Parties – Jackie Fogartie

Panthers are in the Superbowl – Have some cheese!

February 4, 2016 By Jackie Fo Leave a Comment

Did you guys hear about the Superbowl this year? That’s right, my hometown team, the Charlotte based Carolina Panthers have rocked and rolled their way to a Super Bowl run! Can we just talk about Cam Newton – I mean what can I say? That smile. That personality. Those pants?! I heard one sportcaster say it best – if you don’t like Cam Newton, there’s something wrong with YOU, not him! I personally love his celebrating and dancing. Why not celebrate the little things in this world, especially when there is so much negative stuff out there. I hope Cam dances his way to a Super Bowl ring!

(Note: In case you can’t tell, Cam bashing is not allowed on this site.)

If you don’t care about the game this year, and let’s face it, I’ve so been there, I wanted to at least give you some yummy food options from some of my older posts and Super Bowl parties past! I have four recipes and they all include my favorite food group – CHEEEEEESE. Because what’s a SB party without a bunch of cheese? Pictures and recipe links below!

Buffalo Chicken Dip – a staple!

Recipe Link

Pimento Cheese tarts – I’m a pimento cheese addict and I don’t care who knows. Shout out to my fave brand Palmetto.

Recipe Link

Mac and Cheese Bites – These mac and cheese bites are one of my most popular posts and the post is from 2010 – when the blog was just a little babe! Sorry for the small and bad photo. It was before I got a real camera and started taking slightly less embarassing shots.

Recipe link

Creamy Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Bites – Ah, one of my friend Hillary’s finest moments! Why yes, I would like to dip grilled cheese into tomato soup fondue. This is another throwback recipe from 2012.

Recipe Link

How are you celebrating for the big game? I’m going to a Superbowl party filled with all Panther fans of course. Guys I really, really hope the next time I post we are Superbowl champs! Who’s with me? It’s a bird…it’s a plane….it’s Suuuuuuuper Cam!

GO PANTHERS!!

7th Annual Cookie Party: Candy Cane Lane + a Peppermint White Russian

December 23, 2015 By Jackie Fo Leave a Comment

If you don’t know, we take our Christmas Cookie Party pretttty seriously around these parts. This years party “Candy Cane Lane” was our 7th Annual and we had a blast!

If you want to review last years party theme – Gold and Glitter – you can check that out in the link below:

Gold and Glitter Cookie Party

We had peppermint cocktails, candy canes of all sizes and a very special guest. Let’s review our fun day on Candy Cane Lane!

We stepped our invitation game up this year by hand delivering box-style invitation wrapped with a red and striped ribbon.

The invitation was designed by Scratch Paper Studio (LOVE Natasha’s work and she’s local for you Charlotte peeps!) and was accented by you guessed it – a candy cane! Party tip: A creative invitation sets the tone for the fun that’s to come!

Guests were thrilled to be greeted by a fabulously decorated bar cart rimming with festive goodies and the aforementioned Candy Cane Cocktail. More on that later. Thanks to Tarjay for having this bar cart that we added to our party arsenal. We can always count on you. Ridiculously over decorated bar cart below:

Not only did guests have a choice of the candy cane cocktail or a cranberry Prosecco immediately upon arrival, the drinks were delivered by the one and only Santa Claus! (Note: Large variety of Santa costumes at your nearest Party City.)

As usual, my mom strung her beautiful garland up and down the stairs in the entryway. We accented the garland with striped bows from Michaels (aka my 2nd home and the reason why I’m constantly covered in glitter during the month of December). We also lined up our cookie tins on the stairs like so:

The trees and mantels were decorated with extra special Candy Cane Care.

The main cookie table (the party has grown so much we have 2 tables of cookies now!) was lined with a beautiful red chevron runner I rented from gals at Party Reflections and a plethora of candy cane trees. It was a real peppermint overload. But in a good way.

Even the flowers were brimming with candy canes!

There were 33 cookie contenders this year and they were all winners in my book. Some standouts:

Candy Cane Cookies (you know I love a theme so I extra loved these):

The winner for Most Creative were these ADORABLE Holiday Hedgehog cookies!

Due the extreme number of cookies, people had to share cookie plates. Even a Cookie Monster couldn’t eat this many cookies…

Votes were tallied using the official ballots as we do every year:

Now that we’ve covered the cookies, let’s talk signature cocktail. Every year at the cookie party we do a signature cocktail and this years was no exception! We also provided wine and cranberry Prosecco (Prosecco + Cranberry Juice = Cranberry Prosecco), but the signature cocktail was our Candy Cane White Russian (really a Peppermint White Russian). Here’s the recipe – there’s DEFINITELY time to whip this up for your Christmas dinner!

Candy Cane White Russian (Note: Measurements aren’t exact. I just kept pouring the stuff in until it tasted pepperminty and delicious! It was a tough job but somebody had to take one for the team.)

Whole Milk (It’s Christmas, don’t use skim milk people)
Kahlua
Peppermint Vodka – Specialty vodka made by Smirnoff around the holidays. It has a pretty red and white striped bottle. Can be substituted with Peppermint Creamer – creamer for your coffee! It also tastes delicious if you can’t find the specialty vodka.
Lots of ice (Warm Milk = Ew)
Garnish with a mini candy cane hanging off the side of the glass.

Enjoy! I mixed up a pitcher of these because come on… milk and cookies?

So let’s review: We had cookies, white russians, freaking SANTA CLAUS and good friends and family. We were totally winning…..

Here I am with my hostesses with the mostesses, my mom and my sister in law (and Santa). (Note: Wearing a Panthers Jersey because the game was on during the party – poor scheduling but we won 38-0 that day so cookies must be good luck? Go Panthers baby!)

It was a super successful 7th Annual Cookie Party- here’s the the 8th! I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!

Cheers, Peace and Love to all!

Bubbles and Bites: A non baby shower baby shower

September 15, 2015 By Jackie Fo 3 Comments

So what do you do when your sis-in-law is having her third baby? You obviously force her into having a small baby shower of course. I’m just joking…there was no “forcing” – maybe a little arm twisting! But after my sis Drew found out her two beautiful daughters were going to become big sisters to a presh little BOY, she agreed to having a little party to celebrate! I mean, the boy doesn’t have any hand me down clothes, so we had to get him some masculine onesies at least. Real men wear pink and all that, but I’m sure the new babe doesn’t want to share EVERYTHING with his big sisters! It’s practical really, the party was a must-do for the little fella.

Bottom line, not only do I get a NEPHEW to spoil now, I also get to throw a party… it’s a win-win for Aunt Jackie!!!

As the title of this posts suggests, this was really a non-shower baby shower. No blue ribbon, no baby-themed decor, just some bubbly, bites and beautiful flowers. Plus a whole bunch of wine for the ’bout to be 3-time Mama to take home…I’ll explain!

As with most invitations, the invitation really set the tone for the party. After carefully considering wording (i.e. the words “baby shower” weren’t allowed) I settled for “Bubbles and Bites” and called it a celebration of Drew and the new addition to the family. Bubbles is for the champagne (lots of it) that was served and Bites was for the simple but delicious spread of cheese, charcuterie and yummy pastries.

Thanks again to my invitation guru and the creative force Natasha behind Scratch Paper Studios. She got my vision perfectly!

For a split second I worried that the invitation was too “girly” for a boys shower and then I realized…it’s not a shower so we can do what we want. Freedom…ohh freedom!

In my opinion, flowers are a must-do for any occasion. Luckily, Drew simply adores flowers too, so that’s why I went big on flowers. They were at the party, on the invites, even on my dress, ha! I scoured Charlotte and its many stores for the perfect collection of vases. I think these gold leaf vases from Hobby Lobby were my favorite.

Although I’m really loving these gold chevron candle holders that I used as vases too…also from Hobby Lobby.

Please note I got all these flowers from the Farmers Market. I adore going to the Farmers Market for flowers; their flowers are the most colorful, beautiful and unusual for the price. I got all these flowers for only $40 and I got to pick them out stem by stem. You can’t beat that.

See below for my flower arranging station – all you need is:

newspaper
floral shears (obviously mine were no where to be found so I’m using kitchen scissors which I promptly washed)
Spotify (music)
measuring cups filled with water so you don’t have to go to the sink 4 million times
trash bag for clippings
coffee (because it was the morning)

The flower-filled party was held at the lovely Bistro La Bon restaurant in Plaza Midwood and was catered by Lisa with Lucy Catering.

As I mentioned, in addition to bubbles we had a delicious and beautiful spread of cheese, charcuterie and pastries. Give me all the cheese and meat please.

Did I mention the macaroons? Not macarons, macaroons. I think I ate my weight in macaroons as did everyone else. Yay to coconutty, airy deliciousness.

We actually had both macaroons and macarons at this party…I’ll get to the macarons later, but in case you’re wondering, see below. Don’t be that fool at a party that confuses the colorful, French MacaRON with the coconut dream MacaROON. You’re welcome.

Image Credit

For the bubbly, I called up my girl Whitney at Blis to personalize some champagne flutes with a #3. Get it??!?!?! For the 3rd babe? I thought it was totes clever and a subtle shout out to the reason we were all boozin’ together on a Sunday afternoon. If you need anything personalized, call up Blis and they’ll get it done lickety split with a smile on their lovely faces.

I loved these fun “Hooray” napkins from Swoozies. Hooray for cute cocktail napkins, am I right?

Now, let’s talk about that crate of wine that the lucky mama went home with. In addition to amazing little boy clothes (including an outfit with SUSPENDERS from yours truly), I thought it would be a hoot for each guest to give this wine loving mama a bottle of wine. To be consumed post pregnancy of course, but she needs to be prepared! She’s not going to have time to get to the wine store with three kids running around.

I had wine tags made to match the invites (Thanks again Scratch Paper Studio!) that said “Open this bottle when….”. Each guest wrote something on the tag and Drew read them out loud at the party. They were hilarious, sweet, adorable and overall just fun. I’m going to pat myself on the back and say this was one of my better ideas. (Humble brag.)

So when she opens up one of these bottles at 2pm on a particularly hectic day, she will have something fun to read! Plus, it was really funny when she saw all this wine at the party – she was like, what is THAT, is that all for ME?! I love a good surprise.

For party favors, I sent everyone home with pistachio Macarons (not Macaroons, those were earlier) from Cafe Monte. Cafe Monte was coincidentally the site of Drew’s shower for baby Claire a few years ago. That was a good one too. (Side note: I just went back and read that post, and it appears I have a bit of a habit of forcing Drew to have parties for her kids. Whoops. Sorry Drew!)

Here I am with my beautiful sis at the party…! (We’ve mutually agreed to drop the in-law, it just gets in the way.) I mean, could she look better?!?!?!

For people out there who are having their 2nd or 3rd baby or 5th (whoa though), you can still have a simple yet special celebration to welcome a new life into this crazy world!! It’s no surprise coming from me, but I 100% believe that things should be celebrated, so don’t hesitate to celebrate all things, big or small! I simply can’t wait to meet the new little guy (and selfishly get my wine drinking buddy back LOL)!

In other news, today is Mr. Fo’s birthday. Happy Birthday to my love – I know it will be a great year ahead! Cheers and here’s to celebrating all the wonderful things!

Pink and Purple Horse Party!

February 9, 2015 By Jackie Fo 1 Comment

What’s that thing your parents used to say to you? “Hey is for horses?” Well in this case…

HEEYYYYYYYYYYYYY Girl HEYYYYYYYY…

Following in the footsteps of her legendary Pajamas and Pancakes Party last year, my niece Brooke has officially cemented herself as luckiest little girl in history with another jam-packed birthday party. This time, we’re talking horses baby. Real live horses. So saddle up and get ready for some pink and purple horse party cuteness to celebrate Brookie’s 5th birthday. (Oh, and there’s a goat named Stu. Ha.)

The magical party took place at the beautiful Camp Whip-Poor-Will located right outside Charlotte. With 20 acres of land, creeks, hiking trails and of course horseback riding, the camp is a wonderful place for kids to frolic and do all those kid-type things they do during the summer. It was the perfect rustic and cozy locale for a pink and purple horse-stravaganza.

Guests were welcomed to Camp Whip-Poor-Will by balloons, garland, tissue paper poufs and of course, a “Welcome Friends” sign purchased from party mecca Hobby Lobby. All hail Hobby Lobby for its perma 50% off pricing, am I right? It’s like, how did they know we needed a chalkboard welcome sign with horses on it?

Also welcoming the little riders was a corral of stick horses for each of the girls to take home. The corral was handcrafted by my brother-in-law Michael (is there anything that guy can’t do?) and the horses were bought on Etsy shop My Lue (is there anything you can’t find on the internet?). They. Were. So. Cute.

In addition to stick horses there were real horses too. Each kiddo got to ride a horse around the ring twice and they obviously loved it. Here’s Brookie:

Even my almost 2 year old niece got in on the action, riding with her Mimi (who is being a good Mimi and holding onto Claire Bear for dear life)! That little girl’s got no fear and I love her for it!

The nice horse folks also bought a baby goat for the kids to pet which was amaaaaaazing because the goat’s name was Stuey. As in Stu? Mr. Fo? aka my husband? Hehe, Uncle Stu is a goat! Here are the kids petting Uncle Stu. I mean the goat.

Now that we’ve talked horses and goats, let’s talk outfits and nails because let’s be serious, this animal and farm talk has me a liiiiitle outside my wheelhouse here. I took Brookie to get her nails did for her party and she wanted pink and purple (obv). We went to my favorite place Polished where they all know her because I take her in to get her nails done a lot. Totes normal for a 5 year old. After we get our nails done I typically take her for a sugary treat because why not. #auntsarethebest

She sported a personalized horse shirt from Etsy Shop Bowdacious Baby, a cowboy/tiara hat combo from Party City and purple cowboy boots. Nothing says “Giddyup” like pink nails and purple boots.

Little sis Claire (who turns 2 in 10 days!) got into the pink and purple action too with her own pink cowboy boots. She couldn’t really walk in them properly so it was hilarious to watch her stumble around the farm. Are they not the cutest little sisters you ever did see?

Now for decorations and activities. Sticking with the rustic but girly theme, we used hay bales, burlap favor bags and flowers in galvanized buckets and mason jars to create a beautiful tablescape.

We picked up the bags at Michael’s (aka my second home) and Drew stenciled pink horses on each. We stuck a bandana in each bag and they made perfect table accoutrement and favor bags to take home all their goodies.

Goodies included these adorable horseshoe cookies by the wonderful SugarBakers.

And candy from the horse pinata. Yes, there was a horse piñata, are you surprised? Also, word to the wise. Piñata bats don’t actually work. We watched these poor kiddos try their hardest to break open the piñata for what seemed like 4 hours. Then we had to bring in a ringer (8 year old sibling) to finish the job. Voila – candy everywhere!

Flowers make everything better!

So does cake. The adorable ombre ruffle cake by Koris Kakes was adorned with a horse (of course) and a rustic burlap banner handcrafted by yours truly. I will give a DIY tutorial on the banner later this week.

Here’s the birthday girl blowing out her candles!

There were also some horsey type snacks (think carrots, apples and rice krispy treat hay bales!)

The kiddos definitely needed their fuel for the fun activities like:

Pin the tail on the horse (horse drawn by my weirdly artistic husband Stu aka Mr. Fo. And no, he didn’t trace it!).

There was also crafting and roasting marshmallows. Claire got into the roasting marshmallows which is why her official hashtag is #claireeats. Check it out on Instagram and you will see Claire eating all sorts of things.

There were 15 little girls at this party and they all had an absolute blast. Here’s Brookie with some of her pals (and their new stick horses!):

Here I am with the birthday girl:

And here’s my wonderful sister-in-law (can we just drop the in-law part please) Drew with her beautiful girls. Drew has been planning this party for a long time and it turned out perfectly. Make no mistake, the vision was hers and I just helped implement! She rocked it out of the park on this one.

And finally, as today is Brooke’s actual 5th birthday, I want to say happiest of happy birthdays to my first little niece who I love with all my heart. Brookie you have a sweet little soul (and it has to be said, absolutely perfect hair) and I can’t wait to watch you grow up. But for now, just stay 5 for awhile.