Urban Backyard Garden Party

With this beautiful weather I thought I would share with you a recent event request for a garden party to showcase a recently acquired wall mural and updated landscaping in a backyard in Baltimore City.  I immediately had a vision that included strung globe lights, soft music playing in the background, good drinks, and great company.  Below are some images I found that perfectly illustrate that vision.

Image from The Daily Nest

Image from Pinterest

Image from Pinterest

Once I had a chance to discuss the party and space with the client I set to work on a design board and (very) rough sketch of the backyard.

The mural mentioned above has a flamingo theme which I attempted to highlight with accessories.

I will be sure to take before and after pictures of the set up and post them soon!

Our Lego Duplo House Party

I signed up at the House Party website to host a Lego Duplo Read and Build party and was so excited when this arrived one day:

Inside the box was 4 Lego Duplo Read and Build games and a bunch of other goodies to hand out to the guests:

I got to work right away creating a Lego Duplo board over on Pinterest to get some creative ideas for food and decoration.  {If you are thinking of throwing a Lego party for your kids there is some great inspiration on Pinterest.}

I decided to go the simple route with the food.  I was out of town the day before the party and had no time to bake Lego shaped cookies or mold Lego jello.

The kiddos had a great time playing together and at the end of the party we put names into a hat to see which 3 lucky guests got to take one of the Read and Build sets home with them.

Tyler's 2nd Birthday Planning

I like to put all my party ideas together in one spot so I can make sure everything fits together.  Here is the board I put together for Tyler's 2nd Birthday.  He is obsessed with Elmo right now, so Elmo theme it is!

The thank you notes and gift tags were designed by me in power point.  I hope he likes it!  Here's a few other items we added to make the party special:

Party Destination 161263 Elmo Jumbo Airwalker Balloon





Sesame Street Elmo Party - Dessert Plates Party Accessory





RoomMates RMK1482GM Sesame Street Elmo Peel & Stick Giant Wall Decal






Sesame Street Party Tattoos - 16 Count

Tyler's 1st Birthday Planning: The Idea Board

Can you tell I like the color blue?  More specifically teal.  I think it is becoming my go-to color.  Seriously, it does go with everything!

Here is the idea board for the party:

Tyler's 1st Birthday Planning

My little man is turning one and the party planning started a while ago.  I've decided on a fish/under the sea theme.  First things first: the invite.  I designed it in MS PowerPoint:

Next up an idea board for the theme.  I always create an idea board to see how everything is going to fit together.  Sometimes ideas you have in your head just don't come together the way you thought they would.  It's always good to have a visual.

Tapeña Wine Party - So much fun!!

We had our Tapeña Wine party last night, May 7th at it was so much fun. You just can't go wrong with great friends and great wine! I worked all morning preparing all sorts of spanish tapas. I ordered serrano ham, cured chorizo, and spanish paprika from La Tienda and prepared several of the recipes from the cookbook that Tapeña provided. All of them turned out to be great. I have several spanish tapas cookbooks but this one will get the most use going forward.  They usually have so many ingredients that you can't find in the States but this cookbook was easier. We had empanadillas, fried bread and chorizo, serrano and manchego, patas with roasted garlic dip, dry-cured chorizo, roasted red pepper dip, paprika spiced almonds, and roasted asparagus.
None of our guests had heard of Tapeña wines before and we were all pleasantly suprized by the great taste and the great price! My husband even made sangria using the Garanacha wine and pulled out the porron for the Tempranillo. Lots of fun!! Everyone loved the goodie bags filled with the magnets, wine charms, rebate, spanish clementines, and herbs.

Preparing Tapas

Lots of Party Supplies

Tapeña Wine Proudly Displayed

A Couple of Young Guests

The Sangria

Tapeña Wine Party: Preparation

Lots to do for our big wine tasting party and I am so excited!  Tapeña Wines sent us a great party pack full of goodies for our party.  Included was our mail in rebate form for the wine, AMEX gift card for $25, a great tapas recipe book, wine opener, napkins, decorations, Spanish spices, tasting cards, magnets, and wine charms. 

I prepared goodie bags for our guests to showcase a few of the items Tapeña provided and included a few other Spanish items:

• Tapeña wine charms
• Tapeña magnets
• Tapeña Mail in Rebate form
• Clementines (Spanish citrus fruit)
• Seeds to grow Spanish herbs

I made lists of everything I wanted to serve and everything I need to buy to make that happen.  Spanish foods are surprisingly hard to find.  I enlisted the help of La Tienda - an online Spanish store where we have ordered from in the past.  I needed to order jamon serrano, dry-cured and cooking chorizo, and sweet smoked paprika.  The package arrived 2 days after I ordered it - now that is service!

Here is a run down of tapas I will serve:

• Goat's Cheese with Fig Spread
• Manchego y Serrano
• Paprika Spiced Almonds
• Spanish Olives
• Roasted Asparagus
• Chorizo Empanadillas
• Tortilla
• Fried Garlic Bread and Chorizo
• Potato Wedges with Roasted Garlic Dip
• Roasted Red Pepper Dip

I also had to find the wine, which was much easier than finding the Spanish food.  A local liquor store had a great stock of Tapeña Wines and even had them on sale for $7.99 a bottle.  I knew I wanted a case so I asked if they could offer me a discount for buying in bulk.  They obliged and gave me another 10% off for purchasing a case (12 bottles).  When I got home, I filled out and mailed in my rebate form that Tapeña provided which was $66 off of 12 bottles of wine.  This brought the final price per bottle down to $2!!!  You know how I love a deal and this was a great deal!!  I think it may have even made the wine taste a tiny bit better, if that's even possible.  My husband and I both drink a lot of wine and we really enjoyed the Tapeña wines. 

Here is a run down of all the drinks that will be served:

• Sangria made with the Garanacha Wine (my husband's family recipe)
• Tempranillo Wine
• Garanacha Wine
• Rose Wine
• Verdejo (White) Wine
• Sparking water
• Flat water

New Cabinet and Tapeña Wine Party

Tapeña asked us to host a tapas and wine tasting party using their 4 wines and we graciously accepted.  The party is this weekend and I'm looking forward to good wine (of course we had to taste it first!), friends, and yummy food. 
When Casa Pena first found out we were going to be hosting, about a month ago, I decided we needed a new cabinet for our dining room.  Tyler could stand up and grab liquor on the old one and since it was basically just glass shelves, it was entirely too unsafe for my liking.  Here is a picture of him doing just that in case you need a visual:

It seems he prefers Captain Morgan to wine at this point.  Or maybe it's just that the bottle was smaller? Either way I set out looking for an inexpensive, dark wood, durable enough to hold bottles of liquor cabinet.  After lots of searching online (even on craigslist) I finally decided to just go with Canopy Living's console table.  We already have one in our master bedroom so I knew the quality was decent (it weighs 150 lbs!) and I liked the color of the wood. 

Here it is in our bedroom as a TV console.  We wanted something tall enough that we could see the TV over the bed.  This was perfect for the space and the size of the TV(hubby talked me into a whopping 42" TV).

I bought new knobs from Cool Knobs & Pulls online to dress it up a bit.  I might do the same with the cabinet in the dining room but for now the knobs it came with work just fine.  It actually comes with 2 different sets of knobs - wood that matches the cabinet and brushed nickel.

At the price of $250 I was happy with my purchase.  It arrived via site-to-store at our local Wal-Mart and we picked it up and assembled it ourselves. Here it is piled high with party decorations and supplies:

Easter Dinner

We are hosting Easter Dinner here at Casa Pena. It's just a small gathering this year (only 5 of us) but I hope to turn it into an annual event going forward (any excuse to get a new dining room table that will seat more people).  Here is what I am planning:

Decor

Center Pieces: I am going to attempt this little Easter Grass project as the centerpeice/place card holders.

Egg Chandelier:

Here's my little helper.  I was trying to make an egg garland but once Tyler got involved it was a tangled mess.  Oh well, it was fun "working together" on this little project.  Looks like he's saying, "Who, me?" LOL!

Menu
Rotisserie Chicken with Herbs
Arugula Salad
Pineapple Bake
Asparagus
Homemade Yeast Rolls

Easter Basket for Tyler
I bought this basket from Target for $12 and had his name monogrammed on the front of the liner for $10 at the mall.  I love the way it turned out so much I went back to Target and bought another basket in cordinating colors for the next little one we will have (in the distant future).  This year it will serve as Jeff's basket full of Cadbury eggs and peeps.

 

Vinos y Tapas Party at Casa Pena

We were chosen by Tapeña Wines to host a wine and tapas party to showcase their wines and introduce them to our friends.  We are really excited for this party.  Let the planning begin!