using my free will to throw ina garten's 78th birthday party 🎂

This week we are hosting Ina Garten's birthday party. Nothing but the best for our queen, Ina Garten. I wish I could say, you know, I booked this huge job, okay? And Ina Garten, you know, herself came down and she asked me, Kinsey asked Harrison and I, Kinsey and Harrison, will you please throw me a birthday party? But you know what? The queen's busy, she's on tour. She didn't ask and she's so selfless like that, okay? So I had to take matters into my own hands because there was no way I wasn't going to be celebrating Ina Garten's birthday. Obviously. So Harrison and I are co-hosting a little big birthday party for Ina Garten. Everyone is coming dressed as Ina, obviously. They're bringing their best Ina dish. And I'm taking you guys through the entire journey of hosting this party. As always, from start to finish, you guys are along with me the entire way. I hope you guys love this video. Everyone comment, happy birthday to our queen, Ina. And let's get started with such a fabulous video. Hi y'all, I am printing off my mood board as we speak. I actually just got the first couple pages. Oh my gosh. Okay, here's my process. I originally go in with a Pinterest board and I pin some things that I like. I screenshot it, I bring it to Canva. I then print all that out and I make a physical mood board in my hosting journal. It's an exciting time because this is a brand new hosting journal because I just filled out my last one. And it's so special because I go back and junk journal it. I said this in my last hosting vlog, but I just love this thing. So anyways, we're going to go in with the hosting journal. The name of this event, Ina Gardens Birthday Party. Next up, you always want to have a purpose for the event and then the theme. The theme is obviously Ina. For the purpose of this event, we kind of switched up our invite list a little bit. So for the purpose of this event, I'm co-hosting this with Harrison and we have expanded our invites, if you will. So we're trying to invite people that we know are more into the hosting sort of thing, fellow Ina Garden heads, like more of that vibe. The purpose is to gather like-minded fellow Ina heads. Next up, we have the mood board. So you and I will chat as I cut up things for the mood board. So here's the lowdown on the night. We are having everyone come dressed as Ina. Obviously, there is no event at my house where you're not dressing up for the occasion. It could be anything. At the very least, you're wearing a hat, you know? What is really convenient about this party is one, Ina and I have like pretty similar taste and two, it's a birthday party, so we already have a bunch of birthday stuff. Like I've got birthday hats, I have happy birthday signs. I mean, it's just going to be fabulous. We are now looking at around 15 people, which obviously I do not have space for that and we are in the middle of the ice storm, so we will not be using my outdoor space. What I have decided is we are going to move another dining table into the living room just to make sure there's seating for everyone. Now, this is more of a bake-off. It's not like a full-seated dinner party, even though we all will sit and eat dinner. You know, everyone's just coming with a different Ina garden recipe, so will we have 15 appetizers and one chicken? Like, who's to say? Maybe. When it comes to decor, nothing too crazy. Like I said, I already have the birthday stuff. I also did get a birthday cake from Suzy Cakes in true birthday fashion. There's never a birthday party at my house without a cake from Suzy Cakes. There is nothing like a Suzy Cakes cake. So we do have that. She obviously couldn't say happy birthday to Ina. So it's a shame she can't make it, you know? Tunning. We'll obviously have Ina garden Cosmos. Duh. And I'm definitely going to get a ton of fresh flowers just because Ina loves flowers. So hopefully I'll have some hydrangeas, green hydrangeas, ideally, and orange tulips. Now, I don't even know if tulips are in season at this point, so I'm definitely going to have to make a trip to Trader Joe's to see what we have there. Can't make it to the grocery store until the day before because of this ice storm. Everyone is snowed in. And my neighborhood specifically is very bad. Something fun and cute that I am going to do for the decor is I'm going to make little Jeffrey Garland for one of the tables and then kind of just wherever else it might go. Ina loves Jeffrey. He's like such a fixture in her just presence. So I thought that that would be like so cute and fun. And also something Ina would love. That is why I have these and this printed incorrectly. So the other ones are printing right now. But I'm going to cut them all off. Then I'm going to tape them to twine like over the light fixture. And I just think that is everything. I'm excited for this dinner party specifically because I'm always looking for like fellow dinner party heads, dinner party enthusiasts, friends specifically in Dallas. So this is so fun because I have invited people I haven't even met before. Some of them have just been people that other people have recommended to me. Just being like, you guys would get along so well. And I was like, hey, that person you said we'd get along so well. Like, can I have their number? I need to invite them to an Ina Garden themed dinner party. And they were like, they're going to love that. So I was like, perfect. Guys, like look at this photo and look at how happy Ina is. That is everything to me. Okay, there we go. So good. Okay, next up we are creating the menu. I just cannot get over how good this mood board is. This is actually everything. I need to go through with my RCPs and my seating chart. I'm going to do that today once I get the actual final headcount. Next up we have our menu and our grocery list. I know for a fact I will be making the engagement roast chicken. I'm wondering if I should double that or not. I know Harrison's also making chicken. And I guess there's 14, 15 people coming. There's a lot of food that will be coming. Like I said, the menu for the dinner, it's more of like we're having a ton of different things and trying all these different recipes. It's not like a sit down where we're having like chicken and you know what I mean? If you haven't made the engagement roast chicken, you must. It is the best chicken roast literally ever. We're also going to make Ina's Cosmos, obviously. We of course have our birthday cake, but I also kind of want to try her coconut cupcakes. So I think I'm going to do that as well. All right, so this is what I'm in charge of for food. I'm going to go through and go ahead and make my grocery list. By the way, while we're here, the pink updated recipe journals. This is my old one. We have our updated pink and toile that is replacing this cover. It's very similar. It's just our toile and it's better and cuter. They are restocking. It should be this week on shopfriendandmine.com as well as our dinner cards and our nightcap cards that are finally restocking. They are so cute. They're pink and blue, our custom toile. They're amazing. I'm obsessed with them. And they're finally restocking after being out of stock for months with a little refresh. My grocery list has come along. I also need to add flowers. I'm not going to forget that, but just so I have it. This is literally perfect. I love this journal so much. Even just looking at this brings me so much joy. So I have my week ahead planner and I have been out of town and there was a snowstorm. So we're a little backed up on planning. I use Partyful for this one. So I'm going to go ahead and send out a message. I love to use Partyful for invites because it's so easy to keep all the RSVPs. You can send a group message. All the information is there. No group chats needed. It's the best. This is like literally the most insane thing ever. I'm like 28 at my house saying, hi, if you're able to make it to Ina Garten's birthday party this weekend, Garten's birthday. I already have all the other birthday decor. I'll have the Jeffrey Garland. We'll have a lot going on. Also, everyone just being dressed up as Ina and having the florals like that in itself is enough. Now what I'm going to do, because I do want to have all of the tables and everything set up today, so it's just less to worry about in the next two days. I'm going to start on the Jeffrey Garland. I might only be able to get these two. I'm supposed to have like, I'm supposed to have like three of these. So we'll see. But I'm going to get this done because the goal today is to just have like everything in the house done that I possibly can have done so that I don't have to worry about it. So okay, I just took everything off the table and then we brought those down because we're going to set another table in the living room somehow. But I'm going to get to work. Okay, so what I think I'm going to do, this is a round one. Is this? Oh my god. This is a good option. I love the blue toile, friend of mine. These are the first samples. They're not what we're running into production. So I can use them because I don't need them for a photo shoot or anything. I don't know if this is the circle one though. This might work on the table in the living room. I think that this would be a good option. I do have the brown. Where are the bigger ones of the blue? I don't even know where I put these things. I'm going to go with a really simple basic look for the table. So I'm just going to use my like at-home white plates probably for as much as possible. And then I'll bring out like china or something. But I want it to be very, very, very simple and clean and just like a lot of focus on the florals and the other fun decor. Here's some happy birthday decor that I just have ready and waiting at all times. So we actually don't even need to make a sign. We also have this one which should be good and easy for Aina. I think this is a good one. We'll go with this or this. I don't know. But this table is not... This is definitely not big enough for this table. It is cute. This would be cuter in the living room on that like portable table. It's so busy and crazy with these chairs. But yes, this is going to work. Okay. I like this vibe. I'm going to look at the different napkins and stuff that I have. Don't have matching for all of this. So I'm wondering if I could just do like heads of the table on these. And then I got these sent to me. This is from a cute small business. It's called Besties and Butter. And I like this. But the problem is Aina's is really clean and not super busy. So I feel like I'm actually doing too much right now. Maybe these. But Aina is like clean and simple. So for me personally, I like things to be a little bit busier. That plate is chipped. But Aina's is just very... Like her look is very clean and simple. And I think this is just more mine. So this is probably what I'm going to end up going with. I'm going to add glassware and stuff. I'll come back to you guys after the fact. We are turning the living room into a dining area. Hi, Fitzy. Hi. Thank you, my live audience. So next up I... Oh, so I finished setting the table. I added some flatware. I really like this. I can't remember where I got it from, but I will link it. I'm waiting on that tablecloth to dry. And then we're going to set the table over there. In the meantime, I'm going to make the Jeffrey mobile garland. Whatever you want to call it. I am just going to hang some twine from up here and then tape Jeffrey up. We're just going to see where this takes us. Twine is really truly my most useful... So I'm going to hang Jeffrey on both sides, just because obviously we want to see Jeffrey on both sides. Aw, Jeffrey. Oh my God. Isn't that adorable? People are going to love that. Loving that. Now, Ina would just love this. Okay, so Jeffrey again. I think I'm still going to make a little garland for the fireplace though. So I'm going to put a couple Jeffreys up here. Maybe some stars again. Should we... Never learned how to count. It's not my strong suit. Because like these are so cute. And I could even do like little cut out cardboard hearts of like I heart Ina. I just need to see like do I... Because I'm going to add some stars obviously. Naturally. Yeah, duh. So... To get all the stars up. Yeah, yeah. Are you going to put them all here? You're going to do some at the other table. So I can't do any of the other table. Yeah, but you can hang... No, but you can hang them in the fireplace. That's not my... That's the fireplace. God, I'm a genius. You're a genius. Okay, but here's the stars. I obviously have more of those. You know people might start realizing that I'm going to get all your ideas. I don't think anyone will think that. Charlie, I know I did this for the last party. But who cares? I really love these stars. They're very cute. Guys, Charlie is really tired right now. Not because he was out partying at the bar watching sports. No, he stood up by himself. I was sleeping at 9. Watching somewhere else until 3 a.m. So... Yeah, I hit a pocket episodes that I had to finish. No, let me fix it. I'm just going to cut it and just see what happens. Do not fall. Now, Jeffrey's a little buried. So I feel like I should do a little bit more for him. That looks pretty good. Really? Yeah. And like you said... Yeah. With Martha... Or with Martha... With Ina. Ina, you're not trying to like overstate things. Look at me listening. I know. I'm such a good listener. Wouldn't you say that I'm a great listener? Yeah. And I retain information really well. It is a birthday party. So obviously, we do have to have birthday hats. I need you to set up to make all these parties. I'm sorry, but I knew that was coming. Of course. Thank you so much. Oh, no. I have to actually tie. This is going to be so fun. I can't wait to do this. So I'm going to keep this garland up, which is actually really cute. I'm not even a Valentine's Day decor girl. But we got this for the houseguest special. Actually, that's coming out in a couple of days. It's like the best episode ever. It's me, Charlene Harrison. So anyway, I moved it over here. And I think it's cute. And it's fitting because we're also making a little Jeffrey garland. So I'm going to add a little thing of twine here and just go from there. And I'm like, this isn't really arranged super well for this. But you know, we'll figure it out. You have enough. You could do a little bit of both. Also, can you not just like put them, like tape them to those cards or something? Like to all the red cards on there, like tape Jeffrey's face or something. Or like in the middle of the pink cards, but like the Jeffrey flower. You actually are a genius. I was thinking that before. But do you think it's going to tape on the top? Yeah, it should. Charlie, have I ever mentioned that you're a genius? I mean, not as often as I would like, but. Charlie, the most genius man alive. I cannot believe you had such a good idea. I mean, I said the pink ones, but I'm just kidding. This is so good. Now, as long as we don't turn on the fire too hard, we're good. Oh my God, it's so good. You are a genius. It's so cute. Put that one in the pink card on the far right in the middle and put that other one. It'll look more symmetrical. It's perfect. You nailed it. I have this happy birthday embroidered sign that I love and I have made. And I will link below who made it for me. It's so cute. And I use it for every birthday at my house now. It's so versatile. You get so much use out of this. That's why I'm like needlepointing some birthday stuff because we can just always have it out. But I love this. And then there's bows that she sent with it to put on the sides. And I'm going to do this on top of the plate wall because I just think it's so perfect. I'm hanging this up now. So the table is looking good. I kind of wish I wouldn't have gone with the bows now because they're almost too Christmassy and I do have other ones, but I just don't feel like redoing that. I'm going to add some florals. I'm going to keep the Jeffrey photos up here. I love this. This is just so fun and special. I just love this vibe in here. All right, y'all. It's the day before the party and I'm running some errands this morning. I'm actually first up at Hobby Lobby because I've heard that they have some bordello plate dupes. I've wanted those plates for a really long time, but they're really expensive. So I'm really, really, really hoping that they have them. We're going to go check. And then I'm going to grab some groceries and some flowers. Why can't I think of anything? I'm going to work out after this. So I'm just in my workout clothes, but I hope to God Hobby Lobby has these plates. And if so, we're redoing the tables. No luck on the original plates, but guys, they're having the most insane sale. And who knew Hobby Lobby had such amazing tabletop? I love Hobby Lobby in general, but I didn't think that's actually stunning. I'm like, should I get this? Am I going to regret it? $13.99 and it's 40% off. I mean, I'm getting that, but look at everything I'm getting. These are the place card holders. Looks like anthropology. Like these are beautiful. Like I actually want every single thing here. I'm so impressed. It's just beautiful. It is time to make our coconut cupcakes. I've actually always wanted to make these. One time a friend brought them over for book club and we read Ina's book, which by the way, if you just haven't read Ina's memoir, you need to. I just wrote down the recipe in my recipe journal, which I would normally wait to do until I knew that I loved the recipe, but I've already had these before, so I know that I love them. By the way, here is the updated recipe journal. I had to start fresh today because I'm completely out of this section in my OG. I'll show you guys the difference. There isn't like a crazy, crazy difference. This one is just like our actual toile now. This is not our custom toile, so this one is better and updated and cute. Okay, the inside is all the same. First thing, preheat the oven to 350. Next up, in the mixer with a paddle attachment. By the way, this KitchenAid guy, I cannot believe I only got this last year for Christmas. Greatest thing ever. I cannot believe I didn't have it before. We're going to cream the butter and sugar on high speed. This is going to take about five minutes. It's three sticks of unsalted butter at room temp. These have been sitting out for a bit, so it should be fine. And then we have two cups sugar. One thing about an Ina Garten recipe is there will be butter. Like literally the most butter I think I've ever had in my life. Okay, I will say getting an actual sifter has changed my life. This tool, if you bake, is so worth it. I was wasting so much time. I can link below the one that I got, but I just went on Amazon and I got the first sifter. Oh, well, whatever. Better than nothing. And I just got the first sifter that I saw. Probably one with good readings, but so much more enjoyable this way. I'm going to scrape this all to the bottom. From here, we're going to add one egg at a time and have this mixing on low. The directions said that in between each one of these, you want to scrape down the sides. So I've sifted the flour. Here's where things get a little bit tricky. So you really want to do one and a half teaspoon of vanilla and then one and a half teaspoon of almond extract. I don't have the almond extract. So we're just going to do three teaspoons of vanilla and just hope for the best. It's like half a teaspoon of kosher salt. So next, we're going to alternatively add the dry ingredients as well as the buttermilk. I'm going to do about a quarter of this and a third of the cup of buttermilk. Next, we're going to go in and fold in some of the coconut shreds. We're going to do about half of this. This is all just shredded coconut. I would have actually physically folded it myself. You could add it to the mixer, I'm sure. It's amazing. Yeah, good point. Do you want some? No, I'm good. Oh my god, it's amazing. I'm going to have a full one when you're done. I don't know what you're talking about. Save some. This is amazing. You're going to slowly start to fold this in. So I learned the trick from Ina that you use an ice cream scooper to get the perfect size so that they're consistent. Oh, that's maybe too much. Oh my god. Okay, in the meantime, I'm making the frosting. Using an electric mixer on low speed, adding sugar last. So I'm going to add one pound of cream cheese, three sticks unsalted butter, one teaspoon vanilla, half a teaspoon almond extract that I don't have, and one and a half pounds of powdered sugar sifted. So I just use my sifter again and we have all this good to go. Ignore Khloe Kardashian's podcast in the back, but I just did name cards. I almost didn't and I just can't ever. Even though this isn't like a dinner party dinner party, you need a name tag. It's so important. Okay, we're fully prepped for tomorrow. I was just showing you guys some clips. The house feels amazing. These cupcakes are probably the best thing I've ever baked in my life. These are a little bit of a mess because I had to like squish them together in here, but I've got some more. Don't mind the Ina wig, but cannot recommend these enough. They are so good. Oh my god. So we've got tulips around. I have this over here. That is going to be the Ina Cosmo station. I just need to get some new vodka, I think, tomorrow. And I have the whole thing of lime. So I'm going to do that tomorrow. Harrison's coming over before and he's going to cook here because we are actually going to a Nego Point store opening tomorrow in the afternoon. So he's going to cook here. All I have to do is do the Ina garden engagement chicken roast, which is really easy. It's so good, but I just want everything set up. Basically, it's all ready to go. There's nothing else I can do. The house is essentially ready to host this party outside of the fact that I still need to make the engagement chicken roast, but everything else is good to go and clean and ready. And it feels just amazing in here. This table is ready. I'm so glad I added name cards, especially because this is a lot of people's first time here and I don't want them to come and feel stressed out and overwhelmed and be like, I don't know where to sit and I don't have friends here and all the things. So anyway, I did add name cards. Actually, Harrison got these for me, I think when he was in Italy. How cute. I use a friend of mine ones all the time, but I ran out of printer ink, so I needed to use the ones on deck. I've been saving these for the longest time for a dinner party because it has matching menus, but I realized that there's so many of these place cards, which is so convenient. So I can still do that for a future dinner party. I didn't use them all. Anyway, we have little mini Jeffreys, the hydrangeas, the party hats that Charlie did, and we are good to go with all the little name tags, the hats, little crowns, like how cute and perfect and fun. This is just a little fun setup. Also, in Ina's memoir, she talks about how in Parisian dinner parties, they do different courses in different rooms. I'm like, this isn't a different course in a different room, but like I like the vibe, okay? My hair looks crazy because I just pulled it back. It's currently 5 p.m. We're two hours out from the party. I just threw in my chicken roast. I'm prepping. Oh, that might be my alcohol that's getting here actually. Harrison is in and out of here right now. He's gonna cook from this kitchen very soon. He'll probably be back within like the hour. So I'm trying to get everything out of the way so that when he gets here, he just has the whole kitchen and we're good to go and I can help him film and stuff. So I'm setting up our little like bar station and I'm going to write, I have to write in my other recipe journal because this one's full, the Ina Cosmo recipes so that if we need more and I'm not around or whatever, we can just make the drinks. I've been running around all day and I actually, believe it or not, I do have an Ina Garten shirt. It's this big like denim top, but I don't know where it went. Don't worry though. I do have this. I need to put lipstick on. I just changed. I've been out on the town today, running errands and everything, but my guests are arriving in about an hour 15 and I'm going to do some finishing touches on the chicken soon. I need to light some candles, figure out all of that stuff, but other than that, like I'm pretty much good to go. I prepped as much as I possibly could the past couple of days, which made today so much easier, but I'm so excited. I'm going to go drink a coffee and maybe have an Ina Cosmo, obviously. Guys, I think it's time for my wig. Um, can you tell them what you're making? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so I'm working on my favorite Ina recipe, which is her creamy, no, chicken thighs with creamy mustard sauce is what it's called. It's going to be amazing. Pan is preheating. I've got my chicken over here. Really, you just like sear the chicken thighs on one side. They get really, really crispy on the skin. Flip everything over and then you nestle in like a bunch of onions around the chicken thighs and then you add creme fraiche, mustard, white wine. Oh my God, it's going to be amazing. A great dinner party recipe too. Everyone gets like their own portion. Yeah. It's good stuff. It's good, good stuff. Um, we have our guests arriving in 20. I'm about to put my wig on. Okay, this is time to wig up. Time to wig up. Wow, I'm really, I'm like, we're going to be making a Bob, Bob, Bob TikTok tonight. Okay, so my bun will in fact be the bottom because it doesn't fit. This is not good. This is not good at all. It wasn't ever good. It was never going to be good. No, it's not true, but it's like, oh my, I literally look like, um. You look like Anna Wintour. Oh yeah, it's like too short. This is Paris Fashion Week. It is, you know what it is? I think it's because my bun is too high. The problem is that I have a really big head. Does my hair look longer now? Or like a little bit? You got a little. The bun has to be out. Bun's got to be out, baby. The bun's got to be out and that's just how it's got to be. The fact that like once we have music on, we will not be able to hear her is good. Okay, well, she'll also be probably sleeping at that point, but why do I look literally like Anna Wintour? But don't worry, I'm going to also wear these birthday glasses. Oh, perfect. Undetectable. And I have a birthday hat. So does everyone. Do you think people are going to recognize me? I'm not. No, it's good. It's actually totally incognito. You come over to my house and I'm wearing this. What do you do? This is what exactly what she would do on her own birthday. She would. She, you know, she's like all about herself. Yeah. She's probably in Paris. Yeah, literally. Eating Osetra caviar like there's no tomorrow. I look like Anna Wintour. It's weird because like I have, like where's my other one? And like the problem is, oh, I look like Anna Wintour. You do look like Anna Wintour. Oh, this is getting Anna Wintour. Oh, the problem is that this is in the back. But that kind of makes it funnier. No, I love it. Like this is like really good. Now mine is useless. I hope she sees and loves. I can only imagine what you would. Because you know I'm scared to get in there. You better keep going. I know. It's like I'm gonna be here for five minutes, guys. With the flash on, this is so cute. She makes you take it for a full nap. Okay. I'm tough. You know I can do this. All right. Just like. I will tell you when and it's not time. He's like, it's actually not time. It's actually fine. Like before he even got here, I was shaking the first one. I was like, I got to do two minutes. Wait, why do you like. It's because I do in fact have a bang in my eye. To the woman who made it all possible. To the queen of hosting who inspires us all. Right? In what we do for a living now. Right? We owe a lot to her. Modern American cookery would not be the same. It's so cute. Minor garden. The latter industry would be bad. Old gay children everywhere. Now that's something to look up to. So cheers to her. Happy birthday to you.