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!

Uno Party

Who doesn't love the card game UNO? I grew up playing this game, and still love playing it with my family today.  I decided it might be a fun theme to have at our November monthly dinner, and it did not disappoint.  From decorations to food, the colorful theme was easy and fun to put together.

Invite: I designed the invitation around the Uno logo and all the colors used in the game.  I tried to incorporate words from the game into the wording of the invite as well.  I kept it simple, but an additional idea that you could incorporate with this theme might be to ask guests to dress head to toe in one of the colors.

Decorations: Of course, I tried to incorporate UNO cards wherever I could.  On the mantle above the side table, I added Uno cards to the Thanksgiving turkey in my HOME display for added fun.  

I borrowed giant Uno cards from a neighbor, and used red mini clothespins to hang them for a festive banner display.

I also used these giant Uno cards to create a small runner on the dining table on top of a black tablecloth. 

For the centerpiece, I used an Uno Attack shooter that launches cards at you in that Uno game.  I also designed an image with various Uno cards that I printed and wrapped around a vase.  I purchased a bouquet of red roses to put in the top (any excuse to buy myself flowers!).

For the place settings, I purchased paper plates and napkins from the Dollar Tree in the 4 Uno colors.  I put them on top of my white plates so they popped a bit more on the black tablecloth.

For place cards, I designed Uno wild cards with a photo of each guest in the middle.

For the napkins, I just placed an Uno card on the center of a colorful folded napkin.  They were real playing cards, so I didn't glue them or anything.

Had some fun as usual with designing wine labels.  I played off specific Uno cards.  The red wine was a WILD card that I designed to say "Wild about Red Wine."  I used a colorful Uno card wallpaper behind the center image. For the white wine, I used a yellow Draw Two card and photoshopped two white wine glasses into the center squares.  The wallpaper on this label was the same black burst that I used on the invitation with the Uno logo also from the invitation.

For wine charms I printed out mini Uno cards to tape to the front of the glasses.

As added fun, I had guests draw an Uno card to see which glass they used for the evening.

Menu:  There are plenty of colorful foods that could go along with this theme.  I used some color, but mainly used Uno cards as inspiration for my menu.  We started with a 7-Layer Dip and tortilla chips to go with the Green 7 card.

Next was Draw 2 Tacos with all the fixings.  I served TWO options (shredded chicken or ground beef) and each guest started with TWO tacos.  On the side guests could add cheese, tomato, lettuce, guacamole, salsa, and sour cream.

I served WILD rice and black beans inside a red, yellow, and green bell peppers that I called WILD CARD stuffed peppers.

For dessert, I made individual raspberry cheesecakes, but I made them upside down to represent the REVERSE card in Uno. This recipe was very easy to make, and was the perfect amount of cheesecake after we were so full.  

Favor:  As a party favor for guests, I filled a favor bag with M&M's.  I pulled out the orange M&Ms to keep them with the traditional Uno colors.  I probably should have taken out the brown ones so they looked more festive (hindsight).  I designed a tag that said "Hope UNO (you know) how amazing you are!" 

A super fun theme & a super fun game to play. Hope you are inspired to host an Uno party for your next gathering!