super sundays...

today has been one of those great days where you manage to do a little bit of everything a sunday should give you and you finish the day feeling like you've achieved.

a good sunday should always start with breakfast in bed. this morning I was woken up by the Jack R and so it was up to me to make porridge and hot cross buns. a good sunday breakfast in bed should always be accompanied by a read. be it the papers, electronically or traditionally, or a good book. this morning I started to work my way through Shopping in Marrakech by Susan Simon. it's a pocket sized, delightful insight into the medinas and souks and shops of the red city and started the excitement bubbling for our baby- moon in 5 weeks time. 

following your escape from the duvet, a super sunday always requires a decent outfit. not necessarily dressy as there are always one form of housework or job to be done. but certainly some effort should be made when going out into public. always. especially on a sunday. to starve away the rain I decided on my new raspberry asos maternity jeans that I am slowly growing into (and to be quite honest they are still to big.) I teamed these with a topshop boyfriend fit navy and oatmeal t shirt, navy whistles blazer and pink pumps with sparkles on. sparkles and sunday go hand in hand. 

i accessorised with my weekend watch; gold Marc Jacobs, a variety of bracelets and charms and some multi coloured starling ear rings.

once dressed we walked the dog (good sundays should always have some form of exercise) and frequented our local spring festival. working for a local company and living in a rural area you get to enjoy dipping your toe into community life. the sun managed to stay out just long enough for the festivities and we enjoyed a bacon sandwich (a staple of a sunday diet)within the beautiful church yard.

on our return home I relaxed with some recorded tv and a cup of chamomile tea(the rain was starting in its way) and then fitted in a couple of jobs; cleaning the bathrooms and cleaning up a second hand unit we have just purchased. dispite housework not being too fun a successful Sunday must include some jobs to make you feel like Wonder Woman/ domestic goddess. 

mid afternoon it was time to start on my real job for the day; prepping the flags for the centre pieces for a christening I am decorating in a few weeks. 

whilst I am on the subject of decor, I cannot highly  recommend this book enough. it was purchased to help me with ideas for my home grown wedding and it is full of fantastic ideas for paper crafts that really don't look naff and homemade in that 'not very handy' way. it's called paper & craft by Minhee and Truman Cho of Paper & Cup. 

and as all good Sundays should finish, we have seen out the final hours of today with a roast and good company. before early to bed of course, being a school night. 

so a super sunday requires, in my opinion:

breakfast in bed

a good read (or other suitable activity)

a snazzy outfit

a walk

a bacon buttie/ hot cross bun/ pancakes etc etc

relaxation

domestic brilliance

something creative/ a hobby

a roast

family and friends

i hope you've had a good Sunday, whatever you may have done. it's worth stopping at the end of the weekend and thinking about the good stuff, before we get bogged down into the next week... and take pictures. it's nice to reflect back on...

when you wish upon a star...

so the 30th birthday bash was a resounding success and the disney theme went down a treat. the simple, classic Mickey decor worked for an adults birthday, as I had hoped. the only disney princesses to be found were on some of the cupcakes. not that there is anything wrong with a Disney princess but it isn't always befitting a 30 year old girl about town/ yummy mummy.

the briefing was low cost, stylish, disney decor to work in a rural village hall. two weeks to plan and make (by two weeks I mean a handful of evenings and one full day) and those to be made had to be with limited resources due to time and cost.

the results...

the centre pieces for the tables. these were my favourite bit and I wanted them to be simple but effective. and the main focal point. cleverly and lovingly constructed by my mum.

for the entrance hall I wanted a focal point for the reception desk to draw attention away for the local notices and village hall bits and bobs. we created a small twig tree (compliments the whole rural setting) with white twigs and little red bow ties and black mickey silhouettes hanging from it with ribbons. I also created a sign using mickey inspired font I found on my font bible dafont. this was to direct guests to leave cards and presents. always helpful.

also in the entrance hall were handmade Alice in wonderland style signs. a little bit roughly handmade but I was really pleased with the Alice style font. due to timing I stuck to just four signs: 'bar', 'party' and the classic Alice 'this way' and 'that way'. with more time there are more options and could be displayed on a false tree for example.

in addition to these main features there were shop bought Minnie Mouse polka dot table cloths, good old balloons in complimentary red, black and white and a big Micky cut out for the dj stage. on top of that we made red pom poms and strung them in lines across the ceiling. a simple but effective way to jazz up an otherwise basic room and give it a playful edge.

the end result wasn't a mega bucks, professional room but i hope and think it did the job. and maybe had the wow factor for the guests, many of them local people who used the hall weekly and maybe hasn't seen it done up that way before.

add 60+ people, many of them adults and many of them over 40, dressed up like a whose who of disney and you got a pretty magical night....

it's a family affair...

i spent this evening 'doing' with my craft partner in crime (aka mum) ready for the party this weekend.

tonight's tasks included measuring out fabric to cover the pots for the mickey mouse centre pieces, drawing out the templates for the 'alice in wonderland' style signs and checking my dad had spray painted things correctly.

my mum also came up with the idea of the good old twig tree again. a firm favourite with my family. last used at xmas and very popular at my wedding, this time it would be smaller, white and with little red bow ties hanging from it. tied with thin yellow ribbon (keeping with the traditional, simple disney pallet.)

so while mum cut material and dad polished off cheese and biscuits I made little bow tie templates.

tomorrow night will be busy with finishing the signs and the bow ties off. as well as packing for the weekend.

all fun though...