The "Yay" dinner party

 When our friend Allison heard that she and her family would be moving, my girlfriends and I planned a little going away party.  Weeks later, when we heard the awesome news that they would get to stay after all, we decided that we still needed a dinner party in her honor.  So we turned it into a "Yay! Alli can stay!" party instead.  It was a hit.

 

First, I'll show you the decorations outside: On the picnic table, a piece of brown packing paper, seagrass placemats from Ikea, layered under my cream everyday "Sorrento" dishes, bamboo utensils found here, gray and white striped straws from bakeitpretty.com  mason jar glasses (cause that's the only way I roll) along with my chalkboard pots filled with herbs. Found here, in my Etsy store.  I used my numbered napkins (previously created and sold by me on Etsy). Hanging above the table, is my Ikea candle chandelier, that I spray painted oil rubbed bronze (and nearly threw across the room while assembling).  I also placed a few white candles in the center of the table, because I thought a girls only dinner party in Alli's honor deserved a little sparkle.

 I ended up removing the packing paper, because I needed to place a piece of it between the pots and our plates so we didn't have to brush dirt off our dinner plates.  (That was a last minute tweak.)

 

 

 These were so cute.  I'm going to put them into my picnic basket for future use after this!

From left, it's Maria, Kristin, Kristin (we love our Kristin's around these here parts) Nurse Nicki, and Allison. 

 And back inside, here's what I did: I made Adrain hack all my hydrangea bushes to bits and bring the bounty inside for a punchy purple pop of color.  (Say that ten times really fast.) The best part- FREE! I dug out some colored chalk and drew a fun and celebratory message for Alli, on my chalkboard.

I decorated a little sign, welcoming my guests. 

I love this old bucket.  But to make this arrangement work, I had to flip a cake pan upside down and set it inside, as a make-shift platform.  Never underestimate the power of jimmy-rigging things.  I filled a smaller container with water, and placed it on top of that.  It was perfect and sweet.

 

 

 For dinner, I went with a salad topped with grilled shrimp, and these parmesan breadstick/crutons.  (Salad is always a good choice, when you have mint chocolate Oreo cupcakes waiting. 

I dumped a bunch of things like chopped cucumbers, split grape tomatoes, diced red onion, corn, avacado, and crumbled blue cheese into a bowl.  Then I took ranch dressing, blitzed it with fresh cilantro, and then added it to the bowl of veggie mix.  We topped our shrimp salad with it, and it was summer evening perfection.  Totally girl friendly food. 

I love how we talked until it turned dark and the mosquitos began biting.

 

 Um... and I also love that Alli gets to stay.


Yay!