Just Make Stuff

Fabric jar centerpieces...

One of the half dozen gatherings we hosted a couple of weeks ago was a fall dinner. It was planned with my mom's best friend's daughter in the height of summer, when we were dreaming of all things fall. Our menu included a cheese plate with cranberry sauce and honey, apple cider marinated grilled chicken with an apple and sausage hash on a bed of cheesy orzo, cheesy beer bread, homemade apple sauce, apple bread with cream cheese frosting and fresh fried apple fritters with peanut putter caramel sauce. 

This definitely needs to become a tradition. 

And we couldn't have a fall dinner without a little table decorating, so I grabbed a few jars, tore some strips of fabric and got out the scary glue gun. I knotted together the strips of fabric and wrapped the jars using a little glue to hold it in place where it needed it. Add a few washi tape tea lights and you've got yourself a party.

The Friendsgiving Table...

This was our eighth year celebrating an early Thanksgiving with one of our groups of friends...we have hosted Friendsgiving in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Again this year we looked forward to having our dining room table full of friends. Since it's potluck we only had to make a turkey and a couple other easy dishes...that left plenty of time to come up with a color scheme and to craft up some napkin rings. 

For the napkin rings I sliced little strips of fabric and cut them into uneven pieces that I sewed together with a very cooked, messy zig-zag stitch. I then took the long piece of sewn scraps, wrapped them a few times and knotted it around the bundle of silverware. It was fun to have so many colors and patterns involved.

We also have a tradition of making a new playlist each year and then a CD of it gets sent home with each family. 

Here is both a Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving version of the CD covers in case you want to put together some music to share for your celebrations this month...

Download Friendsgiving CD Cover  Download Thanksgiving CD Cover

Can't believe Thanksgiving is in just about two weeks...it's my very favorite holiday of the year so I am looking forward to it so much!

The half dozen...

As of this evening we have finished hosting six parties in nine days. Sean and I just counted it all up. We had eighty people in the house...including twenty-five teenagers and fourteen kids. We cooked up twenty-two different dishes. We went to the grocery store five times. I ran to the florist around the corner to purchase a few stems of flowers three different times. We cooked a twenty-four pound turkey. I wrapped tea lights in washi tape in four different color combinations. We did too many dishes to count and we had an awesome time.

Randomness...

1. Today I took out a bottle of gesso for the first time since 2008. It was a rock solid. 

2. I love sending Mac e-mails when I've found something that I think he'll like...today it was these hamburger cupcakes.

3. Last year we ended up hosting five get togethers in eight days. This year somehow, someway it's going to be six different dinners or parties between October 25th and November 4th. At least there aren't three different events in one day again.

4. One of the first parties is Mac's annual pumpkin carving get-together with his friends. Invitations went out today...

5. If you were to crack open my soul inside you would find Simon and Garfunkle's greatest hits album...therefore I am completely in love with this cover of The Boxer by Mumford and Sons.

Last Wednesday...

We celebrated Sean at a concert in the park on his birthday eve. As always, it was filled with his favorite green and yellow, chicken curry sandwiches on croissants, and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

After hosting bridal and baby showers earlier in the year, I figured out that this little scallop circle punch and this star punch make cute little cupcake toppers. Tape a toothpick to the back of one and then sandwich the toothpick in between two circles with a little piece of foam tape holding them together. 

Best party ever...

Considering we have practically hosted a three ring circus for almost all of Mac's birthdays, a simple dinner at home with family and friends seemed a little strange. But that's what you get when you are supposed to leave for cheer camp at 6:45am the next day and will be on a plane to New York next weekend to continue celebrating your sweet sixteen.

Tonight's dinner celebration had hamburgers and french fries, a little attempt at chalkboard art, a balloon idea found on Pinterest, little s'more pudding cups, and a banner (thanks to finding it in the party supply aisle at Target) that ironically proved that this was the best party ever...

A colorful blur...

Sean and I are pretty sure that this was the biggest party we have ever hosted...we were incredibly fortunate to have so many of our friends and family celebrate Mac's graduation (and a little bit of mine too).

Just as I had hoped there were colors everywhere, but with all the party prep craziness I didn't get a chance to get too many photos of the details...

There were messy fabric banners everywhere, including our backyard with its mismatched chairs and tables borrowed from family and neighbors.

Buckets of rocks and little banners on skewers made up the centerpieces (or in this case a weight to keep napkins in place). And there had to be too many colorful straws for party guests to stick in their drinks.

My mom found this snack mix recipe for us to make as party favors. We quickly learned that Fritos drizzled with a caramel mixture are pretty amazing. The party invitiation turned into little tags for the favor bags.

The school photos of Mac over the years were clothespinned to some fabric strips tied together to decorate the mantle.

And, just as we planned for, the front and back yards were filled with games. 

This was a celebration that was thought about for years. To look around at our family and friends laughing as they ate together and played games was the very best version of this dream coming true. 

And off they went...

These invitations have hopefully arrived to the friends and family we invited to celebrate with us... 

The invitation was inspired by this design which has been waiting on my Pinterest graduation party board for awhile now. Our "theme" is all kinds of colors since Mac and I love all things colorful.

After seeing this party idea last fall we decided that instead of just feeding everyone we would also have lots of games ready and waiting for people to wander around to. We have a few D.I.Y. game ideas saved up including a pipe ball lawn game, cornhole, and painting our own twister board. We also have bocce ball, badminton and ladder golf sets ready to use. We've hired a guy who puts together an amazing taco bar and are planning on ice cream sundaes for dessert. I have a stack of fabric waiting to be made into decorations and just have to figure out a little party favor for everyone.

As much as I have always loved hosting parties, I don't think I have looked forward to having a celebration as much as I am with this one.

Lots 'O Green...

The party Friday night was actually a sleepover for fifteen girls. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I host it every semester for the new members of the sorority I joined way back when I attended the University of Redlands. Other alumni come by to meet them, tell lots of stories, I always make the same snacks, and they end the night happily crafting up some picture frames.

Then Saturday night was "Happy St. Peggy's Day". My sister's birthday party on the Irish eve of her birthday. The dining room was decked out in shamrocks...

We made beef stew, buttermilk dill bread, and mint chocolate sundaes with my mom's homemade fudge sauce.

We also crafted up some Irish bead bracelets, made shamrock wands with pipe-cleaners and felt shamrock stickers, and had a leprechaun scavenger hunt that I discovered here.

Then we tore into my sister's gifts. I'll share what I made her tomorrow...

Thank you note gifts...

I decided to craft up a gift to help the bride and mom-to-be with a little post-shower thank you note writing...

I included stamps, address labels and matching envelope seals...and then I had way the heck too much fun wrapping them up. 

Thanks for going along with me through all this party crafting this week. The countdown is on until the next big party around here. T-minus 108 days and counting...

Little shower details...

Just a few more little bits of shower fun today...

Thank goodness for crafty punches and toothpicks to make up little cupcake toppers.

Ever since my brother made me vanilla sugar for Christmas I have been obsessed with mixing it into hot tea. I decided to attempt my own 10 pounds of vanilla sugar making. I got a dozen vanilla beans, scrapped them into the sugar and let it sit for a couple of weeks. It went into little jars with a tag.

For both showers I served iced tea with flavored syrups. I couldn't resist striped straws for the baby shower.

The menu for the baby shower included heaps of tea sandwiches. Some of the recipes can be found here.

For the bridal shower I used my mom's recipes for a chicken strawberry salad that I need to share soon.

And napkin bundles have to be cute too. 

Tomorrow's the last day of shower overload...I'll be sharing the gifts I gave to the bride and mom-to-be. 

 

Shower Decorations...

The bridal shower was a little tricky since I was hosting it over an hour away at a my friend's home. I had only been there once before, but she took some measurements for me and we brainstormed a couple possibilities. She has a great open floor plan (and a huge kitchen that I am very jealous of) so I kept the focus over the peninsula counter where I served food. 

Sean actually put together the various flowers for me. I got the idea from Mac's snowflakes back in December. 

Now the baby shower was an entirely different situation. Having it here at home and especially having an amazing partner in crafty crime, as I ended up co-hosting with one of the mom-to-be's friend's from college, helped to create a ton of fun details. 

My shower co-host suggested a "I love you to the moon and back" theme for the baby shower. Since it has always been deeply symbolic to Sean and I was so happily flabbergasted by her suggestion. I picked some colors and we were on our way...

My co-host made the super cute welcome sign and printed the designs to make the pinwheels...I was so lucky to have her crafting stuff up too. 

I found fabric that matched the colors pretty darn well and Sean got to work cranking out fabric banners. I also couldn't resist announcing Declan's name on our mantle.

My co-host yet again with this banner we hung in the entryway.

Extra fabric ended up as a couple of wonky table runners. Painted stars ended up on the tree and the dining room and the flowers were in button jars.

The cabinet behind the couch held the shower favors (more on that tomorrow), baby pictures of the mom and dad-to-be and the packaged prizes.

For the table we covered cardboard with fabric to make matching serving pieces (just like we did with Mac's neon party this past summer). Over the table were strings of punched stars sewn together.

Finally the big chalkboard in our entryway ended up as a place to record everyone's guesses for Declan's birthday. He's actually due on my birthday so he just has to be born then, right?

Shower games...

Thank goodness for Pinterest because I scoured it for games. I ended up using two of them at both of the showers and they seemed to go over really well.

First I found Pass the Present (scroll down to find it). It involves distributing gifts as everyone gathers in a circle. A story is read and every time "right" and "left" is mentioned in the story the present is passed accordingly. For the bridal shower I read the story found on the website, but for the baby shower my mom wrote a personalized story that included what traits the new baby may inherit from every grandparent and great-grandparent. The prizes were mugs filled with packets of hot chocolate.

That's what the tissue paper flowers I shared a few weeks ago were for

For the baby shower I attempted yarn pom poms.

The other game played at both showers was "He Said, She Said" (found on the Orange Beautiful blog). The premise was to guess which trait belonged to the bride and groom or mom and dad-to-be. To make it a little trickier some traits belonged to both of them so the players had to circle both initials. It was so fun to put this together and have the guests wondering whose favorite candy was purple skittles or who was born closer to their due date. Another super cute version of this game can be found on Craftaholics Anonymous. 

And because I have two friends who love a cute detail as much as I do, the pencils had matching ribbon tied to them for each shower...

For the third game at the bridal shower we played Bridal gift bingo. Not a new shower game...every guest fills in the squares with guesses of what gifts the bride might receive and you play bingo from there. Here's a PDF of what I put together... Download Bridal Shower Bingo

For the baby shower I brainstormed (with lots of help from the new-grandma-to-be) a random game after reading up on numerous possibilities...

It involved a balloon, a size two diaper and sharpie markers...so I guess I'm going to call it the balloon baby game. The game was designed with two rounds. In the first round the guests had to blow up the balloon, get the diaper on it and the first five people to have the balloon held up without the diaper falling off moved onto round two. Round two involved the five finalists secretly having a couple of minutes to draw their best baby face on the balloon. They were carried into the mom-to-be and her grandmother for a blind judging to pick the best. I was holding my breath hoping it would work and thankfully it seemed to...

And here are the game prizes...

A couple of cute dish towels wrapped up for the baby shower and a stack of chocolate bars for the bridal shower. 

Hopefully if you're throwing a shower sometime soon these game ideas may help out...I know I'll be keeping them for the next time I host a bridal or new baby celebration.

That's a wrap...

Thankfully the bridal shower was a success. I will share a detail or two this week, but I'll be staying quiet for the most part so I can transfer some of the ideas. There's a chance that the friend whose baby shower I'm hosting next month will be reading this and I love keeping party secrets for the guest of honor to discover when the celebration begins.

I just found out tonight that I get to spend a few hours at CHA tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have a long wishlist to share with you tomorrow...

The big ones...

Sure, we hosted a fair amount of get-togethers at our house in the last year, but none were major events. That changes this year. Already on the 2012 calendar there's a bridal shower to host at the end of this month, a baby shower in late February, and graduation party this June. The first invitations went out in the mail today...