Green is good

Having lunch with a very dear and very pregnant friend today and realised I hadn't shared pics from her gorgeous baby shower the other week.

It was so sweet, such a gorgeous afternoon on the lawn.

The food. A+

The company. Top notch

The games. Subtle (thank goodness!)

The setting. Perfect

The decorations. Divine (care of Bliss Events)

All the best BK x

It's raining Spring

Spring is a beautiful time of the year and what better way to ring it in than with a celebration of new life?!

The girls threw a beautiful baby shower for Michelle last week that was full of colour, fun and lots of bubbles!

We had lots of fun creating singlets and bibs and Emily and I were {not so} quietly thrilled when Mum-to-be chose our clothesline version as her favourite!

Anna made the most fabulous lemon curd friands and I just wish I had a photo of them to share, I ate them faster than you could say 'taste.com.au'

Here's to the healthy arrival of the little one next week, Pete and Michelle xo

Lemon Curd Friands

Preparation Time

10 minutes

Cooking Time

20 minutes

Makes

10

Ingredients

1/2 cup (75g) plain fl our, sifted

1 1/2 cups 185g almond meal

1 1/3 cups (200g) pure icing sugar, sifted, plus extra to dust

5 eggwhites

200g unsalted butter, melted, cooled

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

5 tsp lemon curd, plus extra to serve

Whipped cream (optional), to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 10-hole friand pan or line with paper cases.
2. Mix the flour, almond meal and sugar in a bowl. 
3. In a separate bowl, lightly beateggwhites with a fork until foamy, then add to dry ingredients with butter and zest and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. 
4. Divide batter among friand pans. Place 1/2 teaspoon of curd on each friand and use a wooden skewer to swirl through batter.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until light golden. Cool, then dust with extra icing sugar. Serve with extra lemon curd, and whipped cream if desired.

Recipe from taste.com.au

Calling all cowgirls

Saddle-up cowgirls and head out back to indulge in all things wild west!

As promised, I'm thrilled to share Gemma's champagne baby bunch with you (don't worry, the baby mama stayed off the bubbles!). We had so much fun and the guest of honour was made to feel very spesh.

My photography skills (and time management!) have let me down again and I failed to get good pics of the set up and food, but you'll get the idea. These photos really don't do it justice - the backyard looked gorgeous and the food was so 'on theme', I wish you could've been there!

The guest of honour with her brother Cam

The first game was 'guess the baby name'. If Gemma and Ben hadn't chosen a name already, they'd have no trouble picking from this selection! The winner is yet to be decided . . . 

Loved the vintage cowboy fabric that I borrowed from White & Wander.

And there's Antonio keeping an eye on the drinks. Good bull.

Guests were treated to a bandana of their own on arrival and it was fun to see how everyone chose to wear them - around their neck, wrists and 'guns'

What's a Wild West party without Woody!?

 . . . and bullets hit the spot.

The bircher muesli was served in little cupcake wrappers.

These were a great last minute find - realised I needed some 'pregnant friendly' bites after going a bit OTT with cured meats and soft cheeses. I'll post the recipe later this week

Blueberry fritters with lemon curd and cream were a yummy start to proceedings, as were the corn fritters topped with sour cream and chives.

I dressed up some home made baked beans with chorizo for something a bit spesh. Perfect little serves in gelati cups, they were a hit! Stay tuned for recipe - they are so easy to serve up in bulk (I'll be eating them for breakfast, lunch and tea for the next week!)

Can't beat grilled asparagus and prosciutto with hollaindaise

Red hots are a constant on my party menu. So yummy and so easy!

The craft table was a hit in between yummy treats with everyone decorating personalised building blocks for the nursery.

Thank goodness for Kaisercraft!

Libby's cow pats were the perfect 'on theme' sweet

And whoopie pies are the new black - love these little bites! 

Gem's cowboy spears were the perfect 'sweet' finish to the day.

We also indulged in 'Raspberry Wranglers' (aka muffins) thanks to Gemma's Mum and 'Ham and Cheese Hustlers' (aka croissants). And of course, the obligatory Jansz. Yum.

Here's to a happy and healthy few weeks ahead for the expectant parents xo

Whoop whoop!

Very excited about Gemma's baby shower tomorrow (or bambino cloudburst as Briar calls it - gold!).

Putting the finishing touches on the menu tonight while Mum and Dad clean up outside. Bless parents!

Making Betty Crocker whoopie pies (yes, I'm cheating) but they're so good and I'm time poor and have too many other things to worry about to bother making my own from scratch. Don't mess with Betty!

I'm trying to give everything a cowboy flavour (tragic, I know!), so think I'll be calling these 'cow pats'. Just wait til you see what I've got in store with the 'cowboy caviar'!

Stay tuned for pics next week xo

Pic here

Yeee-ha!

I pinned this pic ages ago from a subtle revelry.

Love love love styled mag.

This pic was the inspiration for the Cowboy Baby Shower I'm throwing for Gemma in a couple of weeks. Random, hey!?

I love stacks of fluffy bite-sized pikelets and the feathers added a playful element that reminded me of a girl's take on Cowboys and Indians.

We're having a classy little champagne brunch at my folks place and I've been busy pinning my heart out to help get in the mood for the big day.

The props have been rolling in and it's slowly taking shape. 

If only Miss Tina lived in the Rads so I could call on her expertise! Have you seen her work!? Totes gorge. She'd rock this gig.

Stay tuned for pics in a couple of weeks . . . 

It's raining baby

I've been meaning to blog about Bree's Baby Shower for ages but didn't have any good photos myself, so finally got some pearlers from her sisters.

Check out the effort that went into this shindig.

The theme was 'Cute as a Button' and as we already know Bree's having a girl, the pink touches were inevitable!

Now for the food . . . out of this world. I had to undo the top button of my pants when I went home later that night! I ate enough to last me a week!

The dessert buffet was the obvious highlight with the layered cake my hands-down favourite (Abby, do you take orders!?!?)

A fabulous idea was the little pots of chocolate with the spoon set inside - they were to stir into your coffee to make mocha. Clever, hey!?

Bree's oldest sister Kelly (on the left) has an almost three year old (remember Zara?) and is pregnant with her second, and Abby (in the middle) has two gorgeous little ones of her own (hello cuties!). Plus, she lives in the country (and so does their Mum), so how they all pulled this together for the guest of honour (who lives in Melbourne, mind you!) I'll never know!

It all helps that they had a beautiful space to work with, thanks to the in-laws.

The countdown is on, Miss Bree!

In the meantime, we have had a number of other 'buns in the oven' announcements of late, so it looks like we'll be raining baby for a while yet! Bring on the showers!

xo

The (duck) icing on the cake

While this bridesmaid has hung up her bouquet for the time being, she's well and truly gearing up for baby season.

Is there something in the water? EVERYONE'S having babies at the moment! It's so exciting, I'm incredibly clucky and revelling in the baby glow that's taken over my friends and family.

The first baby shower of the season was Sam's - pictured above with me on her wedding day. Feels like only yesterday and then here we are, celebrating the impending arrival of her little one! How time flies.

We wished her well with a lovely shower at her Mum's house - complete with arts and crafts and baby games. It got very competitive indeed!

I went for the practical option with a 54 pack of nappies as my gift, but pimped it up with some little extras and a three tiered cake display.

I was up til midnight rolling the nappies the night before and snapped a few rubber bands along the way!

I bundled the nappies together in almost round layers (Winnie the Pooh design, cute!) with big rubber bands holding them together - starting from the inside, I slowly added extra layers to the outside, stretching the rubber band that little bit more with each addition.

And added in some little extras that will hopefully come in handy.

Bath ducky, baby sunscreen, apple and cinnamon baby food and a medicine spoon thingygmajig.

And ta-da! My delectable nappy cake!

Not long now Sam xo