Moonpig Lockdown Virtual Blogger Event

This week I did something totally different, I broke the lockdown daily grind and glammed up for my first ever Virtual Blogger event! I joined the Moonpig team and a bunch of lovely bloggers for an evening of chat, cocktail making and flower arranging, and it couldn’t have been lovelier. Although I’d chatted to a few of the bloggers online I’d never met anyone in person so a Zoom call with 30 new people felt totally out of my comfort zone (especially with how anti-social lockdown is!) and at first I felt a bit apprehensive but I’m glad I pushed myself. I didn’t realise how much I needed to do something different – having a change of scenery and some adult chat did me so much good!

Our evening started with a chat about the Moonpig App. We downloaded the app onto our phones and had an expert card making lesson from one of the Moonpig team. I previously had used Moonpig, but never on the app so I learned how easy card making can be at the touch of a button on your phone! I also loved the selection of COVID19 cards they’ve brought out, which are a great way to let someone special know you are thinking of them during these times. We learned a bit about the gifts you can send with your card and all about perfecting your designs too. Did you know you can view your card to scale in virtual 3D within your room to check it before you send? So clever!

Next up was the cocktail making class. Now, I’ve got to admit at this point the timings clashed with the girls’ bedtime, so I was running between the Moonpig event and the children – who decided on this occasion they would resist going to bed and scream the house down. Of course, they did on the one night I had plans! I think the sight of Mummy getting into a snazzy dress with a full face of make-up on at 6 pm threw their routine as they’d usually see me in my PJ’s at this time so they were wondering what was going on.

The cocktail making class was run by James from Mix and Twist, who led us through making 3 different gin cocktails – The Gin Garden, Elderflower Collins and a Strawberry Gimlet. We had all the ingredients for making our cocktails posted to us ahead of the event, so all we needed to do was follow along and create our cocktails. It was so much fun to watch everyone following the steps in their little windows following along too. Although we weren’t together I still loved the sense of communal spirit as we all joined in with a few cocktail making competitions too.

I was loving the class – I learned so much about cocktail making, from how to use a Mexican Elbow to how to balance flavours, James was so knowledgeable! I made an awesome Gin Garden cocktail which tasted as good as you’d get in a bar – that’s my new party trick of the summer (if I go to any parties!!)

Annoyingly, the girls kicked off during the session so I dashed off and didn’t manage to follow the second two cocktail lessons, but I’ll be watching the session on repeat to ensure I learn the other recipes as they looked so delicious!

After a short break to pop out for the 8pm Clap for Carers, we headed back to the event for a flower arranging lesson. By this point, the girls had conked out and I was finally able to concentrate! We were joined by Roxanne from Moonpig, who is a flower arranging expert and took us through all the steps to creating the perfect bouquet.

We received the Moonpig Luxury Rose & Peony bouquet, which are just stunning. I have to say I’ve got no idea about flower arranging (despite having a lesson before!) – all I usually do is trim the stems and pop them in a vase of water, job done! It turns out there is so much more you can do.

Roxanne shared all the tips with us from how to cut the stems diagonally (to increase water intake) and how you can feed flowers sugar if you have no flower food – who knew!

We then arranged our bouquets together, taking each kind of flower and separating them into different types, then adding them into the vase in a spiral method. We learned about creating focal flowers and adding foliage around the sides. Lots to think of next time I receive a bouquet of flowers.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Moonpig Virtual Event, it really brightened up my day and although the girls weren’t perfect, it felt so lovely to do something slightly sociable and slap some lippy on for a change! A big thank you to the Moonpig team, Mix and Twist and Roxanne for putting on such a wonderful event!

Post contains cocktail making kit & flowers kindly gifted from Moonpig for the event