An Indoor themed Beach Party!

Last week, I threw a trunk show at my place for the funky brands MOCHI and West La Boutique from Dubai, and Pearlesque and Kattan Opticians from Abu Dhabi. The theme was 'Summer' and we sold clothes like maxi dresses, skirts, sunglasses and vintage costume jewellery that would be perfect for a summer vacation. 

Problem was that the trunk show was indoors, so I had to go about making my apartment look beachy. I was so proud of the results that I felt I had to share them with you! You can do it all by yourself and no need to get a professional planner! My amazing mom and I did all this on our own. 

This theme would work well for a pool party, a kids birthday party or an outdoor barbecue :)

 DECOR

What you will need: 

• Fishing net (There are many different colours of net at fishing shops- I bought 50 metres of turqouise net and 10 metres of white net)
• Sand buckets
• Real sand (You can buy 10 kg bags of clean sand at the Early Learning Center)
• Real shells
• White stones from a gardening shop
• Bottles of Tanning Oil and Sunscreen
• Cheap sunglasses (I found affordable ones at Claire's Accessories)
• Inflatable small fish (Party Center)
• Beach Ball and Inflatable Ring 

What to do:

• Drape the fishing net over the table which you will serve food and another table for drinks. If you want to make the theme over a large area, drape fishing net over many tables
• Place boxes or mirrors at the center of the table and put the buckets on top 
• Drape the white fishing net over the buckets
• Place stones and shells randomly all over the table 
• Put the inflatable ball and ring around the room 

For the buckets, fill each one with sand till it almost reaches the top. Then place a layer of shells and stick into the sand around 3 bottles of tanning oil, 3 pairs of sunglasses and an inflatable fish or any kind of beachy inflatable item you can find. 

THE DRINKS TABLE

The Key to this theme is to serve refreshing food and drinks that you would drink on a hot summer's day.

What you will need:

• Jam Jars to be used as cups
• Juice jars 
• Twine from a flower shop
• White stones and shells
• Themed stickers (I bought Nautical themed stickers and cards  from Moushii.com (Link)

What to do:

• Stick nautical stickers on the jam jars and tie twine around the jars
• Put a fun straw in each jar (Click here for a great selection) 
• Have a self serve station with drinks like Carrot Juice, Mint Lemonade and chilled water with mint and lemon slices

THE FOOD

• Serve refreshing food like watermelon bites, fruits, wraps and mini sandwiches

 Be creative with desserts and serve one-bite brownies and cookie shooters (a cookie on top of a small shot glass of milk)

To make the theme complete, I highly recommend you buy stickers and little note cards with the same theme as your party. Place a card next to each dish with details of what is being served so that your guests can serve themselves. There are many party supply websites you can use. I loved Moushii.com (Link)  because it is based in the U.A.E, shipping is really quick and easy, and they have a large selection of themes. 

How do you like my 'Summer' Themed Party? 

Fabulous Oscar Party!

The red carpet with a huge Oscar statue to greet us at the door

On Monday night, I was invited to a FABULOUS Oscars themed party. It was one of those events where the host went ALL OUT with re-creating an Oscar theme for her guests and so much thought was put into every single detail. I hadn't had that much fun in ages and decided that I had to share my experience with you all!

The Academy Awards were playing on a huge projector throughout the night and we watched snippets of speeches and performances. Adorning all the walls were picture reels of our photos against the Oscar wall and there were miniature Oscar statues all around the house. On the floor, the host re-created Hollywood Boulevard with all our names in stars. There were 30 of us so thats a lot of stars! The buffet table had a huge inflatable Oscar statue on it and in one of the corners was a Director's chair with big movie lights behind it.

 

We each had our picture taken in front of the Academy Awards wall

 Hollywood Boulevard was re-created with all our names in stars on the ground

The guests were divided into three teams - Screen Actors Guild, BAFTAs, and Academy Awards and we played movie-themed games throughout the night. Crazy, loud and FUN games!

• A star with an Actor or Actress's name was stuck on our backs and we had to guess who they were, asking yes/no questions. Mine was Robbert Patterson - I'm Obsessed with him!
• Dresses from Oscar ceremonies dated back from the 1980s were shown to us and we had to guess within a second who the celebrity was. Each team had a horn and had to buzz when they knew the answer. 30 women screaming out answers- just imagine how intense this game was!
• Each team was given a song from Mama Mia and we had to sing and act it out. We were only given 15 minutes to create our dance and the end results were hilarious
• The hardest game of the night was having to create dresses for two barbies using a sewing kit, scissors, a bunch of mismatched material and pins. My team won this game!
• We had to give an Oscar speech using unrelated words like "monkey, east, skydiving, teeth"- just imagine the speeches haha
• The night before the party, we had to send the host our guesses for the Oscar winners. The winner won a really cool film book

 One of the games we played was to make dresses for two barbies in under 20 minutes using material, scissors, a sewing kit and pins. Our barbies won (top right), woohoo!! 

I realized that it's important to know how to sew after that whole experience!

 The winning team won buckets filled with candy, popcorn, and one of the nominated movies of the year

 And the winner of the night was Joelle for guessing the winners of all the Oscar categories! 

Congrats! :)

She won a fabulous film book

That night was the MOST fun I've ever had watching the Oscars!

How did you watch the Oscars this year- anything special?