Paris in winter lunch

It is with great excitement that I can reveal Anya's "Paris in winter" party held last weekend.

Thank you to the wonderful Amy Atlas and her team for featuring my party today, I am beyond thrilled and happy :-)))

I love Paris in the spring time

I love Paris in the fall

I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles

I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles………………….

and so a theme was decided upon for my daughter’s 11th birthday party.

My daughter Anya ADORES & LOVES France, especially Paris and the Eiffel tower and begged me for a Paris party this year. Since this theme has already been done to death I wanted to give her party a funky and modern twist without blowing the budget sky high. Lets face it, if this is going to cost me hundreds of dollars to create I might as well save up a little more to buy a ticket and visit the actual Paris. A lot of the elements for this party was homemade and we tried to incorporate quite a few wintery touches since its very cold down here in Melbourne, Australia.



We started with gorgeous invites created by Jennifer Birkhead Design and to make it more fun for the guests Anya and I made envelopes from colour copied Paris street maps topped with Par Avion (free from the post office) and Eiffel tower stamps (free download from Google images). Jennifer also created all the cookie and dessert table tags to match.



Since our Paris theme involved the actual French colours (funny how nobody has done a Paris party in French colours before) I ordered some inexpensive French flag bunting from Ebay and various French ribbons and paper mini flags to be used on the dessert table. I also knitted a blue, white and red square flag garland to hang from the fireplace to emphasise the winter theme. I didn’t want to go out and spend extra money on vessels and platters for the table so instead I bought some styrofoam square cake dummies and wrapped them in white wool before crafting the two main cupcake and pop stands you can see on the table. I also used empty, clean chickpea cans to hold my cookies and macarons and once again wrapped the tins in white wool to dress them up. I even used chickpea cans and empty juice bottles as vases as centerpieces for my dessert table and lunch table which I covered in fake fur (the cans stuck on candleholders) and red wool (the bottles on the main table). The background is a Parisian wall decal which can be (and was) easy to remove.

Mademoiselle Anya unwrapping one of her tres chic pressies all decked out in her Parisian finery (clothes from Pumpkin Patch's Paris range)

Close up of the Eiffel tower and snow cookies all displayed in wool covered chicpea cans!

The Pièce de résistance was the Eiffel tower cake made from double chocolate sponge cake filled with chocolate buttercream and covered in fondant, yummmmm. Everything on the cake was edible (except the ribbon, flag and feathers).

Vanilla and coconut "snow" cupcakes and edible choc Eiffel pops. All displayed on my handmade cupcake & pop stand.

Some of the food we had for lunch was French pancakes, croissants with ham and mini bread rolls (Petit pain) with cheese. The dessert table had mini white hot chocolates with marshmallow moustache stirrers (the girls loved these!), a cheese (fromage) platter, raspberry macarons on sticks, Eiffel tower snow cookies, vanilla and coconut snow cupcakes and Eiffel tower pops. Guests were inspired by Edith Piaf singing French songs on the CD player in the background while playing games such as “name that Paris landmark”, “Paris bingo”, “find the moustache” and painting their nails in French coloured nail polish.

Can't have a French lunch without French raspberry and vanilla macarons! These macaron pops were for the children.

I loved how the living and diningroom looked after it was decorated, it looked like a French cafe overlooking a window with the Eiffel tower in the distance. Tres Bien!

For the main lunch the girls had these mini French pancakes.

Vanilla & coconut "snow" cupcakes were a hit at the dessert table.

I scored some lovely striped plates from Bed, Bath & table for only a mere $3 each, Le BARGAIN!

What is a Parisian lunch without flowers I say........ bought these lovely red carnations and silver leaf filler from Camberwell flower market and just added some feathers. I added these blooms to my fake fur covered can vases and stuck them to my candle holders for "drama".

I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles.........found this gorgeous ruffle umbrella at my friend Lil's shop from Lily Chic Events and had to have it!! Isn't it just devine? Oo-la-la!!

Mini hot white chocolate drinks in mini cafe cups (I embelished each cup with a French phrase) with marshmallow & moustache stirrers/swizzle sticks. The guests loved these the most!

For the guests to take home they each received a mini wool felted postman’s satchel with poppy brooch containing an Eiffel tower cookie, a notebook bought from the dollar shop then covered in Paris street map paper, a stripy pen, Eiffel tower necklace and vintage airmail letter paper and envelopes (downloaded and printed for free) from Linda at Tortagialla.

My daughter loves to write letters so the free printable letter set was especially appreciated by her.

Eiffel tower snow sugar cookie with edible Eiffel tower image.

One of the favourite items on the dessert table was the cheese platter!

Forget napkin rings, just wrap some wool around your wooden cutlery, add a cute wool felted brooch with ribbon and viola, you've gone from cheap to chic!

Close up of the raspberry & vanilla macarons I made, these were for the parents that stayed for coffee.

It was only a small lunch of 6 guests who sat at the main table, this kept the lunch intimate and manageable.

Even my youngest daughter Liandra got into the swing of things.

See the red bottle? I used two empty juice bottles, wrapped them in red wool to jazz them up a bit and used them both as vasses on my main table. How easy and cheap is that!!

Don't forget to join me on FACEBOOK and tell me what you think :-)) or you are welcome to leave a comment here if you wish.

xxxx

Leoni