Black Friday Party

To start off December and get the monthly girls in the holiday spirit, I decided to theme our December dinner after Black Friday.  I wanted to have a holiday theme, but one with a little twist.  This led to the craziness of hosting a Black Monday Madness party (since my dinners are actually on Mondays).  I put in some long hours of prep on this one, but I loved how everything turned out.

Invite:  I designed my invitation to look like a Black Friday advertisement, and printed it on 8.5x11 paper.  The image is a Walmart advertisement I found on Google, that I just added text boxes, etc. so that it revealed all the party details in a creative way.  As you may recall if you read my blog regularly, I have no idea how to use Photo Shop, so everything you see in this post is done on Microsoft Word.

Entry:  Although I didn't really make my guests line up and wait outside like Black Friday, I did set up the outside to look like it.  I used wooden stanchions to create an area for the "line"  A sign on the first stanchion told guests to form a line.  I put a Girls R Us sign on the door as if that was the name of our "store."

Decor:  I set my table with a black tablecloth for Black Friday.  I used a shopping cart filled with small kid toys for a centerpiece as well as my daughter's cash register.

For added fun, I made shopping bags using mini gift bags from Michaels.  I cut out logos of various stores to glue to the fronts and spread these around the table.  I also bought some fake money at the Dollar Store to wrap around green napkins.  Black Friday is all about saving money!

I spent hours making coupon place cards for each guest.  I wanted them to be silly, so I found funny/different photos of each guest to use rather than plain typical looks.  Depending on the photo, I then adapted what was being sold and the description of the "product".  I even found fun logos that went with the pictures to spice it up a bit.  These were a bit hit, and we all got a kick out of seeing the photos and reading the silly descriptions.

I made these simple wine charms to go with my theme.  I had everything from 10% off to 80% off.  The images were found on Google Images, printed on card stock, hole punched, and tied with ribbon around the glass stems.

Menu: I created an advertisement with my menu as well.  These were placed at various spots on the table.  The food was free for the first 10 customers on Black Monday = my number of guests for the evening!  I tried to think of clever titles and descriptions to really pull in my theme.  We started with Saving Lots of "Green" Salad.

The main dish was Blackened Chicken Alfredo Pasta, Zucchini Quarters with Black Pepper, and a Little Extra "Dough" bread sticks.  I found the recipe for the pasta on This Week for Dinner.  I followed the recipe except that I used the grill instead of pan frying/oven.  This dish has a bit of a kick, which I usually can't tolerate, but I actually enjoyed it.  The spice was strong, but not overpowering.

The dessert was Million Dollar Chocolate Pudding Pie with Peppermint.   This is an easy dessert that is great for the holidays. I called it Million Dollar pie to pull in the theme and created dollar signs out of chocolate.  The original recipe made stars.

Favor: The whole purpose of Black Friday is to save money and spend money.  This is why I created a purse favor. I made a rectangular box for the inside and filled it with some black tissue paper and gold chocolate coins I found at the Dollar Store.  The outside is made with card stock, ribbon, and a scrapbooking rhinestone.  I had to purchase sticky Velcro to keep it closed as the coins were too heavy for just scrapbooking glue/tab.  I designed the priceless tag on Microsoft Word.

We had a great time at this party.  Almost all the details were very inexpensive because I made them all myself; it just took time to create each item. I think it was worth it though.  The girls and I had a lot of laughs and enjoyed the night.  As usual...if you would like any of the documents for a future Black Friday party, just send me an email!  Oh, and please comment below.  I love to hear your thoughts!

Happy Shopping!

A Little Naughty, A Little Nice

Looking to add a little spice to your holiday this season (and I don't just mean in your spiced cider!)?  Then this just might be the post for you!  With December only one day away, it is time to get the advent calendar ready.  I've been working on our family advent calendar with fun holiday crafts and activities similar to last years, but this year, I've decided to make A Little Naughty, A Little Nice advent calendar for my husband!!

With two young kids and full time jobs for both of us, it is sometimes challenging for my husband and I to find the time to have stress-free couple time.  I decided to craft this fun calendar just for us.  Since it is meant just for us, I decided to hang it from our headboard. Honestly...this was also so we wouldn't get so busy we'd forget to open one each day!! 

 
I painted clothespins in red, white, and greens and clipped them to a red ribbon. I bought two small packs of 6x6 holiday paper from Michaels ($4 on sale) for the rest.  I ended up cutting the paper to be 6x4 because I thought it looked better.  The paper pack came with the numbers that I just cut out and glued to the clothespins.  I decided to roll the paper, so my husband couldn't cheat and know what was coming! I even taped them!

I typed up the advent activity for the day and glued it to the inside of each paper.  I couldn't just write it because the stack of paper I bought was double-sided.  It was fun coming up with the days activities.  I was purposefully vague on some items.  For example, I thought we could decided together which of us would give the back rub and which would receive it.

Here's some examples of A Little Naughty...(only a "little" naughty for this post!)

 And A Little Nice...

As crazy as the holiday season gets, I think these activities will enable my husband and I to have a little of our own time and just enjoy each other a bit. I cannot wait for December 1st!  If any of my readers do this, please let me know.  Maybe I can swap out some of my ideas for yours!

*Another note: Just like I do with my kids' advent calendar, I keep a hidden list of the days in order.  This way if something comes up and I know we won't have time to fit the activity in that day, I can switch it with a less time-consuming day.  This is another reason why I numbered the clothespins and not the papers. 

Thankful Tree

Happy Thanksgiving!! I love this holiday, not just because of the delicious food which makes me feel like I need to be rolled out the door, but because it is a holiday season that presents us with a great opportunity to reflect on all we have to be thankful for.  My husband and I took our family out for a walk on the horse trails near our house at the beginning of the month and we came across this...

This thankful tree displays the numerous blessings that surround us.  There were tags dangling from the tree written by neighbors and others who passed by the tree.  On these tags, the writers noted something they were thankful for and then hung it on the tree like an ornament.

Attached to the trunk of tree was a plastic container with a lid and inside the container were blank tags and pens/markers for anyone who wished to add what they are thankful for to the tree.  I loved this idea, and I decided to make a small tree for our house.  The remainder of the walk, our family picked up long sticks to be used for our tree.

When we got home, I found a vase.  My daughter and I placed the sticks in our vase, and then set about making the tags. We used my Cricut machine and Stretch Your Imagination cartridge to make 3.5" tags on light tan cardstock.  We threaded twine through the top of the make the ornaments, and placed the vase as the centerpiece of our dinner table.

Next to the vase, we placed a dish with blank ornaments and a pen, much like the neighborhood tree.  Throughout the month of November, our family (and whoever visits that wishes to add a thankful tag) have been writing down things we are thankful for.  Every time I look at this tree, it reminds me of all I have to be thankful for and the many blessings we have in our lives.

As this month comes to a close, I plan to write 2012 on the back of each tag and keep them all together. Next year, it will be so neat to read them again.  It will also show the growth of our kids as their handwriting and what they are thankful for changes. My favorite tags so far this year have been one I wrote on behalf of our 17 month old son, "Chairs, books, toys...anything that I can step on to reach things I shouldn't" and one of our 3 year old daughter's "I'm thankful for Johnny-John."  This one will be neat as her nickname for her little brother changes over time.  Each year, I will hang some of the past years on the tree, and then I will make tags in a slightly different color for the current year.

We have so much to be thankful for, and this tree has been a wonderful daily reminder for my family of just how much we are blessed.  I highly recommend making a tree of your own.  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Bare Necessities

November is a time we often count our blessings and be thankful for all we have.  Others do not have even the bare necessities, and they are struggling every day. This prompted me to host my November monthly dinner with the theme of Bare Necessities where the girls and I made care packages to give out to the homeless in our communities.

Entry:  I wanted my decor to fit with my theme, but not be depressing.  At first, I was going to decorate all in teddy "bears" and play up this homophone, but that seemed too cutesy to go with our activity.  I decided instead to mix the two.  A shopping cart was donated to my ASB several years ago, so I borrowed that to set outside my entry door. I filled it with blankets, sleeping bags, etc.  Across from it, I set out a flattened cardboard box with a giant panda bear (thanks Gracie!).  I made a simple sign for the panda to hold inviting guests to enter.

Decor:  I set my dining table with some camping tarps as a tablecloth. As a centerpiece, I filled a small shopping cart with washcloths as well as some of the care package items.  Next to this, I placed another teddy bear holding a sign that read: "Homeless Let's Help" instead of the general Please Help that you often see on the side of the road. I placed newspaper under it -- the employment section -- for added color and contrast.

As place cards, I made knapsacks out of a scrap of fabric and a pencil. I filled the inside of the fabric square with Thanksgiving M&Ms, tied the ends of the fabric together in a knot to create the sack, and slid a new pencil in (writing side down so it didn't show).  To add the name to each pencil, I used by Cricut machine to cut letters and then glued them on.

To keep with the theme, the menu card was a piece of cardboard with the menu written in black marker.  The wine bottles were wrapped in paper bags.  I tied the tops with a burgundy ribbon for the red wine and a white ribbon for the white wine.

On the table we used for assembling the care packages, I used a sleeping bag as my tablecloth. I set out another bear, this one holding a sign that read "We Care Packages".  Another small shopping cart held the cards (see Activity section below).

Our good friend Josh in Mammoth carves these amazing bears out of wooden logs.  This bear was given to us at our wedding years ago.  It is engraved with our names at the bottom, and the bear was originally holding fresh flowers when we received it at our reception. He was a perfect addition to my table, and the hole was perfect to stick a skewer with a sign to identify the table.  By the way, you should really check out Josh's website to get one of these for your home, Bare in Mind Carvings. We love ours and get so many great comments on it.

Menu:  Again, I tried to adapt or fit menu items to the theme.  We started with Raspberry Salad with Candied Almonds.  Yummy!  The salad consisted of mixed greens, feta cheese, whole raspberries, and candied almonds.  It was served with a raspberry vinaigrette.  To make the candied almonds, I used 3 tablespoons sugar with a half cup of almonds. In a non-stick skillet, heat on medium heat 6-8 minutes, or until sugar forms a golden brown syrup and coats almonds.

For the main dish, I made individual Chicken Pot Pies, but shaped them like knapsacks.  To complete the look, I stuck a wooden chopstick through the top and tied a small strip of fabric around the end.  Although my pot pies included carrots and peas inside, I decided to serve green beans with it as well.  To make the knapsacks, I made the dough and then cut it into 6"x6" squares.  These squares I filled with the chicken mixture before folding the edges in. Here is the recipe for the inside mixture:

Chicken Pot Pie

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

Freshly ground pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 cup frozen peans

1 1/2 cups cubed or shredded cooked chicken (I got mine pre-cooked from Costco)

Melt butter in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Cook the onions, carrots, and celery with salt and pepper to taste, until the carrots soften, about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and thyme and cook an additional minute, stirring frequently.  Add the flour and cook off the raw flavor, about 1 more minute.  Turn up the heat to medium-high and deglaze the pan with the wine.  Which in the stock and Dijon mustard.  Add the peas and chicken and cook on a very low simmer until the sauce thickens up into a gravy, 5 to 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.

For dessert, I served Strawberry Pie with whipped cream.  The best thing about this entire dinner was that I made almost everything the day before, so I actually had a chance to visit with my guests during this dinner rather than spending all my time in the kitchen preparing the meal.

Activity:  As I stated above, this theme was centered around the creation of Care Packages to help the homeless in our community.  I asked each guest to sign up to bring 20 of one or two items on the care package list.  I then bought gallon size Ziplock bags to hold all the items.  The items I asked guests to bring were:

Chapstick

Toothbrush and toothpaste

Deodorant

Packages of Tissues

Soap

Trail Mix

Crackers

Bottled Water

Hand wipes

Bandaids

Granola Bars

Pair of Socks

Coins

Lotion

One of the girls even typed up a list of local shelters in Orange County, and she brought single-day bus passes that we attached to several.

I also crafted a small note card for each guest to write a message of their choice before placing into the bag. The girls seemed to like this addition. (If you'd like a copy email me.)

When filled, the idea of these bags it to place them in your car, so it is handy the next time you encounter someone in need.  Each guest left with two full bags ready to give out to others.


This was a great party, and we all enjoyed putting these bags together.  The feedback I have received from the guests and the stories they've shared when they gave a bag away makes me smile.

Halloween: Family Fun

Happy Belated Halloween!  This is not my favorite holiday. However, I have come to the understanding that you must learn to like this holiday once you have little ones running around super excited about dressing up and trick or treating.  My hang up with this holiday is twofold.  First, I have a hard time spending the loads of money that costume stores want you to pay for something that is poorly made and your kids will wear once or twice.  Secondly, the creative gal in me has a hard time settling for standard princess or super hero type of costume. Our costumes this year were a big hit, so I decided to share them with you in case you can use them for the future.

Here is our family this year...

My daughter's favorite movie right now is Up.  She begs to watch it almost every night. So one evening we were watching Up, and I hinted to my daughter that she should be an Up character for Halloween.  The clincher...I told her she could carry balloons while she trick or treated.  She was ecstatic! Immediately, she assigned each member of our family the character we would represent.

My husband was Mr. Frederickson.  We made a visit to the local GoodWill and picked out a dark brown coat and slacks.  We already had the white shirt and suspenders.  We borrowed the cane and just added 4 tennis balls to the bottom.  The glasses we found at a thrift store for $0.59.  The bow tie and white hair spray were purchased at Party City.  To finish off the outfit, I made a Grape Soda pin for him to wear on his lapel.

I was Russel.  I borrowed a yellow hat and shirt from my dad.  The Boy Scout sash was borrowed from one of my past students. I already had the brown shorts and hiking boots, just added orange shoelaces.  I wrapped a piece of orange felt around my neck to make the scarf.  The hat emblem, flag, and patch were made out of scrapbook paper.

My daughter wanted to be Kevin, the Snipe.  This is where I had to use my creativity because a Snipe costume does not exist.  I bought a purple fleece hooded sweatshirt and 2 rainbow boas.  I stitched the boas to the sweatshirt with needle and thread without cutting the boas at all.  The sweatshirt was a zip-up, so it worked perfectly to take the sweatshirt on and off without ruining the costume.  I also stitched some feathers extending from the top of her head.  The yellow beak is made out of card stock and stitched to the hood to hold it in place.  Blue card stock is behind each googly eye as well. All these items can easily be removed and the sweatshirt used normally after Halloween too!  For the feet, I cut these out of black foam and safety pinned them in the back.  They ripped fairly easily we found, but a little black duck tape helped!

My son was Doug, the cute little dog from the movie. I looked everywhere for an expensive puppy costume that was brown like Doug in the movie.  I found this one at Party City for $15...works for me.  If I had more time, I would have added a collar with a red light flashing, but I ran out of time on that one.

This was a really fun Halloween costume.  I think it is even better than our one last year (although I loved my chicken and my egg...)

Murder Mystery Dinner Night

I had always wanted to try one of those Murder Mystery Dinner parties, so I decided to host one for my monthly dinner in November of 2010.  I did some Internet research on various kits to find one, and I decided on Pasta, Passion, & Pistols created by University Games.  This kit was in my price range, had positive reviews, fit the amount of people I would have at my dinner, and the overall plot sounded interesting.

The kit comes with invitations, scripts, recommended menu, and all the police reports/secret clues that you need to successfully play the game. You can even reuse all the materials (except the invitations) to host another party with a different group, so it doesn't have to be a one-time use thing.

Invite:  Although the kit came with invitations, I did not use them because I like to create my own.  The setting of this murder was an Italian restaurant in New York City, so I went with an Italian theme. All images I found on Google and adapted using Microsoft Word.  I sent only the front (the invite on the left) first.  Once I knew who could make it, I sent the invite again with the character they would play printed on the back of the invite (right). All information is given on the Party Planner sheet included in the kit.  By the way, even as the party host, I did not know anything about the plot, killer, details, so I was also able to partake in the fun of the evening.

Entry: In front of my entry door, I created a body outline with chalk and set up crime scene tape around it.  I also set out an "evidence bag" which was a zip lock bag with a toy pistol inside of it.  On the door, I created a restaurant sign welcoming guests to La Speranza Restaurant.

Decor:  I set my table with a red and white checkered tablecloth, green napkins, and my usual white plates. I set a few pieces of paper and a pen on each plate for guests to take notes during the evening.  The booklets included with the kit have a spot for note taking, but since I didn't know if I would be reusing the game, I didn't want to use those. 

As my centerpiece, I bought white and red flowers from my local florist and tied a red ribbon around the vase.  Next to each vase, I placed a black toy pistol for added decor. Bread and Italian oils for dipping were also on the table along with white pillar candles. I downloaded some Italian opera to play in the background.

For the place card, I used my Cricut machine to scrapbook a card that went along with the character each guest was playing for the evening.  For example, Mama Rosa is a chef, so hers was a chef hat; Marco Roni is a soccer player, so his was a soccer ball.  My monthly dinner guests are all girls, but some of us played male roles for this evening.

Menu:  The mystery kit provides various dinner ideas and recipes.  I created my own menu of Italian food, but I did try two of the recipes from the kit. The two recipes I tried were the Baked Ziti and the Mocha Cake.  Due to copyright, I cannot include the recipes.  Anything Italian would go with this theme though.  You could even serve pepperoni pizza since the person murdered was Guiseppe (Pepi) Roni!!

Favor:  At the end of the evening, I gave the guest who guessed the murderer correctly a large bottle of Italian red wine.  The other guests received miniature bottles of wine.  I created a "restaurant bill" as my tag to attach to each bottle of wine.

Three of us dressed up in our costumes for the evening!

This was a super fun evening, and we all had a great time dressing up, playing our parts, and guessing the murderer.  This kit says the party takes 3-5 hours, and it did take about 3 hours for us.  I knew the girls could not stay super late, so we did move fairly quickly through the script in order to finish.  Note: This did mean our general conversations were lessened a bit to accommodate, but none of us seemed to mind this time because the evening was entertaining on its own.

If you are looking a different way to dine with friends, this might be fun for your group!

Construction Zone: Girls at Play

I've had a couple requests from readers to post details of the Construction Zone: Girls at Play party I hosted way back in January of 2007. I must warn you...I took very few photos of the dinner details and those that I do have are horrible!  At least you will get an idea of what we did!

Invite:  I created a standard construction-themed invitation for this party on Microsoft Word. I asked the girls to dress as construction workers to add to the fun of the event.

I included this photo because he is actually reading the directions...this was a first! :)

I guess I should back up and tell you that this theme came about because my husband (well, he was just my boyfriend at this point in 2007) and I tore out the carpet in the downstairs of our condo that year to replace it with wood floors.  The project took a little longer than anticipated, so we were "under construction" when the January monthly dinner rolled around.

Entry:  I set up construction cones and caution tape leading to the entry door.  I made a construction sign on the door that read "Girls at Play" and under it was another sign that warned "Enter with Caution."

Decor:  Since my dining room table had been moved out to do the floors, this left me with a clean slate for decor.  I set up two construction sawhorses and bought a large thick piece of plywood to put on top as the table. I bought an expensive piece of plywood because we were planning to use it for another house project after the party. As a centerpiece, I just grabbed construction tools from our garage: large yellow level, hammers, screwdrivers, table measure, wrench, etc.  I also had two mini cones that I placed on each end of the level.  I wrapped the napkins with zip ties.

As a place card as well as an accessory for the evening, I gave each guest a plastic construction hat I bought at Party City.  To make it specific to each guest, I designed a tag with the guest's name and a construction-related occupation.  I used alliteration, so I had: Maria the Mason, Deanna the Designer, Carole the Carpenter, etc.

Menu: I themed my menu around construction as well.  Our drink to start the evening was Screwdrivers.  The remainder of the menu included a Build-Your-Own Pizza Bar, A Craft-Your-Own Salad Station, and a Build-Your-Own Sundae Station.  For the pizza station, I just made pizza dough and placed it on a piece of tin foil for each guest (see photo on the left).  After guest's had placed the toppings they desired on it, I placed it on a cookie sheet with other guest's pizzas and cooked them all at once.

Favor:  Each guest left with a construction cookie in a clear favor bag with the Work Complete tag attached.  As you can tell, I am not a great artist (especially when using frosting), but you get the idea!

A simple theme that would be great for a young boy's birthday party. I would incorporate dump trucks and other ideas now that I have a son with all of these toys, but back in 2007 when I had this party, I didn't have kids to steal from!

As usual...if you would like the document with the tag or invitation email or comment below.