life lately according to my iphone

(and Mr A's too!)

1. New $13 glass tea pot. I LOVE it!
2. next DIY project... thinking dark grey upholstery.
3. Mr A gets a new haircut (and style). Mrs A is a fan... a BIG fan!
4. dessert for two
5. You know sometimes when you just win at dinner. This was one of those times chicken, grilled capsicum and eggplant stack. yum yum yummy!!!
6. just me. in the mirror. in my new top
7. someone desperatly wants some of my chicken vietnamese roll
8. Mr A (and his new hair do) sends me kisses while at work aaaw!

paige's twenty first post #5

Sorry guys, I'm still not done posting about Paige's Twenty First, but I hope you are enjoing these posts as much as I am posting them. This post is dedicated to the drinks and food :)

We did all the drinks and cocktails ourselves (well our very lovely 'city cousins' Aaron and Jesse
made and served all our drinks and cocktails). I seem to remember they made and served all the drinks for our engagement party too! You can find the cocktail recipe here (we have made it for various events and parties and it is yummy!) Here's what we served:

I love how this drink station turned out - and it was all free too! The drink dispensers were borrowed from my friend Kate (who purchased them for her wedding last Nov - photos to come soon!), the dresser is from Paige's bathroom, the place mats are our every day set and I found that cute chalkboard on the side of the road!!

For the food we hired Eden Catering and I can't say enough about Ailish and her lovely husband's service, presentation and general friendliness - they were such a pleasure to work with. Having catering was such a blessing as it left us with more time to you know decorate, took the stress away from my mother-in-law and it made the party feel that much more special. Oh AND they even did the washing up to even though we didn't use their plates! Yeah they are kinda awesome!

all photos by Kelle Walsh: http://www.kelleewalsh.com/

paige's twenty first post #4

The dessert buffet.

it's true, my mother-in-law pretty much rocks the dessert scene around here and she helped me put together this dessert table for the party. Here is what we served:

We bought the profiteroles from a local bakery but the mini berry pies and strawberry fluff (A Nanna Ayling recipe) was made by Morgan's mum. And those mini berry pies - scrumptious!!! The lovely red velvet birthday cake which was made by a friend and we decorated it simple with some vintage book page flowers. 

more to come tomorrow... 

all photos by Kelle Walsh: http://www.kelleewalsh.com/

paige's twenty first post #3

Tea Station.

Oh how much fun it was to put together this magical tea buffet. I think it was one of my favourite details of the party. Although we did buy a few tea cups, saucers and tea pots at our local op shops, the majority of items we had on hand and/or we're borrowed from dear friends. We served both loose leaf tea in silver teapots and also had available tea bags in glass lolly jars and real sugar cubes too, of course! And the trestle table... it was built specially for me by my dad. Isn't he amazing?! The trestles we actually used at our wedding for our lolly station (although with a different top) but dad restained them darker for the party (they originally had paint splatters all over them) and made the new weathered top. I am in LOVE with it! It's also the perfect size for a dining table for six. I can't wait to throw a little dinner party in the backyard with dear friends and gather around it :)

 At night we bought over some of the lanterns and candles and the tree above was filled with tealights suspended in little jam jars - it was beyond magical (I keep saying that don't I!!)!

more to come tomorrow... 

all photos by Kelle Walsh: http://www.kelleewalsh.com/

Paige's twenty first post #2

The table details.

(warning - this is one picture heavy post!)

We wanted Paige's party to be a sophisticated cocktail affair so we set one long table down the centre of our backyard which set a nice and intimate scene for 30 people. The table was decorated with old books (seriously all owned by Paige herself!!!) in maroon, orange, green  and brown colours. We added a few mason jars filled with flowers as well as silver candlesticks and small silver vases with buds and blooms (all sourced from op shops). We did the flowers ourselves (which we had a ball choosing earlier that morning at the Sydney flower markets!) and which Aunty Mandy and my friend Katty helped me put together. Each place setting had a vintage dinner and bread/butter plates and a hemstitched linen napkin. I also borrowed my grandparents wedding silverware for the occasion - thanks gma + gpa which we mixed in with Morgan's Nana's mismatched cutlery!

For place cards Paige and my mother-in-law Janine made paper flowers our of old book pages which we attached each persons name to and set on their bread plate.  Oh and to make her feel extra special, we hung pretty lace and ribbons from the birthday girls chair - in our burgandy/pink colour theme of course!

the combination of the fairy lights, tea lights (which we hung in jars from trees and placed all around the garden) and dinner candles made the backyard so magical, especially as it got darker.

after dinner and before dessert, my father-in-law bought out some table games including a how well do you know Paige questionnaire. It was a fantastic game for this size and set up as it got everyone laughing and talking to one another as they tried to guess the answers (doting sister in law got a whooping 4 correct - wooops!!!). This was followed by some lovely speeches by my in-laws and the birthday girl. It was such a fantastic night!

more to come tomorrow... 

all photos by Kelle Walsh: http://www.kelleewalsh.com/