Awesomely disturbing

Another awesome guest post from the wonderful Hilary

It’s one of those news items that spread like wildfire. It’s one of those things that make grown women scream like 10 years olds being told they are getting a pony ride….It’s one of those magic moments that have to be embraced. That’s right, the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book has been re-issued.

Originally printed in 1980, this gem has been keeping New Zealand and Australian children happy for years. It’s not just a book, it’s a cultural icon.

Many childhood hours were spent droooling over pages, lapping up the glorious multi-colour arrangements of lollies and icing. Making the grave decision of what cake to have for their next birthday.

It’s so much like another part of the family that people rarely throw them out. I have scoured op-shops, I have looked at second hand book stalls. I have saved searches on Trademe. I have tried for years to find a copy – but they are rarer than gold.

So when I heard the news yesterday I nearly cried – it’s been re-released in its original format, and retailing for a mere $16.95. At this price, and at this level of fandom, it’s not going to be on shelves for long.

So I ran out an bought one and now I sit here fawning the pages of my child hood dreams, meringue hearts, ballerinas, dolly vardens, little Miss Muffets, bunny rabbits and butterflies.

I’m just waiting for the next occasion to arise to create my PPP dream cakes. Be it a birthday, house warming, new shoes celebration or any other reason. And that’s the joy of being a PPP gal, there’s ALWAYS reason for delicious, beautiful cakes

This photo is a cake I made for my birthday two weeks ago – inspired by my memories of the book.

So many clothes, so little time!

The Big Shwop
Sunday July 25
Venue: The St James Theatre, Courtenay Place, Wellington
Time: 10 am – 2.30 pm
Tickets: $20 from our website: www.thebigshwop.co.nz, or just turn up on the day
R 18 event as alcohol is being served
Bring up to 20 items of clothing

Tickets are $20, but because there are strict rules for what people can bring in, you know that the clothes will be good. Also, there’s all kinds of added goodies on the day. The way it works is that you drop off your clothes between 10am-12pm, you get to drink some Momo wine until 1pm while the clothes are sorted, and then you go shwoping with your vouchers (you get one for every item you bring in). Also, you’ll get a full size Trilogy product – Everything Balm for the ladies and aftershave for the gents, as well as goodies from Eco Store. Oh, and you can bring in your old cleanser to get a new one from Trilogy too.  So I’ll see you there, yes? Awesomesauce.

Check out the link to the Gracie Lou Party on Facebook….
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=311219067625&ref=mf

Those of you who’ve been before know to expect lovely company, great clothes to swap and great beauty products to try, as well as lashings of ginger beer and cupcakes. Those of you who are new to the site are in for a treat!

The event starts at 4pm so you’ve got plenty of time to go to Craft2.0 beforehand, and will go well into the night. There may very well be some Singstar or some such carry-on if people want there to be.

There’s no pressure to partake in any activities that you don’t want to, but we do suggest that you do please bring along:
1. Clothes that you don’t want anymore for an informal clothing swap. We’ll go through them together and anything leftover will be sorted for either Dress for Success or an op shop. PPP readers are a range of sizes and shapes, so there will be someone there who’ll fit your stuff, and you’ll fit theirs!
2. Any dud beauty products/accessories that don’t work for you, because they may very well work for someone else.
3. A plate of treats to share, and whatever you’d like to drink.
4. A product you do like or a skill that you might have to share – previous examples include girls who can do massages, a red lipstick expert and a bigass jar of Rotorua mud we all slathered on. You might be a great eyebrow plucker or have an amazing facial wash we should all try (and if you don’t feel like you have a skill, that’s also okay!).
5. I also suggest you bring a towel, a pair of clean cotton socks to wear after foot treatments, and a headband to keep hair back during facials if you want to do those things.

Feel free to ask any questions or anything else. We look forward to seeing you there (There being my house in Immoral Terrace, Newtown, of course)!

I also need some advice, my friend who is pregnant is bursting to have a day of pampering, massage, facial etc for a day. As neither of us are from here, I really could do with a recommendation. the one place i got when googling was eastday spa, really expensive. She is having her baby shower in a few weeks and think a days treat that weekend would be fab.

I haven’t been to any day spas in Wellington, so maybe you pretties could help us out?

Shirley is soaking in it

I have been terribly remiss in not posting this earlier, but you know what? Our Pretty Pretty Party was AWESOME. Thank you so much to all who came along, especially to Meg from the delicious Durvillea Wines, who provided us with lush Sauvignon Blanc and spicy Pinot Gringo that went down a real treat with all the girls.

So, in case you missed it, here’s what we did. While stuffing our faces with all the amazing treats everyone brought along, and quaffing the wine, we had foot spas. I used milk powder and peppermint essential oil in the warm water to leave feet soft, and then everyone used lemon sugar scrub to slough off the dead skin, before the delightful Anna Jane provided foot massages with coconut & lime moisturiser.

Once again, the Mary Kay Satin Hands set was very popular with everyone raving about how amazing their hands felt afterwards. Some girls went with peel-off facial masques, while others used Shirley’s Rotorua Mud. My highlight of the day was getting to meet tons of our readers and make new friends with very cool girls.

Girls just wanna have fun.

Then it was time to dive into the massive piles of clothes in the hall! After everyone had a good dig through by themselves, it turned out that Sandra works with Dress for Success, so we decided to go through the mountains of leftovers in order to sort out appropriate work-wear to donate to them. We also decided to give every item a once-over and it was through that process that pretty much everyone ended up with extra items that suited them perfectly:

Julie braces herself for the compliments

One person's old pants make another girl's ass look amazing

And naturally, the night finished with some Singstar goodness. We had a blast, and we look forward to doing it all over again in another six months! Thanks for helping us have such a lovely community. And thanks for the fantastic jewellery I ended up with on the day!

Durvillea Wines

Amy and I are currently rubbing our hands together in glee with plans for Saturday. We thought it would be only fair to let you know that there will be delicious wine from Durvillea and also Kim from Cupcakes and Mace will be bringing along her awesome jewellery to admire and purchase if you want to. There’s lots of clothes and beauty products to swap, and I’m making up some sugar scrub for the foot spa, so it’s going to be a lovely lovely time. Don’t forget to clean out your closets and bring treats for us to share. We’ll see you there!

Chiara gets lucky

Just a reminder that we have another Pretty Pretty Pretty party coming up, at my house at 3pm on Saturday October 17 (add yourself to it on Facebook here).  We hope you’re cleaning out your closet in anticipation, because a big part of that party, as well as of course sharing and enjoying sugary & boozey treats and favourite products, is the clothing swap. Because there were so many girls last time, it got pretty chaotic, so here are a couple of guidelines to make things run a little smoother.

• Clothes will be sorted in Small, Medium, Large and Plus piles. There will be girls in your size coming along. Check out photos from last time if you want more evidence of the range of PPP readers.
• There will also be a Special Good pile, in which you can put any designer items or clothes you’re really attached to, that we can all go through together instead of having a big free-for-all on, because I know last time some girls got into the clothes before anyone else had a chance, and people didn’t see who ended up loving the things that they’d previously loved before. The first time we had a clothing swap we went through all the clothes together and it was really lovely. I’m thinking there may be too many people and too many clothes to do that for all items, but if something has been really precious to you, then you deserve to see where it ends up, yes? Yes.
• All leftover clothes that aren’t claimed will be donated to charity.
• Bring accessories and beauty products that you don’t want anymore as well, and we’ll find them a good home.

Any questions? Comments? Testimonials from people who’ve come before as to how much fun it is and what awesome stuff you’ll end up with? I’d also just like to state again that I have met some lovely awesome new friends through the PPP parties, and I think you will too!