thirty

my little sister turned 30 two weeks ago and i'm now just showing off some bits from the carnival themed soiree my mum and i tossed for her. blog neglect, it should be punishable by law.

we wanted to surprise her with a fun theme and yes, a little selfishly, i suggested a carnival! what can i say, i love the romantic idea of carnivals past. carnivals these days don't count, they just don't have the same magic. mum thought it was a great idea and we got to planning. i made some loot bags (above, in their opened state... it's not humane to withhold candy so we tore into them as soon as kate got there). we decided everyone should wear a little costume piece, nothing too crazy. mum was the ticket agent (she wrapped herself in miles of paper tickets), dad was the ringmaster (complete with top hat, tux jacket, white shirt, bow tie, fake mustache, and black bathing trunks *the party was held out back by the pool afterall*), damian was a "freak" (he made himself a freaky mask out of a burlap bag. this is creepshow no matter how you look at it, i mean did you see 'The Orphanage'?), kevin came as the little boy at the fair (dressed in cowboy shirt and little hat, a la little boys in the 50's), i was a gypsy fortune teller (natch), and kate (unbeknownst to her until she arrived) was the carnival princess.

i made her a special hat complete with flowing ribbons, glitter, flowers, and stars.

the best decoration of all though was born in my mum's kitchen, straight from her imagination and her new found skills with fondant. i posted a photo of one of her cookie creations before and now she's trying her hand at cakes. this is going to become a business for her once she retires (in December) and i'm so excited for her. she's so good at it, self taught too! i mean check this cake out, it was her first time attempting something like this and it turned out brilliant!

it tasted super fantastic as well. i could really go for a slice right now.

short and sweet that's what we did for kate's birthday. it was fun. later that night it got quite chilly and kate & i went for a swim. we lit a bunch of candles (and i had strung faery lights up earlier so those were sparkling too) and floated through twinkling blue as the heat from the water and the cool air battled it out creating a layer of mist above us.

* on a new note: i've had an idea to get me here more often as well as be a bit more challenged, personal, interesting? not sure what the best term would be for it but the idea is this - "Loop Dee Dailies", these would be videos of no prescribed length or subject, just a daily video filmed on the same day of posting. i can't promise it will happen EVERY day but that's what i'm going to aim for. i will also do written entries but i thought this might be a fun thing to do as an extra. i always like seeing the face behind a blog/journal so it's only fair that i put mine out there too. i hate my voice but whatever, i'll get over that. not that every video will be me staring into the camera waxing poetic but still. we'll just have to see together what comes of this.

here we go... first entry should be up later today!

*** edit - sept. 22***
first video attempt a failure. tech difficulties then the realization it was just too rushed/crap to put up. i shall try again tonight!