I had a lot of fun sharing some sneak peeks of the Oscar party via Instagram.... so here's a look back at it all...

It all started when my friend Kaylan said she'd come if I had an Oscar party. So Gia & I set out to Party City for a little Oscar Party recon/inspiration.

I hit the GOLD JACKPOT at Goodwill on their 1/2 Price Saturday, including this beauty!  I'd been dreaming of a gold ice bucket for the party & found it on my 5th or 6th pass through the homewares aisle. (They kept bringing out new stuff.)  I think this was $3 or less.  I got a TON of other serving platters, including all the glass, gold-rimmed plates that were on the dessert table.

I researched my Oscar picks instead of cleaning the kitchen one day.

I got this precious package from the UK. (Oscar chocolate moulds)

I glittered a whole bunch of shiz.  These are wine tags for our drink glasses.  Don't think I got a detail shot of that on party day.  They were tied around the champagne flutes with golden star garland.

Panicked that I didn't have a double oven.  It all got cooked, but took a while.   My faves were the asparagus & mushrooms.  Yum.

Glittered clothes pins.  Pins I had on had, the glitter was from the Target dollar spot. My new favorite thing ever.  Trying to incorporate them into my every day life. They are currently being used in my St. Patty's day mantle decor.

Oscar Men in frames.

Daddy & Gia rolling out the red carpet.

If you want to follow me on Instagram, my name is Sheyennew. :)

Now for the Food & Favors (aka the swag bag)!

THE FOOD

I am so sad I didn't get picture of all the food.  I had a pretty great menu planned, and even managed to incorporate all of the Best Picture Nominees.  That took quite a bit of thought!  Here was the menu:

Hors d'oeuvres

Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus (Les Miserables)... this was a bit of a stretch...the bread on the asparagus was a nod to the loaf of bread stolen in the movie
Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
Crabbie Snacks aka Crab Filled Wontons (Silver Linings Playbook)
Li'l Smokies 
Veggie Shooters
Hummus & Pita Bread (Zero Dark Thirty)
Shrimp Cocktail (Life of Pi)
Hushpuppies (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Sweets

Chocolate Covered Strawberries (Amour)... what's more romantic than that?
Southern White Cake (Django Unchained)
Golden Oscars

Drinks

Champagne (Argo)
Sparkling Cider... since half my guests are either pregnant or breastfeeding!
Red Carpet Cosmos
Water (Lincoln) Water is said to be this president's favorite drink

And now for some pictures... I didn't get any pictures with the hot food on the table, because I was cooking it as the guests were arriving... so the hot food was just coming out in increments for about an hour.

This was my favorite part of the whole spread... I ordered an Oscar chocolate mold from a chocolatier in the UK.  You can't get these molds in the US because of Oscar copyrights.  Don't know how they can sell them overseas, but apparently the do!  After I made the chocolates, I sprayed them with edible gold frosting spray.  They may not be as perfect as Wolfgang Puck's famous 24 karat gold dusted chocolate Oscars, they were so fun.  AND delicious!

THE GUESTS

Gia had a great time dressing up in one of her "pretties" from Nana.

She had a BLAST running up and down the red carpet!

I love the way that she holds her dress up like a pro, too!

I can't believe its already been a week since the Oscars!  I still have not recovered.  Though my husband did take Gia out of town for the day on Saturday so I could work on our guest room/craft room.  It seemed to explode in the weeks leading up to it.  So although the rest of my house is still a mess of clothes, toys & dishes strewn about, the guest room is clean!  If ever you can't find me, I'll be in there, reveling in the cleanliness.  SO, now for the recap!  I took a few shots before the party started, but am so sad to say that I forgot to pick up my camera much after.  I didn't even get pics of all the decorations or food.  :(  That makes me so sad!  But I was super busy cooking and hanging out with friends and wrangling my toddler.  But here are the pictures I did manage to snap.  (I'll split this up into a couple posts so the pictures aren't overwhelming!)

THE INVITATIONS

I created the invitations in Photoshop.  I combined a couple of ideas that I had seen online and put my own touches on them.  I wanted to go for a black/gold/silver star theme, and added some gold star brads.  The envelopes are from Hobby Lobby, as are the star brads.

THE DECORATIONS

For the mantle, I used black tissue paper puff ball (I opted to buy them 1/2 off at HL to save time.. .they were only $2.50 for all 3).  I got the mirror 1/2 off at HL, as well as the black & silver boa. The two silver candle holders on the ends, I already had on hand.  I put some sticks with gold stars (got them 90% off at Target after Christmas... 10 cents each!), then filled them with shredded gold foil (from The Dollar Store).  I really wish I'd taken more pictures of this part of it... the details were really pretty but totally lost in this pic!

The Red Carpet!  Just a roll of picnic table cover vinyl.  I hung dozens of swirly gold stars from the ceiling... I got them all at The Dollar Store.  Most came in packages of 2 or 3!  Score!

The food table, before all the food was set out.  The backdrop for "The Oscars" is made from 5 rolls of gold holographic wrapping paper, also from The Dollar Store.  I folded them in half lengthwise, then cut fringes 2/3 of the way up.  Then I cut them on the lengthwise fold, which gave me the wider width that I wanted.  Hung them up with masking tape, and alternated gold & silver.  (The silver was acutally on the back of the gold!)  The banner was hung with white yarn and the clothes pins that I glittered a few days before.  PS- Glittered clothes pins are now one of my favorite things.  Who knew?

I finally changed out the Christmas wrapping paper in our huge wall frame for some Oscar silhouette men.  They're mounted on more of the Dollar Store wrapping paper.  They look holographic here, but the back grounds were really gold & silver.

Another shot of the background.  The table was just a black cloth I borrowed from church, with some gold/black/silver star confetti I borrowed from a friend.

What's a hollywood party with out our own walk of fame stars ?  I printed these out with one for each guest, then taped them down to the kitchen floor with packing tape.  So fun!

In Part 2, I'll share the Food & Favors!

The Academy Awards are only 9 days away!  If you are wanting to check out some of the nominated movies before you make your best guest on your Oscar Pools at work, here is a chart that has all the nominated movies (in the main categories that will be awarded on the show).  I've left a spot on the far left for you to check each movie off when you've seen them, and on the far right, I've told you where you can see all the movies.  A couple of them are in transition between theatre and DVD (which, in my opinion is really stupid & poor planning, but I don't entirely know how all that works) but most of them are available to watch in some form or fashion.  One really cool thing is that all of the animated short film nominees are available for FREE viewing on YouTube right now, until the day of the Oscars.  So far I've only watched "Head Over Heels" but I really enjoyed it!  I'm about 1/2 way through this list, so we'll see how far I can get in the next week!  What about you?  How are you doing on your #Oscarnomswatchlist ?


PS- I've never used Scribd. before so let me know if you have troubles downloading/printing the chart!