Monday is "Booked"

Since it is Back-to-School season, and I am an English teacher, I decided to have our monthly dinner themed around classic literature. I absolutely love all the details of this party (yes...I am tooting my own horn just a bit), and I definitely recommend this theme for those of you in a book club or other reading-based gathering.
 

Invite: I know our libraries don't use card catalogs anymore, but they make for such a cute invite! I found an image of a card on Google, and then just added text on Photoshop.  I used two different fonts: AA Typewriter for the bolder font and Traveling Typewriter for the thinner one.  Both are free downloads online. To make the envelope, I cut a large manila envelope the width of my card plus two flaps to fold back. I glued a black ribbon along the front and cut a page from a book before adding my "You're Invited" text.

By the way...only one book was harmed in the making of all these party details! It was a book I purchased at the dollar store, so I apologize to the author for not actually reading the book before cutting it up into pieces.  On the bright side, the pages received many a compliment at the party!

Entry Decor: The first thing I did for this party was look up the top 100 classic novels of all time.  I went through the list writing down titles that I thought I could work into my menu or other decor items. I thought Great Expectations was perfect for my entry as I hope my guests walk in with a positive attitude and expect to enjoy the evening.  I found an image of the book cover online and imitated it as best I could.  The drawing isn't great, but it worked since the original book cover was sketch-like. I added a few other classic books to the entry table as well.

Decor:  I made a table runner out of pages from the book I bought at the dollar store. This was really simple to make and only took about 10 minutes. After ripping out the pages, I used my paper cutter to trim the rough edge.  I glued the pages together with a glue stick and was done.

As centerpieces, I printed classic book covers and taped them around dollar store vases I already had. I filled them with some simple flowers.  I didn't want colorful flowers because I wanted the focus to be on the book covers.  I used classic novels I already had on my home bookshelf to elevate each vase.

In the very center of the table, I made a book topiary out of pages of the same dollar store book. I love how this turned out and took it to my classroom after the dinner, but just to warn you...it took me 2 hours to make!  I bought the candle holder at the dollar store along with a fake orange. I went to the store looking for a foam ball, but couldn't find one.  The closest round object I could find was a fake orange, but it did the job. I cut rectangles (four to a page) out of each page in the book and used decorative scissors to trim the edges.  Then folded the paper and used a straight pin to secure each square into the orange.  The entire thing I hot glued to the candle holder.  Here's a close up of the topiary...

Since it took me 2 hours to make, I thought it deserved two photos on this post!!

For place cards, I stuck with the card catalog theme. I made the envelopes and added the ribbon and the first initial of the guest.

I found images of classic book covers online to use as napkin rings.

I used these same images to make wine charms.

I created wine labels with another classic book War and Peace.  For the red wine, I used a dark red cover of the novel, and for the white wine, I used a light blue cover.

Besides wine, I also served margaritas.  I didn't serve any Mexican food that evening, but I thought of "tequila" to replace "to kill a" in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird and I couldn't resist.  It's such a great novel, that I had to find some way to fit it into my evening.

For each menu item I served, I made these card catalog inspired signs as labels. The initial image I found online and then just added text in the same fonts as I used on the invite.
I placed the classic novel that matched the dish next to each food label.  The novels I didn't already own or find at school, I checked out from the local library.

Chapter One - Appetizers:  One of the appetizers I served, was shrimp cocktail to go with the novel The Old Man and the Sea.

A second appetizer was individual servings of vegetables and dip. This went to with novel Moby Dick. (Moby DIP).

Chapter 2 - Salad:  When we sat down at the table, I served a green salad first.  The salad had tomatoes, cucumbers, and cheese cut into flowers.  This represented the novel The Secret Garden.

Chapter 3 - The Main Course: For the main course, I served Monte Cristo sandwiches.  I had never made these before, but I've had them once at Disneyland.  When I saw The Count of Monte Cristo on the top 100 novel list, I really wanted to try them out.  The only problem is that I did not want to spend a ton of party time at the stove top. I wanted to spend time with my guests. After finding a recipe on Pinterest that bakes them like a casserole in the oven, I knew I just had to try it.  They were delicious!  The only additions I made to this recipe was adding Dijon mustard to the bread, and I served it with both ham and turkey slices.  I served the sandwiches with a side of strawberry jelly so guests could control how much they wanted.

I served french fries to go alongside the Monte Cristo sandwiches. This became my Lord of the Flies (Fries) inspired dish.

I also served fruit kabobs.  I used two types of grapes, so that they would represent the novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Chapter 4 - Dessert:  Looking back on this meal, I served some very rich foods.  The Monte Cristo sandwiches themselves are very filling and dessert-like, so I really didn't need a dessert, but I made one anyway not paying attention to that.  I decided to make a dessert out of Three Musketeer bars.  My kiddos loved this dessert, but it is VERY rich and has lots of chocolate! I found the recipe here.

I asked each of the girls to bring a wrapped, used book for a book exchange.  We had some great books exchanged, and I am excited to read the one I received. I included this photo to show the wrapping job one of my friends did.  She used wrapping paper to fold into a bow -- genius!  It looked so good, I had to include a photo.

Favor: My parting gift was inspired by the novel, The Great Gatsby. I gave each guest chocolate coins I bought at the dollar store with a tag that read "Spending time with you is better than all the riches of West End."  If you've read the novel, you understand.  I designed the label on Photoshop.

I had a great time with this theme, and I think it would be great for a book club gathering, school party, or even a baby shower theme if the mother-to-be loves books.  There is just so much to do with all the amazing book titles out there.

Thanks for reading!

End of Summer POOL Party

I decided to do a little twist on the typical end of the summer POOL party as my August theme this year.  I went with a billiards theme as my "pool".

Invite: I designed the invite in PhotoShop.  As is typical, I did not decide on my theme until the last minute, so the invite had to be quick and easy to throw together.

Entry Decor:  I made this sign for my front door with foam board, card stock, and a wooden dowel rod.  Would have loved to have had a mini pool table out front, but I don't know anyone who has one to be able to borrow it.

Inside Decor:  I tried to craft my dining room table to look like a pool table.  I used a green plastic tablecloth and cut black card stock to put on the corners/sides to look like pockets.  I used black yarn to create pretend baskets on each pocket.  As a centerpiece, I borrowed billiard balls to fill a fish bowl and placed a black billiard triangle around it.  I bought blue pool chalk to glue to each rolled napkin for added pool-themed decor.

As a place card, I painted billiard balls.  To make these, I bought 2" wooden ball knobs from Joann's Fabric Store.  I painted them the various colors of billiard balls and used a Sharpie to write the number on it.  With my husband's help, I used a saw to slice a slit at the top low enough to hold a piece of card stock with the guest's name on it. Painting the stripes was definitely a challenge as I had to do it by hand, so they aren't perfect, but I love how they turned out.

I made simple wine bottle labels using a white ball and a red ball image to distinguish the chardonnay from the Cabernet. 

I used scrapbook paper to make miniature billiard balls for wine charms. I made these to match with the guest's place card.

Menu: For an appetizer, I made these super yummy cheese balls that look like a billiard ball set.  Just as a warning if you are thinking about making this...it take A LOT of time to prep it all, but I do think it is worth the effort.  I would suggest slicing the peppers, olives, green onions, etc. ahead of time to save you some time the day of.  It is also fairly expensive as there are a lot of items to purchase, so keep that in mind.  The top is sliced water chestnuts and a black food coloring pen.  I served this with crackers and bread sticks.  If you want to make this cute appetizer, I found the recipe on Taste of Home here.

For a salad, I served watermelon cubes carved out of an 8-ball.  I was short on time, so I ended up just drawing the 8 ball on the watermelon with a Sharpie.  The original plan was to carve it. (The Sharpie was much easier!)

For the main dish, I served teriyaki meat balls, puff pastry, and asparagus.  My original plan was to cut the puff pastry in a large triangle and then set the meatballs in a triangle on top as if it was the "triangle" holding the balls together. I changed my mind last minute when I saw how much the pastry shrunk when baked.  The asparagus is meant to be the pool sticks.  I served additional spears in a bowl to be passed around.

For dessert, I used a butter scoop to create balls in various flavors of ice cream.  I drizzled chocolate around the edge like a triangle, and added two wafer cookies as the sticks.  The ice cream flavors I used were: strawberry, chocolate, lemon cake (this flavor is AMAZING!), mint chip, cookie dough, and orange sherbet. 

Favor:  This favor I actually invented by accident.  I ordered small billiard balls off of Amazon to use in my centerpiece, but I didn't really pay attention to how small I was ordering.  When they came and I opened them, I realized they wouldn't work for my fish bowl centerpiece and thought I would just return them.  I made cupcakes that I was planning to decorate like billiard balls and use as my favor, but the day before the party, I realized I just had too much still to do and wouldn't have time after work to decorate them.  That is where this idea of wine stoppers came about, and I decided just to try it.  Wow...it was easy!  I bought corks from the store and just hot glued a ball to the top.  That was it!!  They turned out so cute and were a huge hit with the girls.

As usual, we had a great time! A fun idea for an End-of-Summer "Pool" Party!

Tour de France Fun

My husband is obsessed with the Tour de France bicycling event, and over the years, I have grown more interested myself.  What intrigued me even more was deciding how to transform this event into my July monthly dinner theme...

Invite: I designed the invitation on PhotoShop using a Tour de France poster image I found on the Internet.  Nothing super special to this invite sadly.

Entry: I knew I wanted to incorporate my husband's actual road bike into the decor, but wasn't sure how at first.  I decided on this simple entry.  I made a banner using scrapbook paper and my Cricut machine.  For those of you that don't know about cycling, the background papers represent the 4 jerseys that the leaders of each category from the previous stage wear wear during the next stage.  White with red polka dots is the King of the Mountain jersey; green represents the lead sprinter; white is the fastest overall rider under 25 years old; yellow is the overall leader of the race.

Inside Decor:  I created a street down the center of my table using card stock and used my Cricut to cut out cyclists in various jerseys. I also borrowed one of those giant Eiffel Tower drinking cups they sell at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas from a friend of mine.  She didn't mind me spray painting it grey, so I did.

My original idea for place cards was to shape paper clips into bikes with large buttons as wheels.  After making one, my fingers were killing me, so I had to come up with another idea.  I bought these plastic water bottles from the Dollar Tree and made a simple label. Not super creative, but at least it goes with the theme.

I made wine bottle labels on Photoshop to represent the theme and translated the white and red wine into French. My menu represented a few of the stages of the Tour de France, so since wine is always our first stop, it became Stage 1.

For wine charms, I used images of the jerseys of popular teams in the 2015 Tour de France.

Menu: Since the Tour de France happens all over France, I decide to serve French cuisine.  Our starter was a spinach salad with French dressing.  This was Stage 2 of the race.  The salad was topped with red onion, mushrooms, bacon, and shredded cheese.  To make the dressing I mixed a 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and two green onions finely chopped (with tops). I am not normally a fan of French dressing, but this was tasty.

For Stage 3, I served Beef Bourguignon that I made in the crock pot.  I found the recipe here. It was very good.  If I were to make it again, I would thicken the sauce to make a gravy before serving.

Normally I would serve the Beef Bourguignon with mashed potatoes, but since this was a Tour de France party, I served it over wheel pasta with butter.  It was "wheelie" good!

I have been wanting to make crepes forever, and my original plan was to make the entire meal crepes.  One of my guests recently found out she has a wheat allergy, so this changed that plan. I did make two different kinds for dessert though.

The first was a chocolate crepe.  I made them a few days before and froze them.  Inside, I put strawberry yogurt.  Then drizzled chocolate on the top with a dollop of whipped cream, some chocolate shavings, and a strawberry.

The second crepe dessert was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS! These were Lemon Raspberry Crepes.  The inside is a lemon curd with whipped cream.  Outside is drizzled with a raspberry sauce and then garnished with a dollop of whipped cream and a fresh raspberry. I used a different recipe for the crepe, but the curd and sauce recipe I found at Buttercream Bakehouse.

Favors:  I sent the ladies home with bars a chocolate with bicycles on them.  These took a while to paint the dark chocolate bike, but they were super cute.  I used my husband's bike helmet as a basket to display them.  The tag read:

For those of you that are clueless about cycling (which some of my guests were too), a Peloton is the main field or group of cyclists in a race.

This was a fun theme.  Great if you are into cycling and Tour de France of course, but even if you aren't, try these recipes.  They were definitely something I would make again for my family.


This was

Something Blue - A Dinner for the Bride

I am so excited that one of my closest friends is getting ready to marry a wonderful man this month.  To honor this beautiful lady and to celebrate her upcoming marriage, I decided to theme are monthly dinner in her honor.

Invite: I designed a simple invitation on Photo Shop.  While our dinners are often silly and fun themed, I wanted this one to be special, so I went with a very classic and simple design. I asked all the girls to wear some sort of blue shirt/dress, and I asked Kelli to wear white.

Entry Decor: I used Sharpie and foam board to create a sign for the entry door counting down the days until Kelli's wedding.  Hanging on the door, I pulled out my own wedding veil to drape.  My veil was super long, so I had to fold it a ton at the top so it wouldn't drag on the ground.  To hide the bulge, I bought some flowers to fashion into a bouquet to cover it.

Interior Decor: I wanted all the decorations to be very elegant, but also have a little rustic flare as that is Kelli's personality.  I set the table with a blue tablecloth for Something Blue, a little white rustic looking box I bought at Michaels, and a vase with white roses in the center. I also bought these cute iron-like letters from Michaels to spell out the couples initials.

I also decorated the table with upside down wine glasses with roses inside and candles on top. The roses inside I just bought at the Dollar Tree and pulled off the stems.  I used my wedding china (don't you just love it!) for our plates.

For napkin rings, I tied a blue ribbon around a white napkin and added a diamond ring sticker to the center.

I made simple place cards out of card stock and the same diamond ring stickers I used for the napkins. To make them stand up, I cut off a little bit of the bottom of a cork and then sliced a slit in the top. My friend and her fiance love wine, and they are getting married in Temecula, so I wanted to incorporate wine a little bit in the decor -- this is how I did it.

I designed two wine bottle labels that went with the theme.  Here Comes the Bride All Dressed in WHITE for the the white wine, and for the red blend, I found a romantic silhouette on Google and added The Perfect Blend with the couples names.

For wine charms I tied a simple blue bow around the stem of each wine glass, and put various wedding themed scrapbook stickers on the base.

Menu: Again, I wanted the food I served to be elegant, but I also wanted to stick with the Something Blue theme.  I served steak with a blue cheese mixture on top (super yummy), vegetables, and mashed potatoes.  I died butter blue and used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out a heart.

I also served a Blue Pear Salad jello that I cut into hearts, and a spinach salad with blue berries and a light dressing I made mixing raspberry lemon concentrate with dijon, vinegar, and sugar.

For dessert, I served cheesecake pudding and blueberries in little shot glasses. I made a crumb mixture with vanilla wafers for the bottom, and then alternated between the pudding and the blueberries before topping it off with whipped cream. I forgot to take a photo of this, but this image is similar to what I made.

I also made these bridal dress sugar cookies for dessert.

Favors: I bought little champagne bottles as both a favor and to do a toast to the bride. I created the label on Photoshop.

I also designed these mini white boxes on Photoshop to give to each guest. The top of the box read: Thanks for celebrating Kelli's future "I Do" Here's a little Something Blue for you!  Inside I put a bottle of light blue nail polish for each guest. Isn't the chalkboard sign a TOE-tally cool addition to this favor?

A Gift for the Bride: To cap off the evening, I put together a little gift basket of wine for my friend and her future husband to drink at special moments during their first year of marriage.  The girls all pitched in, so it was from all of us.  I designed the tags stealing some sayings from the Internet and creating some of my own.

I went to the grocery store with these "firsts" in mind, so I tried to pick out wines that matched.  For the Honeymoon, I chose a bottle of Flip Flop Cabernet Sauvignon.  They are traveling to Hawaii on their honeymoon, so this was a perfect match.  For First Home, I chose a bottle of Chateau (which means home in French) St. Jean.  For First Date Night as Mr. and Mrs., I chose a Little Black Dress Pinot Noir.  For First Fight, I chose a Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon.  For First Dinner Party, I chose a bottle of Cabernet called Spin the Bottle!  Last, but not least, for their First Anniversary, I chose a Layered Cake wine since it is tradition to "save" part of your wedding cake to eat on your first anniversary.

I am so grateful for my friendships with these ladies, and I cannot wait to celebrate my good friend Kelli's wedding. I wish her all the happiness in the world!

Congratulations Kelli!

End of the Year Teacher Gift

There are a ton of great ideas for teacher appreciation gifts on the Internet, but as usual, I wanted to come up with something all my own creation.  The room moms in my daughter's kindergarten class sent out a list of some items and places that her teacher liked, so I started my brainstorm session there.  California Pizza Kitchen was on this list, and I was totally last minute in prepping this gift, so I decided a gift card there would be easy to purchase.  Here is what I came up with to go with it:

Not bad huh? Just love the PIZZA my heart addition.

As a teacher myself, I just want to say thank you to all the teachers out there.  No matter what others might say, it is NOT an easy job.  It is hard work and a truly special teacher is one who puts his/her heart and soul into each day.

Happy Summer (or almost summer for me...one more week!)