Have you met Wild Rose Sweets and Styling yet?

When I last did a post for Sweet Little Birdy, I told you about the winners of the Sweet Little Birdy Party Table competition. I have been waiting for one last winner so that I can take your breath away with her gorgeous competition table.

So without further ado, here is Allison from Wild Rose Sweets and Styling....

What was the celebration for?

The event was put on as part of 'Australia's Biggest Morning Tea' - a fundraising initiative of the Australian Cancer Council.  So while we enjoyed a delicious morning tea, we also brought along some clothes, books and odds & ends and 'bought' them from each other, donating all the money to the Cancer Council.  It was such a fun way to declutter our houses and support a fantastic charity at the same time.

 

 

What was the theme?
A pretty vintage theme of white, pink and a hint of blue. 

 

That sounds beautiful, why did you pick a vintage theme?

I am a Mum of 4 boys  and am used to working with blues and reds, so I knew whatever I did that pink would be involved :-).  I actually fell in love with the gorgeous 'Hello Spring' Printables from Fairydust Stylish Stationery. They are a gorgeous combination of pinks, blues and lace and I used them to dictate the table design.

 

What was your favourite thing about the fundraiser?
Oh so many things!  In particular I loved using my Grandmother's tea cups as part of the table, the doily backdrop, the printables, and working with Giuliana from Living Light Photography.  She was so lovely and really captured the 'prettiness' of the table.

 

What 3 Sweet Little Birdy products did you use?

I used the Robert Gordon jar for my meringues, my white tin pails for the White Chocolate & Pistachio Rocky Road and Raspberry & White Chocolate macarons. The pretty pink pails from the turntable as risers, and the Sweet Little Birdy pastel pink straws.  I love all my Sweet Little Birdy products and they really made my table!

What food did you serve?

My business is baking and I am a complusive over-caterer so there was lots of sweets on offer!  I had a White Chocolate & Raspberry 'Rose' cake, a Vanilla 'Petal' cake, macarons, meringues, Citrus Twist Sugar Cookies, Dark Chocolate Mud cake pops, White Chocolate & Pistachio Rocky Road, Vanilla Cupcakes, Lemon & Ginger Sorbet, and jellies, lollies and biscuits for the kids. 

 

What do you plan on spending your Sweet Little Birdy winners voucher on?

I spent it straight away!  Sweet Little Birdy has so many gorgeous things that I found I had a hard time trying to decide!  My favourite things I purchased were the pink compotes and another Robert Gordon Jar.

 

What's your best party planning tip? And would you change anything?

-Don't underestimate how long it takes to set up the table!  While I always have a vision in my mind of how I want it to look, it can 

take me an hour or two to get it exactly right.   

- Printables are a great way to give your table a professional look without a huge budget.  They are also a great idea when providing a large selection of food so your guests can easily choose from what's on offer.

-Lastly, if you have the budget, look into hiring a professional photographer.  It was so lovely to know that Giuliana from Living Light Photography would focus on capturing the event, which meant that I could just focus on enjoying the sweets and the company.

Tell us a little bit about Wild Rose Sweets & Styling and what makes your business different?

My business is 'Wild Rose Sweets & Styling' - a boutique dessert styling company specialising in quality, handmade sweets and custom-designed dessert and candy buffets.  I love baking and my Sweets Menu includes buttercream cakes, cupcakes, macarons, homemade marshmallow, cookies, cake pops and a variety of other sweet treats perfect for any theme, colour and occasion.  I make all my sweets from scratch ensuring a fresh, delicious product made specifically for your event.  I also love the art of styling and working with my clients.  Whether it's in close consultation to recreate their vision for the table, or I'm given a small brief and my imagination can go wild,  I do everything possible to ensure that the reality surpasses their expectations.  

Credits

Sweets and Styling by Wild Rose Sweets & Styling

Photography by Living Light Photography

Printables by Fairydust Stylish Stationery

Cake stand by Mums Little Party Secret
 

And that's it! Thank you to everyone who entered the Sweet Little Birdy Party table competition and congratulations again to all the winners. We really enjoyed seeing your entries. Don't forget that Sweet Little Birdy is having a sale so click on the link now to find some great bargains!

This is my last post as a guest blogger for the wonderful Tara of Sweet Little Birdy. I have enjoyed blogging about such gorgeous products and dessert tables. Just like Tara (who is busy working as a very successful Travel Agent), I am onto new and exciting adventures as a mum and Private Feeding Speech Pathologist in Newcastle (my business is called 'Let's Eat! Paediatric Speech Pathology'). Thank you for being involved in our blogs, Tara and I will miss it!

Yours in blogging
xo
Val

 

M&M party for a 13 year old! (A post by Tara)

My baby boy recently turned 13!  Yep, 13... as in teenager 13!!!  I can't believe how fast that tiny little 7lb1oz baby who arrived in January 2000 has grown...

To celebrate we decided on a M&M themed party ~ the perfect theme for his age... and as we figured this would probably be the last party he'll want to have at home and next birthday he'll be more interested in going to laser tag or the movies or somewhere 'cool' with his mates. 

It was such a fun theme to do, and Mr soon to be 13 helped plan and create the menu and the cake design. 

Mr Sweet Little Birdy (aka dad) went to Vegas for work and bought home personalised m&ms for the party ~ what a hit they were!!!

 

 

 

M&M mini donuts

M&M cupcakes
 

 

 

 

M&M marshmallows

 

 

Rocky Road

 

 

Hot Dogs and Burgers

And finally... we experimented with putting dots in the cake - with success!!!

An awesome party for an awesome boy!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The encouragement award goes to...Kallan's Vintage books and toy party

Anything vintage and boys related is like a breath of fresh air for me. I think for Tara and I who both have boys, we seem to spend a lot of time sighing over the beautiful pink parties out there. But then vintage and books, trains, cars etc pops up, and suddenly we find ourselves sighing over the boys parties too!

And this party is one you will definitely sigh over.

Readers, a round of applause for the encouragement award which went to Kristie - a mum of 3 boys (5, 3 and 1)-  who held a birthday celebration for her youngest son, Kallan who recently turned 1.
Kristie is a teacher currently on leave (enjoying her time with her young kids). She has also recently started a business from home called 'Li'l Parties' (but more on that later).  Here's what Kristie said about Kallan's party...

What was the celebration for?

 My son, Kallan's first birthday party.  It was held at our own home, with family and some close friends and their children.

What was the theme?

 Vintage (Retro) Books and Toys

Why did you choose this theme?

 I love vintage books and toys - especially anything 'retro' and have kept quite a lot of books and toys from my own childhood, so it was these treasures that inspired me to choose this theme for my little boy.  Since he is too young to choose his own theme yet, I got to choose it this time (my other boys - 3 and 5 - are now old enough to choose their own themes and birthday cakes!).  I wanted a theme that would allow for lots of colour and fun for a little boy!  There is something wonderful about the colours and graphics of retro books and toys!

What was your favourite thing about the party?

 Seeing little Kallan enjoying the moment when everyone sang Happy Birthday to him - so cute!  Also seeing the little kids playing and having fun!  I loved the bright colours and was pleased with the way the decorations came together.

What 3 Sweet Little Birdy products did you use?

 Red party favour boxes

Spotty paper straws - red and blue

White metal tins/buckets (used for the large pinwheels)

What food was served?

 On the Sweets Table:

Popcorn served in baking cups (my 5 and 3 year old boys had fun helping Daddy to pop the popcorn!)

Fruit salad served in baking cups

Cake pops, chocolate freckles, cupcakes - all made by myself

Little chocolate bars - I made the wrappers

Sweets - Lollipops, Gumballs (for the adults only), Retro Mix lollies, Licorice Allsorts ...

Chips and pretzels in cute retro canisters

Macarons

Birthday cake - I made this myself.  It was a layered basic butter cake with frosting and decorated in a classic retro style to suit the theme.

On the Savoury Table:

Party pies, sausage rolls, mini quiches, some savoury platters with dip etc.

What games/lolly bags were there?

 Games - a few classic retro games for the guests and Kallan's siblings (The birthday boy is a bit too young to join in the games of course).  They included Pass the Parcel and Pin the tail on the Donkey (not too many structured games as the kids are only little and are usually happy just to 'play' at this age.

Party Boxes - filled with cute little retro-themed favours (stickers, mini Rubiks cube, slinky, crayons etc.)

 A couple of activity tables for the kids to go to at their own leisure, such as a 'Storytime Table' - set up with a selection of vintage (retro) books, 'Craft Table' - set up with some craft supplies/materials and a 'Play Area' - set up with some classic retro toys (spinning top, wooden blocks etc.)

What do you plan on spending the voucher on?

I am planning to spend it on the gorgeous glass cupcake jar!!

Cupcake Shaped Jar

You have recently started an online business, can you tell us a little bit about it?

I enjoy creative tasks (when time permits) & in particular have a passion for decorating kids' spaces. I have only recently discovered that I also love to style kids' parties (fun for me to create & at the same time bringing so much joy to the little ones!). After being unable to find any kids' tables & chairs to hire for my boys' parties, I went out & bought a whole lot of my own. Then earlier this year I had an idea that I could hire them out to other parents who were wanting little tables & chairs for their children's parties - hence the creation of my little party hire business - Li'l Parties. I'm looking forward to having a go at styling more parties for my children next year ... the older ones are already coming up with suggestions for the themes!! :)

Best party planning tip?

Start organising early! It can take a while, especially when you have busy little kiddies all under school age, as most things need to prepared at night whilst they are asleep.  I like to design and make my own labels and signs etc. and all those little details take quite some time.  Another tip - wrapping paper makes a great table runner! I love to choose wrapping paper to suit the party theme, then place it on top of a white table cloth for the kids' party table - easy, effective and not expensive! Don't think I would change anything really - it was a lovely little celebration for our sweet little man xx

Oh my goodness, is anyone hungry after reading about all that food! Thank you for all those party tips Kristie, I am sure we have all kept a few tips of yours for our next party. Until next time readers!

Yours in blogging

Val

Meet our first winner of the Sweet Little Birdy Party Table competition...

Congratulations to all the winners of the Sweet Little Birdy Party Table Competition! We are thrilled to feature all of their tables in the upcoming months and to kick off, we would like you to meet our first winner - Lauren from Little Red Door Photography.

What I love about this table is the originality, although Lauren has kept table symmetry, she has also been original in her table layout. There are pink pops of colour throughout the table with little meaningful touches about her daughters on the table.

Here's what Lauren said about her party...

What was the celebration for? A birthday party for both of my daughters, Chloe (turning 4) and Bella (turning 2).

 What was the theme? Ice cream (pastels) buffet.

 

Why did you choose this theme? I fell in love with the ice cream truck printables by Style Me Gorgeous - that decided the theme of the party.

 What was your favourite thing about the party? The ice cream buffet and watching the kids all make their own "cold rock" style ice creams.

What 3 Sweet Little Birdy products did you use? Lots of products! I purchased the boxes,icecream cups, gift boxes and turntable buckets and hired the ice cream buffet box from Sweet Little Birdy.

Turntables from Sweet Little Birdy

 

What food was served? Macarons, cake pops, popcorn, yoghurts, ice cream buffet, other "normal" party food, chips, lollies etc. The cake pops were made by Tara from Sweet Little Birdy.

 

What games/lolly bags were there? The games included a treasure hunt, and freeze, (I can't remember what else!). The lolly bags were white treat boxes (from Sweet Little Birdy) filled with pastel lollies, candy necklaces etc.
 

 

What do you plan on spending your Sweet Little Birdy winners voucher on? I plan on stocking up for supplies for my sister-in-law's baby shower in November

 Would you change anything? I wouldn't change anything, all the guests loved it.

What's your best party planning tip? Relax! Once you find a theme, stick to it!

 

Thank you Lauren for telling us about your party, an ice cream buffet is just perfect for our Aussie summers and I'm sure a lot of us got some great styling ideas from you. A fantastic job!

 

 

Stay tuned for our next blog post.... a morning tea dessert table for the Cancer Council's 'Australia's Biggest Morning Tea'.

 

 

Drum roll... Drum roll... The winners are...

BIG congratulations to:

Overall winners:

Entry number 1: Lauren's ice cream table

Entry number 22: Allison's pink table


Voters choice:

Entry number 12: Andrea's Minnie Mouse party


Encouragement award:

Entry number 21 - Kristie's vintage toy party


The entries were all amazing!!!

Full blog post to come soon...

Meet our 5th and final judge...

Hurry Hurry Hurry! You have 2 weeks left to enter the Sweet Little Birdy Party Table competition. Entries close on 31st August and there are 4 prize packs to win which all include a gift voucher from Sweet Little Birdy ($50-$100) and a bunch of goodies. You will also have your party featured on our website front page and a blog post on your party by us!!

It doesn't have to be a dessert table, it could be a candy table, savoury table, cookie bar, ice cream bar, cheese table or even gift bag table! So get those thinking caps on, make sure you include 3 products from Sweet Little Birdy (think outside the square) and submit your entries, we are so excited to see them!

Without further ado, I am thrilled to tell you about our last guest judge Mai, who is the owner and founder of Mai Style Party Boutique. If you haven't already liked her facebook page, I suggest you do, she sells a gorgeous range of partyware online which is original and very competitive in price.

Mai describes herself as a wife and mother to two kids. She is also a very bright spark who after completing her degree worked at Macquarie Bank until she had kids. She now sells partyware and tells me, she has never looked back.

I love her story about how she started her store, here's a summary ... Mai loves entertaining and like many of us, adores Amy Atlas. But when trying to source beautiful dessert table items for her parties, she found that she had to buy them from the U.S as at the time, there was very little available in Australia.

She described a "moment" to me which I know a lot of you will relate to...
"I remember opening my first apothecary jar that arrived from a supplier, my face just lit up like a little girl in a candy store, so that's how Mai Style Party Boutique started, along with some very special encouraging words".

Up until meeting Mai, I was never sure how the name came about - well I'm glad I asked! Of course, it's based on her name which Mai says people pronounce incorrectly. It's "MY" and Mai has always called her "me time", "mai time". So Mai's online shop is about all the gorgeous things that describe her as in "mai style". Love it!

Mai recently had a beautiful Lemonade Stand Party for her daughter's 6th birthday which was definitely a family affair. Her daughter Chantelle had the idea for the lemonade stand when she saw her mother working on the business for long hours and suggested that they set up a lemonade stand out the front of their house so "her mummy doesn't have to work so hard". How sensitive and beautiful is she!!

The drink dispensers from Mai Style Party Boutique were a particular hit with the kids at the party with Chantelle pouring the lemonade herself for her guests. And then putting 'coins' in the vintage cash register that Mai found. The kids also helped paint the lemonade stand and how cute is it?

Mai's favourite product in her store are her glass drink dispensers - she has a huge range so check it out here. She finds that they always look so impressive, a stand out focal point that is functional both during and after the party. Her mini glass bottles and yoghurt tubs with wooden teaspoons are also very popular. Super cute and versatile.  I loves these products because you can wash and re-use them after the party, which really makes them so cost effective when entertaining.

Mai Style Party Boutique also has a big range of Apothecary jars and Mai had some excellent ideas on what to store in them after your party - cotton balls on your bathroom vanity or even single photos inside the curve of the glass jar on your mantel piece - who needs regular photo frames... just another excuse for me to buy more Apothecary jars!!

Mai's top party tip is to start planning early. A little diary or notebook is a must, along with a 'to do' and 'to buy' list. She suggests drawing diagrams of your set up and signing up to Pinterest (oh the hours I spend on Pinterest!), it is a great resource for inspirational ideas.

Her advice for all of you participating in the Sweet Little Birdy Party table competition? Parties are not just about the birthday child, it is about the parents celebrating the amazing and fulfilling accomplishments that have been made with their child in their little lives. So "whether it be simple or full blown soirees, remember to take a moment to celebrate yourself and have fun". I couldn't have said it better myself.

So what's next for Mai Style Party Boutique? Mai is busy planning a business website page, so in the meantime, "like" her facebook page and stay tuned!

Are you feeling inspired? I know I am and I hope you enjoy spending the last 2 weeks planning the parties/tables you are holding or editing those photos. Don't forget the Sweet Little Birdy Party Table competition ends on the 31st August so mark it in your diary, get on pinterest and be creative.

Looking forward to telling you all about the winning entries - I hope it's yours!

Yours in blogging

Val