NEON Party

With today's post, I am celebrating 10 years of Monthly Dinners!  It was 10 years ago, that I hosted my first Monthly Dinner in hopes of seeing and spending time with my closest friends in what I hoped would be an easy night out for them without any cooking, cleaning, or spending money on their part.  Now, here it is 10 years and 120 dinner themes later, and we are still going strong! I can hardly believe it!

To celebrate 10 years, I themed my party around the 10th Element on the Periodic Table..NEON!  There are several ideas on the internet for black-light neon parties that look amazing, but I wanted to focus my party mainly on the scientific element and the bright colors instead.  It was a dinner party, so didn't want to have the lights off while we ate or anything.  Here's what I came up with...

Invite:  I designed the invite on Photoshop with various images I found online. I kept it simple with bright colors.

Decor: I originally made this giant neon green sign for my entry door, but decided I liked it better on my favor/beverage table inside.  I made it with foam board, poster board, and card stock and tried to make it look like an element on the periodic table. Of course I changed the element number and name to fit my dinner.  I borrowed several glass laboratory flasks from a Chemistry teacher at my school (thanks Sam!) to use around the room as decor.  Some I placed flowers inside and others just water colored with Wilton's Neon food coloring. I also made a banner to string across the wall alternating the neon element symbol with plain neon card stock.

Table Decor: I used a neon pink plastic tablecloth and found neon green contact paper at the dollar store that I was able to use as a table runner. I printed out large Neon element signs I made on PhotoShop to place along it.  The neon vases I found at the dollar store and filled them with bright flowers.  I used laboratory flasks with neon liquid along the runner as well.

As I place card, I made coasters out of black tiles I found at Michaels.  I designed an element with each of my guest's name on PhotoShop, and then cut it on my Cricut cutting machine. The neon paper I found at Michaels as well.  I adhered each "element" to the coaster with Mod Podge.

I found these neon Slinkies 6 for a dollar at the dollar store, so I had to figure out some way to use them.  I decided to use them as napkin rings!  The neon orange plastic silverware I also found at the dollar store.

Another look at how the napkin and place card looked together. I added a neon glowstick necklace on the plate as well.

I also used the neon glowsticks (bracelets this time) for my wine charms.  Just wrapped them around the glasses.

I designed wine labels to go with my theme.  I used the Ne element sign as well as light up sign images I found.  Then put it all together with PhotoShop.

What the entire labels looked like.

Menu:  The idea of dying all my food neon colors was not very appealing to me, so I tried to think of foods that had "Ne" in the name, so I could use the element sign.  I also wanted foods that might have some sort of bright color.

I started with a PiNEapple Teriyaki Chicken that I grilled on the bbq.  The bright yellow pineapple rings gave it the bright color I wanted along with the green onions.  I found this recipe on The Recipe Critic, and it was delicious.

 

Next, I made PolyNEsian rice and served it in a steamed orange pepper.  This recipe I found on Baked in Arizona, and it cooks the rice in the oven! I hadn't ever heard of that before, but I wanted to try it.  Once you have all the vegetables diced and prepped, it really was quite easy.  Very tasty too. My original plan was just to place the rice in the hollowed out peppers, but I decided last minute to steam them so they wouldn't cool the rice as fast...great idea, Carole!  They were delicious as well.

I also served grilled veggie skewers. I tried to use bright veggies - red and green peppers, red onion, yellow squash, and green zucchini.  I mixed brown sugar, basil, salt, garlic powder and pepper in a bowl and, after tossing the veggies in olive oil, I added this mixture to coat them.  Then I put the veggies on skewers and grilled them. The sweet flavor was nice and went well with the rest of the meal.

For dessert, I served rainbow sherbet in lime green and blue mini margarita glasses that I bought a long time ago from Party City. I also baked sugar cookies and used neon food coloring to dye them bright purple and pink.  Easy and good.

Activity: Just for fun, I had guests take a little 10th Anniversary Quiz to see how many of the monthly dinners they remembered.  There were several correct answers to each question which was great because it really had us reminiscing about the fun we had at past dinners as we each chose different answers on some of the questions.

Favor:  As a parting gift, I painted wooden boxes purchased from Michaels various neon shades.  I used a permanent marker to create the Neon element box on the front. Inside the box, I had a highlighter and a neon sticky note pad on which I wrote the number 10.  My gift tag read, "Thanks for STICKING with me for 10 years of Monthly Dinners.  They've been a HIGHLIGHT of each each!"

I can't believe it's been 10 years of these dinners, but I am so grateful to have these couple hours once a month to spend with my girlfriends.  We've celebrated marriages, new jobs, babies (and more babies), birthdays, and so much more together.  I love each of these ladies and cherish spending this time with them.

Happy 10 Years!

Summer Fun with my GRILLS!

There's nothing like a party to celebrate Summer.  For August's monthly dinner, I went with a theme of Summer Fun with my GRILLS!  A fun play on the words grills and girls, don't you think?  All the food and decor was either grilled on the bbq or decorated to look like a grill. Check it out...

Invite:  I created an invite on Photoshop. I went with a color scheme of red, orange, and yellow to pull in the fire aspect.  I added the light blue to give it a light summer feel.

Entry Decor:  I purchased a small charcoal grill at Ace Hardware to use as a prop at my entry.  I placed colored tissue paper in the bottom and through the rack to look like a fire.

I cut "Welcome Grills" out of card stock using my Cricut.  I sliced a slit down the center of real hot dogs, and placed the letters inside the slit to hold them in place.

Inside Decor:  I set the table with a red tablecloth and some picnic fabric I bought at Joanns.  For the centerpieces, I made a pretend grill, set out BBQ tools, and a condiment candy "grill".  The drawers in the "grill" are the salt and pepper!

Here's a side view of the grill centerpiece.  I found a red plastic bowl at Target, placed charcoal in the bottom, and glued skewers I painted black to the top.  I set it on a metal spice jar and borrowed my kids' pretend food to set on the top.

For place cards, I made mini grills. I bought metal ramekins off of Amazon.  Then I hot glued sucker sticks to the bottom in a tripod and added red buttons for wheels.  I found the flame image online here and added my guest's name.  Chopped up Oreo cookies were my charcoal and helped hold up the paper flame.

I also made flames with red, orange, and yellow napkins.  I used my Cricut to cut a black grill rack to place on the front, and then tied it to the napkin with black ribbon.

For wine charms, I cut charcoal grills out of card stock in various colors and wrote the guest's names on them.

I made my wine labels on PhotoShop.  The grill images I found online here, and I just designed backgrounds around them.

Menu:  I wanted all aspects of the meal to be somehow associated with grills - either cooked on the grill or made to look like grills.  This is what I came up with..

We started with a Grilled Romaine Salad.  I looked up several recipes for this, but many seemed to have lots of ingredients. I wanted something easy, so I decided to just keep it simple. I brushed vegetable oil on the top of each romaine heart and sprinkled it with salt and pepper.  My husband grilled them for about a minute or so on each side just to get the grill marks. I served these with Feta cheese and various salad dressings for guests to choose from.  Yum!

For the main dish, I served Grilled Chicken Burgers just to make it a little different from beef burgers which we normally associate with BBQs.  I served these on Brioche buns.  The fixings I served on the side: lettuce, tomato, cheese, onion, and avocado.  

At first I was going to actually grill fruit on kabobs, but then decided I would make a pretend grill.  I hollowed out a small round watermelon and made 3 holes in the bottom to fit celery sticks snug.  I needed to use skewers along the bottom, as my watermelon was too heavy for the celery to hold on its own. I cut celery sticks to hide the skewers.  (This photo was taken before I did that.)

Inside the "grill" I placed blackberries to look like charcoal.  For the lid of the "grill" I used a slice of cucumber hollowed out and attached it with toothpicks.  There is a full tutorial on creating this fruit grill here.

I also served grilled corn on the cob to finish out the main meal.

For dessert, I found a recipe for these cute little cupcake grills! I baked chocolate cupcakes and then mixed orange and yellow frosting to pipe onto the top.  Then added the red sparkle gel.  To make the grill, I melted chocolate and piped it onto parchment paper to dry.  The skewers are gummy bears cut into 3 pieces and skewered on a toothpick.

Favor:  For my parting gift, I wanted to stick with the theme, but make something useful to my guests.  I decided to give them my favorite seasoning for BBQ - Montreal Steak Seasoning.

 I wrapped some seasoning into small bags and then crafted a grill around them.  I cut small squares of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper to make a flame.  The grill I made out of card stock using my Cricut. After placing the flame/seasoning inside the bowl, I glued the grill to the rim of the bowl.  The mini bowls I found on Clearance at Target for only $0.65 so I was pretty excited.

Instead of attaching a tag to each bowl, I made these signs to display to let my girls know I love and appreciate their friendship.

As usual, we had a great time.  Would love to hear your thoughts on the details of this party!  Happy end of summer!

Crazy for Coloring - for Adults!

One of the new crazes right now is Mandala art and adult coloring books.  Stores like Michaels and Target have devoted entire end-cap sections to adult coloring books, and many adults are enjoying the relaxation of coloring right alongside their young children (I know I am!). When one of my regular monthly dinner gals asked if she could bring an out-of-town friend to our June monthly dinner, I asked my friend for some of her guest's loves hoping it might provide some inspiration for the month's theme.  Two of her friend's likes were coloring and Mexican food - she moved from California to Georgia, so the Mexican food selection in not quite what it is here! I decided to incorporate both of these likes into our June theme.

Invite:  I designed the invite on Photoshop using free images I found on Google.  While there are a lot of art party invites out there to choose from, I wanted this dinner to focus on Mandala art and colored pencils (rather than crayon, paint, etc), so I created my own invite specific to that.

Entry Decor:  I made an entry sign with my Cricut Explore.  I found a Mandala art piece of an owl and cut that image out with the Cricut.  Because it was so large, it was actually difficult to do.  It didn't turn out perfectly, but it did the trick. I added color pencils a dollar store basket to elevate the sign. 

Inside Decor: I set my table with a red tablecloth and then a huge strip of white butcher paper on top. I printed out large images of Mandala art and glued them on the butcher paper.  I colored in a few parts of each image, and guests added to each as the night progressed.

For a centerpiece, I bought a colorful bouquet and cut out a Mandala image my daughter had already colored to adhere to the front of the vase.  She loved helping out with the party!

Also on the table, I made large colored pencils out of Pringles cans. First, I cut colored card stock to wrap around the can and attach with scrap book tape.  Next, I cut a beige circle and smaller colored circle for the bottom.  The top is a beige half circle with a 7 1/4" diameter.  I hot glued the half circle around the lid of the Pringles can and then colored the top in marker.  I added pails I found in the dollar section at Target and filled them with markers and colored pencils. The little rainbow cups I found at Dollar Tree.

The rainbow napkins I also found at the Dollar Tree.

The colorful plates my family uses for BBQ gatherings and camping, so we already had them.  Love the color they added to the table. I created 6" mandala art coloring pages to match each of my guests.  Shown above are a pregnant woman for my friend who is pregnant with her first baby, Star Wars, and a Harry Potter tribute.

A couple more:  Mickey Mouse and Hunger Games.  I created all of these on Photoshop combining images I found free online.

For place cards, I wrapped four colored pencils in twine and added a mandala art piece with the guest's name.

I sawed the tops off of colored pencils and added a mini eye hook to make wine charms.  They were really cute in person and easy to make.

I created the wine labels on Photoshop after finding a mandala piece with red wine glasses.

Menu:  I wanted food with a lot of colors.  I started with this recipe for Rainbow Salsa I found on Gimme Some Oven.  It was a win-win -- delicious AND healthy!

For the main meal, I created a tostada bar with grilled carne asada and chicken, refried beans, and cilantro lime rice. For colorful fixings, I had tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, olives, guacamole, sour cream, and pico de gallo. 

For dessert, I made this rainbow cake with Mandala art on top.  My good friend came over and helped me with the Mandala art to place on top.  I made a stencil with my Cricut, and she used the stencil to carve the mandala out of fondant.  The cakes I made with 2 boxes of white cake mix.  I divided each mix evenly into 3 bowls and used gel food color to dye the mix the desired colors.  After baking, I leveled the cakes and stacked them with homemade buttercream icing in between. 

Favor:  I wanted to do something with Skittles candy because they are colorful and their "Taste the Rainbow" slogan went with my overall theme.  I found a template for pencil boxes here.  I took that template and resized it to my liking in Photoshop.  I also added color to make it a colored pencil rather than a regular pencil, and I added the "You Color My World Thanks for Coming" note.  After folding each pencil (I used glue and tape), I place and bag of Skittles inside.

I really love how everything turned out, and we had a great time coloring. Hope you enjoyed this post, and let me know what you liked best!