Friendsgiving!

Our first friendsgiving potluck took place last Saturday and was a smashing success. Food and drinks and toys and kids and chatter everywhere, a cozy fire outside, a soul music playlist...seriously, such a great way to kick off the start of the holiday season.

 T and I invited several of our favorite friends and their kids to come party potluck style the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I took care of the main dish in addition to preparing a couple simple sides and an appetizer. We bought a few 6 packs and some soft drinks, made a boozy apple cranberry punch and pretty much relied on our party to fall together. And it totally did.

I made these bomb chicken thighs with chorizo and orange zest (no potatoes this time), a green salad, delish green beans with garlic, pine nuts and basil, minestrone and a bruchetta appetizer. Our guests came through with a cheese and cracker plate, creamed corn, cranberry brie bites, two macaroni and cheeses (!) and lots of different desserts and drinks.

After most people had eaten (we kept it casual - it wasn't a sit down dinner or anything), we made smores and had drinks by the fire.

It was such a chill, nice evening. Can't wait for next year's! Here are some tips I've learned that might help for planning your own friendsgiving, or large gatherings in general:

• Don't try and be a hero. Make what is feasible for you and rely on friends to help out. We specified on our invite that guests were to bring a side, app, dessert or drink to share. As the hostess I was able to make a big main dish and regular sized sides knowing that our guests were going to contribute. 
• Pick easy dishes and dishes that you can prep in advance. I had my minestrone done in a flash earlier that day. I also parboiled my green beans and had the garlic for them minced so that before our people arrived I could saute them together really quickly and serve warm. The main chicken dish took hardly any attention at all - you basically throw some things together and forget about it while it bakes.
• Clean your kitchen as you go! And make sure before you begin cooking that your dishwasher is empty.
• Fire! Build a fire outside if you have the means. There's literally no better tool to get your guests gathered together and chatting. Everyone wants to be by the fire. Plus, smores.
• Make a good playlist!With songs that people like; ones that are easy to listen to. I love Led Zeppelin and Wu Tang but that's not the best music to have conversations over. For this party I went with a 60s/70s soul vibe and picked the songs myself. You can listen here, or Spotify has a bunch of great playlists available.
• Let things go and have fun. People will move your flower centerpiece arrangements in order to talk with the people across from them. Kids will drag toys into the living room, wine will spill....whatever. Have a good time and deal with it tomorrow. :)

Happy holidays!

Baby Love - A Simple School Themed Shower

One of my best friends (one of my oldest friends, too - we've been buds since we were 9!) is having a baby in July! A girl baby, at that! Woop! This is a little extra exciting because among my friends and family it's been boy after boy after boy these last few years. I'm thrilled baby K will be adding some feminine energy into the mix.

As soon as she announced her pregnancy, myself and two of our other friends pretty much decided that we'd throw the shower. We knew we'd really have to step up our party planning game because the mama to be is really the queen of crafty and we wanted to do her and baby proud. I think we succeeded!

We held the brunch shower in my backyard over the weekend. Mama to be is a teacher, so we thought it'd be cute to include some school-ish details with the décor.

I made these cute little vases by gluing and tying crayons to some jars. I also purchased some mini pink pencils to use as well. Centerpieces generally consisted of a couple thrift store golden books, a small floral arrangement, a handful of wooden blocks from the dollar store and an apple. Cute, ya?

We also spray painted some cans and decorated them with alphabet and number magnets.

We found some cheap thrift store picture books and flash cards that we could use as garland. I punched some holes, strung some ribbon and bam. I also made some using scrapbook paper. These hung over the food table, drink station, patio tarp thing and the area behind where the mama sat to open her gifts. My sister and I also made a few tissue paper flowers and one of those paper chain things just for kicks.

For brunch I prepared a spicy sausage, kale and gruyere strata, a zucchini, tomato, parsley and fontina strata*, three kinds of simple croissant sandwiches (turkey + avocado, ham + havarti, salami, mortadella + provolone), a big garden salad with a lemon vinaigrette, caprese skewers, a fruit tray and yogurt parfaits. The grandmas-to-be brought an assortment of mini desserts and co-host M made a yummy, boozy punch with basil, raspberry lemonade and lots of orange juice and champagne to make your own mimosas. She had a ton of left over mason jars from her wedding which we used as glasses for our guests.

*I'll post my strata recipe another time. Do you make strata? They save my life when cooking for a crowd. They are so easy, so adaptable to any taste and they can be completely prepped the night before. They actually need to be prepped the night before. Such a hit. Thank heavens for strata, I say.

A few weeks before the shower I snapped some maternity photos of the mama and daddy to be. One of the co-hosts had them printed and framed and placed around some of the communal tables, along with some fun framed baby photos of the expectant couple.

We had a few different cards printed out with different prompts on them for the ladies to fill out - What's your favorite thing about being a mom, What's your favorite thing about your mom, and What's your favorite motherhood memory. Mama to be actually had a hand in this by letting us know early on that she didn't necessarily want "advice" from her friends and family, but would rather they share a special memory with her about being a mom or about their mother. I thought this was such a great idea. Our friend and shower co-host is going to compile the responses in a scrapbook. In addition, I made a little "Dear Baby" template where guests could write a little note to the baby if they wanted.

We aren't really big on organized games, but we did want something optional and fun for the guests to participate in - other than, you know, stuffing their faces and drinking mimosas. We contacted the grandmas and asked them to share a few funny stories/quirks about their kids. We chose a handful, printed them out on cards and had guests guess which of the baby's parents the story is attributed to. The winner received a couple outdoor lantern candle holders. Pretty simple.

Since baby's name is Adalene and baby's mama is a teacher who loves rice krispy treats, my sister made some as favors with an icing A on them. We figured our guests deserved an A for their attendance. ;)

 All in all it was a super sweet day. I can't freaking wait to squeeze that baby's face off.

And if you care:
Invitations here
Spotify playlist here

Still Crazy After All These (3) Years: Van's Birthday

Little Vanny turned three last month, a few days before Christmas. As has been tradition, we threw him a little, no gifts tamale party with our immediate families and few closest friends. My family has always made tamales the weekend or so before Christmas, so it's worked out really well to just invite over a few more people, add a cake and make a little Van celebration out of it.

A few weeks before his birthday I asked Van if he wanted a themed party since he's getting up there in age and might be into something like that. He told me he just wanted a "guitar party." Ok, kid.

So I whipped up a Woodstock-esque invitation and printed them out to be mailed. I bought the few kids that would be in attendance bubbles in a guitar shaped container and little guitar Christmas ornaments, ordered a big Mylar guitar balloon from Amazon and cut out images of Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia to use as cupcake toppers. Bam! Guitar party!

He had the best time. Tony and I got him a play kitchen that we revealed to him that morning, which he was completely stoked on. My sister bought him a chef's hat and oven glove, some little stainless steel looking pans with a whisk and wooden spoon. He spent his day running around, eating food, cooking in his new kitchen and being a little three year old animal.

Van is the best little kid in the world and I hope his third trip around the sun is his best yet. :)

We're Having a Party

i love me a good party. my sister, mom and i spent our weekend prepping some of the decorations for our nana's 80th birthday party next weekend. i found this party online awhile ago that really inspired the look for my nana's party. we even went with shades of green for ours too.

my talented friend christina designed the invitations. we made them into postcards to save a little cash on mailing. a ton of family told me just to do evites for something, but i love receiving something beautiful and printed and hand addressed in the mail.

my pretty nana...no idea what year. she looks like she might be in her late twenties? early thirties?

we made vertical hanging garland out of scrapbook paper circles and some hemp twine stuff i bought at michael's for about 10 dollars. 

every few circles is a scanned photograph of my nana.

we also used the hemp twine stuff to wrap around mason jars and various vases to be used as centerpieces. we stamped some round tags with nana's initial.

mark it with a 'p'

usually when i plan parties i worry about whether or not the decor will look good. i'm really not fretting about this one at all. i think once everything comes together, it will look awesome!