrated her 25th birthday recently. I knew that we had to do something colourful and quirky to mark her quarter of a century milestone. Since none of us are the very out there, party-all-night, go wild types, we settled on a dinner party. It was going to be a surprise so all the planning was very hush hush.

To add a bit of fun to the dinner celebration, I decided to use LMFAO's song, Party Rockers as a theme.

I made cake pops that looked (mildly) like microphones as well as sparkly ones, and these were dotted around the table.

It was all about bright loud colours, I used mainly hot pinks and yellows with green.
And fun prints - the smiley faces on the serviettes gave a fun and cheerful look to the setting and worked really well with the theme. I made serviette rings by printing out lyrics of the song and sticking them on to yellow and green paper ring.

The table was  loaded with brightly wrapped candy and sweets. Glitter stars and a scatterings of "25" confetti covered the only remaining spaces on the table. Not only table decor, the sweets doubled as candy favours. I placed paper cups, reminiscent of the cups beverages are sold in at concerts, around the table and guests where encouraged to fill these cups with as many sweets the cup could hold.

 

The night ended on a high note - with a decadent cookies and cream cake! And below remains the destruction of a night of raucous celebration! LOL