Guys ‘n’ gals, let me tell you it’s been a retro-coaster of a month!

My hubby’s birthday looms over January like a dark cloud.  Not cause I dislike his birthday, but because it’s hard enough to come up with something to buy him for Christmas, even more-so when I have to get him something only four weeks later, for his birthday.

The list of ideas isn’t endless, in fact, it’s really short (and ever shortening!).  Trying to come up with stuff to buy for him that isn’t ‘generic’, or that is a little ‘different’, something that stands out from things that other people, who isn’t his wife, could buy for him.  It’s not easy!

He is the hardest person to buy for, that anyone knows!

This year, I decided to indulge his 80’s obsession and throw him an 80’s fancy dress themed party.  I’ve never really paid much attention to the 80’s, I was born in ’85 and although I have been subjected to Col’s eclectic 80’s music tastes for almost five years now, I’ve never *really* looked at the decade in detail.  I guess, I’d never really had much cause.  Until now!

As soon as I pick a theme for a party, I go to Pinterest to look for inspiration, and I found a plethora of ideas to try out.

I started in the garage on probably the worst weather-day we’ve had in Houston, in a long, long time, the first of two tornado days we’ve had, both, coincidentally,  in the space of only a few weeks.

In this 80’s party on Pinterest, they used neon cassette tapes as decorations, which I thought was pretty cool, they also strung up some old videos (VHS’s) on the wall.  I decided to merge the two and string up up neon cassette tapes.

My friend Natalie and I sat on the floor in Half Price Books for a while and picked out a bunch of cassette tapes (all from the 80’s of course) and on this tornado warning-filled day, I cracked open the garage door and started in to the project of making the tapes neon.

The other idea that I got from this post, was the LP back-drop.  Again, another trip to Half Price Books with Natalie, resulted in me buying a pile of 45’s and making this,

From here, I got the idea for these cake-stands, which I used as single-tiered food stands.

The last of my main ideas for the party decorations, I can’t find the link that I picked it up from (but it was from Pinterest I think).  I tried to do it on my own, but it was a little hotter than I expected and required more hands than I had, so I recruited Col in to helping me out.

It was quite a fun evening actually, we enjoyed manipulating the vinyl into bowl-shapes and trying to ‘beat the clock’ and getting the bowl in to the shape we wanted, before it re-hardened!

I also invest in these cute little suckers, however, although when Frances cut the dough, they looked shapely-like, when the cookies were cooked, they didn’t hold their shape – which was disappointing, as I’d bought cookie icing to decorate them and everything!

The other thing that confused us, is the fact that they give you three ghosties, all you need is Pacman and one ghostie – the ghosties are all the same!!

Costume wise, I wanted to go neon! I saw some cute leg warmers on Ravelry and decided to make them for myself (after a quick trip to Hobby Lobby for the yarn).  I picked up a neon pink ‘Hello Kitty’ shirt on Ebay bigger than normal, tore the neck so it was big enough to slouch over my shoulder, I bought some T-shirt clips, stuck on my exercise joggers and topped the outfit off with a pair of yellow slip-on shoes that I got at the Salvation Army.

My stylist, Angel, came by the house to sort my hair and make-up, adding the necessary finishing touches to my 80’s get-up and we were ready to go!

For the food, I’d done a simple menu (ok, so I’d intended on going a little more elaborate, but I ran out of time so had no choice but to stay simple!).

Savoury dishes:

– Cheese ball with pita chips (seen here in my Thanksgiving recipe post)
– Nancy’s Petite quiches
– Chicken Vol au Vents
– Cheese, pineapple and pickled onion on a stick
– Coronation chicken (Made by Magz)
– Scotch eggs (Made by Crystal)
– Pork pies (Made by Frances)
– Sausage rolls
– Popcorn
– Double tomato bruschetta
– Egg and onion sandwiches
– Ham and Cheese sandwiches
– Doritos

Sweeties:

– Pop Rocks
– Pixy stix
– Ring pops
– Fun dips / Dip dabs
– Nerds
– Cola bottles
– Gummy bears
– Caramel Squares / Millionaires shortbread (Made by Crystal)
– Chocolate cake-pops dipped in Pop rocks
– Candy necklaces / candy bracelets
– Two chocolate tartes (brought by Nicole)

Random Additions:
– Rubix cubes food tags (Dollar Store)
– Glow sticks (Walmart)
– Funky/Krazy/Bendy straws (Dollar Store)
– Party bags (containing slap-on bracelets, mini-slinkies – Walmart)
– Shutter shades
– 80’s cutouts
– Space invaders tape
– I also ordered posters from allposters.com, inspite of the ‘ships within 24 hours’ and paying an absolute FORTUNE for shipping, they didn’t get here in time.  I’d definitely not recommend this site to anyone, unless you order with a month to go before your party!

‘Special’ Drinks

-Capri Sun (1981)
– Old-Style Soda in glass bottles (Big Lots)
– Throwback Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Mtn. Dew

Food, decor, costume – that just about covers it, eh?

The party itself was a raging success, probably my most favourite party that I’ve done.  Everyone came in fantastic fancy-dress, everyone ate, drank and were merry.  Singstar was, as always, exercised, as was Mario Kart and Sonic the Hedgehog, even little Eve cried so hard when it was time to go home!  I’ll share the fun pictures in another post, but, for now, have a teaser…