A Home to Share Book Launch Backyard Party

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Wow. I hosted the Book Launch Backyard Party this week and it was incredible. The party was way beyond my expectations and simply amazing!

I knew I wanted to host this party even before I was done writing the book. To be able to open up our home and share it with those who enjoy My 100 Year Old Home and A Home to Share, was the perfect reason to throw a backyard party.

The Book Launch Backyard Party
Photo by @Rialto13

My new book, A Home to Share, is available now! Click here for more details!

The Most Amazing Book Launch Backyard Party

The Book Launch Backyard Party

As I said earlier … WOW! In my wildest dreams, I never imagined the Book Launch Party for A Home to Share party would turn out as great as it did.

And what was so special?

The amazing people who came to the party!

Over 250 people attended the party. Many flew from out of state, drove seven hours from Northern California, or came from all over Southern California. And I think I met almost every one of these incredible people that made a huge effort to come to my home!

The Book Launch Backyard Party

I was so touched by all of the stories everyone shared about ideas I have shared on my blog that they had done in their homes. So many shared pictures of my DIYs they had made. They also mentioned which recipes were their favorites. And they showed photos of the home decor items they had bought that I had shared on my blog.

It touched my heart that so many had been inspired by my blog and now wanted to read my book! I loved meeting so many incredibly wonderful people and cherished to learn that we had so much in common.

The Book Signing of a Home to Share

The Book Launch Party

Everyone that attended the event was given a signed copy of my book. I signed 250 books the day before the party, which saved a lot of time. I spent over an hour at the party personalizing the books for whoever wanted one, and that was fun because I got to meet even more people.

Are you curious how long it takes to sign 250 books?

Since I did them ahead of time, it took about one minute each, which was just about four hours!

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Family Photos

You all know how important family is to me and I was so happy all of the boys were able to fly home for the Book Launch party. It was such a special evening and Michael made the most incredible introduction speech. If anyone has it on video, please send it to me!!

Set Up for the Backyard Party

The Book Launch Backyard Party

Although the backyard party was held outdoors, we did have the house open to welcome everyone inside. I cannot believe how many people looked around and I loved listening to their comments!

The decor for the party was understated, and we did feature a few items from the book. You can see the wooden boxes and hanging wood arch that is featured in A Home to Share. The hanging floral vintage chandelier is one of my favorite items in the book.

The Book Launch Backyard Party

Flowers

The Book Launch Backyard Party

We went to the flower mart early on Monday morning and the photo above is all of the arranged flowers stored in our wine cellar!

You can see more photos of the hanging chandeliers below, plus pictures of the flowers arranged for all of the tables.

A Home to Share

The Book Launch Backyard Party

Do you need a copy of my book? You can buy it here.

A funny thing happened when I was signing the books the night before the event. Charlotte, my daughter-in-law, noticed how great the books looked when lined up together!

The Book Launch Backyard Party

How cool is that?

The Menu

Before I share the recipes, I wanted to share some fun presentations I used.

I bought these small pizza boxes and stamped the logo of the book title on the inside. Then we filled them with some wonderful homemade tarts.

For the desserts, I covered some of my favorite books with white paper and used the logo mailing tape on the outside. Then we placed the desserts on top of the books.

Sadly, no one in my family has a photo of the dessert presentation. (Of course, if any of you have one, please send it my way!)

The Book Launch Backyard Party

Here is the menu and I linked to all of the recipes. Some of the recipes are mine, and some of them are from other bloggers, including my favorite food blogger, Half Baked Harvest. All of the recipes by other bloggers link directly to their sites.

Charcuterie Display
Sweet & Spicy Seasoned Crackers
Salad – Grilled Corn and Basil Salad (recipe available in the Half Baked Harvest Cookbook)
Salad – Fumi Cabbage
Salad – Arugula Blue Cheese and Cranberries
Turkey with cranberry/orange muffins
Crab cakes with lemon dill sauce
Roasted Garlic Pizza Dip Sliders
BBQ Chicken Sliders
Wrapped Cranberry Brie Bites – modified recipe coming in a blog post next week!
Caprese Pesto Tarts
Desserts
Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies
Home to Share Cookies
Frosted sugar leaf cookies
Chai Spiced Maple Sugar Cookies

If you want to learn more about how I personalized this party, go to Planning a Party? Personalize It!

Check-In

The check-in to the event went very smoothly and you can see the small vintage floral chandelier hanging from the board across the top. If you own my book, you can see how easy they are to make!

The Book Launch Backyard Party

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I started a fun new series of Amazon Lives, called A Peek Inside My New Book and I will be sharing each chapter. This live shared Chapter 1 – A Timeless Kitchen.

Click here to watch the show.

A Peek Inside MY New Book - The Kitchen - chapter 1

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The Book Launch Backyard Party

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9 Comments

  1. The vintage lampshade with florals is my new favorite ❤️ I’m going to be keeping my eye open for shades like these at thrift stores and garage sales !
    What a wonderful day but so much for you to undertake ! With a book tour starting , I hope you take a little time to rest and regroup ! I’ve paged through the whole book and love everything but the photo on the beach has my heart 💕 And your beautiful book has found it’s way to a shelf front and center in my living room where it can be easily accessed and displayed !
    I wish I could figure out how to send a pic lol! But I plan to meet you when you make your way here to Austin !

  2. How wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing. I have your book and I am anxious to put my feet up and enjoy a good read!

  3. SO beautiful! I’m so sorry I missed it, but it was wonderful to meet you virtually. Like Erin, that flower lampshade has just jumped to the top of my All-Time-Leslie-Favorites, right there with the white pinecone wreath! Thank you for everything you do and share with us – your tour, your book, your blog, your home, and your inspiration! 💛

  4. Hi Leslie!

    I am so sad about missing the launch party. I had been looking forward to that so much along with my good friends Kim and Karen. We were driving up from San Diego and discovered on the way that my dog had been injured pretty severely with the dog walker and I had to turn back around! I am really looking forward to reading the book and I believe that I have 3 books there with you correct? Can you tell me how I may be able to retrieve those? I also hope that you will make it down here to San Diego for a book signing! Lenna

  5. You are an amazing woman, I am so proud of you. I love your book!!!!! I wish I could have been there for the book launch but I’m in Oriental NC!!! I’m so thankful I get to read your blog every day. It is a pleasure to know about you and your wonderful life that you share with us!

  6. I looked forward to seeing all the food tablescaped. I’m surprised there were no pictures of the food. Did you have someone taking pictures for you? Hope you come to Scottsdale some day.

  7. My book arrived today! My book arrived today! I can’t wait to swoon over each and every page. The party looks amazing. Just couldn’t make it from way over here on the Florida panhandle.

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