2017 Academy Awards Party

Another Academy Awards Party is behind us.  This year, we switched things up a great deal. In all honesty, we got a puppy in August of last year and the big crowds we've had in years past just seemed to be so daunting to us as we tried to navigate our usual party.  Danny and I decided to scale down a bit to keep it easy and casual.  And my schedule has been overwhelming lately so I really welcomed this more relaxed atmosphere.  

We invited just a few friends over for dinner and to watch the Oscars with us.  Again, we kept it casual, but that doesn't mean we didn't plan!  We had a good time changing things up a bit.

Per usual, we ordered the year's official Poster and my daughter, Jo, made the Best Picture Banner this year.  Our parting gifts to our friends were the popcorn boxes filled with popcorn, candy and soda.

The past Academy Awards programs also made an appearance as well as some additional film reels I'd acquired this year.  The two posters of Julie Andrews and Cary Grant are among my favorites.

To accommodate our dinner party, we moved all of the living room furniture into our dining room, and moved our dining room furniture (and an additional table and chairs) into our living room.  

Everyone had a great view of the television.

Place cards were these chalkboard easels I found at Target this week!  What a find!  Danny used chalk to write names and he made them look like little clapboards.  

The easels were on top of the napkins that were folded to look like envelopes.  (And the Oscar goes to...)

The card inside the envelope was actually the menu for the evening.  Here's the back and front of the cards that I made and ordered from Shutterfly:

Fresh flowers and candles made for a very pretty tablescape.  

We kept the food themed to an Italian meal that started with a variety of Antipasti.

Bruschetta and Caprese Salad were favorites!

Danny had a Tiramisu Martini ready for the guests when they walked in the door.  These were DANGEROUSLY delicious!  Good times were had almost immediately after consumption!  LOL!

Caesar Salad followed by a palate cleanser of Orange Sorbet.

Lasagna with Celery Bread was absolutely scrumptious!

Dessert was a Tiramisu Semifreddo that was a great end to our meal.

Our evening was very fun and full of lots of laughs.  The fact that it ended in such a surprising fashion just added the icing on the cake!  Here's Danny - mind blown!  Congrats to Moonlight!

I don't know what next year's party will bring, but this year's filled me up in so many ways.  It's always great fun to have such wonderful friends over on such special nights!

2016 Academy Awards Party

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

Yep!  Oscars season has just wrapped up and we celebrated in style again.  Our 17th Annual Academy Awards party was in full effect last night and we had such a wonderful time with family and friends.  Some old traditions and new traditions came to be and I'll walk you through our party here.  

I love handing out Oscars and this year was no exception!  In years past, I made chocolate Oscars, but I just wanted to do something a little different this year.  So, when I came upon an Oscar cookie cutter, I couldn't believe it!  I ordered it and baked the day it came in the mail!  

To decorate the Oscars, I went with a gold, red and white theme and changed up the designs on each of them.  Using the color flow technique made for a messy kitchen, but lovely cookies.  These were our parting gift to our guests.  

Packaged in small gift bags and wrapped in coordinating ribbons, they looked the part!

The house was decorated with flowers in popcorn boxes...

...and so many Oscars posters and gear.  

It's become a tradition to make a banner of all of the best picture nominees and place it across the fireplace.  It's the focal point when you enter the house and it draws attention to the last award of the night.  Who will it BE?!

If you watched the 2015 Oscars, you saw that the Lego song, "Everything Is Awesome" was nominated.  During the musical performance, they handed out Lego Oscars.  No, we didn't get one of those, but Danny found a website that provided the instructions to make one.  He ordered each of the individual pieces and created it.  Voila!  Lego Oscar has joined the tradition!

 As our guests arrived, they received a name tag of a nominated actor or actress.  If their actor won the Oscar, they received....

 ...a bag of popcorn and some candy.   Aside from the ballot, it kept things interesting throughout the night.  Our guests had a little more at stake!

Some more Academy Awards posters...

....and past Awards programs.

This year, the Academy was selling a notebook that had words of wisdom from some past Academy Awards winners already printed within it.  As our night went on, we had our guests sign our book, and we'll do this each year until it's full.  I think it'll be a wonderful treasure for us to look back and read about the sweet and ridiculous things our friends wrote year after year.

I always have a good time hiding the paparazzi throughout the house.  ;)  They show up in the most unexpected places.

Now, for the food....  For the first part of the night, the dining room was the location of our appetizers.

"Shroom"  (Room)

Danish

"The 100 Year Old Man Who Crawled out a Fruit Tray and Disappeared"

"Brie" with "Straight Outta Compote"

"Theeb"

"Bacon Cranston"

The kitchen table hosted the snacky, sweets.  Here are "Malt Damons."

Almond "Joy(s)"

"Bridge Mix of Spies"

"Sic-Oreos"

And now for the main course:

"The Revenachos"

 "Mad Mex - Fiery Road"

"Tortilla [Tom] Hardy Taco Shells"

"Ex-Guacina"

"Fajita Shades of Grey"

"Anamorice-a"

"The Bean Short"

"Cate Blanchurros" (purchased from local Fiesta Cancun Restaurant)

"Sour Creed" and "Son of Saulsa"

Finally, the desserts:

"Inside-OATmeal Bars"

"Seven-layer Stalone"

"Lemonardo Dicaprios"

"Bar Wars - The Fudge Awakens"

"S'mores-sha Ronan"

 Don't forget the Oscar cookies!!!

And the winners of the ballot are:

Here's Erin.  Her sister Kristi took home first place and her husband Steve took home 2nd place.  She's thrilled.   ;)

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the night a success and for everyone who shared the evening with us.  We had a great time!