The party Jessica put together was amazing.  So much love and care went into it.

Jessica  had been told by people told that a first birthday celebration was just for her, since the baby won’t remember.   This may be true but Jessica wanted to…

“celebrate big, make a fuss, hand-make every decoration, stay up late cooking and crafting and gluing, and invite all of Annalise’s little friends and their families over. I’ve been thinking about this party, this event to celebrate the life and miracle of my angel baby girl, for months, but I couldn’t articulate to myself why I wanted such a big fuss. Then I read a post from this blog and was struck by a short quote from a mother who lost her daughter to a choking accident two weeks shy of her second birthday. In a letter to her son on his first birthday, she wrote, “Dearest Little Peter Boy, I didn’t know that your sister, Lucy, would have only one birthday. Just one. We had a small party for her. And it was sweet and wonderful. But after she passed away, I realized what a big deal birthdays are. Another year alive. Another year with our loved ones. And I vowed that I would make your first birthday a huge celebration. And we did! It was all I could have hoped for and more.” I agree. They’re a big deal and they are indeed a miracle. One which I do not take for granted and Annalise’s party was my way of expressing that and reveling in it. I thank God for my precious baby.”

I have to say I totally agree with Jessica!!

The theme of the party was Sweet Pea,which is her daughter’s nickname.

Jessica carried that fun theme through all the details of the party and created a beautiful, not to be forgotten event!

For Jessica, the name of the game was THRIFTY.  She wanted to put together a fun party from scratch without spending a lot of money. Look what Jessica did with some dollar store finds.  It is amazing what a little spray paint, glue and imagination can do!

Glass bowls and candlesticks from the dollar store become lovely serving pieces!

A little inexpensive tissue paper and craft paper and look what you have -

I also love what she did with this fun little sign she found at the Dollar Store that fit her theme so perfectly!

Before:

After:  So much cuter!

Jessica’s attention to detail was wonderful.  She printed off labels at home to dress up and personalize her water bottles.

She used utensils and paper goods from the Dollar Store but dressed them up a bit!

Add  a fun vintage store find that was originally broken and dark brown.  I love spray paint!!

Jessica then took an out grown tutu she already had and stuffed it into a vase and had an amazing party decoration

There were lots of fun pink treats and some sweet peas too!!

She even printed off some fun birthday themed artwork and changed out the artwork in her frames over the table for the party!  A detail woman after my own heart!!

As you can see Jessica is also an amazing photographer so her sweet pea will remember this amazing first birthday as she relives it through the wonderful pictures her mother has taken.

Thank you Jessica for sharing your party with us.  The love and devotion you have to your daughter shines through every detail.

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

I love everything vintage and have recently developed a fondness for vintage tablecloths so I wanted to incorporate those into the party.

The luncheon was held out on the patio in our garden.  Fortunately we had wonderful weather.  After a very rainy spring and early summer I was a little worried but the weather came through and it was almost too warm and sunny.  We pulled out the sun hats and sunglasses and everyone did fine.

I also have a little collection of vintage aprons.  Since I had to use my ugly folding chairs I decided to dress them up a bit with the vintage aprons.  I used a double sided tape to tape them onto the top of the chairs.  It worked great.

For the table decor I used my blue mason jars I had picked up last year for the backyard wedding reception I helped with.

I filled them with flowers from my garden and placed a jar on each table along with a couple of old, vintage books.

The only flowers I had to buy was one bunch of hydrangea from Costco which I used in the arrangement I put on the serving table.

I also used the blue and clear canning jars to display pictures of my mother through the ages.  People loved looking at the photos!

I also added some vintage inspired pinwheels into some of the jars.

I borrowed an old vintage quilt from a friend to use as a backdrop.  The serving table was right up against our fireplace and there was an ugly black vent I needed to cover up.  I ran a wire line and used clothes pins to hang it behind the table.  It worked perfect.

I basically just found every vintage type thing in my house and used it to decorate with.  An old shelf from my girl’s room that was in the garage, a sign from Tessa’s room, books from the family room.  I just went around the house collecting things.

My Aunt Pam came down from Canada for the party and brought me this beautiful hat she found at a garage sale.  It very quickly became part of the decor.

I like to use signage on my serving table.  I always like to know what I am eating and besides that it looks pretty!

The menu consisted of three types of quiche, four salads, bread, cupcakes and cake.  For more details on the menu check out the recipes I’ll be posting over at Your Homebased Mom.

The desserts were on a separate serving table.  I found an old rusty shelf at a vintage shop that I used to give the table some height.  I added more flowers and books.

I also stacked 3 cake plates on top of each other for the cupcakes.

The finishing touch was a pretty girl in a vintage dress and apron to help serve!

Since the party was back in the garden I wanted people to know which direction to go so I pulled out Daisy and added a sign to her so people knew where the party was!

The best part of the party?  Was just watching my mom enjoy herself with her friends!

Happy Birthday Mom – we love you!

Do I just lay it on the counter? That doesn’t look too good.

What do I put it in?

This weekend we stopped for a beverage at a fun food cart in Portland and I saw this idea  – I loved it.  Could hardly believe it was a foodcart – antique silverware.

I love the idea of putting the silverware in mason jars!  How pretty is that!?

Do you have a fun idea you use for silverware at a party?  Leave a comment and let me know!

The cast party was a great success thanks to the help of a lot of parents!

We had a yummy menu, not the typical pizza or sub sandwich fare!

There were lettuce wraps, curry, El Cafe Cubano beans (if you’ve seen Guys & Dolls, you’ll understand that one).  Both the curry and the beans were vegan as we have several kids in the cast that are vegan.  There was also some sweet pork and rice and three types of pinwheel sandwiches.   In addition we had chips and salsa, 7 layer dip and a very spicy but yummy jalapeno dip, fruit and vegetable trays!  No one went home hungry!!

For those of you unfamiliar with the show Guys & Dolls  – it takes place in the 1930’s in New York and deals with a group of missionaries trying to save a group of gamblers/crapshooters.  Of course at the end everyone falls in love, gets married and lives happily ever after!

It was fun to use the theme of the show in planning the party.

There is a trip down to Havana in the show to El Cafe Cubano  and there is lots of dice throwing  and gambling going on in the show.

For dessert there were lots of fun things!

Thanks to Cindy who hand dipped all these amazing strawberries.  The little tuxedo and wedding veil strawberries were a huge hit (the show ends with a wedding) – aren’t they darling!

Another mom made up a batch of “dice” krispie treats.

I baked up a batch of yummy chocolate/caramel cupcakes with a whip cream frosting.  I couldn’t resist when I found these fun cupcake toppers at the cake decorating shop!  They even had sprinkles shaped like hearts, spades, diamonds etc.!

And then there was this amazing cake made by one of the mom’s – Caryn Ogle.  She used the logo from the poster for the show and created two mini cakes shaped like dice!  Isn’t it great!

Here are the happy couples cutting the cake!

For dessert there was also apple strudel to go along with the reference to cheesecake and strudel in the show!

I love developing a theme for a party.  It was so fun to have the other mom’s join in with me with their amazing creativity to help create a really fun event for the kids that had worked so hard and so long on the show.

Would you like help in developing a theme for your next party? I’d love to help you.  Please check out my services page to see what I have available.

Later this week I’ll share some ideas I came up with for gifts for the performers.

The theme of the event was preparedness and food storage – the event was called “Stockin’ Up!”  There was a great guest speaker from Arizona who shared with us her method for storing food and being prepared.

Since we were unsure how many people would attend we decided to go with a dessert bar.  We did bar cookies because those would be easy to cut into smaller pieces if we had more people than we expected.  We planned on 200 and had over 350 people there so we quickly cut all the bar cookies in half and it worked great.

For a list of the bar cookies served and the recipes go here.

Of course we had a budget to work with for the event and bar cookies are great way to stretch your budget because you can cut them big or small. 

I also came up with a few fun ways to stretch that budget with the table decor.

One of my favorite things to use on a serving table is cake plates.  Not only are they pretty but they create nice height on the table.  So using the theme of the event – food storage  and stocking up I created my own cake plates out of canned food and other items found at the dollar store!

I used a combination of clear plastic and silver serving plates from the dollar store along with some canned food I bought there.  Our color scheme for the night was green and pink so I found some canned fruit with pink, green and yellow labels – perfect!

Because the plates were fairly lightweight we used some duct tape to attach the plates to the cans so they didn’t topple over when people reached to get a bar cookie  – thanks to my husband and friend Jeannena for figuring all that out for me!!

I always like to lay out the serving table with all of its serving pieces beforehand – to make sure that it looks good and the table is well balanced.

Of course a centerpiece of flowers in a large can added the perfect touch!  The flowers and the pink and green ribbon came from Costco and helped tie everything together along with the pink and green sheer pieces of fabric we already had from another event.

I also created little place cards in my Creative Memories Storybook Creator software that sat on little stands I found at the dollar store!!  I like to know what I’m eating!

The total spent on table decor was very little and was created mainly out of things from the dollar store!

Of course the table always looks prettier when it is full of food!

What’s your best budget saving table decor ideas?

It was a fun evening as they shared with us how all your party planning needs can be taken care of all in one place – Albertsons!

The evening started out in the wine section.  Since I am not a wine drinker I didn’t really pay a whole lot of attention to the wine talk but I did enjoy tasting several of the “mocktails” they served us. 

From there we moved into the meat department and then into the floral department.

They showed some great quick and easy ways to put together a floral arrangement for your holiday table. 

The first one used a clear dish, fresh cranberries and a candle.

One great tip I learned was you can turn a tea light candle into a floating candle just by removing it from the little metal case it comes in!

The second arrangement idea they shared uses a margarita glass, chocolate kisses and a candle.  How easy is that!
 

The next station was appetizers.  We tasted some yummy things and then they showed us how to make pumpkin hummus.  I am not a fan of pumpkin but this hummus was yummy and it has half the calories of regular hummus!

Pumpkin Hummus

1 15 oz. can of pumpkin

2 Tbsp tahini

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Combine ingredients until smooth and creamy.  If hummus is too thick, you can add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until desired consistency.

Spoon into serving bowl, and sprinkle with desired topping like cinnamon, red pepper or more parsley.

Next they share some quick and easy dinner ideas to make using their rotisserie chicken – chicken noodle soup, BBQ chicken pizza, and chicken lettuce wraps – yum!!

I had to leave early to go hear the high school choir sing at the Grotto so I missed the last few stations.  We were each given a fun goodie bag which included a gift card and all the things neede to make our own cranberry/candle arrangement.  Thanks Albertsons for a fun evening.

Next time you have a party to plan be sure and visit Albertsons!

I love parties!

I love to go to parties and I love to put on parties.

Over at Your Homebased Mom I have had fun sharing with you some of the parties I have done over the last few years.  The response to those posts has always been so wonderful .  I have also gotten lots of emails from people asking for help and ideas for various events and parties they are putting on so I thought – why not a blog just about parties!?

Sounded like a good idea to me and I hope you think so too!

I want Your Homebased Parties to be a place you can come to have fun and be inspired.  You will find tips and ideas for putting on your own homebased parties. If you need some extra help and direction from me with your party planning or if you just want me to plan it all for you, I can do that too!!

Would you like me to be your personal party planner?  Well, now I can!

I’d love for you to check out the Shop and Service pages in the menu bar to read more about what I have to offer.

I’d also love to hear about your parties too – if you have pictures to share from parties you’ve put on please contact me and we can feature you here on Your Homebased Parties!

I’ve been planning parties for a long time.  In fact, I put on my first dinner party at the age of 13!

My best friend Jenny and I hosted a holiday dinner for some of our friends.  Check us out!

Don’t we look so cute in our stylish matching hostess outfits!? (Ok, it wasn’t a good decade for hair!!)

The only memory I have of the menu was that we served manicotti.  We got the recipe off the side of the box.  My menu planning has gotten a little bit more sophisticated since then.  We also served a festive, holiday lime punch!

Check out the table – we even had little Santa party favors we made!!

I have put on lots of parties, big and small since this holiday dinner party.  I look forward to sharing with you and working with you to create your own special party.

So welcome to Your Homebased Parties, please take some time to look around and see what is here.  Don’t forget to visit the Party Portfolio page for lots of fun pictures.  Please take a minute to let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

If you have an event coming up you’d like help with be sure and click on the
Party Form at the top of the page to let me know what you are looking for and how I can help you!

I look forward to hearing from you!!

Party planning – from my home to yours!