by Marcela M. | Jan 2, 2012 | Blog, Holidays, Parties, Recipe Box, Uncategorized
Good morning dear friends, and Happy New Year!!!
How are today? How were your celebrations? I hope you all had a really great time and that you started 2012 in the happiest of ways.
Today, as first post of the new year, I wanted to show you the Christmas table I prepared for our children. Since they are still very young, we do not do big celebrations on Christmas’ eve, but rather, we celebrate on the 25th, together with the opening of presents.
This year, I had an “Amy Atlas moment” and decided to prepare a few special treats to surprise Luka and Zoe for breakfast, together with a decorated table, with backdrop and all. It was really fun to do it! I baked and decorated everything at night for a week, and hid all treats in our study room for the kids not to suspect anything. On the 24th, we set up all decorations and we left the table ready for Luka and Zoe to find it when they woke up. They were so happy!
The inspiration for the table came from a set of window stickers that we brought from Argentina, which featured Santa Claus and its reindeers, and with which the kids had been playing since we had arrived back to Cyprus ( they didn’t survive, so I have no photos of them!). Around the time when I was preparing the treats, I also saw a BEAUTIFUL set of Free party printables from Bird’s Party, offered at Catch My Party, featuring a super cute Rudolph reindeer, so I decided to use them, and to adjust the colours of the reindeers to match them. I also used the printables for the backdrop: I made several red and green paper fans in different sizes, glued the party circles to them, and attached them to a frame that I already had.
The desserts themselves aimed at reflecting us, as a multicultural family, and at incorporating flavours from our different traditions. There was Pandoro, which is common in Argentina and Italy (store-bought), gingerbread cookies (in the shape of Santa Claus and Rudolph’s faces), gingerbread houses (the flavour of which reminds my husband of his own childhood in Kosovo), kourambiedes and melomakarona (from Greek Cyprus, where we live), as well as chocolate cookies in the shape of holly and of a Christmas wreath, “Rudolph” cake pops and vanilla bean macarons with chocolate hazelnut cream. For drinks, we served hot chocolate, and coffee for the adults.
I made all cookies (including the cookie wreath) using the gingerbread cookies and chocolate rolled cookies recipes from Glory, of Glorious Treats, and 2 sets of Wilton cookie cutters. For the macarons, I used the recipe and the method I shared inhere, and I made the mini-gingerbread houses according to the templates and instructions shared on the blog Not Martha. For glueing the gingerbread houses , I used Sweetopia’s recipe for Royal Icing, which I then thinned to decorate the cookies. I LOVE that recipe, it worked really beautifully.
Here are a few more pictures of the details:
And here is how the dessert table looked next to our Christmas Tree, in our living room:
I hope you like it!
Have a wonderful week!
by Marcela M. | Nov 22, 2011 | Blog, Children, Parties, Uncategorized
Good morning dear friends! I hope you had a lovely weekend and that this week started in the best possible way. We are still in Córdoba, Argentina, having a great time. It really is wonderful to meet with friends and family and feel that time has passed by and, at the same time, it has not, to know that we have so much to tell each other but that, when we get together, it feels that we are actually picking up a conversation that we left unfinished only the day before. I suppose true love, true friendship is what makes this miracle possible. This was the spirit of Luka and Zoe’s birthday party, what made it a most happy, most memorable occasion.
As I mentioned before, I had planned this birthday celebration as an art party, not only because my children love doing art, but also because I thought it could integrate kids of different ages. Finding activities that could suit children from 18 months to 7 years old was, however, challenging. I didn’t want younger kids to get frustrated, nor older ones to get bored. I wanted an art area where children of all ages would be safe and which they could reach without the assistance of an adult, so we set a piece of wood as a low table (it was held by a bucket of 20 litres of paint and a window frame). I also wanted children to feel relaxed, not rushed, and to take as much time as they wanted with each activity, so I only planned three tasks for a 3 hour period.
The first activity was the painting of small cotton souvenir bags, which we placed in the art table at the beginning of the party. We had already warned parents that children had to come “dressed to get messy”, but I wanted to minimize damage nonetheless, so ,instead of fabric paint, we gave children an assortment of fabric markers in different colors. To our delight, they all loved the activity and were really happy to know they would be able to take the bags home…and that they could be used to fill with candy from the piñata at the end of the party!
We also provided them with cardboard paper and lots of art supplies, such as stamps with different shapes and ink colors, colored pencils…
…different types of chalks…
…crayons in diverse colors and sizes, markers….
and even an assortment of gibré glitter.
After painting their bags, children started experiencing with the different art supplies, mixing them in their art work, completely focused and immersed in the activities. They would come and go from the dessert table to the art station, grabbing a bite while working on their creations, and then rush to their parents to show them what they had done. It was a real pleasure to see them all mingle and laugh, and enjoy their time together, despite having met at the party for the first time.
The third artisctic activity involved food and was shown in this previous post: children were able to decorate their own cupcakes with sprinkles in different shapes and colors (moons and stars, bears, dolphins and dogs, non-pareils and little hearts).
And, finally, the piñata, which was not an activity in itself, but it was definitely a highly awaited moment!
It was funny that, after decorating their treat bags and discussing for hours how much candy they were going to put in them, when piñata time finally arrived all children forgot about them and just gathered candy in their laps, until someone reminded them about their bags.
So that was it: three simple art activities and a piñata, a few home-made sweets and tons of love. The best of it all is that time flew and children left happy with their bags, their art-work and their souvenir-cookies. Whatever had gone wrong before, didn’t matter because we were left full of happy memories!
Have a great week!
by Marcela M. | Nov 19, 2011 | Blog, Children, Parties, Uncategorized
Good morning dear friends! I hope you are having a wonderful day!
In this post, I will show you in greater detail the decorations we made for Luka and Zoe’s party. The mood for the whole party was set by the beautiful printables designed by my dear friend Laura, from Delicious Tea. I talked to you about her in this previous post and I shared with you some free printables designed by her in this other post, but there really are no words to describe her incredible talent. If you don’t know her work yet, and you enjoy all things pretty, go take a look at her website and her facebook page. Go now, I’ll wait here!
Back in February, we started discussing the concept and colors for the party, and Laura came up with those cute little pencils that appear in all the party printables. She designed the invitation, a beautiful “happy birthday” banner, 5 different cupcake toppers (shown above), circles to add to the popcorn cones…
…fancy food labels, which were left blank because I wanted some room for changing my mind regarding what I was going to serve…
…beautiful paper glasses, to which I added yellow and white stripped paper straws…
…jar labels, which I added to the candy jars ( which were in fact not candy jars at all, but flower vases)…
…a welcome sign, which we framed and placed on one of the tables…
…drink labels (for lemonade, water, and orange juice), which I attached with twine (in Lemondrop by the Twinery)…
…And 3 different souvenir tags, to close the clear bags where I placed a sugar cookie decorated with royal icing in the colors of the party. The souvenir cookie is shaped as a splash of paint, and came in two sizes with an Ikea cookie cutter set!
As I mentioned in my previous post, the souvenirs were placed on three styrofoam boards, which were covered in papers in orange, yellow and green, and which were used as a backdrop for the main dessert table.
Laura, who is from Buenos Aires, sent all printables to Cyprus back in April, and those printables came back to Argentina with me when the plans for the party changed.
Once in Cordoba, I crafted with my family the rest of the decorations: a piñata, and paper streamers. We hanged three lines of fishing thread over the backyard and we hanged the piñata and streamers from them, so they looked like they were floating in the sky.
I made the piñata using a regular paper lantern, and I attached to it 2 inch (5 cms) punched cardboard circles in orange, yellow and green, with the help of a glue gun and lots of patience. The streamers were made out of vellum paper using this tutorial from Oh happy day (one of my very favorite blogs). They are really easy to make and lthey look very nice!
Finally, we bought boxes made from corrugated cardboard in green, orange and yellow so that guests could take home a piece of cake to enjoy with breakfast the following day.
Yes, that is me in the picture above, cutting the cakes.
In the next post I will show you all activities we did with the children!
Have a lovely weekend!
by Marcela M. | Nov 18, 2011 | Blog, Parties, Uncategorized
Good evening dear friends! I hope that you are having a lovely week.
It has taken me a while to put together the pictures of Luka and Zoe’s party, but I have finally organized them all, so here is the first of the four posts that I have prepared about it. The first three posts will be mainly visual: I will show you what the party looked like, what we ate, what we crafted, what we did. In the fourth and last post, I will let you know what went right, what went wrong-and what I learnt.
As you know, Luka and Zoe’s birthday was in August. I had, however, started planning this party almost from the minute they turned two years old. I didn’t decide on all details right away, of course, but I did know two things: 1) I wanted an art party, because they greatly enjoy art and because I thought it could entertain children of different ages, and 2) I wanted the color palette to be fun, vibrant and summery, so I chose the colors yellow, green and orange. The rest of the details started coming to my mind little by little and, by January, I had a clear idea of what I wanted.
By June, however, a major complication appeared: we couldn’t find a suitable, affordable venue in Nicosia. We live in an apartment, so we celebrate Zoe and Luka’s birthdays in kid-friendly venues, where they can run and play in a different way- But the ones we counted on were unavailable, or had gone out of business, or were not suitable anymore. We searched, and searched, and asked around but couldn’t find anything. We had almost decided not to do a big birthday celebration when I had an idea: why not delay the party until November and do it, instead, in Argentina, with all my family and friends? So that’s what we did: I gathered all the supplies I had already bought and travelled with them to my home city, Córdoba, bought here what was missing, crafted the decorations (other than the lovely printables designed by Delicious Tea) and baked everything that was served, all in one week. It was exhausting, yes, but it was absolutely worth it, because we were surrounded by love, by family, by real friends.
We celebrated the party in the backyard of a house rented by my brother for his professional practice (he is a psychologist). The day was beautiful: sunny but not too hot, and with a rather light breeze. We opted for an intimate celebration, and invited around 25 persons only, of which 6 were children of different ages. We set up two tables with the food, and a small table with art supplies for the children, and scattered chairs here and there, so that guests would mingle.
The main dessert table was set up against a wall. As a backdrop, we used three styrofoam boards covered in the colors of the party and attached the souvenirs (which were sugar cookies coated with royal icing in green, yellow and orange) to them. On top of them, we hanged the birthday banner (also designed by Delicious Tea).
Here are some detailed views of the main table:
We served popcorn in yellow paper cones (which were a big hit!), cake-pops coated with semi-sweet chocolate…
vegan chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, frosted with vegan buttercream…
…an assortment of sprinkles for the children to decorate their cupcakes with…
and mini “splash of paint” sugar cookies, decorated with royal icing in the colors of the party.
We also had two two-tier vegan birthday cakes, each of a different flavor: lemon cake with vanilla buttercream and home-made orange jam, chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and berries jam, marble cake with vanilla and chocolate buttercream, and chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and orange jam.
On the second table, we set-up the supplies: Napkins, spoons…
plates, straws and extra glasses…
…as well as three jars filled with lemon, orange and apple candies (which were very common during my own childhood and which I wanted to share with my own children). The candies were taken by children as souvenirs too, at the end of the party.
In the next post I will show you all the decorations we crafted, as well as details of the fabulous printables designed by my dear friend, the super talented Laura, from Delicious Tea.
Have a wonderful week!
by Marcela M. | Oct 22, 2011 | Blog, Holidays, Parties, Uncategorized
Good morning dear friends! I hope you are having a lovely weekend!
Halloween is almost here and, in the past month, the web has been full of wonderful ideas for crafts, decorations, recipes and parties, so I thought I could compile my favourites here and share them with you, for inspiration.
Here they are:
Parties:
Halloween Boofast, by Sheek Shindings
Beautiful Halloween Parties, featured by Kara’s Party Ideas
Halloween-Thanksgiving party, featured by Kara’s Party Ideas
Classic Rustic Halloween Party, featured by Hostess with the Mostess
Deathly Hallows Dinner Party (for Harry Potter fans, such as myself!), featured by Hostess with the Mostess
Food:
Halloween Ghost cupcakes, by Jenny Steffens
Halloween dead finger cookies, by Cake Journal
Vegan Finger witches cookies, by Chef Chloe
Halloween treats, by Cake Journal
Creative Halloween Treats, by The TomKat Studio
Cookie and marshmallow skeletons, by Party Pinching
Halloween Treats, by Delish
Spider topper, by My Cake School
Vegan Spooky eyeballs mini cupcakes, By Vegnews
A selection of Halloween Treat and dessert ideas, by Catch my Party
Decorations:
Halloween décor on a budget, by Oink!
Love Potion Number 9 Witches cauldron, by Icing Designs
Halloween Bats, by Party Frosting
Spider placecards, by The Sweetest Occasion
Fabric and Paper Owls, by Design Sponge
Papier Maché pumpkin, by Made by Joel
Halloween Crafts, by Country Living
DIY Halloween decorations, by Country Living
Halloween activities, by Tip Junkie
Halloween mummies, by Craftaphile
Halloween Wreath, by Dollar Store Crafts
Free Printables:
Spells Potions Printables, Candy Jar and Candy Labels,Ghostly Treat Display and Spell bound sweets by Hostess with the Mostess
Halloween Printable Collection, by Celebrations at home
Spooky Halloween sign, by The TomKat Studio
Halloween Boo sign, by The TomKat Studio
Halloween Printables, by Kara’s Party Ideas
Free Halloween Graphics (to use in your decorations!) by The Pixelista
Free Halloween Printable, by I heart Naptime
Free printable tag, by Anders Ruff Design
I hope that this will help you with your party planning! Have a wonderful week!
by Marcela M. | Aug 28, 2011 | Blog, Cakes, Parties, Recipe Box, Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
Hello dear friends! How are you today? How was your weekend? Are you ready to start this week? I hope you are and that it will be one full of wonderful surprises.
In this post I am showing the cake I made for my daughter, Zoe, for her birthday.
I changed the design in my mind many times, until I finally decided to improvise. One thing I knew: It had to have flowers and butterflies in it, because Zoe had loved the ones in the cake I made at the cake decorating course, last June. But until I started making the decorations, I didn’t really know what type of flowers I was going to make, or how many butterflies I wanted in it.
I do not own special tools for shaping neither butterflies nor flowers, and I did not have any gum paste or modelling paste on hand either. I could not buy any because neither of the cake shops I know in Nicosia were open (It is August, when most shops close), so I had to get creative. I did have fondant, food colouring, a few sugar pearls, non-pareils and sprinkles, as well as an internet connection to google ways of replacing what I didn’t have.
I started working on the flowers and butterflies the night before decorating the cake, to allow the fondant 24 hours drying time. I wanted to be able to place the decorations on the cake without fearing that they would lose shape. If I had used modelling paste, which dries faster, a few hours would have been enough. In my next post, I will show you step by step pictures of how I did it, and you will see how easy it is.
I dyed fondant using Wilton’s gel food colouring in Teal (my favourite colour) and covered the cake with it. I then rolled some more fondant and, using a small ruler, I cut a strip, like a ribbon, to cover the lower side of the cake, to give it a more finished look.
I then started playing around with the flowers and the butterflies until I was happy with the way the cake looked. I used 3 flowers and 3 small butterflies (as many as Zoe’s years), eventhough I had originally made 6 butterflies of different sizes.
Finally, I added 3 white candles and the cake was ready!
Zoe saw her cake for the first time when I brought it to the living-room to sing the happy birthday, and for her to blow the candles. She was fascinated with the fire in the candles and with the decorations. As soon as the candles were blown, she grabbed the yellow and white flower and the butterfly that was attached to it, and started eating them. Luka followed her soon after with the rest of the butterflies. Then we cut the cake and ate it!
Have a lovely week and see you in a few days!
