How to Host: An Ice Cream Social

A couple of weekends ago, I threw an ice cream social for all of our friends to say goodbye to summer!  I thought this would be a great way to have an inexpensive party, but I didn't realize it would be so low stress!  We held the party from 2:00 - 4:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon.  This allowed Mr. 3 and I to go to church in the morning and also spend some time together post-party.  We had a great time visiting with our friends and enjoying our delicious ice cream.  I only spent about $65 for 10 or 12 people and it was by far the easiest party I've ever thrown.

The Decor

I went back and forth a lot with a whole bunch of ideas on how to dress up the apartment.  I debated everything from weaving streamers and attaching it to the ceiling to creating a whole backdrop like you see at those fancy pants weddings.  BUUUUT most of the ideas seemed way too ambitious and the backdrop would have been expensive to do up right.  So, I decided to work with what I had and focus on serving better quality ice cream instead.  I used my oh-so-perfect-for-my-red-and-gold-chairs table cloth and my existing mish mash of clear glass cake plates and glassware.  I lined each cake plate with a doily leftover from my wedding.  I already had the spoons leftover from Bible study and I had picked up the straws and napkins earlier in the summer from Home Goods (it's always a good idea to nab these things when you see them if you like them!).  I found Meri Meri ice cream cups at Sur la Table on clearance for $3.50 when I went to the cooking class with Mr. 3.

The Food

Ohhhhhh the ice cream!  A few years ago, Mr. 3 found this wonderful roadside ice cream shop called the Moo-Thru in the middle of nowhere Virginia.  If you are local, it's the big red barn looking thing on the side of 29 South in Remington, VA.  It is hands down, the best ice cream I've EVER had in my life.  I wish I could find stronger words to tell you how much I looooove this ice cream.  The Moo-Thru is owned by dairy farmers who live right down the street and all the milk for the ice cream comes from their own cows.  The whipped cream is REAL and they also sell milk in glass jugs (it's the way God and nature intended milk to be...where the cream rises to the top and you have to shake it to blend it in).  Everything there will put the fat on your butt.  HOWEVER, unlike other ice creams, this is worth the extra zumba time.

Now that you have a better understanding of the yumminess of the Moo-Thru, you can see why I would spend $35 on 4 quarts of ice cream - pumpkin, strawberry, cookies and cream, and cinnamon.

For toppings, I bought REAL whipped cream (sadly, in the can from Trader Joe's and not from the Moo-Thru), caramel syrup, chocolate syrup, Magic Shell (a must!) maraschino cherries, sprinkles, toasted coconut (leftover from another dish), mini Reese's, M&Ms and crushed Oreos, Heath Bar, and Snickers.  All of the candy, except for the M&Ms, came from fun-sized bags that are sold at Halloween.  The M&Ms were from a larger one pound bag because I knew I needed more M&Ms than the fun size bags or the regular sized bags they sell at check out and it was also cheaper.  I bought a six-pack of root beer for floats and I also made a batch of brownies for sundaes using a mix (which was the only thing I cooked for this party).

The Set Up

Mr. 3 picked up the ice cream on his way back from a business trip and I made the brownies the night before the party.  Mr. 3 also cut up all the chocolate candies while we took a break from cleaning the apartment.   We filled up the small bowls with the crushed candies and covered them with Press & Seal before throwing them in the fridge.  Everything else was set-up the day of the party.  Because we had to worry about the ice cream melting, I put out the toppings about 15 minutes before guests arrived and didn't put out the ice cream until we had 3-4 guests.  I kept the ice cream, soda, and whipped cream in a beverage bucket loaded with ice to keep these items cool.

Since this was a laid back Sunday afternoon party, I just let people hang out where they pleased.  We had plenty of room and seating (especially with the addition of my new chairs!).  I also made the ice cream self-serve.  I didn't want to scoop and I also didn't want anyone to feel awkward about asking for more scoops.

Tips & Ticks to Take Away

1. Serve high quality ice cream.  Unfortunately, not everyone has a Moo-Thru, but many towns have a local ice cream store of some kind.  Take advantage of it if they offer homemade.  The trick is to serve something that you aren't likely to find at a children's birthday party (I'm looking at you huge vat of store-brand Neapolitan in a bucket!).  I've also noticed at the grocery stores around here that there is a huge variety of ice cream from small, almost "craft" style brands.  Serve those instead of the generic or mainstream brands.

2.  Spice it up. Serve a couple of "safety" flavors with a few odd balls thrown in, but don't serve plain vanilla or chocolate.

3.  Check your candy prices, because this is where you can turn an inexpensive party into a pricey ordeal.  For me, chopping up the fun sized bags was the way to go.  Not only did I have enough for the party, but I saved the leftover crushed bits to throw into cookies for Bible study aaaaand I had enough wrapped candy leftover to hand out at Halloween.  Also, go to Target or Walmart.  The prices are so much better than the grocery store or drug store.

4.  Offer variations for people to make more than just a scoop of ice cream with some toppings thrown in.  My brownies and floats were a big hit!  Other options might be banana splits or cookies (who doesn't love a chipwich?).  Offering brownies or cookies also gives people who might have lactose intolerance something to eat while everyone else spoons up some ice cream.  If you want to turn it up a notch, why not serve boozy milkshakes?  You'll have to stand by the blender for the first few minutes, but people rarely eat more than one sundae, milkshake, split, etc. so you won't have to worry about manning the blender the whole time.

5. After the first round of ice cream gets served, put it back in your freezer so it doesn't melt.  Make sure to announce that people can go for seconds or thirds, but you just put it away to keep it cold.

6.  Borrow scoops from friends so no one has to wait for the one scoop in order to dish up their ice cream.

7.  If possible, send people home with an insulated bag with leftover ice cream.  Leftover ice cream is dangerous.  It only takes one bad day at work and a quick glance in the freezer for an ice cream binge to happen.  We sent one guest home with two flavors.

8.  Keep water on hand either in a pretty pitcher or small water bottles.  WHY does ice cream make people so thirsty?

This party was so fun and easy to plan.  Besides cleaning and shopping for toppings, we really only had to bake the brownies and chop up the candy.  Everyone had a great time and really enjoyed the ice cream.  I know this seems like its only good for a summer party and fall is definitely upon us, but have you ever gotten a craving for ice cream in the dead of winter?  It's so weird, but it does happen.  THEN, there are those people who will happily walk around with a double dipped cone while there is snow on the ground (the Chancellor of my undergrad was well-known for doing this).  With that in mind, I could totally see this being a very fun halfway to summer party!  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Styling a Manly Flower Arrangement

Women are usually the only people who care about having flowers at a party.  I bet there are also a zillion men out there who can't understand the importance of having flowers, even at a wedding (um, hello. decor for the photos and a table arrangement will give your guests something to look at rather than awkwardly staring across the table at another guest they probably don't know).  When I threw Mr. 3 a bourbon party for his birthday back in January, he specifically requested no decorations...HOWEVER, I'm pretty sure that's because I hadn't thought up the idea of having a liquor bottle arrangement!  Now, I think we are all well aware of how nice flowers can look in wine bottles, but I don't think that I've seen much in the realm of liquor bottles.

Please excuse the banged up table...I had yet to finish ironing my tablecloth that day.

Let me tell you, this is probably the easiest and cheapest flower arrangement you will ever make (minus the cost of the liquor of course).  I waited until we three empty booze bottles, which mind you, I have been collecting for the past 6 months...NOT the past 6 days.



The openings for the bottles are quite narrow, so I knew I wouldn't need very many flowers and they had to have small stems and bigger blooms in order to work.

So, I picked up a bouquet of pom poms for $4.99 at Safeway.  I decided to stick with white so the flowers didn't clash with the labels aaaand because pink and purple didn't seem so mantastic to me. 

Because the bottle necks are so slim, it's best to cut your stems really short.  I cut the thick part of the stem off of all the pom poms to start out, but because pom poms grow as groups of blooms (meaning several buds connected to individual thin stems, but are bunched together and connected to one larger stem) you will need to further cut them down and separate them out for this arrangement.  After separating each bloom, I trimmed the stems down to about 3 inches and removed any leafy bits still hanging around (if you don't take care of them and they get into the water, things get murky fast!).

  

After thoroughly washing out the bottles for any lingering liquor, I filled my bottles with room temp water, leaving only the neck of the bottle free.  It's best to use room temp water for flowers because cold water can shock the blooms.  I grabbed a couple of big blooms and put them in the bottle first, then worked in some smaller blooms, and finally put the buds in last.  By working in this order, the bigger blooms supported the buds and kept them from falling into the bottle.  I kept working the blooms in until I couldn't get any more into the neck to make the arrangement super fluffy.

I repeated with the other two bottles until I had this fun, fluffy display!

The best part about this arrangement is that it was sooooo cheap.  I made three bottle arrangements using $4.99 bouquet and had enough left over to put in a vase with three sunflowers.  I think you could easily get 6-8 bottle arrangements out of a decent sized bouquet.  This arrangement was also super easy to make!  I think it took me about 30 mins and that included washing out the bottles and stopping to take pictures.

I don't think I would suggest this for a wedding centerpiece, but it would be a really cute way to display the types of liquor being served at your wedding or celebration wherever you have your bar station set up.  I could also see setting up a display for the ingredients in a signature cocktail.  For example, if you were serving a Jack Daniels Honey Lemonade (which is just Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey, lemonade, and a cherry garnish), you could create a flower arrangement in the bottle and display a bowl of lemons next to a sign for your cocktail.  This is definitely man friendly too and could easily be used at any man's birthday party or BBQ.  Mr. 3 came home after I had finished making the arrangements and he thought they were "pretty great" (love that man!).

Anyone else ever recycled their booze bottles into a vase?  If so, we'd love to see pictures!

***This is not a sponsored post.  We were not compensating in anyway, including free booze or flowers, to write this article.  We just like sharing easy and inexpensive ideas with our Posh Purpose Readers!***

Caroline's Ladies Luncheon, Part II

Now it is time for the food portion of Caroline's eleventh birthday party. If you want to review yesterday's post, you can see all the pretty vintage tea table settings Caroline and Kimberlee put together. Kimberlee made all the food herself and everything turned out delicious! And keep in mind, most of the serving pieces and place settings are thrifted and antiqued. Don't you just love seeing thrift store finds in action?

Miss Caroline with her kitty cat ear headband

The menu included strawberries, raspberries, and almonds mixed together with a ricotta topping to the left. This is a beautiful side dish that is perfect for any sort of shower or ladies event. 

 We also had mini tomato and asparagus quiches. Don't you love the pretty petal shaped crusts?

My favorite part of the meal was the cucumber sandwiches. I kept going back for more.

Kimberlee also made ham biscuits with peach preserves. While I don't normally like sweet on my foods, the flavor combo was actually really good.

Kimberlee served a colorful pasta salad with vegetables. You can always count on Kimberlee trying to sneak more vitamins into our meal.

My plate was so colorful! Mom always reminds me that for a meal to be attractive, you must have more than one color on the plate.

The cake was lemony delicious. I like how even Caroline's cake fit the vintage theme. When she was younger, she used to ask my mom to make her a pineapple upside down cake for her birthday party. This girl has been retro before she even knew it was a thing. Happy birthday, Caroline!

Caroline's Ladies Luncheon

I attended my niece's eleventh birthday party last Saturday. Caroline asked her mom for a grown up tea party and even invited our sewing instructor and wonderful family friend Mrs. Loveless. While the two boy cousins (already eleven years old) were heartbroken that they didn't get to attend Caroline's party, the rest of us ladies had a wonderful time at my sister Kimberlee's house.

Kimberlee has piles of vintage linens, appetizer plates, tea pots, and tea cups which made every table and place setting unique. Caroline's job was to pick out a tea cup for each of her guests. Caroline may be young, but her sense of style is developing towards vintage and shabby chic. She also likes to knit and sew and loves her pet cats and canary. Sometimes she jokes about us turning her into an old lady, but I think she is adorable!

Caroline's big sister was given the polka dot tea cup

Kimberlee set up three different tables for fifteen guests. One of my favorite parts of the party that did not revolve around Caroline was getting to admire a lot of Kimberlee's thrifted and antique finds all at once. Normally I only get to see bits and pieces, but having everything out at once shows how pretty a collected look can be.

overview of the older girls' table

my place setting

my teacup

My teacup belonged to my great grandmother. Caroline did a wonderful job because my cup was my favorite out of the whole bunch!

Mimi's place setting

overview of the adult table

Caroline selected a colorful yellow floral tea cup for herself

Isn't everything beautiful! And we had such a great time celebrating Caroline. Come back tomorrow to see the delicious food!

Posh Purpose Recipe: Easy Dark Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

I hope you had a chance to check out this morning's post on How to Host: An Office Baby Shower!  I have lots of good tips for having a fun and office appropriate shower.  As I mentioned in our Do's and Don'ts, ask five co-workers to each bring a treat to share at the shower.  I brought two 8 x 8 pans of raspberry brownies to put out at the shower...shhhhhhh...don't tell, but these were the easiest brownies to make...which I passed off as homemade.  Whoopsies.

Hey!  I didn't lie.  I was never directly asked if they were made from scratch.  Mostly people just told me they were delicious and I very demurely said, "Why, thank you!  Glad you enjoyed them!"...you know, as a Southern Lady should.  Not a single person wanted to know how I made them, thank you very much. Conscience clear.

Here's my oh-so-easy and oh-so-impressive recipe for your next future "I need it to look homemade" occasion:

Posh Purpose Dark Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

Ingredients:
2 boxes Ghiradelli dark chocolate brownie mix (Plus all the ingredients listed on the back.  I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil.)
1 jar of seedless black raspberry jam (make sure this is room temp!)
Pam

Directions:
Preheat the oven and prepare the brownie mix according to the directions on the box.  Spray two 8 x 8 square pans with Pam.

Spread half the brownie mix between the two pans.  Spoon a few dollops of room temperature black raspberry jam on top of the brownie mix.  Take a fork or a knife and swirl the jam out over the brownie batter until you get a pretty even thin layer.  You are trying to avoid big clumps of jelly hanging out in the middle of the brownie (room temp is very important - the colder your jam is the harder it will be to spread).  Spread the remaining brownie batter between the two pans.

Cook as directed on the back of the brownie mix box until done.  Let cool.

To pre-cut the brownies (which I recommend for any type of group gathering), spray a butter knife with Pam and cut each pan into 12 squares.  The Pam will keep the brownies from getting all tore up as you cut.  Re-spray the knife as needed.

Makes 2 dozen.

These brownies are really decadent!  If you get your jam spread evenly, the heat of the oven will help melt it a bit so it integrates with the brownie mix.  I highly, highly recommend that you use the Ghiradelli dark chocolate brownie mix.  It tastes like high grade cocoa powder aaand it has big chocolate chips added in. You can probably use other types types of jelly like strawberry or blackberry, but just make sure they are seedless!  I don't know how much easier (yet still fancy pants) you can get for a last minute (or I just don't want to dig out the KitchenAid) recipe!  Let us know if you try them out!  You're sure to get rave reviews!

***This post was not sponsored by Ghiradelli.  We simply love their products...especially dark chocolate!***

How to Host: An Office Baby Shower

At my regular 9-5, I was recently asked to help out with throwing a baby shower for a male co-worker.  In the past, the office has taken up a collection, given the parents-to-be a gift card, had some cake, and called it a day.  This time around, word on the street was that the couple needed a lot of help getting ready for the baby's arrival.  Sooooo, I put on on my party planning hat and suggested that we throw a real baby shower with some decorations and lots of  necessary, useful, and helpful gifts to open.  We usually invite the wives, so I figured if she was going to trek over in the nasty D.C. summer swamp-like conditions with only 2 weeks to go (eeks!), the least we could do was make it worthwhile.

The biggest consideration in planning an office baby shower is that your boss and male co-workers will be in attendance.  This is NOT the time for women to trade war stories about their birthing experiences.  Secondly, if you are hosting your office baby shower on company grounds/property, you probably won't be able to decorate quite as much...so scale way back from the bajillion shower ideas you've seen floating around Pinterest!  Otherwise, here are a few of the do's and don'ts for hosting a successful office baby shower!

Posh Purpose Do's and Don'ts for Office Baby Showers  

1. DON'T play shower games.  I hate shower games to begin with, but they are usually completely inappropriate for work.  Also, while your boss may be willing to take time from the work day to celebrate a co-worker's pending bundle of joy, he/she may view games as a waste of company time.  Or, like in my case, my boss would rather throw himself off the Key Bridge than play a shower game.

2. DO take up a collection for the gift (as long as company policy doesn't prohibit it) and make sure to buy items off the couple's registry or baby care items that you know they can use (diapers, shampoo, wipes, etc).  Let each employee make an individual decision on what they are comfortable contributing rather than saying each person they must contribute X number of dollars.  You don't want to alienate co-workers who can't afford to donate and to be honest, who would want to fork over a mandatory contribution for a co-worker they can't stand?  Also, try to pick a theme of gifts to buy so that they aren't getting a bunch of random junk.  For my co-worker, we knew they had been gifted a crib, but didn't have any other bedding items.  So, we purchased the crib mattress, mattress pad/cover, and two crib sheets.  We didn't have enough money left after those purchases to buy another big ticket item, so we used the last of the funds to buy diapers, wipes, and diaper rash cream.

3. DON'T buy anything related to nursing (i.e. breast pumps, nipple cream, modesty covers, etc).  Chances are you will have at least one male in attendance and you don't want to make him squeamish.  In addition to an assortment of male co-workers, my boss and two of the three managers are male.  They most certainly do not want to think about a female co-worker or an employee's wife and her future lactation efforts.

4.  DO wrap each item separately so there is more to open.  Also, try to match the wrapping paper to the decor if you can manage it.  The overall presentation will be much better and the pile of gifts will add to the decor, especially if your decorating budget is small, your office space limits the amount of decorating you  can do, or your office space isn't worth decorating (hello nasty outdated fluorescent light bulbs and cube farms).

Aqua + Pink = OK!

5. DO make sure everyone signs a card to send the couple and baby best wishes.  Gifts are wonderful, but a card gives the employees who couldn't afford to contribute to the gift collection a chance to show their support and participate in the office event.

6. DO ask the bakers in your office to bring a baked good in to share at the shower rather than spending part of the gift donations on cake and other refreshments.  A baby is coming people!  Another set of diapers for the new parents is waaay more important than you eating fancy cake.  Depending on your office size, 5 types of treats should be plenty.  We have less than 20 people in our office, but 6 people provided a lemon pie, fresh fruit, mini cupcakes, an assortment of tea cookies, a homemade candy, and raspberry brownies (check back this afternoon for my super easy and inexpensive recipe!).

7. DON'T have a super feminine shower theme if your co-worker is expecting a girl.  Men tend to be uncomfortable around too much pink and lace.  I suggest brightly colored and coordinating tablecloths, plates, and napkins.  You can still use pink, but be sure to add in other colors like yellow, green, blue, aqua, or purple.  I recommend the Spritz line at Target - cheap and cute!  Polka dots, stripes, chevron, and plaid are all fun and festive without being too girly!

We went with multi-colored polka dots!

8. DO use what you already have in your party pantry.  Since we host a lot of shin digs, I'm always picking up paper napkins and plates.  I dug through my party pantry (i.e. the useless cabinet above my apartment refrigerator) and found paper goods to go with the event.  If you  have absolutely nothing to work with, find a coupon and head to Michael's craft store.  They usually have a variety of party wear to choose from for all sorts of occasions!

Plates are from HomeGoods and napkins are from Michael's

9. DO find flowers for the mother-to-be to enjoy at the shower and take home with her (if you can manage it).  This wasn't something I was able to accomplish for my shower.  I couldn't figure out how to transport the gifts, food, and flowers on the metro without having a nervous breakdown.  I think this is an especially lovely touch for any type shower, but especially for all the pretty mamas-to-be.  Not only will the flowers jazz up the shower, no one will feel the need to send flowers after the baby is born  (added bonus, the mama will likely enjoy the flowers much more before the baby is born than after when she is sleep deprived).  These do NOT have to be expensive blooms.  First, ask your co-workers if they have any flowers growing in their yards, as they would obviously be free.  I know when I worked at a bank in college, there were some very lovely ladies who had very lovely peonies and hydrangeas growing in their yards.  My next suggestion would be to look for the cheapest flowers in season.  If I had been able to transport flowers, I would have gone with sunflowers ($3.99 for 3 huge stems!) or carnations (always cheap!).  Don't bother spending money on a vase - wash out a pasta sauce jar!  If you are pressed for time, the Dollar Tree always, always has vases.  

10. DO play soft music in the background (if you have access to the appropriate music and a way to play it).  Invariably, you are going to have awkward pauses in conversation at an office event, so it's a good idea to have some type of noise to mask the awkwardness.  Playing upbeat music (softly!) is a way to distract and detract from any moments when the room goes dead silent (which usually happens right before someone says something completely inappropriate just to fill the silence!).  Find an elevator music or oldies radio station as they won't offend most people in the office. 

That's it for our Posh Purpose How to Host Tips!  Sorry I don't have more photos to share Posh Purpose readers!  I got sick the day of the shower and I had to leave before the party (blogger fail).  I can tell you that all my planning and the help of some wonderful co-workers made it a great success!  Not only was the father completely appreciative, but my boss dropped by my office to tell me it was the nicest office event he has attended!

Patio Party: Italian Twist

Mr. 3 and I decided to throw a Patio Party this pasty weekend for our two friends AnnaMarie and Max.  We've been out of town a lot of over the last month and we've missed out on seeing them!  I didn't want to spend a ton of time cooking, so I followed our easy formula for throwing a Patio Party that we outlined in our last Patio Party post: 

Posh Purpose Patio Party Formula

1 Cocktail

2 Savory Appetizers

1 Sweet Treat

I decided to do an Italian theme with a twist.  My menu included peach and mozzarella bruschetta, antipasti platter (consisting of kalamata olives, brie, and grape leaves all from Whole Foods), and mini cannolis and cookies (also from Whole Foods).  For the cocktail, I mixed tequila, limoncello, and blood orange soda together which were all items I had on hand.  While we were sitting around I went back to the fridge and grabbed some ranier cherries that I were afraid would go bad before I got a chance to eat them all.  While the cherries weren't in the original plan, they were a great addition that I needed to use up anyways.  Here are a few pics from our party:

Arthur Court Tray for $2!  Napkin from World Market

Yummmmm crostini!

Serving up the cherries in the berry colander

Notice my Georges Briard Cheese Tray - only $2!

The patio party was super easy to execute.  I used a french baguette to make crostini for the peach and mozzarella bruschetta (which just involved cutting and dousing with olive oil and vinegar).  I also made enough to have leftovers to take for lunch at work.  Everything else was purchased from Whole Foods  (leftover grape leaves also made a tasty work lunch this week!).  Soooo, I spent next to no time slaving in the kitchen, BUT I made a really interesting dish that probably hadn't been served before and I bought prepared foods from a tasty source.  Our friends came over around 2:30 and stayed for a few hours.  It was nice to catch up!  If you want to check out our first patio party, feel free to read up here.  Anyone else throwing a fun and small get together?  Share below!

Introducing Patio Parties!

I dearly love a good party, but sometimes it's nice to just have a small get together.  For the next How to Host Series, we're going to be introducing Patio Parties!  The idea behind a patio party is to have 4-6 people over to sit outside and enjoy the weather.  Briana and I have come up with a simple formula to keep costs down and the work to a minimum so you can enjoy your time hanging out with friends.  Let's get started!

Posh Purpose Patio Party Formula

1 Cocktail

2 Savory Appetizers

1 Sweet Treat

To start, pick out an easy to make cocktail with the alcohol you already have available.  For me, I had some boxed wine that I didn't care for and a bottle of sangria mix that I bought from Williams-Sonoma on clearance a few weeks ago (even though it was on clearance, it wasn't expired yet).  I also threw some frozen strawberries in to keep the drink cool and add some extra flavor.  

For food, pick two savory appetizers and one sweet treat.  To make it really easy on yourself, make two of the three from store bought goods and devote your time towards one really great dish.  Bonus points if you don't have to turn the oven on!  Mr. 3 found a great deal on baby back ribs so we served those with store bought mini cornbread loaves.  I also grabbed a bag of peanuts in the shell.  Finally, I made a slab pie with store bought crust, blueberry pie filling, and fresh blueberries.

Invite your guests over around 2 or 3 PM - you won't have to make a ton of food like would you for lunch or dinner which will keep costs down and the event casual.

I hosted my first patio party a few weeks ago and it was a big hit!  Here are a few snapshots from the patio party:

Rather than making a huge formal flower arrangement, I bought $9 worth of gerbera daisies and just plunked them down in a pitcher.  I used paper plates and napkins from Target and Home Goods and I topped off my table with a retro table square I bought a few weeks ago.

We'll be sharing more patio parties as the summer goes on!  Anyone else done any great entertaining lately?  If not, consider throwing an impromptu patio party this weekend!

Fake Mothers Day

Since my mom will be out of town for Mothers Day this year, we decided to celebrate a fake Mothers Day last night. Wednesday nights are not the best for huge parties so we went with a much easier theme. Pies! Each sister made a pie and brought it to my parents' house.

Here is the aftermath of the fake Mothers Day pie party. Everything was so good! I made a lemon meringue pie, Natalia made a coconut cream pie, Bekah made a cherry pie, and Kim made a peanut butter pie. 

Amusingly enough, our gift to mother would have been useful for two of the pies. We all bought her a copper beating bowl, which is perfect for whipping egg whites into meringue. The copper reacts with the whites so there is no need to boost the fluffiness with cream of tartar or lemon juice. 

A pie party is a great idea if you want to host a casual and easy event. We had variety in desserts without any one person having to do a ton of work. And who doesn't love more than one type of pie? You could make it a bit more fancy than we did and use your fine china and silver pie servers (or pick some silver plate servers at your local thrift store). Make a bubbly punch (and go back to your thrift store to pick up a new punch bowl and cup set) but make sure it isn't too sweet. And if you do host a pie party, please let us know! 

Posh Purpose: Styling a Bud Vase

In yesterday's post on How to Host: Holiday Potluck, I told y'all I made five small flower arrangements using two thrift store bud vases, two promotional glasses that came with some lemoncello I purchased at Christmas, and an old candle jar.  Here's a tutorial on how I made my bud vase arrangements:

Supplies

- 4 bud vases and one smaller, short container for flowers that don't have very long stems or ones that are broken off.  An old jelly jar or candle jar would be perfect, just scrub off any non-attractive labeling (i.e. nutritional information).

- Scissors for cutting and trimming flowers (I just used some regular office scissors)

- 3 types of flowers - all small to medium sized blooms (one fluffy medium sized, one fluffy small sized, and one non-fluffy bloom)

For the flowers, I went over to Safeway and picked up one bunch of lavender pom poms (fluffy medium sized), pink and white mini-carnations (fluffy small sized), and yellow tulips (non-fluffy bloom).  The pom poms were the base for the flowers and the carnations and tulips were used as accents and fillers.  Although I love big flowers, you are going to have more trouble arranging large bloom flowers in a bud vase because (1) if it's a hydrangea for instance, it's going to take up the entire vase and (2) the weight of the flower might cause the vase to actually tip over.  

You can pick flowers that work with your color scheme in your dining or living room, the theme (i.e. pastels for spring), have lots of contrast (like my arrangements), and you can never go wrong with all white.  Also, look for flowers that will give you the most bang for your buck.  I believe the huge bunch of pom poms was $4.99.  Although I could have bought a ton of mini carnations at about $2 each, they don't have as much volume as the pom poms.  The tulips were the most expensive at 10 stems for $5.99, but they are my favorite flower and I love the contrast with the other two colors. 

Since our event wasn't until Sunday, I bought my flowers on a Friday and made sure to look for carnations and tulips that were still mostly closed.  I wanted to arrange them ahead of time because I found out that Safeway's last shipment of flowers for the week comes on Fridays and since it was Easter, I worried about them selling out of the best looking flowers if I waited until Saturday night.  Ask your florist when their shipments come in so you can always get the best selection, but try not to buy them more than 48 hours in advance of the event.  Also, make sure to arrange them immediately so that the flowers have time to open up and don't get dehydrated.

Beautiful blooms and my two lemoncello glasses to the right

I followed similar steps that I described in my post on styling low flower arrangements.  Start by putting some powdered plant food in each container (flowers usually have a packet attached to each bunch, but you can also ask the floral department for a packet or two if you don't see any attached), but hold off adding water until the end.  Water is much easier to put in than trying to sprinkle the food packet into a vase once the flowers are in it.

I cut the flowers down to fit the depth of the vases and stripped them of all their leaves (leaves below the water line make for short lived flowers and really yucky cloudy water).  For bud vases, it's nice for the flowers to have different heights, so don't cut everything the same length.  Start with your fluffiest flowers first, in my case - pom poms, and divvy them among your four bud vases so that they all appear to have the same amount of flowers.  Obviously some flowers will have bigger blooms, so just counting them out evenly won't work in this situation.  Next, layer in your smaller fluffy flower, I used mini carnations, to start filling in gaps.  Finally, use your non-fluffy flower to add pops of color or extra interest to your arrangement and fill in any final gaps, I used tulips.  Arrange the flowers so the center of the arrangement is the tallest point and it gradually gets shorter on the sides.  For example, you wouldn't want a really tall flower positioned on the wall of the bud vase because the arrangement will look lopsided.  Save tall blooms for the center.  You will probably wind up with flowers too short to fit in your bud vases, so arrange them in your small jelly jar or candle container for a really low arrangement.  This is a really easy way to get one more arrangement and since it is so small, it doesn't take any real skill to arrange it.  For our holiday potluck, I put mine in the bathroom.

Not only do I arrange flowers, I also fold laundry...and then leave it in the background of my styling posts as evidence.

Candle jar flower arrangement using leftover blooms

Bud vases are super easy to arrange, but there are a few things to keep in mind.  For the most part, bud vases look really bad with only a few scrawny flowers in them, so they still need lots of flowers to fill them in.  Second, make sure you have very little stem showing at the top of your bud vase.  It will look more like a professionally done flower arrangement when you place blooms to strategically cover up the stems at both the top of the bud vase and throughout the arrangement to cover up the taller stems in the center.  Also, don't make them too tall, you'll risk toppling them over and if you use them as a table centerpiece it may be hard to see around once everyone is seated.

View from the top...looks like loads of flowers!

After I finished arranging the flowers, I went back and added lukewarm water to the vases (just take your index finger and hold the stems to one side while the faucet is running.  You'll get water all over the vase, but it's much easier to dry it off than to try to find a spot to pour water into each vase.).  You don't want to shock the flowers with cold water, it would be like throwing yourself under a cold shower.   Post-party, keep an eye on your water levels to lengthen the life of your arrangements.  I refilled my vases twice over the past 11 days that I've had them and they are still going strong!

Bud vases are an extremely affordable way to put flowers on your table that still have a big impact.  I only spent $13.74 on these arrangements and I put them all over the apartment to really brighten up the space for our potluck.  I really think it's these small touches that really elevate your party...even if it is a potluck in a young married couples apartment.  It shows that you put time and thought into making a beautiful event for you and your guests to enjoy.  Creating your own arrangements using the containers you already have and using grocery store flowers makes this a super affordable upgrade for any party.  Anyone else tried a bud vase arrangement?  Let us in on any secret tips you have!