The Gin Barberdoo

 
All of a sudden I’m a social elephant. Known for laughing too loudly and falling asleep on the sofa when the taxi takes an age to arrive and I am up way past my usually preposterously early bedtime. Not only are we attending parties past ourselves but we are also, spurred on by the success of our last effort, in the midst of organizing another.
Oh yes. Not content with nearly sending myself to an early grave throwing the last “NOT AN ENGAGEMENT PARTY”, I am here to tell you that Ste and I have agreed to throw another. The conversation went thus:
Ste: Lets have a do for my birthday.
Me: Maybe a barbecue? 
Ste: A BARBERDOO!
Rachael: Lets make it a Gin Barberdoo!
And so it was that the Gin Barberdoo was born and I went into an organisational flurry and it was declared that each participating couple would attend carrying a different bottle of gin and we would have a little tasting session and thus find ourselves throwing our very own Gin Festival in our own back garden!
I swear too much fun is going to kill me. And frankly I don’t know what I did to deserve such a busy social life.
But anyways, I decided that if I was going to do it I was going to it properly and so I opened up a board in my very own copy of Trello for Housekeepers and set about planning with aplomb.
First up the invitations. While word of mouth is my usual modus operandi, this time I worked in conjunction with Paperless Post to fashion the perfect Gin Barberdoo email invitation, to be issued in a timely fashion to all those we are inviting. A rather darling way of issuing invitations because one does not have to remember to buy stamps and troll to the post office nor engage in long phone conversations merely to invite your favorite peoples. (I’m social, but honestly? I’m just not that social.) Win win right?
Oh so much more than that actually. For not only can you customize card designs from everybody from Oscar De La Renta to Kate Spade, you can also add pretty backdrops, choose your envelope and line and address your card to your chosen recipient. And so I played with all manner of designs, for in among all the many cards for everything from garden partys to weddings, to baby showers and birthdays there was quite a collection for those of us throwing barbeques!
But I am Alison and I am nothing if not floral and so it was that I settled on a happy, summery, floral design and customized it to feature the words Gin Barberdoo and lo and behold I was issuing invitations for our very own gin festival!
Next up, came the gin. For here’s the thing: we cannot have the world and his wife turning up with the same bottle of Bombay Sapphire when there is a world of beautiful gins to be tasted: and so a kind of gin themed Secret Santa was organised and our invitees chose a number and got a corresponding gin match and thus we can be sure that there will be a range of gins to taste alongside the fabulous collection of mixers I am currently in hot pursuit of (Aromatic Fevertree y’all?)…
All this and the food. For people who plan on tasting a multitude of gins need something hefty with which to line their stomachs and while most barbecues are a feast of burgers and sausages, this is a Barberdoo and thus things have to be done a little differently and so grilled mackerel, chill king prawns, panzanella and grilled halloumi  it is…
Now if only I could invite you all…
This post was brought to you in co-operation with Paperless Post.

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