entertaining made easy.....

This weekend we threw a birthday party for my wonderful aunt, who has the biggest heart of anyone I know - she is an exceptional human and I just love being in her company. I honestly never laugh so hard as I do when our relatives are all together. I get so pumped every time I know we're all going to be together. I thought I'd share a few simple things that I did to set up the party:

 I bought a flat of mason jars, a box of floating candles, and put fresh eucalyptus in the bottom. (I've also seen this done with fresh pine branches or cranberries). I put a cluster on the table and put the rest throughout the house. Easy Peasy.

 I made a Happy Birthday banner across the mantle, simply by cutting out pieces of white paper, and fastening each letter on to string with a good ol' clothes peg.

I used mini glass bottles throughout the house with fresh sprigs of eucalyptus and freesia. 

 We set up a self serve bar so guests could top up their drink of choice. 

You can never have enough flowers and candles.

This is one of my go-to cake recipes if you want the: Best chocolate cake.

For the food:

This slate tray, paired with a chalk pen, made for a great cheese plate -  you could just jot the name beside each delicious hunk of burning love cheese.

Let the kids eat first. It frees up more seating for the "grown up" dinner after.

This time of year, gingerbread decorating kits are a great group project to keep little kids busy.

Don't be shy to divvy up the dinner to save money. We had various people make a salad, bring appies, and garlic bread. I asked my friend Tammy for her lasagna recipe and she kindly offered, that if I bought the ingredients, she'd make them. I think I agreed to her plan as the words were literally coming out of her mouth. She is truly amazing. It was a Massive lifesaver to let me focus on set up, dessert, and appies.

For background music, we just put on the Indie Apartment Party playlist on Songza, but there approximately one bazillion playlists for you to choose from if that isn't your jam.

And of course, if your family is as liberal as mine, a hilarious post dinner game is: Cards Against Humanity.

xoxo