The true Shabby Chic

Shabby Chic is monstrous hard to pull off right but when you do, I guess it looks like the best 1970s Jcrew catalogue possible!

Ah, Stanford

I miss you for when life was sweet, simple and smelled like cold, fresh, eucalyptus-scented dry evenings.

Let the K Party Planning Parade begin!

No ideas is probably not Entirely true. How about a small tea party with bunting in pale pinks, greens and blues?



And raspberry cupcakes of this colour and birthday cake with passionfruit buttercream in pale yellow with a Kate-wagoncart of sweets? Lemonita and grapefruit pellegrinos in matching ribbon.


Curry chicken puffs, flaky chicken pie, egg mayo sandwiches, chocolate eclairs, fried carrot cake and hot artichoke dip with chips.


Balloons in pastel colours and bunting and small white daisy bunches. White goodie bags with organic kiddie snacks, bubble blowers or tea party cups and stickers, tied with ribbon and a cheeky monkey tag.

The Shoes of Oz

I swear I'm becoming an Auntie. How awesome are these sparkly shoes (and how uncomfortable!) from KG Kurt Geiger? £100 for a injection of craziness.

Adorable room, no?

New Finds

I was doing some research today for K's birthday and gosh but kids birthday parties are ridiculous! I just discovered a whole new brand of blogs, dedicated purely to themed parties. I admit I was well-trained by my parents in exuberant kid's parties that took weeks to plan and execute, involved tons of food and hired entertainers (yes, I know, I know) but I am so psyched to plan a grassy backyard that can be used for exactly these soirees. What will we do if we don't actually have a child? Well, maybe my cousins will lend me their first-born *evil grin* to princess up or we'll adopt a party-hungry third-world baby. (Wanted: adoptive child, must like birthday cakes, bubble baths, wooden oak floors and staircases, rides in Jeep and somewhat smothering granparents)

I'm also pysched to discover that thanks to the glories of the internet, one can now outsource a lot of the cutie-fying, great Etsy websites like NickJR.com, Chickabug, W Hostess, Sweet and Saucy Supply and B.Nute that make and coordinate all manner of food toppers, gingham bunting and vintage print invitations. What we really need though, is a Walmart or Costco for cartons of sidewalk chalk, bubble blowers and cheap fabric.

Check out Sarah's Party Perfect, Imprintables, SmallChangeBigChanges blog for parties replete with favours, goodie bags, car race tracks, decorations, garden set-ups, costumes, basically, if you think you're OCD, this is a great cure to know that you're really not that far gone.

Here are some really cute ones, Tank Engines, Max the Superhero and Pirates and Princesses. I love the mix of theme And colour.

E's wedding flowers: Dreaming in coral

This was my last wedding assignment in September, for my cousin E. She'd graciously accepted my offer to help with her flowers and entrusted me with her coral and cream theme. E. is a really sweet, good soul and I wanted to reflect that in the design, using soft, petally flowers like peonies, which she had requested, tulips, carnations, eustomias and the tips of temperate flowers like foxgloves. Coincidentally, it also matched her tiered, gauzy ballgown skirt- she looked like a tall, graceful swan on her wedding day!


This picture is more accurate to the colour of the flowers. E. had sent me a brief months and months in advance of her wedding, specifying colours like coral, pale pinks, beige, creams and gold. One of my best memories of her wedding is the night before, her younger sisters picked away at flowers while E. hopped on and off the phone, then later on, eating dinner and laughing together. Her mom said it reminded her of when we were both just children and made her feel like crying with happiness and sadness at the same time. One thing I realize about doing flowers the night before- I was so happy with how her bouquet was a tight, round and perfectly symmetrical posy. Alas, by the next morning, the blooms had grown even larger and this pushed out the shape of my nice posy into a slightly messier, though probably more natural bouquet!


E. specified that her bouquet was to be more coral but the bridesmaids, who she'd dressed in long chiffon coral dresses, were to have bouquets that were more cream-white. With the leftover corals, beiges and whites, as well as some pale coral, small calla lilies, we made boutennieres for all the men and ushers. I hadn't seen the bridesmaid dresses till the day itself but coincidentally, the coral tulips and roses were exactly the same shade.


When we went to pick out flowers, there were some very Kate Spade-ish parrot tulips in striped green and white, which she also liked and authorised for inclusion if they were available (which they weren't on the day itself) so the bouquet could actually have been really punchy, with rose reds and those tulip green and whites. Instead, I kept to the original, softer, more feminine colour scheme the whole way through and added some dusty miller and translucent red juniper berries to soften out the tight bunches of flowers. The flowers would also have gone well with green succulents.


At the last minute, I saw stalks of these curly-wurly ferns (I'm not sure what they are called but I know they are tropical) and added those for some dimension. Those were really the only "hard" element in the bouquet, which I think was very different to flowers that I've made in the past. This had less leaves, was distinctly less wild and less dark (didn't have the blood-dark hydrangeas, large and black-berries of past work- despite the dark-looking photograph here, which I think was partly because of the shadow tint). The berries were all tiny and many flowers were small, with none really dominating.


Generally, this was more summery, polished and wrapped with the braided tan leather ribbon and white lace, was very suited I think, to E's personality. I also think that I'd been looking at so many coral inspirations lately that I was very into large David Austen roses, whirly soft eustomias, ripe juicy peaches, taupe velvet ribbons- you get the idea, not a burning fall or wintry spring anywhere in sight. She married my new cousin YW and is moving to be with him in Australia, where I just know she's going to be the world's best wife and mother. Congratulations!

*All photo credit to Eng Hong of 39East Photography