Pink, Teal and Purple - a girly birthday!

This is a party we styled for a client's daughters first birthday in December. Sorry it's taken so long to get it up, but with Christmas etc... well, you know how it is! So finally, here it is!

(Just a quick note - we have edited some of the photo's and details to remove the clients personal details to preserve privacy... so where you see things like 'baby' - please be assured it originally read the birthday girls name!)

The brief from the client was to create something simple, classic and pink. We added in touches of teal and purple, with a vintage feel, which made for a pretty girly theme!

The invites - designed by us. We tried to incorporate aspects of the invite throughout the party, in the printables, the backdrops and of course the colours. We also used the initial of the birthday girl, along with the number 1 through out to help keep the theme going.

We created a desert table, along with a main table for the children. We also supplied all the children's catering and a number of activities and games for the guests.

On the children's table, we kept to our theme with customised juice poppers, napkin holders and the colour co-ordinated plates and napkins.

And now - the details!

Musk lollies and sherbets - matched our colours perfectly!

Who doesn't love pink donuts?! 

White Chocolate coated Cake pops

Popcorn cones

Vanilla & White Chocolate cupcakes

We also supplied a smash cake for the birthday girl - it was so much fun watching her destroy it! This was the first time we had done one of these and I would highly recommend it!

The highchair is decorated with some ribbon bunting created by Amy of Giggleberry Creations. It was perfect - thanks Amy!

Finally, we also supplied a wishing tree for this party. The tree is from the lovely Amy at Maggie Made. I am not sure that this is what she had in mind for her tree's, but it worked wonderfully and was a great addition to a first birthday party. The guests were all asked to leave their wishes for the birthday girl on little cards that we designed to match the theme. It will be a lovely keepsake for years to come.

The credits!

We had some fabulous people to work with for this party and we would like to thank;

Niki at Candy Soirees for all the candy along with the divine little tote boxes. We have used Niki a number of times now and can't speak highly enough of her services!

Amy at Giggleberry Creations for the lovely bunting on the front of the desert table (which I have to note is actually personalised with the birthday girl's name - removed for privacy reasons) and the super cute ribbon bunting. Thanks Amy!

Amy at Maggie Made for the divine wishing tree. She has some fabulous new tree designs out - so drop by and check them out!

All catering, printables, backdrops, decorations (other than specified above) glassware, tableware by The Inspired Occasion (that's us!!).

And finally - a big thank you to Zoe Twomey-Birks for all the photo's from this party. She really did a fabulous job and I would highly recommend her for all your party/children photography needs!

Hope you enjoyed!

Cheers,

Welcome back for 2011

Welcome back everyone! We have enjoyed a lovely break over the festive season, with both of us heading away for a couple of weeks; Alex to SA and I headed over to Tas. It was fabulous to stop for a bit, relax, spend some quality time with our families and take stock of the year that was 2010 - and we are now super excited to be back and bringing you all things Inspired for the new year.

Over the next week or so, we will share with you how The Big Give went and also share a super event we did in December, but ran out of time to share with you all. We are also busy prepping for my daughters 6th birthday in early Feb, along with some divine client occasions, which we can't wait to share.

But, before we get into all that, we just wanted join everyone in expressing our sadness at the devastation we have seen unfold over the past two weeks in QLD, NSW and even closer to home in parts of Victoria. While the floods and the associated damage (material, human and financial) is horrendous; I am so, so proud to be an Australian when I see how everyone is pulling together, providing support and cleaning up, while these communities tackle the enormous task of rebuilding.

On a personal level, we have contributed both financially and sending up care parcels - and we would encourage you, if you are able, to do the same. There has been a fabulous round up of all the opportunities to bid on charity auctions over here at Bondville - Shop The Flood. We sent our care parcels to Haylie of Little Miss Fascinated, who is running a donation and distribution centre (her facebook page contains all the details).

One that is not included in this list, has been organised by the girls at Fairy Floss Markets - you can check it out here. It's only just opened tonight, so get in quick and grab a bargain for a great cause.

Cheers,

The Big Give - The kindness of strangers

Well, it's one more sleep until the big man in red arrives in homes across the world. For us, it's also one more sleep until we have the privilege of enjoying our Christmas meal with 300 guests and 105 volunteers at The Big Give (you can read about it here, here, here and here).

It's been an amazing last week at Big Give headquarters, with some lows as suppliers haven't been able to come through, but many more highs when others have stepped in and outshone our expectations with their generosity and kindness.

We will have a huge list of thank you's to share with you after Christmas, but for now, I just wanted to share with you what was delivered to my house this morning.....

These were generously made by Kayla at Sweet Statements for the children attending The Big Give. We have worked with Kayla before, she made the fabulous Masquerade cake back in October for us. We have both also worked with Kayla in our other lives in the Corporate world. She is a super clever and delightful lady and we can't wait until she officially launches Sweet Statements in 2011.

Anyway, from our families to yours, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with friends, family, laughter and love - we know our's will be! We will be taking a short break after Christmas - but will be back in 2011 with lots of exciting things to share and inspire you all.

Cheers,

Danish Christmas Part 2: Let the Feast Begin

We are now on the home stretch for Christmas and it's time to start thinking food. Unlike at home in Australia, where we enjoy a long lazy lunch in the sun, here in Copenhagen we will celebrating on Christmas Eve.

Danish Christmas dinner is a ritual heavy with traditions. As Christmas approaches there is no discussion of whether the dinner will consist of lamb or beef, who will bring the salads and whether it is worth bothering with a hot pudding. Oh no no, dinner consists of three, prescribed and inflexible elements. Cookies, meat and rice pudding.

My boyfriend's mother has already begun preparations for this Danish Christmas feast with a round of baking that  can only be described as Martha Stewartesque. The resulting Christmas cookies with marzipan and vanilla squares will make for scrumptious pre (and post) dinner snacking.

When it's time to dig in to the main course two types of meat will be served. Slow roasted pork and  duck will be accompanied by potatoes. For those who are feeling particularly Nordic there will be some pickled herring- although I may leave that small element to the natives!

You may have noticed that this menu is primarily a meat lover delight. My boyfriend's mother insists that the Christmas meal excludes such decorative features because the people of Denmark are traditionally farmers who do not indulge in such light fare when celebrating feasts. Lucky for us modern office goers it is just the one day per year... 

The meal is crowned by a large serving of a curiously French named, but wholly Danish dessert tradition: Ris a la Mande (almond rice). Only served at Christmas time, Ris a la Mande is a cold rice pudding made almost entirely with whipped cream and glutinous rice. Flaked almonds are added and then the sumptuous pudding is topped with a rich cherry sauce.

It is truly delicious, which is probably why some canny Danish mum invented the tradition of sticking a whole almond in the pud. Whoever is lucky enough to find the unscathed almond gets a small gift. This little coup has the effect of making everyone eat extremely slowly for fear of smashing the precious almond with an overzealous bite.

It also prevents the tummy aches that would no doubt result from consuming too much whipped cream too quickly...

Merry Christmas (or Festive Season) to all!

Claire. 

Counting Down to Christmas…Sleigh Bells and Snow Bells….

We’re only just over a week away from Christmas now. Here in Copenhagen the ground is covered with a thick carpet of snow and the skyline is lit by a range of Christmas lights that shine all the way to the North Pole.

This is my second northern Christmas. Whilst I miss the lazy summer afternoons and ice cream Christmas pud that I associate so closely with Christmas at home, there are elements of ye olde school Christmas time (or Jule, pronounced Yule, as it is referred to here) that make it slightly more cosey than Southern Christmas. 

It’s not just about the snow outside or the Christmas tree lasting more than two days before drooping in the heat. It’s about the firm upkeep of traditions which just don’t translate to the Southern summer.

Sure, we have our own great traditions in Australia. And I think that one of the best things about Christmas in home is the multiculturalism. If you celebrate Christmas in Australia you probably have your own unique family traditions. Some stay up for midnight mass, but for others Christmas is more about family than religion. Some eat beef, others lamb or seafood. Some people have a big lunch; others wait to tuck into a large dinner. Some people are bound to purchase a gift for everyone in their family and other families decide to run a Kris Kringle instead.  It speaks volumes about the ability of Australians to forge their own cultures and traditions.

But no matter where your family hails from, chances are that somewhere along the line you have had to modify your Christmas traditions in order to make them work in the heat. Or maybe they have simply changed over a couple of generations to fit into a more relaxed lifestyle.

In contrast, the anchoring thing about a Christmas celebrated so far from home is that the traditions in Denmark are so strong. There are a lot of them, but this year I’ll just cover the countdown to Christmas…

First on the countdown list is a Christmas candle. This is a must for every Danish home to burn in the window each evening.  The Christmas candle is slightly different from a standard candle in that it has the numbers one to twenty four carved along the side.  Every evening you light the candle and wait for it to burn down to the next number before blowing it out and waiting for the next day to burn the next stage. For me the charming thing about the candles is watching them disappear day by day and knowing that the big event is getting closer and closer. It is a visual reminder of the anticipation we all feel for the coming celebrations.

Obviously playing with flames and candle wax in anticipation of is enough to delight any sensible child. But Danish children have the extra privilege of being on the receiving end of a beautiful tradition of advent calendars. Now when I was young, an advent calendar evolved some dodgy illustrations of Santa hiding some molded chocolate behind cardboard windows. There is none of that here.  

Here dedicated parents pick and individually wrap twenty four small, but personalized gifts. For example, one friend (although now an adult) always receives several batches of her favourite sweet- Danish salty liquorice. But it’s not all about sweets. It might be something like a skipping rope, or even a lottery ticket.  But it’s not really about what’s in the packages, it’s about the thought and attention that goes into creating something special and individual…building anticipation for a family event.

And you can get creative with this too. Even if you don’t have the time to invest in twenty four separate gifts you can easily do better than the old Cadbury calendar by creating the packaging. Check out these different themes to get you inspired for next year!

So cheers for now.

Next week- Christmas dinner!

Claire.