APP-reciating Friendships (iphone AP party!)

Want an off-the-wall theme that's a bit out of the norm?  Try an APP party!  I was trying to think of a theme for my March monthly dinner Monday morning, when I picked up my phone, unlocked it, and was inspired by all the fun and colorful apps.  All of sudden the ideas for how to make this party work started cramming my brain, and I knew it would make a super fun party to plan.  I decided to call it an APP-reciating Friendships party!

Invite:  I messed around with the names of different apps to use to create the wording of my invite. All the apps I used for the party are for iPhone (android users would have different looks), but I wanted to stay consistent.  I have an iPhone, so those apps won out. It was also a bit hard to stick with apps everyone would know.  I think I did an okay job with most of them - Shutterfly Share,Words with Friends, and the APP store were the only ones on this particular invite that someone might not know. (Of course, using the Google app, they could figure it out!)

Entry Decor:  A simple sign with the Google Map app was my entry.  I added the "you've arrived" since that is close to what Google maps says when you've reached your destination. It might be "you have arrived", but I can't remember.

Inside Decor:  I made this simple banner with the 2019 most popular aps.  I also have a HOME sign on my mantle all year that currently has a shamrock as the "O", so I just printed the iphone Home app to set in front of it.

For the dinner table, I created a fun app-inspired table.

The centerpiece was made from items I already had around my house that I adapted to fit a few apps.

The large shopping basket I purchased decades ago.  I placed a small packing box (not Amazon unfortunately as I didn't have a small enough one) and added the Amazon app icon.

To one side, I set up my iPad and printed a post from one of our past dinner parties. On the other side, I found a small red box and filled it with popcorn, set a Redbox app icon in front, and a metal movie clapboard behind.

I bought white square paper plates from the dollar store and just placed the Google app "G" in the center.  I didn't glue the G, so guests could easily take them them off when it was time to serve food.

My napkins were the iPhone settings app (hence...place setting).  I bought grey napkins and then used my Cricut to cut out a black circle and the grey cogs.  Again, these were just set on the napkin rather than glued so that guests could take them off to use the napkin.

For placecards, I created Instagram posts for each guest.  Some of my guests had Instagram accounts, so I used their real user name, but many did not.  For those that did not, I just invented a name for them.  I did these placecards on Photoshop, so I invented the number of "likes" and created fun hashtags to go with each post.

On my side table with the banner I served the drinks, the app-etizer, and had the party favors.

I designed my wine labels on PhotoShop.  I always challenge myself to come up with fun labels, so I didn't want to just use wine apps.  Instead I played with fun phrases -- the Netflix app with "Netflix and Chill"ed White Wine and the weather app with "Rain or Shine...Red Wine."

For wine charms I printed out the app icons of some of the most popular apps. I used scrapbook tape to attach them the base of each glass.

Menu:  We started with a Skinny Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Dip (yum!). Find the recipe here. I added a red pepper cut in the shape of a play button to link it to the YouTube app icon.

For the main dish, I served a Slow-Cooker Chicken Marsala.  Find the recipe here.  This was good, but a little dry for me.  I am anxious to try the recipe again to see if I can keep the chicken tender.  I used the Vivino wine app for this one since it is made with white wine.

As a side dish, I served vegetable skewers with red and green peppers, zucchini, squash, and mushrooms.  These were grilled on the BBQ.  A bit of a stretch to link these with the app theme, but I went a rhyme of Netflix VeggieStix!

I also served rolls. I called these Uber Good Bread and tied in the driving aspect of Uber with "That's how we ROLL!"  If you can't tell...this is my silly sense of humor!

I decided to theme my dessert around the popular app Candy Crush.  I haven't played this game before, but looking at the app icon inspired this dessert.  The app icon has a chocolate cake ball with sprinkles, so that is what I recreated. The app border is pink and white stripes, so I used pink/white sucker sticks for the cake pop stick.  I placed fruity Mike n Ikes on the plate to represent the jelly bean-like candy of the app.

Favor:  I wanted to incorporate several apps into my favor, so I decided to  wrap mini chocolate bars in app-inspired labels I made on PhotoShop.  I bought royal blue boxes from Party City and printed a Facebook app icon for the front.  I filled the boxes with some issue paper and left room for 15 chocolates at the top.

I finished the favor with a "love" heart from Facebook with the words "APP-reciate you Coming" on it.  It is a bit time consuming to wrap and tape each of the little candy bars, but I love how they turned out.

This party was fun to plan and fun to decorate for.  There is no much you can do with different apps.  It would be a great birthday party theme where you could play "Heads Up" or "Minecraft" or any of those app games.

Puppy Love Party

Our family just got a new puppy, and she might be the cutest thing ever!  We are head over heels in love, so when it was time to think of a February monthly dinner theme, my thoughts gravitated to little Kona.  A chance to combine Valentine's Day with our newest puppy = a Puppy Love party!  My son and daughter had a puppy themed birthday party several years ago, but I wanted to make sure this party was different.

Invite:  Since this party was the week of Valentine's Day, my color scheme was mostly red combined with browns and a little pink.  I found some of these puppy images though a Google search and used PhotoShop to create this invite.

Inside Decor:  Although I don't have a photo of it, my entry sign simply stated, "Come, Sit, Stay".  I set my table with a red tablecloth and white plates.  For the centerpiece, I bought a couple pieces of puppy paw print scrapbook paper from Michaels and added some puppy and Valentine-related items.

I made Valentine Puppy Chow for guests to snack on as part of the centerpiece.  There's a ton of simple recipes for this on Pinterest.  I picked the one that used the least ingredients, and it was perfect.  The dog bowl is from the Dollar Tree.

In the very center, I used a Valentine's Day LOVE decoration I got from Michaels and surrounded it by stuffed animal puppies that my kids own.

This puppy print snack container I got from the Dollar Tree, and I filled it with small dog bones (also from Dollar Tree).  All the guests that were attending this party have dogs, so prior to the party, I emailed them and asked if they would send me a photo of their dog(s) and a photo of themselves with their dog.  I used the photos of just their puppies to print and glue on skewers.  There was a puppy on both sides of the skewer so both sides of the table had cute pups to see.

I used the other photo to make place cards for each guest.  I backed each photo to pink cardstock.  I bought the dog bones from Costco, and my husband sliced a slit in the bone, so that the photo would stand up in it.

Here's few just because these girls and their puppies are so cute!

I love the cuteness of these napkins too!  I had seen puppy Valentine's Day cards made with hearts, so I decided to try the same thing with a napkin instead. I bought plain white paper napkins from the Dollar Tree and cut them into hearts.  Then I used my Cricut to cut all the black and the pink pieces out of cardstock.  I set the pieces on top of the napkin rather than glued them, so that the napkin was actually usable once we started eating dinner.

Another addition to the table was these dog bowls which I served the salad in when we sat down to dinner.  I couldn't find cheap dog bowls this size, so I made these.  I found the red bowls at the Dollar Tree in a 3 pack.  Then I cut the dog bones out of vellum with my Cricut and stuck 6 to each bowl.  Simple.  Cheap.  Easy.  Love that they match the large dog bowls I used in other parts of the party.

For wine charms, I made puppy collar tags using my Cricut.  I used metallic silver with either a red or a pink center, and then wrote the name of each guest's dog, so they knew which glass was theirs.

I designed wine labels to match my theme/invitations with cute puppy photos.

Menu:  I wanted to served puppy-related items, but wanted to make sure the evening felt like an adult dinner party.  I started with a simple salad that was romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, black beans, corn, and cheese served with a store-bought cilantro lime dressing. I used a mini dog bone cookie cutter to slice pieces of cheese to add to the top to bring in the theme.  The menu tags I made to match my invitations.

For the main dish, I had a small hot dog bar.  Nothing too fancy, but just enough options to make it feel like an adult gathering rather than a kid party.

With the hot dogs, I served these cute puppy buns.  I bought Pillsbury french bread dough and shaped it into a puppy head.  We used the black beans I was already preparing for my salad for the eyes and nose.

I served Paw-tato chips with the hot dogs as an easy side.

I didn't get a great photo of my dessert, so it is a bit hard to see how really cute this was.  I made a no-bake cheesecake and added a bit of red food coloring to make it pink.  After making a Vanilla Wafer crust that I pressed into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish, I spread the cheesecake on top and put it in the refrigerator.  When it was time to serve, I used a heart-shape cookie cutter to make cheesecake hearts.  Then I drizzled some chocolate and placed raspberries and white chocolate dog bone on top.  It was a nice small and light dessert, so it wasn't too much after a large meal.

Favor:  Since it was a Puppy Love party, I wanted to have a favor for both my friends and their pups.  For the pups, I used small dog bones from the Dollar Tree.  I attached a tag that said Pup Treats.

For the guest favor, I bought Scooby Snacks and dipped them in red, pink, or white chocolate melts on one end.  The tag for these was red and said Mom Treats.

I dipped them in the chocolate for of course the yummy flavor and fun Valentine coloring, but also in hopes that they wouldn't mix these up with their puppy's favor when they got home!

All in all it was a fun, simple, and inexpensive party. Can't wait to watch our love for Kona grow...as you can see, she's barely on our family's height chart!