Theme-Setting 101: Lights Further Continued; other lighting options

Of course, sometimes you want to go all out ... here are a few additional ideas for doing just that:

Red Incandescent Bulbs

Of the colored bulbs, probably the most useful to have around. Good for Christmas, good for underlighting skulls stuck on bamboo poles out in your yard, great if you have a bar area or improvised dance floor – red light is very flattering for most skin tones, and the women at your party will love being seen in its warm glow.

Black Lights

If you have a basement or garage area that you want to temporarily convert into a party space, consider replacing your fluorescent shop lights with black lights instead. Don’t fall for the cheap ‘black light’ incandescent bulbs offered at some places; these are just dark purple-colored bulbs, do not emit the characteristic spectrum of black light radiation, and have a tendency to overheat – use fluorescent bulb black lights only. The least expensive option I’ve found for 4-foot black light shop tubes is at Home Depot, at about $15 each. A dance hall jazzed up with black lights is seriously cool!

Note: While black lights in your bathroom for a Halloween party might seem like a good idea, it is best avoided, as urine glows quite brilliantly under black light, and your guests probably have no desire to know the extent to which other guests have missed!

Light Machines

Of course, we know about these – disco balls, those units at nightclubs that shoot gyrating beams of color around the dance floor area, what have you. For the overachiever, these are available, and for a machine sized for the recreation room of the average home, might not be as expensive as you think – depending where you shop. Its worth noting that these units generally do pull more than a little power, so if you use one, be prepared to notice it on your electrical bill. Also, be sure to plug the light machine into a circuit that is not being used for too much else, and test it by turning EVERYTHING you plan to have going at the party on, long before the party starts – better to flip a few breaker switches then than during the middle of your event. Once, after conducting such a test early on, the party had just gotten started and I turned on the blender for the first time to make a pitcher of drinks, and CLICK! -- off went the lights. Frantic rerouting of extension cords ensued; not what you want to be doing while guests are still arriving and food’s coming out of the oven!

At any rate, for turning one's home into a nightclub, we've had pretty good luck with Cheaplights, online. Have added a link for this now to our Party Supply Links.

Nothing says "Yeah, Baby!" quite like a well-placed disco ball.
The finishing touch in this party space was a small, battery-
powered disco ball that cost $25 or less.

Theme-Setting 101: Lights Continued

In the last post we really only discussed lighting basics: 1) Even if you do no other decorating, at least put up some lights, they are your biggest decor bang for the buck, and 2) Even simple lighting efforts can be quite effective – my favorite all-purpose tool are strings of plain white minilights.

However, there is of course so much more you can do with just lights and a couple of props:

For instance, in Post #3 I put a picture of a silhouette decoration – in this case a zombie staggering through a graveyard. A decoration like this effectively covers a good portion of wall (or in our case, a water heater that makes an unsightly addition to a party space), is still cheap to execute, and still uses those string lights.

In our case, we used a Japanese shoji screen we got for $20 bucks at a yard sale, but one could also achieve a similar effect by making a simple wood frame to fit the space you want to fill, and then stretching an old, clean sheet over it and tacking it down so the sheet is taut over the frame.

Then, the real fun begins. Decide what sort of silhouette image you want to project, and with a roll of butcher paper (also cheap), sketch out that image lightly with pencil, as you will most likely need to redraw portions until you get the look you want. In the case of the zombie no real drawing skill was needed; I just had our son pose lying down on the paper and traced around him. For our mermaid, I Googled on the words ‘mermaid’ and ‘silhouette’, and soon had a number of images to work from – with some effort (and a good eraser) I was eventually able to scale one up to almost-life-size on butcher paper, and cut out my pencil drawing.

Once you have your silhouette paper cutout, take it outside or to your shop, and spray-paint one side of it matte black. If you don’t, the image will not be dark enough to cast a good shadow through your screen. In our case, I use a combination of Scotch tape and thumbtacks (use the flat-head kind, thumbtacks with more height will cast shadows of their own behind the screen, and spoil your image) to attach the image to the back of the screen. For attaching an image to a sheet on a simple frame, without the grid of wooden frames provided by a shoji screen, you’ll probably have to go with just the Scotch tape.

Now its time to hang up your lights. In the area behind where you will place your silhouette screen, zigzag light strings back and forth so your screen will be well backlit. Prop the screen up in front of the lights, turn them on, and make adjustments to light placement as necessary to make sure your handiwork shows up well. Done!

An undersea tiki bar.  Note the mermaid silhouette to the right.  Cheap,
but effective camouflage for a water heater and furnace.

Theme-Setting 101: Lights

If you use nothing else to set the theme or tone for your party, do not pass on the lights and music. Lights are the single most important decoration, and probably the most versatile – they go along way to setting the mood of the event, and can even be used to give different tones to individual areas of your home or yard at the same event. For instance, consider the difference between the lights you might use in a dance area, versus the lighting you might use at the same party in a quieter area where people are talking.  For dancing, you might choose to decorate with a rented strobe unit, or strings of flashing lights – in an area where you want motion, you are using lights that spark the energy level.

For the conversation area, on the other hand, you might consider putting a few tiki torches around your deck – or perhaps light up a fire bowl or fire pit in your backyard, if you have one – there are very few people, I suspect, who don’t like kicking back with friends around an open fire.

If you don’t know which way to go, for a look that goes with multiple moods,settings, and themes, consider non-flashing strings of plain white mini-lights --  versatile and cheap, they are great for making any area look special. Try sprinkling them in the trees over your yard or deck, or outlining the ceiling of your recreation room, edging the roof of your house, or making a net of them on the ceiling of your front porch  –  the uses are practically limitless.

Stick to white lights and you'll never have to worry about color coordination!

TGIF

Short on time today, so no loose hypothyesizing about partying this time -- however, its Friday, so a drink is in order.

I came up with this one for a cocktail contest at Ivar's Salmon House in Seattle, WA. It didn't take first, but did get 2nd place, and was worth a shirt and a free dinner out with my spouse - well worth the effort.

It rather balanced, being neither particularly sweet or sour, and has a sort of mother-of-pearl color, lent to it largely by Hypnotiq, a French blend of tropical juices with vodka and cognac.

Hypnotiq Clam    

1 1/2 oz white rum

1/2 oz Hypnotiq

1/2 oz Cointreau

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Prep a cocktail glass by running the wet, spent lemon shell around the rim; and then inverting the glass and dipping the rim into a shallow saucer with some sugar in it. Shake all the ingredients with ice, and strain the drink into the prepared sugar-rimmed cocktail glass.

Liquid refreshment is served!

Theme-Setting 101

Holidays and formally recognized occasions (Superbowl Sunday, anyone?) have ready-made themes – you and your guests all know why you’re getting together. But when you are having a party just to see and have fun with the people you know, its still useful to add some sort of structure to the event, both for you and your guests –a framework that defines the atmosphere and what will be happening. Make no mistake, this approach can also be taken with an established holiday – for instance, a Jolly Olde England take on the family Christmas party, complete with the roast goose – but becomes almost essential when creating your own occasion from scratch.

Theme parties are not just for kiddie birthdays – why should the kids have all the fun? Using a theme for your party is a powerful tool for encouraging guests of any age to relax and have a good time. If anything, adults seem to enjoy the temporary escapism of a good theme party even more than the children… for some reason its just easier for many people to let their hair down and be themselves when they’re pretending to be someone, somewhen, or somewhere, else!

Using a dinner party example, this can be as easy as a New Orleans dinner party, with jazz (the New Orleans Brass, as the totally obvious choice, for instance) playing in the background, piles of boiled crawfish and hush puppies on the table, and a pitcher of Hurricanes on the sideboard … a very special and memorable party for not much more in time and money than you might have spent on a dinner party for friends anyway. 

On the other end of the spectrum, you can add drama and humor to an elaborate themed dinner party for an entirely different effect. For instance, for an evening of  light-hearted treachery you might put on a Italian Renaissance dinner while evoking that infamous family of powermongers and poisoners, the Borgias.  Consider -- “Dinner at the Borgias’” night -- a bit of Monteverdi playing in the background, guests encouraged to dress as Italian nobles, and a single whole almond hidden somewhere in each course … with any guest finding an almond in their food having to fake their own death! (Hostess prize – perhaps a small Italian gift basket? -- for best/most amusing death at the end of the evening). Obviously, a considerably greater investment in time – not just meal preparation, but research, for those of us who are not already experts on Italian food in the Renaissance period – and possibly money, depending on what you choose to serve.

Point is, how simple or complex you get with this is entirely up to you - just remember to establish a budget, determine what kind of theme you can execute well on that budget (remember, a party who's theme is not completely realized will not be 'almost as good' as if you'd consistently executed the theme concept -- most likely it will come off as half-assed, after having caused you a bit more trouble and expense than if you'd gone with no theme at all) -- and carry out the chosen theme to the best of your ability.

Christmas caroling during a Jolly Olde England-style Christmas party

 

The port, like the pot pies, is disappearing fast!

Break for Station Identification

Well, there's been a small coup here - my bottle of JD green label from last August's Carolina adventure played a role - I test-drove an 1890's style Manhattan recipe , twice (courtesy of David Wondrich's book, Imbibe) -- and in this buggy-whip era drink, my favorite top-flight, pre-Prohibition marachino cherries (Luxardo, beyond awesome) lost out to a simple lemon twist ... the first is really good, but the latter is even better (as Wondrich himself suggested, though I don't know he tried the Luxardo cherries in this). Here's the recipe, for your delectation:

Manhattan

1/2 tsp of simple syrup (the recipe calls for gum syrup, but since sources for food-grade gum arabic are few and far between, I cheated here)
2 dashes of angostura bitters
1/4 tsp absinthe
1/4 tsp Luxardo marachino liqueur http://www.luxardo.it/splash_intro.aspx?language=en
2 oz whiskey (JD green was lovely)
1 oz sweet Italian vermouth.

Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass ... and alas, a lemon twist.

Skulls 'n bones -- the most versatile decorating accessories you're ever likely to own! More on this later ...

The Importance of Bling

Well, our order of blue faux flower leis for the Blue Hawaii party arrived yesterday from Oriental  Trading Company, so that previous post where I made a possibly cryptic reference to leis, and the notion of decorating one's guests being preferable to decorating one's home, came drifting back to mind.

So ... Ok - sure, you're having a big party, and there will be some house and/or yard decorations. However, consider this: If instead of lashing out the big bucks at, say, your luau, on one or two big fresh tropical floral arrangements for the table, what about instead putting the same money towards adorning your guests? Real flowers would cost too much to do this for all of them, but my contention is that decent quality fake flower leis is a better investment than those fresh, impressive-looking floral arrangements on the buffet table. Why?

1) Putting stuff on your guests helps them relax, let go, and get in the party mood. I already noted this in an earlier post -- it works wonders for livening up an event. Greet each guest at the door (in this case) with a lei and a kiss on the cheek, and you have just washed away the workaday world, and admitted them to a much better one.

2) Using the same example - floral arrangements vs. leis on your guests -- consider this. A floral arrangement on the buffet table is static. If your guests are in a space other than the room or portion of the yard containing that table, the investment in those flowers is temporarily nullified, because the party is happening somewhere else.

Personal decorations that your guests can wear, and that you have cleverly distributed as door prizes, on the other hand, are probably on the people you gave them too -- so if you have put leis on your guests, the decor is literally moving with the party . Wherever the party is really happening, there will also be the highest percentage of your decorating dollars. From a host's standpoint, what could be more effective than that? I'm using leis at a tropical party as an easy example, but any number of items could fill this role. For instance, an exuberantly garnished drink is not just a drink, its a decoration and a conversation piece too,  as long as the imbibing guest is walking around with it -- so bring on those paper parasols, plastic monkeys, orchids, and fruit kabobs! Clip-on handlebar mustachios, felt pirate hats ... the list is practically limitless.

3) Back to those leis. For many decorations - not so much big floral arrangements, as they eventually die, become unseemly-looking, and have to be thrown away -- after the party, you're stuck storing them, and may never use them again. Not the case in our lei example -- instead, each guest has a fun memento of the party that they get to take with them. So after the party, the portable decor you gave your guests to wear is STILL working for you -- it started by helping break the ice and create a party mood, it continued during the party to decorate whatever place at your event your guests were hanging out ... and now that the party is over, its reminding them of the great time they had -- and who knows, they might use it again themselves for something else.

Decorating your guests is an excellent investment, any way you look at it.

There's nothing like quite like wearing something unusual on your head for kickstarting that party mood! 

It's Too Damn Hot

What's up? Seattle, Washington is the 2nd hottest place in the U.S. of A. today, exceeded only by Phoenix, Arizona?!?

Refreshment is in order, from Trader Vic's '46 book of food and drink:

Flamingo (no, I don't know why its called that)

1 1/2 oz white or gold rum
7-Up
Angostura bitters
Seeded cucumber slice or spear

Pour the rum into a tall 10 oz glass over ice, add 1 dash of bitters, and 7-Up to fill. Pop in a cucumber spear -yes, the garnish makes the difference here between an average drink and an unusually refreshing one - and enjoy!

Freakin' 86 degrees at the beginning of May ... usually it doesn't stop raining here until the second week of July!

Tradition, Tradition

For some parties, doing the same thing every year works great. Typically, these are gatherings centered around established holidays where people expect – even demand – that everything be the same. Christmas is a perfect example of a party occasion that people associate with tradition – a successful party formula for the holidays is likely to not have to change much to keep your guests satisfied and interested. In fact, changing something for such an occasion could result in cries of protest!

For a repeater party that doesn’t revolve around a tradition-centric holiday, however, the need is different. Unless you change things, mix things up every so often, the party, no matter how initially successful, is likely to get stale, and get that been-there-done-that feel after a few runs.

To keep the spirit going, rattle things around – if you’ve been having a successful summer tropical-themed bash, don’t rest on your laurels --  shake it up by turning it into a Surfin’ USA party one year, or a Caribbean Voodoo party with hex doll party favors … or a South Seas cannibal and missionary party! Still tropical … just different. With a little imagination, many themes will yield fun variations.

Halloween ... Mexican style!

Party Planning - What’s It All About

You now know who the party is for, so the next big question is, “what’s it about?” If it’s a particular occasion – birthday, graduation, Superbowl party – you already know the answer to this question, so your work is partly done, and you can probably move right on to execution.

On the other hand, if you just want to have a party, large or small, and there is no particular holiday or specific occasion – then really you are creating your own occasion from scratch, and you will need to flesh it out, if only a little.

For instance, for our summertime Elvis-Blue Hawaii tiki party – we know our theme, we have a rough idea of what the food and drink should be to match that theme, and that we want to entertain 50-60 friends. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out a few of my earlier blog entries!)

So what’s important here? Our house is a bungalow with a galley kitchen, so obviously we don’t want a shindig this size indoors – we can safely say that we want to throw most of this party in our back front, and side yards. With the kitchen limitation, we know we will not be cooking for 5 dozen people in there, so we will be 1) Making the party into a BBQ, and 2) Pulling cooking help and food contributions from friends who will be there, as well as ordering out a dish or two.

We have a bar in our basement, and the basement communicates with the backyard, so the needs to be cleaned out beforehand, as it will clearly see use. What else … well, we’ve already established that we will be making vintage tropical libations, so a whole lotta drinkin’s going to happen. Our bar is well-stocked, but do we have enough booze for 50-60 people? Not bloody likely; we know how our friends drink – so for those not helping in the kitchen, we’ll need to ask people to bring bottles to contribute to the bar. And, we'll have half a dozen or so cots ready for those who need to crash.

Given our party idea, we will also need a few special things to set the tone. The basics include:

• 50’s-early 60’s music, preferably rockabilly, and laced with plenty of songs by The King.
• This is a Hawaiian-themed party, so decent quality, polyester flower leis will really help set the mood here. I’ll discuss a few more of the benefits of interactive party decor in an upcoming post.
• To draw the guests into the theme, we will have a costume contest, with attractive, but not-too-serious prizes. Wearing something special does alot to set the tone, build excitement, and break the ice among the guests -- if most of them are dressed up in a way not usual to them, and then you drop a lei over their heads, odds are the make-believe element of the occasion will take over to some extent, and they will be more open and engaging socially, even to other guests they do not know so well.
  
  
  "When pompous people squelch me
  With their regal attributes
  It cheers me to imagine
  How they'd look in bathing suits.
  

  
  

But I diverge -- suffice it to say that whoever invented party hats was a freakin' genius. 

Anyway, hopefully it is apparent that answering the basic questions up front – who’s it for (us and our friends), and what’s it about (Elvis/retro summertime tiki party) has allowed us, with a few commonsense questions, to quickly establish to a very great extent what the party is going to look like, and what provisions we need to make. 

Enough for now - I'm thirsty.

Blue Hawaii (recipe from Beachbum Berry Remixed, and scaled up for a large pitcher or punchbowl)

24 oz unsweetened pineapple juice

12 oz sweet and sour mix (storebought tastes like lemon furniture cleanser smells - recipe to follow)

18 oz vodka

9 oz blue curacao

1 oz heavy cream

Chill ingredients before mixing,  then let sit in the punchbowl for an hour with a large block of ice (not crushed ice or cubes, they'll melt too fast and the punch will become watery and unappealing). Stir again well, and serve.

Sweet and Sour Mix (from the el paso chile company margarita cookbook, by W. Park Kerr)

2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lime juice

1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

In a small saucepan, combine water and sugar, and gently heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Transfer to a glass container with a tight fitting lid, and let sit open until the syrup cools. Stir in the juices, cover tightly, and refrigerate to chill before using. This drink base can be kept 1 week in the refrigerator, or about a month in the freezer.