Pumpkin Party

Fall is here and it's the perfect time to get your friends together; have great food and enjoy each others company.

I have what I have so lovingly call "The Party Curse." See I love to entertain and host, but the people I invite either end up going out of town, family matters, or my party coincides with flu season (even my own wedding was sparse!)

Alas, the same thing happened this time. My best friend, her sister, and her daughters came, which was great, but not what I had planned for.

So, here is my party set up to help give ideas if anyone else is thinking of throwing a Pumpkin Party next year. Who knows? Maybe I'll put myself through this again and it will be different.

Pumpkin Party Intimate Get Together 2011


Decorations

I borrowed a long table from my local church and set up two working tables, one for adults/older kids and one for younger kids.

I had a left over tablecloth roll from my sons birthday so I covered all the tables in that. My mom is a teacher so I went to her school and took about 6 feet of orange paper. I cut that to make a runner to go down the middle of the table. Then I had two pumpkin luminaries which I placed pumpkin carving tools inside.

I also had two bowls available for pulp and seeds.

The kids table was my sons work table, covered with table cloth. I set out tempera (washable) paints, brushes, disposable plates and some push in decorations for the non-carving table. 

The backyard so far...

Besides the tables I also made a pumpkin pennant which I posted about here, and these adorable corn husk pom-poms

I got this idea from one of my favorite blogs CentsationalGirl, she gives a good tutorial on her page here.

Food

The party was in the afternoon, so I only served munchie foods.

Dish 1: Apple slices and Pumpkin Dip. 

The apples were served with the cores cut out using a mini cookie cutter. Served alongside with a pumpkin dip. This went the fastest, between my family coming by and munching, I was out of apples and dip :) 

I got about 5-6 slices from each medium fuji apple, then they took a bath in some pineapple juice. I wrapped them up and put them in the fridge a few hours before the party.

Pumpkin dip

8oz cream cheese

1/4 c brown sugar

15 oz pure pumpkin

spices to taste (ginger, cinnamon, cloves)

Cream together ingredients until smooth, place in serving container and chill at least an hour before serving. Also great with gingersnaps, carrot sticks and honey pretzels.

Dish 2: Veggie Tray. Easy. Simple.

I took a wide, clear platter and spread out a 16oz bag of baby carrots. Sliced up some cucumber eyes, a celery stalk for a stem and snap peas arranged in the shape of a mouth.

Dish 3: Pumpkin Empanadas

I made these about 2 weeks ago and just popped them into the freezer. I took them out the night before and they were just as good. I'll post a recipe for these soon.

Dish 4: CROQUEMBOUCHE

or literally, “crunch in the mouth”. This piece is the traditional wedding cake in France, and is often served at baptisms and communions as well. The classic piece montée is a high pyramid/cone made of profiteroles (cream-filled puff pastries) sometimes dipped in chocolate, bound with caramel, and usually decorated with threads of caramel, sugared almonds, chocolate, flowers, or ribbons.

I had been waiting to do something big and fun and DIFFERENT, so I attempted the CROQUEMBOUCHE (I love saying it). I filled mine with a custard, which is traditional for most creme filled desserts, and of course mine had to be pumpkin for my pumpkin party. I found a pretty good recipe here.

I doubled my recipe and made two batches, one of just pumpkin and one of pumpkin-chai (this one is a winner). I'll post a recipe of my adventures in this piece later too.

Snack Table

Games

Because the bulk of the party I figured was going to be for carving pumpkins, I didn't want to go overboard by planning a lot of games. But I did make one easy one, kids of all ages enjoy (even if they say they are too old for those kid games).

Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin

I bought a poster board from the dollar store and cut out a pumpkin from the orange paper I brought home from school. Then out of black card stock I cut out a mouth and eyes then made about 12 noses or so (more or less depending on how many kids are playing). Keep a blindfold or a sleeping mask handy and you're ready to play.

What does the winner get to take home?

This Pumpkin trophy!

Ding! Ding! We have a Winner!

I bought a small fake pumpkin at Micheal's Crafts and carved "Winner" into it, then filled it with candy. I love it. It's a memorable prize and it's a pumpkin!

Because I only had two kids at the party (my son and my friends daughter, both 2 yrs old) I gave my game and prize to my mom who is a teacher so she can use it in her classroom on Halloween.

Goodie Pumpkins

Finally, before everyone leaves, they were to take home a goodie pumpkin basket. I found these babies at a yard sale, I grabbed all 20 for $5!

Each one was to be filled with some candy, a pumpkin scented candle (dollar store) and....

Once everyone gutted their pumpkins and they gave me all their seeds, I was going to wash, dry, spice, and bake them while they carved their pumpkin faces. Then I had some small candy wrappers on hand to wrap them up so everyone could take home a pumpkin treat from their own pumpkin!

I thought it was a nice personal treat. Alas, my friend who did come didn't want her seeds so I still have them. I'll post that recipe later.

At the end of the day, I was tired; but I had this to show for it.

In some small way, it's goofy, smiling face makes me feel better about my "party curse." There is always another holiday or birthday to plan for and get together.

Simply "Batty" Halloween

So this year I'm not really feeling the Halloween "vibe." I usually don't decorate for Halloween anyways, just a seasonal Fall kind of decorating that I can leave up September through November.

This year I was inspired to do a bit more. Keeping it simple and still nature inspired. I also needed a spash of something to welcome my guests for my upcoming Pumpkin Party.

I have to say, I love this a lot. It was also a lot of fun to see cars slowing down as they drove by to look at it.

Inspiration came from MADE and Country Living (they used stiff felt, if I could afford it, so would I)

please ignore my awful landscaping

Total cost of project: $4.80

Halloween Bat Decoration

Materials:

Black 8 1/2 x 11" Cardstock
Bat Template
Sharp Scissors
Glue Dots or scotch tape
Preserve-It (Krylon) -Optional

1. Take tracing paper and enlarged the bat, 100%, 75% and 50% tracing it each time (paper against the computer screen) to get three different sizes.

2. Cut out templates and fold a black piece of paper in half. Hold one of your templates over the folded side of the paper and just cut around the pattern, don't bother tracing at all. No one will know if they are not perfect.

I am against wasting paper. I just can't do it, so I used as much space as I could on each sheet. I got 8 bats out of the small, 6 from the medium and 3 from the large.

Half my bats were traced on the UNFOLDED side, making them two pieces. I was OK with that. I played around and liked how the pieces also looked like bats flying and not just the part of a wing.

Some of the pieces I doubled up when hanging, so in the end had 5 different looking bats!

3. Cut and cut until you have a nice variety of bats. My house took 100 bats or about 15 pieces of paper.

4. Once done cutting (or tired of cutting), pull out your glue dots, push and stick to any surface. These wonderful time savers are removable, but use common sense when hanging them.

5. For the pieces of bat wings, hold them to the side and see how they look like flying bats, or double them up and use one glue dot for both so you can see two wings. These are great filler space bats!

I bought some Preserve-It (Krylon) which is used to preserve photos and paper. I don't want to be cutting out bats each year! So I gave my bats a spray before hanging to give them a little defense against the evening dew and daytime humidity. I'll update on how they survived after Halloween (8 days away).

I hung my bats wanting them to look natural, flying in a smooth stream across my house. We have bats around here in California, but not the kind thay fly like these. Oh how I'd love to witness something like that!

Enjoy this project and have fun with it. You've got to love those easy, thrifty and big impact ones!

Pumpkin Pennant

I'm hosting a pumpkin party at my house in a few weeks. "A Pumpkin Party? What is that?" you say. Well...basically its an excuse to hang out and have a party. I know most people go out on Halloween and I am NOT a Halloween party person- I am a Fall person. But that doesn't mean I can't find a way to combine them!

A Pumpkin Party at my house means: Come over, BYOB (bring your own pumpkin), eat pumpkin tasting goodies (will post more later) and carve your pumpkins at my house. I deal with the pumpkin mess, kids can have fun with a few simple games, and adults can spend time together laughing and probably taking over their kids carving :)

I'll be gone for a week right before the date, so I have started making decorations. A few weeks ago I walked around Target and picked up some plates that I thought were cute and that sort of set my party color scheme right off: Orange, Black, Brown and this Teal Blue <3.

Anyways...if your coming to the party, this is a spoiler. You get a look at what is to come (so maybe you'll be more excited to come!).

Pumpkin Pennant

Materials Needed

printer paper
pencil
ruler
scissors
1/2 yard sturdy fabric, I used burlap
approx 3 glue sticks
glue gun
newspaper
10 ft twine, ribbon, yarn etc...
Various color-complimentary scraps of fabric. You can also buy some pre arranged coordinating fabric at any craft store area: Walmart, Micheal's, Hobby Lobby...
small pumpkin cookie cutter
Stitch Witchery (optional)
needle and thread (optional)

1. Take 1 piece of printer paper and fold in half like a book. Using your ruler and pencil make the size pennant you would like. I made mine 5 1/2" wide by 7 1/2" long. Cut out template and trace on fabric. Cut pennants out.

2.  I cut out 12 pennants. I did the math to calculate a good foot length for my garland. 5.5 (pennant width) x 12 (cut out)= 66in. or 5.5 feet so far.

I wanted my pennant to have some hanging room so I added a foot to each end making it now 7.5 feet (90 in).

Lastly, I wanted the pennants to be evenly spaced so I figured I could round out the garland to 10 feet. 10-7.5=2.5feet or 30in. 30/12= 2.6 inch spaces between pennants.

Long story short, cut your twine 10 ft long if you want it like mine, otherwise you can do your own math.

3. Plug in the glue gun, lay out newspaper. Measure 12 inches of twine (or whatever your using), mark with pencil. Lay pennant under twine and add a zig-zag across the top. Line up mark at end of pennant, fold fabric over twine, pinch with fingers until set. If you are using burlap, I would suggest you get a cold glue gun so you don't burn your fingers as the glue may squeeze through.

4. Measure out 2.6in, mark and repeat until you have glued all your pennants to the twine. If you want some added cuteness and security, sew a running stitch through the folded fabric.

5. Get out your scraps, get comfortable, and trace. Trace 12-36 pumpkins (it's up to you how many you want to cut out and glue on pennants). I wanted a good variety of different shapes and sized pumpkins. Nature doesn't come in just one shape and size...so I found a lot of different kinds online and traced them right off my screen. If you want the same pumpkins that I used, I have a PDF file you can print out here.

Now cut out your pumpkins. You should have a nice variety of eclectic pumpkins.

6. Lay out your garland, and arrange pumpkins in a way you like. Hot glue them in place (or use some stitch witchery and iron them in place). Again, added cuteness/security, put a running stitch on pumpkins in contrasting colors.

7. Hang and get ready to make the next party decoration!

My First Wedding Cake

Photo taken by my friend's sister who was the photographer at the wedding. If you live in California, check out her Facebook page: Sandi Amaral Photography

Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Creme filling

I cannot take full credit for this cake, it came from teamwork with my bestest childhood friend.

She baked and leveled the cakes beforehand, made the filling, cut the dowels and wrapped the plates. Inbetween breastfeeding her 2 month old and playing with her 2yr old little girl (see ladies, you can take on projects like this even with little ones). She finished off the cake, painting on a shimmer dust to the blue stripe.

I pretty much spent the entire time doing dishes, frosting the cakes and; working, rolling, coloring, cutting and applying the fondant. Inbetween holding babies and playing with a 2 year old.

Together we filled, moved, and put this baby together. Flowers were the final touch once it got to the church.

I love baking with my friend. We make some amazing goodies together :)

Paper Flower Chandelier

In the beginning of my adventures in Blogland, I became hooked on Living with Lindsey. One of the first things I loved about her blog was her "thriftiness" and creativity in not letting things get in her way. She saw this chandelier at Pottery Barn (and who honestly doesn't love PB's style?) and was inspired, but couldn't think of a reasonable excuse for paying the Pottery Barn prices.

Instead, she got her craft on and she made this! Isn't it beautiful?!Lindsey did all the hard work for me, and I couldn't resist wanting to make one. I made my version of the chandelier for my friends little girl.

Click on the link above to follow her tutorial or read ahead for mine that is a little different.

For this project you will need:

• 18" wire box wreath
• 12" wire box wreath
• 2 wire coat hangers
  
• floral wire
• Heavy gauge wire cutters
• Needle nose pliers
  
• Fishing line
• Sandpaper
  
• Spray paint
• ribbon (mine was 1/4", 3 rolls)
• Glue gun and sticks
• Elmer's glue
  
• Scissors
• Scrapbook paper (mine was 12x12, 1 sheet for each color)
  
• Paper punch (medium)
• Small buttons
• I found all my supplies at Micheal's Crafts
  

My friends daughter is very girly, and she wanted something that would fit with the decor of the nursery she already has (pink and green). Knowing that, I picked a nice "girly" paper punch she could still grow into and lots of scrapbook paper. *I found a whole book for $9.99 before my 40% off coupon so my friend could pick the perfect pattern and colors for the chandelier. I get to used the rest of the paper for another project :)

1. Start by stamping out your shape.

I wanted contrasting colors and texture with these flowers so I had one flower stamped out with pink polka dots over green stripes, and the other flower of small pink stripes and green polka dots. The patterns are subtle, but work great together.
2. I used the Elmer's glue to put them together and finished off the flower with a cute button. I also slightly bent up the top flower petals so they stuck out more and added detail.
Now repeat the process 225 times! That's approximately 111 paired flowers of each color! I think this took me about 2 hours total to cut, glue and curl all of them.
Now comes the hard part...Lindsey made her frame for the chandelier (brilliantly if I may say so, and it's my blog so I will!).

And the frame was easy to make.... and then not to easy.

I used floral wire box wreaths because if you unbend the hooks and snap the connecting wires, you get 8 wire rings for less then 3 macrame rings! This was also much, much easier to find, since every store I went to didn't even have macrame rings.
3. Unbend the hooks on the 18" ring and remove the larger outer ring. Then remove the hooks to your 12" wreath and remove the larger outer ring and the innermost ring. Keep the remaining wreath rings for another project.
You should end up with an 18" ring, a 12" ring and a 9" ring.

Now, pull out your hangers and wire cutters.
4. Place the hanger over the 12" ring and measure about an inch over the sides and mark. Cut the hanger to size. If you use needle nose pliers you can unbend/unwind the hangers and straighten them out to get the most out of your materials. This requires a lot of arm muscle! You need two wires cut for the 12" ring and the 9" ring.

5. Once the hanger is cut to size, use the pliers to bend the wire to a tight hook over the edge so they won't move. Repeat and make an overlapping "X" shape for each ring. This steps helps to assure the rings will keep their shape.
6. Next, move on to the floral wire. Take the 18" ring and twist a small "U" shape (no bigger then your fingernail). Wrap the ends a few times around the ring to secure into place. I used the needle nose pliers to squeeze the wires together and down to hug to rings.
I placed these evenly around the ring using a ruler to keep them straight.

Rough up your rings a little with some sandpaper to prep them for painting.

7. Take your rings outside and spray paint them.

I'm not a big fan of spray paint. I sprayed my rings white and did sort of a bad job of it, but it actually works out by giving it an antique look :) Saves me the trouble of scrubbing it with sandpaper after! Once the rings are dry, bring them inside and set up an area to work in that will hold up your chandelier. I used two antique sewing machines and a yard stick. Lindsey used two step ladders and a yard stick. Really up to what works best for you :)

This is the frustrating part. Connecting the rings and making the frame.

8. I started by cutting 4 pieces of fishing line 12" to give me room to shorten (easier to cut more and take away then cutting new strings). Loop the string through one of the hooks on the medium ring and tie. Then connect the fishing line to the small loops you made on the larger ring. Repeat for all four hooks and loops, ensuring that the rings hang evenly from each other. I tried using a level to help...it didn't help lol. In the end the Medium=>Large fishing line was 8 1/2 inches when done.

9. Hang the smallest ring next, connected to the larger ring. I looped my fishing line through the small cracks in the wrapped around wire "loops". I started with 10" this time and through trial and error, the Large=>Small fishing line ended up being 6"
Again. Make sure they hang evenly. I continued to play with this until the end, it was driving me crazy to reach perfection!

*I had a "DUH" moment through my frustration. Does this shape of the frame look familiar to you? Beside the uncanny resemblance to a UFO! It looks like a lampshade! Next time I try this project, I'm going yard saleing and find a cheap lamp to strip of its fabric and (in theory) instant, stress free frame!

Yay! Now the frame is built and it's smooth sailing all the way....

10. Now is the time to place on the ribbon. Grab your ribbon and plug in your glue gun to warm up while you mark the rings. I went around the Medium ring first and marked every 3 inches *to make things easier and I'm not second guessing myself if the ribbon is spaced evenly apart. I did the same thing to the Large ring.
11. The chandelier top is made up of alternating hanging ribbons and looped ribbons that connect with the smaller ring (see below for example). Test your ribbon and see how low you want it to hang. I let mine fall just a bit for the rounded look. I then cut my hanging ribbon to stop just above the "curve" of my looped ribbon. Count the marks and cut half of the ribbon to "hanging" size and then the other half "loop" size.

My ribbon was cut 8 1/2 inches long.
12. Using your glue gun, place a little bit of glue on one end and wrap over the edge of the marks you made. Then use a little hot glue and wrap the other end around to the small ring. It really makes no difference where you place the other end on the small ring. For the hanging ribbon, just glue to the Medium (top) ring and let the other end hang!

13. For the second level of the chandelier, the ribbon will loop from the large ring to the small ring; test and see how you want it to loop. The entire bottom half of the chandelier is all loops, not hanging and loops like the tops half. I didn't want the ribbon to hang too low. About 2 inches below the upper loops looked best to me.

I cut my bottom level ribbon about 15" long. Hot glue like the upper level over the marks pre-made.
14. Now turn to your punched paper cutouts. I very lightly marked one upper level ribbon every 3 inches with a dot. Then I hot glued the cutouts to the ribbon alternating the colors. The next ribbon I just "eyed" it and alternated the colors again. By then I had a pattern and went from there.

Continue all the way around the upper level. I did the same process for the lower level.

15. Finish off the chandelier with the remaining ribbon and tie a hanger from each of the top corner hooks.In the end...Ta Da! *Sorry for the bad picture, not nearly as beautiful as Lindseys!

I am really proud of this project and even though it is a lot a work, I could see myself doing this again. It is definitely a great gift for kids,(more for mommies then for the kids) being fun and specifically hot glued to be unique just for them.

I want to make one with stars for my sons room just to hang as decoration.

I think I'll try painting the paper with a glow in the dark paint, so when the lights go out, he can still enjoy it :)

And Now.....Drum roll! Was it worth it all?






Pottery Barn's Chandelier: $80.00+shipping




Total cost of My Chandelier project: $40.00!

WIN!

Twine-y Accents (Decorative Balls 1)

If you're like me, I love little accents tucked around the house. I'm attracted to the symmetrical type of styles. I like multiples of things, square type furniture, things organized and in their proper place. I have A LOT of baskets lol.

Sounds a bit boring, but I also like to balance things out with spherical shapes (still symmetrical mind you :)) to soften the look of the room and even the yard.

I am totally in love with decorative balls. Glass, twine, wood, carved, wicker...you name it. But I am also not going to pay the outrageous price for some of them. So I decided to make my own. This is one of many decorative ball attempts I'm going to be making.All you need for this project is:

• Regular white craft glue
• Twine (Micheal's in the jewelry section)
• foam balls of assorted shapes (Micheal's, clearance section!)
  
• safety pins
  

Starting at the top of the ball (anywhere can really be the top, but I look for the hole), pin the end of the twine in place and circle around it with a small line of glue. Follow the line with the twine, pressing down lightly to smooth along the ball.
Slowly work all the way around the ball, circling with glue then following with the twine. I occasionally stick a pin into the twine if it looks like it won't stay down on the glue (added security is always good).

When done it should look something like this:
Wait about an hour or until the glue seems dry and the twine doesn't move at all. Remove the pins and place where you'd like. Trays, bowls, along mantles are popular.

Stick a hook eye into the side and make it an ornament.

Change the twine from plain, to glittery coiled ribbon and make something completely different if you have more vibrant decorating tastes.

Mine are on top of the DVD tower right now. It's pretending to be my mantle since I don't have a fireplace. I love the look, especially next to the contemporary globe.
I also love these balls because I'm not scare of my baby playing with them. They weigh practically nothing and can be tossed around or rolled and put right back on the shelf.

Hope you enjoy the little tutorial and make some of your own.