Beats & Bites: A Drums & Dinner Party

In the 18+ years I have hosted these monthly dinners, I have had some random themes.  This month I was trying to come up with something and thinking about March and what might go with that month.  The phrase "march to the beat of your own drum" popped into my head, and I decided to run (or "march") ahead with it.  I don't really know much about drums...but it ended up being fun to plan and a neat theme.

Invite: I found a neat drum set image online to build my invitation around.  The MDG image on the bass drum represented Monthly Dinner Girls for this party.  I used some drum phrases for added fun and asked guests to wear a band tee shirt to keep in theme.

Decorations: I borrowed a toddler drum set from a neighbor to use as a centerpiece.  She apologized that her son had covered it with stickers, but they were a perfect addition to the theme! I borrowed drumsticks from another friend to use as well. I added some yellow pieces of card stock under the set to add a bit of color.

For place cards, I used my Cricut to cut out an image of a drum set in black and in light blue.  I then cut out portions of the blue to glue and make the image two-toned.  The bass drum had each guest's name and the MDG image from the invitation.

For the napkins I created a sleeve with music note scrapbook paper and added am image of various drums to the center of each.  

I used the same images on the napkins as the images for the wine charms - timpani drum, snare drum, drum sticks, bongos, cymbals, and others.

For themed wine labels, I designed a white wine label with the phrase "Snare & Sip - Chardonnay that Hits All the Right Notes." For the red wine, it was "Rhythmic Red - A Beat of Bold." I added an image of a glass of red wine to the bass drum for this label.

Menu: Continuing with the theme, I tried to chose a menu with foods related to drums.  We started with a beet salad with arugula and balsamic vinaigrette.  I called this a "Keep the 'Beet" Salad" to play off the "beat" of a drum.  I followed the recipe, except I used the Trader Joe's balsamic vinaigrette dressing instead of making my own.  Wasn't sure I liked cooked beets, but it was tasty.

For the main dish, I served bbq chicken drumsticks that I made in the crock-pot and then put in the boiler to crisp before serving. The recipe was easy and only 4 ingredients.

One side dish was potato bites, a family favorite recipe I make often.  Just potatoes, butter, and seasonings make these easy to make.  I called them "Snare Drum Spuds."

I also made "Kick Drum Kabobs" with peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, onion, and yellow squash.  Grilled these outside on the grill as I love the grill flavor.

Along with this, we had dinner rolls.  I called these "DrumROLL Please" baked rolls.

For dessert, I made mini fruit tarts with vanilla pudding.  I didn't really follow a recipe on these.  I bought mini crusts, a box of vanilla pudding mix, and cool whip, along with the fruit.  I mixed the vanilla pudding with the cool whip and spooned it into the shells.  Then added cut kiwi, strawberries, and blueberries to the top. I called theme "Timpani Tarts" for some alliteration.

Favor: I decided to make mini snare drums as a parting gift for guests.  I bought metal favor jars from Michael's Craft Store that I found in the wedding section.  I filled them with M&M's and then crafted a snare drum to fit around the jar. I designed the snare drum in the size I needed on PhotoShop, and then used my Cricut machine to cut out the black part and glue it to the red. I found chocolate Pocky sticks to place on top as drumsticks.

This was a fun theme to plan even though I didn't really know much about drums.  It would be a fun theme for a birthday party or band party if you do have a drum lover in your life.

A Flu Season Soiree

It is never fun to have the flu, but it sure was fun to throw a flu themed dinner party! This flu season was no joke, and it went around our house and made us miserable.  When it was monthly dinner time, and we were finally all healthy, I decided it would make a fun theme, and it did not disappoint.  It was a great evening of laughter and fun with with my girlfriends.  

Invite: I found this cute image of a girl with the flu and designed my invitation around that.  Tried to pull in some flu-related terms like "sick" of winter, "coughing up" fun, and "spreading" great company. I asked guests to come in pajamas or comfy clothes like they would if they had the flu.  The girls loved this idea.

Decor:  This was a super easy theme to decorate for because I already had so many flu-related items in the house.  For the centerpiece, I used tissue boxes in matching colors and added fun sayings to the front of them.

I also set out Theraflu medicine boxes and Halls cough drop bags.

Along the table, I also spread cough drops like confetti.

For placecards, I made thermometers out of cardstock using my Cricut.  Instead of a temperature, I put the guest's name and used a font that mimicked the typical font on a thermometer.

Next to each thermometer, I crafted a card to match the designs on the invitation.  Each one had a different saying that pulled in flu-related terms.

As usual, I designed wine labels to match my theme. For the cabernet, I found a Flu Fighters logo that had two syringes meeting at the top, and used Photoshop to replace the syringes with wine glasses and the company logo with the sick girl image from my invitation.  I changed the wording to say "flu fighters favorite."  For the chardonnay, I created a symptom checklist with white wine filled glasses instead of check marks. I went with the saying "Sippin' Through the Symptoms" to pull in some alliteration.

Just for fun, I filled some fake syringes with wine. I already had these from my Fake an Injury theme monthly dinner back in 2012.

For wine charms, I found various images related to the flu and fighting the flu.

Menu:  Home sick often means a bowl of chicken noodle soup, so I decided to have fun with this idea with my appetizer.  I served a "dose" of chicken noodle soup using the mini plastic measuring cups that come with cough syrup.  

I heated a single can of soup and poured it into these for a fun shot or "dose" for each guest.

Have you heard of the BRAT diet?  The BRAT diet is a bland diet that is easy to digest, and it is recommended for during the stomach flu.  The letters stand for Banana, Rice, Apple, and Toast. I incorporate each of these as a menu item although I didn't go in order of the acronym.

T = Toast, so I made Toasted Bruschetta as an appetizer.  I cheated a purchased a jar of pre-made bruschetta from Trader Joes.  I sliced a loaf of french bread, broiled it briefly to toast it, and spooned the bruschetta on top.  I added some Italian seasoning on the top of each. Easy and delicious!

A = Apple.  We had an apple, walnut, and goat cheese salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing from Trader Joes.

R = Rice.  For the main dish, we had rotisserie chicken and wild rice.

B = Banana.  I made a Banana Cream Pie for dessert.  I used this recipe from Cincy Shopper.  For how easy it was to make, I was surprised how tasty it was.  We all really enjoyed it.

Favor: As a take home gift for guests, I had three items.  I had gift bags for guests to put them in with a tag on top that I designed to match my invitation.  It read "It's Flu Season.  Friendship is the Best Medicine."

A neighbor gave me empty pills bottles that I designed a label for using PhotoShop.  I added the warning labels to the label design like you see on some pill bottles.  My warnings were a glass of wine icon with "Should be Taken After Girls Night" and a smiley face icon with "Known Side Effects Happiness." I filled each bottle with Mike n Ike candies.

A second part of the favor was a mini packet of tissues.

The final part was a mini bottle of hand sanitizer. I designed a label for it with the sick girl graphic from my invitation and a saying that read "Sanitize to Be Flu Free and Fabulous."

Although a bit of a random theme, it was all in all a fun and funny night.  Hope you all stay healthy this flu season!

Crazy for Crock-Pots

Thinking about a theme for my January monthly dinner, a friend of mine suggested doing a crock-pot meal.  This sounded so good and easy, I decided to theme my entire party around crock pots.  Hence came the theme Crazy for Crock-Pots!  Hope you enjoy some of the creative aspects of this party.

Invitation: I designed an invitation on PhotoShop with a simple red crock pot adding party details on the crock-pot.  Along with the invitation, I emailed guests a recipe card designed with this same crock-pot to type up a favorite crock-pot recipe to share with the guests.  My original plan was to make copies of these recipe cards for each guest and put them together in a fun mini cookbook, but I don't think I gave my friends enough time to organize themselves and type up a recipe, so not enough did it for me to really make a book.

Decorations:  I only own one crock-pot, so I borrowed crock-pots from a few ladies to make the decorations and menu happen, but it wasn't too hard to get what I needed after asking around.  For the centerpiece, I set up 4 mini crock-pots that I borrowed from friends/neighbors.  Each was a different color.

I went to the library and checked out some crock-pot cookbooks to place under each crock pot and set some child's oven mitts, play pots, and a small ladle for added decor.

My favorite decoration was my handmade place cards which were mini crock-pots with the guest's name as the brand.  I got the idea to scrapbook mini crock-pots and had fun experimenting with making them.  These did take a bit of time to make, but they were a big hit with the guests and fun to make once I figure out the logistics. I made my "pot" 4" tall and wrapped it around a tapered small plastic cup.  I chose this size because a 12" piece of scrapbook paper fit perfectly around it, and I liked the 4" height.

The details of the crock pot I designed on my Cricut - the nob using a circle and oval shape, the handles with a semi circle and rectangle shape, the lid with a large circle and two small circles.  For the clear lid, I hand cut out circles to fit the inside from page protectors. I used strong glue to add the handle on the lid.  

For the cord, I used a hole punch to punch a hole at the bottom of the back of the pot.  Then I cut a black paracord piece and hot glued a plug I made on the Cricut to the end.  I didn't fill the crock pots with anything, but you could easily use them as a party favor and put snacks or something inside the cup.

I thought it would be fun to have the cord run to a wall socket, so I used the Cricut to create a wall socket out of card stock and lightly glued it to a napkin.

I made an extra paper crock-pot before a guest had to cancel, so I used this one to decorate the mantle above my beverage table along with some crock-pot cookbooks.

I designed my wine labels on PhotoShop to go along with the theme.  Sippin' & Simmerin' was the slogan on one of the labels.  The red wine was Cabernet & Crock-Pots.  I incorporated the same crockpot as the invitation and other images of crock-pots, so it tied all the decor together.

For wine charms,  I used clipart images of various colors of crock-pots and added a silly saying like "I Can Handle the Heat, "Slow and Steady," and "Too Hot to Handle" among others.

Menu: Crock-pot cooking made the dinner party super easy.  I got to visit with my friends rather than be stuck in the kitchen prepping food.  We started with two appetizers.  The first was a Spinach Artichoke Dip.  This was a recipe designed for a mini crock pot (maybe even more mini than the one I used). It was tasty.  I served it with french bread for dipping.

The second appetizer was Cranberry Meatballs.  These were easy to make and delicious.  I used regular size Trader Joe Italian meatballs because I had them already and the grocery did not have mini meatballs.

For the main dish, I made Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie. I wanted to pick something that used only one dish to limit how many crock pots I needed, so this was perfect because it had chicken and veggies in it.  It was tasty and filling.  I don't think our stomachs could have handled much more.

I served it with a roll for guests to dip in it since it didn't have the normal pot pie crust on top.

For dessert, we had Crock Pot Lemon Blueberry Dump Cake.  If you've never made a dump cake out camping or in your house, you are missing out.  They are always so easy and a big hit.

Favor:  For a parting gift, I purchased McCormick packets of Slow Cooker spices (Pot Roast and BBQ Pulled Pork was what they had at the grocery I went to).  I added a crock pot liner behind the packet and secured them with a yellow ribbon.  I made a favor tag that read, "Here's to Cookin' Up Memories & Not a Mess!"

This turned out to be really fun theme to do, and since I borrowed almost all the crock pots, it was easy to make the theme come alive. You could even have a potluck and have your guests sign up to bring an appetizer, main dish, or dessert if you didn't want to make it all yourself.  If you are crafty, definitely make the crock-pot place cards with the cord because they were a super cute addition!  Hope you enjoyed my party!