Party Success & Monday Listicles

Hubs 50th Birthday party was a great success. The Pub theme went down well and it was a great time. We don't usually do birthdays up, but I couldn't let 50 pass by for him. So glad we did this!

I wish I had taken more pictures of the set up, as this doesn't really show it very well. I rented four high cafe tables, pushed back the living room furniture and moved the dining room table against one wall to make room, then we scattered the tables throughout those two areas. I covered them in black table cloths, placed a large empty craft beer bottle, a bowl of pretzels, a scattering of peanuts in the shell and a small candle on each table.

Chalkboard Menu

On Tap was Hub's Homebrew Beer - three varieties.

I ordered cheap plain coasters off ebay, then ordered

a custom stamp and stamped them. I also did some with just a 

small beer stamp and had them in a basket with some sharpies

for guests to write birthday wishes on.

Though I didn't expect to like these cupcakes, they were 

amazing! And because we had a couple of gluten free guests,

I did some frosting shots just for them! (I'm supposed to 

be wheat free [not celiac], but cheated. It was worth it.)

More table decorations. I created a pub sign, and printed

some vintage beer ads. We also scattered beer bottle

caps around between all the food trays.

The other cupcakes - also delicious!

The cupcake display.

Our little family. The Birthday Boy doesn't look 50, 

does he? Lucky guy :)

Not all these ideas were my originals. Where did I get these great ideas and recipes? 

So Wonderful, So Marvelous - here and here.

Miss Make - here.

Hostess with the Mostess - here.

And because I don't want to miss a Monday Listicles, here's a list of 10 things that can make life interesting while setting up for, and having, a party:

1. After Hubs painstakingly cleaned the kitchen floor, a gladware container of greasy chicken broth got knocked out of the fridge, broke when it hit the floor and sent broth everywhere. Did I mention greasy broth?

2. While using the beaters on the sticky egg whites for the frosting, the plug fell out of the wall stupid outlet. In my mental distraction, I lifted the beaters as I reached over to plug it back in, sending white sticky frosting spraying everywhere. Including all over me.

3. The beer drinkers all decided to drink the homebrew, leaving us with two cases of bottled beer left over.

4. Based on past experiences, I bought more white than red wine. I still have five bottles of white that I bought, two bottles of white that people brought, and not a drop of red left. Not.A.Drop.

5. At least eight people that said they were coming, didn't show, including one couple who were on their way when their 19 year old son's girlfriend broke up with him and he "needed" them to be home with him.

6. Hubs made a last day decision to upload his entire, extensive music library to Google Music, which took from morning until well into the afternoon on the party day. He then discovered that a "playlist" will only hold 1,000 songs, and decided to go through his 5,000+ songs choosing music. He was still doing that at 6:20. The party started at 7. I was not yet dressed. Ahem.
7. As with many parties, it is sometimes odd to have your 'worlds' collide. What I mean by that is there were four very distinct groups of people he knows. It is funny to watch them interact.
8. The dog escaped her entrapment upstairs and went flying throughout the rooms of the party at about 60 miles per hour, never even stopping to greet anyone before being recaptured by The Boy and put back in isolation. Do not get the wrong idea, we just had a baby gate across the top of the stairs. No animal cruelty here. She just gets very, very excited to see people.
9. We have what seems like 55 cupcakes leftover. Which can't be true, because there were only 48 to begin with.
10. No matter how you spread the inviting tables around the house, people will congregate in the kitchen where the sound magnifies off the hard floors and surfaces and the decibel level will climb astronomically.

All in all, I'm thrilled with how things turned out. And so happy that some people came that I wasn't sure if they would - it was so great to see them!

Link up with Stasha at The good life for Monday Listicles. It's a different topic every week - follow along (or create your own like I did today!)

Happy Monday!
***Ally
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