Party Ideas: Pretty in pink, floral kitchen tea ideas

I went to a gorgeous and dainty kitchen tea party this weekend with some amazing kitchen tea party ideas! The overall theme was elegance, pretty florals and of course tea pots and tea cups. Guests were asked to wear a fascinator to complement the sweet event. Large white birdcages decorated in flowers were displayed on the main table. The tables of guests were decorated with vases of large bunches of plain white Baby Breath flowers which were a nice modern take. 

These are just some of the great kitchen tea party ideas at the event that I wanted to share with you. Enjoy!

Gorgeous Kitchen Tea Sweets Buffet

Kitchen tea cupcakes

White fondant cake with peachy pink tea
creamer and sugar bowl

White fondant covered chocolate
cake with pretty pink flower and teapot

Hand made floral picture frame for guests to take
pics behind

Floral vintage styled mirror with
party details stencilled on

Lots of pink sweetness

Individually wrapped
teacup cookies

DIY Christmas Beaded Ornaments

This is hands down one of the easiest DIY ornaments you can make this Christmas. I love the look of the shiny string of beads but wanted to take a different approach to just wrapping it around or draping it on the Christmas tree. These take minutes to make an the effect is quite pleasing and will cost you next to nothing while covering your Christmas tree. Choose any coloured beads you like, you will find them in the Christmas section at dollar stores everywhere.

DIY christmas beaded ornament

What you need:

• Long string of Christmas beads
• Scissors
• Christmas ornament hooks

What you need for this Christmas DIY

Cut two 25cm strings of beads

Attach the ornament hook to the centre
…...and voila!

DIY beaded stings on Christmas tree

Makeup: MAC Dupe for Blankety Lipstick

One of my favourite nude lipsticks is MAC's Blankety Lipstick. It is a creamy, matte-like nude coloured lipstick worn by the likes of Kim Kardashian. Sold for $36 in Australia - it isn't cheap.

The best dupe for Blankety is Australis' Colour Inject lipstick in Mambo at a bargain $12.95. It has the same creamy texture even find that it is actually less drying on my lips than the MAC counterpart with apparently infusted vitamins, minerals and antioxidants such as Vitamic C, Viramin E, Jojoba oil, Omega 6 and Avocado oil.

It claims to use Kakadu Plum which they describe as the world's highest known source of Vitamin C which naturally stimulates collagen formation.  I am certainly not sure how much collagen formation was being stimulated on my lips while wearing the lipstick but it does feel nourishing. It is hard to believe that anything other than a lip balm, or lip treatment worn overnight or for extended periods would have much an effect on collagen production but I guess that is not the reason I buy a lipstick.

Australis Mamo v MAC Blankety Lipstick

Colour Swatch from left to right, Australis - Mambo and MAC - Blankety.

The colour payoff is terrific and gives a gorgeous sexy-nude pout. So if you don't want to fork out the extra $23.05 to buy the MAC version this would be your best bet for getting the same look. Either one will give you the perfect pinky nude colour for light to olive skin tones. Enjoy!

Party Ideas: Pink Spots and Stripes Themed Girls First Birthday

If you are after a pretty and simply delightful girl's party theme idea look no further than Sophia's pink spots and stripes themed first birthday party. 

Let's start with the amazing three tier cake created by Sophia's 17 year old sister from Bexley. The bottom tier of the cake decorated with fondant pink and white strips, the middle tier with spots in different shades if pink and the top tier in a gorgeous large cupcake and hand created sugar candle. Silver balls separate the tiers and Sophia's name on displayed on the pink fondant covered cubes.

Pink spots and stripes three tier cake

The whole sweets table was kept in theme with pink spotted lettering displaying the birthday girl's name. Pink and white spotted and striped bunting flags, spotted balloons and backdrop created with a pink plastic table cover.

Pink spots and stripes sweets table

On the sweets buffet were white cake pops topped with mini pink icing balls, pink and white smarties, pink and white jelly beans, pink lollies in giant champagne glassware and other pink treats shown below:-

Pink jelly jars with pink and white spotted ribbon

Large lollipops with hand created
birthday initial labels

Pretty pink cupcakes in striped and spotted casing
and mini striped and spotted pink flags

Guests could take away some of the treats in
the cutest pink striped packages

Hope you enjoyed this week's party feature, if you live in the Sydney area and want to order a similar cake, email basilandchaise@live.com.au for more details. Enjoy!

Recycle your coffee pod capsules

If you use Nespresso coffee capsules like I do, it often seems like a waste that you use a whole capsule each time you make a coffee and hating waste like I do prompted me to create this post on how to recycle your coffee pods. 

The first and most basic way to recycle your pods is to take them back to a Nespresso store or recycling point - learn more about the Australian recycle program here.

What I like to do with mine is to extract the coffee grounds from the pod with a spoon (they come out quite easily) and recycle the grounds in my garden.

Uses for coffee grounds in the garden:

1. Slugs and worms hate the acidity of the grounds so you can spread them around your veggies and create a physical barrier around the plant to deter these annoying little critters from feeding on your leafy greens.

2. Add it to your compost bin or worm farm. The grounds are high in nitrogen and form the "green" component of a compost mix. Compost needs to be one part "green" (nitrogen rich) sourced from grass clippings, weeds, eggshells etc. and three parts "brown" (carbon rich) from dry leaves, sawdust or wood shavings, woody veggie stalks etc.

3. I particularly love digging it into the dirt around the acid loving plants in my garden:- 

• Gardenias (pictured above)
• Azaleas
• Camellias
• Some roses
• Many Australia native plants

For great ideas on recycling the actual container of the pod once your done with the coffee grounds, check out and follow my Pinterest board Nesspresso Capsule Art.

DIY: Buttons and Bling Magnets

Make your fridge dazzle with today's DIY which involves making your own cute magnets with buttons and bling. This is a great 2 minute project that I'm almost too embarrassed to blog about because it's so easy! 

What you need:

• Thick heavy duty magnets (diameter of a 5 cents coin and a few millimetres thick) - got mine from the dollar store - don't get the sticky magnets you use for invites
• Blingy shiny thingys (also from the dollar store or just upcycled from some unused costumed jewellery)
• Hot glue gun and glue

Step 1: Gather supplies.

You need buttons, sparkles, magnets & a hot glue gun

Step 2: Glue together - it takes seconds to dry, don't overdo the glue.

Use a hot glue gun to glue together

Step 3: Stick on the fridge and add some sparkle and pretty to your shopping list.

DIY Centrepiece Ideas - Glass Jars Decorated with Burlap

If you would love to create rustic, earthy table centrepieces that cost next to nothing try this simple DIY with any empty mason jars or wine bottles you may have at home together with some burlap and twine.

I love collecting mason jars and glass bottles, they always seem to come in handy for storage, organisation and now upcycling for a decorative table display. My family knows they cannot throw a good looking jar or bottle out in my presence and they saw them on full display as centrepieces for a BBQ lunch at my place....

What you need for this DIY:

• Any empty mason jars or mini bottles
• Burlap - you can choose any colour you like or any print you like
• Twine
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun (optional)

Step one: gather up any mason jars you have or any wine bottles (I used mini single serve wine bottles I kept).

Step 2: Cut a strip of burlap for each jar long enough to wrap around your jar or bottle with a 2cm overlap, about 5cm wide and wrap around the jar or bottle. I purchased mine from Spotlight, they had some plain and coloured burlap sold by the metre ($8.99 metre for the one shown with the black vintage postmark print), I bought half a metre which was more than enough to decorate half a dozen jars.

Step 3: Secure with twine and tie a bow. You can add a dab of glue with a hot glue gun if you like, mine didn't need it.

Step 4: Fill with whatever you like. I used French Lavender plants that I had growing in my garden which looked earthy and organic.

This technique also looks great on mini wine bottles as featured below or you can recycle whatever pretty shaped bottles you have at home.

To create another look, cut the burlap into large square pieces, put your jar in the centre and gather the outer edges to the centre and secure with the twine. The possibilities are endless - experiment with your own today.

Mason jar wrapped in decorative burlap and twine.

The perfect vase with home grown Kangaroo Paw
flowers in the centre.