19 Years - 19 Crimes

Crazy to say, but this month we celebrated 19 YEARS of continuous monthly dinners! Our group of ladies has changed a little bit over the years, but the majority of us have been enjoying these dinners together every month for the entire time.  Every October when we have an anniversary celebration I like to theme my dinner around the number somehow.  For this dinner, I decided to theme our dinner around 19 Crimes - the wine company.  

Invitation: I wanted the invitation to read like an old-time prison charge and sentence, so I had fun coming up with fun wording. Other than that, just a 19 Crimes bottle image and the logo on the invite.

Decorations: For all the decor for this dinner, I tried to keep a muted tone with criminal elements to match the vibe of 19 Crimes wine. I reached out to the 19 Crimes company to see if they might be willing to provide some images, decor, or even wine, but I didn't get a response, so I had to do it all on my own.  

For the centerpiece, I stayed simple with just bottles of 19 Crimes wine on a serving platter with small additions.  The small additions were two pairs of handcuffs, a decorative sphere piece made of old keys that I already owned, and my daughter's dying bouquet from her Homecoming dance.

I spray-painted an empty wine bottle black, and designed a wine label with all our monthly dinner girls in a photo from one of our dinners to add to the centerpiece.  Under the photo, I included "Guilty of Friendship - Sentenced to 19 Years (and Counting)."

As a mini table runner next to the platter, I printed out a "wrapping paper" image that I found on the 19 Crimes website.

I had a bit of fun making my place cards and turning my imagination into reality. I had the idea to fold my dollar store paper napkins to look like wine bottles.  They didn't come out perfect, but I think they look alright! I folded them around a toilet paper roll and taped the top around a wine cork. 

I created the personalized labels for the place cards on Photoshop.  The photos used for each guest are from monthly dinners throughout the span of the 19 years we've had our dinners.  It was so fun to look back on all these.  My close friend and fellow monthly dinner guest helped me with the write-ups to make sure they were fun crimes that matched the monthly dinner they were taken from.

Loved pulling even more past monthly themes into my wine labels.  Like the placecards, I used the format of a 19 Crimes wine label that I designed on PhotoShop.  The photos were changed to black and white sepia tones.  I chose a photo from Our Kentucky Derby themed monthly dinner we had in 2014 for the red wine.  I made the crime "Horseplay in the Winner's Circle with Red Wine."  The white wine was a photo from our Wii Love Bowling monthly dinner where we bowled on the Wii as teams for added fun.  The crime for this one was "Bowling Under the Influence of Chardonnay."

On the 19 Crimes website, they tell the 19 crimes and have one crime on each wine cork.  I used these images as my wine charms.

Menu: With each course, I tweaked a criminal charge in some way to reflect what I was serving.  We started with spinach artichoke dip and french bed.  Instead of Obstruction of Justice and Possession with Intent to Sell, I tweaked it to Obstruction of CRUSTice and Possession with Intent to DIP.

Next it was my family's favorite meatloaf -- a Grand Larceny Loaf.

As a side, I made mashed potatoes. The crime for these was Assault & Buttery (instead of Battery).

The green beans were drizzled with lemon and garlic.  Their crime was Resisting a Zest (Arrest).

To help me out, one of my close friends/guests made the dessert.  She made a delicious chocolate poke cake that was drizzled with caramel.  This crime?  Baking an Entering (instead of Breaking).

Favor: I don't think 19 Crimes makes mini bottles of their wines, so I decided to buy the only mini bottles the grocery store near me sells. I designed a mini wine label for each bottle with a different image from one of our 228 dinners throughout the 19 years. The labels were small, so I had to keep the crimes on these only a few words, so they could be easily read.  For example: "Defying Gravity in the News" for a photo from our Broadway Show theme where I am in a Newsies costume and another guest is in a Wicked costume.  For our B party where everyone had to come dressed as something that starts with B, the crime was "Boldly Being Boisterous."

It was been 19 amazing years of looking forward to seeing these ladies each month (plus the few that couldn't make it this time).  Can't wait to continue the tradition for even more years! 

Palette to Palate Dinner

As a vibrant end of summer dinner party, I decided to theme August's monthly dinner around colors.  I decided on a Palette to Palate theme where the decor would center around painting palettes and bright colors while the food would play into a colorful palate with each course.

Invitation: I designed my invitation to be bright and colorful.  I found an image of plates and dishes with bold colors, and then added a paint swatch look on the right with colors that matched the dishes.  I asked each guest to chose a color to wear from head to toe for added fun.  I had them RSVP with the color they chose, so I could match the place setting details to those colors.  The guests RSVP'd on a group text thread, so others could see what colors were already taken.

Decorations: I cut brown butcher paper to fit my table and then painted splotches to look like a paint palette.  The colors matched the specific colors my guests were going to wear for the dinner.

As a centerpiece, I used a small paint can from Michaels as a vase and purchased bright flowers to place inside.  Around it, I placed snacks in various colors for guests to nibble on - pepperjack cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheddar cheese, black olives.  My intent with this was to pull in the "palate" part of the theme. I also add the invitation on a mini easel.

For the napkins, I went to the hardware store and picked up paint swatches in the colors my guests were wearing.  I folded a napkin of their color, made a small slice in the swatch, and slid the bottom of the napkin through.

The placecards were paint palettes and brushes to match the guest's color.  I cut these out of cardstock with my Cricut machine and used a paint pen to write the names.

The place setting when it was put together for each guest...

I like my wine labels to be themed to my dinners as well, so I designed these with the theme in mind.  For the red wine (merlot), I found an image for a red wine glass and paint brushes.  I added a paint swatch of the wine colors and labeled this wine "Merlot-dramatic Palette." For the white wine (chardonnay), I used the phrase "hard to resist," but switched it to "chard" to resist the golden hues.  Again I added a color palette and an image of white wine and grapes.

For the wine charms I used a second set of the same paint swatches from the hardware store I used for the napkins and cut out a circle a little smaller than my wine glass bottom.  I then cut an inner circle and a slice to wrap them around the stem before taping the slice closed. Free and easy.

Menu: I wanted each course to be monochromatic which surprisingly wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be.  We started with an appetizer of all ORANGE.  I hollowed out an orange pepper to hold a red pepper hummus.  As dippers, I had orange peppers, carrots, and sweet potato chips.

Next, I served a GREEN salad. This was romaine lettuce, spinach, peas, cucumber, avocado, and green pumpkin seeds. I served it with an avocado lime dressing.

The main dish was RED.  I made red pepper pasta with rotisserie chicken.  It was a new recipe, and very popular with my guests and my family.  I will definitely make it again. I chose this recipe because it was low carb, not time consuming, and it was bright red! It was used chicken (that I didn't have to take time cooking by the way), so I knew the red color wouldn't be diluted like it might if I used ground beef or turkey.

Dessert did not go initially as planned, but worked out great. I found a recipe for an easy purple cheesecake, but could not find blueberry jello anywhere.  The closest I found was berry blue.  So I followed the recipe, but with berry blue jello instead.  This changed my dessert color scheme to light blue which was fine since I topped it with blue berries.

Favor: For a parting gift for my guests, I bought boxes of candy in the colors that each guest wore to the party. I designed a tag that read "Thank HUE for adding color to our Night" and attached it with matching ribbon.  For display only, I added a small bottle of the matching paint color to the display.

This was a fun theme to put together (I know I say that every month!).  It was neat to have each of the girls dressed up in their color too.  Would totally recommend this party theme. Hope you liked it!

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!