40 years old

I got the privilege of throwing a 40th birthday party for one of my best friends a couple weeks ago. It was fun to have a bunch of ladies over to celebrate with her. Here are the pictures taken by my friend Amy (who does a WAY better job taking pictures than I do… thanks Amy).

Love these paper fans. Idea from Pinterest

These are so good! I served them at a New Years Party last year. Here is the recipe!

Also very yum! I love this site for cute little bite size recipe ideas. Click HERE for recipe

Sweet and Sour Meatballs brought by my sweet friend Jessica.

Angie loves this awesome FRUIT SALAD that I make for a lot of events and it is always a hit.

Thanks to Lindor Chocolates for Red and Black wrapped yumminess to go with the color theme.

How cute are these little cups and spoons from Amazon.com!! This recipe was specifically for guests with food allergies. I always like to try to have a little something for them. This Coconut Chocolate Mousse has only 3 ingredients! Recipe found HERE and you have to be careful on which brand of coconut milk you use. I used Chaokoh brand (and I did the suggestion of pouring it into a bowl and letting it get cold in the fridge overnight).

oh man these were amazing. I probably ate a third of them. (of course I was starving because I don’t take time to eat on party days.) Too bad prosciutto is so expensive or I would make these all the time. Recipe HERE

I have made this for years from an old Pampered Chef cookbook. And now I see they have the recipe online HERE

water plus frozen strawberries

These cranberry martinis were so yummy and aren’t they pretty! Recipe HERE. I did reduce the vodka for this party to 1 oz.

I got to use my chalkboard painted coasters again from this party. I bought these plain coasters and sprayed them with black chalkboard spray paint (takes around 3 coats) and then people could write on them with chalk to keep track of which drink was theirs.

These centerpieces contain Red LED submersible lights, clear water beads, and rose floating candles. I just put a ribbon around the vase and voila!

Happy birthday Angie!

I threw a party for my husband’s 40th birthday and it was super fun to plan a party for adults (not that I don’t like doing the kid’s parties, but it was a nice change!) You only turn 40 once, so I went all out and rented some bistro tables, plates, and glasses and rearranged the house and even hired a bartender (which, by the way, was a huge help and allowed me to enjoy the party also!) The party was on Saturday, so the bistro tables were delivered on Friday and picked up on Monday (also night… allowing me plenty of time to set up and tear down).

some assembly required. 🙂 We rented from Grand Event Rentals and they were great and responded quickly to my questions.

The color theme was black and blue, so I moved all our black furniture (couch and a couple benches) into the living room and used black linens on the tables.

The curtains were made with black streamers. I cut a strip for the top and attached the long streamers to it and then it was a little easier to just tape it all to the ceiling at once. Masking tape worked well. Then I draped it by tacking a strip to the wall to hold them back. I loved how this turned out and made a fun entrance and WAYYY cheaper than fabric curtains!

40 decorations from amazon

for the Christmas lights around the ceiling I used 3M Command hooks and they worked great and came off the wall really well afterwards.

I bought these really fun submersible blue LED lights and some blue water pearls to fill some random vases I had. Also with a glass tea light holder and black tea candle. They turned out so awesome! Set a fun mood.

Another fun project: I bought these plain coasters and sprayed them with black chalkboard spray paint (takes around 3 coats) and then people could write on them with chalk to keep track of which drink was theirs.

saw this idea on pinterest and loved it! Pictures from all the stages of life. 🙂

The Food!: The desserts were from Whole Foods (petits), strawberries, potato boats, stuffed mushrooms, pita bread with jalopeno artichoke dip, shrimp taco bites and cream cheese cucumber bites. The silver platters I found on Amazon and they are very fun. Also the napkins.