Flamingle

 

Some songs sum it all up…’You’ve Got a Friend’ by Carol King or the Beetles ‘With a Little Help from my Friends’ ‘You’re My Best Friend’ by Queen.

Social media is fun and keeps you in touch. Thanks to Facebook I have been able to hook up with old friends from public school and high school. The funny thing is, it’s like they’ve always been there. Conversations are easy. It’s been fun having my morning coffee online with them. Having said that, I think it is essential to cultivate and nurture your friendships especially at our age. As much as I do love Facebook and Instagram, social media can never replace the authenticity and intimacy of face to face interactions. This is one of the Blue Zone rules as well. (If you haven’t heard of the Blue Zone you can read about it on my Blog)

It is with these thoughts that I decided to have a party. I planned a Flamingle.

I know what you are thinking…did she just make a spelling mistake? A FLamingle? What?

Well, I’ll tell ya….First of all, I thought I coined the phrase ‘Flamingle’. I was deciding on a party theme for a ladies luncheon. Being a Savvy Snowbird and given that we are south of the border I immediately thought of a Flamingo…plus they’re pink…and if you know me you know, I love pink. On my coffee table was a magazine called Mingle. I put the two words together and voila….I had a Flamingle.

I was so excited to get started. I immediately hit up Pinterest…. Cause where else do you get great party ideas? I punched in the letters on my keyboard F-L-A-M-I-N-G-O…and what to my wonderous eyes should appear? A Flamingle! No sh**! Who knew…..a Flamingle is actually a thing?

Once my board was created (you can check out my Pinterest board under Savvy Snowbirds) It was time to start scouring Amazon, Target, Hobby Lobby and Home Goods. (Homesense on steroids for my friends in Canada). My timing honestly couldn’t be better…I found Flamingo everything!!! It seemed that every time I went out I saw a Flamingo. The back bedroom was soon piling up!

The cups in the background are from Home Goods and the S&P shakers were hand painted.

Honestly…there was no end to Flamingos!!

I was watching the weather like a crazy lady. I wanted the party outside in the pool lanai. The weather was not looking good the days leading up to my event. At one point it was 80% chance of rain the day of the party. I wasn’t going to let the weather get me down though. My back up plan was to have it inside.

The day before my Flamingle it poured rain here. By Sunday morning the skies had cleared and we were good to go. Party was going to be outside. YAY!

My very sweet young friend Erica (Sometimes she’s like a daughter to me, others, she is a bestie. The day she came into my life was a blessing!)  hit up Starbucks on her way over and brought this perfect doormat too. I absolutely ‘lurve’ it! When she got here, we immediately got to work. The tables, chairs and umbrellas were delivered. We had approximately 2 ½ hours to get the tables set and the decorating done. It was SO hot…lol…Poor Erica was melting.

This is Erica “BEHIND THE SCENES” quite literally. LOL….we even had Stevie boy helping with pool cleaning duty and doing the heavy lifting for us.

We rimmed the champagne flutes with pink, sugar crystals. I mixed three colours together that matched the flowers.

Each flute was adorned with a pair of Flamingo earrings that I ordered from Etsy. I wanted to send my guests home with a small keepsake to remind them of our fun afternoon and friendship.

The menu was planned…….. Quiche, tossed salad (recipe below as per requested) Waldorf salad and caprese salad.

For dessert, I served fresh fruit in these cute little cups that were .99 for 20 of them and used these perfect little forks. The carrot cake was ordered from a neighbourhood bakery. They were such a hit at our last party (US Thanksgiving) that I ordered them again. I have a love for macaroons and these did not disappoint also from the same bakery.

I ordered these picks online not knowing exactly what I was going to do with them. I thought I might use them as toppers for cupcakes but decided to use them to make individual Caprese salads. Adorable right? These would be perfect if you were just serving hors d’oeuvres as opposed to a sit-down meal. Perfect little finger food.

One thing to keep in mind when throwing a party is things don’t always work out as planned. My oven broke! We had a power surge the day before. A/C was temporarily unavailable too. So it was hot outside, hot inside and we had nowhere to cook the quiche!! Michelle to the rescue. Michelle is a great lady from our country club that I hired for the day. This lady is crazy…over 500 parachute jumps!! Michelle put the quiche on some trays, drove them to the club, popped them in the oven there and brought them back here! ….meanwhile to beat the heat…we just kept pouring cold champagne and lemonade too.

I love this Kate Spade Flamingo table runner. I purchased it from Amazon. I only ordered one even though I knew I had two tables to decorate. I didn’t think I would ever use two of them again.

The second table was decorated with simple tropical leaves bought from Amazon as well for about $10. Very inexpensive and I can use them again for a completely different themed event. One of my guests suggested the large ones might be the perfect size as a plate charger. I will give that a try.  I love having re-useable stuff…..my favourite thing is to shop my house!

 

I have a thing for dishes. If I could, I would have a dish room just like in the White House. LOL.

I love these miniature pedestal cake plates. I bought some from Home Goods last Easter and found another couple this year. I just keep adding to the collection:) They are great for entertaining. I use them for cookies, cupcakes, cheese/crackers, fruit or even teapot. If you have a centre piece that needs a boost you could easily place it on top of one of these. It is nice to have a bit of height on your table. As for the sign; it was a simple Google image, printed and framed.

One of my favourite parts is setting the table. It brings all the prettiness together.

I experimented with a few different looks. I seem to have a ridiculous amount of napkins.

This one is a winner. I love the unexpected black and white.

I wish I had a bit of a better photo of this napkin..lots of deep oranges/pinks and some black. Another winner.

I did not match napkins to plates. Some were the same some were different. I love when you can bring a bunch of different looks together. You can see in these photos that nothing is a ‘set’. As long as everything is in the same tones they work together. At the Corner House, I have one SET of dishes and that is Old Country Roses. Rarely do I use it all at the same time. I prefer to mix, match and layer.

This is definitely my favourite coffee cup now!!

I feel like I won the lottery with this little green-leafed vase. Again…Home Goods. I am going to use this on my Easter table as well. Home Goods had some really cute cabbage pottery decor for an Easter table. I hope/pray they still have some when I go back to work on my Easter blog….which I SERIOUSLY have to get moving on!!! Hard to believe its just over two weeks away.

These pieces were used in my powder room to keep the decor going through-out the house.

The décor was all pretty simple, fun and bright. A lot of blow-ups for the pool and hot tub….and a whole bunch of garden picks.

The paper flowers are very inexpensive and created a lot of impact. I should have purchased three times as many flowers to completely cover the inside of the umbrellas. Initially, I was only going to rent one umbrella but changed it to three. It didn’t dawn on me that I only bought enough flowers for one umbrella until the day of the luncheon. Cest la vie.  It was still super pretty.

Allow me to introduce Mandi….Mandi Quin. I bought her on Amazon for $50. She was worth every cent. She has already been invited to her next gig, a Margarita party next week. Right after that, she will be making an appearance at a Master’s party. I have a feeling this girl is going to get around. I was hoping to have her ‘walking’ a group of Flamingos but we couldn’t get them to stand up on the patio…one stuck in a planter had to do. (A lot of little things didn’t exactly go as planned…but I just rolled with it and moved on)

Manda was a bit quiet but I think she enjoyed making new friends.

As the afternoon went on things started going a bit sideways:)

Andree had it out with Mandi….

Andree ended up with Manda’s glasses….

…and Manda with Andree’s.

Like anything…All good things must come to an end. It was time to clean up and just in time too….the rain started again.

I cannot say enough about how much I love ‘girl-time’. I think I am pretty good at sharing with them how important they are to me. At least I hope I am. I love that we all have different opinions on various things in life…we are never short on conversation. My friends will share my milestones, the highs and the lows of my life. They are my people. I cherish each and every one of them.

Salad Recipe

Ingredients:
5 ounces fresh spinach (half a 10-ounce bag) I used mixed greens
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 can (15 ounces) mandarin oranges –
or 1 cup of pomegranate seeds  I used both.
1 large Granny Smith Apple
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/3 cup pecans
Optional: Feta cheese & Orecchiette (little ears) pasta

Dressing:
4 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2-4 teaspoons white sugar – Or use Honey to taste or Stevia
1/8 teaspoon each: paprika, onion powder
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Mix it all together! The longer you let it sit the better.

SERVING: Makes six (6) 1 cup servings. As a compliment to a meal makes twelve (12) 1/2 cup servings!

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