Girls Gone Wild - African Safari

I have been hosting Monthly Dinners for over 15 years now, and sometimes it is a bit of a challenge to come up with a new theme.  It was the Friday before my Monday dinner when my friend and colleague asked me what my theme was.  When I said, I wasn’t sure and asked if she had any ideas, she started naming a few great ideas, but they happen to be themes I had already done.  Then, she mentioned an African Safari which got my mind thinking of all the fun things I could do with that.  On top of my ideas, my friend had African decor from her trips to Africa and from gifts from her daughter who lived there for ten years that she offered to loan me.  Perfect!

Invite:  The decor from my friend was very authentic and beautiful, so I wanted my invitation to be classy as well.  There are a lot of safari invitations that are cutesy and made for baby’s 1st birthdays.  That is not what I wanted.  I found a background design online that was more sophisticated and added my party details.  I downloaded safari-related fonts, Cute Animal & Animal House, to use for my text.

Party Decor:  Isn’t this table decor beautiful!  My friend won first place for this setting at the fair, and you can definitely see why!  I love the pattern of the tablecloth with the safari animals along the edges.  Even more amazing, is that it was hand painted! 

For the centerpiece, I placed the loaned zebra and giraffe masks on unlit candles to keep them standing.  At the center, was a African continent wall piece that I set down.

The animals and gorgeous candles also added to the centerpiece to really make the theme come alive.

For the place setting, my friend loaned me these amazing chargers and plates.

Cloth napkins and carved wood napkin rings with African animals on them were another beautiful touch to the table scape (you see why she won first place now, huh?).  She even had silverware to tie into the theme.

For place cards, I bought some fake leaves from Michaels Craft Store and used a Posca pen to write each guest’s name on a leaf.  I bought a container of African Safari animals from Five Below, and pulled out the larger ones to set next to each leaf.

On my drink/appetizer table, I used another amazing mask and African statue from my friend.

The container of safari animals I bought for the placecards also came with small red and yellow safari animals that I used as wine charms.  I used thin fishing line to attach an animal to each glass.  The beautiful glasses were another loan from my friend, and they were perfect for this theme.

Menu:  Africa is best known for the “Big 5” referring to the water buffalo, rhino, lion, elephant, and the leopard.  I wanted to incorporate as many of these into my menu as possible.  I decided to create a Safari Map to showcase my menu and fit with the theme.

Our first “stop” on the Safari Menu Map was the “watering hole.”  At this stop I highlighted the rhino.  One of my wine labels read, "You're Such a Rhino Wino" with a photo of a rhino drinking from a bottle of wine.  The white wine bottle read, "Wanna Wine about it? I'm all ears" with a photo of an elephant, the glass of wine in his trunk.

The second stop of our menu safari was the Cheese-tah Lowlands.  I cut a block of mid cheddar cheese into cubes and put them on a toothpick.  I made a cheetah print flag to add to the top.

Next was the main dish in the Water Buffalo Chicken & Potato plains.  When trying to come up with a menu item to go with the water buffalo, all I could think of was something with buffalo chicken.  I looked up recipes, and I found this interesting recipe for a buffalo chicken and potato casserole.  It was really good.  We all really liked it, and it is something I will definitely make again.

The fourth stop on the safari menu was the Elephant Valley.  Here I served watermelon chucks and cut a watermelon to look like an elephant head.  Didn't have blueberries to use for eyes, but cutting bits of watermelon from the rind worked perfectly.

The fifth stop I called the Grazing Greens which was a simple green salad.  I served a mixture of spinach and romaine lettuce with hard boiled egg, tomatoes, and sunflower seeds.

The final stop of our safari was at the Zebra Grasslands - a sweet Savannah.  One of my best friends works for Small Cakes, and she offered to make this zebra cake for me.  She made white and chocolate cake mix,  poured them alternatively into the pans, swirled them, and then baked them.  It turned out exactly like a zebra coat!  It was tasty too.  

She put vanilla buttercream frosting on the outside of the cake, and we made some chocolate shavings from a Hershey bar to adorn the top.

Favor: As a parting favor, I made tiger and leopard pretzel sticks. Super simple to make as I dipped half the sticks in orange candy melts and the other half in yellow.  Once that layer was dry, I melted dark chocolate candy melts which I used to drizzle on the orange sticks and piped spots on the yellow ones.

Special thanks to my friend Joan for making this dinner theme possible with all her amazing decorations & table settings. This was probably one of the best tablescapes I have ever had.

Dozen Years of Fun - Donut Party!

It is hard to believe, but I have been hosting these themed dinners once of month for 12 years!  That's 144 dinner parties with friends!  To commemorate hosting these for a dozen years, I themed this month's dinner around a dozen donuts.  It was so fun to put together and I think it makes a super fun birthday or other party theme as well.

Invite:  I designed my invite with pastel colors because when I think of donuts, I always think of the pink donut boxes and the pink donuts with sprinkles (thanks Homer Simpson).  I found some fun sprinkle-like fonts to use to add to the fun.

Entry:  A friend of mine happened to have these giant donut inflatable pool floats that she let me borrow for the party.  I placed two of the biggest ones at the front door with a small sign to welcome guests.

Table Decor:  I set the table with a bright pink tablecloth and white plates.  For a centerpiece I made donuts out of Styrofoam to place on skewers.  I bought a medium piece of rectangle Styrofoam, and then used an empty can with a circumference the size I wanted it as a "cookie" cutter.  You could buy already circular Styrofoam, but it was too expensive for me, so I just did it this way.  I put Mod Podge on the Styrofoam after cutting, then painted them.  After a day, I added the felt frosting and sprinkles.  I already had the coffee pot from my Friends monthly Dinner, so I just repainted it black and filled it with tissue paper and then coffee beans on top.

Also along the table, I placed a few photos of our dinners over the years.  I chose one dinner from each of the 12 years. 

The front of each had one photo with the year and the back a different photo. I placed the photos on toothpicks and then stuck them in donuts along the center of the table.

For a place card, I made pretend "frequent visitor" cards with each guest's name.  I used my whole punch to punch out the months which that particular guest had been able to attend our monthly dinners this past year.

For a napkin holder, I cut a mini chocolate donut in half and placed it over a rolled napkin.  I had to carve out a bit of the inside circle to make it work, but I think it did.

The beverage and favor table had fun donut displays too.  Over the mantle I placed two more of the inflatable donuts. 

I made a simple donut banner with various donut images I found online.  I sized the donuts to be the same as my circle cutter so cutting them was easy.  I taped them to a piece of ribbon so that they could be close together and overlapping a bit.

I made these fun wine labels on PhotoShop.  I made them to match all my party printables and decor.  I especially love the Sips and Sprinkles of Happiness...just sounds fun.

I did not get a great photo of my wine charms, but they were super easy and cute.  I used the same donut images I used for the banner just resized them to fit around wine stems.

Menu: Although I love donuts, I don't think serving all donuts at a DINNER party would quite work.  I decided to serve mostly donut-shaped foods, but just one donut in the mix.  That donut was the bun for the main dish...hamburgers.  I served these with the fixings on the side as not all my girls love the same items on their burgers. 

Along side the burgers, I served donut-shaped potatoes.  I cut them out with cookie cutters, then sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese, paprika, seasoned salt, and pepper before baking them in the oven. 

I also cut watermelon into donuts as another side.

For dessert, I made a cake in a bundt cake pan and then topped it with a strawberry glaze and sprinkles.  The glaze was a bit runnier than I would have liked, but it tasted delicious.

Favor:  My friend helped me make these amazing mini donuts!  They were so yummy and fun to make.  We made a dozen for each guest, and they were a great hit with the guests.  We did vanilla donuts with pink candy melts and rainbow sprinkles, vanilla donuts with white candy melts and black sprinkles, and chocolate donuts with chocolate candy melts and chopped peanuts.

I bought the pink donut boxes from a local donut shop and made a label for the top.

It's been a great 12 years, and I love these ladies. Can't wait for another "dozen" years of fun!

Lovin' Country Music

Love country music?  Then this might be a great party for you.  This is a slight twist on the typical cowboy/rodeo theme party because all the decor, food, and favors centered specifically around country music songs.  While country music fans would be able to pick up on all the references, I included some popular country songs that even non-country lovers out there would know. (Non-country lovers do exist, right?)

Invite:  The invite is an example of pulling in titles of country songs.  I included classics like Hank Williams Jr.'s "All my Rowdy Friends are Coming Over Tonight" and George Strait's "Check Yes or No" as well as newer hits like Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party".  The fonts are Duality, Bleeding Cowboys, and Docktrin.  I found them all free online.

Entry Decor:  I made a simple sign on poster board with the lyrics from Luke Bryan's song, "You Can Crash My Party Anytime".  I placed my daughter's cowboy boots and an old pair of mine on the floor next to this poster as well.

Decor:  I borrowed an acoustic guitar from a friend to set on my table.  I grabbed my cowboy boots and put a vase inside with red roses. 

My parents have these large black music notes for a concert organization they are involved in, so I borrowed them to put next to the boots.  A brown tablecloth completed the look.

I had so much fun making these place cards.  I found CD cover photos of various country music albums and used PhotoShop to replace the artist's face and name with those of each of my guests.  We got a kick out of looking at all of these! I put the printed covers inside a CD case to make it look real. The red or black bandana underneath was the napkin for the meal.

Here's mine.  Thanks for loaning me your body Carrie Underwood!

I created my wine labels using references to popular songs. For the red wine it was Chris Young's "Gettin' You Home."

For the white wine, the song was Deana Carter's "Strawberry Wine."  I cut up some strawberries for guests to put in the wine.  It was quite tasty.

I went to the local Guitar Center and purchased some plastic guitar picks in various colors to use as wine charms. My husband drilled a small hole in them and then I used twine to attach them to my mason jars.

Menu:  Who doesn't love fried chicken?  Or should I say, who doesn't like their chicken fried?  One of my favorite country bands is the Zac Brown Band, so I had to incorporate their song into my party somehow.  It became our main dish.

One side was corn on the cob which went with Tim McGraw's song "Where The Green Grass Grows."  I made all the menu cards to match my invitations, and served each dish with the menu card so guests knew the link.

Slices of watermelon to go with "Watermelon Crawl" by Tracy Byrd.  It's such a fun song to dance along with and watermelon is an easy side dish.

I served biscuits with honey butter to round out the meal.  This went with Kasey Musgraves' song "Biscuits" and Lady Antebellum's song "American Honey".

My favorite part of the meal was the Texas cake complete with signs for all of George Strait's "exs".  I printed off an outline of Texas and just used that to cut an 11"x 13" cake.  I used the pieces after cutting to create the pointed tip of Texas.

Favor: I wanted a fun favor that wouldn't be too difficult or expensive to put together. I found these silly tattoos on Amazon.  Then I used PhotoShop to create a pocket with the sheet music for Jason Aldean's "Tattoos on this Town" and the same image (with lyrics) that I created for my menu cards.

Here another idea I was considering before I decided on the tattoos.  Use Runaway June's song "Lipstick" for a bridal shower. Have your tag read, "Glad (bride-to-be's name) found somebody "who ruins (her) lipstick not (her) mascara" and give each guest a tube of lipstick.

This was a super fun party to put together and would be perfect for any country music fans.  Hope you enjoyed the details!