The theme for the party was a tropical island forest. This is the front of the office and one of the two check-ins. The clients loved this.

In addition to scuba diving, I wanted a lagoon, so I created this one.  I had fun building these panels.  The little fish are part of a centerpiece that was on the bar in the room.

I used teal tableclothes to match the water, and created lighted fish bowl centerpieces.

I ordered rubber fish and plastic coral and blue rocks.  Then I found Amazon also

sells balloon lights.  The are the white circles you see in the bowl above.

They last for days and days.  

Here is the centerpiece.  I used square wood blocks covered in the blue glass rocks.

I glued the poles to each board.  I ordered plush sea life on Amazon.  This was another

popular feature.

Above are the middle of the office check in panels.  This gave the allusion of

forest and tropical flowers leading back to the outdoor patio tent.

I used my two river rugs outside, along with "petaled" green table clothes, that I also

got on Amazon.  I already owned four green umbrellas.

I bought two bamboo panels for behind the buffet table.  I had wired screen that

I tied lush greenery and flowers to for the tropical feel.

I pulled out every tropical silk plant that I have stored in the office's party shed.

The I added tropical basket arrangements I made.

You can see my leaf runner I have used for over ten years.

Here is another look at the second arrangement and flowers on the screen.

For years, I used the rectangular tables on risers for a bar height bar in the garden.

We gave them away.  The round tables you saw above are the new kitchen tables.

I wanted two bar height tables (badly).  So I ordered a small bar height square patio table on Amazon, and had my hubby cut the legs down to fit  30" chairs, which office owns.

Then I found a round tabletop on Amazon that we screwed to the other table.  Add a petaled tablecloth and you see how nice it is.  I made two and had the other by the band.

The dessert bar is always a treat.  This year I hid ice cream sandwiches on the other side of the office in the freezer.  The guests had to fololw a "scuba trail" to find them  They loved this.

I also usually order cheesecakes and bundt cakes.  I found a bakery that just makes cake pops.  This was a BOON!!!!  I had the monitors set to "coral reefs" above the desserts. Each dessert label was a widelife creature you'd find on a reef.

A tropical island will have lots of birds. Every tree in the office garden had at least five stuffed parrots.  The guests thought this was hysterical.

A tropical island also has wild animals.  These were in the check-in area.  They ended up being donated to a local school.

Of course there were flamingos.

 

We had a pre-covid size crowd.  It was a beautiful warm day.  The band was great, the food was great, a desserts were fun, and everything was just as I imagined it to be.  The last photo is of my daughter.  Over the years, she has arranged to hire all of the bands, in addition to being my right hand.  She knows Hobby Lobby inside out.  Please note the pot behind her.  Someone on the staff asked who was watering these pots.  Job well done when people think they are real.

Margaritaville Luau Style

For those of you who have been following me for the last five years or so, you know that
I have been trying out new palm tree props.  I have progressed from the cardboard tube ones to silk palms.  I wanted the office garden to look PLUSH.  The party goers told me
I had achieved that goal.  I purchased many silk palms on sale and put two or three in big pots that stay in the garden year round.  I added silk tropical flowers and palm leaf to the bottoms.  When we were setting up, it was windy, so we went and bought BRICKS to weigh them down.  This worked like a charm.

The garden itself is pretty green.  I bought the water fountain years ago for the office.  I brought over my red patio 9' umbrellas to give two extra pops of color to the event.

Normally I have the tables up on bed risers to make them into bars.  Unfortunately the rental company stopped providing us with bar stools that raised and lowered.  I will have to find a new company, as the only stools they did provide were too tall to even sit on.

I debated with myself about making this seal pool, but one of the clients brought her daughter and grandson, who LOVED the pool and played in the balls.  It was worth it.

I reworked the coral reefs from last years' Australian party.  I needed the chicken feeders for my tropical floral arrangements this year.  I found these two metal tubs at Hobby Lobby and spray painted them. The diver was Velcro strapped to the tree.  If this is your first visit, those are rubber fish I purchased online.

The high tops were covered in green tablecloths to show off the fish bowls.  I have reused these bowls for so many events.  They were so worth the purchase.  I put them on the
candle stands I made, added blue rocks to the bottom, and  I added tropical garland strands I'd made.  The best touch was the hollow ceramic koi fish I found in a California gift store.  The fish floated around in the water.  The staff and clients really took note of this.

The office is growing rapidly.  They put up TWO monitors in this kitchen area to have
extra conference space.  I now design computer posters for both of these to match my dessert bars.

Every single log/wooden serving piece I've bought or made fits into my themes.  I actually created the pattern on the hula dancers and made these Polynesian people bit by bit in Photoshop.  If you enlarge this, you will see that the girls are triplets.  Ha ha.  The hotel in the background actually took me hours and hours to design.  I wondered if anyone would even notice.  They DID.   What was really a difficult job was making ocean waves.  

 Above is the Tiki Bar I designed for this scene.  I originally wanted people sitting on the sand at a luau.  I couldn't do it, so I put them sitting at a bar. This was weeks and weeks of work, but worth it.  In the photo you can see my little chairs again.  They also get used a LOT.  They are in the tray filled with crushed cookie sand and sugar cookie flip flops.  I made the straps with fondant.  The flamingos are sitting on lemon pound cakes.  The glaze looks a little sloppy, but no one cares, because the cakes are delicious.  I have found that guests don't like to be the first one to slice a cake, so I always start that first slice right away.

In the front of this photo take note to the palm leaves I cut out for doilies.  The tiny pies are key lime cheesecake filled.  I REALLY wanted to make tiki god cake pops, but I'm not that talented.  So I used big candy eyes, m&m noses, white cane sprinkes for mouths.  I finished them off with paper umbrellas. The guests found them hilarious.  The pineapple cake pops are actually made with pineapple cake.  I dipped them in yellow chocolate and added yellow jimmies.  I struggled for two weeks as to how to make the leaves.  I ended up cutting rectangles of green fondant, rolling it into tubes, snipping one end and bending back the leaves.  They dried overnight.  I poked holes in them and slid them onto the sticks. 

 The other pies were just okay.  I ended up going to a funeral the afternoon of the party.  I learned a VALUABLE LESSON.  When you make a cheese cake filling and have chocolate in it, and you put it in the refrigerator overnight, everything stiffens up.  It takes HOURS to defrost.  I spent those hours honoring someone.  NO REGRETS.

What about the beach rug you always put out?  You were thinking that, weren't you?
Well, the big turtle made it back.  We moved the band farther into the garden, so there was more room for it. This photo shows my parrot arrangement and one of the chicken feeder floral arrangements.

 Yes, the tiki hut I made from bookshelves was back.  See all the barbecue sauces the caterer brought on the shelf.  The stuffed parrots are a BIG HIT every year.

Here's a closer shot of the chicken feeder arrangement with orchids (silk).

Here is my sister-in-law who comes to both client parties every year and works and works and works, so that I can talk to clients and keep things moving.  She is standing in front of one of the Waikiki Beach check-in posters and my captain made from wall insulation.
We really liked this area for check-in since it was close to the party, but I made four posters (since I thought we might be inside with the hurricane coming).  I learned that I can only use two in this area.  This is hubby's office with sliding doors, so posters don't really work here.

Lois made Charleston's Ultimate Coconut Cake because we couldn't have it shipped up due to the ----Hurricane.  It was fabulous.  They actually post the recipe online.  

I wanted guests and clients to check-in at Waikiki Beach.  I have four posters representing that.   You can also see Hawaii's famous pink hotel and people on the beach behind the check-in table.  There's the yacht on which the Captain and his first mate arrived.

We moved the band farther into the garden under their own tent this year.  

I wanted to cover one of the partner's messy computer chords, so I put up these two posters.

This worked great, but when we found out my animated pig centerpiece danced to the band, that was PERFECT.

I am going to end with this beautiful LIVE arrangement one of hubby's partner's wives made.  Isn't it gorgeous.  I am now beginning to plan for next party.  

Tiki God from Cardboard Tube

My cardboard tube (from Amazon) was a 5" diameter.  I could have spent a LOT more money on a sono tube, which are used for pouring cement forms, but wanted to keep the costs down to a reasonable expense.  I found a 5" diameter plumbing piece at Lowes with a 7" base which holds his light weight and makes a perfect stand.  His arms are 2" mailing tubes (from Amazon).  Before covering the larger tube, I cut holes into it for the arm slits.


I started by wrapping the entire tube in brown fun foam.  I use tacky glue that I mix with just a small amount of water to make it a thick, paintable substance.  I also use painters tape to secure the edges until my characters dry.  It peels off of the fun foam easily.  If
you look closer, you will still see a piece down by his feet.

Lowes and Home Depot (not sponsors) sell wall insulation in 2' x 2' sections.  I bought a piece of that size for the hands and the feet.  

After he was dry, I cut holes through the fun foam where the arm slots had been cut.  I pounded 3" of each end of the 2" tubes flat with a hammer.  I used E-6000 glue to attach them.

I made patterns for the hands, feet, and face in Photoshop.

If you see the hand has an extension box.  This is 2" tall at the end.  It fits into the end of the arm mailing tube.  I used a peach Sharpie to color the nails.  I made the face in layers.  I enlarged each pattern to the size I wanted.  If you convert images to Adobe in your print menu, a box appears to let you enlarge items to any poster size you want.
You can look up the directions on how to do this on the internet.  I never knew that converting images in the 'choose printer' menu did this, until my hubby showed me.
I doubled the size of the 8" x 11" image to get my face.  I glued the four sheets of the pattern together, then cut it out, traced it with a sharpie onto the fun foam, and cut it out.  I did the same process for the hands and feet.  

His FEATHERS are 5 feather picks from Michael's.  I used a 5" diameter insulation piece and glued it into the top of the tube.  When I used my foam burner to cut the circle, I also burned holes into middle of the circle to stick the picks into.

I used this guy's headpiece as inspiration for the darker brown crown under the feathers.
The hula skirts (Amazon) is an adult size one that I wrapped around three times and sewed in place.  He is about 5 1/2 feet tall. If I had tried to buy one this size, he would have been hundreds of dollars.  I am quite please with the result.  When I post photos of the actual Luau in September, I will tell you how people reacted to him.