Friendsgiving 2014

This weekend Miguel and I had about 10 people over for a Friendsgiving dinner. This was Miguel's idea, but I love throwing themed parties and so I was excited to help host! I am fully aware that I go a little cheesy with themes, but I don't care, I embrace it haha.  For example, I cut out Thanksgiving photo props that no one used, but Miguel was kind enough to humor me and take a picture as a pilgrim! 

Once people got to our house I didn't remember to take any photos, but I snapped some pics of the food and decor earlier. 

This was the first time we used our new dining room table! We put one of the leaves in so that we could fit more people, but that also meant that there was very little wiggle room as the table took up pretty much the whole length of the room! 

Poor Madison got stuck in the chair closest to the window! Once she got in, she couldn't get out. Especially once we added a chair to the opposite end, essentially blocking the doorway to the kitchen. 

We also set up another little table so that there would be more room, but in the end we didn't get enough extra chairs so it became an impromptu "sweetheart table". 

Publix commercial salt and pepper shakers my dad gave me years ago =)

We also had candles and a fire going outside, but then, of course, it started to rain... pout.

To make the house smell like fall I had a simmer pot of orange peels, apples, cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, etc going on the stove.

Our guests each brought a Thanksgiving dinner side or two, so I put my energy towards making little finger foods and things to snack on before dinner. 

These cute peanut butter pumpkin balls were my favorite thing! They were so easy to make! I think this would be a fun activity to make with kids too! And, apart from the pretzel stick stem, they are GF and DF!

Next I had a pumpkin pie dip with graham crackers and apples. I just wish the apples didn't brown so quickly.  This was also pretty simple to make, but sadly, it's not DF. I may still have had a bite or two though...

I also made some GF & DF sugar cookies that I made in the shape of fall leaves and pilgrim hats. They tasted really good to me, especially for being GF and DF!

This pic is pretty blurry, but for drinks I made a cranberry champaign cocktail.  It only has 3 ingredients and is so easy to make! Just don't make the same mistake I did and have the spout of the drink dispenser open when you pour in the juice!

But, of course, the biggest hit of the night was Miguel's turkey! Yummmmmmmy! He smoked it in the Big Green Egg and it turned out wonderfully! 

We had a fun night with good friends and are very thankful to have such a great group of people to celebrate with here in Savannah! Now that we are all warmed up  we are definitely looking forward to this upcoming week celebrating with our families!

Love Is Brewing: A Bridal Tea

This past Saturday my mom and I threw a Bridal Tea Shower for a childhood friend. I have been so excited about this tea for a long time now and started preparing for it many months ago. I still cannot believe that it has already come and gone! Wow!

Since my parents are in the middle of moving and we knew that their house would be on the market this fall, my mom and I thought it would be best to throw the shower at different location. I imediately thought of having the party at a tea house because that seems very "Bridal" to me. I couldn't believe my luck when I discovered The Roswell Tea house! Besides being quite picturesque, it also offers food services accommodating the many food allergies (gluten, soy, dairy, chicken, vegetarian, etc) of all our guests!  We also thought it'd be fun to have a mother/daughter tea since the guests we were inviting were all high school friends whose mothers were also acquaintances and friends. In the end it was a mix of mothers and daughters though. Scheduling something on a non-UGA football weekend in the fall is hard when everyone else is also taking advantage of the "open" Saturday! We had a lovely turnout though and were so happy and thankful that our guests could make it!

Back in July I started gathering ideas for invitations. I spent hours browsing on-line paper companies and in the end decided to create something on my own. I wish I could take total credit, however I found an invitation for inspiration here and then whipped up the rest in Photoshop. I went through multiple versions, but in the end I decided I wanted something more classy, "Bridal" and something that looked like it would compliment a high tea. I axed out any tea motifs and drew a bridal bouquet instead. I paired the invitations with pink envelopes. I was really please with the end result and loved the sweet feedback I received from the guests!

I clearly love being crafty and couldn't have been more thrilled to have a reason to get creative! I decided to go with a bright colored, floral patterned theme. I also came up with the idea of using the phrase "Love Is Brewing" and incorporated that throughout the shower. We ended up having to provide our own tablecloths and, well, pretty much everything except the china.  Below are two pictures of how everything turned out:

I made this banner to hang, it reads: Love Is Brewing with the Bride's wedding date below 12.22.12. I also lucked out with having Cricut cartridges with the heart mugs! Too perfect and cute! I had to use them! I'm really please with the result, but a little disappointed too. This was the second version I ended up making and time just ran out on me. It was much more detailed in my vision, but like I said, I still think it looks cute and the effect was still created!

I also used my Cricut to make a banner to hang on the back of Sarah's chair. However, since the chair didn't end up having posts on the top, we tied it to the front with some ribbon. This actually turned out okay since we seated her towards the end of the room where the sign wouldn't have been seen by the rest of the guests had it been hanging on the back of the chair.

I also made a banner for the gift table

I also created some little tea-themed favors for all of our guests. I purchased tea infusers and little jars to fill with loose tea. Then on each infuser I made little bottle cap charms that read either "Love Is Brewing 12.22.12" or "cuppa ♥". The Bride's read "Mrs. Giovino 12.22.12" (her future married name). I made them in multiple background colors and added a little heart charm that read "love" on each as well.

I put the tea and the infusers in little brown, paper bags that I adorned with the love-mugs and tied with some ribbon. 

I knew I wanted to use tea tins as vases for the flowers. I found the pink ones at Publix and picked up the green ones at World Market. My mom and I purchased some loose flowers from Whole Foods and arranged them in the tea tins. The tea room staff had advised us to keep the flower arrangements relatively small since table space was needed for the tea service. The colors were perfect for the look I was going for, and again, I was really pleased with the end result. 

We had a florist make a corsage for the bride. The colors and flowers matched perfectly! Yay! 

That's pretty much it as far as decor goes. I couldn't have pulled it all together without the help of my wonderful mother! It was so much fun doing this together and I had a blast (as I always do) spending the weekend with her!

I have nothing but compliments to the Roswell Tea House! The food was delicious! I mean, really, really good! We had two teas, a seasonal maple tea and a wedding tea. I love tea, but I truly believe these teas would turn anyone into a tea person! To begin we had a choice of three soups, a butternut squash (which I got... yum!), a carrot ginger, and a tomato basil. Everyone commented on the wonderful flavors. Like my mom said, she had to stop herself from licking the bowl ;)

 

The tea service continued with tea sandwiches (cucumber, edamame, pimento cheese, curry chicken salad), scones, tea cakes, and loads of goodies... and this was just on our non-allergy end. The guests with the allergies assured us that the other options were just as tasty. Not only was everything yummy, it was also beautiful!

After we finished eating, we moved onto gifts. I didn't get too many pictures of this event, but the bride received many beautiful items to jump start her married life. 

Thank you, Claire, for diligently recording the gifts! 

My mom and I gave Sarah a Mackenzie-Childs tea pot in one of the patterns she registered for. The Bentsens (the Bride's family) collect Mackenzie-Childs pieces and my mom and I couldn't think of a more appropriate Bridal Tea gift!

Haha! Sorry, Sarah! This isn't the best picture, but it is the only one I got of Sarah opening the gift!

We had such a beautiful, warm October day! I'm so happy everything came together so well and we were able to celebrate the Bentsen Family and spend time with friends! Looking forward to December 22nd!

The Bentsen sisters, Amy, Claire, and the Bride, Sarah

Long time friends! The mother of the bride, Elisa, Amy, Claire, the Bride, Sarah, me and my mom, Lisa.

Jon and Lauren Are Gettin' Hitched!

Our friends are getting married!!! Eeeeek!!! I am over-the-moon excited for them!

They're gettin' married!!!

 Miguel and I really wanted to celebrate with them so we threw a little cookout at our house! It was thrown together pretty quickly so we just invited everyone with a Facebook invitation, but I created this in Photoshop to use as the picture in the event page. I was, of course, inspired off of something I saw on pinterest!

I love being crafty, so I made a banner using the cricut my parents gave me for my birthday! It was so much fun learning how to use that! Holy cow! I cannot wait to do so many more things with it! 

grrr, I didn't notice that the H and E in SHE were flipped over when I took this picture...

I also got Jon and Lauren's families involved by asking them to send me photos of the lovebirds from over the course of their relationship and from when they were little and . They really delivered and I had tons of fun looking through all the photos! If only I had had more time to do more with them! I had an open frame at the house (I was planning on making a jeweler y holder out of it, a la the one Mrs. Mills did) that I took and glued some twine to. Then I printed out some of my favorite photos of the future Mr. and Mrs. and clipped them to the twine using tiny clothespins. Two of my favorite pictures are of Lauren and Jon as children dressed in a wedding gown and tux! How perfect?! 

I couldn't stand not to use more of the pictures, so I created a slide show and had it playing on a loop on our TV during the party! I really got a kick out of surprising Jon and Lauren with this! I think they were genuinely tickled and surprised by it. Plus everyone else at the party enjoyed seeing a glimpse of Jon and Lauren from a time before we knew them! I had other songs playing on the slide show so there was never a lapse without music, but for some reason when converted to the YouTube video it only picked up one... but if you want to see the cuteness check it out below:

I was pretty worried all week that the party was going to get rained on since we were still dealing with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Beryl, however, the rain storm seemed to part around our house like the Red Sea. People got to our house and said they had actually driven through bad weather on their way there. We only briefly got sprinkled and that even wasn't bad enough for people to go inside!

I was actually pretty good about enjoying the night and didn't focus on taking an overwhelming amount of photos. But I did snap a few.

I love this moment captured here!

I got a top hat for Jon to wear and made a veil for Lauren... but at some point in the night I borrowed Jon's hat =)

Love this girl!

The dogs had fun too!

We had a good time celebrating with friends! I'm so thankful that Jon and Lauren chose to start their lives together here in Savannah and that we have had the pleasure of getting to know them over the past year and a half! I'm excited to see what the future holds for these two! =)

Plus, isn't Lauren going to make a beautiful bride?!

Clemson Tigers Wreath

I made this wreath for a friend who obviously is a Clemson Tigers fan. I really like how this wreath turned out! I used a little bit thicker wreath form which helped to add some volume. I also had fun with the ribbons! 

I'd love to make you your very own school spirit, ribbon wreath! Contact me if you're interested! Only a couple more months till college football season!!! 

Princess Party

"Every girl everywhere is a princess! Even if they live in tiny, old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young! They're still princesses! All of us!"

This year I decided to throw myself a birthday party! I hope that doesn't come across as being so self-satisfied that I felt a need to celebrate myself!! Really, I just wanted an excuse to throw a themed party =) I instantly knew that I wanted to have Princess Party. Yes, I wanted my 26th birthday party to be a Princess party. Who made it a rule that princess themed parties have an age cut off date?! No one officially has, so why the heck not?!

I started off the planning trying to decide if I wanted to have an enchanted forest twist on the party or dive head first into cheesy pink and glitter and total little girl princess party. I really like the idea of an enchanted forest... we have a HUGE live oak in our back yard and I have dreams of hanging lights and lanterns from its branches, setting up a long, narrow table, and eating a yummy meal in flickering candle light. Think inspiration from the following:

Source

However, having an outdoor party in April in Savannah has too many variables. How hot will it be? It's the middle of March and we're already having temperatures in the mid 80's. Nothing is less pleasant than sticky, uncomfortable nights outdoors when you're too hot. Plus you have to have a back up plan incase it rains. That so much wouldn't be a problem per say, but I knew I would be disappointed if I planned a party for outdoors and had to move it inside. And then there are the bugs. Savannah's minor league baseball team isn't named the Sand Gnats by mistake. Arghhh, I really despise those nasty, little creatures. I found some cute ideas for keeping bugs out of your open drinks, but if you can remove that factor completely why even bother? Soooo... all that to say, I quickly decided to go for a cheesy, glittery, over-the-top pink, as girly-girl as you can get, princess party! =)

First things first, I needed to send out invitations. Eeek! How much fun for me! I love being crafty and couldn't wait to start! I was inspired by my friend, Brandie, who always sends the most adorable, handmade cards and invitations. I also spent way to much time on Pinterest (I'm sure most of you understand how that goes) and found some great sources there as well. I went to Michaels and collected the things I would need as well as gathered items from the house:

• • Mix + Mingle invitations
• • Silver envelopes size A6
• • Pink cards size A6
• • White 4 bar cards (I cut in half because they are folded)
• • Pink ribbon x2 rolls
• • Purple and silver ribbon (1 roll each) 
• • Wooden sticks and stars
• • Purple glitter
• • Glue gun
• • Home computer/printer

I painted the little sticks silver then added a faint hint of glitter glue on top. I covered the stars with purple glitter and glued them to the sticks. After I tied some of the purple and silver ribbon to them I had some precious fairy godmother wands!

While those were drying I whipped up the actual invite on my computer and printed them out onto the white cards. It looks blurry here, but they didn't print out that way

Next I took the pink ribbon and cut them in equal lengths, hot glued them to the back of the white cards and tied them in bows. Then I glued the white card to the pink A6 card and stuck the fairy wand behind the pink bow. All that was left was to stuff them in the envelopes, address them, and put them in the mail!

As far as decorations went, I had way too much fun! I spent a long time - and probably too much money - collecting all these things and creating and putting them together! This type of stuff is so much fun for me and a big part of why I like to have parties! I'm really pleased with how everything turned out =)

I hung this tiara-shaped chalkboard on a plant hanger and stuck it, along with a fairy wand, in one of the plants by my front door.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any decent pictures of the decor inside. Time ran away from me the day of the party (haha why does this always happen?!) and I was still putting everything out when guests arrived... so I just snapped some pictures real quick before everything was disturbed. 

I made a "drink station" of sorts in the kitchen. A friend of ours loaned us the drink dispenser (thanks so much, Jason!). I created and hung up tissue paper pompoms from the ceiling, had some balloons near by, and hung a princess banner on the front of the table.

The princess punch was really popular! It was just a champagne punch that my mom suggested and I think I'll definitely serve it again in the future! I made some cute labels and put them on clear party cups. The stickers each had a princess-themed word or phrase such as "Happily Ever After", "Prince Charming", "Enchanted", etc. I added a little bit of fun with a pink or purple striped, paper straw for each cup! I love these straws!

I also got some small water bottles and replaced their labels with some pink polk-dot paper and added princess themed stickers to the top of the bottles.

In the living room I had more balloons and princess banners. I also placed some framed photos of Disney Princess around the room. I purchased the frames from the dollar store and spray painted them pink and then added a layer of glitter spray. I put out some wooden castles I purchased from the craft store and then also spray painted like I did the frames. 

On the coffee table I framed the quote from the Little Princess and put out tiaras and wands for all my guests. More Disney Princess and some jewels added to the theme in this room. 

I placed all the snacks on our dinning room table. Here I hung up the tissue paper pom-poms, more princess banners, framed my party invitation (thanks for that idea Sarah R!), and put together a bouquet of flowers (thanks Sarah W. for helping me choose the flowers!).

As far as the food went... I love treats and sweets... so that's pretty much what I served. I made some chocolate covered cookies with tiara's and princess wands on them, served purple meringues, chocolate covered pretzels and some cupcakes topped with tiaras and diamond rings.

I love this cupcake stand. I was a Christmas present from my best friend and I love how it serves 2 dozen cupcakes. One helpful tip I learned from somewhere on the internet really saved me a lot of time with the cupcakes... I purchased a dozen chocolate and a dozen vanilla cupcakes from Publix at the beginning of the week and kept them frozen until the day of the party. All you have to do is thaw them out a couple of hours before hand and then ice them however you want! A dozen, un-iced cupcakes cost $4. I'd much rather do this than make them myself (when I have a lot of other things to prepare that is... I love baking). 

I was so happy that people got into the Princess spirit with me! Jacquie came as a modern day Jasmine  and I just loved it! She also was so sweet and brought the cutest drink that she named "bippidi boppidi booze"!!!

Jacquie and me

We played a couple of party games. First we played Apples to Apples which is a super easy, non competitive game that brings lots of laughs. Sarah S taught us that the green cards you collect are representative of your personality. Among Lauren's green cards were the adjectives "timeless" and "refined"... very appropriate words for a princess. 

We also played my very favorite game, Pictionary Telephone. You start off by each writing down a phrase and then passing it to the right or left. The next person draws their interpretation of your phrase and pass that on to the person next to them who then guesses what phrase you drew (is that a run on sentence?). This goes on in a circle until you end up with your original phrase. At the end you go through the drawings/phrases sequentially and enjoy the laughs as you see how distorted the original phrase got. It's a hoot! 

I had a fun night and enjoyed celebrating "being a princess" ;) I just want to say a huge thank you to my prince charming, Miguel, who helped me out a ton!!! Love you, BB!!