The Oscars are Coming!

I always look forward to Oscar night. For years I’ve wanted to have an Oscars party, large or small, but it has just never happened. Finally…2013 is my year. I can’t describe how excited I am about this! It’s going to be a small, low-key fete, but I am thrilled.

We’re going with a few simple foods that are synonymous with movie night and a few that are in some way linked to nominated movies. Of course there will be popcorn, as well as different seasoning options. I’m also making “Star Studded Popcorn” an adorable idea I found on Pinterest. Here’s the recipe. The main entrée will be savory crepes with a bechamel sauce, a French option in honor of Les Miserables, which I’ve aptly named “Les Crepes“. The dessert is a pun on Life of Pi: I’m making mini apple pies and the sign reads “LIFE OF PI+E“.

I made labels for popcorn bags. I’m using plain brown paper bags (mainly because I have a giant bag full) with the labels and little strips of wrapping paper to jazz them up just a touch. You can download the labels here. I also made a list of popcorn bar instructions tailored for the Oscars. You can download it here.

I’ll add some pics and extra info after the party!

Yes, there’s more Gilmore Girls food!

What would a Gilmore Girls party be without food? Well, it definitely wouldn’t live up to the standards of the Lorelais! For this Gilmore Girls party, we opted for cuisine most likely to make an appearance at one of Lorelai’s and Rory’s movie nights: pizza, M&Ms, Red Vines, etc… There were a few other items from the show that seemed appealing, so we added them…and still others that we just didn’t get to include. There’s always next time!

Beverages of choice:

• Martha’s Vineyard Gym’s cucumber water (What is it about cucumber water that makes it so much more refreshing than regular water?)
• Norman Mailer Iced Tea
• The Rory
• The Chilton Rory (our non-alcoholic version– sub club soda or 7-up for the champagne and leave out the vodka)

Food:

• Pizza
• French Fries (The Devil’s Starchy Fingers, according to Mrs. Kim)
• Sookie’s Luke’s Fennel Salad (aptly renamed because I added goat cheese)

Snacks & Candy:

• Popcorn, which we placed in popcorn containers with Black, White & Read Bookstore labels
• 3 kinds of M&Ms
• Red Vines
• Snickers (Chocolate Covered Death-Mrs. Kim)
• Urine Mints; you know, the ones about which Rory shares her brilliant anecdote with Trevor on an awkward date…

To label our drinks, I made stemware name tags. We each chose a character to use on our name tags.

With so many episodes, we have decided to make our GG parties semi-regular. Other food ideas include: Yale Cereal Bar Night, Fro-Yo Social, Luke’s Diner food: burgers, fries, cheese fries, etc… & Luke’s breakfast: pancakes with a side of pancakes!

Much Awaited Gilmore Girls Party

After many months, the Gilmore Girls Viewing Party was finally completely planned and ready to happen! I’ll do a basic run-down of the different ideas and things that were incorporated into the party.

Invitations:  The idea for invitations was to type a simple letter inviting people to the party….using Dragonfly Inn stationary. I incorporated some Lorelai Gilmore talk into the letters, such as “super cool party people” and “oy with the poodles already!” The envelopes were also printed with a Dragonfly Inn logo.

Decorations:

What better way for guests to know they were arriving at our fictional version of the fictional Stars Hollow, than a Stars Hollow sign? My initial plan for the sign was going to be a life-size reproduction, complete with white-painted wood and lattice. But certain issues with my still recovering Achilles just wouldn’t allow it. Instead, I opted to paint a foam board to resemble the sign. I drew the curved edges on the top of the sign and the lattice. I then painted the bulk of the sign light blue, using acrylic paints. After much comparison, I chose a font that seemed to match the one on sign seen on the show. Then, much trial and error as to the best font size to use….after carefully cutting out what I deemed the best size, I used a glue stick to adhere the letters and stars to the sign. I finished it off by painting in some shadowing on the lattice and attaching thick wire to the back, to hold the sign in the yard.

Additionally, there was a NO CELL PHONES sign, and few YALE pennants I made using navy felt and white paint. I planned on a large, hanging Luke’s sign and a Dragonfly Inn sign, but the stores were all out of foam boards until the day after my party!

Favors:

I knew I couldn’t go wrong with Luke’s Diner mugs. I searched for unglazed white mugs, to no avail. I then decided I could attempt to make glazed mugs work for my project. I found the perfect sized white mugs at Target; their cappuccino mugs made me think “Luke’s”. Sadly, of the stores in our city, I could only find 6, so I bought a few of the latte mugs as well. I made Luke’s stencils on giant labels, so the backs would easily stick to the smooth surface of the mugs. I then painted the outline and filling of Luke’s logo with yellow acrylic paint intended for ceramics. After that dried, I used part 2 of the stencil (the letters) and orangey brown paint to add “LUKE’S” to the logo. I carefully etched off the extra yellow paint from what was the handle of the mug logo and used a ceramic glaze to seal the logo.

Activities:

Of course we planned on eating (have Rory and Lorelai taught us nothing?) and watching a few episodes, but the other activity that seemed so Stars Hollow was to paint tote bags. I have always wanted to host or attend a baby shower where we paint onesies, much like at Lane’s baby shower (Rory’s 1st pancake). That inspired our tote bag painting station. I purchased plain canvas totes that are great for groceries or books. I made stencils for various Stars Hollow favorites….Luke’s, Doose’s Market, Hep Alien…and had many colors of fabric paints, acrylic paints, as well as glitter and paint brushes. We all gathered around the station, painting and discussing everything about the show. As guests arrived, we each decorated a silver tiara purchased in the party section at Hobby Lobby. We wore tiaras as a nod to Lane’s bachelorette party.

Those are the basics of the party, except for the food….I plan on having a post just about the food! Also, I will attempt adding additional information and possibly upload the documents for making the stencils.

We had so much fun and have so many episodes still available, we’ve decided to make our GG parties semi-regular. Future activities include a knit-a-thon (even if we aren’t trying to save a bridge), and making t-shirts like the ones Kirk attempted to sell.

Girlmore Girls Party Menu

Part of the menu consists of The Rory, the cocktail Emily had made for Rory’s party. Luke offered his opinion that it was like drinking a My Little Pony; apparently it tasted “pink”. I’m a fan of the sweet, fruity, pink tasting drinks, so we will have these at our GG Viewing Party. I found the recipe from a GG blogger  and can’t wait to try it! http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-rory

Ingredients:

Vodka

Pineapple juice

Grenadine

Champagne

Maraschino cherries

Follow the above link for the recipe.

Be sure to check out this blog; lots of great recipes and food ideas, inspired by our favorite Stars Hollow inhabitants! http://gilmoregirlsgourmet.tumblr.com/

Easy as a Bridal ‘Bow’quet

I had never heard of the “bow-quet” tradition, until I was getting married. One of my husband’s cousins told me about it, gathered bows and made one for me to use for the rehearsal. Initially, I thought it sounded cheesy and didn’t care for the idea. I’ll still admit, it is a little cheesy, but I still enjoyed it. Depending on the construction of it & the bows, etc… used on it, they can look quite appealing. You are supposed to gather bows, ribbons and such from the gifts at the bridal shower(s) to use to create the bow-quet. Typically, the maid-of-honor handles this as one of her projects and presents the bow-quet to the bride before rehearsal.

I gathered ribbons, tissue paper, bows and even wrapping paper to assemble the bow-quet I made. I used skills learned as a child, making basic tissue paper flowers as well as the slightly more intermediate tissue paper flowers featured in many Martha Stewart magazines. I used a small paper plate, maybe the cake sized ones, maybe the one slightly larger. I taped a handle from a gift bag to one side of the plate, then glued and taped the backs of my “flowers”, added some tissue paper leaves and ta-da, I was done!

With the range of ribbons, bows, tissue paper and wrapping paper, you can easily create a bow-quet to fit most any bride’s style: contemporary, vintage, southern, etc…

Delayed Tea Party Details

This post is much overdue! Finally, here are some of the pics and products from the Tea Party Bridal Shower. I wasn’t able to take as many pics as I was planning, because of the duties of hosting.

Gilmore Girls Viewing Party? Yes, Please!

I am thrilled to be improving on the healing, everyday! I am still not permitted to workout in the manner I enjoyed before, but before too long I will. I love hosting parties & events, large or small, but it feels like it has been forever since I have been able to do so. The surgery slowed me down on that. I’ve decided I can finally host something small: meaning less time on my feet for cooking, shopping and definitely no need to climb stairs. Thinking of what I can do that I can keep small, I have decided to have a Gilmore Girls Viewing Party. I have a group of friends who all enjoy the show and have watched it through several times, like myself. I’m so excited!!!! Oy with the poodles, already!

Gilmore Girls Party, I Say Yes!!

I’ve always watched the show often, but I watched it like crazy while recuperating from surgery. So the ideas were flowing! For activities, it was a no-brainer: watch a few episodes of GG! I also decided to add some additional things that would have the feel of activities you find at parties in Stars Hollow….recalling the Onesies Painting Station from Lane’s baby shower, I decided to have a paint your own station, too. But what should we paint???? Nobody we know is having a baby….so I opted for canvas tote bags! We all use them for grocery shopping, so why not add a little creativity to otherwise bland canvas bags?! I wanted an option for the less artistic: remember Babette’s Snoopy that looked more like a chocolate chip cookie, or Gypsy’s flatbed truck that could only be turned into a blob, or a bunch of blobs-”you know, a baby’s first Rorschach test” per Lorelai’s suggestion. So I decided to make Stars Hollow appropriate stencils, that guests can use when painting their totes. I made a Luke’s Diner stencil, and still want to make a Dragonfly Inn one. Anyone have other stencil suggestions? Feel free to share! Another painting idea I had, was to paint t-shirts like the  daily t-shirts with a humorous topical headline of something Kirk witnessed around town. I made stencils using a similar font to the one Kirk’s shirts featured, and we will each choose our headline of choice and paint it on a black t-shirt from Hobby lobby’s wearables section. While “babette ate oatmeal”, “ faux poes foes”,  “rory’s going to yale!” are all great options, I’m leaning towards “rory’s going to yale!” for my shirt.

The menu inspiration was simple: classic Lorelai and Rory food. You know, pizza, popcorn, marshmallows, chinese take-out, fries, Red Vines….you have the idea! A few other menu items: cucumber water the girls enjoyed so much at the gym in Martha’s Vineyard, The Rory- the drink Emily had served at Rory’s party when she turned 21 (I’m also making a Pre-21 Rory), and of course coffee!