You might be a redneck if ....

Last weekend my cousins threw my aunt and uncle a joint 60th and 65th birthday. The theme was ... you guessed it ... a redneck party!

This theme was perfect for my family. I would like to think we are a little bit country and a little bit rock-and-roll, but it ends up that we may be more redneck than country. So even though our redneck side can appreciate all of the redneck decorations and games, we are just far enough removed so the theme is fun (and not mocking) and is still an obvious theme (not just a normal Saturday night). But the best part was that the only thing that we needed to purchase for the the red-neck decorations were the teeth (we actually have a dentist in the family).

Once my cousin asked for some help with planning the party I did turn to Pintrest. And found quite a few great ideas such as these:



The difficulty was in choosing  the best ideas that we could put together within the week before the party. This is what we came up with:



Red Solo Lights

1. Red Solo Cup Lights - This was actually my mother's idea. She found mini solo cups at the grocery store - they are shot glass size -and I drilled holes in the bottom so we could stick them on a set of Christmas lights (and garland) we had. You probably do not need a drill for this project, I was just a little power tool happy at the time.









Yup - a jar of redneck teeth

2. Redneck Teeth - You can't have a redneck party without redneck teeth. My cousin found bags of teeth at Walmart in the party section. 









 


Jack Daniel's Soap Pump

3. Jack Daniel's Soap Pump - When I first saw this idea I loved it! It is so simple to do. You take an empty Jack Daniel's bottle, fill it with soap, and screw on the top of a soap pump. I filled it with Softsoap and happily found out that the top fit perfectly!










Cheers!

4. Beer Can Patio Lanterns - I knew there was a reason I didn't return my recycling. Once again I brought out my power drill and made patterned holes in the beer cans so the light could shine through. Then I hung them on a string of Christmas lights by inserting the bulbs in the hole and twisting the tab over the hole to keep them in place. If you really want to be redneck (we just ran out of time) take your cans out to a field for a little target practise instead of using a drill.






Booze, BBQ & Booty Shaking!

5. Party Sign - I basically copied the idea from the post above. I found some scrap wood in the garage, gave it a quick coat of prime and a quick sand, then then I wrote on it using a Sharpie.









6. Camo Bunting - This was a simple no-sew project that took less than an hour. I made a triangle template on a piece of cardstock, traced it out on some scrap pieces of camo (as I said we didn't have to buy anything - there was actually quite large amount of camo available) and cut them out. I then laid out long pieces of Duct Tape - sticky side up - place the triangles on about 1/2 inch from the edge and 1/2 triangle apart, then folder the Duct Tape over (sticky sides together), and was done!



Redneck photo booth set-up
(picture taken after it started to rain)

7. Photo Booth - We set up a photo booth so everyone could take pictures. A large piece of camo was hung from the rafters of the garage and wrapped with an old set of Christmas lights. An old plastic chair (that we still use during outdoor parties) and an old tire that was outside - do you see why we may be a little redneck - was added to round it all off. We then had a selection of redneck clothing (think camo and trucker hats), mullet wigs (yes, we already had these on hand), and of course redneck teeth. Everyone seemed to enjoy acting out their inner redneck.

I set-up a camera on a tripod and light (as it was a little dark in the garage), and  everyone could either use the camera remote, or have someone take the picture for them.



Right at home

8. Pink Flamingos - One of the pins suggested hanging strings of Christmas lights and putting plastic pink flamingos on the lawn - check, and check - these were already existing in place. You might be a redneck if.....









The little pooper

9. Dog Plop Bingo - This was the great idea of my other cousin. It is played like Cow Patty Bingo - an area was marked off in a grid as the Bingo "field" (and the dog was allowed to roam around this area). Everyone then wrote their name down in a square on the corresponding Bingo card. Whoever choose the square (or the one closest) where the dog had his first plop (i.e poop) won.








To round out the decorations we had a camo flag, picnic tables and red check plastic table cloths, camo coasters, a deer skull, and a whole lot of Duct Tape. All the decorations were put up with Duct Tape. Even the flag pole - which broke in a storm last summer- was held up with Duct Tape.






Conclusion: This was a great theme for our party! Decorations were easy and cheap to make, food could be kept to simple BBQ items, and everyone had fun. The only downside was that the day turned cold and rainy so we had to postpone the other redneck games. But since we had so much fun we are planning on holding a part 2 this summer. So there is more to come...

Oh my Guinness

Kiss me I'm Irish!



Source: allrecipes.com via Tanya on Pinterest

OK, so I'm not really. But I do love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Maybe it's because of the green beer, or Irish food, or because it's the only day that is is OK to dress head-to-toe in green, but I think it is mainly because in Canada St. Patrick's Day is an excuse to have fun with friends with no strings attached.

So once again we invited our friend over for a little Irish themed festivities.

After the success of the Guinness Cupcakes last year I decided to try a recipe that I pinned for Guinness Chocolate ice cream.


It is a great simple recipe that only has 4 ingredients!
(Beer, Sugar, Cream and Chocolate)

So I pulled out my ice cream maker (that I don't get to use nearly as much as I would like) and whipped up this recipe in no time at all.

I really loved the taste and texture of this ice cream. You can taste the Guinness more in the ice cream than in the cupcakes, but it is not overly strong or distracting.  It is smooth and light more like store bought ice cream and not as dense as custard based ice cream.

I did have have a problem with the chocolate chips though. Maybe because I bought store brand which may not be as high of quality (though I think store brands are usually comparable) or maybe I did not stir enough, but I had problem incorporating the chocolate into the mixture. The chocolate seemed to cool faster than the mixture and small bits of chocolate came out when it was setting. I did try to strain some of this out when I poured into the ice cream maker but I still had some gritty chocolate in my otherwise perfect creamy ice cream.

I plan to try this again with different chocolate and/or try incorporating the chocolate chips while the mixture is still on the heat. Because it is so easy to make so it will be no problem to try again.

 

I also made the Guinness Cupcakes again this year. Since I was planning ahead I made the whisky ganache that I did not have time to make this year. Not surprisingly these were a big hit. The ganache tasted great and not at all boozy. The Guinness chocolate cake with Irish Cream icing and Whisky chocolate filling is a great combo. Though if you are short on time I still think they are great without the filling as well.

Happily ever after....

I haven't been up to much over the summer. With all the beautiful sunny days and warm summer nights my long to-do list did not seem to get any smaller. However, my care-free summer caught up with me quickly in September as my in-laws 40th anniversary quickly approached and we didn't have anything ready. Thankfully with the help (and reminders) from some wonderful friends of the happy couple we celebrated with a nice end of summer BBQ surprise partly.

I had gone to Pintrest to started gathering ideas back in the spring when we first thought to plan a party. I had it all planned out.....

But a week before the party I still had nothing ready and not a lot of time to go shopping (we also did not have any pictures of the couples so that ruled out my favourite ideas). So I started looking around the house to see what I had on hand that I could use for decorations.

I remembered one of my first pins:
 

Source: theartgirljackie-tutorials.blogspot.com

This would be perfect! I had everything I needed on hand....except I didn't have any pictures. After some consideration I decided on a simple sign with "and they lived happily ever after.." It seemed perfect for a 40th anniversary, and would be great for photos.

I wasn't 100% sure of the technique above since I was not transferring a full picture. Looking around for other techniques and suggestions and found these:


Source: matsutakeblog.blogspot.com

Source: unexpectedelegance.com

Source: diddledumpling.blogspot.com

In the end it took a lot of trial and error, and a lot of clean up. I didn't find a technique that would work for me. Since I was working with what I had around the house I may not have been working with the best tools. I can't remember how old my Modge Podge is, but I am thinking my purchase was more like a decade then a few years ago. Also the paint had a bit of a glossy finish. I gave it a light sand, but that may have not been enough.



Modge Podge and rubbing paper off - did not work

Elmer's Glue method worked better (with Sharpie help)
- but I now need a new printhead for my printer

The Elmer's Glue method worked the best, though it gummed up my printer, and left a glue residue that I was not happy with. So I decided to scrap it and try an old-school carbon copy method. I printed off what I wanted, flipped the paper over then took a pencil and rubbed the back to leave the carbon behind (when you flip the paper back over and trace the letter it leaves a carbon imprint). But after I finished rubbing the pencil over the back I lifted up the paper and found the ink had rubbed off on my desk. So I tried again rubbing the mirror image words on my piece of painted wood. Success!

 

It came out light, but I coloured in it with the Sharpie and it looked great. This is similar to the water and rubbing method, just less smudgy. 

 

 

 

To add to the decorations I picked up some red balloons and napkins (the 40th is the ruby anniversary) and a few 40th items from a party store. Since my in-laws already had anniversary plates on display I decided to add to their collection by creating a 40th Anniversary plate guest book (approx $3 for the plate and $10 for 5 ceramic pain pens at Walmart).