Rue Magazine

Rue is a new online magazine that is definitely worth a look! It is full of great design and party ideas. Be sure to head on over and take a peek.

Plan Your Friday Happy Hour!

It was a Monday evening, and Kari and her hubby were already wishing for the weekend.  So, what did they do?  They whipped up this invitation (above) and emailed it to local friends and coworkers in anticipation of a Friday Happy Hour.  It was a hit.  So spur-of-the-moment was the decision that there was no time for retraction or over-thinking!  On Friday, after work, Kari and her husband, Robert, set out easy appetizers, uncorked a few bottles of wine, and just relaxed as their home filled with friends who needed to unwind a bit after a harried work week.  Seriously, folks:  easiest party ever.  The rave reviews from the party attendees are still coming in, weeks later.  We're thinking it needs to be a monthly thing now.  We hope you'll try it.  It's Monday...tonight, whip up that invitation and email it before you can talk yourself out of it.  We promise, it'll be fun!

Today, We're Dreaming Of...

...having tea at Crown & Crumpet Tea Salon in San Francisco.  Their website claims that this darling place is "a room with tea and wit." 

Based on these photos, you can see lots of wit!  What a fun, non-stuffy tea room!  Oh, we would love to gather a group of our favorite women and have a spot of tea at this fabulous place.  If you are ever in the San Francisco area, consider making reservations here.  (They do children's parties, too!)  If you aren't going to be in the San Francisco area any time soon, use these photos (and check out their website) for a little colorful inspiration to hold your own tea party!   A colorful, spunky tea party is just the thing for spring!  :)

A Hostess with the Mostess party...

These beautiful pictures/party ideas can be found on another entertaining blog, Hostess With the Mostess.  May we recommend that you bookmark Hostess With the Mostess and check in regularly for party ideas?  You will be so glad you did!

The Great Pumpkin

As children, our annual pumpkin carving was fun, messy, and yielded a bunch of poorly hacked little jack-o-lanterns. We were kids, and it was all we could do to not cut off a thumb while carving a crooked smile into our pumpkin. (These were the days before pumpkin safety knives for children---we were just expected to be careful and Dad and Mom would help monitor the situation so no limbs were lost). These days, it seems like pumpkin carving is no longer for kids! Adult pumpkin carving has taken on a new height of sophistication. While we still think a bunch of excited kids hacking jack-o-lanterns is more fun and creates the best memories, it can be fun to see what patient adults are doing with their pumpkins. Martha Stewart is probably the expert on this (of course, she has an incredible staff to hand-select the perfect pumpkin and then they get paid to make sure the carving comes out perfect....) and her website is where you can find the how-to instructions for all the pumpkin beauties above, in the photograph. Even if you just peruse her website to dream of what it might be like to have all the glorious free time it takes to create a lace-cut pumpkin or a pumpkin chandelier, the ideas are still great. And, if you do happen to make something fabulously grown-up out of a pumpkin this year, send us a picture so we can share it with our other readers! In the meantime, we hope that all the hacked-up jack-o-lanterns create smiles and good memories for all. Have a very safe and happy Halloween.

We Love Moo...

If you have never heard of or checked out Moo.com, you are missing out! Moo is all about printing, but unlike most printing places, Moo is affordable, allows limitless creativity, and doesn't limit you to using only one image per order. You can make custom stickers, cards, business cards, etc...and you can use a different design or image on each sticker or card in your order! The Moo.com site if full of creative ideas, so check it out. Think of using Moo the next time you want to create a custom invitation or come up with a fun little detail for your party. For wedding ideas, go to Moo's Wedding Idea Page. For other events, check out the Moo Idea Page for Valentine's, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother's Day...the list is limitless and so are the ideas!

Pottery Barn...Uh oh....

The new Pottery Barn catalog just arrived in the mail---Uh oh, time to hold on to the wallet and resist the urge to spend. Do you ever notice how Pottery Barn just has fun decorating ideas, even if you aren't okay with spending $20 on an ornament that Target sells for $5? Pottery Barn is full of great decorating ideas, especially with exciting holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching! That got us thinking...we bet that Pottery Barn isn't the only one with good ideas.

We are willing to bet that a lot of you Babs Blog readers have really fabulous entertaining ideas for the holidays, so...please share! Yep, email us at thebabsblog@gmail.com and let us know what your favorite holiday idea is. Maybe it's a recipe, an idea for decor, a tradition, or a party idea. Whatever it is, we want to hear it. We'll be posting our favorites on The Babs Blog in weeks to come, so make sure you add your name. If you have a digital photo of your idea, that's even better---so make sure you email that to us, too. Oh, and if you have a blog of your own, include that, too, so we can share that with others. We are so excited to hear from you and to see the pages of The Babs Blog come alive with real ideas from our readers!

(Pssst! The Babs Blog is growing...we have readers now in several states and several countries! That's right, The Babs Blog is being read in Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Liberia! How exciting!)