Being busy

Our last week has been busy. There was much to create, prepare, cook, bake and clean. And as always (I sometimes have the feeling that it only happens in our family) there was a big chaos just before "the day". We celebrate our birthdays always with friends and family. In general it is a big party with a theme that starts in the afternoon with cake, later we have an evening dinner together,  more desserts and often it goes until late at night. My birthday theme this year was "Venetian Masquerade" and we decided to have an evening celebration. My mind was busy months before putting things together, imagining, hoping and living in the 1750s somewhere in Venice. And like always I am carried away by 1001 ideas and not having enough time to put them into reality. But all in all we had a wonderful evening, with fun guests, who crated, sewed ball gowns and made masks. I feel honored by all of them, taking time to create for a one-evening event. What a delightful present!

My mask of the evening:

We also had venetian food. I used a lot of recipes out of Tessa Kiros cookbook "Venecia - food and dreams". A lovely collection of recipes with photographs and some insights to Tessa's travel through Venice out of her journal.