Moroccan Party

I hosted a little party of about thirty ladies on Friday for an embassy Bunco Night, and since I love a good theme, I decided on Moroccan. It was lots of fun and not too much work, since I had a lot of the stuff on hand. 

All those billowy curtains are just old sheets. Free!

These are the ugly flourescent lights I have hanging down the length of our patio. I wrapped them in tissue paper and tied ripped old t-shirt strips to the bottom to make 'em all fancy:

The bar.  I had one lovely lady come in, squint at the sign and say, "Cash bar?! I didn't bring any money."   And the Cashbar was rocked all night.

I got all the tablecloths for about four bucks each with a coupon/sale combo online, which is about the price of a paper tablecloth, and who doesn't need a bunch of jewel-toned tablecloths, right? I'm sure they'll come in handy some day.

 Table settings were also cheap. Gold chargers, a lantern, gold spray-painted Coke bottles with plastic jewels hot-glued on (still suffering burns from that), and little bowls filled with dates and Moroccan spiced almonds. I didn't put the dates and almonds out until the very last minute, because this is Brazil. Ants and other things would have swarmed.

 If it wasn't nailed down, it got spray painted with gold. Below are Cougar Gold tins and glasses that got the treatment, and those palm twig thingies that fell out of my tree got spray painted too.

Everyone gets a party favor at Bunco, so these lanterns served as both decorations and favors. The presents below were the prizes for the game (a Moroccan tagine, Moroccan tea glass candles, and a Moroccan serving tray). I loved these vintage belly dancers I found on the web.

 I tied Christmas ornaments to the bottoms of the paper lanterns to give them more of a harem feel. Also, because I never know when to stop.

Many of the ladies came adorned in belly dancing or Moroccan flavored outfits, but I had set up a little station for temporary Henna tattoos, bindis for the forehead, and bangles to keep the festive spirit going.

I served Moroccan chicken stew and a lemon-coconut cake, and everyone brought booze and side dishes.  I would love to show you how everyone looked, but I'm just too lazy to blur out all those faces. Instead, here is a picture of my new Brazilian cow rug!