Love (Nesting) Birds Baby Shower - a sweet yellow & grey gender neutral baby shower for super special friends!!

I am proud to say that this party was featured on "Sweet Designs" by Amy Atlas.  Check it out here!

If you like the party printables, you can purchase your own set at my Etsy shop HERE.

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Wow, so much happened since the last time I posted about a homemade party I hosted... Among the major changes is the fact that we've moved (and are still in the process) and I started an online business selling digital custom partyware kits (check it out here if you haven't yet, or just click on the "SHOP" tab on the menu bar above.)

Considering our already pretty full days (and life, thankfully!), I really don't know how we are managing to do it. There's truly a lot more power in us than we give ourselves credit for :-)

Besides not having our beloved "stuff" and furniture with us yet (again, we are still in transition...) I managed to organize and style a few simple and yet beautiful parties that I'm now happy to share with you.  I'll start with a baby shower I styled for one of my oldest and closest friends here in the US.

This baby shower was a joint effort of a few friends to celebrate and cherish our dear friends' baby on the way. I was in charge of the decoration and party favors, and inspired by the tastefully decorated nursery, I set the tone with yellow and grey colors. One of my favorite pieces from the baby's room is a lovely blanket with birds imprinted on one side and stripes on the other, so a "nesting love birds" concept immediately came to mind. 

This charming baby blanket was my inspiration for this party

I used bird references throughout the party - yellow and white ostrich feathers as a table centerpiece, mini bird's nests holding Jordan almonds and yellow-coated chocolate, ceramic egg crates, bird houses, wood branches and distressed bird cages.

Here's the party "mise en place": food cards attached on absolutely adorable metal bird place card holders...

 ...wine charm markers to identify each guest's glass. This is a great concept if you are like me and keep forgetting where you left your drink... If you think you won't be able to remember your chosen pattern by the end of the night, you can always write your name on the marker as well :-)

I took my yellow console table to the host's place and set the water bottles there. For decoration I added grapewood branches, wood and metal birds from Michael's (which I adorned with a polka dot patter patina), dotted yellow and grey drinking paper straws, customized water bottle labels and pennant flags (both available at my shop.) Above it all, I hung a large ornate frame from Ikea that I spray-painted in white (which was such a challenge, since our small rental apartment has only a tiny balcony area that I could work at without intoxicating the whole family with paint fumes...) Inside I framed a piece of grey and white dot fabric and added felt cutouts of birds and hearts. This project took way more time than I ever expected, but it was all very worthy at the end. I simply love, love, love the result!

I included some "Baby Facts" on the water label, a play on the nutritional facts box :-)

A closer look at the patina birds. I used the same easy technique for the wooden letter "K" I used at this vintage baby shower. I painted the birds in grey and yellow and let them dry completely. Then I traced their shape on the polka dot paper from my collection, cut around and glued on the birds with mod podge. 

I offered a fun and whimsical welcome drink - I put pieces of pink cotton candy (it's a girl!) inside glass flutes and poured champagne over, melting and blending the candy with the bubbly. 

I stuck wooden skewers on the cotton candy inside the champagne flutes.  I adorned the sticks with little birds I punched out of glittery silver and metallic gold craft paper.

Note cards for guests to leave baby and parents-to-be a message.  Holding them on the "birdcage" are mini clothespins embellished with grey and yellow washi tape.

I baked these chewy and moist brownie bites (recipe at the end of this post) and used my cutout birds again on top of the toothpicks.

This event was an evening affair, so we had lots of delicious savory treats to please every palate :-)

Ostrich feathers, straw nests holding candy coated chocolate and Jordan almonds, a custom "welcome sign" and a couple of painted wood "love birds" with polka dot heart "wings"

The centerpiece - a framed "welcome sign" leaning against a vase with yellow and white ostrich feathers. I added pieces of yellow and grey lace to the sign, as I did "digitally" with the shower invitation.  The glass candle holders (found at a Goodwill store) got a band of lace as well.

A white tablecloth is a great blank "canvas" to any party, and a timeless piece that you can reuse over and over. Just add your colorful décor elements to bring the party theme to life.

An overview of the main table

I cut and glued silver and golden glittery tape on the handle of wood ice cream spoons and we used it to serve the passion fruit mousse, a very common (and yummy!!) Brazilian dessert.

Framed graphic art displayed throughout the main table, plus a painted wood bird house and an adorable yellow ceramic egg crate.

Party circles glued to toothpicks

Another friend made this beautiful cake sprinkled with silver and yellow sugar pearls. I made a mini pennant bunting out of the straw flags from my collection, twine and wooden skewers and used it as a cake topper.

I was lucky to find these beautiful distressed metal birdcages in the party colors.

Polka dot paper rosettes/pinwheels with a party circle from my party kit in the center. It was a little challenging to style a party that wasn't hosted at my own place. I wasn't sure about the space I had for the decorations (I usually set up the table at least the night before a party, sometimes a week or a couple of days before the event!) or what I could do for backgrounds.  At home, I will hang decorations on the wall using tape or nails, but at my friend's house I knew she probably wouldn't appreciate it :-) So to make sure I wouldn't damage her walls or windows, I figured out a nice way to display my paper rosettes: I hot glued a bread twist/tie behind each one of them and secured them onto a vintage framed piece of chicken wire.

 

For the party favors, I put a single cupcake inside mini birdcages (from Michael's) for guests to take home and enjoy for dessert or breakfast the next morning. 

It was a lovely evening among much loved friends and I feel blessed that I could be part of this celebration and make it a bit more special for the happy couple.

 Cherry Walnut Brownie Bites

yields approximately 16-20 mini brownies

(I adapted this recipe from another one I found online. Unfortunately, I lost the source to give its proper credit...)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Amaretto liqueur  (or apple juice, for a non-alcoholic version)
• 3/4 cup chopped unsweetened baking chocolate
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (I prefer European-style butter, such as Plugra or Kerrygold)
• 1 cup raw sugar (demerara, muscovado)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
• 1 15-ounce can pitted dark, sweet cherries, drained (chop them if you want smaller pieces in your brownie)
• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips 

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2.  Generously butter/oil a mini muffin tin and set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, combine the dried chopped cherries and the Amaretto and simmer for a couple of minutes (you want to infuse the cherries with the liqueur)  Set aside to cool.

4. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring frequently until smooth.

5.  Add the sugar and salt, whisking continuously.  Set aside and cool to room temperature (about 10 minutes) 

6.  Once cooled, transfer the chocolate mixture to your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or do it by hand as I did, since we don't have our beloved stand mixer with us yet...)

7. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the chocolate mixture.

8. Add the flour, baking powder, soaked cherries, toasted almonds, canned dark sweet cherries and chocolate chips. Mix well.

9. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared muffin pan.

10. Bake the brownies for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester (or knife) inserted into the center comes out clean.

11.  Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature before removing them from the pan.

12. Dust them with 10x powdered sugar or coat with dark chocolate ganache on top.

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Girls Only: a Little Black Dress Dinner Party (ou a Festa do Pretinho Básico)

UPDATE:  Did you like the party printables I used for this dinner party?  You can find them (and more!) for purchase here and a matching pennant banner here.  Check it out!

I recently met these amazing girls at a friend's house, and instantly felt like we knew each other for ages... They are incredible women who - for one reason or another - moved from all parts of our native Brasil and found each other in the San Francisco Bay Area.  For over 10 years they've been getting together for monthly dinners, where they rotate the place and the cook every time (one of the girls even hosted a Zumba fitness class with a professional instructor when it was her turn to host.  How cool is that?  Unfortunately I was in Brasil and missed that one... And that would have been my first Zumba class!!) I was lucky enough to be "adopted" by these cool chicks and this month, it was my time to offer the girls-only dinner.

As I mentioned on this post, I asked them to wear their good old "little black dresses" and driven by this idea, decorated my place in black & pink and used all the accessories that I thought were pertinent to the theme: dress forms, hangers, measuring tapes, clothespins, pearls, a vintage perfume bottle (also seen here) and of course, all my black dresses displayed on a wall and on a clothes rack.  

I will go into more details about the party styling but first, I would like to talk about music selection. When planning an event, I always plan the "soundtrack" as well, be it an adult, kid, theme or casual barbecue party. I pick and choose the CDs, iPod lists or even my Pandora radio stations based on the ambiance I want to create. I might even play them during planning, set up and cooking to get me inspired and in the right mood :-)  This time around, some of the chosen ones were cool compilations such as "Euro Lounge" and "World Lounge", from Putumayo and other tunes by Bebel Gilberto, Roberta Sá, Thievery Corporation, Pink Martini, Bajofondo and Gotan Project. Very "lounge", very worldly, very girly.

To decorate the apartment, I searched for things I already had at home that could fit into the party concept.  I collected all my "LBDs" from the closet and hung them along with pearl necklaces on the wall.  The only thing I bought for this set up were pink hangers from a discount store, which I'll use for out-of-town guests after the party.

I realized I had more black dresses than I thought, so some of them went on display on a portable clothes rack by the entrance.

A pink "measuring tape" ribbon added a sweet final touch.

I used the same pearls from the Tea Party and the feather boa from our party photo booth to accessorize the mannequin by the entrance. This idea was an adaptation from last year's  Halloween party.

This is the same frame used to display the "etiquette rules" at the Afternoon Tea Party.  This time, its job was to welcome the guests (in Portuguese.)  I always try to match the font type with the concept I want to create for the event. This time, the font I chose to use throughout the party is free and believe it or not, it's called... "Little Black Dress." Yeah! 

Another "little black dress" finding was a key ingredient to my "welcome drink"...

..."Little Black Dress" Vodka!!  I combined the "LBD" black cherry-vanilla vodka, the very pink "X-Rated Fusion Liqueur" and pink lemonade in a cocktail shaker and named it "X-rated LBD." A little obvious I know, but catchy :-)  

To display the cocktail recipe, I wrapped measuring tape washi tape around a vintage wooden spool and added a wire memo holder bent at the bottom to stay in place.

The same memo holder used as a garnish pick

  But wait, there's more!

Merlot and pinot grigio "Little Black Dress" wine!!

I created personal wine tags to attach to the glass stems so no one would lose their drink... To hold all the tags, I used a ring holder. The black wine glasses were purchased last year at an after-Halloween sale.  They were hidden in storage and I am so glad I remembered to pull them out!

Appetizer & Drinks Buffet

Thai salad served in take out boxes with accompanying chopsticks. This is a somewhat elaborate shredded salad I used to prepare at this amazing restaurant I worked at in Washington, D.C.  I've served it before as an amuse bouche at a couple of parties (New Year's Eve & hubby's 40th birthday), and it is always a big favorite. To accommodate everyone, I served two options - chicken and vegetarian - and created round labels to identify which type inside each box. 

The vegetarian option was served in a pink box with black chopsticks.

And the chicken version in a black box and pink (sparkly!) chopsticks.

Butternut Squash Soup garnished with Coconut Milk. The hanging spoons offered the option of having the soup as a shot or as a conventional... well, soup.

I used a wire hanger printed fabric to spruce up the hammered trays.

Paper napkins customized with edible ink (details here) and mini (doll) metal hangers scattered on the table.

Tabletop dress forms "prepped" for the night

An overall view of the dinning room

The day before the party, while shopping for food and other supplies, I found this mirrored wall sticker "chandelier" on sale for less than $4 and thought it would be amusing to incorporate it in the decoration. 

I used the same glass candle holders from the Vintage Baby Shower, but embellished with black and pink lace this time around.

I fell in love with these mini mannequin place card holders a while ago, and ordered a bunch thinking I could use them for my birthday party or something like that.  More than six months later, the opportunity finally came (and this might have been the true reason behind the idea of a LBD party. Shhhhh!!)  The drawback was that I didn't have enough for all the girls (only a couple short.) I tried ordering online again, but couldn't find them anywhere.  Sigh...

Place setting...

... and centerpiece: pink ostrich feathers and a long string of pearls inside a mercury glass vase.

The menu in 2 versions, English and Portuguese.  Welcome drink, appetizers (squash & coconut soup; Thai salad in a box), main dish (miso-ginger marinated salmon - recipe below; string beans in beurre noisette; brown rice)...

...and for a perfect ending to the night, mini berry-almond cheesecakes!  I made a gluten-free almond crust and topped with a fresh berry coulis with a touch of Chambord (black raspberry liqueur.)  The mini candelabra candleholders are from Umbra, and their début was at last year's Halloween party.

For a souvenir of the dinner party, I offered "LBD" shaped cookies: white whole wheat shortbread cookies covered in black fondant and pearlized sprinkles (a gluten-free version was available as well.)

Quick visual tutorial of the cookies, as seen here.

I placed the cookies in pink organza drawstring bags and attached a tag that said "Obrigada!" (thank you) on one side and had the trio of black dress mannequins on the other.  It was a little challenging to photograph all this pink and some colors came out a little off...

I even got myself a bright pink wig to go with my "LBD"

Miso-Ginger Marinated Salmon

(adapted from Bobby Flays's recipe)

Note 1: This recipe feeds 4 people; I had to triple the ingredients, so make sure you have enough for your crowd!

Note 2: One of the girls is gluten-intolerant, so I made sure to use a completely gluten-free version of the tamari sauce. In fact, true tamari is fermented without any gluten, so be sure to read the labels!

Ingredients

•    1/4 cup red miso (fermented soybean paste)

•    1/4 cup sake

•    2 tablespoons rice vinegar

•    2-3 tablespoons organic tamari (or good quality soy sauce, look for "naturally fermented", or "aged")

•    2 tablespoons minced green onions

•    1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

•    2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

•    4 wild salmon fillets, 8 ounces each

•    Salt and freshly ground pepper

•    Brown sugar to sprinkle on top, optional

Directions

Whisk together miso, sake, vinegar, tamari, green onions, ginger, and sesame oil in a small bowl. Place the salmon in a baking dish, pour the marinade over, and turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or longer. Preheat broiler and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil coated with oil. Remove the salmon from the marinade, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with brown sugar. Broil for 8 minutes. Turn, and broil for an additional 4 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Cooking time can vary depending on your oven, so keep checking for doneness and watch so it doesn't overcook, dry or burn.  You want a nice golden brown crust to form on top, and moist and cooked through meat underneath.  Let it rest for a few minutes before serving and enjoy!

UPDATE:  Did you like the party printables I used for this dinner party?  You can find them (and more!) for purchase here and a matching pennant banner here.  Check it out!

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