Oinks & Hops: A Teal & Green Ombre Beer Tasting & Whole Hog Roast

I turned 34 last Wednesday and wanted to throw a party that reflected the things I love: (1) the colors teal and green, (2) pork and bacon and (3) beer!

When I looked at other "beer tasting" parties for inspiration, everything I saw was masculine. I thought, hey girls like beer too! So that's why I decided to do a beer tasting with a feminine touch -- i.e. lots of pretty paper, flowers and teal and green. In addition, I love pork! My friend has a caja china -- which is one way to roast a pig above ground. We placed 80 pounds of pasture raised pork from Marin Sun Farms inside the wooden caja and put hot coals on top -- the radiant heat from the coals slow roasted the meat over four hours.

Putting Pork + beer together, I came up with a clever name for my party theme: Oinks and Hops! I asked guests to bring a 6-pack of beer (assigned by first name) of varieties ranging from lager, stout, wheat beer, amber ale, and more to share and taste.

Caja china for hog roast - photo by Brittany Piehl (c) 2012

 Alison of Two for Two Cakes baked my desserts and I styled the spread. My cake was a chocolate Guinness stout cake with cream cheese frosting and a chevron pattern topped with a mini bunting banner from Etsy shop, Potter and Butler. I happen to have a "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster in our living room and love the saying so much that I had Lush Prints make a custom rubber stamp with the saying, "Keep Calm and Eat Bacon," which I used to decorate craft paper favor boxes for mini chocolate donuts. Alison also made "Oinks" -- usually called Twinks -- that were made of Devil's foodcake with maple buttercream and candied bacon. And continuing the beer theme, we had mini root beer float cupcakes -- vanilla bean cake with a sarsaparilla extract. 

Vanilla bean root bear float mini cupcakes - photo by Vera Devera (c) 2012

Some of the stands were metal fruit baskets (with honeycomb die cut) that I turned upside down to place the cupcakes on top of. Porcelain pigs with mini cards denoted the flavors. For weeks, I toiled over making tissue paper fringe -- which I strung together with fishing line. I hung them from a curtain and tied glitter glass numbers, "3" and "4" to the middle. The backdrop for my desserts was comprised of the fringe curtain, honeycomb paper flowers and white tissue paper poms tied with teal fringe and gold foil centers.

Outside we strung bistro lights and decorated the tables with teal-green ombre linens. I tied green-blue striped napkins with twine and paper hearts for the lime green cutlery. For the buffet, I potted succulents in bargain bin silver pails from Target and I wrote the names of the dishes on chalkboard garden markers with a wet erase chalk pen. Green paper lanterns covered some of the bistro light bulbs and a fringe garland hung above paper mache "CHEERS". I also set out a mini bucket of paper mustaches on straws -- for guests who wanted to have a little fun drinking their root beer.

Keep Calm & Eat Bacon Custom Stamp by Lush Prints - photo by Jill Kunishima (c) 2012

At the end of the night, my friends lit sparklers and dainty candles and brought my cute chevron cake out to me. One of my favorite photos of the night is of me blowing out the candles, hands clasped as I made a wish.

Make a wish! - photo by Alison Okabayashi (c) 2012

Being surrounded by my wonderful friends and eating and drinking a delicious spread was the best ever!

Vendors:

• Event coordination and design: Va de Vie Events/self; www.vadevie-events.com
• Cake: Two for Two Cakes, www.twofortwocakes.com
• Stamp: Lush Prints, http://www.etsy.com/shop/LushPrints
• Banner: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PotterandButler
• Invitation: Paperless Post, www.paperlesspost.com
• Blank coasters: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BellisMarket
• Paper mustache straw kit: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSweetPaperie

Mustache straws

Beer tasting!

Menu window

Solar lantern

Oink!

Devil's foodcake twink with maple buttercream & candied bacon by Two for Two Cakes

Happy Halloween: Cute & Easy DIY Projects

Last night, we hosted a pre-Halloween/housewarming party that sported a macabre vibe. It was SUPER FUN!

Guests enjoyed the DIY terror-rarium bar where they got to make their own mason jar terror-rariums with dinosaurs.

There was plenty to eat, including "mummy" dip. I took 2 long logs of herbed chevre (Trader Joe's) and shaped it into a mummy body. Then I used Trader Joe's whipped cream and put it in a pastry bag with a leaf tip and zigzagged the whip cream across the chevre to simulate ribbons of cloth. I added googly eyes to add a touch of cuteness. The extra large sushi platter the mummy is resting on is from CB2.

My friends, Brittany and Danikka, provided the dipped pretzels and cupcakes for our candy bar:

Cupcake by Danikka, photo by britt.piehl

Lurking around the house were mummified vases. They were so easy and cheap to make: wrap mason jars or any other vase in cheesecloth and secure with hot glue. Add googly eyes with hot glue and add flowers of your choice. I even did it with mini pumpkins.

And the most terrifying of all were the "Holy Bat Wings" -- tasty baked sesame chicken wings dyed black care of my friend, Dan. Rounding out the festive menu was a spicy pumpkin chowder my husband made.