Traditional Kitchen Tea (Bridal Shower)

According to the Wikipedia:
"A bridal shower is a gift-giving party held for a bride-to-be in anticipation of her wedding. The custom originated in the 1890s and is today most common in the United States, Canada, and by North American influence, in Australia."
Well, in South Africa - where I'm from - we call it a Kitchen Tea" or "Kombuis Tee" in Afrikaans, and it is very similar to a bridal shower.

I organised my brother's bride-to-be (Nina's) Kitchen Tea, and had lots of fun planning and organizing the event.

It was at the Auckland Botanical Gardens, and I made an informal "high tea" (if there is such a thing) in lime green and orange tones. We played some games; like translating some Afrikaans phrases into English, guessing what is in the gifts, offering eggs (according to Filipino traditions) to St Claire to have good weather on the wedding day  we had a quiz on the husband to be's favourite things and dislikes.
Every wrong answer was 'rewarded' with something she had to wear or put on. Things like a veil on the head, apron, necklace made from green scrubbers and goldilocks, and a bridal bouquet made from kitchen utensils, wash cloths and the like.

She looked gorgeous...hehehe


The food are always a highlight at events like these, and this one was no exception!
My Mum made very yummy banana and date loafs, which I decorated with these adorable toppers I got from The Pretty Blog. Available for FREE to print and use how you like!
I painted them with water paint to give them a washed out colour in orange and lime green.

Also decorated a yummy chocolate cake, baked by my good friend Corli from Le Petit Four with some small kitchen utensils and a little framed card. Coli also made some other delicious contributions to the kitchen tea, like these scrummy poppyseed cupcakes with lemon icing. YUM!!

It was such a fun day - and I'm so happy to welcome Nina to our family!
Will share some photos and details of a special recipe box I made for her in my next blog post :-)

Mini savoury cheese and pesto scones.

Wedding fever..

Well - It's been totally wedding fever around our house recently.

My brother got married this Saturday with a WONDERFUL girl. I couldn't be happier for them!

To lead us all into the wedding obsession, it was of course, the BIG royal wedding of Kate and Prince William a week before my brother's wedding. I also organized a Kitchen Tea for her, and I was SO inspired with what I've found on the net for weddings!

Wish all of these resources were there when I got married!

Will be sharing some of my wedding inspiration in the next couple of posts, but firstly I want to share a FANTASTIC wedding idea blog I've found. Lots of free downloads and printables and of course loads of inspiration!

Have a look at http://www.theprettyblog.com/ - I know you will be inspired!

xxx

Detail of the Keyring gift decoration I made for the couple.

The gorgeous couple - My brother David and Nina.

DIY Weekend - Button and Craft tins

I thought I would start making some crafty DIY projects to share.

I know when I browse the internet, especially Blogs; I keep finding ideas and inspiration. So only fair to provide some back. :-)

This project I made for my Mum.

When I was a little girl, I use to always play with my Mum's button collection whenever she had her sewing machine out. She had this lovely big tin, full of an all-sort collection of buttons. Some were new, some pretty old and vintage. All very pretty.

I use to LOVE organizing and grouping them together. Colour with colour, pattern with pattern. Hours of fun.

Since we've moved to New Zealand, more than 8 years ago, her gorgeous collection of buttons have been kept in a plastic ice-cream container. So I thought I would make a button tin for her, and an extra tin for her knitting needles.

They would look great in her craft room!

Covered Tins

To make this you will need:

- Baby formula tins or any other big tins you can find.

-Textile in a print/design/colour you like.

-Blackboard paint

- white acrylic paint or home paint

-Spray on glue

-scissors

-cheap plastic tape measures or ribbon of your choice

-masking tape

-glue gun

Step 1:

After cleaning your tins, apply 3 coats of blackboard paint where you would like it on the tin. On one or both tins. Whatever you like.

Then paint the rest of the tin with the white paint. This coat is essential if your fabric is a little see-through... otherwise you will still be able to read whatever is on the tin through your textile. Not nice..

Step 2:

After the paint dried, measure and cut your fabric to fit around the tin. Now put masking tape over the blackboard paint to protect it from the spray glue. Then spray the tin with the spray on glue.

Step 4:

Carefully stick the textile on the tin, making sure you don't create any air bubbles with your application.

Now measure a piece of the cheap measuring tape or ribbon to use as a trim where ever you want along the edge of the tin.

Then glue it on with your glue gun.

All done! And you have LOVELY tins, perfect for a lot of things! Would be great in kids rooms to organize craft materials, or even in the kitchen.

Drum roll please.... and the winner is....

Nikki Bollen!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!! Please send me your details to franda.zondagh@slingshot.co.nz, and I will post it out to you on Tuesday after our wonderful Easter Break!

I'm also pretty excited to announce that I've opened an Online Shop for all my goodies! Please go and have a browse!!

Thanks for all the support everyone! As most of you know, it's hard to make some extra money while being a full time mummy! And it is nice to be able to say I LOVE making all of my stuff!

xxxx

Give Away time!!

Been planning a wee give away...

Would anyone out there like to win this??

Handmade, polymer clay fuchsia pendant, with a stiffened up-cycled crochet leaf (with beading detail) on a brass tone chain. RRP: $35. Comes in this CUTE up-cycled, stiffened crochet drawstring bag. RRP: $6. TOTAL VALUE OF PRIZE: $41.00

How to enter:

1. Simply join my facebook page of Once Again,and tag yourself in the competition photo.

2. Come and comment that you did this on this blog entry.

Its that easy!

- Competition closes on the 21st April 2011 at 7pm NZ time.

- Competition is open to New Zealand and Australian residents, and includes postage cost.

- Winner will be announced on this blog first, and then on facebook.

- Winner will be randomly drawn out of the people that did all the requirements needed to enter this competition.

There is also a bonus, random draw for a gorgeous pair of stiffened crochet earrings if we reach 150 likers on the facebook page by the 21st April. So spread the news and recommend the page to your friends!

Stiffened, up-cycled, crochet earrings, with a bronze tone ear hooks. RRP: $12

Devonport craft market - done and dusted (for April)

Had a BUSY week last week making and creating enough stock to take to the Devonport Craft Market on Sunday. I worked like a crazy woman every time my boys let me - and really got into it when they were sleeping!

It ended up being a lovely day at the market - sunny and almost summer like - probable the last of this wonderful weather before the real cold sets in.

I got lovely feedback (and some sales) with my creations, and it makes it really worthwhile to see someone else appreciate my craftiness!

My mini maracas with the cute ice-cream design.

In between I even got some time to make a new bracelet. I crocheted a cute bracelet with some colourful electricity wire while I was chatting to customers. Now I need to get my hands on more wire...

I also started making jewellery from those gorgeous silver spoons and forks I bought at the op-shop the other day. They are still a bit rough, and not as perfect as I want them, but it is a start... will be perfecting them soon ( I hope!)

Upcoming jewelery designer and new projects

My two year old son is fascinated by my jewellery making, and today I scraped the courage (and patience) together to let him play with my beads while I work. Usually I don't let him mess with my beads and findings, because:

a- He still likes to put everything in his mouth, and

b- He will probably throw them everywhere.

But he was really good, and tried to copy me with what I was doing, putting beads on wires. I was pretty impressed with him getting the wire into those small holes, and not loosing his patience with it.

Now that I know he can handle it, I will let him play with them again :-)

I also painted these cute little tin buckets with some blackboard paint. Great way to organize pens, pencils, chopsticks etc... I love the way it looks! Will be selling these too at the upcoming market on the 3rd April.