BINGO.

My lovely friend Nicole celebrated her birthday mid November last year and I haven't had a chance yet to blog about her celebrations. As a B-day gift I organised a year-long Marie Claire subscription for her. (Some South-African english magazines to be shipped to Korea~ woop!) This isn't a sponsored post - but the Marie Claire team were so helpful in answering my questions and replied immediately to my twitter questions. (@marieclaire_sa). Since the subscription I ordered would only kick in the following month - I managed to scout around Korea for (probably the only) english Marie Claire I could find. I photoshopped a magazine-sized page with Nicole on the cover and "article titles" relating to her and pasted it onto the Marie Claire magazine so that she had something fun to open.


I also covered up the first two inner magazine pages and made a space for everyone who had contributed to the subscription to write a note for the birthday girl.

For Nicole's surprise birthday party we organised a fancy Black & White themed cocktails and snacks and I made some black and white decor gift bags for each of the girls. Each gift bag included a headband or hairclip, chocolates, facemasks and earrings.




I designed black and white name-cards to put on the white paper bags and I bought black polka dot stickers to fasten the name-cards to the bags.

Along with the gift bags I also created a personal Birthday Bingo for everyone to play and had a Manicure Voucher as the first place prize. The Birthday Bingo Boards included squares with the names of all the party guests, favourite foods, drinks and funny memories. The cards we pulled out of the bag included clues to these answers such as "Nicole's favourite food" or "This person loves to dance on tables".  Anyone who had the corresponding squares on their boards placed a sticker over the block. The first person to complete a Bingo row was the winner. This game was really fun since some bingo clues allowed for decision making amongst the guests (ex: "the craziest person in the room" and we would take a group vote or ask around until someone fit the profile - a great ice-breaker game, FYI.) 

Below are a few party snaps:

1. Individual Pudding Mousse in cups onto which we'd attached "yum" labels that I designed and also some black and white decorated dessert spoons.

2. Korean Kimbap with "just a nibble" toothpick skewers which I designed.

3. Some party decor I designed and the pretty cocktail cups which Sarah and I hacked up.

4. Bingo!

I have included a link to download the Black & White party decor I designed - CLICK HERE - in the zip file you will also find a 'How To' for assembling the different decor items as well as how to create your own Birthday Bingo. If you use any of them - I would love to see some pics! *enjoy!

Fabric Rose DIY

I recently went back home to South Africa for my mom's birthday. (You can see the invitations I designed for her party here.) We had a celebration in a barn and little Miss Berries over here got the task of chief decorator. Lucky me. The theme for the party was very casual - "just jeans" So I decided to make some roses using denim, blue and cream fabrics. Here is how it went down:

THINGS YOU NEED:

• A pair of scissors
• Different fabrics
• A thick piece of wire to make a stem
• Thin wire to fasten the petals onto the stem. (Sticky tape is also ok.)

First step is to cut petal or tear-drop shapes out of the fabric. They don't have to be identical/perfect. You probably need about 15 per flower - depending on how thick your fabric is. If you are smart about this, you will get someone else to do the cutting for you. (ha) 

Next, you will need to take a petal-shape and wrap it around the main-wire stem. Secure the petal in place by tightly wrapping the thin wire around it. You can also use sticky tape, but I found that the wire ended up looking a bit neater. Once the first petal is secured place a second petal around the main stem, overlapping the first one and secure it in place. Repeat. Each fabric falls slightly differently - so experiment with the best ones. The stiffer denim fabric worked best for me, but it also depends on the look you are going for. (The Downside of using wire opposed to tape: after about 20 flowers, your fingers will be raw. {just saying})

It's up to you what you choose to do with your flowers. I found some old-school glass coke bottles and stuck a single one in each bottle. I tied some of the fabric scraps and string around the neck of the bottles and then hung them from the rafters in the barn. They look really effective when there is a whole line of them hanging together.

(yes, i know the pic on the right is completely blurred... but i like it. so... yeah.)

Bunting DIY

The mom's birthday was held in a barn and I got the "prettify-the-barn" job. I wanted to make some fabric bunting, with a personalised twist so I designed some triangles to be printed out, alternating with the fabric bunting.

Fabric Bunting DIY, Let's Begin:



To make this (ghetto) version of bunting, you will need:

• Pair of Scissors
• Long fabric triangles
• String
• Stapler (For the non-ghetto version, you can use a sewing machine)
• Big mug of tea (optional/recommended)

The first step is to cut your fabric into long triangles roughly the same size and shape. 

I wanted to make the bunting a bit more personalised so I created some triangles with cartoon images and  birthday messages which I printed out- the same size as the fabric triangles.

Once you have a pile of different coloured fabric triangles -you can attach them to the string by folding the bottom flat edge of the triangle over the piece of string and stapling it. Alternate the colours of fabric and the paper triangles if you have any.

Finally, hang up the bunting and voila everything is pretty.



Will be posting soon about DIY Fabric Roses that I made for the party too - 

Puppy Party... (a sad story)

So last night i was at Lovely Lolo's house - (lured in by the promise of a delicious taco...and yes it was deeelicious). Lovely Lolo was actually in the process of baking some delicious brownies and cupcake treats for her little Puppy Porter's Birthday Party which was today.

All the dog owners would be gathering for a little puppy-get-together for an hour... Laura suggested i stay and help with the baking. (haha. don't worry, I just read the recipe out loud... {and obviously added a few extra cups of chocolate chips and cocoa powder here and there - [no wonder my cooking never works out...] } )

By the end of our mixing, the batter smelt like this:

now, after being introduced to this delicious-ness, there is absolutely no way I was missing out on that puppy-parade. So whilst The brownies and cupcakes were getting even-more-amazing in the oven, Che devised a plan:

That's right. MAKE. YOUR. OWN. PUPPY.

Step One: you will need plastic bags, brown bags, heavy-duty-extra-sticky-tape and some imagination.

Step Two: tape the bags up with the tape. make it like a puppy shape... you know.

Step Three: Get some more plastic bags and twist them into puppy leg shapes. You will need four of these. Since puppies generally have four legs. generally.

make sure the legs are about the same size. (obviously)

Step Four: Give your puppy a collar and name. You would hate for your puppy to run off and get lost.

Step Five: Give your puppy ears, so that if it does get lost you can just call for it and it will hear you and come back.

Step Six: Puppy face and... VOILA!

(also - my mom and dad phoned mid-way through this process.

mom: what are you doing?

me: oh... um.... nothing.

dad: but what are you doing.. it sounds like you are ripping up stuff?

me: well...um.. i'm making a puppy.

mom: what?

me: i'm making a puppy.

*silence*

dad-to-mom: wow. where did we get this one?)

Now, I planned my entire day to fit in the puppy party from 1 - 2pm. First photographing stuff for my Etsy calendar, then mini-room tidy, then nice run to the gym to send a little good-luck-to-the-brother-for-exams-card and then took a shower after my run 12:40pm - plenty of time to spare! 

Bink-bink! skype goes crazy - 

Skype: "Che! where are you?!"

me: "i'm coming to the puppy party! with MY PUPPY!"

Skype: "the puppy party is finished. it started at 12"

me: WHAT?! I MADE A PUPPY AND EVERYTHING!

Skype: "well come over, there are still three dogs here.... and some brownies and cupcakes!"

me very sad... but at least I have a new best friend to help with the pain.

This was the left-overs of the puppy party - and the real reason me and pupps gate-crashed:

(no, not the dog-food, the sneaky blue cupcakes and brownies in the background...)

They were delicious.

and... some of the (lucky) puppies got to make a new friend!

well.. maybe not everyone made friends...

Make THESE delicious brownies. or a puppy.

whichever you feel more comfortable with.

Celebrations!

Last night Modie hosted a slumber party to celebrate me getting older.... It was absolutely fabulous! I'm so grateful to have such lovely friends!

Wine bottles decorated with magic scratch paper...

...and also with zebra print ribbon - because I'm African.

-thank you Laura!

Sarah's disgustingly good Toblerone, marshmellow, chocolate death-wish.

* YUM *

DE. LI. CIOUS.

ice-cream, cookies, chocolate sauce, smarties, oreo, ice-cream heaven!!!

... made with love (and also zero calories!) YAY!!

* thank you kristi *

Fabulous face-masks - this is me.

Marv (of the cartoon fame) made a gift for me - I love it:

The adventures of Stick Marv

"Oh No! It's almost time for Che's birthday and I don't have a gift for her!"

"Crap! I only have an hour to get her something. But what do I know about Che?..."

(ha ha ha)

(that would be nice...)

"...and then i remembered... *must put toes on MARV!*"

"Ooops! Late for the party... guess she'll have to wait till I get back from Trinidad!"

Love Marv

The crazies (minus the awesome Zack).

Never have I ever, Truth or daring, face-masking, wine-drinking, food-smashing, chat-rouletting (not recommended). generally awesome... :)

Thank you everyone. You are all fabulous. Here's to being 25!