Grad Party Part 3 - Congratulations, Graduate!

My mama graduated! In order to help her celebrate earning a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling (with Distinction!!), myself, the husbandly fellow, and the tiny canine pal drove for 12 hours to Nevada with the car packed full of desserts and crafts, and spent about a day and a half staying with my parents for her graduation party on Saturday, July 20th. I've recapped food and decor so far { For Part 1 (decor), SEE HERE. For Part 2 (food), SEE HERE. } and now it's time for the finished product - the party!

After putting together the sandwiches in the morning to chill (and getting thoroughly teased by my family and my husband for my AMAZING fluffy bedhead), we all threw on some easy clothes and headed over to the venue to set up the decor. As per usual, everyone was asking me how they could help and I mostly just needed people to stay out of my way - just like any good control freak. (Yet another trait I inherited from the guest of honor!) I did utilize my Clinton and Marcus (brother) in the hanging of high things because at 5'3" on a tall day, it just wasn't happening for me.

One of the first things I set up was the gifts/cards/guestbook table. [Oh, quick little sidenote! I did not make a cardbox in my crafting adventures from Part 1, but while at my mom's house she asked me if I had made one. I told her I hadn't, but luckily I had brought my crafting materials box along, so I was able to use some pretty paper and little flowers and letters I had to whip something up out of an old shoebox - so if you see it in the photos and wonder where it came from, now you know.] My mom had a really cool idea of using river rocks for her guestbook - she's going into counseling and Lance, my step-dad, bought her a really pretty organic-looking wooden bowl for her office. Her idea was instead of a guestbook, to have these river rocks out and have people write little inspirational messages or drawings and she will place the bowl of rocks in her office. Her patients will be able to look at them and pick them up, and if they see one that they feel like maybe they need, they are welcome to have it - but they must replace it with a new one. How cool is that! So I threw down a little pink table runner, some gifts, the card box, a bouquet of paper flowers, a little framed silliness, the rocks with a sign explaining what to do, and the Anne of Green Gables series on the table and poof! - the first bit of decorating was done.

I got that pink table runner for a buck at the dollar store. Can't beat that!

The last-minute cardbox.

Pastels for everyone!

Next up, I placed a cute little sign at the entryway, along with more books. [By the way, about the books - they are all books from my mom's book case that I chose based almost purely on color. I just wanted them to fit in and not grab anything too dark, but I also wanted some of them to mean something, so I did choose some of her favorites (Shakespeare, Harry Potter), alone with a few books that she had actually used in her courses toward her degree.] After placing the sign, I got to setting up some small centerpieces on a few tables scattered about the room - they included a stack of books, a mason jar bouquet of paper flowers, and a small frame with either an inspirational quote or a quote about books.

I'm totally taking the path for Diagon Alley - which would you take?

A close-up so you can read it!

This one was on the dessert table next to the Butterbeer Brownie Bites.

Next up, it was time to hang the tall things, including the little decorative curtain I made, as well as the pennant banner. There was a beam that divided the room between the food area and the sitting area that was perfect for the banner, so that's where we hung it. The little paper curtain got hung up behind the food and drink tables just to add a little visual interest and make the literature theme obvious upon entry.

All different floral print cardstock for the letters.

The full banner - you can also see into the other side of the room where the tables w/ the little centerpieces were.

I loved this thing!

Detail shot.

My mom had borrowed some beautiful antique tea sets from some friends for us to use in the decor. I was originally planning to place them on the tables behind the food, but when we arrived in the room and saw this cool little A-frame shelf, we knew it was the perfect place to put them. Mom placed the tea sets out (isn't the arrangement so cute??) and added the mason jar candles, and I put some of the loose tissue paper flowers on the shelves as well as around the food and drink tables.

Okay, NOW it's a high tea!

Setup of the room only took about an hour or so, after which we went back to my family's place to get party-ready. I curled my mama's hair while the boys sat around looking at my brother's new gun, and then we all got dressed for the party and headed out to enjoy Kimberly's High Tea Graduation Party.

Clinton and I, ready to go!

Once there, I set out/arranged all of the food on trays. We had a slight snafu - we had made some stacked trays but for some reason (possibly heat?) the glue didn't stay and so I ended up just taking them apart, but it worked out anyway - I just had to rearrange the tables a little bit.

Food and drink tables. You can see the pennant banner in the top of the photo.

Dessert table and tea sets.

Not pictured - I totally forgot to take photos from outside. There were 3 or 4 wrought iron table/chair sets out in front of the room. The guys ran out to get some pink, yellow, and white balloons and I put a mason jar vase with paper flowers and a plain mason jar with a tealight in it on each table.

Pretty quickly after that, people started trickling in and the party was started. The first hour or so was just mingling and people noshing on the food, and me replenishing the food and drink as it went. I don't know why, but the Grape Gatsby drink was a total killer and gone within the first hour. I wish I had known so I would have had more on hand, but even after making 3 batches through the night, it was gone! Oh well, I'll know for next time. Mom introduced Clinton and I to all of her friends as they arrived and I tried to balance being caterer/host/daughter of the guest of honor all at once - I think I was successful!

About halfway through the party, we did a little activity where everyone sat inside and I stood up and asked a few questions to get people involved. There was no prize or anything, it was just a quick little thing to have fun and get everyone laughing and talking.

1) What is Kimberly's favorite book series? Several people got the series right (Harry Potter).
2) What book influenced Kimberly the most growing up? I didn't expect anyone to know this one, but a couple of people did! It was To Kill A Mockingbird, and my mom talked some about Atticus.
3) What is Kimberly's favorite Poem? One person got this right after a couple minutes of hemming and hawing from everyone else. (Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken) - actually, I think they got it half right. I think they said The Road Less Traveled, or maybe just the name of the poet or something. But it was close enough!
4) If she could choose any fictional character from any book, who would Kimberly want to have dinner with, and why? There were several answers to this one - one of which got a big laugh. Someone shouted out, "Jesus!" and I gave them a hard time because most of the people there were friends from church and I had specified fictional character - it was pretty funny. Someone else mentioned a Harry Potter character - either Dobby or Dumbledore, I can't remember. After people were done making suggestions, I asked mom to give us her answer, and ended up getting another laugh from the guests. She said Atticus and I said, "No, too much Atticus! Enough Atticus woman, we need some variation here! Pick someone else!" I was obviously just teasing her and everyone knew that, but she did end up saying she would like to have supper with Bilbo Baggins, because he seems very interesting with his risks and adventures and the payoffs they came with.

After that, one of my mom's friends/pastor got up and did some stand-up comedy - it was super cute! It ended with a Top 10 list of things you never want to hear your therapist say, and the number 1 was, "I just graduated!" That cracked me up - so clever, working in the fact that it was her grad party!

When he was done, mom got up and made a little thank-you speech not only for coming to the party, but to everyone there who had helped her along on her journey. She may have shed a tear or two... I'll never tell.

People ate some more, mingled, and slowly drifted out until finally, the last guest had gone and Marcus, Clinton and I were left sitting at a table talking about The Clown Motel - but that'll be a story for another day. For now, I'll just leave you with some Instagram pictures I took that night.

I hope that this little 3 part series has been helpful to anyone planning a party - thanks for reading!

Grad Party Part 2 - Food

For decor, see Part 1 HERE.
For the complete party recap, see Part 3 HERE.

The decor for my mom's grad party took about a week's worth of evenings after work to make. The food was a lot easier. Since we were going for a high tea style party, I decided that tea sandwiches were the best bet. I just looked at photos online and then went with whatever I thought could be made easily in large amounts.

Aren't they pretty?

So here's what I came up with for sandwiches:

- Asparagus with lemon cream cheese on white bread
- Cucumber and chive butter on both pumpernickel AND rye
- And, for the less adventurous of the crowd - Ham and swiss on wheat bread (also made some on white for extra picky eaters)

For the asparagus sandwiches, I used that photo on the left as inspiration. I rolled them up w/ white bread, but I did it w/ 2 pieces of asparagus facing different ways, and then just cut it in half once rolled so it would make 2 sandwiches and every piece would have the stalks sticking up.My step-dad went crazy for these sandwiches!

My favorite sandwich was the cucumber on pumpernickel, but my husband preferred it on the rye, so it's all a matter of taste! Also, I actually ended up using green onions instead of chives - I just cut them really thinly. I mixed room temp butter with the onions, some garlic powder, salt and pepper, and a tiny bit of lemon juice, then spread it on both slices of bread, and cut into triangles.

The ham and swiss sandwiches were spread with a honey mustard - literally just 1/2 dijon mustard and 1/2 honey, and then 2 slices of black forest ham and one slice of swiss cheese. I made more of these than the others because I honestly thought people would be picky, but I was surprised to find that most people went for the veggie sandwiches!

We made all of the sandwiches the morning of the party at my mom's house - my poor parents - I go to visit them and turn their kitchen into a total disaster area - oops!

Desserts I made in advance, and I was slightly more creative with them. I wanted to make desserts that had some connection to literature. I thought about making Turkish Delight (from the Narnia series), but I'm kinda iffy on candy-making - seems too dangerous to me. I tried a couple of Google searches for foods from literature and was able to come up with several, but not many desserts. I did keep seeing things for butterbeer (Harry Potter) and knew I wanted to do something with that, but wasn't entirely sure what.

Since I was making a 12 hour drive with whatever I made, I wanted it to be small and portable, and not have to do too much to it once I got there, so cupcakes were out - I had no desire to frost 60 cupcakes while trying to rush doing everything else for the party. Instead, I decided to make "Butterbeer Brownie Bites". If you want to make these, here's what I did.

-Make a triple batch of your favorite brownie batter recipe (I made a double batch of dark chocolate and a single batch of milk chocolate)

-Mix in butterscotch chips

-Pour into greased pan, drizzle butterscotch over the top, and bake according to directions

-Cool and chill (chilling is important)

-Once chilled, the brownies will have firmed up some, making them easier to cut into 1"x1" pieces

-Place in a freezer bag if you are transporting them.

-Once you have these on the serving tray, you can add a tiny bit of whipped cream to each one (I usually prefer to make my own, or use cool whip, but it might be easier to use the canned kind for this since the pieces are so small), and then drizzle butterscotch sauce over the top. (We realized once we got to the venue that we had forgotten the whipped cream at home and didn't want to worry about it, so I just used the butterscotch drizzle and it was perfectly fine.)

While I was looking for literary treats, I found a blog where there girl makes food from all kinds of books - so cool! I decided to make her recipe for Earl Grey and Lemon scones as a tribute to The Da Vinci Code. My love of Earl Grey is inherited from my mother, so I knew these were a must. I cut circles and then cut those into quarters since the whole party was finger-food.

Top left is the photo from the website, then my little scone pieces, and the ingredients.

We also had fruit to complement the pastries - strawberries and pineapple, and my mom had some caramel chocolates on hand that she put out as well.

I saw this adorable photo online of individual crudite cups and thought it was such a great idea! Not only does it add color to the table, but it's perfect for a party because people can just take it and go without having to worry about a messy bowl and spoon for dips or anything like that. I found little clear plastic shotglasses at Party City that worked out perfectly. My 15 year old brother ate approximately 3395382749 of these babies.

This photo has peppers and cucumbers - we just used tri-color peppers. You could put in other veggies though, like strips of portabello mushrooms, carrots, snow peas, etc! Anything long enough to stick out of a shotglass.

I only had one drink in mind and then my mom handled the rest - she did plain iced tea, a pineapple iced tea, and a citrus-cucumber-mint water. I did something that I called "The Grape Gatsby" which is not at all from the book - I just wanted to use the play on words haha! It was half white grape juice, half Sprite (or whatever lemon-lime pop you prefer), and then a bunch of frozen green grapes. The Sprite makes it bubbly so it looked like champagne which kinda works for Gatsby since the drinks were always flowing! Drink photos to come in Part 3!

I also made all these little labels so I wouldn't spend all night answering, "What is this?" The backing is just a sparkly white cardstock, and then I used more pretty floral cardstock cut into different shapes with scalloped scissors.

So that's it for food! Here's a tiny little sneak peek of some of the food in action at the party.

Asparagus and paper flowers, oh my!

Grad Party Part 1 - Decor

For those of you that don't know, my mom (who has been going to school and getting degrees for almost as long as I can remember) recently graduated with a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling. A MASTERS DEGREE! Pretty awesome. And oh yeah, did I mention that she graduated with Distinction? Yeah, my mom is kind of a badass.

She had orignally planned to take a vacation after graduating and before starting down her new career path, but as we all know, life gets in the way sometimes and she had to adjust her plans. She mentioned off-hand that she was thinking about having a graduation party and I told her that it wasn't even worth questioning, that she could definitely do it, and despite the 730 miles between us, that I could plan it. After a very short-lived idea for a luau/tropical theme, my mom decided that she wanted her party to have a literary theme with psychology references if possible.

I introduced her to Pinterest, and then I didn't hear from her for a week. Ha! Only joking. (But seriously, Pinterest is the great time suck to end them all!). I started a Grad Party board that we could both pin to and after a few weeks of looking at inspiration photos, I dove into crafting. In this entry, I will show you the process for some of these crafts, and some sneak peak photos. I will also post a similar entry about food and drinks. The third entry in this series will be about the party itself and show pictures of how everything came together. Now keep in mind that while I did gather some inspiration photos, they were to be used for just that - inspiration. So don't expect exact replicas here because that's not what I was going for. So with that, let's get started, shall we?

A couple of months ago I saw some cute floral print plates and napkins at Party City and ended up using them as the base of my inspiration. I thought they were really cute and tea party-esque and decided to pull colors from them for the rest of the decor.

After that, it was time to craft. First up: Tissue paper flowers.

I have seen these tissue paper and/or coffe filter flowers all over the place but never really had any reason to try making them myself until now. I used tissue paper so that I didn't have to bother dying coffee filters, but you could use either. Everyone will have their own method, I'm sure, but here was mine:

Lay out a stack of 8 sheets of tissue paper.
Trace a large scalloped pattern on the paper as many times as you can. (I try to throw away as little paper as possible)
Place a staple or brad in the middle of each flower.
Cut around the template into more manageable squares.
Trim the edges.
Starting with the top layer of paper, pinch up and crumple into a little ball so the other layers will have something to form around.
Bring each layer up individually until all layers are crinkled.
"Twist" the finished product in your hands, carefully, not ripping the papers.
Open up the layers some, and "fluff".

Getting started... Popcorn for breakfast and Sorcerer's Stone keeping me company.

A whole bag full of paper edges. Oops.

I also considered making teal and lilac flowers, but didn't want the colors to get muddled, so I just stuck with white, pink, and yellow.

I made a TON of these flowers. Probably like 60. I used some of them just scattered around the room and tables, and then others were used in bouquets with the next project - flowers I made from book pages.

Aren't those adorable? I used them as the jumping off point for my page flowers. I used some old packing paper I had, some book pages, and some little tweed flowers for the middle. It hurt my heart a little bit destroying a book.... but it wasn't a good book, so I was able to forgive myself.

The Process:
Borrow an array of paper punches from your ever-crafting mother-in-law.
Rip up a book. Cry a little. Drink some wine if that's your thing.
Punch out whatever papers you are using. I made large book circles, medium plain circles, small page flowers, and some little leaves.
Put the flowers together - I used these little green sticks with small copper wire that I got from the floral department at Hobby Lobby. You could use pipe cleaners or wire or any other number of things - this is just what I had on hand from a previous project so I made it work.
Hot glue mini tweed flower to the middle of each flower.
Reinforce at the base of each flower where it connects to the stick/wire/whatever with a dab of hot glue.
Place upright (I used mason jars) to dry completely.

Oof. :(

Finished flowers.

After I was finished making all of the flowers, I attached some of the tissue paper flowers to the sticks as well, and then I bunched some together to make bouquets. Each bouquet was made up of 4 flowers - 2 white, one book page,  and either 1 yellow or one pink flower. I just squished them together and bound the "stems" with a tiny rubber band.

As you may have noticed, the bouquets were then placed in some little mason jars. I figured those would go well with the whole kind of high tea/garden party theme we had going on.

Process:
Gather leftover pages - measure to cut to fit around the jars.
Make a couple more page flowers to place on the jars. Add leaves. (I used hot glue.)
Tie a cute ribbon or twine around the top of the jar. Voila!

Originally, my mom pinned those sparkly faery light mason jars to our board - let me just say this - that pin is totally bogus. I thought it looked too good to be true so I tried it with one and it was a disaster. SO not worth it, seriously, stay away. So instead I used my mason jars for vases, a la the second inspiration photo, and we put some uncovered mason jars with tealights in them on the outside tables next to a vase of paper flowers. Below are my inspiration photos, and some of my decorated mason jars.

I also made a penant banner to hang in the room - it was just a plan brown banner and I used different fancy papers to cut out the words "Hooray Grad!" - the completed photos will be in the entry with all the finished products, for now, here's a sneak peek:

Mom also pinned a picture of this sign that points out the paths to different fictional places. If we were having an outdoor party, I might have tackled actually making the sign, but since it was a party in a room, I instead just blew up and printed the photo, matted it on some floral printed paper, and put it in a pretty brushed brass frame.

My absolute favorite thing that I made though, was this paper "curtain" - I didn't know where I was going to put it or how it was going to fit into the decor, but I saw a photo on Pinterest that I LOVED and wanted to make my own version of it.

I used the paper punches again with some pretty cardstock and the scraps from my pages.

Process:
Use a ruler to mark off a small rod (I used a 3 foot rod) so that you can evenly space your hangings.
Measure out several lengths of string/fishing line/ribbon/twine. I just used white string. (Oh, and my "measuring) was having my husband hold his arm up in the air and cutting string from there to the floor - ha!
Tie your string to your dowel/rod where you marked it off. Add a small dot of glue to reinforce.
Lay dowel on floor and stretch out the strings.
Punch or cut out all of your circles/shapes and staack so they are ready to go.
If you have a focal point (mine were the book page flowers), place those next to the string so you know where you want to put them before attaching them. Place a small dab of hot glue on one piece of paper. Put it under the string, and place a secon piece on top of the string. Hold for a few seconds to firm up.
Repeat with all main pieces.
Use the same process for the smaller/colorful pieces.
Add small decorations to the rod to cover where you tied off the string. (I used the small tweed flowers from earlier, and a couple of the large pink paper flowers for the ends.)

I loved this - I just thought it was so cute! It took forever though - but it was worth it!

And lastly, *deep breath* a few inspiration photos that aren't exactly crafting, but I don't want to show the photos for from our party until the wrapup post.

Stay tuned for the next post - food!

For food, see Part 2 HERE.
For the full party recap, see Part 3 HERE.