Progressive Dinner

The first church social event of the year was a progressive dinner where we did a scavenger hunt style  competition - teams had to go collect points around town. They had to be at certain houses for certain meals at certain times throughout the night. 

Main course was at my house. We had a hot potato bar with every topping imaginable.

We had so many potatoes left afterwards! We had a lot of potato bake etc that week...

Superhero Banquet

Last week I was a counsellor at a camp for 10-16 year olds. I had an amazing cabin of 15 year old girls (they were just fantastic!) but I am so exhausted now. Well worth it though. These guys have so much to give, and they are such great kids.

We have a banquet every year and this year the theme was Superheroes. Pretty fun. :D

I helped out preparing the decorations, etc. It was great to pull out the paints and be creative. I haven't done that in a little while.

Here are some pics of what we created.

I pulled up a photo of Superman on my phone and free hand drew a version on cardboard for a Photo Booth area. 

The cardboard was just a packing box opened out. (I have a lot of those since we just moved!)

Now with colour.

These are the action signs we made for the walls. We were painting on the grass, but it suddenly started raining so we had to dash for cover on the verandah.

The (almost) finished Superman and action signs. Ka-boom! Pow! Bang! Zap!

Superman with head! 

I added the hands separately by cutting them out of more cardboard and sticking them on. They were probably a little small in the end and his legs are a little skinny, but oh well. I was pretty proud of the overall cut out, given I don't profess to be an artist and it was free hand. 

I also painted this city scape as a scene setter. I left it sketchy to save time, but also to keep it feeling like a comic. 

Getting into my costume. 

I wasn't a specific superhero, but I had worn this to my sister's rainbow 16th (photos to come) in February and everyone kept saying I looked like Wonder Woman. Not exactly, obviously, but kind of the same colours. So I figured I was superhero-y enough. Especially the red hair. :D 

The lace mask is from Diva. So pretty. :)

The finished room. We had 'fans' and 'balls' hanging from the roof with streamers. I can't explain them better than that, but you can see the rough idea.

We put the city scape on the side wall which we covered with plastic - mostly so the kids couldn't get a sneak preview while we were setting up. 

The photo booth was in the back corner near the door. The skyscraper is just boxes taped together covered in paper, then windows drawn on. Not my greatest master piece but it took me about 15 minutes to draw. 

The kids had a bit of fun taking photos there. We also got some group shots in front of the city at the end of the night. 

I did like the fairy lights around the city. It was pretty. :)

Entree was pizza, which the chef made to be like spider webs. Think of the capsicum and olives as the web. Not totally clear, but it was nice of him to try. ;)

Mains was spaghetti bolognese. I was so tired by this point!!

Then butterfly cakes for dessert with action bubbles. I had a 'Pow!' one; it was pretty. 

It even matched my nails!! :D 

It was a real team effort. There were games (including wrestling to show your strength) and activities and prizes and the kids had a great time. 

That's why we do it, hey. 

Peach and Cream Wedding Morning Tea

Soooo. Plan Fail. Moving house? Turns out it means we didn't have internet for a while. Doh.

I still had it on my phone, but too hard to blog from there. Yes, I could have tethered it, but to be honest the unpacking this has had me flat out. Still not there, *sigh* but getting there. Have to have it done by the Progressive Tea in two weeks (eek!) and we have our first house guests this week (while I'm not here! *tears*).

So, I better give you something good, hey?

Well here it is - the wedding of the century.

Okay, not quite, but I think it was quite beautiful.

A family friend got married last September and asked us to host a morning tea for the guests after the ceremony. It meant that they kept the numbers for the reception small and invited everyone else to the morning tea.

The wedding was in our church, the morning tea in the youth room, and the reception in the hall so you can imagine the flurry of activity in the building the night before - each team setting up their part. I was there with my darrrling husband for about six hours setting up. It was another team effort - Mum was in charge of the food (although we all made things) assisted by her lovely friend Marilyn, older sister Amy created some culinary masterpieces (although she had surgery the week before so was laid out a bit and therefore assisted by little sister Emma) and I was in charge of the decorating.

The theme for the whole wedding was peach and cream, so we created a vintage style affair complete with china tea cups and roses. I was quite pleased with the result, and we received many compliments. Most importantly, the bride and groom loved it.

Enough talk. Let's see some photos!

Cutting ribbon the week before

The final product after set up the night before. We put all the plates out, then just filled them with the food the next morning. It was a bit of a juggling act, calculating how many plates we needed and putting them on the table. But we do have a tendency to over cater! We expected about 100 people to come, and we got about that.

The table clothes are old curtains from the second hand shop at the tip. Interesting place for wedding table cloths, but they worked really well. They had the gathers which looked like bunting along the edge of the table, and we just loosened the threads for the top to make it flat. All up, cost about $15 for this long table, the shorter table to the right and the drinks station.  

This was the drinks station. We had hot drinks to the left, and cold drinks to the right.

The gold frame was also from the tip (cost about $4).  I made the tissue paper pom poms - so much cheaper than buying them. Cost $2 for all the tissue paper, then it was just a matter of folding and cutting. I found the instructions on Martha Stewart's website for my sister's baby shower earlier that year (photos to come later). The tricky part is unfolding and fluffing them, which means the store bought ones are just as hard! These were a little messy and torn, but given I was finishing them late at night, it was as good as it was going to get.

The drink containers were a find at Costco. I was going to pay $80 online for them, then Amy found them at Costco for $30. Mum, Amy and I all got one each, so we have three that we can pull out for events.

More on the gorgeous tea cups later. 

The final product. The photos are a bit dark because it was up against a window. And it was a shame that it made the tablecloths transparent, but there was a nice view. 

The final drinks station. I got out my parasol as I thought it fit the theme nicely.

The cardboard box in the top left is a projector roll that lived in the room. We couldn't move it out, so it just had to stay there. Kind of a shame, but oh well. 

The tea cups! A friend of mum's has a massive collection as she hosts a charity high tea every year. She kindly lent them to us for the occasion and they were just beautiful! It makes me want to collect a set, not caring about matching ones. I do love drinking from a china cup - makes tea more special.

There are plastic cups in the left, we tied ribbon around the stem - hence the pile of cut ribbon in the first photo.

Pink Lemonade, Fruit Punch and Water.

The labels were a free online print out. I used a smaller version for the food tents and wrote on them with a gold pen. They were peach, grey and blue and have four different designs. 

The food table.

Here we can see fruit skewers, gourmet jelly beans, shortbread, spiced lemon syrup cake, apricot slice, cheese and crackers, chocolate wafers and melting moments. 

Gluten free brownies, chocolate pudding cups, blueberry cheesecake and the cheese and crackers again.

Shortbread hearts, chocolate wafers, chocolate and ginger slice, pumpernickel swirls and assorted sandwiches.

Jaffas, rocky road, blueberry cheesecake and asparagus and parmesan tarts.

I found assorted gold photo frames and filled them with complementary scrapbooking paper. 

Gummy worms, honey, cinamon and peach cupcakes, cranberry nut nougat slice and more cheese and crackers.

The box came with a wedding present years ago but it was perfect to give height. The birdcages were from ebay, and the mirror was in a clearance bin at Lincraft. It now adorns my work desk, as it is an unobtrusive mirror that lets me check my hair before meetings. 

Another spiced lemon syrup cake and caramel fudge.

We used the matching plates from the tea sets for the food.

The flowers were from Magnet Mart - the nicest artificial flowers I could find without spending a fortune. They cost $10 a bouquet - I got three and redivided them to make two slightly larger bouquets. They are cream with a hint of peach so they matched beautifully. This crystal vase is mine, and the other belonged to Marilyn.

The pearl balls and gold flower candles underneath came from a clearance bin at Victoria's Basement in Sydney's Queen Victoria Building. They are a great store for finding cheap homewares and these accents were just right. The pearl balls were $1 each, the candles were $1.50 for three and the tassels on the drink dispensers were $2 for a pack of four. The napkins also came from there - $2 for 50. Not bad.

If you start looking a few months ahead, you can find great bargains and in unexpected places. Be creative and innovative.  

Marilyn's cranberry nut nougat slice. So yummy!

Emma made the honey, cinnamon and peach cupcakes for Amy, as she was still laid up.

We printed the signs on the same cardboard as the food tents - they said 'Peace', 'Love', 'Happiness', 'Joy', 'I Do', 'Bride' and 'Groom'.

Amy's gorgeous bride and groom cake pops.

This is just a $2 glass plate on top of a $1 candle holder. 

Mum's shortbread bride and groom  hearts. The cutest, and they were super tasty.

Marilyn's pumpernickel swirls.

Marilyn's chocolate and ginger slice.

The roses throughout the food were a pack from Ebay - 40 for $7. 

Blueberry cheesecake! These were mine, but the other batch didn't turn out as well - I forgot to add the other block of cream cheese! Oops. They were still tasty, but if you look at the photo of the other batch, they are quite dark and the blueberries sunk into the batter. 

The highlight - Marilyn's chocolate puddings. Just gorgeous! Crushed chocolate biscuit mixture makes the loose dirt on top, a sprig of lavender and a 'spade' for a spoon.

I was confused at first why the spoons said LEN. Then I realised it is the initials of the bride and groom - L&N. Oops. 

Mum's mini melting moments.

Individual cheese and crackers. They were a hit. After much searching I found these gold baking cups on Ebay - they were perfect!

These candle holders were from my sister-in-law's wedding. She kindly lent them to us and they were perfect!

Mum's assorted sandwiches. Sweet potato, feta and spinach; sun-dried tomato cream cheese and cucumber; and asparagus rolls. 

Amy's spiced pumpkin soup. I love the individual portions - it was just a taste but perfect for a morning tea.

Assorted mini quiches. These racks were from a Lindcraft clearance bin. I still don't know what they are meant to be (magazine racks? Baskets? Decorative things?) but they were pretty. They came white so I gave them a coat of cream paint to fit the theme. We put the napkins in the other one.  

And the wedding ceremony! I only caught the end as we were still perfecting things in the other room, but it was a lovely ceremony and a true celebration of love, which is what weddings are about!