Hello! Kate here.
Just over a week ago, we gathered around the table once again for Dinner No. 13.
Sometimes I go down rabbit holes looking at images of old dinners and reminiscing with former dinner attendees and can hardly believe how many of these things we’ve done over the last three and a half years. It’s truly been one the most fulfilling creative ventures I have ever been a part of and any time I feel stressed about how it’s all going to come together, I have to pinch myself and take a minute to remember what a gift it all is. So that said, it’s both extremely salty and sweet to share that this is the last dinner we’ll be having in Los Angeles for a while. The dinners will be continuing in 2020, but they’re going to look a little different and they’re going to be expanding to new cities. More to come on that soon :)
Like always, all the women in attendance were even more lovely and talented than I could have expected. My heart felt so full as I pulled away from Katie’s house. I’m now going to hand things off to one of our wonderful Dinner No. 13 ladies, who put together to recap the evening. Thanks to Salima Saunders who summed up the night so beautifully.
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13…an ominous number it can be, but in the case of Create Dinner #13, definitely more delicious than suspicious. The theme for the evening was Salt + Sugar, which rang true on so many levels for me, the attendees, and our gracious leader, Kate Pauley. This was my first Create Dinner (sweet!), and unfortunately the last one that Kate will be hosting in LA for a while (salty!), so I feel so grateful to have experienced this warm gathering of creative, talented women. As an entrepreneur and creator of From Your Village with Love, I spend many days working home alone, and I relish the chance to be around other people and connect with them. I was drawn to this specific gathering of women because I loved the idea that we all have a creative gift to share, and that for this evening, showcasing our gifts was the price of admission. All of us are creative, and Kate’s dinner gave us the opportunity to leave our job, stress, and what we do on a daily basis behind and display our passions or hidden creative talents for the enjoyment of others.
Unlike every other party I go to, where I stress about what to wear, oscillating between being too casual or too formal, I knew exactly what to do thanks to Elise Apffel’s guidance with a mood board sent to guests ahead of time. Would it be too much to send my friends a mood board for my next dinner party? I think not! The dinner was hosted at the home of Katie Marble, nestled close to the mountains, in a garden oasis that Katie had nurtured. Our host has a green thumb and shared with us that she had coaxed some nubbins of cactus back to life, and in only three years, they became as tall as the garden wall, silent guardians in the night.
Before we sat down for dinner, Deborah Alvarez painted our lips in luscious tones of red, burgundy, and pink, so that we would be ready for our close-up portraits with Kate in the soft glow of the evening light. When the sun went down, we enjoyed mezcal cocktails crafted by Kimberly Bozeman, which followed the theme perfectly starting sweet and ending with a salty, smoky subtleness. As we mingled and met one another, Stacy Iverson played light piano music, really setting us at ease and encouraging us to open up and relax into the moment.
The dinner table was set under a lemon tree with hand stamped napkins by Jessica Druxman, elegant menus by Kristin Violet, and beautiful florals by Rielly Reed. It was the tablescape you daydream of for a garden soiree (or is that just me?) Our tapas style meal was expertly prepared by Kelly Browne and Claire Gallas, each dish embodying the sugar and salt theme from the creamy goat cheese balls fried in a savory crust to the sweet potato and root vegetable salad with honey Dijon dressing. Our chefs showcased their creativity in the food combinations and passion for food as they described each dish. Even the friendly tree rat came by to investigate!
But the real magic around the table came from conversation around the dinner table. Kate had thoughtfully prepared questions to have us dig deeper and have meaningful discussions about what it means to be creative. Questions like “What does it mean to you to be a creative woman?”, “When did you first realize that you were creative?”, and “What does “sugar” mean to you in your life?” helped foster connection among women who may not have known each other and even surprise those that did know each other. The conversation was honest, and I was inspired by the openness that existed in this space. We all defined our creativity differently and we found our creative pursuits at very different times. Claire, for example, always knew she was creative, painting and drawing from a young age. While Kristin had been pushed in other directions, but she came back to her creative pursuit while in college. All of us resonated with the theme of sugar and salt and acknowledged that life is full of both, and you cannot appreciate one without the other. We cheered and supported one another quietly with nods or vocally with whoops and claps as we shared our answers around the table.
After dinner, we moved back to the piano, where Stacy played 3 pieces: Girl with the Flaxen Hair, Improvisation, and All the Wasted Time from Parade the Musical. She showed us that music has the ability to evoke emotion and that you can lose yourself in the piece. What made Stacy’s concert even sweeter were Hannah Montplaisir’s cookies and rum-infused dark chocolate mousse. Hannah’s cookie making side business is definitely at least one customer richer!
Joan Daly styled the evening magically, using beautiful Greystone Table plates, and I left with a pair of Gabrielle Storey’s fun pom-pom earrings, which embodied for me the warm, fuzzy feeling of a perfect night.
