Astronaut Party - Preparing to take off on a very special space mission!!

Here is a sneak peek at my youngest son's 2nd birthday party. When my sister Katia from Casos & Coisas da Bonfa designed this charming astronaut printables collection, I immediately told her I wanted to use it for my baby's party. I am not a big fan of character parties (well, unless you consider Elvis Presley a character) and since he just recently started watching TV, he didn't have any favorites anyway. So an astronaut party was a perfect timeless concept for a boy!

image courtesy of Katia Bonfadini from Casos & Coisas da Bonfa

I didn't have much time to plan, but a quick search online yielded many inspiring results on the theme. Bellow is a collage of some of these enchanting parties (with links):

1. Frost your Cake by Michelle; 2. One Perfect Day Blog by Ness; 3. Maria Bekiaris via Amy Atlas; 4. Living the Swell Life by Jessica; 5. Life Frosting, by Chelsea (I ADORE this hanging moon cake, so creative!!!) All very talented and imaginative ladies, congratulations!

I printed a bunch of coloring pages from the printables collection and will have them available for guests to color during and/or after the party. I am also offering star-shaped crayons that I made myself (with a little help from the kids).

I knew one day I would have a good use for all of those broken crayons we've accumulated through the years from restaurants, airplanes and birthday parties. I never toss them and even pick up the ones from under our table at the restaurant, since I know their destiny would be the garbage can otherwise...

The kids helped me peel off the paper labels, separate them in like colors and break into smaller pieces. Then I tried two melting methods: oven and stovetop. I have to say that I like the range method better - it is less messy after all. All you need is an old pan, a silicone (or even tin) chocolate or mini cupcake mold and a sheet pan (to contain the mess of melted wax!)  Keep in mind that you will NOT be able to reuse any of the utensils for cooking afterwards!! I had an old non-stick sauté pan (PTFE-free - if you haven't heard yet, you should read here about the dangers of using Teflon cookware) and $1 star shaped silicone mold from Target at home, so this whole project cost me nothing but my time (and LOTS of it - plus patience - I must add).

Other projects I've been working on...

Customized t-shirts to give as party favors - hopefully I'll have enough time for this project!

The shirts will go inside these take out boxes I found on sale at World Market. They were my inspiration for the polka dot "alien-green" and "star-silver" accent colors and design for styling this party (did you notice the table coverings on the first picture?).

I grabbed some craft wood letters at Michael's and painted them gray, brushed a coat of glue and then dusted glitter all over. I'm loving all the silver glitter and stars that are involved in this party planning!

Another project that didn't cost me much - I had some leftover wooden spoons from this baby shower and just needed to make some more using washi tape that I already had at home from previous projects.

Trying to figure out a way to hang these glittered letters up in front of the drinks table - they are heavy!

Experimenting with various green produce so I can come up with the perfect alien-green juice.

Assembling the cake toppers using hot glue, paper cutouts and memo holder clips from last year's party.

Making paper cones for grissini and whole wheat pretzel sticks to be displayed on my revolving ice cream cone holder first used at the Retro Diner Party. I just love it and it has this retro futuristic look suitable for an astronaut's party :-)

My favorite project was to make the solar system planets. It was the first project to be conceived but the  LAST to be executed!! I made them all the day before the party using only a large piece of cardboard box, recycled aluminum foil, scraps of tissue paper and other embellishments I already had at home. Some of the lanterns I already had from previous events and some others I got at an "end-of-the-summer" sale at Pier 1 - lucky me!! 

I tried to be consistent with their colors and sizes and used this picture as a guide. Source: solar system planet sizes

Here are the 8 planets all lined up. 

It's all coming up so beautifully!! It's been a bit overwhelming to put together this birthday party considering our recent moves, home improvement projects, career changes, trainings, etc. But now that it is all ready to go and I can breathe again, it's so rewarding and I am brimming over with excitement - I can't wait for the kids to see the planets up tomorrow when they get up!

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Check back soon for my post about the party, and thanks for reading :-)

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Summer BBQ Party

Outdoor Grilling Party!

This party was a lot of fun to put together, and something I wanted to do for a while. I created this bright and colorful graphic collection to use at a "Indian Summer" (a heat wave that occurs in the fall) grilling party.  I did use some of it then, but unfortunately didn't take any pictures... So when it started to warm up again I saw it as a great opportunity to finally dust off the barbecue utensils and fire up the grill :-)

The colors, the sounds and the smells of summer inspired me to create this party décor. I wanted something simple, casual and inviting, but also festive and with a mod flair. Colorful background colors speckled with white polka dots and a handful of summer and grilling elements sounded just right!

To purchase this printable collection via automatic download, click here and/or here.

The invitation - as simple as it is, I think it represents really well what the party was all about: outdoor fun and good food!

I brought the indoors out by utilizing some colorful household furniture and paired it with white serving pieces and other rustic elements, such as a vintage picture frame where I displayed colorful pennant flags and used as a table backdrop.

We had a “caipirinha” bar (or caipifruta station) where guests could mix their own drinks.  Caipirinha is a typical Brazilian drink made with only a few ingredients but with endless possibilities of flavors. I cut fresh mangoes, kiwifruits, limes, lemons, raspberries and lychees and arranged them in separate matching-color bowls, along with demerara sugar and crushed ice. I like to make my caipirinhas with raw sugar, since it gives the drink a more complex and sophisticated depth of flavor. Besides cachaça, which is the traditional liquor used to make this drink, I also had available bottles of sake, rum, vodka and tequila, so guests could use the fruit-liquor combination of their choice.

Bar menu: "pick your fruit + sugar + pick your liquor + crushed ice

I used inexpensive wood letters from my local craft store as a signage for the "bar." I customized the B, A and R for the party by covering them in the same polka dot pattern I used throughout the décor. 

Mason jars fancied up for the day. I replaced the metal lids with cut circles from the polka dot paper pattern and added plain white paper straws sprucing them up with little flags from my printables collection. You can download a free template for the mason jar "lids" at the end of this post.

Left: Raw sugar and crushed ice on background, adorned with handmade pinwheels (included in the printable party set); Right: Bottles of cachaça, vodka, rum, tequila and sake.

It doesn't get much better than a lemon caipirinha on a hot and sunny day :-)

I kept the food to a few basic and classic grilling staples and “dressed” them in a bit more exciting way: the grilled corn on the cob gained a drizzle of cilantro-lime butter, a seasonal grilled salad was sprinkled with grilled polenta “croutons” and the plank-smoked chicken skewers got a nice coat of a homemade smokey barbecue dry rub (adapted from a Tyler Florence's recipe.)

To keep the colors vibrant, I opted for using colored hashis (or "chopsticks") to serve the chicken skewers

Grilled romaine (try it, it adds an amazing smokiness to the salad!!) with local feta cheese, heirloom orange, yellow and red tomatoes, and polenta croutons.

Grilled corn on the cob with a side of cilantro-lime butter

Paper fans to cool off :-)

The dessert and party favor station

For dessert, four different flavors of cooling fruit sorbet to choose from – mango, raspberry, lemon and blood orange. We also had ripe watermelon served on popsicle sticks – a whimsical and practical way to serve them up that was a big hit among the kids.

Mini paper umbrellas from my Summer BBQ Collection. They would look fabulous paired with a cocktail as well :-)

Watermelon on a stick :-)

Party favors at a barbecue party?  Why not?! Using baker’s twine, I tied together a mesquite grill plank and a metal tin containing my homemade dry rub so guests could replicate the main dish at home.

I hope you had fun reading the details about this party, which was such a pleasure to put together. As a "thank you", here are two treats: one recipe and one free printable. ENJOY!!

RECIPE:“Caipirinha”

Ingredients: 

• fresh fruit 
• raw sugar (demerara, turbinado, muscovado) 
• cachaça (or other types of clear liquor such as sake, rum and vodka) 
• crushed ice

Directions: 

Lightly muddle cut fruit and raw sugar, then add cachaça and ice to taste. Muddling the fruit releases their juices and in the case of fruits like citrus, it also releases their essential oils.

Cheers!

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And here's your free gift - a free printable template for mason jar labels.  Just click on the picture to download it. Happy grilling everyone!!

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