All Rapped up for the Holladay$

I typically pick a holiday-related theme for our December monthly dinner, but this year I had a bit of fun with it.  I decided to have a rap music theme and call it "All Rapped up for the Holla-day$!"  It was so much fun to plan and the girls and I had a great time.

Invite:  I kept the invite simple with a gold chain at the top and a rapper in Santa gear that I found online.  Incorporated some rap slang into the wording with "fo' shizzle", crib, beat, etc.  For added fun I asked guests to come dress up as a rapper with chains, etc.  I loved what some of the girls came up with.

Decorations: I asked around and borrowed almost everything for my centerpiece.  In the middle, I borrowed my daughter's old school stereo.  

I purchased a Snoop on the Stoop to set on top of the stereo.  The wooden music notes my brother made decades ago when my dad was president of Community Concerts and needed them, so I just pulled them out of my party supply bin in the garage. The gold chains I borrowed from friends & neighbors.

I purchased empty CD cases from Amazon, and then used Photoshop to create rap albums that were holiday themed.  These were added to the centerpiece.  The Snoop album already existed, so I didn't do anything with that beyond printing the cover.  The Missy Elliott CD became Christmissy Elliott with single being "Wrap It" instead of "Work It."  The Ice T album I just changed the first word "Deck (Check) Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself."  The Stormzy album was "Mistletoe and Grime."

I made napkin rings to look like money rings using my Cricut machine and gold glitter cardstock.

I had a ton of fun designing my place cards.  I did my best to incorporate each guest's name into an existing rapper - Missy Elliot became Mi-shell-iot for my friend Michelle for example.  I found an album cover online for each artist and then used PhotoShop to replace the rapper's face with the face of my guest and the rapper's name with the creative name I came up with. 

Love the will.i.am swap to jill.i.am for this one.

Just a couple more of them -- plays on Ice T and Queen Latifah became Nazlifah for my friend Nazly.

I found art prints of rap artists online, that I printed to use for wine charms.

Created these fun wine labels which is always one of my favorite things to do with each of my dinner parties. For this dinner, the chardonnay was inspired by Snoop Dogg - "Twas the Nizzle Before Christwizzle, and all through the Nizzle, We Drank Chardonnizzle."  For the red wine, I used an album cover of Ice T's for the song "Big Pimpin'" and just added "Cab Sippin'" for the cabernet sauvignon.  

Menu: Seriously so much fun coming up with menu items to match with famous rappers.  Started with a Notorious B.R.I.E (after rapper Notorious B.I.G.) made holiday style.    It was easy to make 8" round brie, one can of cranberry dressing, a few pecans, and crackers. I heated the brie for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven, then topped it with the cranberry and a few pecans.  This was a popular appetizer.

Next was a green salad I named after Queen Latifah calling it Queen La-Toss-Ah Salad.  This was romaine lettuce, sliced pears, candied pecans, feta, and pomegranate seeds. The dressing was made with apple juice, maple syrup, and dijon blend.  I don't normally eat pomegranate, but they were fun and festive on the salad to add the holiday flair.

We also had a Drake Your Own (build your own) baked potato with lots of fixings.  I had butter, onion, cheese, chili, bacon bits, and broccoli. I called these Snoop's "Baked" Potatoes. Yummy.

Next it was shrimp skewers I called Run DMC-food.  I cooked these on the stovetop in butter with Salt N Pepa!  On each of my menu cards, I tried to alter a popular lyric from the artist to match the food as well,

For dessert, we had an apple crisp I called Ludapple Crisp (after rapper Ludacris). Instead of ice cream, I served it with LL Cool Whip! Super tasty dessert for sure.

Favor: As an easy favor, I made Eminem/M&M Shots.  I bought plastic shot glasses from Dollar Tree and filled them with red and green holiday M&Ms. I attached a tag with a twist on a famous lyric by Eminem "Please come back...back again."

We had a great time!

A Wicked for Good Party

For our November monthly dinner, I decided to host a Wicked themed party.  Wicked for Good will be released later this month and Halloween just passed, so I was inspired.  My mind started generating ideas, and everything worked out great.

Invite: There are a lot of google images and backgrounds that go with this theme, so it was fairly easy to find one that I liked as I wanted to mix the green of Elphaba and the pink of Glinda.  I added an image of both characters to the middle of the oval.  Beyond that it was a straightforward invitation wording.  I asked guests to dress in green or pink for this, and it worked out great.

Decor: I thought it would be fun to separate my dining table and the decor to match the Elphaba/Glinda characters.  I used a green tablecloth and witch decor on one side and a pink tablecloth and Glinda decor on the other side.

For the centerpiece, I found a gold ball with twinkle lights inside at my local Target. I used this at the very center of the table to represent the Emerald City. 

For the Elphaba side, I borrowed a witch hat, green wig, spider lights, and a black lace shawl from friend of mine's Halloween stash. I also found a small broom in the gutter the night after Halloween that a trick or treater must have dropped.  It was perfect for the centerpiece.

For the Glinda side, I placed two pink vases with white flowers that I usually use to decorate for Easter on a silver glitter runner I found at the Dollar Tree. I borrowed a Glinda wand and tiara from a friend. I also set out some long white gloves (that I wore to Prom in high school!) to add to that side.

I used my white ceramic plates and added a black or pink paper plate to pull in more color.  On the Elphaba side of the table, I used lime green napkins and made witch's brooms by painting wooden candy sticks and adding brown yarn. I wrapped cardstock with each guest's name on it around the napkin and broom.  The names were of the guests that RSVP'd that they would wear black.

For the Glinda side, it was a pink napkin and a wand made with the same candy sticks painted pink and the star topper made with glitter cardstock.

The wine charms were images of various symbols from the Wicked movie - witch's hat, Glinda's bubble,  Shiz Academy, Emerald City, etc.  I printed them on cardstock and then attached them to the glass stem.

Designing the wine labels was fun.  I tried to pull in sayings or songs from the movie.  With the white wine, I designed the label to have Elphaba and Glinda facing each other with a glass of chardonnay in the middle.  I added text to say, "Drink This and You'll Be Changed for Good." The red wine was an image of a witch that I used PhotoShop to swap in Elphaba's head and her broom. The text read, "Defying Gravity - the Glass Gets Lighter with Each Sip."

I purchased two cereal boxes with Wicked designs which I used as added decor on my mantle along with a moon cycle light-up piece I borrowed from a friend.

Menu: Continuing with the green vs pink idea, I decided to theme my menu with that same idea in mind.  We started with an appetizer of guacamole and black tortilla chips. I called this "One Short Dip in the Emerald City" after the Wicked song, "One Short Day."

I served a green salad with mostly green toppings -- green bell pepper, cucumber, green pumpkin seeds, and goat cheese. I made a strawberry and Greek yogurt salad dressing to add add pink.  My menu tag called these Changed for Good Greens.

As a main dish, I served spaghetti with pink sauce and green pesto sauce. I called this "Wicked Green & Goodly Pink Pasta on my menu card. 

I made these super cute breadsticks shaped like witches brooms to go with the pasta.  I rolled out Pillsbury pizza dough, sliced it in 1" strips,  then sliced the middle of that strip 3/4 of the way down twisting those two strips around each other.  The bottom was sliced into 4 or 5 smaller pieces and separated to look like a broom. I baked them in the oven and then brushed them with garlic butter before serving.  These I called Elphaba's Broomstick Breadsticks.

I made two different ice cream cakes for dessert to represent both characters.  Elphaba's Dark Delight was an oreo cookie crust with mint chip ice cream, Cool Whip, and chocolate shavings on top.  A witch's hat made with melted chocolate was set atop each piece.  Glinda's Pink Perfection was a vanilla wafer crust with strawberry ice cream, Cool Whip, and edible pink glitter on top.  A tiara made with melted pink chocolate was on top.  I used an empty can to cut these 9x13 cakes into small circles for serving. Just for fun, I called these Defying Calories Cakes.

Favor: I kept my party favor simple and just found pink and green candy -- green watermelon Mike 'n Ikes and pink Starburst. I designed the tag to read, "Because I Knew You, I Have Been Changed for Good."

I pulled the planning for this dinner off in one day, so it is definitely one you can do for an upcoming party if you are a wicked fan or going to see the movie/play.  It was inexpensive and a fun evening together.

19 Years - 19 Crimes

Crazy to say, but this month we celebrated 19 YEARS of continuous monthly dinners! Our group of ladies has changed a little bit over the years, but the majority of us have been enjoying these dinners together every month for the entire time.  Every October when we have an anniversary celebration I like to theme my dinner around the number somehow.  For this dinner, I decided to theme our dinner around 19 Crimes - the wine company.  

Invitation: I wanted the invitation to read like an old-time prison charge and sentence, so I had fun coming up with fun wording. Other than that, just a 19 Crimes bottle image and the logo on the invite.

Decorations: For all the decor for this dinner, I tried to keep a muted tone with criminal elements to match the vibe of 19 Crimes wine. I reached out to the 19 Crimes company to see if they might be willing to provide some images, decor, or even wine, but I didn't get a response, so I had to do it all on my own.  

For the centerpiece, I stayed simple with just bottles of 19 Crimes wine on a serving platter with small additions.  The small additions were two pairs of handcuffs, a decorative sphere piece made of old keys that I already owned, and my daughter's dying bouquet from her Homecoming dance.

I spray-painted an empty wine bottle black, and designed a wine label with all our monthly dinner girls in a photo from one of our dinners to add to the centerpiece.  Under the photo, I included "Guilty of Friendship - Sentenced to 19 Years (and Counting)."

As a mini table runner next to the platter, I printed out a "wrapping paper" image that I found on the 19 Crimes website.

I had a bit of fun making my place cards and turning my imagination into reality. I had the idea to fold my dollar store paper napkins to look like wine bottles.  They didn't come out perfect, but I think they look alright! I folded them around a toilet paper roll and taped the top around a wine cork. 

I created the personalized labels for the place cards on Photoshop.  The photos used for each guest are from monthly dinners throughout the span of the 19 years we've had our dinners.  It was so fun to look back on all these.  My close friend and fellow monthly dinner guest helped me with the write-ups to make sure they were fun crimes that matched the monthly dinner they were taken from.

Loved pulling even more past monthly themes into my wine labels.  Like the placecards, I used the format of a 19 Crimes wine label that I designed on PhotoShop.  The photos were changed to black and white sepia tones.  I chose a photo from Our Kentucky Derby themed monthly dinner we had in 2014 for the red wine.  I made the crime "Horseplay in the Winner's Circle with Red Wine."  The white wine was a photo from our Wii Love Bowling monthly dinner where we bowled on the Wii as teams for added fun.  The crime for this one was "Bowling Under the Influence of Chardonnay."

On the 19 Crimes website, they tell the 19 crimes and have one crime on each wine cork.  I used these images as my wine charms.

Menu: With each course, I tweaked a criminal charge in some way to reflect what I was serving.  We started with spinach artichoke dip and french bed.  Instead of Obstruction of Justice and Possession with Intent to Sell, I tweaked it to Obstruction of CRUSTice and Possession with Intent to DIP.

Next it was my family's favorite meatloaf -- a Grand Larceny Loaf.

As a side, I made mashed potatoes. The crime for these was Assault & Buttery (instead of Battery).

The green beans were drizzled with lemon and garlic.  Their crime was Resisting a Zest (Arrest).

To help me out, one of my close friends/guests made the dessert.  She made a delicious chocolate poke cake that was drizzled with caramel.  This crime?  Baking an Entering (instead of Breaking).

Favor: I don't think 19 Crimes makes mini bottles of their wines, so I decided to buy the only mini bottles the grocery store near me sells. I designed a mini wine label for each bottle with a different image from one of our 228 dinners throughout the 19 years. The labels were small, so I had to keep the crimes on these only a few words, so they could be easily read.  For example: "Defying Gravity in the News" for a photo from our Broadway Show theme where I am in a Newsies costume and another guest is in a Wicked costume.  For our B party where everyone had to come dressed as something that starts with B, the crime was "Boldly Being Boisterous."

It was been 19 amazing years of looking forward to seeing these ladies each month (plus the few that couldn't make it this time).  Can't wait to continue the tradition for even more years!