Linens and Liquor Couple's Fiesta!

The past few weeks have been super busy preparing to host a couples shower for my friends Jodi and Matt who are getting married in October. Last weekend was the culmination of a LOT of planning and too many trips to Target, Wal-Mart, Party City, Hob Lob and Michael's.

My inspiration for the party started by finding this pin on Pinterest. I always make Paula Deen's chicken empanadas for parties so those were the starting point for the menu. I really wanted to create a fun party since Jodi and Matt are such goofballs (in a good way of course)! They are people that are always laughing and having fun so I wanted this party to reflect that. Jodi had two bridal showers planned so I also wanted to incorporate couples into one of the functions.

I found a lot of inspiration from Pinterest such as this photo garland as well as inspiration from this blog. Below are some highlight pictures from the evening.

The invitation!

Jodi and Matt's Photo Garland!

To make it a true fiesta, there had to be margaritas. There were three flavors that I made: traditional, blue lagoon and strawberry. Apparently I should have been taste-testing while making them since they were quite potent.

 Most of the recipes I used were Pinterest- found. I have included links to the recipes below the picture of the item.

The spread - Mexican Mac 'N' Cheese, Spinach con Queso dip, Mini Beef Taco Cups, Skinny Taco Dip, Chicken Empanadas and a veggie spread inspired by this.

http://www.willcookforfriends.com/2012/02/macaroni-con-queso-mexican-mac-and.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/mini-taco-cups_n_1052913.html

And the dessert spread!

 The vanilla fruit dip recipe can be found here and the cake batter rice krispie treats recipe can be found here. All the food got eaten up pretty quickly, so I guess everyone enjoyed everything!

Since it was a couples' shower, I wanted to keep the games to a minimum since I figured guys wouldn't be too willing to play the traditional shower games. One of the games that I found was for a Honey Do Fund. Each person had to wear a name tag with an item that could be used for checking off the honey do list. If anyone said a person's name instead of the name on their tag, they had to put a little something in the honey do jar. Turns out the moms were the worst at this game :) Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the name tags themselves, but you will be able to see them in the pictures of some of the party attendees.

The other game we played was a Battle of the Sexes. We split everyone into two groups of girls and two groups of guys. The teams had 4 minutes to answer as many questions as possible. I used questions from here and here to create the game.

One of the guys teams concentrating hard.

The other guys team

The winners of Battle of the Sexes trivia!

The other girls team.

Something that is often seen at showers is wedding advice. I wanted to incorporate the opportunity for guests to leave marriage advice for Jodi and Matt; however, when left a blank piece of paper to do so, I can never think of anything good to write.  I also wanted something more casual and fun to reflect the general mood of the entire party. I saw several instances, such as this, of people doing Mad Libs for shower and even at weddings, so I decided that would be perfect so I created a "Jodi and Matt Libs" (pun credit goes to Brett).

The Jodi and Matt Libs! I found the fabulous yellow and gray paper and green linen paper at Michael's to incorporate the wedding colors!

After food was eaten and games were played, it was time to kick back, relax and enjoy the margaritas and beer. 

You can also see some of the name tags I made in the following pictures. I got the name tags here- they are actually supposed to be food labels, but the fit on Avery 5160 mailing labels that I used later for the party favors. They were also some of the wedding colors (emerald green, yellow, and gray) so they were perfect to use for name tags!

The Bride and Groom to be in their matching sombreros! 

Myself, the bride to be and Katie, a co-worker of Jodi's (and my former co-worker)

My handsome fiance, Brett, 3 former co-workers, and Greg, Katie's man

The groom and some of his college friends

Some of the gentlemen of the late night crew.

After most of the guests had left, a group of us ended up playing Catch Phrase, enjoying some of the liquor that was given to the couple and sharing a lot of laughs. The bride-to-be also got curious as to the gifts she and Matt had received.

There was a lot of tissue paper!

Loving her veil!

Finally, as guests were leaving they could grab either a mini bottle of tequila or a Corona that were personalized for Jodi and Matt's fiesta. I found this awesome site where you can create your own beer labels. I basically took the label I created there and shrunk it down to fit on the mini tequilas. This was one of my favorite parts of the shower, creating these labels and the favors.

Close up on the bottles.

The other side of the tequila bottles with a picture of Jodi and Matt.

The favors- a bottle of beer or a mini bottle of tequila and a margarita glass!

All of the party favors!

The thank you sign for the favors.

All in all, it took a lot of work to plan this party, but it turned out great. I think all the guests had fun considering we didn't go to bed til  the wee hours of the morning.

Until next time,
Cathy

30 Sucks!

So last Friday a co-worker of mine turned the big 3-0! Since she was celebrating her birthday on vacation, we didn't have a chance to celebrate in the office until she got back on Tuesday. I had seen an idea for milestone birthdays on Pinterest and the original post can be seen here so I thought it would be fun to try this idea out.

I ended up just remembering the gist of how the gift looked and created it my own way. I found a cute cup (at CVS for $2.49!) that had a Hawaiian feel, which was perfect because she had just returned from a meeting in Maui!  Instead of using floral foam, I just layered the lollipops to create the shape. In her card, to give her a hint, I said that this was a little something "in case 30 sucks" :) She really liked the gift and it was super simple to do and something different to give!

Lighter Chicken Spaghetti

So, I love cooking Paula Deen recipes...but I don't love all the fat and calories that usually come along with them. I normally try to lighten up the recipes as much as I can by using less butter, less fat milk, etc. This recipe was originally in Cooking with Paula Deen and the original recipe can be seen here.

I used extra virgin olive oil instead of butter to saute the onion and celery, 2% shredded cheese and cut out the sour cream all together (it saved calories yet didn't lose any of the delicious flavor!) I used low-sodium chicken broth and Healthy Request® soups to also cut down on calories.

Chicken Spaghetti (adapted from Cooking with Paula Deen)
Makes 10 to 12 servings

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 (14-ounce) can low sodium chicken broth
1 (10.75-ounce) can Healthy Request® cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.75-ounce) can Healthy Request® cream of chicken soup
1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
1 teaspoon salt
31⁄2 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 cups shredded 2% Cheddar cheese
1 (16-ounce) package angel hair pasta, cooked according to package directions
3⁄4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 350˚. Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. 

In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery; cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

In a large bowl, combine onion mixture, broth, soups, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, sour cream, and salt. Stir in chicken and cheese. Add pasta, tossing gently to coat. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish.

The chicken spaghetti before adding the bread crumbs!

Melt butter in skillet used to saute vegetables. Add bread crumbs and mix well until slightly browned.

Sprinkle evenly over casserole. 

Before being put in the oven!

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Serve immediately. 

Fresh out of the oven!

The final product- ready to eat!

Although this meal does take some prep work and a number of different steps, it does fill up a 13x9 dish pretty, leaving plenty for leftovers! I served this with a nice salad to get some veggies with the dish!

I've made this recipe both with the original ingredients and with the lighter ones and it is difficult to tell a difference using the lighter ingredients!

Bon Appétit!

Bachelorette Invitations!

So, my best friend Ashley is getting married in August and I am hosting her bachelorette party! I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest from an Etsy store here. I figured I could make something pretty similar for myself so I set out to give it a try! I found the template for the lingerie here to get me started! Ashley's colors are dark purple and a lime green, so I decided to go with those colors for the invitations. Took me a while, but finally got all the lingerie pieces cut out-- I used just basic scrapbook paper and cardstock ($0.49-$0.59 per sheet) to ensure the paper would be sturdy enough!

I found these decorations at Michael's- each pearl pack was $2.49 and the pack of gem flowers was $3.99. I had a 20% off coupon so everything was around $16.00 to make 12 invitations!

I ended up just using Elmer's glue to assemble since the glue from a hot glue gun didn't stick very well so it took a bit of trial and error to assemble them.

Here is the assembled invitation! I had a lot of fun making them and I think they turned out really well!

Bridesmaid Requests!

So my fiance, Brett, and I recently got engaged on May 11, in San Francisco! It was a perfect post-graduation trip that culminated with his proposal the night before we flew home!

As soon as I got home I couldn't wait to start planning our wedding. First up was to ask some of the people who mean the most to me to join us on our special day.

I got the inspiration from Pinterest here (I'm new to blogging so hopefully that links back correctly; although the pin itself didn't actually go to a webpage).  On another page, I saw the text "Some Assembly Required" (sorry, can't find the pin now that I'm looking for it) and those two ideas gave me the inspiration on creating a personalized puzzle for each of my bridesmaids.

Here are 4 of the 5 puzzles!

I was my middle sister's maid of honor at her wedding, so I felt it only right that she serve as my Matron of Honor.

Naturally, my oldest sister would also be included in my bridal party as well. Each of the girls got the same instructions as shown in the picture below.

My future-sister-in-law, Beth, has been so welcoming into my future family and has become such a good friend and so I definitely wanted to ask her to be a part of the festivities as well!

I've known my best friend, Ashley, for nearly 17 years. I'm a bridesmaid in her wedding  in August and felt that she belonged as a part of my wedding!

Last, but certainly not least, came the puzzle for Jodi, another of my best friends. She is getting married in October and I am her maid of honor and I was so excited to ask her to be one of my bridesmaids!

To add to the unexpectedness of it, I mailed out everyone's puzzles (except Jodi since I saw her the day after I finished them!) I got really excited responses from everyone, except my sister Suzi (who has a 6 month old) and chastised me for wasting her time by making her put a puzzle together :)

I really enjoyed making these puzzles, especially writing the poems that were unique to each person. It means so much to me that they are going to be there for me on my big day and these puzzles was just one small way to show each of them how much they mean to me.

Until next time :)

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Cathy and I'm a twenty-something year old woman who has a love for cooking (especially baking!), crafting (my passion started out through scrap booking and has evolved to a variety of projects) and planning events (starting with being the go-to person to plan high school events for my group of friends like proms and homecoming, evolving now to planning baby/wedding showers for friends and family). I hope someday to own my own event planning company, so planning events in my personal life, and the event/meeting planning I will do in my new job (medical ed. industry so events will revolve mainly around bringing pharmaceutical companies and doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals together) will help me to reach that goal!

My crafting projects lately have been focused around weddings, both for my own and for my two best friends, Ashley and Jodi, who are getting married in August and October. I am lucky enough to be a part of both of their weddings, so that has given me the opportunity to use my event planning skills.

I will be posting my first project shortly, which was the way that I asked my bridesmaids to be a part of my wedding!