winnie the pooh party

Before you read on and question "Hang on, I thought you were a Social Worker?!?" I should let you in on a little secret... I'm a Social Worker by day and a secret wanna-be Event Stylist by night! 

With my secret exposed, I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite recent briefs. A gorgeous lil' man was turning 1 and his party was themed around his favourite character, Winnie the Pooh. With brief in hand, this is what I created:

A couple of dozen handmade cupcake toppers...

The handmade personalised sign and the candy table...

'Piglets strawberries n' cream' and 'hunny bears' (honey gummy bears)...

'Meringue hives' (lemon flavoured meringues) and 'Tigger's red balloons' (jaffa's)...

What bear doesn't love 'hunny joys'...

And I would never style a party without my signature Oreo pops...

Lemon cupcakes with the handmade cupcake toppers and strawberry flavoured jelly in Winnie the Pooh themed paper cups...

Personalised giant lollipops...

And a matching card...

And present, for the gorgeous lil' birthday boy...

Happy Birthday Dimitri - I hope you loved your candy table as much as the adults did!

Michelle xx

christmas eve lil' feet style

Christmas Eve dinner at my house... It was so lovely having everyone together, eating and being merry! And I survived - albeit with a few heart palpitation's, a chocolate stained sofa and so much food it'll take a whole year to work off!

Now with the last of the family gone, I thought I'd share some pics of Christmas Eve at my place... lil' feet style!

  

 

  
The table is almost done and I realise we need another table to fit everyone else! Oh my, of all the Christmas lists, I not once stopped to think whether I had enough room or enough tableware for everyone! To my dismay, I had to set up in both the dining and lounge rooms AND shock horror... another (not matching) dinner set!

In between setting up the dinner buffet and carving the roasts, the heat got to me a little so I retreated under the cooling vent... therefore no photo's of the dinner but, take a look at the sweets!

Some lavender cupcakes and Croatian walnut crescents from my lovely mum...

And as I mentioned in my earlier post today, a mountain of yummy sweets from the Queen of Sweets - my beautiful and talented sister Kat...

And her mouth watering Nutella tiramisu...

And when Kat asked what sweet I wanted this Christmas, and I replied 'scones!', I never thought she'd bake them immediately after dinner! Oh my goodness, hot scones with fresh jam and cream... my sis, she is just amazing!

So there's a glimpse of Christmas Eve dinner at my place! Now, I'd love to stay and chat but I think I may need to roll into bed before doing it all again tomorrow!

PS. Don't leave any milk and cookies out for Santa because he's got all of my leftovers to get through! 

Michelle xx

a touch of creativity for a very special surprise birthday party

While discussing plans with Nina for our partners upcoming birthdays, the idea was born to throw a joint surprise costume party! George and Nick had known each other since primary school and shared many of the same friends so it seemed easier to throw one party rather than two. Or so we thought! With only three weeks to conspire and plan, we certainly had our work cut out for us. Looking at our growing 'to do' lists one would think the most difficult part would be organising and throwing the party, but in fact it wasn't. It was all of the lying and sneaking around! Nina and I constructed the biggest tangled web of lies and although there were a few close calls, I think we managed to surprise them both in the end. Despite the miserable weather and downpour Melbourne received on the day, the party was a huge success! Everyone made an amazing effort with their costumes and there were only a few sore heads the next day!  

So here's a sneak peek at some of the creative bits from the party...
 

An XR6 Turbo mud cake modeled on George's current car

An XY black forest cake modeled on one of Nick's previous cars

The detail in these cakes was astounding - from the mini ford badges on the XR6 to the 12 slots on the XY - Eiffel Tower Chocolates, Confectionery & Cakes in Tullamarine (Melbourne) did a phenomenal job. And they tasted great too!

I hope you enjoyed the sneak peak and perhaps gained some inspiration for your upcoming event. Love to you all...

Michelle xx

rocky road

Today due to very popular demand, I will be sharing my Rocky Road recipe which has been adapted from my great friend Ashleigh Parfuss' ever popular kid friendly version. The recipe is quick and easy to make, easy on the teeth and I guarantee that if you take this to your next bbq or party, there will not be a crumb left to spare! 

Ash's original recipe uses 1 packet of Natural Confectionery Company snakes (chopped into thirds) and 1 cup Rice Bubbles in place of the 2/3 cup macadamia nuts and 1/2 cup Rice Bubbles that I use. I've also tried this recipe using peanuts instead of the macadamia nuts or MnM's and Coco Pops - an absolute must for hard core chocoholics!

400g Cadbury milk chocolate

100g good quality dark chocolate

50g copha

300g Pascall marshmallows (not cooking marshmallows)

2/3 cup unsalted macadamia nuts
1/2 cup Rice Bubbles

1/3 cup coconut

Line a slice tray with baking paper and set aside. Chop the marshmallows in half (refrain from eating them!) and the macadamia nuts into quarters and mix together with the coconut and rice bubbles.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and copha until well combined. Remove the melted chocolate mix from the heat and quickly mix it through the dry ingredients. 

 

Pour the mix into the slice tray and refrigerate overnight (or a minimum of 2-3 hours if you're stretched for time). Once the Rocky Road has set, cut it into pieces using a sharp cook's knife (and Ash recommends not telling anyone if a few crumbly pieces happen to fall into the cook's mouth!).
 

I hope you all enjoy the recipe as much as we do - happy munching my chocoholic friends!

Michelle xx