Gift Idea - A Jar of Sweet Thoughts

Recently it was my mum's birthday and this year it was a big one. We had a surprise party planned out and had also bought various presents, but I wanted to do something personal, something different. So after a lot of deliberation with me sister we came up with this idea. 

Each of us (me,my dad, brother, sister and brother in-law) would write 10 nice/sweet things about my mum on little pieces of paper, fold them up and put them in a nicely decorated jar (with washi tape). Now what we wrote was completely up to to the individual and no one would ever read what the other person wrote. I also wanted to think of something nice to write on the front and came up with 'A Jar of Sweet Thoughts' as in a jar of sweets. I put the jar on my mums bedside table when the surprise party was going on so when she came up at the end of the night she had something special.

This is a very sentimental sweet gift for some special in your life and it also make you think of all the thing that you love about that person. It's easy to do but very affective (my mum said she cried when she was reading the little notes). And it doesn't just have to be for birthdays it can be for any occasion. 

Afternoon Tea Baby Shower

This year has been full of pregnant ladies and babies, and two of those pregnant ladies just so happen to be my sister and her sister-in law. This seemed like a perfect excuse to make up a dessert table and have an afternoon tea (here is the first dessert table we did). Afternoon tea's and dessert table's are brilliant because they give you the creative licence to do whatever you want with the decor and the menu.

We decided to make the invitations ourselves (which we had a lot of fun doing), most of the pom poms were home made as was the bunting hanging from the table. Food wise we had a mix of home made and shop bought which turned out really well, because if you don't have time to make all the food there are so many bakery's, deli's and other food places that do brilliant food for occasions like this. It always worth having a look around in your local area for places like that. For serving dishes we used a combination of things that all three of us had, what our mothers had and we hired the tea cups and tea pots from the bakery where we got the cake from (And the dish ran away with the spoon). Flowers also make everything look prettier, we decided on one big pitcher of flowers and a few smaller jars of flowers dotted around the table.

All in all I think it was a big success and it just goes to show that a mix of home made and shop bought can work really well, and just have fun with it. Here is the vlog of the whole thing

  

The Wedding

A couple of the days after the mehndi is the wedding which took place a Tatton Park in Cheshire. There was a beautiful garden and mansion and the weather stayed well so the whole day was a delight. There was a sweet station, a dessert table and of course wedding cake. Also a message board where people could write their well wishes for the happy couple which was sweet. I was running around taking loads of pictures and video footage so here is a selection.

Wedding favours from the grooms side 

Car ribbon

Wedding favour form the brides side 

Drinks

Stage

Sweet station (Thank you to my sister for letting me use her hand )

Wedding cake 

The happy couple 

Message board

Dessert table

Me 

The dress that I was wearing was from Debenhams but it was sleeveless so I had sleeves put on to make more hijab friendly. The scarf was also from Debenhams, the necklace that I on top of my scarf was from Accessorize and I am also wearing a hand chain from River Island.

Here is the video: