Aprill's Baby Shower

I love a little baby. And I love using a little baby as an excuse to have a party and see friends. When my friend Lucy, asked for help for a baby shower she was throwing for a first time mum, Aprill, it did not take long for me to verbally hit her with a dozen ideas I have been sitting on since my own Baby Shower.

A few things you should know before checking out the Inspiration board I came up with after talking to Lucy. Aprill is having a little boy and like me Aprills partner is Asian. This means that their little boy will have a Mongolian spot just like Henry. The Mongolian spot looks like (as you will see in the diagram) a large purple/blue bruise on the bums of all Asian (or half Asian) babies. It is too cute and too funny so I included it the board as something to look forward to, baby bums!   



Images:Blue Irises, Baby Shoes,Brown Paper Packages tied up with String.

Chocolate milk with paper straws via My Life My Loves, Ribbon and spool via Emma Burgess, Forget me nots.  

Baby Craft via Sweetest Occasions, Mongolian Spot.

Baby Food Jar Planters via Art Projects for Kids, Cadbury's Chocolate, Forget Me Not Cupcakes via I Bake Cupcakes.

Clothes line via Sweetest Occasions, Paper Pom Poms via My Life, My Loves.

Lucy choose a chocolate and blue colour scheme and wanted the day to have an Arty, natural feel. In keeping with the arts and crafts theme, there will be games based around what the baby will look like (lots of scirrors and glue) and Lucy love the ideas of having baby craft that Aprill could keep. 

The shower is coming up in the next few weeks, so come back to check out the photos of the day. 

Henry's 1st Birthday

Yes, Henry is well on his way to turning 1! This means I get to start planning his first birthday party and I have decided to go with a Library theme.

I always start with an inspiration board because it helps me sort out the five hundred different ideas that I have had or have found online. So here is my board....

Images: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Old Fashion Books, The Librarian Look by Michael Kors via Runway Daily.

Calico Library Bags, Kids Library, Possum Magic by Mem Fox.

Cat in the Hat Cupcakes via The Cupcake Blog, Newspaper Bunting Via The Sweetest Occasion, George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl, Where is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox, Ball Pit.

Newspaper Pom Poms via Craftzine, Green Eggs and Ham via Baby Farm Parties and Ideas, Library Cards and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

I have made the invitations look like the book cards in library books. I found a printable template here and Triet and I wrote different lines in different pen with different handwriting to make it look a bit old school. 

I used some of my favourite books and authors as inspiration. Some food ideas I'm planning are Green Eggs and Ham (hard boiled eggs with avocado and ham rolls), every thing the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate and the Aussie food that made Hush visible again in Possum Magic. We might even have some of George's Marvellous Medicine to drink (Punch in a saucepan).

Some decorations and activities we will be having are the newspaper pom poms and bunting, a book corner, decorating your own library bags, a ball pit and helium balloons because Henry just loves them.  


I know it all seems a bit bonkers for a first birthday, but I love doing it and at least it will be smaller than Henry's Christening.

Stay tuned to see the end result in late May and you can see the inspiration board for Henry's Christening here and the party itself here.

J - Crew Up Date

So I heard from J-Crew and this is what they had to say in regards shipping to Australia:

"We're sorry that we're currently unable to ship catalogs or merchandise to Australia. Thank you for your understanding; we'll be sure to keep your name and this email address, on file for future reference in the event we begin shipping merchandise internationally.

We will be happy to work with you to ship packages to a friend or family member in the US, Canada or Japan. Please email us for details.

We also wanted to let you know that we've recently partnered with Net-a-Porter in offering select women's merchandise for sale internationally. If you would be interested in seeing what they have to offer, you may use this direct link:
http://www.net-a-porter.com/Shop/Designers/JCrew

We sincerely appreciate your interest in shopping with us and look forward to serving you in the near future."

Net a porter doesn't unfortunately have any of the J Crew wedding dresses. Frowny Face. But if you have any lovely friends that in the states or other mentioned countries, it's could be a more cost effective option.

How hip do you want your man to be?

It seems that when we plan a wedding, we focus the style primarily on the bride and her vision for what she wants to look like. So the issue is that it takes two to make a wedding day. Unless there's two ladies deciding to make a life long commitment to each other, there is a groom to consider. So Topsie and Susie have decided to do a series of posts to give the man of the day a chance to decide on his style for the day.

Today: Hipster Grooms!

The hipster man is a dude who generally is too cool for school in a good way. He is a bit retro, a bit vintage, a bit grunge, a bit casual, but very stylish. The hipster groom style is appropriate at a garden wedding, a wedding with a "hand-made" style or generally for the musos getting hitched. A bow tie, a vest and a casual shoe, such as converse, is the general rule, but more than anything the hipster groom is about being yourself on the day.

I want that one!

This weeks "I want that one" is a bit of a tease. This dress is the work of J-Crew. It's flowy, garden party feel and empire line with detail across the bust, would be great for the more hippy lady or the hour glass figure. This dress and all the other amazing dresses available at J-Crew are between $300 and $3000, and are available through mail order. HOWEVER, not in Australia.

J-Crew States:
"We hope to expand our delivery range to other countries in the near future. If you wish to be notified of when we will be able to ship internationally, please send us an email at contactus@jcrew.com containing the word "INTERNATIONAL" in the subject line."

So I think if we all rally together and take 2 minutes to email J-Crew, saying, "Please sir, send to Australia", maybe we can make that "near future", the "near NOW".

Just a quick one

I found this and was a little beside myself with how wonderful it is. So simple, so sweet, so funny and all from Martha Stewart Weddings. I at first had trouble getting over the fact that it was Martha Stewart, who so often is portrayed as some sort of anti christ in most popular culture, but when you find gems like this, you have to think, I'd sell my soul to the devil to come up with this.

Great for inspiration on styling, flowers, favours, cakes and everything else, the Martha Stewart site is one a role model for us. So have a look, get lost for a while and just try not to picture the South Park version of Martha...

Photos: http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/

Amy Kate and Hallam Inspiration Board

Amy Kate and Hallam are a super lovely who are giving Topsie and Susie a chance to help them out with their planning. They are looking at getting married in March 2012 and when discussing styles, the key words they talked about were burnt organges, reds, australian native flowers and a hand made feel that wasnt too vintagey. This is what we came up with. We hope that this helps them even if it helps them to decide what they dont want.

Amy Kate and Hallam have started a blog for their wedding to keep everyone up to date with their plans. Follow them at hallamandamykateswedding.com
We're really looking forward to helping them progess through this both stressful and exciting time.