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!!

I am in love (again)

Hi friends! I hope that everyone is having a great summer. Mine has been very fun but very busy lol. I have to admit though that I have been cheating on blogging with my new current love……

Oh my word are you part of this? Have you checked it out?

This is literally my new favorite way to save all of the fun things I plan to create, cook, craft, sew, or just plain drool over. I would love to hook up  with any of you there!!

Red, White, and Blue Gift

I thought I would show you a fun gift that I delivered this week for Independence day, because I love how it turned out. I had a local popcorn company make some red, white, and blue berry flavored popcorn and then I made a cute tag so they would know what office it came from

I hope that everyone a safe and happy holiday!!!

Summery gift box decor

I had a local bakery make these amazing coconut macaroons…..

and yes they taste just as good as they look. The problem was that the box was so plain. So I decided to spruce it up

I cut strips of paper 2 inches by 12 inches and folded them accordion style……

Then I connected the ends together to form a circle….

and the fun part comes next. I cut some circles out of cardstock and had my glue gun ready and then I flattened out my circle (yep that’s the best way I can describe it lol)

After adding a few embellishments I came up with this….

Movie Certificate Holder

I needed to find a fun way to give a movie gift certificate and came up with this…

I used a small brown paper bag and some decorative scissors and stickers.

Crafty weekend

I know how excited you must be to find out about the crafts I eluded to in my last post right? lol

Well like I said before my “bestie” came to visit and we have the same craft disease/obsession and the result of that was some crafting bliss.

First we made the cutest fridge magnets out of bottle tops look how fun and easy they were….

 

all you need is a bottle cap, some cute paper (she cut her circles out of magazines so they were fun and shiny), a magnet, and some hot glue.

We also made these rings out of wire and beads…….

 

I made the first two and Brandi made the cute flower

Don’t you love them? I was thinking about doing a giveaway but it’s hard to get the sizing just right unless I fly you to Montana and used your finger (ha ha), but I am debating on doing a little tutorial if anyone was interested?

The Handwriting Game

I know I have been the worst blogger ever lately but between Easter, a funeral, baseball, work, and oh ya know life {ha ha} things have gotten out of control. But hang in there because my “bestie” and I did some fun crafts last weekend and I can’t wait to show you the pictures. Until then enjoy this fun game I was tagged with by my blog friend Jandy. I really don’t love my handwriting but this was to fun to pass up!

Pretty easy, just answer these questions in your own handwriting...

1. What's your name/blogger name?

2. What's your blogs URL?

3. Write "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"

4. Favorite quote?

5. Your favorite song?

6. Your favorite band/singer?

7. Anything else you want to say?

8. Tag 3 bloggers to participate.

I will post my fun new projects very soon I promise!!!

Plate Pedestal

I had the fun chance recently to visit my mother-in-law (and no I’m not being sarcastic she really is fantastic) anyways she shares my love of crafty creations and was prepared for my visit with a this box…..

filled with cups, candlesticks, and old plates that she found at second hand stores.

We used these to make the cutest pedestals and we put them together with glue that was like this….

 

If you can suffer through a picture parade I will show you the combinations I made and where I put them in my house (aren’t you on the edge of your seat? lol).

If you stuck around until the bitter end then you must really love me Happy Crafting!

A gift idea and some facts about me :)

Hi friends! Wow I didn’t intend to take some time away from blog land, I guess between sickness and life it just got away from me but I still missed you.

My latest gift/delivery was pumpkin cookies and molasses cookies made by a wonderful local market and everyone was excited to get them….

Well now that I have shared that I am sure you  just can’t wait to learn more about me ha ha…..This was inspired by a game called “If you really knew me” that I played at a friends house a few years ago.

So if you really knew me you would know that…..

*I have lived in my house for almost five years and have never painted one wall. Yep as much as I love crafting I can’t decide what color I would possibly want to see every day so instead I see white.

*I have zero rhythm and thanks to my amazing friend I have fallen seriously in love with dancing.

*I love camping with my boys, they make me laugh and don’t judge me for the amount of S’mores  I eat or what time of day I eat them

*I am giddy about my BFF visiting!

*I love all kinds of technology…Computers, cameras, cell phones (you get the picture)

*99.9% of the time my fingernails and toenails are painted and I feel naked when they aren’t.

Have a great weekend! I would love to read your posts about what I would know if I really knew you!

How does this happen? and a WINNER!

Well first thing is first the winner of one of these……..

is

Yep that’s right #4 so that’s you Brittany! A nicer gal couldn’t have won and if you are in the salt lake area you may have even seen her on the news   Get me your address so I can get it out to you!!!

 

And now for the How does this happen? part

my son started school with two black gloves that were obviously the same size and here we hare at the end of March and he starts coming home with this……lol

Memory Wire Bracelet Tutorial and Giveaway

I have a new love!!

I used memory wire and glass beads and it was so easy….

First you cut the wire depending on how many times you would like it to wrap around your arm…

Then you put a loop in one end to hold the beads on…..

now you thread on your beads and end it with another loop

What do you think? Okay now for the giveaway….

You have your choice of the clear or the black bracelet and all you have to do is tell me the last great book you read?

This giveaway will end Saturday the 26th at midnight MST and I will use random.org to choose a winner that I will announce on February 27th. The winner will have two days to contact me concerning the prize or I will pick a new winner.