in the studio :: 80’s party

Welcome to In The Studio, a place to show off your studio and meet some great artists! I’m going to start out with a confession to make on this fine Friday. I am terribly independent. I saw my mother recently took one of those Facebook tests. This particular one was what trait defines your daughter. Guess what came up? Independent. Now I don’t necessarily believe independence is a bad thing…except when it is. In my case, in my moments of doing something by myself and feeling stressed, God frequently asks me, “Why didn’t you ask for help?” Well, because I’m terribly independent. 🙂

Where am I going with this? Well, you see, when Jeremy and Emma G’s totally rockin’ 80’s party started at 3 pm, there was no food out and no drinks made. I was still preparing fruit kabobs, and the 7 layer dip hadn’t even been started. As I watched my friends step in and just start helping, I was reminded that asking for help is not a sign of weakness. Rather, it’s remembering that it’s ok to ask these friends, this non-blood family that I’m surrounded with, for a little help sometimes. It was a beautiful start to one of the funnest (that’s not a word, is it?) parties I’ve ever thrown.

I racked my brain (and Pinterest) to jog my memory for my menu. I forgot just how artificial food was in the 80’s! So terrible! Manwich sloppy joe’s, pizza rolls, TV dinners, Little Debbie sweets, Sunny D, they all were a part of my diet in the 80’s. I strive to deliver healthy meals to my family, so I put a homemade spin on these processed food favorites. Well, except for the cheese Doritos.

The sloppy joe’s were amazing! The pizza rolls were ok. I think proper won ton wrappers would have been better than the spring roll pastry I used. 7 layer dip…well, can you go wrong with that? I loved this recipe, because it called for Greek yogurt rather than sour cream. I put the chips in melted records I made. So fun! The twinkies were SO time consuming (partly the reason I wasn’t ready at 3). I didn’t even inject them with cream. They were good, but I don’t know if I’ll ever do that again. Whew! The Pacman sugar cookies were fun. I got the idea from Cut Out & Keep and used her icing recipe but stuck with my favorite sugar cookie recipe. Rainbow fruit kabobs offered a bit of a healthy option. Sunny D was freshly squeezed orange juice, and the Hawaiian Punch…oh my, so good!

While the 80’s tunes played, we played Twister, the kids did tie dyed tees using sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol, and a competition of Just Dance eventually ensued, but the best was seeing everyone dress up from the 80’s. Totally gnarly! Emma G’s costume might have been the best, even though I did wear a rainbow unicorn t-shirt. (I do admit that I had a unicorn poster hanging in my room during my 80’s childhood.)

Don’t we like totally look like some too cool for school 80’s lovers? I’m thinking about doing my hair like that everyday.

You can’t have a party without cake. I made lots of suggestions to Miss Emma. The ones that finally landed were rainbow swirled vanilla cupcakes and a rainbow cake with buttercream icing. So yum.

I just love these two and had SO MUCH fun celebrating who they are. Yay for birthdays and for beautiful people to celebrate!

I’m looking forward to seeing your totally gnarly creativity this week! I bet it’s going to be tubular!

Now it’s your turn! Remember your “studio” can be anywhere. Let’s celebrate each other’s creativity by linking up and visiting as many as the other studios as you can. Check out the about post for more info and don’t forget to grab the In The Studio button!