Thursday Brainstorm Party - Perennial Exchange Party

I thought I would devote Thursday's to a party brainstorm session. A dreaming session per say...If I were to have a party this is what I would do. Then whenever I get a chance to actually do this type of party I will be armed and ready...And unlike my idea notebook I will be able to find my ideas easily :). I hope you enjoy these ideas. If you have any ideas that could make my party even better please leave me a comment. Thanks and have a great Thursday!

For my first Thursday Brainstorm Party Idea this is actually a party I'm planning for end of July. I will be creating invitations next week and have already started gathering my supplies.

PERENNIAL EXCHANGE PARTY

THE GIST OF IT:
The party is all about the love of gardening and getting some new perennial flowers for your yard. Everyone will be asked to bring 6 starts of their favorite perennial flowers. If they do not have perennial flowers they will be encouraged to bring seeds for perennial flowers so they can participate. At the end of the party everyone will take 6 new starts of flowers. In my invitation I will include instructions on how to properly separate flowers from an online expert. For my flower starts... I plan to put them in a small pot, wrap them with burlap, make a pretty tag(From the garden of: Hope) and wrap them with a green or yellow ribbon.

THE TIME:
This party will be a lunchtime party for approx 10 people. Very casual and relaxed but with special touches.

THE FOOD:
I will be creating a salad bar and either sandwiches or lasagna for this lunch. I bought a salad bar blow up contraption from LTD commodities. It is very cute and I haven't had a chance to use it yet. It looks like a blow up long pool that has a cover. I will use my green glass bowl collection to put the salad ingredients in down in the ice. It should look nice I think. FOR DESSERT i haven't quite figured it out yet...Maybe some flower cupcakes and a fresh berry trifle. I have already bought some cans of yellow and green drinks to match the colors and I plan on buying some mountain dew and lemonade as well. I will probably make labels that says perennial exchange party or something to that effect. For the drinks I will either put them in my turtle pool from the cookout that I had or I would love to find a wheelbarrow to fill with ice and place them in there.

THE THEME:
Of course gardening will be the theme of this party. I have picked the colors yellow/green to tie everything together. I will use gardening containers to decorate with. I'm thinking burlap down the center of the table with tin cans of varying sizes down the center with fresh flowers. I scored some white lanterns with lights from big lots for $2.00 so I'm sure I'll hang them up everywhere and probably add some green and yellow birds, butterflies, or polka dots to them to match the theme. If I can find some flower picks I will use them in the salad bar to name all the things(green pepper, onions, bacon, carrots, etc) I also may cut out some flowers from cardboard boxes and decoupage them with scrapbook paper for the back wall of the deck if we end up putting the table up there.

FAVORS:
Gardening Gloves stuffed with tissue paper at each place setting and a seed packet wrapped with a ribbon around them. I possibly might make some flower pens with my dd too. She loves to give things out to people. I bought a couple of butterfly knee cushions that will be the children's gifts if they come to the party. I will probably use them for the children's table on the back of their chairs. They are yellow and should look really good with everything else.

ACTIVITY:
Since my mother-in-law is a master gardener I have asked her to do a container garden demonstration for everyone at the party. We will use this container garden as the door prize for everyone that attends. I'll probably just pull the name out of a hat or maybe before then I'll come up with something more creative. If we have several children show up I would like to have an activity for them as well. I'm thinking of finding some large rocks and cleaning them up so they can paint them for their mom's flower garden. If I do this I'll have to make/buy some painting smocks so they don't get paint all over them. Still thinking on that.

Look for pictures from this party near the end of July.

Comments Welcomed

Hope XOXO