Dinner Party

These pictures are from a dinner party that I hosted two weeks ago for some very good family friends who had come over to Dubai. Yes, the theme yet again is very feminine, but only because I was asked to! I had initially chosen a scarlet, ivory, and gold theme but switched after I was asked to! Feminine themes seem to be my speciality...

This is a close up shot of the crockery/cutlery/glassware. Since the table was predominantly pastel shades of pink, I placed white roses at each individual setting to break up the color. White roses are my favourite. I can use them everywhere.
Close up of the napkin fold. This was placed on top of the soup bowl! I'm always at a loss where to place the napkin. Big dilemma, I know. These gorgeous pearly napkin rings are from John Lewis. *advertises*
Yes, I like having the foreground in my photographs blurred.
Similar trick done with the chairs as I did for the tea party! These sashes have little cream- coloured pouches with potpourri in them strung to the knot.

Another closeup of the rose and glassware.

What this side of the table looked like.

The glasses. Those papers in them are the placecards!

What an individual setting looked like.

I would love to post pictures of the centerpiece which was a wickerbasket filled with flowers in a contrasting HALF and HALF theme.. half of the basket had an abundance of pink, white, and yellow roses, chrysanthemums, and carnations and the other half just had leaves and some baby's breath (breadth? sp?) There were also cream colored candles scattered around. The pictures of the centerpiece TURNED OUT CRAP. So I won't upload them :) Enjoy.

Entertainment Tidbits

Here are some photographs from random things I've done to dinner tables. This is more "dramatic".. i.e. not feminine as such.

The floral arrangement was one I made inspired by Paula Pryke, the renowned florist. This arrangement is called the "birthday cake" as the flowers are arranged in such way to resemble a cake and the candles look like candles on a birthday cake!

Friday Breakfast

These are pictures from a little breakfast 'do that I threw sometime last summer. Yes the theme again happens to be floral... I don't know why I tend to go for feminine/floral themes so much. Maybe because I feel there's a lot that I can do with it!

Tea Party entry with IMAGES!

These pictures are from the tea party that I threw for fashion-hermit's sister's birthday. (www.fashion-hermit.blogspot.com)

The theme was obviously very feminine and floral. I used candles and pink, yellow, and white flowers to accentuate the table. I also placed jellybeans and marshmallows in little gahwa (Arabic coffee) cups and scattered them around the table.

The cupcake with the crown was the birthday girl's! I placed one cupcake on every plate.

You can see what I've done to the chair there.. I gently tied some pastel coloured chiffon to it and placed a rose in the knot. I also gave each person one rose on their plate along with the cupcake.

A Dinner Party

So my grandfather was visiting us here in Dubai for about two weeks and as is my tradition whenever he visits, I throw a small, intimate dinner party for him. Just for us and our closest family/friends. This time I had the dinner party the night before he left as I had just finished exams the day before that!

As I had been so busy with exams, I didn't have a chance to "pre-plan" the theme of the night. What the flowers would be like, what the table setting would be like, and what ambience I would create.

What I ended up doing the morning of the dinner was stand in front of the dinner table and visualize the crockery and cutlery we have and see how I can mix and match. What I ended up doing was more creative than any other table setting I have previously done. I decided to label the theme "outdoor bazaar" after I was done with it. Everything was mismatched. I used plain red dinner plates from IKEA and placed traditional turquoise ceramic bowls from Turkey as soup bowls. I then folded each cloth napkin in a different way. I also added turquoise coasters from Turkey and placed Moroccan tea glasses on them- these were the drinking glasses for juice. For water, I picked up a variety of different gold glasses and arranged them at each place setting. The placemat was thatched and bronze and the table cloth was ivory net with gold trimmings. I placed a red table runner through the middle and made the centerpiece a beautiful glass mosaic tray from Pakistan. I also placed outdoor IKEA lanterns on the table and arranged potted plants around the plates.

I found various knick knacks around the house, like old vintage perfume bottles and a waistcoat pocket and added them to create the ambience of antiques in a bazaar. The smell was represented by the variety in the food and the sound of the bazaar was more than reminiscent by the chatter on the table and the sounds of cutlery hitting crockery.

So here's the menu: my grandfather asked me to keep it simple so I tried to find some quick recipes to make.

Appetizers:

Fresh tomato and red onion salsa with Doritos!

Mozzarella and basil quesadilla wedges

(both from "500 appetisers" by PAGEONE)

Mini zucchini frittatas

(from "Party Food" by Australian Women's Weekly)

Soup:

Roasted vegetable soup

(from "Soups and Breads" by FamilyCircle)

Main Course:

Beef and eggplant bake with polenta crust

(from "Crumbles and Bakes" by Australian Women's Weekly)

Dessert:

Chocolate self saucing pudding- served with Vanilla Icecream!

(from "Old Fashioned Desserts" by Australian Women's Weekly)

The dessert is best served EXTREMELY hot!

And what I ended up doing with the fritattas was place them in a normal sized muffin tray. If you make them in mini tins you end up with 48. We didn't need that many as we were very few at dinner so I ended up making one batch of minis (so 12) and two batches of normal sized ones (so 24). The minis make for adorable hors d'oeuvres at parties as they are extremely bite-sized and delicious! Plus, they're very easy to make!

Unfortunately I do not have proper pictures of the food as I was rushing around to serve it and plate it and all that. But I DO have a picture of the table when it was halfway done.

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Spontaneous Euphoria

xx