Spring Tablescape

I started work on a table scape for the Maddycake Muse Easter Tablescape contest - didn't have time to complete it as I would have liked, but decided to post what I did finish.

I went with a spring theme with a focus on things that mean spring to me - warmer weather when you can play outside again, sidewalk chalk, jump rope, bubbles, flowers and of course Easter eggs!

For the table cloth, I used a plain white cloth and painted spring shapes with blackboard paint. For the mock-up, I doodled on the shapes with sidewalk chalk, but for a party it would be fun to leave black and then allow young guests to decorate their "placemat" when they arrived.

Each place gets a fun straw cup, a divided plate ready for tasty treats, a pinwheel, springy head gear and favor bag.

Each favor bag was full of things to play with in the warmer spring weather - jumprope, sidewalk walk and a lollipop.

The table is decorated with decorative pails, bunny mascot, eggs, more chalk for doodling, flowers and spring toys.

With more time, I'd add more to the table, height to the buckets and a fun garland of felt butterflies and pendants. Maybe I'll get to it this week ... Despite the snowy forecast, Happy spring! Hopefully the weather will soon match the indoor decorations!

Mardi Gras Dinner Party

Despite a day's delay because of snow, we had a wonderful dinner party to celebrate Mardi Gras! The color scheme was purple, green and gold with lots of masks, beads and harlequin diamonds. We enjoyed a variety of Lousiana favorites including dirty rice, hush puppies, gumbo and King's cake.

Valentine's Bash

A friend and I hosted a Valentine's Bash for our single friends. We played a few games of Laser Tag and then returned to my place for Chocolate Fondue. It was a fun celebration! I decorated with lots of pink, red and of course hearts. The table cloth is actually a shower curtain from the Target Valentine's collection. I think that their fabric shower curtains make great table cloths as the material is nice and the designs often larger than the small prints on their holiday table clothes. Invitations is from Tiny Prints, http://www.tinyprints.com/.

Mardi Gras Dinner Party invites

Mardi Gras is this Tuesday and I'm excited to be celebrating the evening with a dinner party for some close friends. I sent invitations with a taste of the colors and icons of the festival. I wanted to include masks but was worried about them getting crushed in the mail - searching the shelves at Staples, I found the perfect thing ... video cassette mailing boxes. They are the perfect height for the mask and a nice size for an invitation. Each box included a card with party details and mask attached, a strand of mardi gras beads and a few themed tatoos.

Valentine's Day "BASH"

I was inspired by this great Valentine's Day invite at Tiny Prints to throw a Anti-Valentine's Party for us single girls who have to suffer through months of red roses, hearts and gushyness everywhere we go :o)! We're going to celebrate, with what else, but laser tag and then chocolate - the perfect antidote to Valentine's hype.

Left collage of lollipops from http://www.creativehostess.co.uk/, invitation from http://www.tinyprints.com/, candy favors from http://www.marthastewart.com/, chocolate fondue from http://www.celebratewithstyle.com/

Featured on ...

Check it out, Sara Hicks the author of the Party Perfect blog was kind enough to feature a link to my post on the Oscar's Party I hosted last year. Thank you! Party Perfect always has the most inspiring selection of parties and is a daily read for me.

Friday Fun!

Starting a few months ago, we have been celebrating Fridays at my office with a special treat! It's something different every week - hot chocolate, root beer floats, cupcakes. Today it was Chocolate Covered Strawberry S'Mores! There were delicious - the perfect mix of chocolate, strawberry and gooiness - not too mention that sweet pale pink color! The secret ingredient of these s'mores is Strawberry flavored marshmallows that I found at Target. The possibilities are endless ...

Monster Bash Favors

Sorting out photographs from my other Halloween party, a children's Monster Bash. Most have children in them which I'm hestiant to post. Will post some of food soon. These were the favors for each guest - most items came from Oriental Trading or Target. I love the glasses with the noses and furry eye brows!

Planning my next celebration ...

I'm working on invitations for my next party - stayed tune for a Mardi Gras dinner on February 16th!

Very belated posting of Halloween celebrations

As I posted about earlier, I celebrated Halloween with two very different celebrations. The first was a very elegant affair for friends nicknamed, Dracula's Ball. It was a multicourse dinner party at my place with guests of the vampire, dracula and even Twilight fan variety!

Invitation at left ordered from http://www.tinyprints.com/.

From the top left: party guests in costume, a vampire serves pumpkin soup in a very appropriate vessel, the drinks station include pina ghoulade and vampire kiss martinis, a close up of the soup appetizer

Decorations and festive napkins awaited all who dared enter!

From top left: close up of place setting, the table awaiting the feast, place card that doubles a favor, cupcake for dessert

The buffet and one of favorite details: black candelier decals on the wall!

Cupcakes

Fun Wilton cupcake accessories for the party!

Finds for Monster Bash table

IMG_7528, originally uploaded by moggiegreen.

I've found some great Monster items at Target - shown here paper plates, stickers and food containers.

Favors for Monster Bash

Favor Collage, originally uploaded by moggiegreen.

I ordered items today for the favors for the Monster Bash party from Oriental Trading. First up, Monster Treat Cups which the guest will be able to assemble themselves. I'm going to put all the parts in different jars and containers and label them (ex. Monster Eyes etc). The "treats" will be packaged in clear bags and can them be slipped into the completed monster cups at the party. For the favors, I stuck with the monster themed items and order lollipops, lizard lips and hilarious monsters glasses with noses and furry eyebrows! I'll probably add a few pencils, glow sticks and some more candy to the bags and them add a paper topper with each guest's names.