I have a sick feeling

I have had terrible news today. My BEAUTIFUL Italian rose detailed swan purchased last Sunday on e-bay is missing. According to the courier it was signed for at my address last Tuesday at 12.24pm. Of course at 12.24pm last Tuesday I was walking my Pre-Primary students to the school library and was nowhere near my front door to sign for an antique swan, nor does my name look anything like the name 'Sam' that allegedly signed for it. I have spoken to the seller and he has reassured me that it is insured, and he will chase it up with the courier tomorrow.

So this leaves me with three questions:
Who signed for my swan?
What are they planning to do with an intricate china swan if not use it for the centrepiece for a dinner party?
Why did the courier not ask for the signer ID as was required at the point of delivery.

I will keep you posted.

And then there was...13

Ok party people, I may have jumped the gun and am mixing up parties now, but today I purchased my first peacock chair for the 'Hot House High Tea.' (Yey me!) Seeing as how I will now hopefully be hosting this next party this coming spring/summer and I need more than one peacock chair to re-enact the party I thought I had best get started. Whilst out on a swan hunt yesterday (much less violent to a duck hunt but rather hard on my bank account) I stumbled across a white peacock chair in an antique shop. Exciting? Yes. But alas, the chair was looking at me with her $85 dollar price tag and saying "buy me" but my credit card was sending the "oh no you did-nt! (waggle finger) at me, so sadly I bid adure and departed the store. Here is where my story takes a happy turn. Today I had a stall at the local flea markets and, oh yes, I made some moola. So after the markets had finished, I packed up and high-tailed it back to Guildford and got my beautiful baby, and the best bit? I did get it slightly cheaper, slightly, but still cheaper. :-)


Now onto the 'then there were 13' section of today's blog. Also whilst at the markets today with my lovely mummy, I asked her to watch the stall for a few minutes so I could go have a look at what was on offer also and shaz-am! 2 more medium sized swans. I paid $10 for one and $13 for another. Oh happy days.

Other recent purchases included 11 gold rimmed dinning plates from Good Sammy's for 20c each, and (drum roll please) 10 pairs of angel wings for the backs of the chairs. Yippee! On this note I would like to apologize for the fact I do not have photo's on this blog of the parties I am aiming to re-create. I contacted the PR manager of the Author of the book Fleur Wood, and the lovely Dani replied and was very lovely and helpful. Unfortunately she was unable to give me permission to use images from the book on my blog, as the images themselves belong to the photographers. However, if you click on the link above for Fleur above, you can see some images from the book on her website. The name of the first party for me is 'Cloud 9' as is explained in my first post on this blog.

So mwha! All and remember...Look out for gold cutlery!!

Swanmania!

I have exciting news! I am now the proud owner of 11 china ornamental swans! They have come from Devon in the Uk, some from the US...In fact I think only one was purchased from within Australia. I am very proud of my largest and by far the most exciting swan,she is covered with delicate roses and gold detail and I can't wait for her to arrive.

So I now have swans.
 
I also had a great time last week trawling second hand shops for other necessities for the party. I didn't own any suitable glass bowls for dessert and required more crystal glasses, so I hit Good Sammy's and the Salvo's in search of those important items... What did I find? 50c crystal and glass bowls, 50c to $1 crystal glasses and some awesome gold serving platters, the most expensive of which was $4 = smily face me!  Some of the glasses looked a bit 'meh' to me, so I ran them through my boyfriends dishwasher on the longest cycle and shazing! Thank you Finish! They came out looking amazing!

Other purchases made this past week for the party are:
40m of netting to make chair covers
8 gold candles from Dusk
60 photocopies of black paper (just a start on the number of copies I think I will need to cover my loungroom walls.)

And now I am on the borrow and beg section of my parties goodies. I need to borrow another 8 dining chairs and some more golden edged plates and bowls. I have also started accumulating cotton wool or polyester stuffing from anywhere I can, and that includes digging out old pillows from cupboards and ripping the insides out.

So...Anyone have spare old pillows, gold cutlery, gold edged plates, bowls or serving ware or a photocopier at work that doesn't require a pin? ;-)

From the Beginning

Ok, so lets start from the beginning....  I was given the book 'Fashion Food Friends' by Fluer Wood for my birthday by my beautiful group of 'gym friends'  (2 of whom double as 'work friends') who know how much I love to host and style parties and occasions. It took me all of two seconds to be massively excited by this gift as the book is like a 'how to' guide of hosting parties, including menus and playlists to set the atmosphere. I absolutely love it, and over a glass of 11am sparkling (with said friends on the Sat morning after gym session on my birthday) I decided I would give myself a timeline on 24 months to host each of the parties featured in the book. The first I wanted to host was the Hot-House High Tea, to celebrate the completion of my garden at my house, of which it is my first home, and I have had for 18 months. Unfortunately due to a disticnt lack of peacock chairs here in WA and my garden wall taking longer to complete by my long suffering works-for-free-father has made me change my mind. The first party I will now host will be Cloud 9 and this will be a joint celebration of my boyfriends and my first year together and his moving into my townhouse.
So -
invitations- check
food- check
music- check
drinks- check

but where on earth does one buy enough cotton wool to fill an average sized lounge room to replicate the atmosphere portrayed in the beautiful photographs? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions anyone might have on how to do this.

I have set off gathering the decorations required (several ceramic/china swans) the process of which my boyfriend is less than happy about, seeing as I am buying them on ebay from as far away as Deven in the UK and sitting at home eagerly awaiting the arrival of said swans. I don't normally sit at home waiting for china swans to arrive by air mail but I have the time at the moment as I am at home recovering from a toncilestomy which went slightly wrong with two hemmorages and thus I am on strict bed rest and lots of idle time to go 'ebaying'.... Later this week when I am feeling slightly stronger I will bo on the lookout at $2 shops for angel wings to go on the backs of chairs, and black satin for the table cloths. 

For now though I will just finish making the origami swans to go with the invitations and then start searching the net for gold cutlery to hire....

Hopefully soon I will be able to include pics on my blog to give you more of an idea about all this, but I am awaiting permission to use some images. 

x
L