Pretty Pink Princess Party

It's always been my dream to throw myself a princess birthday party!  Why do kids get to have all the pretty princess fun?  When researching ideas for my party I found that most fancy princess parties on Pinterest were thrown for one year olds!  One?  I wanted to host a princess party for grown-up women to dress up and feel fabulous!  You're never too old to be a princess! 

These beautiful mini cakes were the party favors.  Each lady got to take home a pretty cake on a cake stand made from vintage china.

We had a couple more princesses show up after this picture was taken, but you can see that everyone princessed up!  It was fabulous to be surrounded by so many beautiful women!  Everyone was invited with plenty of notice to find a dress.  I ordered mine from Amazon.  The pink taffeta was so lovely.   Amazon also had great prices on petticoats!  I found my sparkly diamondy shoes and gold shrug from thrift stores.  Finding the perfect dress was such a fun part of the party.

My daughters teased me that all my friends are way too loud!  They said that they couldn't believe so many people could be laughing so hard all night... I say that's a good sign!  We were all having a blast!

We played an ice breaker bingo game.  It was a lot of fun finding ladies to initial the squares.  I had small prizes for the first three people who got BINGO.  Most of the people at the party didn't know each other, so the game was a great way to find out interesting facts about each other.  After the game was over I read each square out loud and had everyone raise their hand who fit the square.  I don't think there were many shy ladies at the party, so an ice breaker wasn't totally necessary, but it sure was fun!

Pink cotton candy is my favorite!  Placed in nut cups and topped with crowns cotton candy looks adorable!

Setting everything up was so much fun!  I had a couple of great friends come early to help me get everything ready.

Pink meringue cookies are so princessy!  I totally want to play with the meringue cookie idea more for other events!

I hired a friend to make the meringues, scones and mini cakes.  They came out so perfect!

I scoured thrift stores for weeks to find the perfect vintage pieces to make the 20 mini cake plates.

I dressed up bamboo flatware with pretty washi tape.  I planned to use vintage china and silverware, but my daughters convinced me to use disposables so I'd have less dishes to do after my party.

One of the most fun parts of the night was the Italian soda bar.  I ordered several flavors of syrups with pumped to be mixed and matched.  Ginger ale, 7up and sparkling mineral water were the bases.

I purchased plastic cups with dome lids from a restaurant supply company.  Everyone was able to decorate their cup with stickers.  They came out really cute, plus it was easy to tell which cup was whose.  The instructions were written along the way so everyone knew how to make their drink.  Watermelon was the most popular flavor, which was surprising!  Tiger's blood is one of my favorite snow cone flavors and I learned that strawberry, watermelon and coconut are what goes into tiger's blood.  Yummy!  

Along with the sweets, I served chicken salad, egg salad and cucumber sandwich fillings, along with ham and a variety of cheeses.  Rolls and croissants were purchased from Costco for the sandwich bases.

The cakes made a stunning display!

The cakes were lemon with a vanilla buttercream frosting.  They were delicious!

Several of my friends stayed until midnight.  My friend Cearson and I died laughing at my husband who photobombed our midnight selfie.  The whole night was magical.  It was the best birthday party ever!

Tea Party!

Sometimes you just gotta throw a random tea party the week before Thanksgiving... you know, because you can!  We had over a dozen people attend, about half being kids.  Everyone loved it!

I love mixing and matching teacups and china!

We had herbal tea, hot cocoa and Pero as warm beverage options.

Of course you have to have sparkling juices and wine glasses to feel extra fancy... especially for the kids who don't really like tea.

I love this silver tea pot because it goes with all my china sets!

Most of my china comes from the 1940s-1950s... I bet these dishes have seen a lot of parties over the years!

Cucumber & Cheese Ribbon Sandwiches

Ham & Pineapple Sandwiches (cream cheese, chopped ham & crushed pineapple)

Pecan Bars

Lemon Bars

Eclairs

Deviled Eggs

Cheese Cubes & Pickles on a pick (always a hit!)

Orange slices

Imported British Cheeses & Crackers

Blueberry Covered Goat Cheese

Spinach Bars

1 (10oz) package frozen chopped spinach (the kind in the box)
1 c flour 
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder 
2 eggs 
1/2 c butter, melted 
1/2 onion, chopped
Milk
1 c shredded cheese

Put the frozen spinach block in a saucepan with an inch of water & simmer/stir until it breaks apart. Meanwhile mix the dry ingredients. Add the spinach (and liquid), melted butter, onion, cheese and eggs. Stir. Add just enough milk to make a thick batter. Bake at 375 in a greased 9x13 for about 30 minutes.  Cut into squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches

Meatballs in Chili Sauce

Gingerbread Scones

2 c flour

3 TBSP brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c butter

1/3 c molasses

1/4 c milk

1 egg, separated

sugar

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs and set aside. Combine molasses, milk and egg yolk.  Add to the flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Turn the dough onto a floured surface; knead a couple of times.  Roll into an 8 inch circle.  Cut into 16 wedges.  Place 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet. Beat egg white and a teaspoon of water together until frothy and brush over scones. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm or at room temperature with cream.

Scone Cream

2 c whipping cream

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together until stiff peaks form.  Serve on top of scones.

Cookies & Milk Vintage Garden Party

I love hosting parties!  I especially love hosting parties when I can get a group of ladies together for food and socializing!

I don't shop at Walmart often, but I popped in there one day and couldn't resist their mason jar drink dispensers!  They're perfect for summer-time parties!

Of course mis-matched china plates are one of my very favorite things!  Everything tastes better on vintage china!

I couldn't decide between a 1 gallon glass mason jar dispenser or a 2 gallon plastic one, so I grabbed one of each!

Some of my milk bottles took a field trip out of my living room to dress up my bbq grill for the Cookies & Milk Party...  Yes, I do have a shabby chic pink and white bbq grill *grin*

Small white boxes made perfect containers for our cookie exchange.  The Radio Flyer wagon held them perfectly!

These wafer paper milk bottle labels from Fancy Flours are what sparked the whole Cookies & Milk party theme!  Mine don't look quite as perfect as theirs, but I think they still came out fabulously!

Chopped salad was served in milk glass punch cups.  Get it...  MILK glass (trying to keep with the theme.  haha)

A little Josef Originals vintage mouse was right at home with the food.

Milk bottles, plants and books on gardening worked well as centerpieces.

This toy cow was my grandma's when she was young.

I've been playing a lot with succulents in all sorts of containers.  I think these mini succulent gardens in egg cups are quite cute!

All the tables were set up under my cherry tree, next to our newly planted vegetable garden.

A vintage beverage cart and bucket make for a great dirty dish drop-off and trash can.

This plant stand holds the milk and milk bottles perfectly!  I love the height it adds to the drink table.

The milk can drink dispenser comes from Target.  It was a birthday gift this year and I love it!  To keep the milk cold without watering it down I filled baggies with ice cubes, sealed them up and floated them in the milk.  At the end of the night the leftover milk was still cold!

I love mixing china, milk glass and melmac all together for a vintage yet casual food table!

I served lots of veggies to balance out all the cookies we'd be eating later on!  Placing the same colors of veggies in each veggie bowl gave it a very vintage feel.

Cucumber and cheese sandwiches were served on croissants with veggie chips and crackers.  Very girly and very yummy!

The food was all so delicious and it looked adorable!

I enjoyed every bite of it!  The milk bottles were as cute with lemonade or water in them as they were with milk!

Vintage hats are a must for a garden party!  We all had a great time!

I had each person bring 3 dozen cookies for the cookie exchange.  We had quite the variety!

Moon Pies are such a fun vintage style cookie!

We had everything from first time trying it recipes to old family secret recipes!  I found light blue gingham basket liners & pink bags at Target.  People had the option of putting their cookies in boxes or bags.  Either way they looked cute!

The displays each lady did were just perfect for a garden party!

Everyone not only ate their fill of cookies, they also each went home with a variety of cookies to share with their family!

This party was so much fun!  I've always wanted to host a cookie exchange, but they're usually done during the holidays which is such a busy time!  Having a summer cookie exchange was a great excuse to get friends together and have a blast!