Category Archives: entertaining

Holiday Party Planning for a Cookie Exchange

Posted on by

I honestly try to enjoy Fall for what it is – the transitioning into winter, the falling leaves, late gardening, the colors, pumpkins, costumes, giving thanks. I LOVE Fall, which is probably also why I make myself feel guilty for even slightly thinking about Christmas and winter. This is the time of year I get myself mentally, physically and emotionally charged up for the barrage of Christmas and holiday events including the ones we host here at the Tiu homestead.

cookies2008

Cream Cheese Mango pinwheels

For the last nine years (minus the one when we were building the house) we’ve invited close friends mainly from high school and college to a cookie exchange. It started out innocently, as most things do: Six households probably no more than 12 people. Last year we hosted about 60 people including children, 20 households. It marks the Christmas season for us as we open our home to friends, and it’s the most incredible display of cookie baking, not to mention cameraderie and even a little friendly competition. Each home brought 6 dozen cookies to share and went home with just about the same amount. This Facebook album link is a doorway to our cookie madness that we love so dearly.

One more thing I’d like to share as a free download.  It’s my trusty party planning spreadsheet. You type in the date of your party and the spreadsheet fills with start and end dates for different tasks. There’s also a worksheet that will calculate food quantities. It’s in MSExcel for Windows, and you can use it for other types of parties. I’ve used it for bridal showers, dinner parties, brunches, simple gatherings. But, this one is written with our holiday cookie exchange in mind.

Hosting the Bridal Shower

Posted on by

Bridal Shower

Shower Day was fun with an intimate crowd. It’s amazing how quickly it all happens after a few months of planning, but rest assured, we all enjoyed the afternoon. My sister-in-law’s maid of honor and friend, Megan, helped the night before.

Theme: Orange

Tabletop: Napkins had Gerbera daisies and stripes, drink umbrellas were perched in square vases with coffee beans, simple bouquet became three small arrangements.

Other decorations: pom-pom paper flowers and wire-edged ribbon

Menu: Vegetable pizza appetizer, veggie bites (aka crudites) with carrot-ginger dipping sauce, poached salmon sandwiches with orange wasabi mustard and asian pasta salad from All on the Road, chicken salad sandwiches, mac-n-cheese, fruit, marble cupcakes with edible flowers, candied orange peels with chocolate dipping sauce, and yellow cake.

Shower games: Who has the closest birthday to the wedding date? and Bridal Bingo

Shower Favor: individual, hand-packed tea bags (theme related) with personalized labels. In this case, we had Orange Orange Pekoe for the happy couple. Thank you, Sheila!

Another quick tip: decorate the gift box instead of wrapping it.

Bridal shower gift hand decorated box

Gearing up – Bridal shower

Posted on by

We just got back from California, and I have a lot of things I want to journal. Hopefully I’ll be able to recall some of the trip details from Napa and San Francisco, not to mention my awesome cousins who opened their home to us for 9 days. We took a ton of pictures, too, but it will have to wait because we’re getting ready for my sister-in-law’s shower which is less than two weeks from now.

My arsenal of entertaining supplies: heavy duty folding tables, folding chairs, paper goods…

bridal shower suppliesDrink umbrellas

And we’re making some cute drink umbrellas with orange paper, courtesy of Martha Stewart. You can see the instructions here or here. Abby and I also started making more tissue paper flowers like the one I made at the Craft Social. More to come!

Nibs, Ink and Pizza

Posted on by

My ink, pens and nibs are out again. It’s been a while since I’ve played with them. But if they’re out, I’m usually addressing envelopes. This one is for my sister-in-law’s bridal shower that we’re hosting here at our home.

I love calligraphy; I find beautiful handwriting fascinating. I’m self-taught, lots of books, no classes, but I’m starting to think it might be fun to take one. I bought my first pen set in high school at a local drugstore. That was late 1980’s. It’s the Sheaffer fountain pen kind with three nibs and little ink cartridges – it still works. Then my cousins gave me a Murano glass pen and writing ink around college or soon after I graduated. I was so hooked. Just recently I ventured out with dip pens, which is lots of fun. There was one summer I helped out a couple of friends and addressed wedding invitations for two weddings. The following year I did two more. There are 6 or seven weddings that I’ve been a part of now, I think?

Calligraphy by Julie

The ink I was using was liquid acrylic with metallic particles (gorgeous!) but I kept getting the nib gunked up. The scrap of paper and napkin I was using to wipe down the pen looked really interesting by the time I was done. While I was finishing the envelopes, the kids and husband were making pizza for dinner. Mmmm… it turned out well, considering we don’t make our own pizza often.

Semi-homemade pizza

Tea and Birthday – part 2

Posted on by

What’s a tea party without a description or pictures of food? This is what my husband orchestrated…

Delicious hors d'oeuvres

Thanks to All on the Road Catering…asparagus wrapped with prosciutto, empanadas with caramelized onions and goat cheese with tomatilla dipping sauce, shredded duck with cherry marmalade boats, wild mushroom strudel garnished with green onion, brie and caramelized apples crostini.

Yummy sandwiches

These were devoured: ham with brie and mango, turkey with guacamole, and roast beef sandwiches.

Birthday cake

Chocolate cake goes really well with raspberry flavored tea. Trust me.

IMG_2693

We all had plenty to drink. Iced tea on tap: South Beach Peach, Fourth of July. Tried some “Triple Flip”… really gingery, orange flavored green tea. (I think it’s green tea. Can’t remember.) Even the kids had fun.

Blowing out the candles on Mom's cakeThe husband... thanks, honey!


Creative birthdays

Posted on by

We love going to these places where you can paint your own ceramics. A creative way to spend some time, not too expensive, and you get your creation in a week, or so! It’s fun anytime, but imagine a birthday party with about 20 young ladies ranging from the ages of 5 to 8. They had a blast. From other birthdays and outings, Abby has a nice little collection of ceramic from this location. If you’re looking for a place near your home, try here, too. It’s a link to the nationwide Creative Ceramics Studio Association.

Painting Ceramics

This is one of the cutest birthday cakes I’ve ever seen.

Birthday to Remember

Asleep Again

Unfortunately, Ollie missed the whole thing. Poor guy.

Related Posts with Thumbnails