It all started off so civilised and then a ping pong ball changed everything!

Since we got engaged, we have been trying our hardest to save, save, save. Numerous pots around the flat are being filled with spare change, new savings accounts are being opened and we are generally trying our hardest to be "good"..... every penny counts! However, I'm not going to lie, I'm struggling- I've NEVER been good at saving- there's always SOMETHING I need to get. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to clothes and things for the house, I can literally talk myself into "needing" anything!! However, with the wedding only 9 months away I have made it my mission to save and have vowed to do anything in my power to scrape every penny together and give up all those indulgences that - quite frankly- I . do . not . need! (must keep repeating).

With that in mind, we wanted to have an engagement party that didn't cost all our hard earned savings (thus far) and would bring everyone together in one place. So, we decided to decorate the flat and garden, open the whole place out, pray for nice weather, send Tilly off to the baby sitter for the night and have an engagement party at home!
As with any party, there are always going to be cancellations and no shows. Therefore we thought instead of potentially having a venue where no one turned up and then having a rather large cover charge to pay, that we would have it at home so that in the event of no one turning up we could just be two little pigs and have our own party.

The weather had been utterly horrific all week, rain after more rain after even more rain and then as Saturday drew upon us the BBC suddenly gave us a glimmer of hope with one whole yellow sunshine.

I'd spent the weeks running up to the party collating bits and pieces, lanterns, candle bags, balloons, bunting and other party paraphernalia as to spread out the cost and make sure I wasn't too red in the face and stressed by the actual day!
We spent Saturday morning decorating. The flat was an array of lanterns hanging from everything I could possibly hang things on! I bought these beautiful coloured paper lanterns from ebay and some LED candles- as not to burn the flat down- and they worked just beautifully. As the sun went down and night swept over us the lanterns came alive, ablaze of colours. Outside we put down rugs and cushions for people to sit on, more lanterns, candle bags and tea lights a plenty. The trees are decorated in fairy lights all year round anyway which added to atmosphere.

    One of our favourite wedding savers. . . this one was a gorgeous gift from a great friend, Ami 

    Home made vodka drink, cucumber, lime, lemonade and a LOT of vodka, refreshing and delicious!

Party food:
I LOVE baking and making - as you can probably tell from the numerous sweet treat posts. So, on this occasion I put my baking cap on and set to making cake pops- or cake balls on a stick in more obvious terms. These were such fun to make. I bought the cake pop moulds and sticks off a cake making kit website and made up the spongy balls about a week prior to the party and froze them- ready to be decorated on the day.

Decorating the cake pops was messy, sticky but such fun. 3 bowls were set out, one with melted white chocolate, one dark and one milk, then I set out sprinkles and dessicated coconut. It was a dip and stick operation but oh so much fun. I felt about 8 yrs old again as I decorated these sticky chocolate balls on sticks, one sprinkle of chocolate for you, two for me.....

Somewhat stupidly and slightly caught up in the "party" moment I didn't get any other close up pictures other than what I have here!

Surprise cakes:
Since Christmas we have had a tin of Quality streets that just weren't going down (all the ones we didn't really like left- shh)... so I decided to use them, I made a cupcake base and poured half in to a case and then dropped in a chocolate (mostly the chocolate fudge ones)- then over the top I poured more cake mixture. Others I used apple and walnut and then in the remainder I used a dollop of nutella and a hazelnut. No one knew what they were going to find (made sure there were no nut allergy sufferers- don't worry)- and people's excitement was rife as they bit in to the cakey surprise...all decorated with thick pink cream cheese icing and a blueberry! One friend couldn't stop eating them as she got so over excited by what she might find!

Homemade heart chocolates with sprinkles and raspberry.
With 85% cocoa chocolate and a tsp of sugar (to take off the bitterness) I melted about 3 lindt bars down, sprinkled in to the heart moulds pink glitter sprinkles and then poured the chocolate half way. I then dropped in half a raspberry (generous, I know) and filled the rest of the mould with chocolate. When they were set (in the fridge for about 2 hrs) they came out glistening and against a white plate looked just divine.

Amy (left) wears a French Connection dress from this season.  I (right) am wearing a Virgos Lounge embellished jacket, Zara vest top, Miss Selfridge skinny jeans and Dune wedges.

Bunting from Accesorize and paper doves from Tiger. 

Kate and Lottie loved the pop cakes!

Beautiful home-made cakes from my amazingly talented friend Lara! 

As the light faded and night drew in, the candles were lit and the colours came alive.

Things started to go from civilised to slightly mad. Kate wears a beautiful dress from Zara.

As the sun went down and the temperature rapidly dropped everyone came inside, most congregating around the kitchen table to watch a very fun and somewhat competitive game of Beer Pong. If you don't know about beer pong here's a good link describing the rules.

    Elation! I had just won beer pong for my team so the other team had to decide who was going to drink "the drink" in the middle of the table...


     After a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, it was poor old Will who had to drink.

The Dream Team... or so they thought! 

What started as one game ended up going on and on . . .

and on. . .  


           

. . .re match after rematch, until at 3am we had literally drunk the bar dry (Simon's shocked face at hearing this above).

As the last party goers left (after finding a secret bottle, apparently) at 4am, we clambered in to bed buzzing with happiness at the successful evening.

Shepherd's Pie.....With a little help from my friend!

Not quite the dish you want to be making in this sunny AND warm (at last the sun HAS got his hat on!) weather- but, a tasty dish for when Mr Sun decides to take his regular holidays.

Shepherd's pie is one of my favourite dishes to make, with cheap and simple ingredients which can make enough to feed a small army- or, in my case, keep a hungry fiance happy.  

So, with a little help from my sous chef, Tilly, I set to work and turned the oven on to 220degrees.



What you need:
500g mince
1 large red onion
1 large carrot (2 small)
1 large courgette (2 small)
2 tsp Paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 beef stock cube (or two, dependent on the depth of flavour you want)
1 large passata (or 1 tin tomatoes, chopped preferably)

For topping:
5 -6 large potatoes (baking ones)
Splash of milk
Dessert spoon of butter
Sprinkle of salt

N.B - With any seasoning, I always do it to taste, so I'll put all the above in and then when I'm about 15 mins in I will taste it- if I feel it needs a bit more (for eg) coriander, then I will just add some. Take anything out you don't like and add anything in you do- pepper, sweet corn etc! :) Cooking's all about playing around, trial and error and finding what tantalises your taste buds best!

What to do:

• Place chopped veg in to a hot wok with 2 tbsps Olive oil.
• Fry off until nicely browning (put to the side- in a bowl)
• Place your mince in to the wok- with a bit more oil if necessary- brown off until brown all over.
• Add in your veg and mix together
• Add in your spices and 3 tbsps water
• Add in the chopped tomatoes / passata and bring to boil. Turn right down and allow to simmer. The longer you leave it the more intense the flavour. You can at this stage let it cook for 10 minutes and then put it straight in the oven- however I normally allow 40 - 50 minutes on the hob.

For the topping:

• Chop up around 6 large baking potatoes (leave skins on or take off) and place in to boiling water
• Bring to boil until soft enough to put a knife through
• Drain water and place a dessert spoon of butter, sprinkle of salt and about 6 tbsps milk on to the potatoes.
• Mash up until fluffy. I prefer rustic mash- (I always leave the skin on the potatoes)- but you can make it as smooth as you like.

• Place the mince in to a baking dish and dollop the mash on top in sections and then smooth out so the whole of the mince base cannot be seen
• Put in to the oven for 20 - 30 minutes (until the top has a nice browning skin)
• FOR CHEESE LOVERS: If you want to add cheese on top I would allow the pie to cook for 10- 15 minutes and then sprinkle as much grated cheese as you like on top and then put in for another 10 - 15 minutes.

Then you just have to wait........

And wait. . . .



And then.......voila!

The Sheppard's Pie is cooked and ready to be served straight away with whatever you like. With mine I have roasted vegetables- which I put in to the oven at the same time as the pie -with a little rock salt and oil.

Enjoy!