Easter Lunch with friends

Hosting an Easter Lunch this coming weekend? Are you looking for inspiration that is stylish yet achievable? Do you love to entertain but wish you had more time to prepare a delicious meal?

Last Friday I hosted a very simple lunch for a group of four girlfriends. We all lead busy lives and only had a few hours to get together to celebrate our friendship.

Bunny Cake Stand from Pottery Barn. Sorry I think they have sold out!

Setting the theme for our lunch were these adorable salad plates from Pottery Barn.

These divine 'gull eggs' where presented in a tiny nest as favours for each guest.

In A Pickle is always the first place I visit when I'm hosting a lunch or dinner. For our girls lunch I served tomato and sweet corn tart with silverbeet and rissoni salad.

A glass of Verve always puts a smile on my face.

For dessert I served these decadent Pistachio Meringues with clotted cream from In A Pickle and this wicked Turkish Delight Cheesecake from Jocelyn's Provisions.

Are you planning on celebrating Easter with a beautiful lunch with family and friends?

Photography and styling by Sharnel Dollar

Whimsical Garden 3rd Birthday

This weekend I had the honour of creating this pretty Whimsical Garden dessert table for Sophie's 3rd Birthday. Sophie's mum is the creative talent behind Katie Lauren Designs.

Cupcakes, heart marshmallows, handmade chocolates and raspberry, coconut and white chocolate truffles.

The most perfect macarons I've ever tasted in white choc and lavender.

More gorgeous cupcakes. I love the flower Coby!

How gorgeous is that cake? Just what I ask for Coby, thank you!

Decadent chocolate tarts.

I must give a big shout out to the fabulous vendors I work with on a regular basis.

Coby from The Lemony Cupcake for all the delicious food.

Macarons from Authentic French Macarons.

Sarah from Style Me Gorgeous for the beautiful artwork including backdrop.

Melissa my fabulous assistant for all her support and eye for detail.

If you would like us to create a beautiful dessert table for your next celebration, we would love to hear from you. Please email me sharnel@sharneldollardesigns.com.au.

Paperie Valentine's Day Table

My daughter Olivia LOVES stationery. She is like a bowerbird with all her goodies. I'm not sure where she gets it from!

This afternoon I had this table waiting for Olivia when she returned home from school. It was sort of like I fulfilled my own childhood fantasy of walking into a stationery shop being told I could have what I wanted. Olivia was able to select an assortment of treats from the table to keep just for her from Mummy on Valentine's Day.

So what was on the menu I hear you ask?

Twine from kikki.K & spotty pencils from Specklefarm

Gorgeous notebooks for writing down secrets from Specklefarm, Love Stamps and heart paperclips from kikki.K and erasers from Specklefarm

I hope you all had a loved up day too!

This type of table would work so well for a girls birthday party. Instead of a lolly table let your little misses select their very own stationery.

Ice Cream Social 6th Birthday

A few weeks ago we celebrated William's 6th Birthday. This birthday was extra special as he celebrated it alongside his best friend Ella. William and Ella have a very special friendship that's hard to put into words, you need to see them together to understand.

Melissa (Ella's Mum) and I decided on an Ice Cream Social theme with a punchy yellow and red colour palette that suits both a girl and boy.

The party was intimate. Only three other families celebrated alongside us, all relatives.

The concept was simple. Each child could build their own Ice Cream Sundae!

Lots of different toppings and sauces were on hand.

Cookies, cupcakes and lollipops too.

Ice Cream Cake Pops!

I found this fibreglass ice cream cone in our street. I kid you not. A good wash and a lick of paint and it was as good as new.

You might remember seeing this carousel table at Olivia's party last year. Well I couldn't let it just sit there and go to waste, so we repainted it and turned it into an Ice Cream Shoppe.

The birthday boy and girl.

Party favours included everything ice cream themed. Erasers, candy, pens, lipgloss and bubbles all packaged lovingly in personalised cotton drawstring bags.

A little something for us!

And maybe these were for us too. After all, we did work very very hard on this party!

To finish off the day a cool dip in the pool.

All artwork and printables Style Me Gorgeous

Photography Life in Bloom Photography

Ice Cream Cone Cake The Lemony Cupcake

Decorated Cookies Glazed Bakehouse

Styling Sharnel Dollar Designs

Leftover Candy Canes?

Does anyone have leftover candy canes from Christmas? Well I did so I'm going to show you a really easy and pretty Valentine's Day treat to make with them.

What you'll need

2 candy canes per heart

Melting chocolate

Sprinkles or non-pareils in Valentine's colours

Baking paper

Method

Place a sheet of baking paper onto a baking tray. Unwrap the plastic wrapper from the candy canes and arrange in the shape of a heart.

Melt your chocolate and spoon it into the centre of the heart. Use a toothpick to push the chocolate into the point of the heart. Sprinkle with your pretty decorations.

They are pretty right? You could even flavour the chocolate if you so desired.

Styling Sharnel Dollar Designs

Photography Life In Bloom