There’s no possible way to capture a party properly in photos, especially when you are trying to host one… but we’ll do our best here. Thanks to John Biehler for graciously taking some photos during the event… they turned out great! Below you’ll see a mix of my photos and John’s photos. Hope you enjoy!

Photo Credit: John Biehler

As mentioned before, this past Friday, November 13th was my birthday party (on my actual birthday) as well as our (Allan and I) housewarming party. A 2-in-1 party that was a lot of fun to prepare for and host.

I would say that it was a success! Allan and I sat down and did the numbers. Over 230 people attended… a 50L of Granville Island “Island Lager” (approximately 146 bottles of beer… thank you Matty and Granville Island Brewery!) completely tapped, an additional 150 bottles of beer consumed, 4 x 1.75L bottles of Grey Goose, 4 bottles of Zaya rum, 4 boxes of Patron tequila, 4 bottles of Giffard’s Manzana Verde, a bottle of Hennessey XO cognac, Jameson 18 Irish Whiskey, and Glenfiddich 18 Scotch whiskey… completely drained. Not to mention over 40 more full bottles of liquor completely consumed. Phew! I would say we had some heavy drinkers at the party

Not to mention over 100 bottles and cans of mixers drained…

A fridge full of food eaten…

20 portions of cheese…

Even more beer and liquor brought by friends consumed…

4 bushels of mint used in cocktails…

10 pounds of chocolate…

50 homemade chocolate creme brulees…

Hundreds of bamboo plates, cutlery and napkins…

Over 20 sliced french baguettes, served with double creme d’Affinois brie and an assortment of jellies and toppings…

One litre of bocconcini with roasted tomatoes, basil, and flat leaf parsely…

40 boxes of homemade noodles and chicken…

20 beef tenderloin steaks…

50 macaroni and cheese muffins…

Many, many bags of popcorn…

15 homemade pizzas served…

Photo Credit: John Biehler

Over 100 homemade cookies baked on the spot and eaten…

Dozens of petit fours (bought, not made)… and that’s a lot of food!

Photo Credit: John Biehler

We had the outside patio decorated with white lights, dozens of candles and lanterns, and a couple patio heaters to stay warm! Luckily it didn’t rain so we didn’t need to put up the tent!

Photo Credit: John Biehler

And then, there were the drinks…

Freshly made mojitos…

Whiskey sours and whiskey on the rocks…

My signature martini (watermelon, pomegranate juice, apple liqueur, Grey Goose, lime, lemon, and mint… all blended with ice)…

Photo Credit: John Biehler

Photo Credit: John Biehler

Many chocolate martinis served…

A “pom cosmo”…

Rum rita…

Irish coffee served with Jameson 18 whiskey, Italian Bodom-brewed coffee, freshly whipped cream, brown sugar, and topped with Butter vanilla and coffee marshmallows toasted with a torch…

Irish car bombs…

Dark chocolate creme brulees, torched…

The full drink list for the party… (needless to say I spent the entire time behind the bar)

The dress I wore to the party… a pink and purple silk party dress by Meghan Los Angeles. Yes, it’s totally over the top and ridiculous, and definitely a “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To” dress… but I couldn’t resist.

Here’s the back of the dress… I really loved the bow and the low back on it!

Here’s the jewelry I wore… beautiful custom-made handcrafted silver crocheted pink Swarovski jewelry by Isabella Diamond here in Vancouver. The ring even lasted through all the drink mixing, haha.

Photo Credit: John Biehler

I also got to meet some fabulous bloggers in Vancouver for the first time… thanks to Raul, Liv, Greg, Mozy, Aidan, Kimm, Tyler, John, Jerk, Tawcan, and Josh for coming out!

Photo Credit: John Biehler

All in all the party was a lot of fun. We finally finished our apartment (pictures coming soon), and it was great to see all our friends out. Allan and I both had an amazing time. Thanks for reading this huge long post!

After a couple months of basically being a recluse and feeling rather cooped up, we finally threw a small party. My skin has mostly cleared up now, and things are looking much brighter for the future. I’m feeling very happy these days. Plus, in 4 days I’ll be in Costa Rica!

It was Allan’s birthday on Sunday so we decided to have a little get-together over at our place on Saturday night.

Allan likes beer, so we stocked the fridge full of his favourite beers for the party.

There was barely any room in the fridge for food, including the fridge door!

Allan got a new BBQ for his birthday and we finally made use of our new patio. We got the Weber Q300 barbecue and we LOVE it! It heats up really hot, really fast and evenly distributes the heat no matter how high or low. It’s also really portable, and has a good-sized cooking surface. Good value, too! (Despite us looking all over town and them being sold out EVERYWHERE we finally found it in a small independent and I haggled till the bitter end for a good price)

We provided some small appies for the party. I made up some cheese and bread spreads. Pictured here is the double cream brie and red pepper jelly, fig spread with parmigiano reggiano, smoked mozzarella and ham, and cheddar.

We cooked up some 3-night marinaded Maui-style ribs from Granville Island, along with homemade hamburgers, ribeye steak and beef filet mignons. Sides were risotto and grilled veggies.

There weren’t many leftovers!

I also found THE BEST rum EVER in the liquor store the other day. I’ve never had expensive rum before and wow, is it ever worth it. It’s called Zaya Gran Reserva, aged 12 years and handcrafted in Trinidad & Tobago. 5 times distilled. It is really, REALLY good. We made some mojitos from it, although some people preferred to just sip it.

Shelley McArthur, AWESOME Communications Director from Top Table Restaurants (some of my fave restaurants in BC) sent me this incredible mojito recipe from Keith Trusler, Bar Manager at Blue Water Cafe. Top Table has some of the best bartenders in BC so definitely check out Araxi, Blue Water Cafe, West, or Cin Cin for divine drinks. The taste is all in the careful preparation! We used the Zaya Rum, but the Havana Club rum still tastes great for this recipe:

Blue Water Cafe Mojito, by Keith Trusler

1/2 lime, divided into 8ths
10 mint leaves, bruised to release flavour (roll into a ball and clap with your hands)
1 1/2 ounces Havana Club Anejo Reserva Rum
Club Soda and Crushed Ice

In a tall glass, muddle lime and mint with the simple syrup. Top with crushed ice. Pour in rum and stir together. Top with club soda. Enjoy!

Sooo good.

After mixing drinks for a while, I decided to sit down and believe it or not the BOYS got into the kitchen and started mixing up their own drinks.

One of the best ones was the watermelon martini made with Grey Goose, Sourz and Simple Syrup. Yum!

Other not-so-good drinks the boys made was mixes of beer and gin and gatorade. Not so good.

Believe it or not, there are THREE people on this chair, haha.

Here they are mixing up more drinks.

Here we are outside, after inspecting a huge beetle that was on the porch.

It was a great night! Lots of food, drinks, and fun. It was great to have some of our friends over too, since it had been a while

What did you do this weekend?