A day out at Boutique markets

Yesterday was our first outing at the new Boutique markets, held at the Malvern Town Hall and despite persistent drizzle in Melbourne, we were thrilled with how many visitors we had!

This new stylish market (run by the very clever girls behind Mathilda's Market) was filled with so many gorgeous stalls, all with something a bit different, a bit unique - we even started some of our Christmas shopping.

We also got to catch up with Katy from 5 Star Baby (whose stall also looked fabulous!), the gorgeous Penny from MiniStyle and the lovely Kate from Sambellina! What a treat!

Next weekend we will be over at Williamstown Fairy Floss market, as the Cupcake Chicks. This will be the last Fairy Floss market at Williamstown, as the venue won't be available in 2012 - so lets make it a great one!

Hope to see you there.

The Inspired Occasion

Inspired By - Alison Lawson Cakes

We love receiving our Inspired By submissions and this one is particularly special. With big thanks to Alison Lawson, from Alison Lawson Cakes in NSW for sharing it with us, she has created a truly gorgeous morning tea to celebrate a friends birthday.

Taking inspiration from her friends favourite colour of green, and butter cream icing (a personal favourite of mine too!), she put together a small table with something for everyone. Even the guests came dressed to suit the theme, all wearing a token green item!

The table included a 4 tier vanilla cake, decorated with buttercream icing swirls (similar to these cakes we did here and here). 

It also included vanilla cookies, vanilla yoghurt spoons (with pieces of crystallised lime) and little cups of honeydew melon balls. She also created these lovely green swirl meringues - how delightful do they look!

Alison used scrapbooking papers to make the bunting for the wall and then coordinated it with the bunting on the cake. She then followed it through for the chocolate bar wrappers and the decorations on the honeydew cups. 

Well done Alison on such a lovely party! If only we were in the same state - it would be lovely to share some melon with you! We can't wait to see what you come up with next.

You can find Alison Lawson Cakes here on Facebook.

Cheers,

A party fit for a king - all the royal details

Last night we shared a regal party we created for a Little Prince's first birthday. Full of bright colours in yellow and blue, it also included lots of little details to complete the scene...

We started by setting the scene with these gorgeous invitations. We worked closely with the client to bring her vision for the invites to life. We then packed them into crisp white boxes and they were tied with a blue ribbon. Can you just imagine receiving one of these in the post?

Apologies for the dodgy iPhone photos!

All the guests received one of these delightful yellow tote boxes from Candy Soirees. Inside, each child found a set of super cute custom designed badges, some tiny bubbles and a selection of co-ordinated candy. Each badge set included a crown badge, one with their name and one with a 'Prince' or 'Princess' motif on it. So cute!

They also all took home a personalised chocolate bar - who doesn't love these?

When planning this party we knew we needed to include bunting. There is something so regal about long lengths of these flags, flapping in the breeze.

Given we needed over 30 metres of it, paper bunting wasn't an option - so we arranged to have this PVC bunting made. It wasn't something we had ever thought of using before - but were so happy with how it turned out and can't wait to use it again!

Finally, we have to say a big thanks to Genevieve from From Genevieve. As the Royal Photographer, we couldn't have been happier with the gorgeous shots she took. In fact - we have to share a couple of extras she managed to snap of the beautiful birthday boy and his family.

Tomorrow night, with Halloween just around the corner, we are going to share some of our favourite spook-tacular parties! Hope to see you then.

By royal appointment

With the Queen visiting Australia last week, it seems fitting that we are sharing this gorgeous Royal inspired party tonight!

To celebrate the first birthday of their little Prince, our clients were looking for something extra special, a Royal themed party, with deep regal blue and a golden yellow colours to pull it all together.

With a decadent dessert station, complete with crown cookies, a gorgeous children's table and even themed savoury foods (check out the super cute crown sandwiches), this was every Little Prince's dream!

There were lots of different elements to this party and we will take you through some of them in more detail tomorrow, but tonight we just wanted to share some of the divine photos from our official Royal Photographer for the day - Genevieve from From Genevieve.

Check out that cheeky grin - what a gorgeous birthday boy!

Vendors


Photography - From Genevieve
Tote Boxes - Candy Soirees
All styling, edibles and decorations - The Inspired Occasion


Cheers,

How to be a ProBlogger

Ok, so the title might be a lot little misleading, but I did attend the ProBlogger Conference in Melbourne last week and learnt some things... And as promised last week, I thought I would give you all an update.

I really don't think any of my tips will turn anyone into a problogger, but I did have a great time and thought I would share some of my take aways from the day with you all.

Fabulous print from here on Etsy

1. Dinky was the word of the day. As in 'don't be dinky', 'don't let your blog be dinky' and 'don't present yourself as dinky'... I am still not 100% sure what defines dinky, but I am sure that we don't want to be it! I am now on a mission to not be dinky. Wish us luck!

2. Headlines are important. Not sure they meant for us to lie to draw people in (see todays example!), but to grab attention, a good headline is crucial.

3. Bloggers are an awesome bunch of people. But you already knew that, right?

4. 300 people in a room, with iPhones/laptops/iPads WILL crash a standard wifi network (and trend on Twitter!). Makes for cranky bloggers.

5. Be passionate; about your topic, about your fans, about your business. Share this passion with your readers. Encourage them to engage with it and become a part of your community.

6. Don't assume that the people who read your blog are anything like you. What?! We always assumed you were all party crazy chicks who obsess over the perfect colour of jelly beans... Well, if you're not - that's ok too - we can't wait to find out more about who you are!

7. Lists are good. See today's post for example.

8. Include photos, photos and more photos.... any of you who read our blog frequently will know that this is not something we have a problem with!

9. Everyone blogs differently. There were some fabulously organised people, who told us all about lists, book mark bars and time saving tips (thanks Nicole), while others shared an insight into their unplanned blogging world (thanks Mrs Woog). No judgements here - we tend to do a bit of both, but it was great to hear everyone's tips and ideas on how to make it easier and ultimately more fabulous!

10. I get kinda tongue tied when meeting other fabulous bloggers... sorry for not being overly talkative Maddy from Lil' Magoolie - I am a huge fan and was kinda in awe of the fact you sat with us at lunch!

Finally a big bloggy shout out to Jody from Muddled Up Mumma, Kate from Our Little Sins, Jody from Lemon Rhodes, Natalie from Easy Peasy Kids, Jolie from Hey Bambini and Natalie from Tiny and Little for sharing my first ProBlogging adventure!

Normal party blogging will resume tomorrow night with a truly beautiful party that we put together for a Little Prince! Wait until you see the beautiful cookies that Alex made... Hope to see you then.

Cheers,

Garage Sale!!

Who doesn't love a garage sale? It's time to do a clean out over here at TIO central, so we thought we would do it new school and try out a Facebook sale.

The album (which you can check out here) will go live later tonight at 8pm and will be open until Saturday 8pm. Everything is limited in numbers - as it's mainly extra stock left over from other parties or props we have only used once or twice. Although there is some new stock in there as well, so it's a great time to snap up a bargain!

We would love to see it all go - and at prices like this, we can't imagine why it wouldn't.

And if nothing else, it will make room for the new cake stands that we have just had come in from Tracey Lau!

Oh, and I am off to the ProBlogger event in Melbourne tomorrow. I am really excited about meeting all these fabulous bloggers that I follow and learning some tips on how to improve our little blog over here! If you are going I would love to hear from you - you can find me tweeting throughout the day here at @inspiredparties.

Cheers,

Inspired By - Rainbows

You know we love Rainbows... there is just something so magical and hopeful about a rainbow... I'm not sure if the promise of a pot of gold at the end, or simply the bright colour combination - either way - we can't go past a rainbow party!

When Katena from Taylor Made Baking sent us through this gorgeous party she put together for her daughters 2nd birthday, we were thrilled to share it on our blog. She has done such a fabulous job, filled with all sorts of gorgeous, bright colours and fun details...

Enjoy the photos and make sure you click on over to Katena's blog and check out all the suppliers details.

Love, love, love this cake and this gorgeous little doll!!

Thanks so much for letting us share this Katena! You can check out another of Katena's parties (with a gorgeous Princess theme) we shared earlier this year here - this chick is such a talent...

You can also check out our Rainbow and Unicorns party from earlier this year here.

Cheers,

More details.....everything but a nice cup of tea!

We shared some of the photos from this fabulous English themed 1st birthday party last night over on the wonderful Les Enfants blog - you can check it out here.

However - as always, we took way too many photos (and the client also supplied us with some gorgeous ones) so we thought we would do a follow up post with some of the other details.

A big thank you to Marguerite from Babycino's Cafe in South Yarra, where this party was held. It's such a fun venue, with lots for the little kids to do and a great outdoor/under cover area, perfect for all weather conditions - which is so important in Melbourne!

Also, a thanks to Sharnel Dollar for the lovely Sambellina tote boxes, which we decorated for take home favours. They were filled with treats like candy and little bottles of bubbles for the kids.

Finally - thanks to Heather for sharing her little boys birthday party with us and letting us be a part of their day.

Cheers,