A Mad Men Party

 

 

Check out photos from my Mad Men party this past weekend! People came dressed to impress and the night was appropriately boozy, rowdy and full of gorgeous photo opps - with a Polaroid, of course. Thanks to my pal Jessi for taking some of the fun photos above!

Here's my must-have list for a Mad Men or retro-themed 1960's party. 

The Booze:

• My bar was as stocked as its ever been. I bought all the necessities: Rye, Scotch, Gin, all the makings for Manhattans, Moscow Mules and Old Fashioneds. Luckily, a multi-talented colleague helped to make these classic cocktails for thirsty friends. 
• Another fun idea: find an eight-year-old bartender to dress up in a tux and make Manhattans as they did back in the day (a la Sally Draper). I don't happen to have a spare kid with bartending skills lying around though, unfortch.
• Dangerously strong gin punch in a retro punch bowl set (found at a thrift store) 

The Nosh:

• Ambrosia salad
• Cheese Fondue (amazing recipe, it was the first thing gone!)
• Jell-o. An adult version with lots o' vodka from the visually drool-worthy Jelly Shot Test Kitchen. However, Jell-o and I are not friends.. I had serious problems getting the Jell-o out of the pan, but I don't think most normal people do.
• Finger sandwiches with pimento cheese (courtesy of Lauren)
• Pigs in a blanket!
• Cheese balls of all kinds. I found a great dessert cheese ball recipe from trust AllRecipes.com that tasted like cheesecake with chocolate grahams for dipping. 
• Peanuts
• Chex mix
• Old school Liptons soup dip mix
• Deviled eggs

Party Props & Details:

• Candy cigarettes in a cigarette box with custom matchbooks to remember the event (eBay)
• 1960's magazines from eBay (Ladies Home Journal, Playboy, TV Guide)
• Borrowed items from my parents' basement: record player, rotary phone, retro lamps, dishware
• Plenty of flowered toothpicks
• 1960's music
• As a dork/loser/completefreak, I used Keynote to mimic and personalize the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office logo for my TV
• Polaroid camera
• Fun, dapper friends more than willing to dress up, drink copious amounts of booze and eat odd finger foods in a wee Chicago apartment!
• A Mad Men-inspired invitation (below designed by my colleague Kenny):

2011 Oscar Party sneak peek > Bingo, 127 Hours Trail Mix, HP Butter Beer

Oscar Bingo. Why the hell not. With another free printable (oh how I love the Internets) from How About Orange, there are 12 different card variations for you and your lovely guests. With fun things like, "Winner claims he/she didn't prepare a speech", "Dance number!" and "Anne Hathaway sings", it seems like a fun thing to do after the red carpet amazingness is over. Winners will get an AMC movie gift certificate!

I printed mine on brown paper bag-like paper (in keeping with a retro feel) and I slid red pencils into two slits I cut along the side (idea inspired from the Twig & Thistle's baby shower quizzes).

127 Hours' Trail Mix - To get some of the prep out of the way, I filled clear cellophane bags with trail mix for 127 Hours, downloaded these free printables from Creature Comforts and sealed them shut. 

Harry Potter Butter Beer - The free printables continue! I used this label from Design Dazzle printed out on to cardstock, cut, and then glued them on to the variety of beer I had in my fridge. 

2011 Oscar Party Part 2 > Menu & Food Ideas inspired by the Nominees

Image via Hypervocal.com

I've had a solid month to think about some pun-tastic menu ideas (yes, I am that cool), and I finally settled on the below. I wanted the spread to actually be party food, and not be too random when all combined. And I'm going for a fun red, vintagey look so red food items will be sprinkled throughout. What do you think? Doing anything special for Sunday?

The Social Network

• Open Face-book-ed sandwiches
• Apple Martinis
• Mark Suckers-burg (a variety of red suckers)

The Kids Are Alright

• The Curds Are Alright (cheese curds!)
• Heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad

The King's Speech

• Tea sandwiches
• I don't like peach cobbler but The King's Peach Cobbler is a cute idea. :)

Blue Valentine

• Foiled Cupcakes is generously donating three dozen drool worthy cupcakes for my party this Sunday, and I'll be putting cupcake toppers on them that are blue with messages like "XOXO," "Be Mine," and "I <3 U" on them. Get it?? 

The Fighter

• Dicky's Sticky Popcorn (caramel corn!)
• Champ-agne-ion Punch 

127 Hours

• Trail Mix
• Mountain Dew & Vodkas (yep, a classy affair)

Black Swan

• Black and white swan pasta (using this gorgeous black and white striped bowtie pasta, olive oil, sun dried tomatoes for a black white and red dish)

Toy Story 3

• Toy Story 3-Cheese Mini Macs (mini mac and cheese cups baked in a muffin tin)
• Mr. Baked Potato Head Dip & Chips

True Grit

• Cornbread in a cast iron pan... or Cheesy Grit Fritters
• Whiskey cocktail

Inception

• No turducken for me, but probably a layered dip
• If I didn't already have Foiled Cupcakes, these absurd Oreo stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies (Dream in a dream) from Picky Palate would be fun

I have a lot going on and didn't want to do any serious meat, so Winter's Bone is out. But you could do Winter's Bone Marrow, Winter's Bone-less Wings, etc. Or for Harry Potter - Butter Beer with custom labels covering beer bottles, or some type of breadstick wand. I'll post photos of my spread following the show on Sunday!

Update on Saturday, February 26, 2011 by Robin

I am a complete freak. I was dying to have sushi included and was complaining to Lauren about not having a good-bad-pun for sushi like last year's 100 Nazi Scallop Rolls, but then heard of someone doing... wait for it... How to Train Your Dragon Roll. Aahh, I love it! I have officially gone off the deep end. Send help.

2011 Oscar Party > Custom Invitations

Guess what this Sunday is?? The 2011 Oscars! In preparation for my favorite red carpet holiday, I created custom movie tickets online listing my party info like seating information (my couch), address, and the usual fashion judging that comes along with it. And since an Oscar party wouldn't be right without some good old fashioned gambling, I paired the tickets with these free (and gorgeously designed) ballots printed on card stock (via Twig & Thistle) and tied both up with a little red and white twine. Ya dig?

If you have time, check out the Twig & Thistle blog for tons of great DIY party ideas, as well as generous free downloads like the ballot above. It's certainly made my Oscar party planning life a hell of a lot easier. Next up: Oscar food ideas and plenty of movie menu puns!

LOST Series Finale > Party Ideas

Anyone who knows me could tell you I (freakishly) love to host parties or dinners: Friendsgiving, potluck, Oscars, pretty much anything that allows me to act out my wild hot Martha fantasies. Other than the Oscars, I don't love theme parties all that much, but with today's four hour (FOUR hours!) of LOST recap and finale, I've seen some really clever LOST party ideas that would bring out the cult geeks in all of us. Grab a Dharma beer and see below for some of my favorites. 

Check out that LOST party invitation in the form of an Oceanic plane ticket! I saw it being passed around and shared via TwitPic so not sure where it came from but think it's the best I've seen so far. 

Drink options for your guests! Oh, the wonders of the World Wide Web. You can download and print your own Dharma Initiative Beer label or even buy plastic cups from Hurley's Mr. Cluck's Chicken. Oh nevermind, looks like tons of people had the same thing in mind - they're sold out! Moving on...

A LOST-themed bento box with Ben's FACE ON IT. It's insane. I'm already obsessed with all of the cute bento box ideas and art that I've seen but Adventures in Bentomaking takes it to a whole other level. She has a whole series of LOST bento boxes, but this was my favorite. 

Smoke Monster Popcorn from the Kitchn. It looks a little scary but obviously anyone throwing a LOST-themed party to this level is full-blown cultish nuts anyway, so why not embrace it. Here's the spice recipe for the popcorn, as pulled from Apartment Therapy's, the Kitchn:

Smoke Monster Popcorn

1/3 cup popcorn kernels, popped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Nigella seeds (also called black seeds)
1 teaspoon ground loomi (also called black lemon)
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon smoked salt (or regular salt)
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Pop popcorn. Combine Nigella seeds, loomi, black peppercorns and smoked salt in a spice grinder. Grind to a fine powder.

Place popcorn in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to combine well. Sprinkle with spice mixture and poppy seeds. Mix to combine.

Here's hoping the finale answers the bajillion questions I still have! Happy viewing!