Garden Party 2011

I really wanted to make sure I got a Garden Party post in.

 We missed last year, which was the first year we'd missed since 2006. 

So this year we had to do it up big time!!

It was such a gorgeous night with such great friend and family.

It really was perfect!

My mom is such an amazing cook and hostess. I just can't speak enough praise for her!!

On with the show!

Christie made these gorgeous shabby chic looking water bottle labels.

Fresh flowers from my 'garden'.

A little pre-dinner croquet.

The hostess, whipping up a culinary storm!

The girls of GP 2011

The little ducks of GP

The men of GP

Christie and I came over in the morning and did a little decorating

Dinner Cocktails, SO delicious!!

Champagne, Apricot Brandy & Apricot Nectar.

Also pictured, the deep fried buffalo chicken wontons.....I'm drooling just thinking about them!

Spiced Coconut Lentil Soup with Cilantro butter.

My awesome parents/friends/hosts.

Open faced steak, tomato and provolone sandwich with Worcestershire butter. 

And baked garlicky wedge potatoes.

And a molten chocolate cake with fresh raspberries and Hagen Daaz vanilla ice cream.

Rob with Lexie and Ben with Venice getting ready to light the lantern

Me and my bestie!

My family, minus one sleeping baby!

The beautiful Roy family

Lantern Time!!

Intense lantern watching from two little girls who stayed up waaaaaaaay past their bed time!

Making a wish!

My wish was for some more homemade aioli.

And another buffalo wonton.

And a pair of sweats.

Sorry!

I guess I should start with an apology for leaving so many days between posts. 

I'm Sorry.

And I would love to tell you that I've been suuuuper busy unpacking those suitcases (17 days...), but this is not the case.

My oldest daughter, Venice, just started pre-school this week. I took her to her class and found her hook, hung up her coat and lunch box. I turned around to give her a hug, only to discover her gone and playing. No looking back for that one! I'm happy she went off without making a scene and I deep down knew she'd do better than me, but it didn't stop a little lump in my throat from forming when I walked out. And if little Giselle could talk, she'd probably have asked me to stop squeezing her so hard.

I've also been busy making some decorations for this years annual Garden Party (GP2010). Which is going to be known as the Leaf Pile party if we don't find a date soon that works for us all!

So I made the standard tissue paper pom poms (not shown here), done in white and silver. As well, I just had to try the cupcake liner pom poms from How Does She. They are super cute and easy (minus the glue burns on my finger tips) and will look fabulous once I sparkle them up a bit. 

Also, the Eiffel Tower is still a work in progress, but I can't really claim this as on of my many excuses for not posting, as my husband has commandeered this project, something about my past spray paint projects and some issues with my aim?? I thought I was SO careful! You can see he's laid out landscaping fabric on the garage floor. If I had known we had that, we wouldn't be needing to repaint the floor. 

On the weekend we went to our friends' triplets first birthday party. It was a blast! Stacey (the mom) did such and amazing job! I don't know how she is able to do everything with the boys and throw a blog worthy party. She is an inspiration.

Wow!!

Hopefully now that we are in a sort of routine, I can get around to posting more random crafts and things. I'm planning on recycling an old wool blanket into a cute wool blanket for Venice, we'll see how that goes... I'm not an avid sewer, and all I know is that it requires some 'extra-wide, double fold bias tape???? The book might as well have said "华文细黑". 

Wish me luck.

  Also, I'd like to thank you all for your kind comments:) I love getting them!

Distractions = Glee, Felting & The Eiffel Tower

Lately these days I find myself mildly distracted from the everyday, ordinary tasks that keep life flowing smoothly. Things like, unpacking suitcases (8 days and counting), vacuuming, baking, etc. What are these things that are distracting me?

Well.... Where to start? OK, Glee. Thanks to a good friend of mine, I now have in my possession, season one of Glee. I've had this 4 disc set for about 4 weeks now. I have been putting off watching it because of it's musical-ness. How do I feel about musicals? I fast-forwarded through every song in Mama Mia. And I like ABBA! But much to my surprise, I found myself up till one in the morning, curled up with my laptop, ear buds in ear (as to not wake my husband), physically unable to press stop. So now I find myself sneaking every possible moment to finish the season. This is just distraction number 1, wait till you find out about the others. I am hanging my head in shame as I type.

Now, distraction number 2. Felting. Yes, I craft and I'm proud of it! I don't wear kitty vests and my craft room is NOT filled with teddy bears. But I have been found lately perusing second hand stores for the perfect shrunken wool sweater (one mans trash...) or vintage pillow cases.

But mostly its the wool sweaters. I have made an owl hat, (thanks to the craft section of Martha Stewart's website) mittens with owls on them, mittens with birds on them and a baby sling out of vintage fabric. I'm pretty sure this is only the beginning. And I'm pretty sure OCD runs in the family.

Distraction number 3. Now this is a new one, not to say that the thought is new. Actually I've been thinking about this one for a few months now, ever since my mom decided that her annual Garden Party would be a french theme (menu wise) and that my bestie, Christie, and I would be in charge of decorations. So, I have this ladder....No I know what you're thinking, that this possibly could not be going in a good direction, but read on, Oh-Ye-Of-Little-Faith-ers!

I proposed to my husband to let me spray paint our 18 ft neon yellow ladder, black. Much to my surprise, there were no objections! YAY for having an awesome man! Next, string up a few (or a dozen) strands of mini twinkle lights on said, soon to be painted ladder. And VOILA! a 18 ft, twinkle lit, Tour de Eiffel!

Now this hasn't actually happened yet, but this is how it goes in my head. So we'll see. I'll post pics of the final result. But for now, here are a few of the 2008 Garden Party.

Mussels, yum. French bread, yummier. Puff pastry wrapped Baked Brie, Yummiest!

Finger lickin' good!

I can't take credit for these decorations, my amazing mom created this outdoor, mediteranean oasis in her backyard gazebo, as well as create a culinary success, consisting of 6 courses!

I guess that this blog would also count as a distraction..

No more distractions today. Back to the girls and housekeeping, but those suitcases are going to have to wait.