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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Camping Party 2013

Probably the highlight of my party planning was planning a camping themed party for my daughters 11th birthday.  The research for this party and the making of the decor started early, 
but it was well worth it!!
This was one of my first attempts at making tissue paper tassels, a lot of work, but definitely worth it, as they looked great.  The I found the directions from this site Tissue Tassel Tutorial, and I made some small modifications.  I twisted the tassels, then stapled them, then strung them on some twine. 
 
I covered our main bathroom door with some butcher paper, and used black paint to give it a wood effect. I also used the butcher paper to cover our backyard fence and to make some 
authentic signage on our front porch.  
I am not an artist by any means, but the crude drawings added to the effect, I think.

One of the other highlights was the campfire cupcakes.  These too were a lot of work but they turned out fantastic!!.. I got the original idea from this blog and again, made some of my own adaptations.  I used red, yellow and orange lifesavers, crushed them, then laid them on a cookie sheet.  I used waxed paper, do not do this, as the paper stuck to the candy and it was very difficult to peal off, just spray the cookie sheet with non stick spray for better results.

I made two different colors of icing, green and orange, and I used chocolate covered raisins for the rocks and pretzel sticks for the wood.  The kids and adults just love this one.

 We had plenty of games at the party, but the favorite game was the bingo scavenger hunt.  the kids spent a whole hour trying to fill up their cards!!  I also made some little thank you s'mores to give the kids when they went home.  I am not a graphic artist, and I don't know adobe or in design, I do all of my work on a cheezy print master program.  It does the trick for me!!

 We had some sun shade tents, so I placed them out in our backyard, and in our front yard, and I made a fake fireplace with wood and tissue paper.  I also put several of our stuffed bears in them, and made a do not feed the bear sign.  All of this really added to the decor.
 Inside, I used tin take out containers for plates, and canning jars covered with burlap for glasses.
 Here are some more props that I found and placed them in the yard
Some more inside decor.  I found a great website for camping signs, and I downloaded a bunch.  You can find the site HERE

By far, the kids enjoyed the outdoor movie the most!!  We watched open season with popcorn and an outdoor movie theatre!!
 

Thanks for checking out this weeks Shenanigans!!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

2012 Summer Vacation Recipies

Last summer while we were on vacation, I decided to try a few new recipies, and they actually turned out GREAT, so I thought I would share them.

Bacon Beer Butt Chicken


Grilled Pineapple Chicken (grilled in the pineapple)

S'more Pizza!!


Dinner Party

Wow, I cannot believe it has been over a year since my last post!!  
I have been super busy and I have lots to get caught up on!!

Well, to ease myself back into posting, I thought I would backtrack to a fabulous dinner party that we held back in August of 2012 with our good friends Nicole and Larry.  We always have such a great time when we get together, and of course there is good food and good company!

I started the evening off with watermelon martini's!!  They were a big hit.  My recipe is very simple, blend watermelon with vodka and ice.. and voila.. Watermelon Martini's!!


For the Salad I chose a grilled peach with blue cheese and mixed greens, it was just delish!!


 I also wanted to try my hand at a spinach and cheese foccacia bread, it was so filling, 
almost a meal in itself!!


For the main dish, we had crab and cream cheese stuffed chicken with grilled corn

And for dessert, we marinated pineapple and grilled it and served it with vanilla ice cream!!  I had a heck of a time figuring out how to cut a pineapple, so I thought I would post the process for those of you who would like to give it a try.


Till next time, and I promise this time it won't be a year until my next post!!!