The Circus is in Town: My 21st Birthday

I have always been fascinated with the circus, but not the circus of today. I much prefer the traveling circus, the circus where clowns were funny, lions jumped through flaming hoops and elephants were the main attraction. Okay I haven’t seen a proper circus before but I remember going to a similar circus in Wynberg as a child. It was a circus in a tent; we were greeted by the ringmaster and entertained by clowns, monkeys, dogs, snakes, elephants and horses. I still remember buying a huge bag of popcorn and enjoying every minute of the show while munching away.

I don’t know if many of you will remember this but many years ago SABC 3 use to show various circus and magic shows on Sunday afternoons. After Sunday lunch my father and I use to spend the rest of the day entrapped in a world of fantasy and entertainment. In 2010 The Great Moscow Circus was in Cape Town and I was lucky enough to score a free ticket from my aunty. My hopes for the show were high but I left there rather disappointed. The circus wasn’t in a tent, there were no animals, the clowns were boring and there was no magical atmosphere what so ever.

Most of my high school and College design work was inspired by the circus. It’s a great theme to run with as there is so much to it. Take a look at a couple of my circus themed designs:

So naturally for my 21^st theme I decided to go with… yes you guessed it a Circus theme. The party planning was an enormous task, and it was up to my mom and I to plan an awesome party on a small budget (as I am traveling to London for a year, blog post coming soon).

I had my party at home so that I could spend more money on the important things like décor, food and alcohol of course. We put a circus tent by the front door and had welcome shots for all the guests who arrived. The welcome shots were Apple Sourz accompanied with a sour worm.

The sweet table was also by the entrance and was filled with some of the yummiest candies, like candy floss, gum balls, chocolate marshmallows, popcorn, cupcakes and gummibears. Needless to say we had very little left over by the end of the night.

There was a jumping castle for the all the people who felt like being a kid again.

Bashews were a must at my party. Not only are they everyone’s most memorable childhood drink but the bright colours and glass bottles gave my party an extra edge.

We had a hubbly area which we decorated with bales of straw, colourful bean bags and red draping. This was by far my favourite section of the party.

The night came with a special surprise, a carnival games section. I wasn’t sure if my friends would enjoy it so I had to entice them with a prize, a bottle of Ponchos! Points were collected for each game and by the end of the night the points were tallied up and the winner was revealed which was Renaldo Da Silva. (He cheated though, and popped all the balloons with the tickets in it, not giving anyone else a chance to compete!)

The rest of the formalities followed including embarrassing yet touching speeches from my friends and family, with a beautiful song sung by my sister and her friend. The BLACKPANNDJAT gave me a wonderful surprise birthday gift, an iPod Touch and a charm bracelet. The charms represented my friendship with each member of the BLACKPANNDJAT.

One of the highlights of my night was definitely my Manchester United Ice cream cake and the ice cream fight that followed! Yes I picked out the design but I felt really proud trying to blow out the sparkles on the cake.

Good food, good drink, good music and great company. I couldn’t have asked for a better 21^st and a better bunch of friends and family to share it with!

Cousin Kit

I believe a great cousin is probably one of the best assets to have in life, all the love of a sister but all the fun of a best friend, they allow for the perfect balance between love and laughter! The great thing about cousins in the Portuguese community is that you can never have to many, even 6th cousins qualify as family. My family is rather small compare to most, I have several cousins but there is one who stands out above the rest. She is a cousin that I have spent my entire life with sharing some of the funniest and craziest memories. And yes, you have guessed it, we are only 4th cousins, but she is closer to me than any other first cousin could ever be. Her name is Nikita Da Silva, a black haired, brown eyed beauty with a heart of gold. She just turned 21 and is officially older than me until March. 21st birthdays are very important in our Blackpanndjat crew, most of the girls turned 21 last year but Nikita, Paulina and I were born a year later than them. Each girl has received a surprise gift from the crew, and Nikita's birthday was no exception. I had to hear about how much she wants an iPad2 for almost over a year, so what better present to give her. With the help of Blackpandjat, Renaldo, Darryn and her Mom we were able to make her wish come true. I put the iPad into a kettle box and wrapped it just so that should wouldn't guess what we got her when we handed the gift to her. 

The girls from Blackpandjat wanted to give her something extra as well, so we came up with an idea to create a fairy-tale book for her. Everyone wrote a little story to her, decorating their own page, and giving their own title, we also added in a glossary page filled with words that can only be understood by the girls in the group. We decided to try and make it look like an authentic fairy-tale book. The name of the book is The Adventures of Miss Da Silva.

With my pages I tried to keep it old looking so I decided to hand write and sketch pictures instead of using the computer. I must say it felt amazing to draw again, not that I am any good at it. The name of my story is The Fox And The Hound, there is no better title to describe our friendship.

We gave her the gifts at her party which was held on Saturday, she started crying after she saw it and that was truly the icing on the cake, no better reaction than that. 

I was also lucky enough to be asked to design her invite for her 21st, It had to be elegant and young at the same time, the colour theme was purple white and silver, this is what I came up with:

I could ramble on about how truly special Nikita is but I already did a speech for her at her birthday. Instead I will give you some fun facts about her:

• She's the Man: not only is it her favorite movie but she literally acts like a man sometimes, she throws a mean punch
• She brushes her teeth in the shower
• Her favorite food is her moms veggie soup and Greens ceasar salad and she hates any cooked fruit
• She laughs at anything, which is awesome because I always feel like a comedian when I talk to her
• She wears a size 7 shoe which is terrible because I can't borrow any of her awesome heels
• She is still a kid that acts like a retard in public, watches Disney Channel non stop and has every single Justin Bieber song.
• She always shotguns the front seat of the car before anyone else can
• If a Beetle drives past be wary that "Punch Bukkie Blue" will follow shortly with one huge pounding to the arm or leg 
• She is Kourtney Kardashian's doppelganger
• Her favourite colour is black 
• Her favourite singer use to be Britney Spears but now she loves Eminem more than any other
• She would choose savory over sweet any day.
• She never reads your bbm's
• She would literally sleep the entire day if she could
• Her best sleeps are when she drools and she makes a funny squeeling sound when she does a stretch after she wakes up.
• Her mom is her life
• Hubbly is her favourite pass time
• She was mean't to be my sister

Always keep your family close because in the end they are the reason for living. Love you Keeta!