Slumber Party in Style
A slumber party, but you are an adult, there is champagne and no one is telling you it’s time for bed — Indulge in the simple joy of too much ice cream and breakfast for dinner.
A chic adult style slumber party.
September is a strange time for me in Los Angeles. My soul knows that the weather should be shifting, I long for cozy nights and crisp mornings, I crave the shedding of leaves with their crunch underfoot with the scent of moss and the sweet decay of summer…however with temperatures reaching 105º F/40ºC at home, my heart is left wanting. Sweltering. Forced to draw the sensation of early autumnal days from my memories in the Pacific NorthWest and through films that transport me to the subtle change in season and the promise of fall. It is an imaginative world that I create for myself, a pocket where inspiration for my dinner parties and little fêtes can thrive. As we approach festive season and my pastel dresses are tucked away until next year, I lean into moments that I can create for myself, where I can build a little fix to my seasonal cravings and live outside of the endless summer of Southern California.
For September, I wanted to host an easy girls night that would transport me, for an evening, to a place where the early days of fall are alive. A time of slumber parties and back to school, where I can be all fuzzy with nostalgic feelings that pair so perfectly with the shift from summer to autumn. There is that line in ‘You’ve Got Mail’ about a bouquet of sharpened pencils. Joe writes to Kathleen ‘Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.’ There is something so wonderfully simple and yet comforting within the concept of a bouquet of sharpened pencils. And of course, being the romantic that I am, I cannot help but sigh and hope for a delivery of just that one fall day. The younger generations of course won’t be able to recall that distinct smell. That unmistakable scent of No. 2 pencils freshly sharpened to a dangerous point at the back of the classroom. But no matter how old I get, the smell of a sharpened pencil reminds me of school days and the unique friendships that come with that time in our lives. To be that pure and innocent. To have school days and homework and birthday parties and sleepovers with little enveloped invites passed about with hushed whispers to friends before class. No cellphones or instagram or text messages… only landlines with a home phone number and the newness of dial up internet and a family computer in the guest bedroom. What a time to be a kid!
I was recently reflecting upon my childhood. Middle school and early high school to be exact. And I remembered this massive crush I had and the day that he asked for my number. With a ballpoint pen, I wrote it on the back of his hand in the hallway hoping it wouldn't be smudged or washed off before he could write it down someplace more permanent. He called me at some point over the weekend but as my father took the call, I never got the message. Can you imagine the horror I felt upon getting to school Monday only to find out that he had called? He called! My dad had failed to tell me that my crush had called. I would never recover. After whaling dramatically to my mother, my poor father got a stern talking to about the etiquette of message taking, I am sure. It kills me that kids now will never know the drama of writing your number on the back of someone’s hand. To call them up on a landline and hope that their parents don’t answer. Or maybe you were cool enough to have a phone with your own number in your bedroom? (I know my younger sister with her negotiation tactics finagled that for herself right before cellphones became the norm. I was all bent out of shape over that one as you can imagine.) What do kids do now? They just have a cell phone and text? Do they even call? Are hours not spent tying up the house phone while you gossip with girlfriends or chat with your crush du jour? Do you even memorize a phone number? I am so grateful for the memories that I have of my younger years. The years before social media and online bullying. The years when you got to just be a kid — Simple and awkward and goofy. Those years absolutely made me who I am today.
Popcorn and too much ice cream. Perfection!
With memories such as these bouncing around in my head, I knew that I needed to indulge in a little slumber party themed soirée. An evening in flirty pajamas with movies and popcorn and a sweet feast that miniature me would have killed for. I plan to do an epic-ly large slumber party at some point in the not so distant future, but for now, I settled for an intimate evening with a couple of my closest girlfriends. We can say that this was the dress rehearsal of what’s to eventually come. Planning this evening, I was instantly transported to nights with a gaggle of giggling girls, all playing the classic sleepover games of ‘light as a feather, stiff as a board’, doing face masks, whispering about crushes and trying to scare the PJs off of each other with ghost stories and jumps of ‘did you hear that?!?’ Now of course the idea of sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag is more terrifying than any ghost story imaginable, but an evening with girlfriends playing silly games and eating far too much junk food is exactly what I needed in my life when the back to school memories and nostalgia of simpler times came rushing in. I feel so lucky to have these memories to reflect upon. To be inspired by the joy of simplicity and comforted by an evening with a couple of my dearest friends. Life would be so utterly predictable without nights such as these – nights with too much ice cream and breakfast for dinner. Xx
Cheers to girls nights and best friends.
Scrambled eggs
Bacon
Mixed berries and seasonal stone fruit
Champagne butter
Trio of ice creams
Sprinkles, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and cherries
Popcorn
