you looking at me?

I love this party by Studio Number One that I found over at Cup of Jo.  I love a fresh new idea for a party

I am so planning this for my friends as well as for my 15 yr old daughter - what a fun end of school party.  I can only imagine the competition that would ensue between all the 15-17 yr olds.

Love, love, love new ideas!

take a bite out of these

For me the thrill of parties tends to be in the planning and not the actual party itself - I love the planning.  I love the party too but I get the most enjoyment out of letting my imagination go wild and coming up with creative party ideas or finding others creative ideas and incorporating them into my own parties.

I have been focusing my energies on the planning of a New Moon release party the last couple of days.  I love searching the internet and finding ideas but after so many hours spent searching the beloved computer I'm starting to find the same ideas and websites.  

So I was beyond excited when I came across a new idea that I hadn't found yet.  Check out these cookies that I found at Baking Bites.  I love them!  

I don't think I'm going totally vampire for the party - I just want some subtle vampiry-ness so I love the simpleness of these cookies - they're not so over the top vampire.

For those not big on Twilight these cookies could be made for a number of other party themes - Halloween being the obvious one.  These cookies would look great on a Halloween dessert bar.

This find has given me a renewed desire to continue to dig through the internet in hopes of finding even more ideas that I haven't seen yet.

fathers day

Wouldn't this be a cute way to fold your napkins for a Fathers Day feast?  Find the directions here.  You could also hit up Goodwill, The Salvation army or other thrift stores in search of old ties and incorporate them into your table decor.

movie madness

We all know I love a good party based on a movie or book.  My favorite movie/book themed party to throw is hands down Harry Potter - gotta love the wizard.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to move past my muggleness and throw a party for the movie this summer.  Part of me wants to wait and go big for the last movie.  My last HP shindig was for the final book release a couple years ago and part of me thinks it may still be too fresh in peoples minds.  Any thoughts?

But Harry Potter is not the only thing I'm here to wax philosophical on.  Let's move on to Twilight.  Is it evident yet that I'm not really into serious Academy Award winning movies? Bring on the fantasy and let me create a party based on it.

With two teenage daughters sharing my space you can only imagine the Twilight jive I have occupying my home.  There are at least 10 Stephanie Meyer books keeping residence on book shelves in our home - 4 of them being copies of Twilight - 3 of them because everyone has to read the book at exactly the same time and the 4th because my husband forgot to bring one of the copies with him on a family vacation (after we, the girls, begged him to read it) so of course we had to buy a 4th book.  The cool thing is they are all signed by Stephanie Meyer

The Host book signing where they allowed us to get copies of all her books signed.   

Surprisingly happy girls considering we spent hours waiting to get our books signed.

I'm getting seriously side tracked - back to parties.  So here are my thoughts...hold off on Harry and the crew until the last movie and focus my party planning skills on the November release of New Moon.  I've been wanting to throw a soiree in honor of Bella and Edward for awhile and this November seems to be as good a time as any.  I have to say I love that the movie is being released in November as opposed to a Summer release date - November is a more vampir-y month, don't you think?

While doing some planning and research I ran across this blog today, Tara's Twilight Party. I was excited to find her blog and got an extra bit of yippee when I noticed on her side bar that she had a list of other sites that were Twilight party focused.  I love me some good inspiration.

If you have any good Twilight ideas please feel free to share.  I'm still undecided on a direction to take for the party - do I go vampire?  How about modern like the Cullens home?  Do I set the scene in a meadow?  Do I fly myself and a hundred of my closest friends to Forks and have the bash there?  So many choices.  I'd love to hear what others have done or what you would do if you were throwing a Twilight party.

yarn yumminess

Is it bad that I want to book a flight to Paris just to go to this store?  Be still my heart - this store is amazing.

What are all those balls of happiness you ask?  Creative, beautiful balls of lights.  I love them - I want to marry them.

Can you picture a party with these?  I can and now I want to have that party.  If the party heavens are listening...please, please let me get my hands on these lights - I promise to throw a shindig that will match the splendor and glory of these balls.  Have I mentioned that I really love these?!?!?

looking back

I have been browsing through photos on the computer (really I should be unpacking boxes - yes, I still have unpacked boxes from our move - does it ever end?)  I ran across this single picture from a 40th birthday I planned for a friend.  

This is the only picture from that night.  I have no pictures of the invites, the place settings, the truffles packaged in champagne glasses, etc. but I do have this picture and I love it!  This is one of my favorite party pics of all times.  Do I wish I had pictures of the details?  Sure.  But this picture more than any other helps me truly remember the party, the friends that I laughed with, the experiences that were shared.  This picture allows me to not focus on the details of the party but the feelings.

Sometimes it is easy for us party loving folks to get excited and caught up in the creative, little details and there is nothing wrong with that but do we sometimes get so caught up in it all that we don't even enjoy the party itself - do we miss out on the experience of being together with family and friends?  I know I do sometimes.

Enjoy your next party.  Have fun creating it but give your self time the day of the party to breath and just be.  Take in the moment.

i'm tickled pink about these invites

On my daily rounds of blog reading this morning I came across these adorable invites by Michelle.  I love them!

alive and kicking

We are in our new home but are faced with lots of home improvement work to do before we are finally settled.  We have lots to do before the end of May when we will have out of town guests and a possible graduation party at our new place.

Also on the calendar...an Italian themed party to be held in our back yard at the beginning of June.  I better get back to painting walls - it will be party time before I know it. 

movie night

How about making a few of these bowls for your next movie night - totally cute, right?  You can find directions for making your own DIY bowl here.

looking for a bright spot in my day

Our move is in 2 weeks so my life is all packing all the time.  I took a bit of a break this morning and roamed around the internet while waiting for some stuff to download and I ran across these beyond adorable candles.  They are party perfect in so many ways!

You can find them here at Pketo!  Here is the description from the site:

How clever and cute are these? Perfect for celebrating happy, spontaneous moments and sharing memories with those around you.  Designed to look like an ordinary book of matches but inside are 10 small candles. Candles can be lit as attached or you can break them off to put on a birthday cake or a cupcake. Carry them with you to celebrate someone’s birthday, engagement, or for an instant candle light dinner with your love. You’ll get 4 different books in different colors of pink, yellow, green, blue, in a pack

I love these and finding them added a little bright spot to my otherwise stress filled day.

SHOWERing apprecitation

I just finished my morning read over at Stem Parties and I had to share what Amy, at Stem, is up to.  

She is involved in Operation Shower.  Operation Shower is a non profit group that recognizes and honors the sacrifices military families make by producing and coordinating  baby showers and "showers-in-a-box" for pregnant and expecting military personnel and their families.

They have a big spring fundraiser coming up, "April Flowers Bring May Showers"  This fundraiser will allow then to hold baby showers in May at Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Scott in Illinois.   

They are looking for any vendors that night want to contribute to this great cause.  If you are interested contact Amy at Stem.

I love this idea and wish Operation Shower a ton of success.  I appreciate the sacrifices made by so many men and women as they work to defend the rights, freedoms and liberties of our country.  

Amy, a big thank you to you and so many others that are reaching out in support of the brave men and women that serve in our military.

for your little gunslinger

Found these adorable mustaches over at Little Birdie Secrets this morning and thought they'd make a perfect little party favor for a cowboy shoot-out at the OK Corral.  What little guy wouldn't love a cowboy party?  Heck, they'd be fun for an adult party too!

stuck on you

Well hello gorgeous labels.  Where have you been my whole life?

Do you not love the shape of these labels?  Stuck Labels has really stuck it (yes, a very bad pun) with these new designer labels already cut into a perfectly fun, fancy shape.  Think of the time saved - no more hours of cutting out intricate designs.  I have spent far too much of my life cutting labels out that I thought were the perfect shape only to find myself some hours later ready to stick the scissors or exacto knife in my eye.

Some of Stuck Labels products come already designed you just need to personalize with your own wording.  The above stickers though come as you see them - blank, so you need to have some knowledge of Adobe Illustrator or similar program so that you can add your own touch.

Just had to share these great little labels!

i'll admit it...

I'm a total Harry Potter geek. I've got a secret crush on Harry and Ron and secretly wish that I was a wizard - don't judge me, just love me.

It is no surprise than that I can hardly wait for the next movie to come out in July. Just check out this trailer - look at the sets! If I can't be a wizard oh how I wish I could be a set designer on these films.

Big party plans to go along with the movie. To see our previous Harry party check out the post below.

very harry ideas

Even though our home move has me feeling stressed and way busy I keep swirling Harry Potter ideas around for a movie release party for the above mentioned movie.  Did I mention I'm kinda a Harry Potter geek?  Do the movie sets make anyone else's heart race and fill you with an inner desire to fly all your friends to England to hold a shindig in an old magical castle?

Our last HP party for the release of the last book was a ton of fun.  The party was open house style and those of us that wanted to left the party and headed over to Borders for the release of the book.  For the party I did what I could to recreate Hogwarts and various other magical locations.  You can see some pictures that my brother took here.  

Some of my favorites from the party were the wand boxes I made.  One of the activities was making wands and then each person got one of the handmade wand boxes to take their wand home in.  I also liked my Honeydukes candy packaging (I think there is a picture of some of the candy)  Herbology turned out to be a great little food station and I liked the coziness of Divination class.

If anyone has some great Harry Potter ideas please share them here so I can begin planning for our next Harry Hoopla!