Margaritta Party with a Pirate Twist

This year's office Margarita Party had a PIRATE theme.  It was actually held on "Talk Like A Pirate Day."  I made the beach from the rubber pads they sell to put under floating floors. I smeared TONS of glue by the gallon, two in fact, on with wads of paper towels.  I used a painting tray to hold the glue.  Then my husband helped sprinkle sand onto the glue.  It took about two days of two hour effort, but boy was it worth it.  The guests loved it. I even placed a fresh layer of sand on the day of the party and placed starfish in the sand.  The band stood to the right and partially on it.  I can't overstate how important and fun live bands are.  I had previously owned two of the lawn inflatable palm trees, but had used them so many times over the years at parties that they popped.  I found two more on ebay this year.  I hate bidding, so I love the sites where they say "buy now."

Practically Einstein is the name of the fabulous band we used.

I usually buy props I can use over and over for different themes.  This is the third party for the ice bucket boat.  I set the skeleton up for Halloween in the office last year in his cowboy boots, hat, and leather jacket.  Now he's a pirate.  The black velveteen jacket is from my son's fourth grade costume.  The treasure chest made its first appearance at the Safari baby shower.

To the left of the beach sat my first high top long table.  We have these 28" wide office tables that we keep in the office "kitchen."  I had always wanted to raise them up to bar height, but I couldn't figure out how to do so.  Finally, I wondered if I could just use bed risers.  They come in 5" and 7" heights.  I used two sets of the 7" ones.  The table was exactly the height for the rental bar stools.  I used 12" grass skirting that I had ordered last year for the tiki bar I built.  Architect offices always have rolls of brown paper.  I squared and taped the corners.  I printed off color pirate map images and glued them on to my map.  Then my husband used his architect printing to label the items as I drew the dotted lines.  This was a very popular table to sit at. 

Above are some of my teacher friends with the fun foam pirate photo props.  I get to invite my friends to the parties as a thank you from the staff for planning, organizing, and baking for them.

                             
 Here are a couple of pirates in front of my umbrella palm trees I made two years ago.  
If you'd like directions for the masks, go here. 

I love to use the office glass for clipart.  So these pirates (there were six of them) led you down the hall to the back of the office where the party was being held.  I had wanted them "people" height, but since the office sent them out for printing this year, a mix up occurred.  But, everyone loved them anyway.

One of my pirates with a cardstock standup

My husband liked the standup cows from the last party so much, he ordered pirates for this one.  Here is me giving Johnny Depp a hug.  I'm wearing the pirate apron I got on Etsy.com

Here is one of my best friends in her pirate apron standing by the check-in table.  Most of the time, everyone just grabs their badges and leaves this area.  This year I put up the beach landscaped (sh...shower curtains) murals.  I placed a fishing net over the teal tablecloth.  You can see the parrots this year were in a bird cage.  I use them differently each year.  Last year they sat on top of glass jar chandeliers.  I gave pirate lanyards out this year.  The Margaritaville sign I had a sign shop make last year found a new home. I had a palm tree and pirate ship there also.  I had plastic swords for people to take.  This turned out to be a popular spot.

I made this sign and we printed it large and had it by the check-in table.  The photo had glare, so I am just showing you the clipart.  Each pirate was a conglomeration of different

pirate clipart pieces I liked.   These same clipart pirates were also the food labels.  See below.

Another of my best friends, Karen, made these tomato, mozzarella, and basil appetizers on swords, no less.  I wanted you to see the pirate map napkins I'd ordered.

 Here is the second appearance of the tiki bar.  My husband bought me a teak shelf this year to hold the rolls for the pulled beef and pulled chicken we'd ordered from Red, Hot, and Blue.  Those are chicken wings between them.  I ordered the tiny lanterns this year to give the bar a little extra glow.  

My previous post talked about the shark head I found at Forbes Candies.  Here is sits with the cocktail sauce in it's mouth next to the shrimp.  There's homemade hot crab next on the other side of him.  Yumm....

If you'd like directions go here.

I bought these cute turquoise boat dishes on Etsy.com.  I made small wooden blocks with dowels in them that I painted brown.  I just printed the pirate flag on card stock and punched a hole in the top and bottom of it.  We filled the dishes with trail mix to put on each of the high top tables.


Here are the sail boats I made from baskets.  I bought the water gauze from stumps.com.
Each boat held a different flavor of cookie bar.  I had chocolate chunk in one, banana split in the middle, and pineapple coconut in the third boat.

I thought it would be fun to turn the bar cookies into sundaes. Here is the set up.  On the left in the photo is a stack of plastic banana split boats to build them in.  I ordered them from webstaurant.com.  I great source for kitchen/party supplies.

 Here's another of my best friends enjoying her sundae...and her margarita.  I think everyone had fun.  But...for those of you wondering...the fire circle was open and there were s'mores being made.  I also made frozen s'mores in my tiny cheese cake pans that make 12 at a time.  I made tons of these and worried that they'd melt.  It was another sunny day this year, after 20 plus years of rain.  I ordered a tray from www.frontgate.com that you put in the refrigerator.  It stays cool for hours.  But these frozen treats got snatched up as fast as I could pull them from the freezer.  I got the recipe on Pinterest...where else?

Ar....