i see stripes & polkadots everywhere...!

whilst i love eating cupcakes, i find them too troublesome to make, compared to biscuits...somehow, my cupcakes never rise to a nice "dome" and i always end up with cupcakes of different heights! i also admit that my decorating skills for cupcakes are rather embarrassingly limited to classic butter icing and flag toppers...shame on me, i know ;p

therefore, when my cousin, emi, asked if i could make cupcakes for her friend's birthday, i declared upfront that cupcakes are simply not my forte. i was also a wee bit nervous as emi is an amazing party planner. every party she organises, whether it's a small dinner party or a large do,  turns out beautifully coordinated. so imagine the pressure on me to come up with something wow and even more pressure added when i found out the cupcakes were going to be the birthday cake. nevertheless, i was inclined to oblige when she said she liked my chocolatey-chocolate cupcakes and really didn't mind plain ol' flag toppers...

her theme was stripes and polka dots in any bright colours, so i came up with these two designs to work with:

with these, i made the flag toppers which are really easy to make:

• pick a picture and edit (again, i used power point!),
• print them out,
• cut them out,
• laminate them so they appear sturdier, and
• stick them on the front & back of a toothpick

and in a stroke of pure luck, i managed to find cute lil cups with stripes and polka dots too. this was the end result...

stripes and polka dots - it's such a simple theme that actually turns out really fun for all ages. a word of caution though - for at least a couple of days, i was seeing stripes and polka dots everywhere i went ;)

it's a dino-star-ous party!

i received a call from lina, zain's colleague. she was planning her son, isaac's 3rd birthday party and didn't have a specific theme. according to her, isaac likes: dino, little einsteins, rockets, safari animals, trains, trucks....!

me being me, i could not work with not having a theme so with this list of isaac's likes in mind, i went window-shopping and came up with a dino-star-ous theme!

isaac was turning three but his friends were between the ages of  (barely) one to nine. so you can imagine my initial headache in coming up with the goodies to place in each bag...in the end, i  managed to prepare  each party pack customised to their respective ages (somewhat) whilst sticking to the theme. lina also asked for a lil  snack  box of dino-biscuits and i had these personalised with each child's name and isaac's name too.

check it out:

- dino-star-ous munchies waiting to be packed -

 

 - the lil reusable snack box that had the dino-star-ous biscuits inside: half with the child's name and the other half with isaac's name -

 

- star-tags personalised with each child's name. i had extra star tags and dino tags with each child's name so i threw them in their respective bags too. hopefully they find some use for these! -

- the party packs had a star tag with isaac's name and age - 

- each party pack had a dinosaur bubble gun (for the boys) and a pink bubble gun (for the girls)...for which kid does not like bubbles?! the packs also contained glow-in-the-dark stars to decorate their rooms, lil dinosaur figurines (the girls got a few of these too - in pink!) and a flying heli-propeller toy that kinda looked like star ;) the younger babies got a few mini soft toys instead of figurines - 

- since the theme was generally boy-ish, i threw in a special present for the girls: a small pouch with a dino-tag personalised with their pretty names -

- each pouch had beaded bracelets, hair ties and hair clips with bling too - 

- personalised name tags for each guest and a thank you note from isaac -

as you may have already guessed, the colour theme was a mix of purple, blue and green - fun dinosaur colours for a hyper three year old. 

i had loads of fun preparing these dino-star-ous packs and i hope isaac and his friends had even more fun unpacking them! 

thanks lina, for this great project! 

hug me kiss me love me pinch me...

about a month ago, i put up a post about invites that i had been asked to design...and now i'm finally getting around to posting the pics with the matching biscuits...

after a few minor tweaks here and there, this is how the final artwork turned out...

- the front of the invite had the angelic baby boy's picture and on the back of the invite, each corner said: hug me, kiss me, love me, pinch me -

 

using the same colours of blue and brown as well as beige and white, i designed matching biscuits to announce the name of the baby boy...

...with matching quotes from the invites...

...as well as sweet and funny quotes for laughs...

this is my personal favourite...

so true in my books...especially the smaller bankroll and shabbier clothes ;p

how to plan a dinner party in less than half a day...

thought i'd share a few tips on putting together a last minute casual dinner party, in case you ever find yourself in the scenario i was in last wkend...

• assuming you're having the party at a restaurant, remember to book the table first! it's always nicer to have your own private area so perhaps you could look for a place that can offer that.

• if you're planning to have the party at home, and given it's a last minute party, you can always resort to takeaway from a nearby restaurant. nearby, to make life easier to pick up the food. if they deliver, that's even better...there are companies that call themselves room service deliveries - they pick up and deliver food from the restaurant of your choice straight to your doorstep. of course, if you are nigella lawson & can throw together an amazing feast in the last minute, that would be perfect. but alas, not all of us are domestic goddesses ;)

• once time & venue are confirmed, do inform all your guests or remind them on the morning of the party.
  

• with the food & invites sorted, you can plan the decor. start with a simple theme, or in the absence of a theme, start with a colour or two...if it's a birthday do, try to think of something recent or of significance that the birthday boy / girl can relate to.

• buy a few balloons...you don't need many (you might want to avoid the party looking like a carnival, unless that's your actual theme!) - a balloon at every other chair will do ;)

• visit a few party shops or even the local supermarket / toystore...you'll be surprised at the things you can get there.

• buy confetti / shredded paper to fill up the table...if you have a lovely centrepiece, that'll be even nicer. depending on your theme, perhaps a candle stand or some flowers or even a large bowl filled up with sweets & candy.
  

• buy serviettes or place mats to match the theme or colour. it's not necessary but it's the small details  that make a difference to the ambiance.
  

• party packs or gifts for the guests are great if you have the time to look for them.. it doesn't have to be anything fancy (unless you have a big budget) and when it's with close friends, it's usually just for laughs. 

• if you have no time to bake a cake (or don't know how), check with the restaurant if they have any readily available. if not, just buy a simple cake from the bakery or a few cupcakes to put together. then accessorise to your theme. candles or candies can jazz up a plain cake.

• throughout all this, do remember - you only have two hands & can only be at one place at a time so it's a really good idea to have a friend or two to help out. or if all else fails, engage a party planner enthusiast like yours truly ;)
  

last but not least, if you miss out on any of the above, don't stress yourself over it. these frills are just fluff that complement the party. at the end of the night, it's really the company that makes the dinner party special. and i'm sure they'd forgive you if you missed out on a balloon or two ;)

sex, drugs and rock & roll...*

* sorry folks, a disclaimer is necessary - this post doesn't contain sex and drugs and has very little rock & roll (though i bet the title certainly caught your attention!)...this post does however contain a certain rockstar's birthday do...read on for the latest goss on party fluff ;p

zain hates surprises so i've never bothered throwing him a surprise birthday bash. but this year was a little different. he's had a few rough patches here & there and several great big wins so i  wanted him to feel special, especially on his birthday. we had planned an avillion pd get away with his childhood buddies but in the last minute, those plans were cancelled (long & dramatic story here so let's just leave it as that) and we had to celebrate zain's 31st in kl. with so little time to plan anything, we decided to just have dinner with close friends...but then my conscience got the better of me. i've been so gung-ho planning & coordinating parties for ilaika & other people that it didn't seem right to not even have balloons at my own husband's birthday do! he is after all, supposedly my better half (supposedly being the keyword here!)...

with less than 10 hours to put things together, this was how the day unfolded.

1100 hours
i sms-ed our friends to remind them about the dinner & at noon, reserved a table for ten pax at alexis bsc.

1400 hours

with no particular theme in mind, i headed to the party shop...admittedly,  i had already made plans with a cousin to look for decor for her baby's potong jambul ceremony & that's when lil ms guilty sneaked up on me...so i bought a few balloons - some nice black ones with colourful birthday wishes mixed with elegant looking silver balloons. that was supposed to be it, as far as the decorating went...and then i stumbled upon this:

how cool and how completely fitting for the occasion! that's when i was inspired to theme the dinner "zain's a rockstar" party - it represents many things present; like how he loves guitar hero and rock band and "jams" with this bunch of friends attending the dinner and also "rockstar" is a term we use to signify one's ability to "be da man" and achieve great things! 

so i bought the sunnies, lots of colourful shredded paper and some interesting candles that promised  magical & colourful flames. i called a friend, asked her to keep the balloons & help set up the decor and delivered them to her house.

1600 hours
at this point, i realised i didn't have a cake! i would have loved to bake one but there wasn't much time. oddly enough, alexis didn't have any available but luckily for me, my mum had made her infamous carrot cake the day before. there were a few left over in the form of cupcakes so i stole them all!

1645 hours
once i start planning something, i get caught up and will keep wanting to do more. so not feeling quite satisfied with just balloons, i stopped by another party shop on the way home. there, i found a cool plate for the cupcakes, some letter stickers to make out his name and little gifts for our friends. ilaika was with me and was SO excited with the things at the shop that she started planning her next party! of course, she also realised that it was daddy's party and a party meant candles & cake! so she started whining that she wanted to tag along...

1800 hours
we got home & i locked myself in the study to work on the letters & gifts. i was done an hour later, just in time to get myself dressed & ready for dinner. i felt bad about leaving ilaika at home so i told her to get ready too...

1930 hours
zain was rushing us as he was hungry but i didn't want to arrive too early...just in case the decor had not been set up yet so i purposely took my own sweet time getting out the door! thankfully, when we got there just after 2030 hours, the decor was in place and zain was pleasantly surprised ;)

....and then the dinner & cam-whoring started...

- zain, the rockstar -

- ilaika, the mini rockstar -

- the rockstar & i -

- the lovely "assistant" -

- the balloon "thief" -

- the table decor -

- the last minute birthday cake -

- the special candles & their magical flames -

- the rockstar & his rockin cake -

- the lil gifts -

- the group pic -

many thanks to everyone who joined us and for those that couldn't, we certainly missed you...

chaka chaka chaka khaaaannn...

last monday, zain's twitter read:

In a strange turn of events, I suddenly find myself at Chaka Khan.

yes, strange indeed. in the very last minute, a friend of ours had complimentary tics from her uncle and thanks to her  twitter post, we managed to grab them an hour before the concert. both zain & i had thought of going but with all the raya celebrations and the exorbitant price of the tickets, we didn't really give it too much thought. so in a stroke of pure luck, i called sazzy and within an hour, we found ourselves at hilton sentral for chaka khan's "funk this" concert :)

like the true diva that she is, the concert started an hour after the scheduled time, the backup singers & band started the show before she got on stage and she walked off whilst they were still playing. there were no lengthy goodbyes...

there wasn't very much publicity leading up to the concert so i was a little lost when it was announced that chaka was to receive 'The Brand Laureate Brand Personality Award'. apparently, this was the reason she performing in kl. From The Brand Laureate initiated by The Asia Pacific Brands Foundation, this award is considered the grammy awards for branding. the award recognises the efforts done by chaka and her Chaka Khan Foundation to encourage youth around the world to take education seriously in order to be successful in life. with the audience in a standing ovation, chaka humbly received the award with tears in her eyes. it was a proud moment that i was honoured to have been able to share with her that night.

apart from the standing ovation, the crowd mostly remained seated right til the very end. a little odd i thought and as an one of ilaika's expat classmates' mum put it, "Don't get me wrong, I had loads of fun...what I thought was strange was that 'KL`s elite' had paid a lot of money to just sit there and not even move!!! Not even tap their feet....."

this, i assure you, was not at all a reflection of her performance. it was powerful and so effortless that i was in awe of her throughout the whole concert. i truly enjoyed myself and before i knew it, about an hour had gone by and she had walked off the stage, signaling the end of the concert. i really wished it went on a bit longer but alas, a diva is a diva...