Party Weekend Part II – A Fish Themed Baby Shower

Although it is not Party Friday, I still want to share the beautiful party that we have today. My friend A. is expecting her first baby in September and we throw her a baby shower today. As with N.’s twin baby shower a couple of weeks ago, we decided to make our own party rules and forget about cheesy games and nappy cakes. 

A fish themed baby shower – what the hell, you might ask. The simple reason is that my friend A. calls the little baby in her tummy Guppy. I think it is such a cute name. And it is perfect, because they do look like guppies on the first ultrasound pictures, don’t them? Anyway, the theme was guppies and once we got over the first ‘I-have-no-idea-what-to-do-with-guppies’, our creativity exploded.

Here are a few of the guppy things which we thought of, made or put together:

Presents: Onesies with guppies printed on them – I just bought the oh-so-practical kimono-style onesies, which you can easily put on and off the baby without having to pull them over their precious little heads (which all babies really hate!) and printed some guppy pictures which I found online onto them. I used T-Shirt transfer sheets which you just iron onto the onesies. And if you have ironed them properly (quite hot and with lots of pressure), the pictures survive a lot of washings.

A Bag full of Advice: Little notes of advice and little things that make life as a mum so much easier. Well there is no guppy on the bag, but giraffes are just so cute (remember my giraffe obsession) and we didn’t want to stick crazily to the guppy theme.

My little things were: gel breast cooling pads and pure lanolin cream, because those two things truly saved my nipples from bleeding and me from dreading breastfeeding.

My little notes of advice were: regarding baby language (Dunstan baby language ), about sound of hair dyer or vacuum cleaner being relaxing for little babies (or at least for my little one), about looking after yourself as well (because happy mum = happy baby) and about making as many photos as possible (because time flies and you never get around to do ‘proper’ photos and therefore you will be eternally grateful for all those happy snaps you have got).

Decorations: Shiny sequined guppies hung up on the walls with fishing tackle ;-))

Location: Since the weatheri is nice we celebrate at the garden of the mum-to-be’s parents. They have a beautiful pool so it was perfect for our ‘guppy party’ ;-)

I am off to some last minute decorations now. I hope to share some more pictures with you later on. Keep your fingers crossed that the thunderstorms wait until tonight!

Today was my first ‘real’ kids birthday. Meaning the first one that I organised. I threw a little backyard party for my goddaughter who turns 2 in a month and since her mum is expecting twins who are due around the same time, we thought we better prepone the kids’ party so that the little one can celebrate with her friends and her mum ;-)

The most important things I learned today were:

• you don’t need to prepare any games for 2-year-olds if you have a huge sandpit and see-saw in your backyard. That keeps them entertained for hours
• all young-parents want at a kids’ party is strong coffee – forget about beer and diet coke, those days are gone
• the birthday girl (or boy) always cries – no matter what you do. It is always too much attention. Too many other kids playing with her/ his new toys. It was like this when I was little and it hasn’t changed a bit.
• water balloons are not just small balloons – first they are impossible to inflate and then they are impossible to fasten with a knot
• at the end of a kids birthday you need a beer and the last piece of cherry cake. And that is what I am going to have now.

Hope you had a wonderful Saturday as well!

Busy Bee

Sorry, dearest readers that it is so quiet on this little blog of mine. I wish I could post more! And I wish I could post more interesting things than apologies. But I can’t!

I am soooo busy at the moment. Getting a huge international project up and running at work. Getting my little one to sleep twice a day and counting the days until she starts day care ;-) Getting all the preparations done for a 2-year-old-birthday-party and a guppy baby shower next weekend.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to complain. Half of the tasks are a pleasure and I have said ‘I’ll do it’ to all of them.

BUT

It is just a bit much at the moment and unfortunately a day still has only 24 hours. What a shame!

Anyway, I’ll be back as soon as I am back in control of my life – as much as you can be in control anyway ;-)

Happy Thursday to all of you!

Swapping Sunday

Today my friend C. Invited me and a couple of her other friends to a swapping party. I have heart about swapping parties during my time in Australia, but I have actually never been to a swapping party before. For all of you who haven’t been to one either, I am going to explain it quickly. It goes like this:

You take some clothes which you don’t want to wear anymore to the party... meet a lot of other fashion-crazy girls with their pre-loved clothes... try on what they brought... hand out what you sorted out... and in the best case you come home with a lot of ‘new’ clothes that you love and got rid of a lot of clothes which you don’t love anymore.... and you have paid nothing – nada – niente.

That’s the theory I thought and to be honest I wasn’t really convinced of this concept... what if all the  other girls wear tiny sizes, what if they only bring rubbish, what if no one wants my ‘dead articles’...

... but...

... in reality it was wonderful! I had a fun time (we had cake and bubbly before we got started on the fashion business), I met some really nice girls (friends of friends), I got great fashion advice (Why don’t you try this small belt with the grey dress?), we laughed a lot (about fashion and other things), we could try things on in the living room (as opposed to a tiny smelly change room)...

... and I swapped

a) a skirt which never really fitted me (what was I thinking buying a skirt this skinny?)

b)a blouse which was way too middle-class for me for

and c) a black tunic with quillings which made me look pregnant forever

for

picture found here

1) a dress that looks like the one that Angelina Jolie wore in The Tourist

2) a pair of very sophisticated black linen trousers

and

3) a white V-neck pullover.

I still cannot believe my luck. And surprisingly all other girls were equally happy with their swaps. Sure, there were some things that no one looked good in (what a relief, it is the dress/ shirt/... not me) and some things that were just hideous (this green just looks like something for a ranger), but we had a good laugh and that is what fashion should be to me – fun.

So I am a convert now. I love swapping parties and will organise one myself soon. Because how on earth should I get rid of this ranger-green jacket otherwise ;-)

Hurray – the lake house is ours!

We have done it! We have bought our first house and our first piece of land. Today we signed the contract for our tiny little lake house.

We are excited! We are over the moon! We are bursting of creative energy.

The house is wonderful. The garden is amazing. And there is room for many, many micro-makeovers. So I promise you, you will see a lot of our tiny lake house on this little blog. I hope you don’t mind!

Happy days!

A Bavarian wedding – decorations

Yummy place cards for the girls...

... and for the boys.

found here

Or simple but oh so beautiful self-made place cards...

found here

Tutorial - Colourful Eye Candy

I cannot believe it - yesterday I found this wonderful picture of a cocktail umbrella lantern that left me (and Christiane ;-)) thinking how to make one ourselves.

And today I found a how to video on Etsy. That is really just-in-time delivery ;-)

Here it is:

Just for you, Christiane ;-) I am sure it will also work perfectly with your old Sisal lamp shade.
From now on I will save all my cocktail umbrellas from sundaes, cocktails and the likes as well and make one myself. I hope I can finish this project this year, since I am not a great consumer of cocktails and sundaes ;-)