ARRRRR.... it be a pirate party!

{living}

So as I mentioned in my last post I've spent much of the past couple weeks doing a lot of prep work for stuff without a lot of finished projects or excursions to show for it yet....... One of the things I was working on you may remember was a pirate birthday party for my (65 year old) dad.  I've been wanting an excuse to do a pirate party for several years now and he wanted one for his birthday, so BOOM... there it was.  As I was beginning planning for it a couple months ago I had two things that I wanted for the party.  I didn't want it to look like a kids party, and I was looking for a little twist on just a plain old pirate party.  It didn't take long for the "twist" to present itself.......  My dad is a reenactor and since he got into the hobby has been known to style the mustache part of his facial hair in lots of... umm.... interesting ways.  (yes we of course give him a hard time about it, it would be okay if it were just for events, but he likes to wear it like that for real life too....) and he has gotten a bit of a reputation for his mustache, and curling and playing with it.  So the party's theme became "'Mustache' Bill, The Pirate's Birthday Party".  It also gave me the chance to get in on the mustache trend that still seems to be going strong right now.  I even designed a skull and cross-sabres with a curled mustache as the party's logo.  So here's some pictures of the decorations and such from the party........ {I do have to say though before getting to the pictures that I wasn't able to get very many good pictures of stuff because I wasn't able to get to the area to set up as early as I would have liked and then I had to go pick my husband up from work and we didn't get back until just after the party started so I had to leave a few last minute things for my mom to do and then missed my best opportunity for pictures..... in fact most of the ones I have of the decorations were actually taken the next day......)

The logo I designed for the party

The invitations

The desert table (without any deserts...) the party was held on my parents deck and it had the feel of the deck of a ship.

the desert table side of the deck again..... you can see one of the tables with it's centerpiece on it (I have a close up picture of the centerpieces further down)

Desert table sans deserts again.... closer view

this 'treasure chest" started life as a blue plastic toy/storage chest for kids from wal-mart that cost somewhere around $5.  I spray painted it (with spray paints I already had none the less) to make it look more realistic

gold nuggets and gold and silver bars pirate booty (aka candy)

picked up this lighted palm tree for 50% off in the summer clearance section of And That!  (which in other places is known as Christmas Tree Shoppes) there's a picture of it lit up further down

close up of the centerpieces..... unfortunately I didn't get a good shot of the tables set up because the final set up of them was one of the things I had to leave for my mom to do while I was gone and by the time I got back there were people sitting at all of them.... lol

This was where the buffet was (up against the wall of their house)

detail shot of the decorations

close up of the pirate flag I made with the party's custom logo (I made a stencil out of ink jet label paper by printing the logo out then cutting it out and stuck it to the back of the flag and the gave it a good spray with white spray paint and this is what bled through)

pirate booty and a pirate skull (which was actually meant to be a Halloween decoration (I got him at And That! too)

I added the mustache myself though ;)

hmmm.... kinda the same picture that you just saw, but here you go I think it's a slightly different angle lol

The Cake

the cake with the lighted palm treee

I had plain black square paper plates for the food but I found these awesome plates at Hobby Lobby and fell in love with them for a pirate party so I got them for the dessert plates

We also had two games, Pin the Mustache on the Pirate, basically pin the tail on the donkey, but with mustaches and a 36"x40" engineering print from staples ($7!) of my dad in his pirate get up; and a sword duel with foam swords from Dollar Tree...... and the prizes were an assortment of mini liquors (Captain Morgans and some others) and some candy..... I may have some pictures of at least the pin the mustache on the pirate game and the prizes, but i don't have them on the computer yet so if and when I do I'll add them to this post :)