I did some interior styling for Robbie a couple of years back, and we did a lot of cool things in her home – like some fun wall groupings of her daughter’s art and this tangy green wall color in her dining room.

I helped her create a dining/library area in a previously under-utilized space.  We pulled down several bookcases from her upstairs office and placed them in an L-shape to  make a welcoming spot to read, eat, or just hang out.  She bought this Saarinen table from IKEA, and I found these blue retro chairs with the metal bases in perfect condition at a local consignment store.

The girls in the cooking club brought various hors d’oeuvres for the party, and Robbie arranged them artfully on her table.  She used old corks to create descriptive labels for the food.

Robbie set up drinking glasses on a side table with a simple red bucket stuffed with a lit string of Christmas lights.  And her young daughter made the sign “Wodr” (water).  So cute!

This family is casual and modern.  A fun thing we did in their dining room was to create a huge rectangular area with magnetic paint.  They leave each other messages with these fun word tiles, and Robbie used them to create this clever Christmas tree shape!  By the way, this isn’t Robbie in the photograph – it’s my pal, Jen.   She just had her fourth baby girl a few weeks ago – congrats, Jen!

Photo Credits:  The Decorologist.

The search was on.  The search for avocado green and harvest gold serving pieces and accessories.  My neighbor provided some vintage table cloths, while friends of the bride borrowed green, gold, and orange items from their mother’s and grandmother’s hall closets.  I had a record player that belonged to my dad and a bunch of old records from my in-laws, including The Carpenter’s Greatest Love Songs.  I couldn’t stop singing “Rainy Days and Mondays” . . .

Besides the 70′s colors, I started thinking about items that signified that era – like owls and mushrooms.   My mother-in-law had a set of mushroom kitchen canisters and I had my own collection of owls (I heart owls!) and green/gold glassware (which I blogged about here).  I went to an estate sale of a time-capsule 1970′s house and found these plastic paper plate holders and some other 70′s paraphenalia.  I also found some vintage plastic bridemaids on ebay.

Now for the menu:  I had a few vintage 1970′s cookbooks that belonged to my mom.  One was completely about conjealed salads and jell-o recipes – how 70′s is that?  I thought back to my mother’s dinner parties where the ladies wore blue eyeshadow and long, flowing dresses . . . and  food ideas began to emerge.  The menu consisted of:  Swedish meatballs served in an avocado green crockpot, a gorgeous congealed salad, cheese fondue, merengue cookies, party nuts, and a hideous chocolate cake with lots of fake plastic flowers. 

My friend Jennifer made this GORGEOUS 70′s congealed salad, full of fruits, vegetables, and nuts.  Only in the 1970′s would someone come up with such a concoction!

This is truly the ugliest cake I have ever made.  But that was kind of the point.  It was very difficult to make the icing this brown plus it was a rainy day, so the icing was so cracked that it looked like mud.  Thank goodness for the plastic flowers that covered most of it up!

And no wedding shower in the 1970′s would be complete without the frothy sherbert punch served from the green punch bowl!

Of course, we all had to dress up in 1970′s-appropriate garb!  The bride-to-be was wearing a lovely orange frock and coordinating green headband.  So groovy.  When guests arrived, I assigned all the girls a 70′s name.  They had to go by this moniker (Misty, Rhonda, Dawn, Brenda, etc.) throughout the party.  Click here for a list of  Your 70′s Name.

You can’t have a wedding shower, especially in the 1970′s, without word games!  Click on these to play your own:  1970′s SuperCouples and 1970′s Teen Idol Mix-Up.  Of course, we had a test to see who had remembered all of the guests’ 1970′s names.

I must say, after a few weeks gathering 1970′s decor and covering my house in avocado green and harvest gold, I was SICK of the 1970′s.  No wonder so many people were doing drugs – all these drab colors are depressing!

All the shower guests went home with a CD of the great 1970′s love songs that played throughout the party.  These included soft rock favorites from artists like Captain & Tenille, Olivia Newton John, Bread,  John Denver, Rita Coolidge, the Carpenters, and even a little bit of David Cassidy.

My neighbor was kind enough to loan me her WEDDING DRESS from 1975 to wear to the shower!  The hat belonged to my husband’s grandmother.  The clogs and owl necklace are mine.

Photo Credits:  Kristie Barnett.

My oldest daughter has been a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House on the Prairie book series since kindergarten.   When she turned 7,  it was only fitting to have a pioneer party for my little Half-Pint.

Let’s start with her outfit.  My sweet mother-in-law helped me make Audrey’s prairie bonnet from a pattern I found at the fabric store.  She actually helped me make 9 bonnets so that all the guests at the party would have a bonnet to take home with them!  I’m no seamstress, so this is NOT something I could have done on my own.  The shirt and skirt were found at Gymboree and totally had a prairie look.  And don’t forget the 2 braids or “plaits.”

For invitations,  I scanned a small illustration by Garth Williams in one of Audrey’s Little House books.  I added a sweet border and printed them on cream card stock from Michaels.  Click the invitation to download the editable file for your own party.

Yellows, blues, and greens were the main colors in the scheme.  I had a great quilt that was worked perfectly as a tablecloth.

My dear friend, Cathy, loaned me the prairie girl ceramic figurine and the fiddle.   The Little House books were on display, of course.

What do prairie girls eat?  Popcorn balls,  little apple pies,  pumpkin pies, and corn bread.

And, of course, cake!  I needed to make an appropriate cake for the occasion.  I found this precious Holly Hobbie cake pan on Ebay, and it just couldn’t have been cuter if I do say so myself!

Don’t these little Holly Hobbie dolls from the 1970′s look like Ma, Mary, and Laura?

For background music, I ordered ”The Arkansas Traveler”  from Amazon.  It’s great fiddle music, just like Pa used to play.

Check out all these sweet prairie girls!

I spread several patchwork quilts on the tables in my home.  We cut out triangles of calico scrapbook paper that the girls used to create their own paper patchwork quilts.

I taught the girls a simple back stitch so that they could sew some small bean bags like many little girls made in the “olden” days to play with.  Then they took turns having their silhouettes drawn (I hung craft paper on the wall of a darkened hallway and shined a strong flashlight to create a shadow to trace).  They cut out their own silhouettes on black construction paper and framed them with bargain bin frames.

Each girl got to take home her prairie bonnet and a “lunch pail” filled with prairie paper dolls,  old-fashioned chalkboard slates with chalk tied with twine, and a book slipcover.

I found a girl on ebay who makes all kinds of personalized stationery, so I ordered some with Holly Hobbie (yes, her again!) on them.  I thought this was an extra special touch.

Such lovely memories from this party.  Definitely one of my favorites.

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Her costume came from a large authentic-looking Native American shirt I bought at an estate sale for $3.  The shirt hung down to the ground on her like a dress, and I simply had to cut the sleeves down.  I bought mocassins on ebay for $8.  The headdress came from a yard sale for $1 that I found 2 weeks before the party.  I love those racoon tails hanging down around her ears!

My husband constructed a teepee from things he had in his workshop:  scrap wood, an old paint dropcloth, and rope.  That’s it.  Simple, but it made for the coolest centerpoint for the party.  My husband has had these fake fireplace logs since he was a bachelor, and they made for a perfect American Indian cookfire.  This other little squaw is my older daughter.

Here’s the retro-cool invitation.  I used a free font that looked like wood logs.  Then I individually burned the edges with a lighter.  Aren’t they darling???

The kids “roasted” marshmellows over the fake fire.  It was so hilarious – they couldn’t understand why their marshmellows weren’t turning brown!  Anyway, they “roasted” while I read them a Native American story about a little brave who ran away from home.

I served up a teepee cake made from a Pampered Chef Batter Bowl.  I used regular homemade buttercream icing, but fondant would work great, too.  This cake was such a hit! 

The tablescape started with a couple of Indian-look blankets draped across the dining room table.  Vintage American Indian books were set upright toward the back of the table, along with a few metal collectable tins with Indian motifs filled with turkey feathers from Michael’s.  I had a small collection of Cherokee Indian artifacts that my father had gathered as a boy, which I scattered about the tabletop.   The Indian dolls came from a yard sale and a gas station in Alabama (I found that on the way back from the beach!)

Besides the cake, I served brown horse cookies, popcorn, jiffy cornbread, chocolate sugarcone teepees, and edible Indian corn.

Click here for Jane’s Shortbread Cookie recipe.

For the Chocolate Teepees, simply ice inverted sugar cones with pre-made chocolate icing.  Insert 3 half-toothpicks in top and add candies for decoration.

Edible Indian Corn Recipe

4 tbsp butter

4 cups mini marshmellows

5 cups puffed corn cereal (corn puffs)

1 1/3 cups diced dried fruit (raisins, papayas, cranberries, apricots)

popsicle sticks

tye-dye fruit roll-ups

Melt butter and marshmellows over low heat in a large pot for about 5 minutes.  Remove mixture from stove and use wooden spoon to stir in puffed corn cereal and diced dried fruit.  Allow mixture to cool for about 15 minutes.  Using buttered hands, shape each treat by pressing 1/3 cup of mixture around a popsicle stick.  Add piece of fruit roll-up to make a husk for the bottom of the ear, slightly moistening them to help them stick if needed.  Makes 15 treats.

We made  Native American vests with left-overs from the paint dropcloth.  We gave the kids ideas for Indian symbols to write on their vests.  I pre-cut headbands and let the kids choose the color feather they wanted from Michaels.  We also made beaded necklaces by threading beads on leather laces, again from Michael’s.

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Everyone got American Indian names from  http://www.apples4theteacher.com/native-american/names/for-girls.html.  All the kids had their own special Indian names like “Princess Ottertail,” “Princess White Feather,” “Princess Sunflower,” “Princess Wind Maiden,” etc.  The moms wrote their Indian names on the backs of their vests.

We also played an Indian Trading Game.  I took scraps of the leftover teepee dropcloth fabric and cut it into  5 inch squares.  I gathered all kinds of “treasures” like pretty rocks, seashells, jewels (pulled out of old costume jewelry), bit-o-honey candy, feathers, etc. and tied them up in the squares with cord.  Each child got a “pouch of treasures” and took turns trading their things with the other squaws (and one brave).

Our trusty tinman got to dress up, too.  Kinda like my version of a cigarette store Indian.  He held the goody bags – small brown bags with an embossed bird I found last year in Target’s dollar aisle.  Goody bags were filled with plastic Indians, a dreamcatcher, and a 6″ horse, all from Dollar Tree.  The vest is vintage boy scout borrowed from my sweet neighbor.

Photo Credits:  The Decorologist.

Don’t be afraid to move your dining table somewhere different in the room to open up the space.  I often push mine back 2/3 of the way towards the back of the dining room or, like in this case, I push it completely against the wall so that I can have room for mingling and extra seating.

I usually start with a full-size cream or white tablecloth as a base, and then layer a few smaller vintage ones over it – but this time I left the table somewhat bare.   For this party, I used a vintage square yellow and blue tablecloth and layed it on the diagonal in the middle of the rectangular table.  Then I took 3 larger decorative pieces to form the backdrop for my tableau – a blue birdcage, a couple of stacked crystal cakestands topped with a decorative wire bird crown, and a large landscape portrait.  The mirror here also works into that backdrop.  Although this is an assymetrical grouping, I balanced the visual weight across the back of the table (see my post on Feathering Your Nest:  Dressing Your Mantel).

Next, I added in mercury glass (silvered glass) objects.  I used 6, scattering 3 on each side of the central bird crown.  Again, I tried to balance the visual weight as I added new objects.  In this tablescape, I used mainly crystal, mercury glass/silver, and white ceramic pieces.  It’s good to stick to 2 or 3 materials to keep it from seeming too random.  Then I added the blue objects for punches of color.

Oh, let me show you something cool!  I have lots of different-sized cake plates on pedestals and glass domes.   These can be very versatile – flip over a mismatched dome and a cake stand and you’ll see that they can fit together to make a small punch bowl or trifle bowl for fruit or chips.

I made a list of the food I was serving, then decided what shape and size of serving pieces I would need for each type of food.   I went ahead and staged out the table with my serving pieces so I would know how everything would fit.  You’ll see the larger decorative items sit in the back of this tableau, while the serving pieces are scattered across the table within reach.  That way there’s no awkward leaning across the table to reach the food.   I then added in some clear glass votives from Hobby Lobby, a small glass pitcher to hold blue plastic forks, and a few other decorative accessories.

Before the party, I went ahead and laid out the foods that didn’t require refrigeration so that party prep would be quick and easy.

Here’s the finished product.  A simple tablescape, really – all things I already had.  No real theme here, just a common palette of blue, white, and silver.  An elegant table, despite the fact that the food is simple and served on paper plates!

Notice how I used the flipped domes and cake pedestals to hold the chips, dip, and fruit.     It always looks good to elevate selected items on pedestals across a tablescape.  A faux bird and a battery-operated candle sit in the birdcage.

Here’s a couple of yummy recipes to help you throw your next party:

Puffy Muffin’s Cheese Crispies

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups butter, softened to room temperature

3 cups grated sharp cheddar

1 1/2 cups rice crispies

Sift flour, add cayenne and salt.  Cut butter in.  Work mixture with fingers until corn-mealish.  Add cheese and rice crispies.  Continue to mix with fingers.  Roll into 1-inch balls, flatten on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Cool completely.

Jane’s Shortbread Cookies

1 cup softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

Beat butter and sugar for 5 minutes.  Add egg yolks/vanilla.  Combine flour and salt, gradually adding to the mixture.  If you want color, add food coloring (I used blue for this party) to the dough – no icing is needed.   Cover and freeze for 30+ minutes.  Roll out dough on parchment paper, flouring your rolling pin and cookie cutters well.  Bake the cut-out cookies at 350 degrees on parchment for 10 1/2 minutes.

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I found these never-opened paper plates and napkins in an attic of a friend of my mother’s.  I kept them for 8 years until I was inspired to use them for my younger daughter’s third birthday.  I also had a few small books of JWA art and poetry that I had picked up over the years.  Her illustrations of little children have always touched me and aroused that nostalgia within me for anything from my own childhood.  

So, what was I going to call this party?  A Joan Walsh Anglund party?  My daughter would never understand.  So I looked for a common theme in JWA artwork and decided upon Rainbows.  That way I could use primary colors that would work with the plates and napkins.  I decided to hop on ebay and see what I could find of Joan Walsch Anglund’s.  I found 2 unopened Hallmark cardstock centerpieces put out in the late 70′s that featured little children sliding on rainbows.   It came with little cardstock clouds and stars that I could scatter all over the table. 

I found a beautiful unused JWA coloring book that I snatched up for a few dollars.  Oh, and a DARLING  cookie cutter of one of her classic little girls!  Amazon has many of her books, new and used.  And finally, I found a JWA decorative birthday plate and coffee mug .  All my JWA “props” cost a total of $40.  The other props I used were just things that color-coordinated (yellow, orange, red, green, blue, purple) or looked rainbow-ish.  I color-copied artwork onto label paper and made stickers that I adhered to multi-colored party hats from Dollar Tree.

These are the only invitations I’ve ever had for my childrens’ parties that I did not make myself.  But I found these Joan Walsh Anglund invitations on her website and felt like I owed it to her to order them from her! 

The food for this party was fun!  The rainbow cake was easy – just a round cake, skittles to create the rainbow, and mini-marshmellows for the clouds. 

Here are the sweet cookies I made from the JWA cookie cutter I found on ebay!

My Fabulous Butter Cookie Recipe 

1 cup melted/softenedbutter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 4 eggs, 3 tbsp vanilla +1 tsp water (or food coloring), 6 cups self-rising flour

Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time.  Alternately add 2 cups flour, 1 tbsp vanilla, mix, repeat.  Add 1 tsp water.  Chill in refrigerator 3+ hours.  Rollout 1/4 inch.  Cut and bake 335 degrees for 10 minutes on parchment paper.  Use royal icing mix – add more water for glaze.

I used red plastic forks from Dollar Tree, and found colored plastic mugs with built-in straws on clearance at Kroger’s for $1 each.   I made a jello rainbow in a glass trifle bowl – that took awhile to let each color gel before adding the next.  Cubed cheddar cheese looked special on a raised cake plate and rainbow-colored toothpicks.

I made a fruit tray using a rainbow of fruits set in a cream cheese, sour cream, sugar mixture - blueberries, peaches, oranges, green grapes, and strawberries.  I layed the cream and fruit in a rectangular tray with a lip so that it wouldn’t ooze out.

I ordered huge multi-colored swirly suckers from Oriental Trading and grouped them for a colorful centerpiece on the table.  Multi-colored balloons completed the rainbow tablescape. 

As the party was for a 3-year-old, the activities were kept simple.  I made lots of copies of coloring pages from the JWA coloring book for the children to color.  We did a simple rainbow craft that you may download.  Print a page for each child and have them attach colored pompoms with glue. 

Below is thumbnail of the rainbow craft.  Rainbow Download

We also made froot loop necklaces – what could be simpler?  Notice how Kelta wore a Gymboree shirt with embroidery in rainbow colors.

All our guests took home a goody basket.  I found these plastic multi-colored baskets at Dollar Tree and filled them with shredded colored paper from Michaels, striped hot air balloon bookmarks,  beaded jewelry kits, and colorful sticker letters (the last two were from Dollar Tree).  I attached cardstock gift tags of JWA artwork with red ribbon.  

The children also got to take home a large swirly sucker (from Oriental Trading Company) and one of the plastic mugs they drank from earlier.

Now, this is absolutely the coolest thing about this party – when I ordered the party invitations off the JWA website, I left a message about the party I was planning for the site manager.  Soon after, we received a special package in the mail.  Mrs. Anglund sent us a precious pencil drawing personalized for Kelta’s birthday with a sweet note wishing her well.  We framed the artwork and treasure it!!!

Below are the gift tags, 2 sticker sheet images, and several coloring pages that you are welcome to download!  Click on the link below for all.  Enjoy!

Joan Walsh Anglund – Download

Ok, my daughter loves reading like you would not believe, so I had to find a way to take that love of books and create a birthday party to suit her perfectly.  The main theme was books, supported by owls – wise old cartoon owls are always reading a book, right?   If you preferred, you could do books with worms (bookworms, of course).

The party colors were green/blue/brown.  I used light and dark blue balloons for decor.  I found a green owl shirt at Target for Audrey to wear, and I dressed up like a nerdy librarian .

Invitations were little folded books I printed on cream cardstock stationery from Michaels.  I got the cover pic from an old children’s book. You can download the Word documents at the end of this post to customize your own invitations.

I made an owl cake with a cake pan I found on ebay for $8 (I think it was a discontinued Wilton pan)You could also use that cake pan that is an open book, or a cake with a bespeckled bookworm.  I found an owl cookie cutter on ebay for a few bucks and made owl cookies.  I also served sliced green apples in a glass trifle pedestal bowl, strawberry blossoms (see recipe below), grapes, and a Nashville Junior League ham and biscuit recipe that rocks (see below).

I used lots of books as props, as well as owls of all kinds.  You can always find owl stuff at yard sales and estate sales in 1970’s ranch neighborhoods!  I had a lot of owls anyway, since I use them in my Halloween decorating (you’ll see that in October!)  Cups and plates were a kinda mid-century mod pattern in green and blue that I found at Publix grocery store.

Activities included making slam books (see details below).  We also made a beaded bookmark with blue and green glass beads from Michael’s thread on medium gage wire,  played “Who Am I” book characters (I gave some hints for them to guess some pretty major literary characters), and went on a book treasure hunt (see details below).   All the kids took home their bookmark, slam book, and a canvas bag from Oriental Trading Company with a classic paperback for a $1.50 from Dover Publications.   Great fun for 8-year-olds!

Download the Birthday Book Bash Invitation Files 

Book Treasure Hunt:

Simply choose 20 or so books, display them on a table or ledge, and make up questions that relate to the books you have chosen.  Give each child a copy of the questions and pencil, and the race is on!  Here are some sample questions, based on the books I used, of course:

This Book . . .

1.        contains many animal stories

2.        has 152 pages

3.        has the same author as Alice in Wonderland

4.        has a boat in it called “The Red Dolphin”

5.        includes an interesting map containing Deerlick River 

6.        takes place in a boarding school

7.        contains a picture of an eagle

8.        has a character named Veruca Salt

9.        is part of the “Dana Girls” series

10.     takes place on Prince Edward Island in Nova Scotia, Canada 

Slam Books:

In case you never made those in jr. high, a slam book is a small notebook, usually the spiral-bound type which is passed among school students.  I found some simple fabric-covered ones from Oriental Trading Company and let the girls decorate them with stickers and sticker tape from Martha Stewart’s collection at Michaels.

The first page is numbered 1-10 (or however many children are attending the party).   Just write a question at the top of each page, and then number below it (1-10 for 10 children).  Each child picks a number, puts their name next to that number on the first page of the slam book, then fills in their answer on each page beside that numbered line.   Questions for SlamBooks:  What’s your favorite color?  What’s your favorite food?  What’s your favorite school subject?  What would be your one wish? What do you want to be when you grow up?  What’s your favorite book?  What’s your favorite movie/TV show?  What 3 words/adjectives best describe you?  What’s the most special thing about you?  A sample page looks like this:

What 3 words best describe you?

1.   ______________________________________

2.  ______________________________________

3. ______________________________________

4. ______________________________________

Hope that makes sense.  If you don’t get it, go ask a 7th grade girl.

Strawberry Blossoms:

 12 large fresh strawberries

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 tbs powdered sugar

1 tbs sour cream

Slice off strawberry tops.  Place strawberries on cutting board, point up.  Cut each half into 3 wedges to form 6 petals.  Pull slightly apart.  Beat other ingredients and put in pastry bag with star tip.  Fill strawberries.

Junior League Ham and Biscuits:

1 lb. sliced ham

2 sticks butter

3 tsp poppy seeds

1 med onion, diced

3 tsp mustard

1 tsp worcestershire

12 oz Swiss cheese

2 rounds of Sister Schubert rolls (or) 3 pkgs small brown/serve dinner rolls

Melt butter, add mustard, poppy seeds, Worcestershire, onion.  Split rolls  (I recommend using a bread knife on slightly frozen rolls), spread mixture on both sides of rolls, then layer ham and cheese.  Wrap in foil.  350 degrees for 10 minutes.

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I went through my seasonal ornaments and pulled out doves, owls, bird’s nests, bird’s eggs.  I chose a blue and white color palette, found recipes with bird-related names and ingredients, and had each guest draw a paper fortune with surprising results (everyone truly felt that the quotation they chose suited them perfectly!).  The pink paper balls hanging from the ceiling are Martha Stewart from Michaels.   I really love those and her tissue paper ones – more interesting than balloons and infinitely reusable!  I have also included the menu, recipes, and bird quotations/fortunes at the end of the post.

Birds of a Feather recipes  – Use these delicious recipes for your own bird-themed dinner party.

Bird Quotations  -  Print out these bird-related fortunes, cut them into strips, curl with scissor-blade, and place in small bowl for your guests to choose.

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