Surprise Baby Shower

My sister is due a baby next month and so I wanted to throw her a surprise baby shower. I've had great help from my mam and sisters organising it all. 

The theme for the party was afternoon tea so lots of cakes, treats and bunting. Since she will only find out the baby's gender once it's born I tried to keep it as natural as possible. It may have turned out a little girlier then I had first thought it would but it's very much my sisters style and pretty so I knew she would like it.

The decorations.

Bunting is from dunnes stores (multicolor) and starbuys (flowery) and cost less than €5 for both.
I also got the 3 paper pompoms in dunnes Stores for about €3 and the bigger white one in Ikea.

The yellow babyshower banner I got in Mr.Price as well as the purple babyshower balloons, paper plates and the guest badges. I headed to ikea again to pick up some fabric for a tablecloth, I wanted something floral and I knew I had seen the fabric there before. I got 2 meters for €12, while I was there I also got some flower napkins and pastel ribbon. 

For the balloons I got a disposable helium tank in Argos for 27.99 which blew up 30 of them. I am not the biggest fan of them so I got my sister to blow them up for me and another to arrange them all. I got the clear balloons in Tescos for about €3 and the coloured ones in starbuys for a couple of euro.

The invitation.

I made these myself at home but printing out my invitation on card from the art and hobby shop and used some patterned cardboard as the surround, I used different colors like pink, blue, yellow and green and mixed and match them with coloured envelopes like a pink invite in a blue envelope.

Prediction cards.

I found a template for the surround online and added in my details on the inside, then changed the size before printing and again used the card that I used for the invites. I also added the date of the shower to the bottom of it. After the shower we had a little peek at these the messages where lovely and we will wait and see if any one got the right predictions. 

The food.

As the theme was a tea party I wanted to keep the food to small bites. 

I made baby shower themed mini cupcakes, macarons, finger sandwiches and a small chocolate and buttercream cake topped with fresh strawberries.

 My sister Siobhán made gluten free rock buns and gorgeous chocolate truffles and my sister clodagh made chocolate covered strawberries. 

Áisling really enjoyed the surprise and couldn't believe we had all kept it from her this whole time. Everyone brought her such lovely gift, I don't think any of us expected so much they ll so great. 

Recent Baking

At the start of the month was my youngest sisters 21st. I was in charge of the cake making. I knew I had to do something different for this one so I went with black icing and neon colours. The best part was the inside. I wanted it to look great when it was cut open. This is why I went with multicoloured cake and cut a hole in the middle and filled it with smarties. I also iced it in chocolate fudge before putting the sugarpaste on. The cake didn't last very long with everyone at the party, which I take as a complement. 

This is the second cake I made which was for my Aunty's 40th Birthday last weekend. I wanted to do something different but girly at the same time. I have been dying to give a sprinkles cake a go for so long. I was afraid that it might go all wrong but in the end it turned out great and I found it really fun to make. I did however get sprinkles everywhere in the kitchen including under the dryer and even found some in my hair later on lol. It seems to be like glitter it gets everywhere. I bought the big bag of sprinkles in Decobake on Bachelors Walk a couple of weeks ago thinking I would need it all but surprisingly I didn't actually need loads. I may have over estimated it aswell and bought a 1kg bag of sprinkles. I have since bought a jar to store them all in and I'm already working out ideas to use them up.

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Travel Haul Part Two

As I'm clearing out old stuff I'm replacing it with new stuff for travelling. The cycle never ends. I bought some practical stuff this week as well as some fun travel accessories. 

First if all I got this purple zebra print travel pillow and matching luggage tag in Dunnes Stores for €8 for the pillow and €3 for the tags. I just love the print and the way the pillow is filled with little beans. I got one last year that was memory foam and at first I found it comfortable but after a while I just found it uncomfortable and irritating, it felt like a rock around my neck or something. I'm hoping for better luck with this one. I saw them in pink as well but went for the purple as someone pointed out that most of my stuff is pink ....woops. 

I also got two packs of vest tops and a pack of socks in Lidl for great prices. I'm genuinely impressed with the quality of the vests and socks. The tops came in packs of 3 with either mint green, pink and white or blue, yellow and grey and also a 3 pack of black but I didn't get those ones. They only cost €6.99 for a pack and came in loads of sizes.I even picked my sister up a packed while I was there and she was delighted with them. I love vest tops they come in so handy for when a top is a little to low for my liking, a little too sort which I always find and hate or when I'm wearing a sheer top or blouse. The socks came in a pack of 7 for €3.99 and came in a couple of different sizes, I got size 21/2 to 5 even thought I'm a six and a half but I got socks there before in a bigger size and they where too big. They colours are lovely and bright and a change form just plain black and white, and well you can never have enough socks. 

This weeks Baking

This week I was asked to make a cake for someones 50th birthday and of course I said yes. I love any excuse to make cakes. They asked for chocolate cake and as it was from the other members of her book club that it had books on it or something along those lines.

When I got home on Thursday and I got stated on making the cake and then icing and decorating. It worked out quite well that one of my favourite movies just happened to be on so ended up watching Saving Private Ryan and decorating a cake. I surprised it didn't turn out army themed.

I made a chocolate sponge and chocolate fudge icing, it smelled so good and the smell of chocolate kind of lingered in the house all evening. I used white sugar paste to cover and decorate it. I had never made sugar paste books before but it wasn't that hard to do.

I wanted to keep the colours bright so I went for pastel type colours in pink and yellow. I'm very happy about how it turned out.