Febreze House Party!

OK.....So I am in LOVE with House Parties! I was recently chosen to host my very first party.....Febreze! I did not even know what a House Party was a couple of months ago. My friend Jenny and I were talking about parties and how much I like having them and she brought up House Party. She knows some people who have had them and thought it was something I would like to do. If you are not aware of what they are, let me see if I can explain. Different products put on a House Party. You apply to be a host. If you are chosen, they send you a bunch of free stuff to give out at your party. It is the simple.....I thought, you don't have to sell something? What is the catch? No Catch.....well, it is marketing for the product.....everyone chosen has a party on the same day and then posts pictures of the party on www.houseparty.com
I applied for a couple of parties before I got the Febreze one. Jenny's friend got a free Kuereg coffee maker. They just had a Playstation one, so there are some good hostess gifts out there. Speaking of Jenny, she was also chosen to host the Febreze party, so we joined forces and being our first party.....kept it small and simple. As you can see, you get some party supplies as well......we did an afternoon coffee get together for a few friends. I put out some pastries, coffees, lemonade....put on my Febreze apron and was ready to go.

Here are some of the products that I got from Febreze. I was surprised by how much stuff they sent. House Party also hooks you up with party ideas and favors for your event.

Jenny brought over some of stuff, so nobody walked away empty handed. You can see I printed out some of the Febreze signs off House Party for my display.

I had gift bags from the dollar store.....put those out, so guests could make up their own favor bags.My daughter and her friend checking out the products. My favorite was the scented luminaries......we decided to raffle a few of those off, so that we could keep some for ourselves!!

My bff Lil won one of the luminaries! Look at the excitement!

I have applied for a couple of more parties. They have a Tequila one the weekend of my sisters birthday, so I am thinking maybe a Margarita shindig for her if I get that one! What a fun thing to add to a get together you are having. Spend time with friends, get free stuff and sharpen up the old hosting skills. Right up my alley!

www.houseparty.com

Baby Girls Birthday Non-Party

So, we did not get to do a party for baby girl this year. I had ideas and I had plans, but my sweet little girl decided she wanted a big gift instead of a party.....well she probably would have liked to have both, but my wallet did not agree. We ended up getting her a super comfy, super nice, mattress set. Really one of those things that you have to pay up for. Hopefully she will have for many many years to come. She will also be moving into an apartment this year, so perfect timing for this gift.

But how can I let my baby girl wake up on her birthday and not have some sort of celebration? I of course did my paper signs and hung a birthday banner. 19.....19.....wow, it dawned on me, this will be my last year doing "teen" signs. How time flies. I decided to go out and buy her a comforter for her new bed. I wanted her to have something to open up on her birthday. I don't know how much of that is wanting them to have a good birthday and how much of it is me wanting to hang on to their youth :)

Since we weren't having a party....I had the idea for us to all have a nice family dinner at Wildfire. She could invite her boyfriend my son would bring his girlfriend....it would be so grown up. Well the boyfriend and girlfriend had work, so it turned into just a nice family dinner with the hubby and kids. We don't get many of those anymore, so I was fine with that. We had a lovely time, they brought out desert with a candle and then we headed home.

It takes some time getting used to having adult children. All of those parties we used to have. I wish I had more pictures. Shame on me.....I forgot my camera on this day as well.
Well, no cool pictures or cool party ideas to post on this one......but sometimes, it is just about spending the time together. I hope she will remember that when she thinks back on her birthday.......well, that, and how comfortable that crazy mattress is!!

Audio Monkey Graduation Party

So after years of helping out with school projects and making last minute cupcakes, my days of having a child in school are just about behind me. My oldest just graduated from college and I could not be more proud. He took a few detours along the way, but once he found his calling, he went after it head on. I am also proud to say that a week after graduating he landed his first job on an Emmy nominated court tv show. Not too bad. I wish him much success and of course had to throw him a party to celebrate!
I mentioned before that I got the idea for this party from the Steez picture of a monkey wearing headphones. I purchased a copy at target for my sons room a few years back, as I used to call him my little monkey head when he was a baby and he was going to school for Audio, the picture just reminded me of him.

We decided to have a small BBQ at our house. I had a limited budget on this party, so I got myself ready to craft! I made the invitations myself with note cards I purchased at the Swoozies
going out of business sale. I stocked up and it was great having them on hand for this very reason. I think they came out pretty good.

Here is the Steez picture I mentioned was in my sons room. I moved that into the living room and placed over the fireplace as a focal point. I made my own little banner and attached it to the monkeys. Sticking with the audio theme, I drew some headphones on there and added a little graduation cap to the monkey on the bottom. I took my color scheme from the monkey picture. The paper balls are from Martha Stewart. I had these left over from a baby shower. They are super easy to make, and people always comment on them. Fun and easy decoration.

Ahhhh, my personalized banner making. Now that I have my new paper cutters, this project was much easier to tackle. I added the monkey and the school logo.

I keep a ton of card stock on hand. I had some that went with my color scheme and I used twine to tie everything together. It also gives off a more natural vibe.

Here is the finished product. Below the banner I placed stuff from the graduation ceremony. I had his cap and the programs from the ceremony along with his degree.

I wanted to display some pictures from the ceremony for everyone to see. Rather than doing the typical poster board thing, I had this idea to hang them on the same twine over the buffet, so that everyone could see as they went by the table. I did not have any clips, so I just used a hole punch and strung them in chronological order. Since we only had two tickets to the graduation, this was a nice way to share the day with everyone at the party.oh boy......here was my attempt at making homemade monkey bread. I had this idea that I was going to bake homemade favors for everyone to take home. What goes with a monkey theme? Monkey Bread! Well, I have to admit, I had never had monkey bread before. I came out just fine, but was way to time consuming for me. I thought I would try mini loafs of banana bread, but that also took a lot of time. I was kind of disappointed as I had started to make the cute little favors bags.

These were the supplies needed for the favor bags. I thought the paper lunch bags went with that natural look and we already had them at home. You just use scalloped craft scissors to trim the top of the bag. I made little tags to glue on the bag. Used a hole punch and the twine to tie up the top.

One of the finished favor bags. Too bad my baking skills were not up to task. Would have been nice. With this idea off the table, I tried to come up with something else that went with my audio monkey theme. Duh, what do audio monkeys eat? Simple, easy, Bananas!

I used the tags I made for the favor bags and just tied them to a couple of bananas. I wrote the name of the event along with "Thanks a Bunch!" How cute is that? I put them on a little table near the door, so people could take on their way out. This was also an appropriate snack as my son and some of his friends are vegetarians.

Back to the decorations. I used card stock and ribbon to make these vase covers. I absolutely have to have fresh flowers when I throw a party. Who doesn't like flowers? It is an instant decoration. Making these covers for the vases, just personalizes the event. I went with sunflowers as they fit in with my color scheme and they had them in bulk at Costco. They have such a great deal on flowers at Costco!

So, this monkey theme had to be subtle and not something a 2 year old would have. I found this cool table cover at Target. I think it gave off a jungle theme without being goofy. It also matched the new plant we bought for our deck. I also, placed extra bananas around the party as decoration. Subtle. These were my attempt at party picks for the cupcakes I made. With my limited budget, I decided to make these cute chocolate banana cupcakes I saw online. The picks were more time consuming than the monkey bread, so I only made a few. Just as well, I like the look of the cupcake on its own!

I loved the way the cupcakes turned out. Just made chocolate cupcakes and then added a little banana extract to the frosting. I placed a dried banana chip on each one. My mom also brought some banana bread and brownies, so we had a nice little dessert bar going on.

My husband did all the grilling and my daughter helped out with the salads. We had veggie burgers and veggie skewers among the other BBQ fare. Yummy Sangria was a big hit as well.

So, I am a little behind the times with the whole downloading music thing. I wanted keep my monkey theme going with some monkey music. I burned my very first cd and every song had a monkey connection......This Monkeys Gone to Heaven by the Pixies....Shock the Monkey, Peter Gabriel.......Last Train to Clarksville, by The Monkees.......just to name a few.

I was also able to get my hands on the sold out Musical Monkey. I love this dancing monkey. I found it online and it was sold out everywhere. I found one at a store in SanFransico and they shipped it out to me. You just plug him into your ipod and he dances along to whatever song you have going. He also has speakers, so he is not just cute, he is useful.

Here my son and his girlfriend enjoy a little dance from the musical monkey.

That's it for the Audio Monkey Graduation Party. I was very happy with this theme. It was just enough without going monkey crazy or coming across as childish.

I had a great time and hope my son did too!

Pug Party 2010

It's Not My Party, But I Can Pug If I Want To!

I love a good theme party and what better theme for party than PUGS! Every year there are one or two pug parties hosted by http://www.pugparty.com/ Pug lovers come from all over. I never thought I would be a crazy dog person until I had Poochie. Pugs have a unique personality that only a pug owner understands. Wanting to be around other pug lovers.... pug parties and pug crawls were born. Here are some pics I took at this years party.

So this past weekend was the 2010 Pug Party.....We have gone a few times over the past few years. It is a fun outing for us and after spending most of his time home sleeping, Little Poo gets the fun of being around all of his little pug buddies for a day. You can see from the picture above, he does not yet know the excitement that awaits him at the end of his ride in the car.

The Party is usually at the same place every year. Joe's on Weed St.

Proof that we are not the only crazy pug lovers. This is the crowd around the Pug Pen. We were there early, so I am sure the crowds only grew as the day went on.

For anyone who thinks our little Poochie has a weight problem..... he is looking pretty slim next to this big boy!

The best part of the Pug Party is the Pug Pen. You just drop your pug in and let them have their fun. Here Poochie is getting acquainted with the pups in the pen

Just like a scared kid on the first day of school. You have to push him out there and tell him to go make some friends!

The excitement was too much for him. Pooch needed to take a break at the bar with Mommy.

After taking a break, Pooch was ready to get back in there and socialize.

We did not stay long enough for the costume contest, but if you look hard enough you can see a pug in a lobster suit. Another pup looked like zorro, but he was actually in a White Sox uniform. See, we are not that crazy!

Here is Poochie waiting in line with Jeff for a professional pug photo shoot. We should get copies of the pics next week. As most pug owners know, it is super hard to get a good picture of a pug. The dark face and eyes make it hard to get a good shot. This lady had a good thing going with her set up at the party.

The dangers of an overweight old pug. You see a lot of pugs in strollers at these parties. People may think the owners are spoiling the dogs, but a lot of these dogs are rescues with health problems. Also, as pugs age, they have major hip problems and trouble walking. I have even thought of getting one for Poochie so that he can go on long walks with me. During the summer, I end up carrying home from our walks down the hill!

They have a bunch of vendors at these parties. We received a lovely gift bag with a collapsable dog bowl and some pug magnets. They also, have a bbq outside for owners and bowls of water placed all over for the pups.

Once that tongue comes out, we know Poochie has had enough. It was time to head home.

I am sure he can't wait until next year!

Spring Music Concert

So, this is not really a party post. It is a post about my recent Spring Concert with the Moraine Valley Percussion Ensemble. Seeing as so many people, myself included have had to sit through one of these concerts supporting a child or loved one. I thought I would post my pics and toss out ideas for marking such an occasion.

The Program. Be sure to take a program. This is the little piece of fame that the performer gets. Their name in print for all to see. I still have all of my old programs in an old photo album along with pictures from whichever recital it was. I wish I did a better job of keeping the ones from my children's shows. I tend to think scrapbooking is super time consuming and everything is digital these days, so is there really a big need for all of that printing and gluing and cutting?.......but how nice it is to have that album full of memories. Something to think about before you toss that program in the trash!

Here I am on stage with some of the ensemble. Important pic to get. The stage shot. Most of these kids are right out of high school. It was hard not to feel intimidated when I walked into that first class. It just goes to show, you are never too old to try something you have always wanted to do. They were all so nice and made me feel like I was a part of something.

You don't perform in the big spring concert without expecting there to be parents in the audience. I thought it was pretty funny that all of the kids in my class had parents my age there and there I was with my old man. The two percussionist! My husband came as well. My kids could not make it :( but maybe next time. Another important picture to get.....the performer with family near the stage.

What do you bring for someone after a big show......the recital bouquet of course!

So, my mind gets to thinking, what if you wanted to make the day special for your performer. How easy would it be to cut out some music notes to stick around the house the day of the show. Maybe a little "break a leg" sign?

OK, music note balloons might be taking things a bit too far for a little spring concert. But, hey they make them for a reason. You can take the whole music theme and run with it for any music lover in your life.

Time for me to start practicing for the Summer Concert Series.

Click Below to see footage from the concert!