Tapas and Sangria Bash

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Winter in Germany can be depressing.

Cold.

Dreary.

Gray.

Dark.

Ick!

There was a need for some cheering up and celebrating. Spring and summer are such busy months, so I thought it would be fun to get some girlfriends together and have some yummy food, some drinks and catch up on the fun things we had planned for the summer.

I saw a really pretty party on Pottery Barn for a Tapas and Sangria themed party. I couldn't really define what a tapa was, but any mention of Sangria and I'm sold. Thanks to pinterest I was able to gather some lovely ideas to put everything together.



The decor was really simple and summery. I just wanted to vibe to be bright, fresh and summery. I made up some signs in photoshop to add some personalization to the party.



For the menu I made a few tapas myself and then the girls brought some dishes to share.

The girls brought:
-Potatas Bravas ( a traditional Spanish tapa)
-Salmon Bruschetta


-Sopapilla Cheesecake
-Honey Mustard Chicken
-Macaroons
-Blueberry cupcakes with a lemony frosting

I blame the Sangria for not allowing me to take pictures of ALL the food.

I made:
Bruschetta
Made this the night before. The flavor was bursting the next day. I used this recipe from allrecipes.com


Veggie Quesadillas by the Pioneer Woman

These were incredibly delicious!! I sauteed the veggies the night before and also shredded the cheese the night before for easy prep before the party.

Pineapple and BBQ Chicken Quesadillas also by Pioneer Woman
Also incredible!! I cut up the pineapple and had the cheese shredded for this, but I grilled my husband grilled the chicken right before the party. Could have definitely grilled the chicken the previous day. Would have stilled tasted delicious (the leftover were great).

Pasta Salad
I used a recipe for homemade dressing from allrecipes.com Served in individual cups. Just a little detail for entertaining to keep things simple and cute.

Pico de Gallo
I kinda just eyeballed the ingredients and threw this together, sorry no recipe to share.

Sangria
Whoa! Was this stuff STUH-rong or what. The fruit was soaked in rum overnight. Delicious. After one drink we were all feeling happy and lovey.

Besides food and decor a party needs music! I downloaded some spanishy and fun songs on itunes.

Drinks. Music. Laughing. Games. And even karaoke! It was such a fun night. I also downloaded some free printable photo props and those turned out to be quite fun.

[caption id="attachment_1658" align="aligncenter" width="457" caption="I could rock a stache."][/caption]

They added a little glow when the sun went down.

It was a great night. I love girls nights. Can't wait to do it again.

And I leave with what I consider the best picture of the night:
 Sorry fellas. This spicy lady is spoken for :)

Until next time my sweet friends.

xoxoxo

B

Sweet table contestants!!

Pin It Now! I'm so excited to share some gorgeous party submissions from Germany! I had no idea I was surrounded by such beautiful talent.

This Cookie Dessert table by Regina was created for guests attending a Golden Wedding. She chose the brown, dark red and golden color scheme to fit the theme and to comliment the changing of the seasons.

[caption id="attachment_1502" align="aligncenter" width="589" caption="Regina's Sweet Table"][/caption]

All cookies, macarons and cakepops are homemade by Regina. 

[caption id="attachment_1503" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Cake pops by Regina"][/caption]

I just love these cake pops! She also created the labels, tags and the bunting with the names of the Golden Couple. To see more pictures and for details on her event check out her blog.

This next table comes from Christine of Weddingstyle.de

Christine styled this wedding dessert table for the magazine. Beautiful isn't it?

Should have more tables to share in the next few weeks! Germany is looking good so far :)

xoxo

B

The Sweet Table Contest 2011

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Calling all party planners! The 2011 Sweet Table Contest has officially launched! Last year the competition was just in Europe, but this year international contestants are eligible and encouraged to enter. I am the judge representing Germany for 2011, but if you live in another country you can find your national judge here.

Last year Belle Amour's stunning Snow White Themed table was the Sweet Table Contest winner.



She is an incredibly talented and creative party party planner and is the U.K judge this year. She wrote up a wonderful post with many tips for creating your own sweet table. Check out some examples and entries from last year for even more inspiration.

It's easy to enter...
1) The contest ends Friday December 9, 2011
2) If you live in Germany please email one high resolution picture of the tablescape to me and include your name, url with more images (facebook link, blog, picasa album, etc) and city. If you are not in Germany you can find your national sponsor here.
3) The contest is open to everyone worldwide except for professional party/event planners or professional caterers.
4) Voting will be based on the following: 
Creativity
Colour harmony
Presentation & harmony of the table
Accordance with the chosen theme
Overall look & feel.

Find out more about the competition by checking out the Sweet Table website, becoming a fan on Facebook or following it on Twitter.

I am looking for a sponsor to award a prize to the German winner. Please send me an email if you are interested in being a sponsor and learning about sponsorship benefits. The Grand Prize will be awarded by the Sweet Table Contest Team.

Looking forward to seeing all the creativity pary planners worldwide have to offer :)

-B

Winnie the Pooh ish summer theme party

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My little man is one!  Wow it went by fast.  His party was this past weekend and I have to admit I'm kinda happy it's over with.  You see living in Germany is such an incredible experience.  We are within driving distance to some of the most historical and quaint cities in the world.  Yet despite this I just really want a Party City, Hobby Lobby and even a Wal-mart (gasp! Not usually a Walmart person.  I'm a Tarjay snob.  But Walmart does have cheap crafty type of things that are perfect and useful for party planning.  Oh and they are open 24/7!!

In order to plan a party over here I have to rely heavily on online ordering and that just things tricky and unpredictable.  The way I pictured this party looking in my head and the way it actually turned out are totally different. 

Here was my guy's 1st bday:

I really liked the number One decoration.  It was pretty easy to make.  I followed this basic concept to create it : http://crafts.kaboose.com/puffy-heart.html

Since one is a sentimental birthday I wanted to highlight his first year:

I seriously love pooh and his cute quotes and sayings.  I thought these were perfect for a first birthday:

For the honey pot I just painted a clay pot yellow and wrote hunny using white paint.  Mr. Wright said to me, "you know that's not how honey is spelled, right? And your y is backwards."  He's a nut.

So as you can see inside the honey pots I made cake pops.

They didn't turn out how I wanted.  For one, finding WHITE melting candy proved to be impossible and white chocolate chips just don't melt so well.  I ended up having to use speckled melting chocolates.  I really wanted to make these beach balls, but again I was limited in  my resources for having frosting utensils.  It's the thought that counts.  Btw etsy has several vendors who make very cute cake pops.  It would be a good idea to outsource these treats since they do take some time to make.

The cupcake tower turned out pretty cute.

I love my new drink dispenser I ordered online from amazon.  Less than $30 and free shipping!  It's perfect.

I kept the goodie bags simple:

And that was it.  I do have the pdf printables for this party, so please leave a comment if you would like the download.  For free of course :)

Here's some very cute ideas I found around the web for a Pooh inspired bash:

This party was submitted to P is for Party

These honey pots by the Party Mama are so cute.  Wish I would have found her site in time.

This Disney Pooh sweets table by Hostess with the Mostess is a very cute idea:

This hundred acre woods sign from etsy designer CSCuteCrafts would be a cute decoration:

I hope to have some more parties this summer to share :)

Hello Kitty Birthday Party

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I love living in the country and all, but I feel like it's a 3rd world country sometimes.  I mean if you ignore the fact that we have running, clean water.  And a refrigerator.  And a dishwasher.  Oh and grocery stores within 15 minutes.  But internet?  Nope.  And I have no glimmer of hope it will come anytime soon.  In the meantime I'm using internet from my iphone and every so often I have a great connnection.  And so I can't blog as much as I'd like to,  but I'm catching up :)

Last weekend a friend asked me to help her put together her daughter's second birthday.  I was thrilled of course!  We planned this party in just 48 hours, so though it still turned out completely darling it wasn't AS personalized as I would have liked.  But that is just the perfectionist control freak in me.  It was beautiful and so was the birthday girl.

The birthday girl is super girly, so of course we kept everything pink!

See the hello kitty pom pom on the bottom left?

It was rather cute.

My friend came up with the cutest names for the food.  Like these "kitty kabobs"

And "kat nip" which was just cheese and crackers.  Though the cheese hadn't made it to the table yet when I took this pic.

 

And then to drink my friend made "kitty koolaid" which was a concoction of sprite, raspberries and pink lemonade.

One of my favorite party dessert/snack foods is chocolate covered pretzels.  How adorable did these turn out??

The cupcakes were made by a local lady. 

One way to add depth and personality to a party table is to take boxes and wrap them in wrapping paper or tissue paper.  Varying heights on the table are appealing to the eye and then wrapping paper just adds one more detail to create a beauitful layout.

Boxes wrapped in paper also work great if you don't have a cake or cupcake stand :)  Wasn't the cake adorable?  Another friend of ours  used a hello kitty cake pan and then frosted the cake.  So cute!

All the girls dressed up in tutus and helloy kitty shirts

It was a lot of fun.  If you have time before your party, check out etsy.  There are some super cute hello kitty party items like cake pops, hats and tutus.  We were on a time crunch and used what we could :)

It was so much and I am so grateful I got to be a part of this party!  Coming up later this month is my little man's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!  So you know I'm going all out!  I've got some very cute ideas I'm incorporating and can not wait to share!!!

xoxo

B

New Year’s Eve Table on a Budget!

Pin It Now! This year will be rather tame compared to years past.  We have two babies now and no grandma to stay overnight and babysit.  Even though there will be no fancy party dress, fun venue to attend or loads of friends surrounding us to ring in the new year I still plan to make it special.  Now since it's just the family this year, it would be wasteful to splurge on a bunch of party decor.

So my inner budget spirit came out today and here's what I created:

I love the colors blue, purple and silver for NYE.  I found the ornaments for sale for $2.50 and I had the tissue paper at home.  I made a table runner out of tissue paper as well as place mats.  I put some ornaments in a tall vase to give the table dimension.

Then I had a genious idea.  Lighting is crucial and so of course I wanted candles on the table.  However white candles would be too boring.  I read a tip in a book I'm reading, Lulu Powers Food to Flowers (an awesome entertainment/party planning book btw!) to add tealight candles to water for a simple yet chic decoration.  So I did that and then also added blue food coloring to the water.  Simple!  I do still need to verify if that is safe.  I don't think food coloring is flammable.

I then printed some Happy New Year Tags to use as namecards and it came together nicely.  Now if I were actually hosting dinner I would glam it up much more.  I would use a black table cloth (maybe white),  add silver tinsle to the table, use silver charger plates, blue or purple colored wine glasses and find some pretty napkins to match the theme.  I'd also add party hats and such to the table for some fun.

I REALLY like what Chris at Celebrations at Home did for a backdrop for one of her beautiful parties:


I think the clear beads would look really cool hanging from my table or even laid out on it as well.

Hope everyone has something fun and special planned for New Year's!

xoxo

B

Breakfast Burrito Buffet for the Holidays

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I have a good idea for a breakast brunch this holiday season!  A breakfast burrito buffet!

It could be as fancy or as simple as you like.  The reason I like the burrito buffet idea is because it's simple and doesn't take much time at all.  Here's what I included in my buffet:
Homemade salsa made the day before (store bought is ok too, but I highly recommend homemade!)
Breakfast sausage
Bacon
Eggs
Breakfast Potatoes
Shredded Cheese
Flour tortillas
Saricha hot sauce (best stuff ever)
Orange juice in fun champagne glasses

Guests can add whatever they like, roll up and enjoy.  MMM!

I set the table up first. It makes things much less stressful this way. If you want to create a festive holiday table, gather items from around your house or even purchase a few pieces for your buffet table.  This can be as fancy or simple as you like.  But I do recommend at least having some fresh flowers.  Flowers and brunch just seem to go together.

Arrange the plates and servingware where you'd like them to go.  I put out the shredded cheese, salsa and tortillas on the table ready to go while I prepared the potatoes, sausage, bacon and then the eggs.

I recommend cooking the eggs last because everything else can hold up fine for 30min or so whereas eggs get cold.  And cold eggs are just not good.

Next time I will add avocados and jalapenos though.  Some fresh fruit on the side would be nice too.

A burrito buffet is so versatile and can easily be made into your own.  For example add sauteed vegetables like red and yellow peppers with onions for vegetarian guests.  The world is your oyster.

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season!

xoxo

B

Prettify Your Thanksgiving Table in 20 minutes

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It has taken me longer than I intended to finally create the designs for my Thanksgiving table.  I've been a busy little bee.  But better late than never, right?  So  friends if any of you are looking for a simple, inexpensive way to jazz up your Thanksgiving look no further.  Simply print my pdfs on cardstock using a color printer (a home printer works just fine) and then cut.  Easy peasy. 



You'll need:

2" scallop or circle punch (if using the tags). 
Double sided tape or glue(for candle label)
Scissors
Card Stock
Color Printer
Hole Punch and Ribbon (for banner)

Here's the ThanksgivingPrintable.  If you have Adobe Pro you can insert text for the name tags.  Otherwise use a fine tip permanent marker.

Included in the package:

12 circle tags with saying "Thankful", "Grateful" and "Blessed
Candle Wrapper
Name tags (can be used as labels for your food and dessert)
"Thankful" banner

Hope someone can find a use for this :)  and if you do, please let me know! :)

xoxo!

B