Nautical Birthday

I put on a birthday party for hubby this weekend on my deck.  Since I am also doing a nautical themed wedding in the fall, a nautical twist to the office Margarita Party, and a cruise theme for the Christmas office party, I am collecting boats, flags, graphics, and made a dock.

In the top left box of the collage is the antique window with twelve panes I got on Etsy.  It is going away tomorrow to be professionally painted for the wedding.  My hubby helped me make the stand for it.  On Sunday, after the party, we trimmed the stand down when we realized how much room it took up on the table.  We cut the lower front pieces off and it still stands great.  If you see the yacht in the middle, I made that from bits and pieces of other clipart boats to get just what I want.  I am going to give you the jpg to enlarge if you want to use it.

           Hubby and I love watching the tv show "Shark Tank."  I thought it would be funny to give him a shark tank of his own for his birthday.  He loved it. 
         In the top right corner of the collage are my kids posing in front of the four new 18 foot trees I got him for his birthday.  Our neighbor's house is pretty close, now we have privacy.
          Costco had beautiful white rose and cactus arrangements which my oldest girl turned into fabulous arrangements in my white milk pitchers I've been collecting.

 Here are the crab cookies.  My second attempt at piping edges and filling in the middle with frosting.  The are at the end of the dock I built with my son's blocks.

We strung two strands of clear bulbs across the deck and it gave us just the right amount of light.

 (Sur la Table sells 4" tart shell pans.  Each one makes four pie shells.)

I went on Pinterest and learned you can make pie crusts from cake mixes.  It really works.
1.  Use one box of any flavor  SIFTED cake mix.  (I used chocolate).
2.  Add 1 whole egg and 3 egg yolks.
3.  1 Tblsp slightly softened butter.

4.  Knead then wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 15 minutes.



5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.



6.  Fill with 8 oz cream cheese softened, mixed with 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 2 Tblsp heavy cream, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 egg.  Blend above with mixer.
7.  Top with canned fruit toppings, or crush candies or cookies in to filling.  I crushed Oreo cookies and folded them in.

I needed extra seating, so I placed one of my lounge chairs ( which have double pads) against the sliding doors with lots of pillows.  I used two card tables.  I added my wooden chairs that go with my outside table around the outside.  It worked great.  I brought my dining room chairs outside and this gave me extra seating around my patio table.  I have a round patio table from the backyard that seated six with my kitchen chairs.  Twenty-five people sitting down to dinner outside--no problem.  I am from a large Italian family, so I have even more chairs downstairs for holidays.

It was a fun party.