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Bottle and Bottega invited myself and another local blogger out to try a complimentary painting and wine experience to see how it would fit for our readership. As always, all opinions are my own. To see my review posting policies please visit my policies page

Over the course of my pregnancy and the past few months I really haven’t had the energy or availability to explore the Portland area as much as I typically enjoy. I am thrilled to start writing about the local area again! I can’t be more excited to share about this Mom’s Night Out experience I had with my friend, Lindsey of Running with Tongs.

 

The Bottle and Bottega Space in NW Portland

Walking into the Bottle and Bottega space I knew that I was in for a fun evening. I loved the bright colors in the workspace and instantly imagined throwing about 10 different parties in that space. My friend Lindsey and I both thought about possibly bringing our kids out for the Bottle and Bottega All Ages events, but in the end decided we both needed a mom’s night out pretty badly. When the sparkling wine hit my hand my decision felt better than ever.

Bottle and Bottega is an art class and night out at the bar rolled into one - review featured on A Well Crafted Party

 

The night that we visited was the mixed media evening where we got to select a couple of different images to work off of or create our own mixed media painting. We still had an artist walking us through the steps, but many of us created different paintings. This is something I LOVE. While I always have fun at paint and sip events, sometimes, I just really don’t care for the image we are painting or want an image like everyone else in my home. This let me truly personalize an image.

Bottle and Bottega is an art class and night out at the wine  bar rolled into one - review featured on A Well Crafted Party

 

I chose to do the “love” image and use a color scheme that coordinated with my upcoming anniversary party. The painting basically started out as a series of strips and scraps of paper. Lindsey chose to do the same painting and picked just a slightly different color scheme. When it was all said in done we were supposed to write the word “love” across the painting. Instead I chose to do the word “cheers” so that I can hang it up over my bar area in the future.

 

Bottle and Bottega made for a fun Momma's Night Out - review featured on A Well Crafted Party

 

What to plan for when going to Bottle & Bottega:

Parking: Bottle and Bottega is located in NW Portland. There is both street parking and a convenient little paid parking lot near the workshop. It is also quite accessible to the MAX as it isn’t a far walk to the nearest stop. I chose to pay the $5 for parking so that my car was nearby because I knew it was going to be a semi-late night for this momma.

Timing: The event started around 6 PM and lasted until 9 PM. Due to the painting and drying time it is a longer event… which only means more WINE!

Beverages: The shop had a pretty good selection of red, white, and sparkling wine as well as some beer options. Beverage costs were above the $40 painting fee, but the prices were reasonable. The $40 painting fee gets you all the painting supplies, instruction, and your canvas to take home. I opted to purchase a frame for my canvas for just $20 more. Now my painting looks really finished.

What to Wear: Anything! No, but seriously, there were aprons to help protect clothing and the paint is water soluble. If you are really worried about something then probably opt to not wear it, but I wore my work clothes and came through unscathed!

Bottle and Bottega proved to be a fun Portland experience - review by A Well Crafted Party

 

Besides a Mom’s Night Out… what type of events work at Bottle and Bottega?

The cool thing—to me, a bonafide party junkie—about Bottle and Bottega’s business is that there are a variety of ways to make the sip and paint event work for parties or outings.

Check out the paintings from the evening I attended on the Bottle and Bottega Facebook page.

Public Events: Bottle and Bottega has public events that you (by yourself) or with a couple of friends can sign up for and attend. The public events are all listed on a calendar with a picture of the painting that they are going to be doing during the event.

Bottle and Bottega have a variety of event options from public events  and private parties to public events - review on A Well Crafted Party

Private Events: As for private events there are so many cool options! This would make for a fun bridal shower, bachelorette party, graduation party, baby shower… list goes on and on. The private parties have an option to create paintings (as seen above) or do collages of paintings that might don the house of a newly-wed or the nursery of a newborn.

Corporate Parties & FundraisingWouldn’t a paint and sip event be a great team builder? One of the HUGE art pieces in the workshop was a collage piece as an example of what a corporate party could create. I would love to do something like this with coworkers and then go to work to see the painting we created together each day. The team at Bottle and Bottega can travel to a site for an event as an option too.

Have you ever been to a paint and sip event? If so, what did you like about it?

Thank you to Bottle and Bottega for the fun Mom’s Night Out and painting experience! 

The Portland Bloggers, a local bloggers meet-up group and resource, hosted a Valentine’s Day brunch potluck this past month. We were happy to have decoration supplied by Minted.Com and tasty mimosas with Santa Margherita Wines. All thoughts and opinions are my own. To see my sponsored posting guidelines please visit my policies page. Thank you to Jennifer Landers for helping us find a swanky venue and Suzannah Stanley for these fab photos! 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

What kind of potluck should I host? …. BRUNCH!

 

When you live in Portland you tend to come around to the amazing-ness that is B-R-U-N-C-H. You see, it may have to do something with the rain and the grey skies or perhaps it is the laid back nature of this town… but, getting up early in the morning and heading out to breakfast really is just not our thing. Yes, it happens. Yes, there are people that seem to make it out of the house before 10 AM. Those are the people who get to walk right in and sit down for a tasty meal with no wait.

The rest of us, well, we do brunch and we do it hard. We have some of the most amazing restaurants out there creating brunch menus just for us. Heck, even the amazing Gregory Gourdet of  Departure (you may know him from Top Chef) is getting into some brunch mischief with a pop-up brunch feature this Easter. Personally, I love brunch. There is something about the perfect mix of sweet and savory breakfast food paried with a breakfast cocktail all while fully rested. My love of brunch is one of the many reasons why we decided our recent Portland Bloggers meet-up was going to be a brunch potluck. One of the other reasons is that brunch is perfect for a potluck.

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

Brunch Potluck Food

 

There was such a great variety of foods and treats. I love brunch foods for potlucks because they can be savory or sweet. Great brunch potluck foods include mini bagels with cream cheese, quiches, muffins, waffle bites, deviled eggs… the list goes on and on! And for this particular brunch, because we hosted the party near Valentine’s Day, there were a lot of sweet treats on top of the great brunch foods.

 

Brunch Potluck Beverages

 

One of my favorite parts of any party is the beverage choices. Because we were having a brunch, we felt mimosas were a must! Santa Margherita wines sent us some of their Prosecco to try out. The crisp Santa Margherita Prosecco was stationed in a ice bucket ready to pair with either orange juice, peach puree, or strawberry puree. My favorite pairing was with the peach puree because the lightly tart taste of the Prosecco brought out the bright and juicy flavors of the peach. We also had plenty of sparkling water to pair with the juices to round out our beverage selection.

 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

Beautiful and EASY Party Decor

 

We decorated the meeting space using Minted’s Party Suites. Seriously, such an easy and beautiful solution to party decor. You simply pick your suite, customize and purchase and then a neat little party package comes to your door complete with custom items, paper straws, plates, and napkins! We chose the Valentine’s Ombre Love Party Decor in the Perfect Party package. The mini note cards made for perfect labels for the food for the potluck. The banner is such great quality of paper that I’ll be keeping it to use over and over again at upcoming Portland Blogger meet-ups.

 

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

 

What makes potlucks so great?

 

I go on and on about potlucks like they are the butter to my bread… but, heres the thing, hosting parties can be quite expensive. Going out to eat and be expensive. Heck, even a drink or two at a bar can break the bank at times. Hosting events potluck style gives everyone the opportunity to gather together to enjoy a meal while not sticking one person with the check. I love the laid back feel of potlucks. I enjoy getting to try the items that other people bring. To be perfectly honest, in the end, I love not paying for everything. Cheers to whoever invented the very first potluck—those cavemen and women who all came to the table with something to share. Cheers also to the awesome guests that came to this potluck. They brought their A-game in the food and networking departments!

 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Baby Sprinkle

I was absolutely honored when my friend Joan offered to host a sprinkle for me and my newest baby. A sprinkle is similar to a shower, but is designed to be a smaller celebration for a second child because the mother likely has some items from the first time around. I was super touched that she would want to throw me a party in the midst of her own move into a new home. My friend Alicia jumped in to help with the sprinkle and the two of them even outdid the amazingness they pulled off in my first baby shower that they hosted together— A Robot Themed Baby Shower. I offered up my backyard for the party and they based the color scheme to match my newly decorated porch area. This is a LONG post with lots of ideas for hosting a Portland-rain themed baby shower as well as some free downloads! If you enjoy this post, I’d be super duper happy if you PINNED an item to your Pinterest board or SHARED via your favorite social media platform.

 

This post contains some affiliate links. Purchases made from affiliate links do not cost readers any money, but does help keep this blog running. Thank you for reading and supporting A Well Crafted Party. To learn more about my for-profit policies click on over to my policies page

 

Rain in Portland Themed Baby Shower

 

They themed the party around the “Sprinkle” theme as well as my love of all things Portland, Oregon. The Pitter Patter in PDX Baby Shower was born and with it came Food Truck-themed foods and rain drop decorations. We even got to be spoiled with some local gourmet ice cream! I ordered event sized portions of King Creamery’s amazing ice cream flavors. It went perfectly with the theme… also, the champagne pear sorbet was simply the most amazing sorbet I’d ever tasted in my life.

 

Pitter Patter in Portland Facebook Invite

Rain Themed Baby Shower Decorations

Joan is an amazing graphic designer and she created a beautiful rain themed items to use throughout the event including the above Facebook invitation cover. (The image is free for personal use in case you’d like to throw a Portland rain themed baby shower! Just click on the image, right click to save to your computer and upload to your Facebook event cover area!) She built a cloud out of balloons and pillow stuffing utilizing this great “How to Build a Cloud” tutorial from The Farm Chicks.

 

Baby Shower Party Favors

Baby Shower Party Favors

Joan utilized the graphics she used on the invite on the labels she created for the awesome party favors she put together. Utilizing the same graphics and color scheme in different areas throughout your party can help pull together different elements to make the party look professionally put together! Joan found corn on the cob from a local farm that simply goes into a paper bag with a little oil and is instantly microwave popcorn! How cool is that? I have a fantastic umbrella that has the “Thank You” in several different languages printed on the inside of the umbrella. We added that detail at the last minute because it went with the theme AND was the perfect addition to the favor table!

 

Flavored Sparkling Waters are great beverages for Baby Showers! Portland Beer for a Portland Themed Party

Bumptown Coffee for a baby shower coffee bar

Baby Shower Beverages

We kept the beverages for this party pretty simple with sparkling waters, coffee, tea and—because it was a Portland theme— beer! Joan created little tags for the coffee cups to make it coordinate with the Portland theme. She named the coffee shop “Bumptown Coffee” a play on words from the famous Stumptown coffee! Seriously one of my favorite details. The coffee cups and sleeves (aff link) were totally affordable from Amazon and she simply printed up her label on round 2-inch sticker sheets (aff link). An affordable and simple way to bring the coffee bar up a notch for a party!

 

Food Truck Theme for Party Food A Well Crafted Party

Food Truck Theme for Party Food A Well Crafted Party

Food Truck Theme for Party Food A Well Crafted Party

Food Truck Theme for Party Food A Well Crafted Party

Food Truck Theme for Party Food A Well Crafted Party

 

Food Truck Themed Party Food

My absolute favorite detail of the party was the food. Now, that isn’t JUST because I was 8 months pregnant and eating everything under the sun. Though, that helped. The girls came together with different ideas for Food Truck themed food. Joan then made these amazing little food trucks using a great free template sourced from The Fox is Black and an artist by the name of Goopymart. The food trucks included Mac and Cheese, Please!, Sweet Elvis PB&J, Nom Bowl, Taco Taco Taco, and The Waffle Beneath My Wings. The food containers such as the paper food trays with wax paper and the bamboo bowls (affiliate links) added to the whole “food truck” feel. And, of course, we had a REAL Portland food vendor present with the cute little event size King Creamery ice creams. They do home delivery of their monthly flavors with their club membership, but they also cater events.

 

Baby Shower idea - meal train cards!

Baby Shower Activities

I don’t have any photos of the cute little activity that Joan put together for the event. She had hand cut out felt items so that guests could help put together a mobile for the baby. (There is a great little tutorial for felt mobiles over at Craftiness is Not Optional.) I seriously prefer crafts and activities over baby shower games, so this was perfect for me! In addition, she whipped up cute little cards with a link to a meal train that she had set up for me on mealbaby.com. It was amazing to have food delivered those first few weeks after the baby was born.

 

Free Food Truck Printables

 

Joan, who has a rad little business with her husband called Stogle Studios, put together these fun designs for the party’s food trucks using the template from The Fox is Black. You can download them and use for free for your next party! Want to create your own? The template is free to download over at The Fox is Black’s Food Truck Design Contest Post! (Personal Use Only)

 

Free Paper Food Truck Printables

Directions for printing and putting together your free food truck party paper food truck:

  • Click here to download your five free printables, download by right clicking the image and saving the PDF to your desktop.
  • Print on 11X17 paper — you can also choose to “fit to print” to 8.5X11 paper or 8.5X14 paper, but please know you will have a smaller food truck if you do that.
  • Cut out along outer edges of design.
  • Fold along solid lines and glue along flaps. Cut out the window area and put in your food truck window as the pictures show.