Summer Birthday

This past weekend was super busy, not only did we celebrate Jacob's graduation, my mom was also in town and we got to celebrate her birthday!  Since most of the planning happened for this between the graduation party on Friday and the dinner on Sunday it was not as elaborate as I had originally envisioned but there are some details that I really love.   Plus it was more important that we got to spend time together than that I found the perfect dinner plates :)! 

I had planned enough ahead to get the menu designed for the dinner, I was really happy with it and with a few adjustments I am going to make a set with this design and it will be for sale soon in my Etsy Shop (which is kind of empty right now :( !)

For the dinner itself I decided I wanted to have everyone make their own panini's (or at least select their own toppings).  I designed a list that coordinated with the menu where everyone could circle their selection and my wonderful personal chef, aka my husband made us wonderful paninis! We also served salad with gorgonzola and candied walnuts (I bought these from Trader Joes and they are one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted...that is if you like walnuts!), along with a mixed fresh fruit salad.  Since there were only a few of us I wanted to keep the desserts simple.  I made Lime & Basil Macarons, served strawberries as well as some spicy peanut brittle that my mom had made (this is from the recipe that Sandra Bullock and her sister created and it is beyond amazing!, the recipe is in a past issue of People Magazine, but I found a copy online here, hopefully you can see it!).  I also made Grapefruit Margaritas that I found on Pinterest, I think I made them a little too strong, but the flavor was pretty good...and the color was beautiful :)!! Here are some pictures from the party (not the greatest pics, seemed it was one camera mishap after another that day)!

It is a little hard to see some of the text in the pictures, but I love the bright colors of the design!  Oh and yes I used paper plates...I had had my eyes open for a couple of weeks looking for something that I really liked with no luck, finally late Sunday afternoon I found these at Target and the colors matched perfectly, plus made for easy clean-up!

Since the plates were so colorful I didn't end of using placements, instead I just layered the plates on top of these awesome (disposable) napkins!

Bought several bouquets of flowers and filled wrapped Mason jars in pink ruffle ribbon with the flowers.  Love the simple look of these jars.  I tied three of them together with the same ribbon on the dinner table for the centerpiece as well (didn't get a picture of this unfortunately)

Though I didn't have luck finding dinner plates, I did find these dessert plates...love the color and pattern of these!  I also found some oil cloth placemats that my mom had made a while back and used these on the buffet to separate the dessert area and the drink area. 

Love how these stemless white wine glasses looked when used for the margaritas!  A little salt on the rims and some awesome straws from  Polka Dot Market were the perfect finishing touches!

It was a very relaxing dinner and we were sorry to see her leave.  Next year will be a BIG party, as she is turning the big *0!!!

Look for this printable set coming soon to the shop!

Thanks for stopping by!

Christine