Olympic Dinner Party

Have you been watching the Olympics?

I must admit I’ve had so many projects going on lately I have only watched a few highlights but my husband has kept me up to date on all that is going on!

Thanks to my niece Michelle (yes the diaper cake Michelle) who shared this great idea for a fun  family Olympic Dinner Party that her sister in law, Heather,  put on.

You still have a few days to pull this together and it might be a perfect way to watch the closing ceremonies on February 28nd!

Why not enjoy a Canadian feast prior to the ceremonies.  A great way to learn a little about another country.

Here’s the menu from Michelle’s Olympic dinner party:

Salmon from British Columbia

Wheat bread from Saskatchewan

Potatoes from Prince Edward Island

Pouding Chomeur from Quebec.

So I had never heard of Pouding Chomeur and I am even half Canadian (my dad was born and raised there) so I had to google it.  Come to find out it is a dessert that comes from Quebec and actually means poor man’s pudding.

It was created by female factory workers in 1929 during the Great Depression. It consists of a mix of flour, water, brown sugar, and other cheap ingredients that were common during the era.

I found a recipe for it here.  If you try it – let me know what you think!!  It’s got maple syrup on it (which makes it even more Canadian) so it can’t be that bad!!

(Heather admits her menu was loosely Canadian and none of the food actually came from Canada )

Heather put together a pretty table complete with maple leaf place cards and used the red and white colors of the Canadian flag for her table decor.  She even ad an Olympic Torch centerpiece!

If you are looking for a few more last minute fun Olympic ideas check out The Idea Door.  Who wouldn’t want to win a chocolate chip cookie medal!  Check it out!

Thanks to Michelle and Heather for sharing this fun Olympic family dinner party!

Diaper Cake

Today I want to share with you another fun idea for a party cake.  This cake doesn’t taste quite as good as the candy cake idea I shared last week but it is super cute and useful!

My niece Michelle is a cake decorator extraordinaire! She recently helped host a baby shower and this is the amazing cake she made for the party.

Isn’t it darling!?  I loved the color scheme for the party – red and teal.  Do you recognize that cute little cupcake?

Here’s a close up view.   Michelle is a master with fondant!

Michelle made another cake for the shower too.  This cake didn’t taste quite as good but it was just as cute and very useful!

It’s a cake made out of diapers!

I asked Michelle to share with us how she put together the cake.  Here’s her great tutorial.  Thanks Michelle!

Supplies you will need:

*2 big packages of Pampers Swaddlers- it needs to be Swaddlers for a few reasons:
1. They are all white.
2. They seem to be a little bit stiffer and hold shape better than other diapers when you roll them (I used 117 diapers for this cake, you may need more or less depending on how tall you make it, and if you have other fillers in the middle)
I recommend using a size 2 diaper instead of a newborn or size 1. That way, the mother doesn’t need to take it apart right away to use it before the baby grows out of that size diaper.
*4-5 yards ribbon (I used two colors, but I didn’t do any bows. Had this been for a girl, I would have used more to make some big bows)
*Cans of formula, or bottles for the center (Or more diapers to fill it in)
*Baby socks
*Other baby supplies like pacifiers, small clothing, etc. almost anything for baby can be added to the cake.
*Card with poem (you can get that off my blog)
*Card board circle or something sturdy to put it on. I used my kitchen lazy susan, but a big Pizza Pan works well, and it’s only about $3 at Walmart (and is best if you are transporting the cake somewhere- they can get heavy)
*Rubber Bands
*Wooden dowel- this will go through all the layers to hold it all together. The circle decor thing (I don’t know what you’d call it- I found it in the floral section at Hobby Lobby) was all attached to it’s own dowel, so I just used that.
I also like a cute kind of topper. I used the stork and baby (it’s a topper for a real cake) but I have seen signs made from paper that say “Welcome ________” (baby’s name) I have an embroidery machine, so I actually had that embroidered right on the ribbon that I was using around the tiers. Sometimes a baby item, like a little pair of shoes also makes a great topper.

Assemble:
Once you have the supplies, take a diaper, roll it from the end to where it folds, put it inside a rubber band (I use the big ones that my mail comes in) as you roll more diapers, keep adding them to the inside of the rubber band until you get the base the size you want. If you are including a can of formula, that would actually go in the middle, with the rubber band around it, and you would keep adding the diapers around the can. Bottles work well, too, if they are the same height as the diapers.

Do the same for the next layer, making it smaller that the base by 1 row of diapers. Make as many tiers/layers as you would like. I did 4 layers, but 2 or 3 look just as nice.

Take your widest ribbon and cover the rubber band with it. It works best to safety pin the ribbon closed in the back. You can cover the pin with something, or even use diaper pins (if you can find them- I couldn’t) to secure it. I alternated the ribbon, you can do that or use the same- just use your creativity!

When all the layers are made and the ribbons attaches, stack the cake and insert the wooden dowel through the, placing it as close to the middle of the layers as you can.

Now the fun part: Decorating the “cake”

To make the sock roses, unroll a sock. Starting at the toe, roll it back to form a rosette. If they are lacy socks, the lace will look great turned back up a little around the base of the rosette. You can use some extra ribbon to be the leaves. I also used a wash cloth around a group of socks. Secure the rosettes individually with a small rubber band. These can then be inserted in between the diapers, or laid on top, however you think it looks best.

Add other baby items. You can use floral wire and sticks, or double stick tape, or even tie things on with ribbon. You can add as few or as many other items as you would like. Blankets can even be folded the width of the diapers and wrapped around one of the layers.

Michelle display the cake along with this cute poem:

Here is a cake made with love

Though I wouldn’t call it yummy

For the ingredients used go on the baby

Not inside your tummy.

Flour, sugar, milk, and eggs

will make a cake so sweet

But diapers, formula, and baby socks

make a handy treat.

Photos courtesy of Little Starling Photography.

Thanks Michelle for sharing your amazing talent with us.  Please let us know if you have a fun cake – edible or not that you have created.  We’d love to share it here on Your Homebased Parties!

Holiday Table Decor

A few weeks ago I hosted my annual Holiday Breakfast.  It is something I do every year for my first line team members who work with me in my direct sales business.

I’ve got the menu pretty well down for that event.  You can check it out here.  Because I can do that breakfast almost on auto pilot it gives me time to think about my table decor.

I always serve the breakfast buffet style so I like to do something to decorate the table or counter from which I serve the food.  Usually I serve off my large kitchen island but this year I decided to do it from the kitchen table.

I pushed the table up against the wall to give people a little more room to move around the table.

I love magazines and have quite a collection at my house.  My favorite thing to do is tear pictures of pretty things out of them and file them away.  I use the photos for ideas or inspiration. In this year’s December issue of Better Homes & Gardens I found a photo that inspired my table decor for my holiday breakfast.

They had used an old wooden sled on the table with a grouping of glass cloches with ornaments underneath.  When I saw the photo I remembered that up in my attic I had an old vintage wooden sled I had picked up several years ago at an antique store.  It was one of those purchases that my husband had said “What are you going to do with that?”  Actually he says that quite often.  My reply of course was “I don’t know, but I’ll find something!”  I knew I loved it and sometime I would need it!

So my nice, kind husband crawled up into the attic to retrieve the sled for me.

Very rarely do I ever purchase something specifically for a table decoration, except for fresh flowers but a lot of times those just come out of my garden.

I love the challenge of looking around my house to see what I have and what I can re purpose as table decor!

 

For this decor I used a glass cloche that I have.  I placed it on top of a small green cake stand I had previously purchased at Home Goods and filled it with some ornaments I hadn’t used on my tree.  A few of them I actually removed from the tree to use!  The other little cake stand I also had.  My little addiction to cake stands comes in handy sometimes!

 If you don’t have any glass cloches you can also use glass vases and just turn them upside down!

 
 
I added a few pieces of artificial greens around the base of the cake plates or if you have cut down a fresh tree use a few of the branches you cut off to get it into the tree stand.

I then just scattered a few more ornaments in the greens.  I think it looks great and I love the height that the sled gave the centerpiece!

Next up was the dining room table where we would be eating.  Again I looked around the house to see what I could use – re purpose!

I decided my little collection of glittery vintage santas would look great as part of the centerpiece.

I used a piece of green chiffon fabric as the base for the centerpiece.  I have a collection of different colors of chiffon squares to use as an anchor for centerpieces.

Here’s an example from my Little Princess Tea Party.

 

Just purchase a yard of fabric and then serge the edges or do a small folded hem.  I have even been known to leave the edges raw and tuck them under.

 
 
I grabbed another one of those cake stands I am so fond of and a few more ornaments off the tree (my tree has lots of ornaments so these weren’t missed!), another sprig of greens and a few more candles that usually sit in my kitchen windowsill.

I positioned the santas so they were facing different ways so that no matter what side of the table you were on you had a nice view of Santa!

 

What fun things have you found around your house to use as table decorations?

Little Princess Tea Party} Decorations

I think one of my favorite types of parties to do is a tea party.  I think it must be all that English blood flowing through my veins.

I love everything that goes along with a tea party – usually pink and frilly!  And then those scones aren’t so bad either.

Last month my daughter Tessa had the role of the evil Miss Minchin in Little Princess at her high school.  As part of the performance they offered a tea party with a special visit from some of the characters in the show.

The tea party was a project for one of the Marketing students and I volunteered to help.

I couldn’t resist – I offered to help with the food and decorations.

Since it was a fund raiser the budget we had to work with was rather limited but we made it work!

We decided to go with a pink and purple color scheme.

The party was being held in a bare, ugly teacher’s lounge so we tried to add a little softness and color to the room.

I was able to use the tissue paper pom poms from Tessa’s Pink Birthday Party.

I added in some pink chinese lanterns that I bought online – very reasonably priced – from Luna Bazaar.  I hung the pom poms and the lanterns using clear fishing line and thumbtacks from the ceiling.

For the tables we used plastic tablecloths from the dollar store (small budget) and pink and purple paper goods from there also. One of the teacher’s brought her china teacup set so the grownups could drink their tea from real teacups.

For the table decorations I took about a yard of pink tulle per table and created a little pink cloud in the middle of each table.  I placed a cake stand in the center of each cloud (ones I had at home).  I went to Goodwill and found some inexpensive teacups, they don’t have to match.  I stacked them one inside another and glued them together and placed the teacup stack on top of the cake stand to create a whimsical, cute and inexpensive centerpiece.

 

A piece of ribbon tied to one of fhe teacups was the finishing touch.

We also created a little vignette just outside the teacher’s lounge so people would know where the party was.

 

Next post:  Little Princess Tea Party} Food