Happy Birthday Mummy Springett

My Mummy turned 50 today! We've had such a lovely day exploring London but more about that tomorrow!

I wanted to show you a present we did which I've been meaning to put on here for ages. Before we went on holiday about a month ago my sister and I organised a photoshoot with our cousin's husband (cousin-in-law?!) in Brighton which is where she grew up so she would have pictures of her two beautiful (ahem!) daughters.

So heres a few favourites, she's picking her faves to go onto canvases and we're making a book on iPhoto, hopefully it won't be too tricky!!

What do you think? Joe is a dab hand at Photoshop thankfully!! Anyway I'll tell you all about Mum's birthday tomorrow. I refuse to turn 21 tomorrow, I don't want to be an adult but I guess I'll take the presents!

Birthday Week

So the time is here, it's my Mum and I's big birthdays, she turns 50 tomorrow and I turn 21 on Thursday. I'm literally so insanely excited it's going to be such an amazing week with so much planned and I can't wait to show you all about it!

I can't believe I'm going to be 21, I'll be showing you this week all about our fun week so I thought before it all starts I'll just have a little trip down memory lane of when I was a youngster!

{Christmas tree decorating time!}

{Me and my sis in matching cowgirl outfits}

{First day at school!}

I wish I was this young again, I don't want to grow up!! Tomorrow we have lots planned for Mum's big day but I'll show you one of the presents we organised for her tomorrow!

Party Week: Food

I'm not massively decided on my food but we're having cakes and finger sandwiches for the afternoon and then a big old BBQ in the evening by Daddy Springett! However, any Springett gathering has so much food that we'll be eating leftovers for weeks which I'm happy about, we're a family of very tall big eaters!

The menu for the cakes is pretty cupcakes, strawberry cheesecake, colourful meringue bites and raspberry vienesse whirls. We're still not sure on the sandwiches but I'm going to have to make one a salmon for a posh afternoon tea!

For the BBQ we're doing burgers, deliciously marinated ribs and some spicy chicken with gorgeous homemade salads, perfect for the BBQ.

Anyway, I've been getting a few ideas from Pinterest (again) so here is another post of pretty pictures!

{Summer berry cake}

{Pretty turquoise birthday cake}

{Simple sprinkles}

{Lots of posh cupcakes}

{This is actually a picture of my own raspberry cheesecake I made a while ago, it's a well used recipe!}

{Pretty displays for finger food}

{Fresh and simple sandwiches}

{Cupcakes in teacups and macarons! I may attempt to make some macarons but I've been told they're pretty tricky!}

{Red Velvet Cupcakes}

Hopefully our baking day for all of this will be a success, it's all pretty much going to be finger food and we're serving it again with old fashioned assorted crockery from lots of random places!

Party Week: Drinks

The most important part of a 21st birthday party, in my mind, has to be the drinks! The afternoon tea theme has made me rethink just the normal ordinary drinks at a party, appearance is everything don't you know so I'm doing some traditional English drinks with a little Rosie twist and an afternoon tea party twist.

First, we'll serve the classic cava, a favourite of mine which has been drunk at many a party since I turned 18. I recommend this cava, it's not posh, it's not fancy, but it tastes damn good, and for that price you can drink three! I'm only kidding, but kind of not...

It'll be in the classic champagne flutes but we're turning them into 'Hedgerow bubbly' with elderflower cordial at the bottom and a little raspberry floating on top. Here's what they will *hopefully* look like.

{I'm hopefully going to make the flags with the tape I used for the invites yesterday}

Then we're doing the classic Pimms, my version of Pimms is terribly strong but delicious, my friend Andy and I got a headstart on my last party with a jug of this and we were already ready for the night out!

However, I'll be serving it in jamjars with cute stripey straws with as much fruit as you can fit in there. I think it'll make the drinks feel a lot more summery, even if we do have to evacuate the garden party to the conservatory!

{I like the higgledy piggldy glasses, I don't think thats an actual word hence why I can't spell it!}

{Gorgeous fruity drinks in jars}

{Drink me striped straws}

{It'll be so easy to pre prepare all the jars with the fruit ready for the yummy Pimms}

The last drink is going to be an assortment of cocktails, I'm not a cocktail maker connoisseur so it's only going to be simple ones but I'm presenting them in a different way.

A friend had a birthday party and was serving cocktails in teapots and it make me think I could go the whole hog and have lots of teapots (for the afternoon tea party) with different cocktails in and serve them in teacups and saucers.

Around Bournemouth there are so many charity shops so I did a little scour round and found 2 huge tea sets for £9, I have so many teacups now I think the cocktails will most definitely be flowing!

I've also found that the ice in the drinks can be just as decorative as the drinks. I have a fruit shaped ice tray so I'm going to make those with little additions to the cubes.

This week's blogs are getting me so excited for next week and I can't wait to show you what the party actually turns out like! Ahhhh!

Party Week: Invitations

I had a lot of ideas about invitations as I wanted it to be a simple postcard but I wanted a little character and a bit of me in there. Here were a few ideas I had, with each one I tried to work out how I could make some of these into reality.

{I thought these were cute but not '21st' enough}

{This was one of my favourites with the bunting, a guilty pleasure of mine}

{I liked the colours and envelope lining on this}

{Stamps and envelope linings looked like popular DIY tools}

{I knew I wanted it to be a postcard rather than a fold card}

{A really summery picnic invite}

{I looked at buying these from my favourite stationers, Rifle Paper Co, but the shipping was insane!}

{Cute little Rifle Paper Co invites}

In reality I went for half pre-made, half DIY which I think works well. I sent these invites out yesterday so if any of my guests are reading this STOP READING NOW! This is a huge spoiler alert!

Anyway, I started with a simple ivory postcard invitation from Paperchase, they were £2.50 per pack of 8 for the ivory ones (I can't find the ivory online!) which is pretty reasonable.

Then I bought some patterned masking tape from Papermash, ideally you want different colours but I thought it would still look cute with just the blue, I think the pastel colour makes the invite feel quite summery which is perfect for an summer afternoon tea theme!

Now it was just a case of making the invite a bit more fun so cut lots of little triangles from your tape and line them up on anything.

Get some gold thread (or any nice coloured thread) and use the masking tape to stick the thread down at each side, then follow along the thread with more triangles to create BUNTING! I knew for the invites to be me it would need to have some bunting on it!

{Don't they look just so cute?! All of the information is on the back which I left plain of any DIY extras}

{Trim off any excess thread to neaten up the sides}

{Ready to be posted!}

I added a little strip of masking tape to the back of each envelope to add a little more to the envelopes. I wanted to take a picture of all of the invites with their stamps on because it looked so pretty but, you know, envelopes have addresses on and a lot of people don't like that kind of thing being on the internet!!

So there you have it, a first glimpse into my party with the invites. Tomorrow is probably the best bit, the drinks! I have a lot of plans for the drinks so I'll show you all of the exciting things I have planned for it!

Party Week: Mood Board

So this week I thought I'd show you some of the ideas and prep I've been looking into for my birthday party which is only 2 weeks away!! 

It's basically a small friends and family afternoon tea party in the garden with lots of drinks, cakes and finger sandwiches. Then we're having a big old BBQ cooked by Daddy Springett and even more drinks before a jolly night out!

Me being me I made a mood board so I could get a few ideas about the table layout, drinks, food and invites which I'll show you more about throughout this week. But for today here's some pictures (you can source them from my Pinterest site) with the ideas which hopefully I'll show you in reality once I've had the party! I'm so excited to turn 21 with my gorgeous friends and family!!

It all looks so pretty, I hope it looks slightly similar on my day!