Halloween Appetizers

We served these 'Stomach Turning Appetizers' at spooky dinner  last year.  Not only are they spooky, but they taste great too!

Stomach Turning Appetizers:

-DEVILED Eggs -Deviled eggs with an olive on top to make them look like eyeballs

-Giant Lice with Blood Sauce-Cocktail shrimp with cocktail sauce

-Witch Finger Bites -Not pictured, but a frozen Trader Joe's Pesto flatbread cut into long strips to create the 'witch fingers'

Presentation can also help make ordinary foods into great Halloween apps. Drape Halloween cloth over a serving stand, put plastic spiders on the serving tray, or serve next to candle light with the lights turned off.

Minnesota Themed Beer Tasting

We had so much fun at last year's beer tasting that we decided to make it an annual event! Since our family was visiting for the Minnesota State Fair, we decided to make the tasting MN themed featuring classic and new MN based beers!

I found some vintage Hamm's coasters at a local antique shop that I put by everyone's place for their tasting glass. 

A growler with some flowers from the landscaping made the perfect centerpiece.

I listed all of the beer and food on a document in Powerpoint and printed a couple of copies for the table. In addition to MN beers, we had cheeses from Minnesota, a sampling of sausages, and a variety of mini bundt cakes.

 

The line-up of all the beers we tasted.

Cheers! Time to start working on next year's tasting theme.

Classy Teacher Retirement Party

Last year my mom retired after teaching elementary for 37 years.  For her retirement party, I wanted to keep it school themed but also wanted it to be bright, colorful, modern, and classy.  Here are a few pictures of the party details!

Welcome to the Party

-I ordered a photo blanket from collage.com with photos of all of my Mom's classes.  It hung for decoration at the party and my mom got to keep it afterwards

-In powerpoint I created a poster using all of the class photos, in order, and typed text over the top. I had it printed in color at Staples for around $20

-We used the book 'The Giving Tree' as a guest book.  Red pens were set out so the ink would be consistent and stand out on the pages.  Instructions to sign the book were printed in chalkboard font and displayed in a frame.

-Instead of a card 'box', I set out a book bag for cards to keep with the school theme.  I chose a plain white bag from Michaels and used my cricut to make the CARDS banner that hung from zipper to zipper

-Flowers displayed in pencil vase and votives in crayon votive holder

-Digital photo frame flashed pictures of all the classes she taught over the years

-A printed photo of her first class was displayed in a frame, labeled using chalkboard font.

Have Something to Eat

-A simple and classy menu for summer: Chicken Salad Croissants, Strawberry Spinach Salad, Lemon Orzo Pasta Salad, and Fruit

-I used Crayola paint samples from Menards to create the food labels and printed the text using crayon font in a coordinating colors

-Chalkboard ABC ribbon tied around jars to hold silverware

-A single large vase of Green Apples popped against my purple tablecloth, and was a fun way to incorporate 'teachers apples'.

Don't Forget Dessert

-The dessert table banner read 'Retirement is Sweet' and was made using a cricut and gluing letters to ribbon

-To create the cupcake toppers, I used an alphabet mold from Michael's to create different colored candy letters using Wilton candy melts in bright colors.  It was time consuming since I only had one mold but easy to do in advance. I spelled 'Congrats Kathy' in cupcakes and displayed on a stand in the center of the dessert table

-I made school bus wrappers for Hershey's Nuggets by designing in powerpoint and printing on yellow paper

-Alphabet cookies from Trader Joe's fit the theme and were great for young guests

And of Course--Wine!

-We set-up a wine station on my Mom's center island so guests would feel welcome to help themselves

-Insulated beverage tubs are great for displaying white whites while keeping them cold, and look stunning for a party

-I have boxes of Libbey wine glasses just for parties. They come in packs of 12 and are easy to store in boxes and transport. I set them out on stacked trays so a lot of glasses can be set out at once without taking too  much room

-Farmers market flowers in pencil vases tied in the teacher theme and added color to the wine station.  

'Beer & Meat' 30th Birthday Picnic Pig Roast

For my husband's 30th birthday we hosted a 'Beer and Meat' themed pig roast party to celebrate! The guys roasted a pig in he backyard which was the star of the show, but here are some of the details I included:

Centerpieces: Fresh cut flowers in mason jars with a red & white check ribbon

Serve ware: Divided plates worked well for baked bean and mac & cheese sides, glass jars held silverware, pig napkin holder & red napkins. 

Favors: Custom coozies I designed and ordered using the Pabst Blue Ribbon logo and changing it to say 'Chris' 30th Birthday'.  I placed them in a galvanized tub lined with a red cloth napkin to match the theme.

Wine: I went for labels when choosing wine as an alternative to the beer we were offering. The 'Pig' labeled wine included  La Granja Tempranillo from Trader Joe's ($3.99) and a Foodies Merlot from World Market ($7.99).  We had whites too, but sadly none with pig labels.

Dessert: A help-yourself Root Beer Float station. Before the party I scooped ice cream into red solo cups and placed in our deep freezer in the garage. guests could grab a cup and fill with root beer and a red and white paper straw. I framed a sign telling guests to help themselves.  I also set out tootise pops in a jar with a sign that said '30 Sucks' for the kids.

Seating: I love using high-top tables at parties so guest can easily eat without all the mess of tables and chairs.  I rented three for about $10 a piece.  Top with a 120" round tablecloth and tie off around the base for a professional look.  I also bought these fun picnic tables from Crate and Barrel and set them on red and white striped picnic blankets for additional seating.

Invites: To save on printing I designed the invite in black and white and printed on brown card stock for a rustic look. I found fitting images that I liked on Google images. A piece of red and white bakers twine adds some color and fit the theme.

Santa Breakfast

When we hosted Christmas last year, everyone slept over so we had a Santa Breakfast before opening gifts! Here are the details:

Muffin Centerpiece with Santa muffin toppers

White linens with red chargers and napkins wrapped in 'Santa's Belt' paper napkin rings

Paper place cards with Santa's Hat stickers

Santa Pancakes (Instructions are here)

The entire gang with their Santa Pancakes. Each Pancake had its own personality so it was fun to see them all together!!

Spooky Dinner

Tonight we hosted our first annual Spooky Dinner which was a blast!  We chose the night before Halloween so everyone could make it and still be home to see their trick-or-treaters.  Instead of a costume party, we thought a dinner party would be fun and asked guests to wear something black.

The theme for the table was spiders and skulls, which looked great with candlelight.  I took these photos with the lights on just to show the details!

I chose burnt orange napkins from World Market because 1.) I could use them for Thanksgiving 2.) I thought white would stain 3.) I thought black would fade in the wash.

The crystal goblets are from Goodwill for $0.99 each. I thought they had a 'haunted mansion' feel.  The black plates are also from Goodwill and were $0.99 each.  I needed round plates so I could use silver chargers to hold the creepy plastic spiders!  

I used plastic skulls to create place card holders and printed everyone's names using the font 'Cracked'.

The decor included skeletons hiding throughout the house, a DVD of spooky scenes and sounds, and lots of ripped netting and spider webs!

The menu consisted of regular food that we could easily make more spooky with some changes in color and a spooky name:

I found these halloween tortilla chips at Aldi and 'Skeleton Bones' at World Market that made planning the appetizers easy!

Just some of the spooky things we ate for dinner:


Here is the dining table with lights off--Spooky!

Happy Halloween!!

Flea Market Centerpiece

It's been hard to find a substantial centerpiece for our dining room table, since it's almost seven feet long!  Our dining room chandelier has cylinder lights similar to pillar candles, so I try to stay away from centerpieces with candles.

I found this at a flea market with my friend Amy. I thought it would make a cool centerpiece.

I think it's a drawer?!?  It had this cool writing on one end.....

........and these cool numbers stamped on the side.

I found all of the other supplies at Michael's.  Fake plants, moss, floral foam bricks, and a hot glue gun.

Rather than glue the foam down, I just set it in the drawer incase I ever wanted to get it out and use the drawer for something else (a vertical hanging shelf, an outdoor planter, a holder for party favors, program holder at a vintage wedding.........I have lots of ideas!)

Here's a close up of the moss I bought.  I love the bright pink next to the lime green.

I glued the moss to the bricks to hide any gaps between the bricks and the edge of the drawer.

 

After all of the gaps had been filled in and the bricks were fairly well covered, I just stuck the fake plants into the foam bricks.

I used about six different types of fake plants, going for a variety of texture.

Here it is all done! Makes for a great summer centerpiece!

Black, White, & Yellow Damask Dinner Party

Last year for my Mom's birthday, we threw a Black, White, & Yellow Damask Dinner Party for my family to celebrate.

The black table runner is one of my Halloween table runners flipped up-side down on a yellow tablecloth that I had.   12"x12" damask scrapbook paper set sideways to look like diamonds easily and inexpensively ties the damask theme into the runner.

I found damask paper plates and napkins at the party store. I used more of the scrapbook paper to create the menu cards/place markers, as well as the trim around the cake stand.

I couldn't find any cute candles to match, so I cut numbers out of scrapbook paper and glued them to long black candles to create custom birthday candles.

Bird Themed Easter Dinner

Last year we hosted Easter for a small group. Since I didn't have any Easter decorations, I decided to plan the decor around a set of bird and leaf plates that we had, keeping it simple but still a special occasion.

I wanted to make some unique nest chargers to jazz-up my plates.  To make the charges, I started with a random assortment of red, green, and gold chargers from goodwill, painted them brown, and adhered some brown grass I bought at Michael's using Aleene's Tacky glue.

 Here is a close-up of the grass:

 And the finished product! See the bird?

 Here he is........

 Believe it or not I didn't have napkins or napkin rings!!! I bought these khaki colored napkins at Target, along with these napkin rings that reminded me of a bird nest.  Both also go well with our white square everyday plates.

For place cards, I found a bird silhouette graphic on the web, pasted it into word and typed every one's names. After printing and cutting, I glued a toothpick to the back to hold it up later, then glued the name tag to a heavier piece of card stock and added the gem for fun!

 I found these great mini-nests and eggs at Michael's to hold the name cards.  I glued the eggs so they'd stay in place, and also glued the toothpick into the twigs of the nest so it would stand up.

 

I borrowed this wrought iron bird candle holder from my mom for a centerpiece--it was perfect!