A Southern Shower with Jamaican Spice

04/26/2010 • Baby Showers, Party Inspiration • by

As promised, here are snapshots from the baby shower I co-hosted for my little sister.  The color scheme was lavendar, canary and chartreuse.  As pictured above, there was a reception table for our guests to stop by and sign the framed photo register.

I made a cute little diaper cake to adorn the table and surrounded it with children’s books, a wooden rattle and a sweet pair of sandals for baby Lauryn.  The brown bag favors contained salt water taffy and assorted pieces of chocolate candy. 

On each of the guest tables was an assortment of hydrangeas, children’s books, dolls, infant dresses, and gift bags used to anchor canary helium ballons.  My favorite centerpiece was the hot air ballon which highlighted our dessert table.  The balloon basket held a happy little teddy bear {I think he loved being surrounded by those cupcakes}.

The menu consisted of spicy Jamaican favorites like really spicy jerk wings, cocktail chicken patties & cocktail beef patties.  There were also milder offerings including assorted fruits & veggies, chicken salad on croissants, tuna tea sandwiches, and tortilla roll-ups. 

Our dessert selection included strawberry and yellow cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream frosting, brownie trifles, brownie squares, buttermilk pie and pistachio baklava.

Finally, there were personalized bottles of water, sparkling fruit punch and our signature drink, Lauryn’s Lemonade.  This drink contains equal parts of lemonade and sweetened tea which is officially known as an Arnold Palmer.  We renamed it for the shower in honor of my niece’s pending arrival.  I can hardly wait to meet her!

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Inspiration Resources:

Brown Bag Favor Tags:  Flights of Fancy

Dressy Centerpieces:  CelebratewithStyle.com

Party Veggies

04/22/2010 • Party Food, Vegetables • by

Last Saturday I co-hosted a baby shower for my little sister.  In preparing the menu, I thought it would be nice to include some healthy but tasty veggies.  I found these vibrant little gems while searching the Sam’s Club website and, based on the reviews, I didn’t see any reason not to try them.

They’re Wilson’s Mini Sweet Peppers and I think they’re absolutely delicious!  I used them on a veggie tray and julienned a few in order to create some veggie shots.

I also used these seedless cucumbers which were perfect.  They had a really nice refreshing bite to them.

The veggie tray/shots also included carrots, broccoli, celery, sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes.

These are Tomato-Basil Caprese Skewers.  To make them, I threaded cherry tomatoes, cubes of fresh mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil pieces onto bamboo skewers.  After arranging them on the platter, I poured Kraft Light House Italian Dressing over the skewers.

Party Veggies are nice for baby showers, birthday parties and many other social occasions.  Happy Celebrating!!

40th Birthday Card Party

02/25/2010 • Birthday Celebrations, Party Inspiration • by

Card Party

Oversized Playing Cards

Steeler Fan recently celebrated his 40th birthday.  A couple weeks ago I offered to throw him a party but he declined. Five days before the big day he decided that he did, in fact, want to have a party.

With so little time to prepare, I decided to make it fun and playful. He agreed to having a Card Party themed celebration. Here are the few snapshots I managed to take before our guests arrived. 

The DECORATIONS were few but very effective.

I found the oversized playing cards and black balloons at Party City. They really seemed to set the tone for the evening.

Since ladies were going to be in attendance, I added a few floral touches.

GAMES were plentiful as were the guests.

  

Of course there was Poker which was very popular.  We also had a table set up for Spades players.

 For the non-card playing guests, we had Dominoes and…

my favorite, Scrabble!!

The FOOD was pretty good too…

 

 Deciding what to serve was a challenge for me.  I wanted to make it nice without forgetting that this was a masculine party.  These are the snacks we served.

Margarita Shot-Glass Shrimp and

Crispy Shrimp Tarts from the June 2007 issue of Pillsbury Summer Appetizers.

Subway sandwich slices.  Also on the menu were Tequila Lime Chicken Wings, Buffalo Chicken Wings, Empanadas, Meatballs, Spinach and Artichoke Dip & Nacho Cheese Dip with Tortilla Chips.

There were Apple Slices with caramel dip,

Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

 To wash it down….bottled water decorated with scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby, fruit punch, sodas and

cocktails from our specialty beverage station.

Steeler Fan and his guests had a great time at the Card Party.  Thanks for stopping by!

Chartreuse, Brown and Pink Paisley Baby Shower

12/28/2009 • Baby Showers, Party Inspiration • by

I recently hosted a baby shower for a family member.  Since the mom-to-be is expecting a girl, I wanted to do something “pinkish” without going totally pastel.  So, I ventured into Hobby Lobby, which is one of my favorite crafting stores, and spent some time on the scrapbook paper aisle. The papers chosen were a heavy brown card stock, pink vellum and pink paisley scrapbook paper.

When I started working on the layout of the invitation I added a header, which was printed on off-white sketchbook paper and incorporated a touch of chartreuse to balance it.  After patiently trimming a couple dozen of these by hand, I added pink and lime green swarovski crystals.  The result was a nice pink and brown invitation with lively splashes of color.

 The baby shower favors were inspired by the paper bag favor labels found at Flights of Fancy. I found brown bags on sale ($1 for 50 bags) then printed the labels on sketchbook paper. The labels were trimmed and attached to candy filled bags with double sided tape.

 A small glass frame held a thank you message and invited guests to take one home.

 As shower attendees arrived they were invited to sign a guest book which we placed on a mobile cart adorned with children’s books, a cute pair of baby socks, plastic pink pacifiers and a 3-tier diaper cake.

 

Refreshments

Guests enjoyed brie topped with honey, almonds and dried cranberries along with fresh fruit and personalized bottled water as they arrived.

A cute little baby carriage held napkin wrapped forks and knifes. 

Later, heavier refreshments were served which included beef and turkey burger sliders, lemon pepper wings, smoked ribs, pasta salad and waldorf salad. On the sweeter side, there were chocolate chip cookies, brownie bites and strawberry cupcakes.

Although I wish I had taken more pictures, I hope you enjoyed the ones that were.