Mums Grown Up Party Fun

I always decorate our dining room table for birthdays, nothing excites everyone more than coming down and seeing what pretties I have put up. Streamers, banners and balloons and then homemade cakes mean we have a very jolly day.

For me though, the house is usually lacking in decoration on my birthday, last year was the first year I got some balloons with my presents, most exciting. So this year after speaking with the lovely people at Talking Tables I set out to create my own bright birthday table and mini party on our glamping trip at Lantern and Larks.

Talking Tables have an absolutely stunning range of party wear, whether for a first birthday, wedding or an all out summer extravaganza, they have something to suit every taste. I had seen some of their summer range in our local garden centre and I knew I wanted to get in on some of the flamingo and neon bright action.

When it arrived I could barely contain my excitement, with garlands, pineapple cups (yes, I said pineapple cups) and an array of other banners, candles, napkins, cups and plates I was setup for mine and hubbies birthday weekends.

Obviously I had to test out the goodies after they had arrived so I setup a little photo shoot with some of the Coconut and Almond cookies I had made and used some of the wonderful props to accessorise and make it look awesome.

I love the brightness of everything and it all makes for such wonderful background, they have thought of everything to add to a party, whether it is beautiful napkins with gold detailing to coasters of all shapes and sizes. I love these animals, they have been sat on side table since we got them and I think they'll be coming out at every summer party now.

Anyway back to my mini party, with the events of the 23rd still resonating with the country it was great to get away on a mini vacation, even better to brighten it up with some fabulous party colours when we got there. The Friday night was a bit more subdued as we had spent an hour or so travelling and wanted to just eat something so we could explore, so with the addition of some cups, plates, flamingo lights, napkins and bunting somewhere out of site, we were ready.

Some cheeses, bread and other nibbles we had a picnic tea in the setting sun, it was a great way to spend the evening and the party wear made it just that little bit more glam.

For our Saturday night bbq we went a little more tropical and out came this quite frankly amazing  and so easy to put up tropical bird banner, the attention to detail in Talking Tables products is fantastic and makes it so easy to use. With pretty gold ribbon to attach to the tent and then clip on parrots for easy installation and removal it made putting this up a breeze.

And as the tassels fluttered in the wind they made for a bright and colourful sight, I added to this the tropical bunting which had hooks on either end so really easy to hang up and again super bright for this wonderful backdrop at Lantern & Larks.

Once the bbq was ready we all sat at the picnic table, donned some funky glasses and enjoyed a supper in the sun. I'm not entirely sure what my son is doing here, I can only assume this is the look of excitement at food that has been cooked on an open fire.

The pineapple glasses also make him look a little like Elton John, and the flamingo glasses have been a hit ever since me and my daughter found them at the garden centre a few months back.

I cannot wait to get this all out again for my husbands birthday this week, I do love to make sure everything looks great and everyone has a wonderful time at birthdays. I just need to decide now what to do about a cake for him that I can incorporate a bright jungle theme too. Answers on a postcard, or in the comments ;)

NB: We were sent some goodies from Talking Tables for review, all words and opinions are my own.

DIY Fabric Garlands

I love to decorate the house and there is no better time to do this than at Christmas. These fabric garlands are a great way to add a splash of colour to your home, they won't break the bank as they can be made using old fabric scraps or even old clothes.

Firstly, choose your fabrics. I picked five fabrics and a red ribbon I had in the craft box. Cut the fabric into strips about 2cm wide and about 50cm long, you could use a few pieces of fabric and a few ribbons if you have them.

I chose to make mine look rustic so cut slightly up the fabric and then tore the rest of the way, this leaves a few strands of string hanging off.

Once you have cut all of your fabric into strips, you need to start building the garlands. To do this, stack one piece on top of another, mine have 11 pieces each, two strips of each fabric and one piece of ribbon. Once you are happy with how it looks, place the fabric pile with the rough side facing up and fold it over whatever string you are using. I am using brown string as it is a Christmas themed fabric selection.

Once you have folded it on itself, use either, another piece of brown string or, whatever you are using. I used some left over fabric and tied this around the garland, this part is made easier if you hang the string up, perhaps between two chairs, before adding the fabric.

Once you have done this with all of your fabric pieces, then you are ready to hang! You can make these as big or small as you like and you could have smaller garlands if you used thinner or shorter fabric pieces.

The garlands can be hung over your fireplace, on a wall or even on the window, they would also look great on the wall in a child's bedroom, you could make one using fabric to match their bedroom.