Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Entertaining Ideas’ Category

Host a Beach-Themed Party

Posted in Entertaining Ideas, Party Theme, tagged , , on August 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Any of you lucky enough to be living on or close to the beach are just plain lucky enough!

The month of August always conjures up thoughts of the beach for me. The warm sand, the sound of the ocean, the sunsets that play across the water. I could totally go without the seagulls and weird fish smells, but it is all part of that unique beach package.

If you are like me and have no hopes of seeing the beach anytime soon, host a beach-themed party and create your own beach magic.

Start with some fun invitations. Reuse empty glass bottles or jars as a clever vessel for your invite. Print your invitation information on using a fun, flowy font on crisp white or cream parchment paper. Use about 1/4 of a sheet per invitation. Cut out and roll paper around a pencil until it curls into a scroll. Fill cleaned out empty bottles with about an inch of sand in the bottom, add a few seashells and then drop in the scrolled invitation. Make a simple tag out of card stock that says “To: (insert guest name) From: (insert your name)” and tie to the neck of the bottle with raffia string. If you have bottles with corks or stoppers, that is even better. You may want to hand-deliver the invitations.

Plan your menu. What foods make you think of the beach? You could serve a simple meal of some great seafood (fish, crab, lobster  – whatever you like), fresh fruit (think mango or something a little different), rice, fresh veggies (an easy tomato and cucumber salad), gingerale or gingerbeer . Finish the evening with s’mores, or if you are feeling a bit more adventurous, whip up a dessert like a coconut cake or berry pie.

Create the atmosphere. Use whites, watery blues and bottle greens to get started with your decorating. Set up a buffet table using crisp white sheets as the covering and add accents of blue and greens. Bowls or jars filled with sand and seashells make the perfect decorations. Make sure you have plenty of candlelight scattered throughout your serving and seating area. It creates just the right warm glow for the evening. Hang paper lanterns around the perimeter, play some “ocean” background music. If you have time and your budget allows, think about creating a big sand box where kids and adults alike can create sand castles or wiggle their toes in the sand. Netting, burlap and jute are also great texture pieces to look to for highlighting your beach theme.

Use your imagination and see how fun a beach-themed party can be!

Happy Entertaining!

Shanna

Read Full Post »

Goin’ Fishing

Posted in Easy Recipes, Entertaining Ideas, Party Theme, tagged , on August 6, 2010| 1 Comment »

So today’s recipe isn’t really a recipe, and to just lay it on the table, not a lot of nutritional value here either. But it was something I threw together the other day for a fishing-themed meeting. I had fun with it, which means I took photos and now you get to see the kinds of crazy things I think about when I should be sleeping!

Despite my recent issues with Goldfish crackers and the fact that they continue to breed under the front passenger seat of my car, they really did make this whole thing look cute.

The Cast of Characters

Easy to Assemble

Goin’ Fishing

Goldfish crackers (I liked the rainbow variety for this particular purpose)

Foot Long Fruit Rollups

Pretzel Rods

Gummy Worms

Pour crackers into your serving dish. I used ramekins because a serving piece that is deep will work much better than one that is shallow. Cut off about a six inch piece of the Fruit Rollups. Wrap one end a few times around the pretzel rod. It is sticky and not only sticks to itself, but also the pretzel. Stick a gummy worm on the other end of the strip. Again, the sticky thing is a real help with this project.

(Note: if your husband is unable to keep his grubby hands off the gummy worms, you may have to hide them until you are done with the assembly because a second trip to the store to buy more worms is not where it is at!)

Stand the pretzel rod upright in the dish against one side. Let the worm dangle over the fish. Ta-Da! Wasn’t that fun and simple?

These would be great for a kids party or any event with a fishing theme.

Here, fishy...

Happy Entertaining!

Shanna

Read Full Post »

County Fair Party Theme

Posted in Party Theme, Quick and Easy, tagged , , , , on August 3, 2010| 3 Comments »

Back where I grew up, they are picking their best produce, whipping up their best recipes, scrubbing down their 4-H animals, gulping  gallons of lemonade and indulging in dozens of “Happy Bowls” at the annual County Fair this week.

It was always a fun time of year as a kid. Everybody went at least one day. I remember strolling through the animal barns with my dad, begging for a bag of cotton candy and gawking at the huge and sometimes bizarre produce on display. I have never liked the carnival, so that wasn’t a big draw, but you could get all the junk food a little body could hold, see friends and family you hadn’t visited with for a while and, in general, enjoy all the spectacles the fair provided.

When I was in college and desperate for a summer job, I spent several weeks working at the fairgrounds, first as a grunt and then in the office (which was way more fun!). The fair manager was a sweet and wonderful lady who made going to work a pleasure.

Even where we now reside, we can go to any one of three county fairs in our immediate area.

For those of you who are too far away from a county fair or not into the whole carnival/dirt/smell/crowd thing that goes along with it, think about hosting a county fair themed party. It could be a lot of fun for both you and your guests.

Start out with the invitations. Make it look country using red or blue checked paper with contrasting red or blue gingham ribbon.

Set tables with red and white checked tablecloths. Nothing says “county fair” quite like those fun table coverings. You can find inexpensive plastic ones at party or craft stores or cloth ones at most department stores.

Use sunflowers as centerpieces and to highlight tables. Loosely arrange them in canning jars and tie a piece of gingham fabric around the top of the jars. If you have old jars that have turned blue, even better!

Ask guests to bring something to enter in a judging competition. It could be produce, a craft project, whatever. Although I recommend leaving the animals at home. Trust me on this one. Have everyone vote on their top three favorite entries, tally the votes and give ribbons out. You can easily make your own (or have the kids make them). Here is a website with a fun step-by-step guide. How to Make a Fair Ribbon

The food could be potluck or you can go “whole hog” and make a fun selection of  fair food like corn dogs, funnel cakes, lemonade and home-made ice cream. Here is a link  Funnel Cake Mix to some good funnel cake mix if you don’t want to make it from scratch.  You can also get a tasty corn dog batter mix here. Please ignore the fact that I know you can order them from Bass Pro Shops. Please. Thank you.

You could even set up some fun country fair type games. Attach balloons to a piece of foam board and have darts people can throw to pop the balloons. You can use jar rings and empty pop bottles for a ring toss. Sack races, water balloon fights and tug-of-war are all inexpensive and fun. Prizes could be fun little trinkets picked up from the dollar store.

Have fun with this theme and see if it doesn’t become a great party you and your friends remember for a long time to come. And eat a funnel cake for me!

Happy Entertaining!

Shanna

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »