an oscar soirée

We love the Oscars (okay, we're borderline obsessed)! Once the Oscar nominations are released we panic, adjust our schedules, and begin the process of seeing every film on the list. Then after hours of movies, discussion, and popcorn eating, the sacred night descends upon us.  Normally, we prepare lots of nominated movie inspired foods, curl up on the couch, and sit in rapture as the show unfolds.  This year we decided to break tradition and drag our friends and family into our evening. They may not have enjoyed being forced to dress up or the (surprise!) paparazzi on the red carpet, but the good food and contagious Oscar energy is undeniable and we soon had them under our spell.  Eschewing our past evenings of pajamas and chocolate pie (for The Help, of course), we decided to have one of our typical over-the-top parties.Take a peek at our evening...Guests arrived at 5 pm and strolled the Walk of Fame up to the house.They made a quick stop on the red carpet to be photographed by the paparazzi in front of our sponsor backdrop (made with white butcher paper and a stencil of our logo)! The occasion was perfect for dusting off our prom dresses!The focus of the room was the television (to watch The Oscars, of course!) So to dress it up, we painted 8 ft. film strips to hang from the ceiling on either side of the TV.  Easy to make, all you need is butcher paper, black paint, and a ruler!  And if you're as messy as us, we recommend a drop cloth.We also made Oscar statue cookies, one for each category, using a mummy shaped cookie cutter from CopperGifts.com (we used item#5452) and inspiration from bakerella !Nothing says the movies like popcorn! (And we love our popcorn!) We set up a popcorn cart and halfway through the show popped fresh popcorn for our guests to enjoy after dinner. And what's popcorn without a few toppings?Our favorite part of the party was watching the show with our fellow movie stars!  Our biggest and most time-consuming project was creating a 5'x8' backdrop to hang behind the couch, which made it look and feel like we were sitting in the front row of the theatre.We used the same mummy cookie cutter that we made the Oscar cookie statues with as a stencil to decorate the back of everyone's ballots.Another time consuming, (and rewarding), project was creating 165 feet of star strands.  We used a star punch to cut out all the stars from glitter paper and glued all of them to clear fishing wire.We hung the strands from a chandelier, creating a tent shape behind the table.Our centerpiece was made of 3 dozen roses stuck into a wet foam ball, guarded by two golden statues (drawing mannequins that we spray painted gold).We served chilled champagne, dressed up in bow ties and bendy straws.

We call this dressed up charcuterie! We decorated the cheese and crackers with olives.We had greek and kale salads, homemade hummus with pita wedges and sliders for dinner.The party was a success and we'll have to do it again next year!xoxo, Keya and EricaPhoto Credit: Erik Shafer