Bike Cruise

We live by a string of beach bars and the best way to hit them up is by bicycle.  So one weekend we gathered up some friends and their bicycles for a fun bar hop.  I designed a logo for the event combining an anchor and a bicycle wheel and our Bicycle Bar Cruise was born!

Before setting out I set out a spread to fuel us up for the adventures ahead.  Pasta salad with shrimp using wagon wheel pasta, pulled pork pancake muffins, and mexican corn dip.

I also had plenty of 'flair' for people's bike and themselves... blinking lights and glowsticks (safety first!) plus stickers and streamers.  I designed and ordered the stickers from Sticker Mule and loved them!

Also so everyone in the bar would know who rolled into town (and to commemorate the occasion) I ordered a bunch of beer coozies!  Coozies were from Personalized Drinkware.  We had enough stickers and coozies that we even gave some out to happy patrons at the bars.

We're All Mad Here!

No matter what age you are celebrating, a party can make you feel like a kid again.  For a good friend's 40th birthday we took a trip down the rabbit hole and threw a Wonderland Party!  We took over half the house and the whole backyard to feature different vignettes and activities from the Wonderland story including, the Queen's Rose Garden, the Caterpillar's Den, the Pool of Tears, and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party! Feathers, flowers, and flamingos anything goes in Wonderland!  Each area was over the top as only Wonderland can be but was kept cohesive with distinct colors and motifs from blank and white with cards and hearts for the Queen, green and purple with mushrooms and flowers for the Caterpillar, to pastels and teapots for the Mad Hatter.  And of course the big Cheshire Cat was mounted in a tree to keep watch over it all!

 

As guests arrived they walked passed over-sized cards and their handywork of painting the roses red!  I took white paper flowers, dabbed red paint on them and stuck them in the bushes lining the walkway.

In the 'This Way' 'That Way' world of Wonderland, signage was important.  Festive black and white signs helped guide guests from the entrance and throughout the party.

Guests were encouraged to wear Wonderland inspired costumes and a photobooth was set up to capture everyone in their tea party finest!  Games and tasty treats were everywhere for guests to enjoy and reinforced the playful mood.  Chess and checker boards were spray painted directly onto the lawn and croquet was set up with lawn flamingos looking on.

Leave No Milestone Left Unturned

A garden brings life and beauty to the table. - Alice Waters (via Talula's Garden)

This past weekend I had the honor of hosting a milestone birthday celebration for one of my best girlfriends!  The birthday girl chose the venue and then tossed the reins over to myself and another co-conspirator to run with it.  We were immediately inspired by the farm to table menu and cozy atmosphere at Talula's Garden in Philadelphia!

After deciding to incorporate floral elements, we developed a modern palette of lilac, peach, and crimson with golden highlights to pop against the weathered garden setting.  I wanted to create some party elements while keeping it simple since we would be in a restaurant and not have a lot of room on the communal table or a lot of time prior to our seating to set up...

The solution was bright tissue paper flowers wrapped around colorful 'seed bombs' in gold flower pots that performed double duty as table decoration and party favor... and with the swipe of a paint marker could have served as placecards too!  Similar instructions can be found from Martha Stewart.  The whole table was visually tied together with a roll of gold web ribbon and pre-made dimensional flower stickers running down the center.

As pretty as the party table turned out, we still needed to highlight that this was no ordinary birthday - this was the big 3-0!  So, taking more cues from the garden setting, I created a pair of 3-0 topiaries out of styrofoam wreaths (dollar store!!) and adhesive backed sheet moss.  I modified one of the wreaths into a three with some strategic cuts and toothpicks to hold it all back together.  I spray painted some dowels with the same gold paint used on the flower pots and inserted them into the wreaths and a block of styrofoam in a flower pot. (psst! would make great table numbers too!)  Lastly, I added some more moss and fairy critters to the base and some ribbons in the party colors to the topiary stem!

The Birthday Girl has a soft spot for all things magical!

Another way to celebrate my friend's special birthday, we displayed some photos of her as a baby and growing up!  Some were framed in gold frames while others with coordinating lilac and crimson floral scrapbooking papers and they were all tucked in amongst the restaurants existing display of found objects. 

Both the guest of honor and all of the guests got a kick out of seeing the birthday girl on the day she was born, her 1st birthday, her college graduation day, her wedding day, etc. which made a great conversation starter!  We all had a great time and great food - including the birthday girl's favorite: donuts and s'mores!

Animals in the Park

This weekend I enjoyed a sweet day in Central Park, NYC celebrating my girlfriend's new baby!  It was a wonderfully casual gathering of friends for a potluck picnic under the guise of a baby shower!

The mommy-to-be loves animals so we made sure to include little animal details here and there.  I picked up some balloons so fellow guests could easily find our little party under some shade trees and weighed them down with a couple of cute stuffed animals for the baby.

One of my favorite, easiest ways to add a festive pop and tie in a theme is with custom party stickers!!  I have mentioned them in previous posts and made some more for this special occasion with little animal characters plus the occasion and date.  The stickers were used to make custom food picks, straws, and decorate the favor bags!  One of the talented guests baked up some large animal shaped cookies for yummy favors for us to take home, slipping each one inside a clear cello bag sealed with a party sticker.

My contribution to the potluck was an easy riff on a cheese platter: kabob style perfect for picking up and sharing!  I combined green grapes with white cheddar cheese cubes and cherry tomatoes with mini mozzarella balls rolled in herbs on skewers - yum!  Other potluck items were egg salad sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, fresh berries, cupcakes, and a homemade apple pie.  Plus there were three different types of pickles, in case someone was having a craving...

The mommy's sister-in-law strung up a clothes line between the trees and handed out colorful baby t-shirts and onesies on clipboards for us to decorate with iron-set crayons.  Everyone had a lot of fun designing the new little baby's wardrobe!!

They all came out adorable and the parents-to-be voted on their favorites for prizes! My penguin design was a special request from the mommy-to-be so I was a shoe in!

A little game we played was guess how many animal crackers in the big baby bottle... would you believe 287 fit in there!?!  And the winner was......... the mommy-to-be!

Cabana Style

Stumbled across this fantastic temporary event space at a midtown NYC hotel!!! All you need is canvas, 4" wide paint roller, bright blue paint, festoon lighting & some bright yellow metal furniture to create a magical cabana escape!!

Sip of Summer

"Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right" ~ Mark Twain

*Cheers!*

I had a lovely visit this weekend from my friend Claire over at Gibson King and we enjoyed trying out a recipe she had saved on one of her amazing Pinterest boards.  Lately, I've been obsessed with these refreshing cocktail ingredients: Champagne, St. Germain, Cucumbers, Mint - so why not throw them all together for the perfect Summer Cocktail?!  Yes please!!  Whip some up and save me a glass:

Toss 4-6 thin cucumber slices and 2-3 "bruised" mint leaves into a glass with a few ice cubes.  Fill glass a bit more than halfway with Champagne and top with a splash (or two!) of St. Germain.  Give a quick stir and enjoy!

I also got to try out my new cocktail ice cube tray - ah the little things!  I'm sure this could be made "pitcher" style too - fantastic for brunches and showers!