It's Fall, Doll!

This month's dinner was a bit of an odd theme, but it ended up being pretty fun and nostalgic to plan.  I hosted this dinner with a paper doll theme, and since it is the beginning of fall, I called it "It's Fall, Doll!" I'm excited to share the details of this theme with you.

Invite: The invitation was simple and straightforward with fall colors and paper doll images/clothing pieces. I don't love the doll I initially chose, and would have switched her to one of the other dolls I used in the party, but at the time I designed this invite, I didn't have the rest of the decor prepared. I do like the paper doll-related wording for added fun.

Decorations: I covered the dinner table with a brown tablecloth and purchased some dried fall flowers for the center. Along the middle line of the table, I placed paper doll clothing pieces that I cut out from images I found online.

I also cut out paper doll chains in fall colors.

Each place setting had a paper doll for guest's to dress with items from the middle of the table. I used my Cricut to cut out mini hangers with small "blankets" hanging from them.  The "blankets" were the place cards with each guest's name and instructions to doll her up.

The fall colored napkins also had an item of paper doll clothing on the top.

I designed my wine labels to play off aspects of the theme. For the red wine, I designed the label to have a paper doll with a red dress on and holding a wine bottle like it was a paper doll accessory with tabs on it.  The wine bottle was "An Essential Accessory" and I included a tag line that stated, "Because no outfit is complete without Cabernet."  For the white wine, I played off the little black dress idea, but changed it to "Little White Dress Chardonnay" with an image of a paper doll white dress.  The tagline was, "A must-have cut-out in every doll's closet."

For wine charms, I just used small paper doll clothing items in various colors.

Menu: I always like my menu to go with theme, and this was a bit challenging with this theme because I had a specific idea in mind.  I wanted to have each menu item reflective of a specific article of clothing that would then be added to a paper doll throughout the meal to create a complete outfit by the end.  

We started with an Autumn Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette to represent a beret and titled it Greens Beret.  I mostly followed the recipe, but I did leave out the cranberries and the bacon.  I love bacon, but I just ran out of time to cook it.  The dressing and recipe were great without it, but I'm sure its amazing with.

Our menu doll's next article of clothing was a petticoat represented by Petticoat Potatoes.  I purchased boxed scalloped potatoes to save time.  They honestly tasted great and were so easy to make in the oven.

Next article of clothing was the skirt to cover the petticoat.  For this I served Skirt Steak with Lime that my husband grilled for us.  It was so tender and delicious.

For the doll's top, I served cooked carrots that I called Cardigan Carrots.

For dessert, we cut frosted cookies in half and put them together with frosting to make a purse.  For the handle, we used Mamba Magic Sticks candy.  The bead clasp on the front was just an edible candy ball.  I served these Clutch Cookies with a small bowl of ice cream.

And our doll at the end of the meal...

Favor: For the parting gift, I made Hello Dolly bars.  The tag read, "Because every doll deserves a little something sweet."  These bars were easy to make, but do take a lot of ingredients, so the price adds up.  They lived up to my tag though, as they are super sweet and tasty.

These are the details of this fun dinner!  If you planned more ahead than I did, you can probably order a book with paper doll cutouts to save time.  Thanks for reading!  Hope you enjoyed this dinner theme!

Thrillers & Chillers: A Summer of Suspense

As a teacher, one of the great things about summertime is having a lot more time to read. To add some reading fun to our July monthly dinner, I hosted a Thrillers & Chillers: Summer of Suspense dinner party with thrilling books filling all aspects of the theme.

Invite: I created the invitation on PhotoShop compiling knife, fingerprint, and crime scene tape images I found online.  I incorporated some popular novel titles into the wording.  The Guest List, Behind Closed Doors, and The Woman in the Window were all great novels.  I asked guests to bring a new or gently used mystery or thriller novel (wrapped for even more mystery) to exchange to add more fun to the evening.

Decorations: I set the dining table like a crime scene - a  black plastic tablecloth that I drew the outline of a body with a wide-tipped paint pen. I set out some suspenseful books around the body and made yellow evidence number signs to place next to them.

I made mini evidence bags to hold the napkin.  I purchased mini ziplock bags from Michaels Craft Store and created a label on PhotoShop. The label had each guest's name as the detective and then the item collected was listed as Subject A's napkin, or Victim A's napkin, or Witness A's napkin, etc.  The date collected was the party date and the case number was 226.  Why? Because this monthly dinner is the 226th one I have hosted for these ladies!

For place cards, I made small evidence folders. I took large manilla folders and cut smaller versions out of them.  I wrote each guest's name on the top of the folder and created a Top Secret label to place in the middle. 

Inside the folder, I had funny things about each guest.  An alias, motive, and last scene phrase that matched their personality or something about them.  It was fun to read these aloud while we ate our dinner. Some of the write-ups shown here are a guest who had her last chemo treatment the day of the party, an avid wine drinker, and a junior high English teacher.

When I designed my wine labels, I searched for mystery/suspense book titles with white or red in the name.  I found Little White Lies by Philippa East and used that cover for the white wine.  I changed the author to Sharda Nay (chardonnay) for added fun, and created a new tagline - "Deceptively Crisp. Deliciously Good."   

For the cabernet, I decided to use the cover of James Patterson's novel Confessions of the Dead.  I liked the alliteration of Cabernet Confessions, so I added Cabernet to the title.  Again, I swapped the true author to a fake one -- C.A. Bernet (cabernet) and the tagline to be "Spill it All -- Just Not the Wine" to go with the idea of spilling confessions.

For wine charms, I printed out mini book covers for other suspenseful books.

Menu:  Since books were the focus on this theme, I also created my menu to be summertime related, but also related to mystery books. I served grilled hamburgers with all the fixings for guests to add on - bacon, grilled onions, cheese, lettuce, tomato.  I swapped out the word dragon for burger in the novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Along with the burgers, I served grilled vegetable kabobs with zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, and red, yellow, and orange peppers. I swapped out the word woman for kabob in the book The Woman in Cabin 10.

As one side, I made coleslaw changing the manslaughter to manSLAWter in the novel Murder, Manslaughter, and Mayhem.

The final side was watermelon.  For this, I swapped out the word woman for watermelon for the novel The Woman in the Window and added a evil looking watermelon face into the cover.

For dessert, I made chocolate mousse. We topped the plate and the whipped cream of each serving with an edible fake blood mixture made with mainly cornstarch and dye. I used my Cricut cutting machine to make mini cleavers with blood splatter to use like cupcake toppers.  The book title I used for this was Murder on the Orient Express and just swapped murder for chocolate.

Favor:  Since we were having a mystery book exchange during the party, I decided to make a bookmark as my parting gift.  I used PhotoShop to create a crime scene body outline and added some blood splatter to it.  I added the phrase "For my partners in crime (fiction). Always love our killer nights."  I used my Cricut to cut the image out as well as blob of red cardstock behind to add to the murder scene idea.  Added a string with a bead at the end.  I slid some of the favors into or on top of suspenseful books for added decor.

We really had a great time at this dinner party, and I cannot wait to read the novel I got in the book exchange. I have only a couple weeks left of my summer, so I better get reading!

Bridgerton Ball

Part 1 of season 3 of the popular Netflix show Bridgerton was recently released with the second half set to stream this week.  I have enjoyed watching this show as I always love period dramas and over-the-top love stories, and this show has both.  I decided it might be fun to host a Bridgerton themed dinner for this month's monthly dinner, and it did not disappoint.  We had a great time dressing up, eating delicious food, and laughing at some of the party details I put together.

Invitation: The Bridgerton family is often seen in purple and lavender flowers adorn their home, so I wanted to incorporate these flowers into the invitation.  I also incorporated a Lady Whistledown image into the center of the invite. I found some of these images online and just adapted them to fit with the look I wanted.  I tried to use regency era wording like "soiree" and "finest frock" as well as some others.  I mixed fonts between a font like the Bridgerton logo for the show and a fancy script to match the time period.

The ladies and I had fun dressing up with our fancy jewelry and dresses for this dinner.  It wasn't full costume or anything as I didn't want my guests to have to purchase items.  The girls did a great job adding fun jewelry, fancy gloves, and hats to their dresses.  I borrowed my dress from a neighbor, and it was perfect for the regency era.

Decorations: Oh what fun I had finding decorations for this dinner.  Every ball or dinner party in the show is elaborate with gold, candles, and flowers everywhere, so I definitely wanted to try to recreate that for this dinner.  

I purchased fake flowers to lay out as a table runner and a gold bow decoration from Michaels.  

I borrowed the gold candle sticks, candelabra, and vases from a neighbor and used Ikea plants I already had around the house to place inside those vases.  The white pillar candles I already had from previous parties.

I borrowed my mom's fine china for the place settings, and they were perfect - pastel flowers and many with gold trimmings on the edges.

On each place setting I wrote a Lady Whistledown issue about our party and our party guests.  I tried to think of gossipy things about each guest.  It was super fun to write (with some help from ChatGPT on some of the entries), and the party guests got a kick out of reading the silly happenings or habits.  Here is a sample of part of one of the entries with the last name changed:

"Meanwhile, it has come to this humble writer’s attention that our very own Lady Smith  has been engaging in activities that would surely cause a raised eyebrow or two among the ton. Sightings have been reported of her indulging in a glass (or perhaps bottle) of boysenberry wine, savoring its rich, tangy notes well into the night. What, you may ask, has been keeping our night owl’s attention? None other than the charming escapades of Neal Caffrey in the delightful series “White Collar.”

For place cards I made Dance Cards like the unmarried ladies wear at the balls in the Bridgerton series. I designed the front and back on PhotoShop using a Bridgerton family crest with the bee and found flowers in pink and purple shades to match my table.  I used my Cricut to cut out the circles as well as the filagree frame, glued them together, and added a purple ribbon for around the wrist. I placed these on flowered napkins I purchased at Daiso.

I designed my wine labels on PhotoShop with Regency era backgrounds and designs.  Lady Whistledown is known for "spilling the tea" or writing gossip in her columns, so I used that phrase to encourage guests to "Spill the Tea, but Drink the Wine."  For the white wine, I simply called it Lady Whistledown's White Wine to play with alliteration and added that it was "the delight of the ton."  For those that aren't familiar with the show, the "ton" refers to the elite class of British society during the Regency era.

For wine charms, I made silhouettes similar to the heading of Lady Whistledown's writings for each guest.  I tried to find a silhouette that looked like the guest, added the word Lady with the guest's name below, and then Society Pages just as is written on Lady Whistledown's issues.

Menu:  I wanted to serve very elaborate foods at this dinner since Bridgerton Balls are very elaborate.  This did cause me to spend quite a bit of money on groceries, but everything was delicious and liked by all.  I named each menu item after a character in Bridgerton and added a common adjective often used on the series. I started with an appetizer I titled Queen Charlotte's Brilliant Brie and Berries that I designed to look like Queen Charlotte who is known for her high and elaborate wigs.  I used the round brie for her face placing doilies under the bottom half for a royal collar.  Then I used blackberries and edible flowers to create her wig.  I used my Cricut to cut out a gold crown to add as well. 

With it being summertime, I decided to serve a light summer salad I called Simon's Swoonworthy Salad. It was simple to make and delicious. I will definitely be making it again.  You can find the recipe here at Simple Joy.  The salad included romaine lettuce, raspberries, blueberries, goat cheese, walnuts (I candied them), and was topped with a lemon poppyseed dressing. I left out the radishes from the recipe as I am not a fan of their taste.

For the main dish, I made beef wellington which I called Lady Whistledown's Wondrous Wellington. I chose this recipe because it had fewer ingredients than many of the others I found.  It is somewhat time consuming to prepare and not much can be done in advance, but it was very tasty.  I tripled the recipe which was a good call because it really does only make 4 servings. 

Alongside the beef wellington, I made duchess potatoes.  These are easy to make and can be prepared sightly ahead of time, so that was helpful.  I love that they look regal which fit the theme.  I called these Penelope's Picturesque Potatoes.

I also served asparagus which I called Anthony's Alluring Asparagus.

For dessert, I made individual Chocolate Lava Cakes.  I was able to make these ahead of time and had them sitting in the refrigerator until it was time to put them in the oven.  They took longer to bake than the recipe said, but were very good.  I served them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and called them Daphne's Dazzling and Decadent Dessert.

Favor: Bath and Body Works currently is selling a line of Bridgerton candles, soaps, and sprays.  They happened to be running a sale on the soaps, so this became my party favor.  Guests could choose between the Diamond of the Season, Wisteria Garden, Bridgerton Study, or Queen Charlotte's Tea scents.  

I added a tag to each bottle in Lady Whistledown language which read, "Your attendance enhanced the evening's allure and added a touch of refinement and delight to the festivities.  Yours Truly, Lady Whistledown."

This was a super fun theme with Bridgerton music in the background, an elegant table, and friends laughing at our dresses and accessories.  Not all of the guests had watched the show (although a few binged watch a bit before the party), but it was totally not necessary for the evening and we all had a great time.  Guests loved the Lady Whistledown issue, so if you don't have a huge guest list, I would definitely spend the time crafting that as it was a big hit.  I love you enjoyed this poist, and if you are a Bridgerton fan...this might be a fun theme to host for your next gathering!

Yours Truly,

Lady Casto