Tonight’s cocktail is a Lychee Martini.  It’s a fruity, heady drink and perfect as a pre-dinner cocktail with friends. I have previously posted a lychee martini recipe, however it was made with a vodka base. Tonight’s recipe is made with good quality gin. It’s very easy to make and quite moreish.  Here’s my recipe for a delicious Lychee Martini.

Lychee Martini

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• 45mls gin
• 4 lychees (we used tinned lychees in syrup)
• 15mls lychee syrup (from the tinned lychees)

HOW TO MIX THIS DRINK

Place your cocktail glass in the freezer for 15 minutes. Pour the gin and syrup into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Pop in two or three lychees and shake well. Take your glass out of the freezer and place a lychee in the bottom of  your glass.  Strain and pour the drink into your glass and serve immediately.

Note: To create a crystal clear drink you might want to “double strain” your cocktail through a tea strainer to remove lychee bits from the drink.

Enjoy!

Winter is fast approaching us in Melbourne and I’m slowly bringing out all of my winter coats and scarves.  I saw this fabulous video on YouTube and wanted to share with you too.  It was created by the beautiful, Wendy Nguyen from Wendy’s LookBook.  The video dances it’s way through the variety of wraps and following the instructional video you can see Wendy’s behind-the-scenes video, where she takes you through each scarf wrap step-by-step.  She’s just lovely.

Check out the video here:

 Thanks for popping by,

Here’s a quick and easy way to turn your digital photographs into Polaroids.  I found this downloadable Polaroid template on Jon Dyer’s techie blog.  You can use Photoshop or Gimp* to layer your image on top of the frame and turn any photograph into a Polaroid.  The template conforms to the size of an actual Polaroid and will work with photos that are scaled to 314 pixels tall by 302 pixels wide. (*Jon includes instructions for editing in Gimp with the Polaroid frame post.)

Image: Polaroid-style photos of my red polka dot party nails + Flowering purple cabbage from my local market (both images via my Instagram profile).

Polaroid-style Place Cards

I’ve used the Polaroid frame to create Polaroid-style place cards for my dinner party this weekend.  My dinner party guests will find their seat by their photo rather than their name. I used photographs with interesting stories behind them, which the guests can share around the dinner table. It’s a fun ice breaker.

Image: My Polaroid photo-style place cards

Thanks for dropping by…

If you’re anything like me, then you love to whip out your iPhone camera at a party  or event and take a few happy snaps (some happier than others).  There are a few simple tips that I try to practise when taking photos at parties and I thought I’d share some of these with you.

1. Hold it steady!

Keep your iPhone as steady as you can.  It’s really disappointing when you get home and realise that most of your party photos turned out blurry.  If possible, try leaning the camera on a bar or bannister for extra support. You could also try an app that has an image stabilizer like Camera+ or Camera Sharp.

Image: In this shot I was trying to capture the contents of the book. Unfortunately I was a little shaky with this shot and couldn’t hold focus.

2. Choose your focus point

Use your iPhone’s tap-to-focus feature for better focus.  Open your iPhone camera, compose your photo and choose your focus point.  Touch the screen and you will see a small square appear.  The iPhone will use this as the focal point of your shot.

Image: You can see the little square on the my iPhone screen which notes the focal point of my shot.  It appears once you have touched the area of the shot that you would like to focus on. 

3. Using light for those evening party shots

You have a couple of choices here.  You can use your iPhone flash for subjects up to two metres.  [Be careful not to stand too close to your subject as they could be captured with a ghostly pale look on their face. If you're concerned, take a few test shots and then move backward or forward.] Or you could use other light sources such as overhead light, lamp or a torch to create a source of light for your photograph.  By using other light sources other than your iPhone flash, you can place light where you’d like them to appear in your photo.  See example below.

Image: Here we used a torch light which we shone down the face of the bottle to ensure all of the details of the wine label were lit.

 4. Zoom with your feet and not your fingers

If you need to zoom in on your photo, it’s best to do so by walking closer to your subject.  The iPhone digital zoom feature is not particularly stable and unless you are incredibly still you risk a blurry shot.

Image: This shot was taken at a local concert at Federation Square. I tried to zoom in on the stage to get a closer image.  What I should have done was move myself closer to the stage to try for a clearer shot.

 5. Change  your perspective

Don’t shoot all of your photos from eye-level.  For example if you want to photograph your meal, try shooting from a high angle or directly above. If you want to capture a photo of children at a birthday party, get down to their level.  Oh and one more thing, consider the background to your shot. You don’t want a shot with your subject standing in front of a rubbish bin or an open bathroom door.

Image: In this photo I moved quite close to the dish and hovered directly above. Sometimes this doesn’t work and you need to move to a different angle.

And one last tip, edit, edit, edit!  There are so many fantastic photo editing apps available on the market.  You can turn a mediocre shot into a work of art or at the very least have some fun with your photos (below image).

Image: This photo was edited in Instagram and then Shazzam.  Shazzam is a fun photo editing app that lets you turn your photos into comic strips with the word bubbles and phrases.

For more photography tips for your party, check out my article, “Pimp Those Party Photos“.

Ciao for now,

I came across this fantastic little book on Amazon the other day.  It’s based on Mad Men, a TV drama about a prestigious New York ad agency at the beginning of the 1960s. ‘The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook‘ is an anthology of cuisine and cocktails that either appear in Mad Men, or were served in the 1960s by bars and restaurants featured in the show.  So it’s a little different to your normal cocktail book.

The book has been intensively researched down to the tiniest period detail. The authors, Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin have carefully researched and recorded classic recipes such as, cocktails from the 21 Club and Stork Club, appetizers (Shrimp Cocktail) and salads (Waldorf Salad), main meals (Turkey Tetrazzin) and desserts (Pineapple Upside-Down cake…like my Mum makes).  There’s also a small guide to some of the restaurants and bars frequented by Mad Men characters and a terrific index to navigate through all the recipes.

Image above: The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook (cover)

I thought I’d share one of the classic cocktails from the book – the Stock Club cocktail.

Stork Club Cocktail

From the Stork Club Bar Book by Lucius Beebe (Rinehard and Co., 1946)

WHAT YOU NEED

• Dash of lime juice
• Juice of half a lemon
• Dash of triple sec
• 45mls quality gin
• Dash of Angostura bitters

HOW TO MIX THIS DRINK

Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker.  Shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (120ml).  Makes one drink.

Note: This cocktail also makes a wonderful punch. To serve multiply ingredients and pour into a punch bowl over a block of ice.

Whether you’re planning a Mad Men party or you just can’t get enough of the show itself, this is your essential guide to all foods and drinks… Mad Men-style.

Ciao Ciao,

I love this fun Parisian bachelorette party that I found on the Un Beau Jour blog.  The party was coordinated by Anush & Laurence from Epouse-moi Cocette, who are two very happening event stylists from Paris. The creative pair offer “event styling and happy ideas” and they coordinated this bachelorette party for a bride-to-be and her guests.

Anush & Laurence organised a one-hour photo shoot in Paris (they take care of the location and accessories).  When the guests all arrive they are given a kit containing some goodies and an envelope for a surprise treasure hunt.  And then after the party, a a small packet of photos is sent to each guest.  Sound like fun?

l

I haven’t arranged a gathering for my girlfriends in quite a while.  I think I will design an event similar to this with a fun and interactive treasure hunt.  Black dresses and coloured tights will be the prerequisite! I love the look.  If you’re interested in an event like this for your bachelorette party and would like to some help then please send me an email -  I’m happy to help.

I hope this party has inspired you and if you’re in Paris, well then lucky you…you get to book the creative services of Epouse-moi Cocette.

Au revoir mes amis,

Happy Friday! It’s been another busy week for Madame Bonbon, so we’re relaxing tonight with a moreish Sidecar cocktail and listening to the smooth sounds of Dutch jazz singer, Caro Emerald. This weekend we are visiting friends and having lunch at a vineyard in the Yarra Vallery. It will be lovely to get out of the city and see the green hills. I wish you a wonderful weekend wherever you are in the world.

I thought I’d leave you with one of Caro’s tracks, ‘A Night Like This‘, it’s the perfect warm-up to frivolous Friday night.

You can visit Caro’s website {here} to hear her complete album, ‘Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor‘. It’s fabulous!

Proost! [cheers]

I’m celebrating my birthday in a few weeks and I’ve chosen the Sidecar as my birthday cocktail.  It’s the perfect drink for our 1930′s Shanghai Jazz Club party.  The Sidecar is two parts strong, one part sweet and one part sour which makes for the perfect classic cocktail.  The Sidecar was created at Harry’s New York Bar, a Paris bistro, by Harry himself and was named for the motorcycle sidecar that conveyed Harry to and from his establishment.

Monsieur Bonbon and I have well and truly tested this recipe and feel we can now share with you .  It must be one of my favourite cocktails.

The Sidecar

WHAT YOU NEED

• 30mls cognac (Hennessy VS)
• 30mls Cointreau or Curaçao
• Juice of half a lemon

HOW TO MIX THIS DRINK

Add cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice to ice in a cocktail shaker.  Shake and serve straight up in a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon twist.

NOTE: The traditional Sidecar adds 15mls fresh orange juice and uses a flamed orange twist for garnish. To make a flamed orange twist, take an orange slice, separate the pulp of the fruit from the rind and squeeze the juice from the pulp into the cocktail.  Then, take the rind/twist and twist it over a flame next to the cocktail. The oil squeezed from the fruit will ignite. Drop the twist into the cocktail. (Resource: The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook 2011)

Chin chin,

I had a wonderful trip to the Autumn/Winter Finders Keepers market last weekend. As I turned up to the market on Saturday I saw a queue outside the Royal Exhibition Building and smiled with relief as I saw it was the queue for the awesome Taco Truck, not the market, ha! Inside there were 120 stall holders selling jewellery, clothing, homewares, party and packaging products and so much more. The market was incredibly busy and hopefully this means it was a tremendous success for the stallholders and Finders Keepers team. Here are a few happy snaps from my day.

Image above: Inside the Royal Exhibition Building for the Finders Keepers Market. This is just the centre aisle. There were two more aisles on either side.

Images: Above left – the Juke Case, Above right – Bespoke Letterpress Bottom left – Write to Me, Bottom right – Angus & Celeste

Image above: Here’s my fish taco from that devine Taco Truck <;wink>;.

Image above: I picked up a couple of fantastic greeting card turn hat fromTMOD.

Image above: I bought a few party and packaging staples from Blank. Check out their online store for more little craft projects and packaging supplies.

Image above: Poppies for Grace party bags and butterfly notes (for ma fille).

So it was quite a successful day at the markets. I also bought a gorgeous Lj Junior vintage-print dress with cape for my daughter from Love and Clutter, a fabulous little store from Hobart, Tasmania.

Stay tuned for the next Spring/Summer Finders Keepers in Melbourne.

Best wishes,

This year Monsieur Bonbon and I are celebrating our birthdays with a 1930′s Shanghai Jazz Party (our birthdays are three days apart).  We’re going back a few decades and reminiscing about the time when Shanghai was the “Paris of the East“.  This amazing city was drawing people from all over the world with it’s high class clubs and restaurants.  Jazz bands and dancing girls performed every night as guests sipped on elegant cocktails and danced the night away. I think it’s the perfect party theme for a fun-filled birthday party.

We’ve invited our friends to dinner at a popular Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, Hutong.  We’ve secured a couple of tables upstairs away from the main room. After dinner we’re inviting guests to our local jazz club to listen to some swinging sounds.  Here are some of my party plans, so far…

The Dress Code

The dress code for our party is “1930′s cocktail” and to provide costume tips for our guests I included little fashion notes with each invitation. Women wore elegant evening gowns that were long flowing, bias cut and short-sleeved.  Curls and waves were the rage for women’s hairstyle.  Men wore evening suits or white dinner jackets with black tie and trousers.  Their hair was well groomed and usually in a side part, cemented in place with waxy pomades. Dapper hats and fashionable facial hair were also very important. (In fact, M. Bonbon is removing his close-shaved beard for the occasion.)

The Invitation

I worked with the lovely, Melissa Tully from Fully Designed to create the custom invitation and a wee map of the venue.  As it is a 1930′s theme party we designed the invitation with Art Deco aspects in black and gold.  This has become the theme for the party decor and stationery now. Melissa was fabulous!  She offered me two varying designs based on my spec and polished off the final design within a week of my enquiry.  I recommend you visit her Etsy store.  Melissa also offers custom designs for a reasonable price.

Image above: This is the final draft of our 1930′s Shanghai Jazz party invitation.  The invitation includes a small map, bellyband and the reverse of the invitation has the repeated black and gold pattern.  It looks fabulous. I’ll post the final design on the post-party blog article in a few weeks.

Image above: This was my original idea for the envelope – a bright, metallic gold.  I did decide on a more subtle gold envelope in the end.  The wrap-around labels were quickly whipped up by me using aspects from the invitation design.

The Party Favours

We had lots of fun researching party favours for our 1930′s theme.  I came across elegant hand fans, jazz music cufflinks, Art Deco compact mirrors and lipstick cases.  In the end we decided on miniature bottles filled with Hennessy Cognac.  I’m currently in the process of sourcing the right bottle.  When I find it, I’ll create labels for the bottle that coordinate with my theme (details, details, details!).

I must give a special mention to Kelly at Kellybeans, who has really gone out of her way to help me find the perfect bottle to match my party theme. Kelly is the owner of Kellybeans, an online store that specialises in bomboniere.  You’ll find a wide range of boxes, jars, bottles and bags especiallly for your party or event.  Pop over and take a look when you have time. Image above: Inspiration from my Pinterest board – miniature bottle favours.

The Party Decor

As we’re dining at Hutong I don’t really need to create a lot of party decor.  In saying that though, I do love the details, so I’ve sketched out a table design which includes chopsticks tied with gold tassels, printed placemats (design aspects from the invitation), glittery loveheart swizzle sticks, giant gold balloons tied with gold tinsel and black crepe streamers as centrepieces for the two tables. I’m tossing up between faux polaroid place cards (photos of guests in DIY polaroid frame) or themed place cards.  As we are dining on a set banquet I am creating personal menus for each guest (again using aspects from the invitation design) and these will positioned at each setting around the table.  I’ve also just decided to make matching drink coasters …squeal.

Image above: Inspiration from my Pinterest board – giant balloons in gold and black & menu design.

Image above: More decor inspiration from my Pinterest board – glittery gold and loveheart stirrers (DIY)

The Entertainment

Most of my friends and family expect me to have arranged some sort of entertainment.  At our Birthday Fiesta last year, we played a few fun games during the night.  Click on the link {HERE} to view my post of party games.  This year I have arranged some secret activities to allow my guests to relax into the party and then a few other activities to jazz things up.  I can’t give away too many details, as I want to surprise my guests at the party. Check back on my post-party blog article in a few weeks time.  After dinner we’re all heading to The Paris Cat jazz club to listen to some swinging tunes.  I’m hoping to get a few fun photos of the night to share with you.

Thank You cards

I haven’t designed the ‘Thank You’ cards as yet. They are next on my to-do list.  But I wanted to share this idea with you. I’m going to include a recipe card for a traditional 1930′s cocktail, the Hennessy Sidecar ( two parts Hennessy cognac and one part each of Cointreau and lemon juice).  It uses the cognac that I am giving to guests as party favours.  Cute idea, yes?

So, I hope you enjoyed reading about my party plans.  Check back later for the post-party blog post.

Cheerio!