Easy Easter Egg Party

One of our favorite memories growing up was the annual Ladies' Easter egg decorating party at our Aunt Joan's house. It was a great way to make the Easter season even more special, and helped ensure that no one person was stuck with the task of dyeing all of the eggs for the Easter egg hunt. Here are some ideas to create the same kind of party at your house: Set up a low table outside with outdoor cushions surrounding it. Cover the table with an inexpensive tablecloth, and set out assorted glitters, paintbrushes, rubber bands, crayons, bowls of dye...anything that would be helpful when decorating Easter eggs. Invite all the girls of the family, (or all of your girlfriends) and ask them all to bring a half-dozen to a dozen hardboiled eggs, and an appetizer. Whip up a fun, springtime drink in a punchbowl, and you have an instant party! (Just be sure to keep the food and the decorating supplies separate.) (The above photo is from www.marthastewart.com)

Hostess Tip: Stock up on vases and vessels!

Here at the Babs Blog, we want you to entertain as much as possible because spending time with other people is important. Unfortunately, many of us come up with great reasons why we CAN'T have people over: "the house isn't clean enough, there's not enough time to pull this off, I haven't had enough time to plan..." Impromptu entertaining is really fun and easy, and we encourage you to toss your doubts to the side and invite someone for dinner tonight! Spur-of-the-moment entertaining is easiest when you have an arsenal of tricks to choose from. We'd like to share one of our favorite tricks for impromptu entertaining: grocery store flowers and fun vases. If you have a great vase or two in your cupboard, a bunch of grocery store flowers can be made to look like a florist helped you out. Or, in lieu of a vase, try a water pitcher or a grouping of teacups with a few flowers in them. We bought two bunches of roses at the grocery store for $20 and came up with these three arrangements. The white pitcher came from Target while the other two vases are garage sale finds. You probably have something fun in your house already that will work just as well. We didn't spend more than 10 minutes doing the arranging...as a matter of fact, it was closer to five minutes. Any one of these three arrangements would look great in the middle of your table for a little last-minute get-together!

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring to all of you!  This is the first post, and it will lack a bit in substance and quality, we're afraid...but something had to grace the Babs Blog as the first post!  Things are a bit hectic for those of you who have offered to host Springtime or Easter celebrations in your home.  If you are trying to be an inspired, gracious hostess but are coming up a bit short on creativity, consider Easter to be about the easiest of holidays to come up with a beautiful table.  Forage your yard for bits of green or branches that can grace your table OR head to your nearest craft store and stock up on some nests, moss and baby birds...throw it all together, and you'll have a quick, easy centerpiece.  Fresh flowers work well, too, and as it's spring, you only need a few bright posies in a white pitcher for a truly stunning look.  Here are a few pictures to get you started.  These are two different ways to create decor with branches, moss, nests and birds.  It took a total of ten minutes to create both looks and we didn't spend over $10.00.  (By the way, these are also great looks for a baby shower...you needn't limit yourself to using these finds during Easter only!)  Happy Easter!