Being a celebrity and staying positive.

So did you see me on Sky News on Monday night?  http://www.youtube.com/user/LifesACelebration?feature=mhee If you haven’t heard about it then you must be living in Outer Mongolia because I have been telling the whole world!! Anyway if you do live in Outer Mongolia and you haven’t heard; I was part of a news article about my local area and the current economic hard times! If you have seen it then you will know that it was quite a depressing piece and painted my local area in rather a grave light (when actually it's not a bad place to live!).

Then right at the end of the piece me and my dog Daisy arrive on screen and hopefully lift a little bit of the depression out of the article.

I know things are tough out there at the moment but do you think that with a little bit of positivity we can all start to feel a bit more upbeat about the world? I don’t know about you but I’ve stopped watching the news (unless I’m on!) because it’s all so depressing and rarely focusses on the good things in life

With my business and all the party boxes I am sending out I can see first-hand that people are still celebrating all the momentous occasions in their lives and it’s really encouraging to see. It would be nice for the media to focus on the good not the bad occasionally. Do you think it’s because bad news ‘sells’?

Let’s all start to embrace a new positive way of thinking and focus on the positives not the negatives and with my new found celebrity status I’m going out there to spread the word about positivity and how together we can all help each other. Mind you I’m not going out the front door – there are so many paparazzi out there!!!

Have fab day my friends

Max

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Friday Fun - Biscuit recipe - Enjoy!

Doesn’t Friday come round quick? Anyway here we are and it’s Friday again so it’s time for Max’s Friday Fun Blog!

I thought I would give you all my recipe for delicious biscuits which if you have Christmas cookie cutters are perfect for this time of year. Great for any parties that you’re having or great for taking to any parties you might be going to.

You will need;

100g butter (cut into small pieces),

75g plain flour and 75g of self-raising flour, mixed together,

75g of caster sugar,

2 tsp vanilla essence.

1 egg yolk,

Run the butter into the flour mix until it looks like breadcrumbs, add the sugar, vanilla essence and egg yolk. Add a tablespoon of water and mix into a dough.

Chill in the fridge for about an hour.

Heat the oven to 170c and grease a couple of baking trays. Roll out the dough 1cm thick and use your cookie cutter to cut out your biscuit shapes.

If you’re going to hang them on the tree make a hole in the top for each to thread the ribbon through.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. When they’re cool decorate with chocolate frosting, chocolate chips, hundreds and thousands or anything you want really!

Enjoy and I want to know how everybody’s turn out.

Speak soon my friends

Max

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Where do your party ideas come from?

I love my job. It’s as plain and simple as that. One of my very favourite jobs is thinking up party ideas. Since I started this business I have had some pretty amazing days and one of my favourite days was when I sat all day putting together the Pop Music Quizzes for our Milestone parties. For the 30^th party you get 90s music and pop quiz, for the 40^th you get 80s music and pop quiz, for the 50^th you get the 70s and I think you’ve got it by now but for the 60^th you get 60s.

I’ve always worked with numbers and believe it or not I’m an Economist by trade. I’ve always enjoyed throwing parties but if you would have told me even a year ago that I would be putting together parties for people for a living I’d have laughed in your face. It’s not the sort of thing you expect an Economist to be doing. In fact many of my dull accountant friends (let’s hope they don’t read this!) have said to me since I started the business “I don’t know where you get your ideas from” and if I’m totally honest neither do I. They’ve obviously been in my brain for 34 years just bursting to get out!

I am constantly being approached to think up new party ideas and I think this is one of the shining glories of my party boxes. There’s no getting away from the fact that there is a wealth of information on the internet on how to have a party or ideas for party games but do you honestly have the time (or the inclination!) to trawl through these sites? Also the stuff you read is nearly always the same – our Party boxes offer something different.

But I can’t judge whether my ideas are any good. I leave that to my customers. Without exception, I have always received excellentfeedback on every party I have ever sent out, so the ‘proof of the pudding’ and all that. Most people comment on the value for money and the meticulous attention to detail because of all the items that you receive in the box. That’s not just the tangible items i.e. your plates, decorations etc. but also the intangible things like the games ideas, quizzes or recipe ideas. So if you’re after a great party but without all the toing and froing then you know what to do!

Right time to go but before I do and so I don’t get any complaints; accountants are not dull…………………………………….well not all the time anyway.

Max

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Time to think about Christmas

Hello my friends,
Normally at this time of year I have my Christmas shopping finished and wrapped. This year however I haven't even started! The perils of running your own business and being a little bit busy with that!
Anyway I came across these instructions on how to make Edible Stained Glass and thought "what a good idea".
So if you want to do something different with your children and make some edible Christmas decorations here's how you do it.
1) Make edible Christmas decorations out of boiled sweets - but BE CAREFUL the molten syrup can be hot and caution needs to be exercised,
2) Pre heat your oven to 170c.
3) Take some boiled fruit sweets and some metal cookie cutters,
4) Line a baking sheet with foil and spray the surface with cooking oil and place the cookie cutters on top,
5) Pop some sweets inside the cookie cutters and put in the oven for about 6 minutes until all the sweets have melted,
6) Take out the tray and swirl the molten liquid with a cocktail stick to make the whole of the cookie cutter is filled (Make sure the Mum, Dad or a responsible adult does this because it will be very hot)
7) Let them cool a little but before they are completely cold and whilst still a bit soft put a hole in them,
8) When cool, but not cold peel the shapes from the foil, string thread or ribbon through the whole and hang them on your Christmas tree.

Your children will be able to impress friends and relatives with these edible Christmas decorations. Be careful of sharp corners though and don't forget if you have pets they might want to eat them too!

I hope you enjoy making these and I want to know how everybody's turn out.

It's Fun Friday my friends so have a great day.

Max

Busy, busy, busy

Hi there friends,
I know it's been a while since I posted but life here at Party HQ has been mega hectic. We've launched our new website www.lifesacelebration.co.uk which features all our product range. I am beyond excited about this new website and need to tell you all about it. We have milestone parties, kids parties, baby showers, hen parties and our totally unique Wedding Activity Bags. In fact I write this post in between boxing up Milestone Birthday Parties. I've been up to my ears in decorations, badges, candles, plates and games. Yes that's right our Party Boxes contain absolutely everything you need.

As I've been packing I've been  thinking about how much my life has changed since this time last year and how much I am loving it. My party boxes are being enjoyed both in the UK and abroad (something that always makes me feel good).

I have tried to convey in the website just how friendly I am and how I will, pretty much, box up whatever party you want. If you have kids and adults coming to a party then just let me know and I'll tailor it to that or if your daughter is a crazy fan of Hello Kitty then I will put together a fabulous party box for that. Anything really! I am here to help and I am a chatty person so if you want to, get in touch I will always do what I can to help.

Anyway do you think it's worked? When you've looked at the website - drop me a line and tell me whether you think it's friendly enough! Would love to hear from you!

Well my friends that's all from me today. I've got packing to do!

So keep celebrating your life and I'll see you really soon.

Max
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