Grand Canyon Desert Chili Contest

Grand Canyon Themed Chili Contest

  I have started the post with the check-in area at the front of our office, where we have the chili contest for clients and friends every year in March. In the background you see three of the first four 36" x 72" posters that represent the top of the Grand Canyon.  In the forefront you are greeted by our wolf who overlooks the name tag distribution.

 I set the tables in the hall up into a U formation.  I chose beige vinyl to represent desert sand.  One of my new umbrellas brings the ceiling down for intimacy.  You can see two of the silk plants, a deer, and the centerpiece rings I used to add cacti to the theme.  I had another table for seating farther back by the live band.  This space is quite large and we have used it in many ways for functioning.

 

                

The second set of four posters represented the bottom of the Grand Canyon, with the mule riders, rafters, and camping represented. The band is to the right

of the red chairs.

 In the conference room, I used the monitor to represent the entrance to the park.  The posters in this room showed hikers going down into the canyon. Under the monitor, you see my chili crockpot which has a smaller one to the right of it filled with hot dogs.  There is a container of hot dog buns next to it.

This was very popular last year, and again this year.

  

The conference table was also covered in the beige vinyl. If you are new to the blog, you will see the reusable tin trays under the chilis, which really help to keep the table organized. I reuse my chicken feeder every party.  It is narrow and long and is perfect for the spot.  For this party, I spent months buying cacti to fill it.  I found nice sized ones at Pier One and on a site called afloral.com.  (I am not associated with any stores I mention.)

In the corner of the conference room is my huge camp cook, new to the scene of party characters.

Party goers could "hike" to the back kitchen area to the Canyon Cafe.  My other umbrella was set up back here, along with the trailer tent I bought a few years back and two of my large stuffed deer props.  This is where the dessert bar was.  You see my sister and brother-in-law making final dessert touches to my presentation.  They are the best helpers ever.  I am not entirely sure our clients know that they do NOT work for our company.

Above are the monitors in the kitchen (Desert Cafe) with another entrance to the Grand Canyon Park.  I made cactus cake pops, lemon pound cakes, three different types of pies AND. . .

cactus cookies AND. . .

thin mint cheesecakes (and a chocolate pound cake).

I have added more pieces to my log themed serving platters. 

About five years back, I had a State Fair themed chili contest.  It had a LOT

of carnival games.  The clients loved it.  So, as requested, I have a few every year at this party.  It gives people, who have NOT made a chili, at shot at the cash prizes.  Below you can see the directions board and the hoops on the 

deer's antlers. 

                                          

In the main hall that runs front to back in the office, I had PRAIRIE DOG CURLING.  I use the soft side of industrial size velcro to make wood disks slide.

I bought six round wooden disks at Michaels and painted half red and half blue.

Then I used e-6000 glue to put the six stuffed praired dogs (Amazon) on the disks.  Home Depot sells the mop handles without the heads.  We put soft sided velcro on that also, to prevent floor scratches.  The targets were just blue painters tape.

The last game was a feed the baby owls one.  I reused my ever popular frame with the door knob sized holes my hubby cut for me.  There was a bug points tag next to each one. I reused my nerf ball shooters.  This is fun, but difficult, so that made it popular.  My small bread bowl held candy bug prizes.  The chocolate ones are small chocolate covered oreos (which you can buy) added to chocolate covered pretzels (which you can buy) with melted chocolate.  I attached two candy eyes and licorice antennas.  I actually tied knots in the licorice lace, then dipped the knots in the chocolate to attach to the cookie.  They were all gone at the end of the party, so I assume they were popular.  I had gummy worms and candy ladybugs which I purchased on Amazon.

Lumberjack Chili Contest

 

 

RECIPE FOR PLANNING A PARTY

 

 

 

THEME:  In choosing a theme, I have to consider what props I have stored and

             which ones I would have to purchase new. 

 

             For example, when planning my annual office Margaritaville,  the themes

             all include a beach and palm trees, as those are my stock props I've

             gathered over the years. 

 

             The chili contest themes are usually designed around cows, since I have

              a large collection of standup cardboard cows. 

 

           But, this is not always the case.  Since cowboys have been associated with

           eating chili around campfires, I branched out years back and

           had a western state fair theme and a wild west theme. 

                         For this year's party, I figured lumberjacks

                              would eat chili, and it worked. 

 

                                                

 

 

 

PROPS:  We have a new GIANT holiday tree and a nice sized one from previous years.

             I asked the office staff to not take them to the party shed we rent because

             I wanted to use them (undecorated) for the chili Lumberjack theme.  I brought

             my two artificial trees to the office to add to the "foresty" look of the main

             lobby.  I own two 5' metal birdfeeders.  I filled one of them with sytrofoam and

            added artificial forest greenery to them.  I bought birch logs and branched on

            Amazon.  I drilled holes in the logs and glued the branches into the holes to

            make miniature trees.  See photo below.

 

 

                                            



 



 

I also have two manzanita trees.  I placed a couple of soft owls in theme for centerpieces.

Add some red checked vinyl cloth (Amazon) which I get on big bolts. 

 

 

MURALS:  For each party, I design window murals to fit the theme.  I create these in

               Photoshop in a 14" x 27" blank page.  This allows me to enlarge them to a

              36" x 72" format at either Office Depot or an office printer we use.  For years,

              people have enjoyed them as background, but this year clients actually were

              competing to get one.  I create my own "people" for them from bits and pieces

              of clipart. The guy below was expecially popular.

 

                                                    

 

 

 



 

GAMES:  The clients and staff, especially after the State Fair theme, like a couple

                games.  I made this photo larger in order for you to see the stuffed trees

             on the shelf on the upper right.  I bought 3 bean bag axes on Etsy.  The

             object was to simple knock over the 3 trees to earn a raffle ticket.   

             Sounds easy?  It wasn't.  The fun of a game is to make it look easy, but   

             it actually isn't.  This also gave clients a chance to win cash even if

             they didn't bring a chili.

 

                                                        

   

Lumberjacks need to get their lumber to the river.  So I polyeurathened four slices of wood from Michael's.  I ordered the ax from Etsy.  I already owned the

 wagon prop, the small trees, and the river runner.  The object was to use

the edge of the axe to slideall of the wood slices under the wagon and into the river.  Looks easy?  The table in the photo is deceiving.  It was four tables long.  That's about 20'.  I've learned to be one step ahead of all of these young architects at work.

 

 

PRIZES: 

 

 

I spend a LOT of time on how to vote each year.  I finally came up last year with most likely the fairest way.  Each client gets a cardstock half page with nine

ballots.  They are pre-cut between each one to make tearing off easier. The office manager came up with the idea of using lidded soup cups with slots cut in the

tops for the ballots.   There were only three categories this year, plus best over-all.

So, as you can see below, quite a few people got to win this year.  I made

three mini lego cabins on bases, I gave out 2 axes,  and 4 axe pizza cutters along with

cash prizes.  I also asked everyone to come to the party wearing PLAID.

 

 

There's ALWAYS a live band at each party. This is "Justin Trawick and the Common Good."

 

DESSERTS:  I have find that small bite sized desserts work the best.  My "forest dessert bar" had artificial turf, small trees, log trays and small furry animals.  I made my apple pies even smaller, black forest cherry cheesecakes, a log roll, cake pops, and owl cookies.

 



 

Don't let mama bear scare you.  Or mama fox.  I have a collection of life-sized animals
I love to fit into various themes.  There are 3 baby bears, a baby fox, mama skunk, 3 baby skunks, and various others.  Below are small versions of all eight panels.