Lucky in Love

Fete Avec Moi

Another belated update:

One of our colleagues was recently engaged. Yay! We were so excited for her. Our director had the great idea to turn one of our monthly meetings into a breakfast Engagement Party. She asked for a little help with decorating. Thankfully she has a great connection at a deli that provides wonderful fare. It took a little while to devise a theme. Black and silver? Technology... Black and Green? Matrix... Then our director suggested that she could bring red velvet muffins iced with a white icing. Okay red and white it is. Hmm red and white... Red, hearts. Okay, a start. Red and white, hmm. Playing cards. Luck. “Lucky in Love” and “Wishing you Luck”. This led me to the heart suit of the playing card deck. I found a great graphic of a slot machine. I texted our friend who was recently engaged to find out when they became engaged.

Fete Avec Moi

Believe it or not 3 – 31 – 13. Love it. Talk about lucky in love. How cool do those numbers look on a slot machine. Jackpot! She's engaged.

Okay so I started thinkin/researching for ideas for breakfast foods on the theme. I found a great heart shaped cheese board. Bought two. One was wrapped as a gift. One was used for cheese slices.

I vaguely remembered seeing heart shaped cereal. I went online to find it. Yes, it does exist! It is made by Quaker. It is called Whole Hearts. The website claimed that it was sold at one location. Visit the location. No dice. Urgh not so lucky. Thought about it. Let me try the A&P. Believe it or not, they had it. Yay! 2 boxes, add to cart. Grabbed a container of greek yogurt and a container of milk. Picked up strawberries and pineapple chucks. Turned them into skewers which surprisingly were very well received.

Fete Avec Moi

Being a technology department we had to “techify” things. So I had battery operated lights to decorate with. At Party City I found over-sized playing cards, regular decks of cards, dice, poker chips, and playing card dishes and food picks. Together I think it made for a simple but festive breakfast buffet.

Our director joined in the decorating fun by arranging the single serve orange juice containers she brought into the shape of a heart. How clever!

Using a Word template for Avery labels I created a graphic with playing cards that announced her engagement. These labels were then wrapped around chocolate bars. At

Fete Avec Moi

Michael's Arts and Crafts I found boxes of mini-playing cards. These were wrapped with the saying "2 of a kind. A perfect pair." Nothing like easy favors to help everyone remember the day.

Thank goodness for our wonderful, local dollar stores. White and red table cloths, red cups, very pretty filigree red plates, red forks, knives, and spoonsk, etc all finished off the look.

In my party planning explorations, I also found one of those game night sets. This was wrapped in beautiful wrapping paper and a graphic was taped to the top that spoke to “The couple that plays together; stays together”. We are so thrilled for our colleague and wish her and her intended a lifetime of luck and happiness.  

Spring Training

Forgot to share this recent work event. I needed a way to offer colleagues a moment to spend their time with me to learn how to use a new tool at their disposal. What better way to get people to visit then offer light refreshments. So my mind mulled over a few ideas and I believe hit one out of the park with a baseball/Spring Training theme. The only thing I miss are those little snack cakes from Hostess that use to be shaped like baseballs. Problem is the company is no more. Urgh. But here is what I came up with to embrace the theme – Spring Training.

I found a great tablecloth with baseballs at Party City. This covered a filing cabinet which served as our food table. Stop and Shop sells Marshmallow Peanuts. As real peanuts are no longer allowed due to possible allergies this was the way to go. I found a large bag of Double Bubble which was placed in a serving dish I made from green construction paper. It made it look like grass on the field.

Fete Avec Moi - Spring Training

Always remember to explore the clearance area in your party stores. Last year's item will probably serve your needs quite well this year but cost you far less. How about a plastic baseball hat for $1.50? Of course I grabbed two. The website that I wanted to staff to visit was written across the hat as a reminder of where to navigate to on the web.

Stop and Shop also carries these cupcake trays. They are iced in away that looks like one big cake. But they are really individual cupcakes. Clever! Since we were celebrating Spring I chose the ones decorated with butterflies and flowers. They made quite a festive display on the food table. I am also impressed with how long they last. Must have quite a bit of preservative. But they were rather yummy so it is all good.

Creative thinking regarding how to view food from local food stores, Target, and Party City led to a spread that included Cotton Candy, Animal crackers, popcorn (served in a large baseball bowl [$1.89 in the clearance section], brownies with spring sprinkles, Oreos, and butterfly shaped Little Debbie snack cakes. A few baseball themed items (whistles, banks, wiffle ball bat, etc) finished off the decorations. Lunch time professional development sessions with a little fun and flair for a very small budget. Just the way I like it. I hope you like the photos of our festivities.