rubber duckie, anyone...?

rubber duckie, you're the one,

you make bathtime lots of fun,

rubber duckie, I'm awfully fond of you;

woo woo be doo

rubber duckie, joy of joys,

when i squeeze you, you make noise!

rubber duckie, you're my very best friend, it's true!

doo doo doo doo, doo doo

i love this sesame street song...don't you? i've been humming it over and over again since i had a conversation with my friend regarding her daughter's first birthday...

she originally planned on a mermaid swimming party but wasn't too sure if it'd be suitable especially since her daughter doesn't even know what a mermaid is...i jumped at the opportunity to plan/propose yet another party  ;)

i know it's been done to death as a theme for baby showers but i think a 1st rubber duckie birthday. would be so fun! if i hadn't done bears & blocks for ilaika's first, i would have gone with ducks. alas, a kid can only have one first birthday so i had to kiv that theme. but don't you think it's a great  idea? at that age, the child will most likely recognise a  yellow rubber duck and since he/she can't do much else yet, a mini wading pool filled with ducks would make an excellent party activity!

here are a few rubber duckie parties i love...

bubbly ducky brunch

- by hostess with the mostess -

this bubbly ducky brunch was gorgeous...from the colour-coordinated plates and placemats and the bubbles in the cutlery to the table centrepiece with the ducks and those blue and yellow m&m's (in the right pic just above this para).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

quack quack little duck

- by alannah rose -

this birthday party for ella looked so doubly duckly fun! the bright colour palette of yellow and red made a cheerful impact on the overall decor. i especially love the cupcake wrap and flag toppers in the top collage as well as the duckie twist to two classic party games (in the middle collage) - pin the beak on the duckie and the duckie pinnata! 

if you love this theme and would like to get your hands on the invites, (as below) visit the alannah rose wesbite (or click here) to order.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

here are other great ideas to consider..

cake & candles

how adorably cute is this? a few cupcakes and duckie candles put together to make a bubbly bath for the duckies!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

duckie party packs

- by my party file -

a great idea to cut a duck out on an otherwise plain paper bag. fill it up with sweets and colourful goodies to tempt the kids!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

duckie soap dish

- by my party file -

another great themed idea is to get soap boxes and fill them up with sweets and candies or even crayons etc. i'm thinking it'd also be great to fill them up with bubble bath salts or capsules but just make sure you label and seal them carefully, just in case the kids think they're sweet stuff to munch on!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

oooo...can you tell? i'm really looking forward to planning this party!

girls just wanna have fun...

i find that when something edible looks too realistic, i am rather hesitant to eat it. so when it comes to icing biscuits without my standard sugar sheets, my style of icing is minimal and somewhat whimsical ;)

rather than focus on making them look as realistically close to the real thing, i prefer to enhance a particular shape with lines, dots and minimal accents. at a glance, you can still tell what they're supposed to be but they also look fanciful & simply playful.

therefore, when an ex-school mate presented the opportunity to come up with a biscuit set for her best mate janice, i was really excited. she was really cool too cos she let me have free rein over the biscuits, as long as they were purple and red. these were janice's fav colours. i also found out that janice, like most girls our age, loves to shop, party and have a good time. i immediately thought, "girls just wanna have fun"...

here's what i delivered: a  birthday cake, shoes, handbags, bikini top & hot pants, champagne and hearts...all edible of course ;)

i packed and sealed all of these individually in mini plastic bags (so they'd stay fresh longer) and popped them all in a tin. since the tin itself was very plain, i tied an XXL bollie with a purple ribbon on the top and stuck a heart biscuit there too...

it was only after taking this pic that i realised these two look like wedding favors!

i had actually gone overboard cos we originally decided on six to eight biscuits but i ended up with fifteen! i was having so much fun that i even continued with other colours and designs (like the ones below) as freebies for my other orders ;)

sorry about the blurry pics. my camera battery was low after i took the first pic above so i had to resort to my iphone for the rest!

alice tea party, anyone...?

a few weeks ago, we took ilaika to watch alice in wonderland. it was her first trip to the movies and boy, did she love it! 

with all the hype on alice these days, i really wish i could have a whimsical tea party for ilaika but since her birthday is way over and i'm still recovering from the party havoc (!) i'll have to settle with  just admiring these lovely parties and inspirations...

alice in wonderland 

- as hosted & captured by gwendolyn grace photography -

gwendolyn used bright and fun colours for her party decor and they came together so well. i just love this element of arts & craft! they decorated their first initials - perfect for a smaller group of young girls. and it makes a great gift to take home.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

annabelle in wonderland!

- as captured by jessica claire -

check out the special chairs for the three birthday girls...this party was so beautifully decorated and i bet the kids had so much fun - there was a petting zoo AND alice herself to help with the face-painting!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

alice in wonderland tea party

- as captured by loreta -

simple ideas on how to decorate the table with the antique looking clock and cards scattered on the table. oh also equally simple idea but oh-so-pretty cupcake sprinkles...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

alice in wonderlandia

- as featured by hostess with the mostess and organised by lollipop events & designs -

everything about this party is gorgeous and perfect..from the tablecloth to the chair covers (which are actually aprons! click here for the diy) and from the flowers to the tea & saucer set and the whimsical stacked cups! the champagne bottles in the watering cans are a great idea too but perhaps for kids, we ought to replace the bubbly with bubbles ;)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

party inspiration : alice in wonderland tea party

- as compiled by becca of birthday girl blog -

becca puts together lovely inspiration boards for all sorts of parties and this is one  of the many that i really love. visit her blog for more party inspiration and some tips on putting this whimsical party together.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

message-in-a-cookie cutters

- product by williams-sonoma -

imagine having these coloured biscuits with  E A T  M E  on them! i can't wait to get my hands on these cutters. i just got an email from them saying they're "no longer available" :( but am keeping my fingers crossed til they stock up on these cute lil things! in the meantime, i've got some bollipops leftover from my latest order of vespa goodies so i'll play around with these to soothe my  (ahem) "creative soul" ;p more to come soon...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

i'm late - resin alice in wonderland necklace

- handmade by stoopidgerl -

this handmade pendant would make a cool party pack item for the girls to take home...i know ilaika would SO love this!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

alice in wonderland party collection

- as found on polyvore & compiled by rayban love, portia & julieta  -

oh i love these polyvores! it just proves how this theme is so easy to work with - there's so much you can do and you can hardly ever go wrong cos in a quirky & whimsical way, nothing really matches yet everything does match ;)

from SE1 to W11...my london affair...part 1

i fell in love with london when i was ten and again when i was fifteen; both times i was there on a family holiday. i decided at that young age that i would return when i was older to really experience life as a londoner. a few years later, just before my 18th birthday, that dream became a reality and  that's when the love affair with london really began. i only lived there for four years but it felt much much longer and even until today, a part of me wishes i never left. i can't quite explain it nor do i really know why.

of course, i had my fair share of ups and downs (for which student doesn't) and yet i always look back at those student days with such fond memories. i snapped like a million pictures whilst i lived there and sadly, i can't find any of them now. 

note: those days, we used film more than digital...perhaps one day, i'll gather up the courage to go through the unopened tea crates in my mum's house and dig up all those pics. that would really be a trip down memory lane...

i have forlorn moments every now and then, when that lil part of me misses london really badly. so i thought it'd be therapeutic to blog about the city of london...my city of london, as i remember it.

for starters, here are some pics* that capture the london i fell in love with...

* beautifully captured by peter visontay...click here for more pics or to purchase.

- the river thames -

the red bridge in this picture is the blackfriars bridge. we stayed just south of this bridge at my aunt's flat during my first trip to london.

- the tower bridge -

often mistakenly referred to as the london bridge, this iconic symbol of london is breathtaking and majestic. in my first year as a student in london, i lived in the lse student residence in butler's wharf, located south of the river. i walked across this bridge daily to get to the tower hill tube station and back home. i remember instances when i had to wait in the bitter cold rain for boats to pass (not my fondest memory of the bridge, for sure)...i also remember the time i crossed the bridge, as i made my way to class for the very first day of uni. my, what a glorious feeling that was - excitement and exhiliration, mixed with nervous anticipation of the unexpected with a tinge of a new found independence! everytime i see a picture of the tower bridge, i think of sam, my first flatmate and one of my closest friends in london.

- an old warehouse -

built in the 1870's, butler's wharf was a shipping wharf and warehouse complex. in the 20th century, many of the warehouses, such as the one in the pic above, fell into disuse. in the 1980s the area was transformed from a derelict site into luxury flats with restaurants and shops on the ground floor. this was my so-called playground in 1997-1998 ;)

- curlew street; "the results of the docklands regeneration (decaying old warehouses turned into flats and offices)" as remarked by the photographer -

the cobbled streets of butler's wharf like curlew street above was up and coming then. not too sure about now but back then, it housed several conran restaurants such as chop house, le pont de la tour and cantina del ponte. we used to save up our measly student allowances just so we could experience dining in these fancy restaurants. and if we were lucky, we'd be able to buy set meals on offer via lastminute.com!

...to be continued...