If your child is having a pirate themed birthday party, which is certainly one of the more popular choices at the moment, then maybe you could try to tie in the party food to this theme. Let me offer a few suggestions. You know that jug of juice you have sitting there? How about drawing, or printing off a pirate themed label which explains clearly to all budding scallywags that this ‘ere be Pirate Grog.

You can easily label plates of food such as sandwiches and sausage rolls using sandwich flags. You can label these anything you like, such as transforming crisps into ‘Pieces of Eight’, cheese sandwiches into ‘Map Slices’ and of course the plate of cocktail sausages could be ‘Pirate Fingers’!

It’s surprising how simply labelling food like this sparks children’s imaginations, and often you’ll find less food being thrown away at the end. Children have fantastic imaginations, and just by doing something as simple as this you can turn the meal into another game.

Of course, planning a children’s party and preparing the party food is time consuming, but if you do find you can call upon some extra help and you have enough time you can always try doing one or two fancy things with the food. For example, rather than cutting the sandwiches into triangles or rectangles, how about cutting them into bone shapes? Or skulls? Just draw or print out a template onto cardboard, cut it out and then use this as a template.

If you have any suggestions of how you can turn ordinary party food into themed food, do please share your suggestions by using the comments box below!

Interestingly, did you know that it was on this day, the 5th December 1697 that the very first Sunday service was held in the new St Paul’s Cathedral. Particularly interesting considering the recent disruptions to the services there – who would have thought? Still, it’s not for us to judge, and we’re certainly not going to ‘do a Clarkson’. It says something about you when your name becomes a noun, doesn’t it?

With all of the Christmas planning at the moment it’s easy to overlook a few basic things, such as glasses and paper plates. So much of the time over the festive season you have plates of sausage rolls, bowls of nuts, bowls of crisps and plates of nibbly things for people, from lunches and buffets to simple snacks left lying around for people to find and help themselves to.

But that’s a lot of washing up.

Why not save yourself some washing up by using paper plates instead of your normal china ones? There is a wide range to choose from, and in fact using bright red paper plates and paper bowls the seasonal fair can look very festive indeed. Paper plates can sometimes look a bit cheap, but we don’t stock that kind. You’ll find our party plates and bowls are very strong and sturdy, and look fantastic with their bright colours. The best thing is that when you’re done you can simply toss them in the bin (the recycling bin if you have one) and the job is done. Consider it a gift to yourself, of time!

Free Drink #1
So you’re sitting at the bar, or at a table, and you spot a drink you fancy. Perhaps it’s a traditional old pint of Blithering Idiot or Old Leghumper (both real beers in fact!) or a wee dram of the old Scottish water. How do you make it yours? Here’s how.

Find yourself a hat. Pop it over the drink, covering it completely. Now bet your friend a round of drinks that you can drink the entire contents of the glass without touching the hat. Once he’s accepted the bet then move your head down to behind the hat and calling upon your best Shakespearean acting make some glugging and gurgling noises before sitting up straight and licking your lips, announcing the task done, and instructing your friend to get the promised round of drinks.

Of course, your friend will be a little sceptical, and may even go as far as to suggest you didn’t drink anything. In which case you tell him you can prove it, and that he can remove the hat himself to prevent any trickery on your part. As soon as he removes the hat, pick up the glass and drain the contents. There – you just drank the whole contents of the glass without touching the hat!

The best thing about this betcha is that not only do you get to enjoy your friend’s drink, but you get a free round of drinks for doing so!

Free Drink #2
If you see a dartboard available, try this one. Bet someone a round of drinks on the outcome of a game of darts, and tell them that because you’re so confident of winning they can double their score every time. They’ll almost certainly take you up on this, and as the game progresses they’ll seem to be doing very well, scoring 20 not 10, 100 not 50 and so on, whilst you score yourself normally.

Of course, the sticking point will come when they try to win by reaching the winning score of 501, because when you double your darts scores you can’t ever hit an odd number, which means they can never win!

Free Drink #3
This bar betcha is a little more cerebral than the others (which isn’t easy to say if you’ve already downed the drinks from the first two betchas above). This one is based on psychology, and seems so preposterous (another hard to pronounce word by now) that most people are willing to bet you a drink just to prove that they’re cleverer than most. However, it’s often those who are confident in their own performance that end up having to buy you a drink.

All you do is to bet someone that they can’t answer five questions incorrectly. In other words, they have to provide wrong answers to any five questions you ask them. Those five questions could be anything from, ‘what’s your name?’ to ‘name a popular household pet’.

It seems easy, until you try it. Most people get question four wrong, or rather, they answer question four correctly. Which is wrong. If you see what I mean. Almost nobody ever manages to get all five questions wrong.

So there you have it, three easy ways to guarantee yourself at least three free drinks this weekend. It’s a service we provide!

Simply pick up a black table cover, and spread this out. Next you’ll need some glue – either a glue stick or a spray will do. The easiest way of decorating your own Halloween table cover is to use a glue stick to draw some spooky shapes such as pumpkins, ghosts and bones. Then get some glitter and sprinkle this over the glued areas, shaking off the excess afterwards. Orange glitter for pumpkins, and silver glitter for skeletons, bones and ghosts makes for a great look. Try green glitter for a spooky hand or gravestone!

If you want slightly crisper images then simply print off some black and white templates of pictures such as skulls and pumpkins, then cut out the shapes, creating a template. Lay this over the table cover and use a spray glue before sprinkling the glitter over the area. This can be really effective, although obviously make sure the area is well ventilated, and don’t let children use an aerosol glue without adult supervision.

If you do create a Halloween table cover, please send us in a photo as we’d love to share your creations with all our readers! Don’t forget to grab some candles (black look fantastic!) and a few spooky decorations such as a pumpkin in the middle of the table! For some great tips on creating your own Jack o’Lantern pumpkin face check out our recent blog post.

There’s a fly in my drink
Pick up a pack of plastic flies, available from any decent joke shop. Place one in each ice cube compartment when filling up with water, and freeze them with the flies inside. These ice cubes look revolting!

A radioactive cocktail
You know those glow sticks that seem to be at every Halloween party and fireworks night? They make great cocktail sticks! Simply crack the sticks to make them glow, and pop them straight in the drinks for an illuminating experience. Best not for children’s drinks though.

The colour’s a bit off
Food colouring can be excellent for drinks, turning anything into a gory blood red or a vomit green goo! Only place a drop or two in the liquid though.

I’ve got my eye on this drink
This is one of our favourites – fiddly, but very effective. Grab a radish and peel most of it, leaving a few wiggly red bits of skin to look like veins on an eyeball! For the coloured iris grab an olive and cut in half. Then cut out a section of the ‘eyeball’ and stuff the olive inside, open end out. You can either freeze these and drop them in a drink, or serve as they are!

My glass is half there
In the shops these days is a bewildering array of novelty glassware for Halloween, with everything from Martini glasses to pint glasses with skulls, claws, teeth and all manner of other ghostly symbols and appendages attached. These make any drink look like a spirit!

Party: An event to which you feel obliged to invite a whole lot of people you’d rather not spend time with, spend a whole lot of money you can’t afford on a whole lot of food you really shouldn’t be eating.

Cocktail: An expensive but slightly more colourful alternative to having your head smashed against a brick wall and a hamster shoved down your throat the following morning.

Balloon: An over inflated bag of hot air which deflates rapidly when actually needed.

Member of Parliament: An over inflated bag of hot air which deflates rapidly when actually needed.

Party Food: Calories wrapped in calories, sprinkled with calories served on a bed of calories and served with calories.

1st Birthday Party: An opportunity for parents to celebrate surviving a full year without sleep or a social life.

18th Birthday Party: The age at which it becomes slightly less fashionable to drink alcohol.

Helium: A gas occasionally wasted by people using it to inflate balloons, but primarily used to help Barry White soundalikes impersonate Joe Pasquale.

Table Confetti: Something used to help keep mums busy for a week or two after a party.

39th Birthday Banner: An item used by men at their wife’s 40th birthday to increase the chances of getting some that night.

Party Popper: A quick, cheap and easy test for detecting high blood pressure and heart problems.

Kids Party: An opportunity to put 20 hyperactive kids in one small room together and feed them sugar.

But just because you’re either having a baby or you’re the designated driver, it doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on all the fun. There are plenty of amazing cocktail recipes which you can enjoy this summer without having any worries at all as they’re all alcohol free. Here are our two personal favourites (oh it’s a hard job this, but someone has to do it!)

The Shirley Temple
For this great little cocktail you just need:

6oz ginger ale
1.5 tsp grenadine
Orange slices or cherry for garnish

Simply pour the ginger ale over crushed ice and then top with grenadine before adding your garnish. In fact this cocktail recipe is very similar to a Roy Rogers, for which you simply exchange the ginger ale for caffeine free cola.

Virgin Mary
You’ve of course heard of a Bloody Mary, not to be recommended when you’re pregnant. This recipe is a much safer one as it’s completely alcohol free. The ingredients you need are:

3oz tomato juice
3oc cranberry juice
0.5 tsp Tabasco (or more if you prefer!)
1 tsp limejuice
Fresh ground black pepper
Celery or lime to garnish.

This is also very simple. Once you have all of your ingredients just pour them all in together over crushed ice and then top with your garnish. Add more Tabasco and pepper if you’re feeling hot!

Step 1

Lay the napkin out so that one edge is nearest you.

Step 2

Fold the napkin in half by bringing the edge furthest from you across to the edge nearest you.

Step 3

Fold the napkin into quarters by folding the left edge across to the right edge.

Step 4

Rotate the napkin round so that the open four corners are to your top left, the centre of the napkin being at your bottom right.

Step 5

Take the topmost corner and fold it diagonally down to the bottom right corner.

Step 6

Turn the whole napkin over, so that the three open corners are to your top right.

Step 7

Take the right hand edge and fold it about a third of the way across to the left.

Step 8

Now take the left edge and fold it about a third of the way across to the right.

Step 9

Finally, turn the napkin over and then tuck your cutlery into the pocket.

That’s all there is to it. A simple but very elegant napkin fold which can even be done with paper napkins.

When you think of summer, what colour comes to mind? For most people it’s blue, whether that be the blue skies or the blue sea. When you think of tropical summer islands, which place comes to mind? Possibly Hawaii, so here’s a cocktail which combines both the colour Blue and Hawaii. It’s cunningly called a Blue Hawaiian. No idea why. Anyway, here it is.

Preparation Time: 5 Minutes (25 if it’s your fourth and several hours if you’ve been at it all day)

Ingredients:
2 oz pineapple juice
3/4 oz rum
3/4 oz blue Curacao
3/4 oz crème de coconut
Maraschino cherry for garnish
Pineapple wedge for garnish

Preparation:

1. Simply combine all of the ingredients except for the cherry and pineapple into a mixing glass, and stir well.
2. Strain into a tall glass filled with ice cubes.
3. Add the cherry and pineapple garnish
4. Serve dressed as a hula girl and jiggling your ʻUlīʻulī.

As an even more refreshing alternative you can add all of the ingredients together in a blender with a cup of cracked ice.

A blue cocktail is always fun, offering something of the exotic and summery to any party. We hope you enjoy this recipe, although we should note that Parteaz take no responsibility for any accidents, injuries or YouTube videos which result from showing a little too much dedication to this recipe! (Just make sure you send us the link!)

By the way, ʻUlīʻulī are feathered gourd rattles used in hula dancing. Of course. You knew that.

Although it isn’t particularly difficult to do it is best to use cotton or silk napkins for this as some man-made fabrics such as polyester tend to be fairly thick, and don’t fold or layer quite as easily. Having said that, if polyester or a polyester mix is all you’ve got then simply do your napkin folding on the ironing board, giving the napkin a quick press each time you create a fold. Coloured or even patterned napkins can look great as they make very realistic looking ties.

Step 1

Lay the napkin out diagonally so that one of the corners is nearest you.

Step 2

Take the corner on your right and fold it across to the left a little over halfway. Don’t press or iron this fold just yet as you may well need to adjust it a bit in a moment.

Step 3

Now take the corner on the left and do the same thing, bringing it across a little over half way. Try to even up the two folds so they are as symmetrical as possible. Once they’re all symmetrical and even you can press the folds down.

Step 4

Now fold the right hand side across to the left, a little over half way again. This is easier if you are using a cotton or silk napkin, otherwise you may need to use an iron – but not yet! Again, you may need to adjust this fold a little in a moment.

Step 5

Bring the left hand side across in the same way, and then even up both new folds to make sure they’re perfectly symmetrical. Once they are you can press or iron these folds.

Step 6

Take the top third of the napkin and fold it across to the right to make a ninety degree fold.

Step 7

Carefully turn the napkin over.

Step 8

Finally take the top third and wrap it around the front, then tuck it underneath. And there you are – a great looking napkin tie that’s almost good enough to wear!

You could try experimenting with different colours, or even give each guest a different tie should you have a selection. Although this fold doesn’t look as good using paper napkins, this is still possible, and is a cheap way of giving every man a different tie. If you’re creating this fold for weddings, giving each man his own napkin tie, then you’ll probably want to give the ladies a nice looking napkin fold too. Check this blog regularly as we have lots more napkin folding ideas ready to share with you, and we’re sure you’ll find one of them ideal.

Why not send us a photo of your table laid for dinner if you choose to use this napkin fold? We’d love to see your creativity!