Picnic Party

One of the best summer events in NYC occurs twice a year on Governor's Island - The Jazz Age Lawn Party!  My girlfriends (and our boyfriends) love to dress up in our best 1920's style, dance the Charleston, and relax on our picnic blanket enjoying the scene.

Here's our inspiration...

And here's us enjoying the day...

You Say It's Your Birthday...

All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much - George Harrison

My mother in law likes to celebrate all things (one of the many things I love about her) and her 60th birthday was not exception!  She 'hired' me to throw her a surprise party so I dreamed up a fun 'Beatles Bash' for her!  The MIL is slightly obsessed with the Beatles so it was great they could help celebrate her special day with friends and family.  I started with creating a custom party 'logo' to use on the invite, party decor, and favors.  In the traditional Fab Four font it featured 'The Birthday'.

Another element I wanted throughout the party was color, so I chose black and white with pops of yellow to reinforce the mod 60's Beatles theme.  Everything from linens to balloons to flowers to records to cupcakes carried the colors.  The flowers were a special touch, handmade paper flowers using Beatles sheet music.  Simply download and print previews of any sheet music and punch out with the largest scalloped paper punch you can find, then layer and fold with a solid color.  Add a smaller punch out or fringe for the flower center.

Guests had a great time eating yummy food, dancing to Beatles tunes, toasting the guest of honor with a signature cocktail, and taking photo ops with their favorite Beatle.  Thanks to the internet, I found life size cut outs and used an instant camera to encourage guests to ham it up!  For the real fans there were song references in all the signage, vintage button pins, and album cover playing cards for favors.  To prove that my MIL is a true #1 fan, we photoshopped her into classic paparazzi shots of the British invasion and posted them around the room.

Thanks to all of the family, friends, and the Beatles for making my MIL so happy on her special day!  Special thanks to my dear friend and talented photographer Joan Tsen of Applesky Photography for all photos!!

Boogie Man

Put on your boogie shoes...

Milestone birthday's call for milestone parties... so for a family member's 40th birthday we surprised him with a party straight out of the decade he was born in - the 70's! I researched all the fun found in the 70's and came up with some great ways to transform the hostess's house into a groovy love lounge!

Fondue dinner parties were huge in the 70's and the perfect way to get the family together. The hostess went all out with 3 different courses - cheese for appetizers, oil for entree meats, and chocolate for dessert!  Pre-cutting up all the bite size pieces for dipping and borrowing fondue pots from family members made switching up the courses easy.

Framing the entrance to the dining area were funky beaded curtains. Since the tables would be crowded with fondue accoutrements, centerpieces had to go up - as in hanging psychedelic lanterns from the ceiling centered above each table. At each place setting was a toy kaleidoscope to add to the trippy fun! Throughout the house we hung printouts of classic 70's movie and TV show posters like King Kong and Starsky and Hutch.  Playing on the TV throughout the night were 70's episodes of Charlie's Angels and scenes from Saturday Night Fever!

Speaking of Saturday Night Fever, what's dinner without some dancing? So the living room was converted into a disco complete with spinning disco ball and flower power garlands radiating outward from it. To add to the lounge vibe, the couches were dressed up with colorful fuzzy pillows and throws.

Roaring 20's

You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. - Al Capone

A bunch of us recently threw one of our best friend's a 30th birthday party in homage to her Roaring 20's! We had a great time researching one of the best decades ever and turning one of our houses into a retro Speakeasy! Invites included 20's slang and the Speakeasy password!

The spring off point was a vintage photo of a 1920's party decorated in streamers which we replicated in the dining room! We kept a simple black/ white/ silver theme running throughout all the little touches including feathers, flowers and fringe curtains. Other fun accents included squirt guns lying about and fake bullet holes in the walls... but of course we posted a sign "All Firearms Must Be Checked At The Door"! However, the best decoration of all was everyone's fabulous costumes including flappers, bootleggers and gangsters! And with a bit of photoshop, a friend made an Al Capone style "Wanted" poster featuring the birthday girl as the outlaw of the hour!

Lots of research went into the appetizers for this party. Aside from the requisite "Bathtub Gin", "Hooch", and "Giggle Water"... we served up some treats either invented or made popular in the 1920's including:

• Peanut Butter & Jam Sandwiches
• Pineapple Upside Down Cake
• Jell-o
  
• Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Charleston Chews, Milk Duds, Gummi Bears, Twizzlers, Babe Ruth Bars, Reese's PB Cups

One of the hostess's got crafty and made fun food picks out of vintage head shots of 1920's party goers wishing a Happy Birthday!

Also, a friend whipped up some chocolate covered pretzel rod "cigarettes and cigars" featured on silver trays at 1920's prices.

With everyone dressed up it was a great excuse to set up a photo booth! We hung some fabric and hired a friend to snap goofy photos of the guests using props like an inflatable saxophone, a chalkboard, sparkly glasses, boas, and the most popular: homemade felt mustaches glued on dowel handles. Everyone (including me of course) hammed it up and loved it!

Sassy Soiree

Birthdays she believed, were no time to exercise restraint. - Ann Taintor

One of my best friends is a real firecracker, so when my girlfriends and I were hosting a birthday party for her, we were inspired by artist Ann Taintor and her retro women with their sassy thoughts! What’s more retro than the clinking of glasses and the sampling of treats at a home-spun cocktail dinner party?  We decided to incorporate Ann Taintor’s style into the décor but with a personalized twist: we would make posters featuring our best friend’s picture in place of the 40’s women! Through Adobe Photoshop, one of my fellow hostesses was able to doctor up the photos to make them look more like retro illustrations and we matched them with A.T.’s funny quotes that reminded us of our feisty best friend!

To help my apartment look even more festive, I wanted to craft something with very little effort and a lot of impact. After Googling vintage party images, I re-discovered paper chains! I flipped through my stack of outdated magazines and picked out the most color saturated advertisements and articles. A few hundred recycled strips and staples later, and it looked like a party!

We knew we wanted to serve our guests dinner, but we also wanted to maintain the cocktail party vibe. So we scaled down some classic dinner foods and combined them with retro hors d’ oeuvres! A major source of recipes and ideas was http://www.epicurious.com/ which features great menus and a wide range of recipes for all skill levels and tastes. Another factor for us to consider in our menu selection was that this party would be on a chilly fall evening so we wanted to provide hearty fare as well as seasonal produce. One of my other fellow hostesses combined all of these ideas into one fantastic menu: We served Mac & Cheese Cupcakes, Swedish Meatballs with Cranberry Compote, Velveeta Salsa Dip, Spinach Onion Dip, Deviled Eggs and a delicious Fall Harvest Salad with a variety of apples, pears, grapes, pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts! When serving up our feast we used lots of crock pots and pretty dishes. We also provided fun (pom-poms!) cocktail picks and Ann Taintor cocktail napkins for an added retro cocktail flair!


One of my favorite things to do is create a Signature Cocktail for parties. This one was inspired by both the retro theme and the Fall Harvest menu. I modified Martha Stewart’s recipe and combined 1 part chilled Sparkling Apple Cider, 1 part chilled Pear Nectar and 1 part Spiced Rum. An apothecary jar with some ice provided the perfect dispenser! For how to set up the perfect party ready bar, check out this past post: Raise the Bar For extra fun, I picked up some old time hard candies that reminded me of the ones my Grandmother always had out and filled up a vintage candy jar (garage sale find!) for guests to enjoy!