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Category: party

Budget Friendly Holiday Dinner Party

posted in decor, diy, food, holidays, inspiration, money saving tips, party, Uncategorized by Hanna on

When the holidays roll around it usually involves parties, food and entertainment. All of that can get a little overwhelming and pricey when you are the one hosting and start feeling like it has to look like it came out of magazine. What we are coming to find out is that you can still get a great look that will impress all your guests from just shopping your house, incorporating a little DIY and shopping dollar stores or discounted items. Also fancy, plastic dinnerware makes clean up a dream!

Here are the details on our Christmas dinner party and some tips that can help you!

– Since there was going a lot of people coming for dinner, to keep the cost low we decided to go with a rustic theme to incorporate elements that we could get right outside our door. We gathered pine cones to use in our centerpieces and branches from trees to make twig start place holders. I kept mine to use on my Christmas tree this year or you could let your guests take them as a little party favor to hang on their trees.

-For all the center pieces we shopped our houses for vases, candles and candlestick holders. Basically grab anything that could look good on the table and help add some fun interest and fill the space! The greenery and cranberries we used in the vases we got on sale at a number of craft stores but you could easily gather those things from outside as well the day of the party.

– If you want to know a secret for an easy and SUPER cheap charger 12×12 craft paper is the answer! We got 6 sheets of this metallic bronze paper for $1! To add a little color to our table and break up the layering of the plates we added some burlap ribbon with fringe ends.

-For dinner we decided to do buffet style so we created a quick menu in Word and got it printed out for $5. A chalkboard and some chalk would also word perfect for this! The sign we hung above the food table we created with a font we liked and cut it out using a Silhouette machine and then strung the words up with some twine.

Now lets move to the best part..the food! We’re really excited to introduce you to Megan and Nathan from the blog “Half Cup of Snark“. Hop on over to their blog to see what was on the menu for our holiday party, to enjoy some witty, food talk and get some A-MA-ZING recipes to wow your guest’s taste buds this Christmas!

Lastly, we all know that the decorations and food for a party are just part of planning but looming in the back of our minds is always, “What am I going to wear??” Well we have you covered for that as well. See how our plaid peplum top and window pane swing dress are perfect for any party, including all the ones for this holiday season! We’ll just call this the post that just keeps giving. 😉

Now with all your bases covered for hosting a bomb holiday party we wish you luck on all your family and friend gatherings!

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We’d love to hear some tips and tricks you have tried for saving money hosting a holiday party while still wowing your guest!!

Tea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously Paired

Give Your Girl Something to Party About!

posted in color block party skirts, kids, party by Sara on

Who ever said women get to have all the fun when it comes to great style pieces, such as our Colorblock Party Skirts? Certainly not us! Starting today (like right now!) girls can join in the fun with their very own Colorblock Party Skirt! With an elastic back, the girls’ colorblock skirt is easy on, easy off– perfect for play, school, or special occasions! Tea parties included!

Tea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously Pairedtea partyTea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously PairedTea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously PairedTea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously PairedTea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously PairedTea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously PairedTea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously PairedTea Party | Girls Colorblock Party Skirts | Preciously Paired

Visit the SHOP to get a closer look, and to view all the details on how to order one of these precious skirts!

And you guys, can I just take a minute to brag about my photographer Janel Foster?! She’s awesome! If you’re in the Portland area I highly recommend her! I love every opportunity we get to work together! She’s so much fun, she’s talented, and she always exceeds my expectations!

Nautical Baby Shower

posted in baby, party by Hanna on

This last weekend I threw a baby shower for a close friend of mine. To show how lame shy I am she is one of the few close friends I made in college that I stay in touch with since leaving. Quality over quantity right? We both had our oldest girls around the same time and now she is having her second which turns out to be a boy! Having two girls and two nieces and having friends that mostly have girls I’m use to the color’s pink and purple with ruffles and bows; basically ALL things girly. This shower was so fun to be able to do something new that was still super cute and that didn’t involve any of those “girly” things.

My inspiration came from these invitations Sara and I found at Goodwill almost a year ago. Neither of us had any reason to use them but they were just so darn cute to not buy! I think I’m converted to pre-made invitations since I’ve always made my own. For the actual shower I just continued with the nautical theme and colors from the invites in the decorations and food.

Nautical Baby Shower Invitations

The day of the shower turned out perfectly! It was a small affair which I loved and it allowed me to focus more on details since there were so few of us and it felt more relaxed.

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The shower was in the morning so I did more brunch type foods, mini pancake stackers, mini quiche, a fruit salad and then of course some sweet things.

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Can we stop and just take in the beauty of this cake?! I’m so happy with it and I didn’t even make it! Perhaps that’s why I like it so much. I’ll let you in on a little secret about me, I’m TERRIBLE at baking cakes. I’ve never had a good experience when making one. So for this shower I knew right away I wasn’t even going to attempt! Luckily I found someone in my neighborhood that does cakes out of her home. In my desperation all I wanted was something that looked cute but turns out she can make an amazing cake that not only looks great but tastes divine! This is a cake I’m going to crave and will pay money again just to eat it.

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Now if only that little guy could come so I can hold him! I may have a weakness for newborns.

Linked To:

http://theblissfulbee.com/work-it-wednesday-no-61/

Share your Beautiful Creations – From Dream To Reality #131

http://www.persialou.com/2014/08/the-makers-no-31.html

http://lifeinvelvet.com/2014/08/thursday-style-link-party-34/

Outdoor Summer Dinner Party: The Menu

posted in family, food, party, recipe by Hanna on

You can’t have a successful dinner party without an awesome menu to go along with the beautiful decorations and for this outdoor dinner party we planned nothing short of it with delicious recipes for the menu. In case you missed part 1 of this dinner party showing the table setting and decorations you can check it out {HERE}.

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Menu

Arugula Pear Salad with Candied Walnuts and Creamy Balsamic Dressing

Grilled Potato Salad with Honey Mustard and Dill Dressing

Blueberry and Jalapeno BBQ Pork Ribs (Recipe below)

Homemade Vanilla Ice cream with Grilled Peaches and Candied Pecans

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When coming up with the menu for this outdoor dinner party we definitely wanted to take advantage of the grill with it being summer and beautiful weather. We also decided to step outside our usual recipes and take a risk making some thing new. However when making new recipes and you’re cooking for a big crowd and don’t want to take the risk of having it not turn out I would recommend trying them ahead of time! It’s quite possible that we ran into some problems with this as we were making our homemade ice cream for the first time for the party. Luckily it was just us, our families and a close friend; all who are very forgiving and it helped that we had a back-up gallon of ice cream in the freezer.

Minus our little dessert mishap the rest of the menu was a complete success! My husband gets all the credit for the Blueberry and Jalapeno BBQ sauce that went on the ribs. He’s always loved experimenting with food and recipes and this was a sauce he came up with completely on his own. He’s pretty amazing like that! So far we’ve had this BBQ sauce on chicken, pulled pork and now on pork ribs; all of which taste SO good! It’s must try!

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Blueberry and Jalapeno BBQ Sauce
 
Print
This sweet BBQ sauce with a kick goes great on both chicken and pork.
Make By:
What You'll Need
  • 1¼ cup Ketchup
  • 1 cup Honey
  • 3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
  • 1-3 Jalapeno (depending on how spicy you want it)
  • 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
  • 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 1 clove minced Garlic
  • 1 cup Blueberries
How To Make
  1. Slice the jalapeno(s). Pour some olive oil in a pan and saute jalapenos and blueberries on medium heat for 3 minutes. Then put that mixture in a blender along with all the other ingredients and blend into a smooth sauce.
Notes
For making the Blueberry and Jalapeno BBQ sauce with ribs follow the directions below:

1. Place ribs side by side on an oven pan.
2. Add ¼" of water in the bottom of the pan to prevent burning.
3. Coat ribs with the BBQ sauce and cover with tin foil.
4. Cook ribs in the oven for 1½ hours at 450 degrees.
5. Remove foil and reapply sauce
6. Place ribs back in the over for 30 minutes without foil, or place ribs on the grill and baste them for approximately 30 minutes making sure to turn them frequently to prevent burning.
7. Remove from grill or oven, adding extra sauce as necessary.

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Linked to:

http://www.thepinjunkie.com/2014/07/pin-junkie-pin-party-75.html

http://gracelangdon.blogspot.com/2014/07/making-monday-49.html

http://www.flourmewithlove.com/2014/07/mix-it-up-monday_13.html#more

Outdoor Summer Dinner Party

posted in crafts, decor, diy, holidays, inspiration, party, thrifted, tutorial by Hanna on

Besides blogging, one of our favorite things to do together is to host a great party full of delicious food, good company, and fun decorations. Since we bought our house last fall, I’ve been itching to throw an outdoor party on our spacious deck. With Sara and her family here visiting, and with it being our one year blog anniversary, we decided to throw a little outdoor summer party to celebrate. Usually we have things planned out several weeks in advanced, but besides our dinner menu everything else came together last minute.

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You might be wondering how we managed to pull this off with such a limited budget in such little time? Honesty, we were quite amazed ourselves, but in the end we were very pleased with the turnout. It was the perfect combination of fun and classy. The key to throwing together a nice dinner table layout with limited time and money is being creative and resourceful. Everything you see on the table, besides the white flower centerpieces and the aqua colored plates, were things we already owned that we used or re-purposed.

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I think what really made the table, were the fun ikat patterned chargers. And would you have guessed that we made them for under $2 a piece?! About a year ago Sara found a bunch of these gold charges at Goodwill for $1. They have truly been a great purchase as we have used them at several other occasions. For this outdoor summer party we wanted something a little more bright and playful, so we purchased some wrapping paper to cover them with. Below is a simple tutorial on how we did it.

First, trace around the charger on the back side of your wrapping paper, then cut it out. Make sure to cut the circle about 1/2 inch bigger than the actually size the of the plate. Since you only see the outside edge of the plate we decided to only cover the edges, in which case we measured and cut out the middle as well.

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Second. use spray adhesive to bond the paper to the plate.

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Flip the plate over and spray the excess paper with glue, then fold over to the underside of the plate.

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Lastly, spray a clear acrylic coating or sealant over the top for added durability and protection from food and water.

Allow each plate to dry before using, then add these fun new chargers to your table setting for some added color and interest.

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Linked To:

http://theblissfulbee.com/work-it-wednesday-no-55/

Share your Fun Creations – From Dream To Reality #125

http://www.bravenewhome.com/diyers-link-party-8/

http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/2014/07/wow-me-wednesday-162.html

http://elizabethjoandesigns.com/2014/07/designs-time-no-18/

http://gracelangdon.blogspot.com/2014/07/making-monday-49.html

Party Like it’s the 1980’s

posted in party by Hanna on
Let’s just start off with the simple fact that I kind of love lot’s of things pertaining to the 1980’s; such as 80’s cliches, 80’s music and lets not forget 80’s movies (“Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Sixteen Candles” to name a few.) Life just seems more fun when your hair is in a scrunchy, side-ponytail and you’re wearing neon leggings while listening to “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”.
Another thing I love from the 1980’s is my husband which is what inspired my sister-in-law and I to throw an 80’s party for our husband’s birthdays a few years back. It started out as a surprise party, but it turns out I am a terrible liar! Another thing you probably didn’t know about me. Long story short it was still an awesome party. 
Let’s get to the details now, shall we?
We had this party back in the day when we were all poor, collage students with apartments barely big enough for ourselves and it was the middle of winter so we had this party in our local church building. On the menu for dinner was total “guy” food; chili cheese fries and nachos. I made up these cassette tape, food labels that worked perfectly with our theme. {You can find a FREE printable of them below.}
We also had a treat table with a bunch of different candies from the 80’s. All good things full of sugar and food dye.
We topped off the menu with a “Rubik’s Cube” cake made by my talented sister-in-law.
And what’s an 80’s party without a photo booth? Never mind that some of the costumes having nothing to doing with the 1980’s, we sure had fun with it anyway!
I can’t believe how little Mia looks in this picture! Time flies!
I think this picture would be appropriately titled, “Girl’s Just Want to Have Fun”! 
And if you haven’t died laughing yet at our crazy pictures…
I would say this could go in with the “100 Top Most Awkward Pictures from the 80’s with this haha.
This will be a party I will always remember when my family was close by and all the fun we had. Hopefully you were able to get just as much joy and inspiration out of this post.
So if you’re inspired to throw an 80’s party of your own feel free to download these cassette tape, party labels.
Linked To:

Friday Finds #9: Budget Friendly Party Ideas

posted in diy, Friday Finds, party, Pinterest Challenge by Sara on
 It has been a while since we have done a Friday Finds due to the Pinterest Challenge, but we wanted to bring it back this week for some more party fun! Today we’ve rounded up some budget friendly party theme and decoration ideas that would suite any party. You may remember us saying earlier in the week that we love to throw parties for all ages. We believe kid’s parties can have all the thrills and cuteness expected but with grown up touches. 
1.  Easy DIY Streamer Garlands |  by Oh Happy Day
2.  Streamer Over Hang |  at Style Me Pretty
3.  Party Thank Yous (filled with candy) |  by Make it & Love It
4.  Confetti Balloons |  by Ko-Jo Designs
5.  Breakfast Birthday Party |  by Thoughtfully Simple
6.  Colorful DIY Art Birthday Party |  by Studio DIY

For those of you who are wondering about the Pinterest Challenge, the final results will be up soon! Be sure to check out all of the other talented bloggers who join us in the challenge. They are:
These Cake Batter Truffles make by Stephanie would certainly be a tasty, mouth-watering addition to your party!
And this DIY Geometric Canvas Wall made by Amy would be a great way to add eye-catching color and pattern to your party’s backdrop!
And, dare I say, these totally chic DIY Animal Keychains made by Katelyn would make excellent party favors!