Favorite Things Party 2011

I recently hosted one of the most fun parties I can remember throwing in quite a while. It was a Favorite Things Party have you heard of this idea? I am sure there are several variations of this idea but I wanted to share with you how I went about this.

I stated with an Evite (I am in love with these) it is so easy to track who you invited and if they are attending and it’s a great way for everyone to communicate about the event. My invitation said:

We're sharing our "Favorite Things"!!
(Think Oprah's favorite things show) Please come prepared to share with us what your "can't live without" item is and bring three of them to share. The idea is that you leave with three different items that just might become your new favorite things! The possibilities are endless but some ideas would be cleaning supplies, kitchen gadgets, makeup/beauty items, or even fashion accessories.  Also please bring your favorite appetizer, dessert, or side dish to share (because you know my favorite thing is food). Feel free to bring friends just have them bring their own items and let me know in the comments so that I know how many people to plan for. Thanks to Holly for the idea (even though I changed it up a little). I hope you can all come and I can't wait to see what you bring :)

Everyone that came brought yummy food including this beauty…

I made chicken taco’s and we started by just eating and chatting. Then we played a game of “get to know you” bingo. I tried to gear the questions around the girls that attended so that we could have fun answers. I also used a penny as the “O” and I will get to why in a second. Here are the card I made….

I know nothing fancy but hey it worked and it was fun.

Then we got down to business. I had gift bags like this set out together…

I had each person describe their items (I think we all spent $5-$10 they were supposed to be small things that you love). After the explanation was given I had each person put one of each item in a different bag and when the bag had three items we then moved it out of rotation. After everyone was done we broke for desert and I put tissue paper in each bag so that it would be random what each person would take home. Then we all gathered together again and I had each person choose a bag and the order was determined by the year of penny that they had on their penny on the bingo card (so cheesy but it worked).

I know you can’t wait to hear about my item right? Well I couldn’t choose because if you know me you know that I love nail polish and  lip gloss/lip balm. So of course I had a bottle of my favorite brand of polish Nabi. It dries fast, goes on smooth, stays on for days, and comes off easily with remover. And I read that Nabi in Korean means butterfly and that makes me smile.  I also included my favorite lip balm of the moment and it is the EOS lip balm. I have the lemon flavor always near by me because it has SPF in it and my “bestie” says I need to use more SPF so she should be proud, but all of the flavors are delicious. I also included a small hostess gift in each bag just for fun. I love the ELF makeup brushes they are inexpensive and work sooooo well so I made sure everyone took one home.

Last but not least here is the list of what everyone else brought just because it was so fun to see what everyone loved (I am not including names because I forgot to ask permission).

* Country living magazine

* Home magazines (House beautiful, Real Simple, and Better Home and Garden) and itunes gift card

* Burt's Bees chapstick and Starbucks gift card for vanilla steamer with whip cream and caramel sauce

* Stash brand Licorice spice herbal tea (found at Rosaurs and Good food store) and mug

* Glass pitcher and fun pot scrubber

* Loves the Dobie sponge (but couldn't find) with Dawn oil of olay/ brought Coconut lime body butter by Tree Hut (found at most drugstores and at costco around the holidays)

* Was talked out of bringing her favorite stone scrubber for the toilet with the white handle from Albertsons / brought fresh/raw tortilla and Nutella

* Body Basics scent infused lotion

* Kirkland brand makeup removing wipes, LA's totally awesome cleaner form the dollar tree, and Turbie twist towel

* Loves cellophane wrap and brought it as the gift bag for the purse hook

This was such a fun party to throw so go and plan one of your own and if you have any questions about how we did it don’t hesitate to ask!!