Unique (and cute) Guestbook idea...

Ah, weddings. So much fun, so many great details...

Kari is currently working with a couple clients on some design concepts for their weddings, and one of them asked for a few ideas for a unique guestbook idea---without it really being a book. So, here's one idea that we thought we'd share with ya'll...

Have guests take a small format photo (such as with the Fuji Instant Camera).

Have guests sign photo and add their own little message or whatnot.

Then, once the wedding is over, you can add their photo messages (in alphabetical order, nonetheless) to this super cute nickel address carousel, from Pottery Barn.
This is the kind of "guestbook" that can look chic and stylish hanging out on your coffee table for years to come---and you'll actually look at it from time to time!

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!

Plot a Picnic

We know the weather is pretty ugly today in parts of the United States.  We hope wherever you live, you are staying dry, safe, and toasty.  Spring is trying its hardest to get here, isn't it?  We are looking forward to picnics as the sun shines a little later into the day, as the grass is needing to be mowed more often, and as being barefoot becomes a necessary part of being outdoors.  Check out Epicurious.com for some great ideas for easy, tasty, healthy picnic food.  

If you are a person who still can't seem to muster up the courage to have a dinner party, try this:

Invite a group of friends for a picnic in the park!  Ask everyone to bring an easy dish to share and blankets to spread out.  Then, claim a picnic table at your local park, set out the food, and enjoy the sunshine.  As the hostess of such an event, bring along some frisbees or a volleyball net and ball.  Or, if you're extra ambitious, plan a fun activity while you're there.  The great thing about a picnic in the park is that there is no worrying about whether you got that last dust bunny out from under your sofa or whether your kitchen is sparkling clean.  Happy planning!

Easter Tables

Easter comes at such a lovely time of year, and this is no coincidence!  Spring is a time when new life is readily observed by pushing leaves, budding blossoms, and growth in our yards and gardens.  Easter is a time when we give thanks for the new life given to us by Jesus' death on the cross.  (Yes, that IS why it's tradition to celebrate with Easter Eggs.  The egg is a tangible symbol of new life.  Think about it.)  If you are one of those gracious people who has agreed to host an Easter celebration, you might want to check out Better Homes & Gardens online for some really lovely and really easy ideas for table centerpieces.  The photos above are just a teaser for some of the ideas on the BH&G site.  Isn't the top one with the peony lovely?  So simple, yet so striking.  What we really, really love about the Better Homes & Gardens site is that the projects are all affordable, so if you are on a strict budget (as so many of us are right now), you can still glean ideas and execute them without breaking the bank.  Happy decorating!

A Beautiful Easter

Martha Stewart has some beautiful Easter egg ideas.  The photo above is gorgeous, and if your up to it, we'd love to see somebody attempt this!  What really makes a beautiful Easter, though, is not the eggs or the bunnies, but the meaning behind Easter.  Easter is coming up very soon...we hope you are thinking now about who you will celebrate with.  Maybe this is the year that you offer to open your home up for Easter, inviting family, friends, and acquaintances who might not otherwise have a place to celebrate.  

Earning New Respect: Carnations

You've heard us talk about carnations before....how we have had to slowly change our opinion about this flower.  Once considered lowly and cheap, we are now seeing how carnations can be lovely and chic.  InStyle Weddings has these three photos on their site, and we think the very inexpensive carnation is continuing to earn new respect.  Grouped en masse, aren't they lovely?  The top picture especially is a great example of a party centerpiece...we can imagine an entire theme inspired by the elegant simplicity of those white vessels with the plum-colored carnations.  Check out InStyle for more inspiration.

Sassy Socks...

Um, okay...this is genius!  The Rachel Ray website invites various designers to come up with a monthly centerpiece idea.  This month, Orla Kiely was invited to come up with a centerpiece idea.  (You may remember our recent post on Orla Kiely's new line at Target).   So, Orla Kiely, being the genius that she is, came up with this idea, shown above.  She took fun, colorful socks, stretched them over flower pots, snipped off the bottoms of the socks so the pots sit flat on the table and...ta da!  Cheery cuteness abounds.  We think this is quite clever, and can come in quite useful for baby showers or a child's birthday party.  For the whole how-to, and some other clever centerpiece ideas, check out Rachel Ray's "Centerpiece of the Month."

Host an Easter Brunch

You've heard us chat about the very fabulous entertaining site, Hostess With The Mostess.  True, this site is a great resource for party ideas...but one thing we've grown to love the most about Hostess With The Mostess is the Recipe Box!  The recipes on this site are perfect for parties because they are yummy, eye-pleasing, and actually relatively simple!  Which means you won't have to scour Whole Foods for some crazy, obscure ingredient just to prepare these dishes.  We've picked a few below that we think would be quite delightful for an Easter brunch.
Mini Blueberry Turnovers

Vegetable Torta With Fresh Basil

Scallop Salad & Sweet Vanilla Chili Dressing

Pots of Gold Brie with Salad

Mojito (perfectly fresh for spring!)

May We Suggest...

...a new, snazzy tablecloth to bring in spring?  If you are looking for an easy, inexpensive way to give your home the feel of spring, there's nothing better than a fresh print used as a tablecloth.  We recommend the fabulous Amy Butler fabric line (just a few of her prints are shown above).  Measure your table and figure out how many yards you'd need to cover it.  Order your fabric, hem it, and throw it on the table for an instant chic update.  This is, of course, also an excellent idea for when you are throwing a party (say, a spring shower?  Excuse the pun...) and you need an inexpensive way to cover tables.  Renting linens can be limiting because there seems to be a lack of fun fabrics at rental places.  Purchasing actual linens can break the bank!  Consider finding a fun fabric---online or at your favorite fabric store---and putting it to use as a tablecloth or table runner.  If you don't sew, it wouldn't cost much to have your drycleaner hem these (yes, did you know that most drycleaners do small sewing jobs?) because the hems are straight and it's the most basic, quick sewing job out there.  Happy spring!

P.S.  If you REALLY want to save $$$, consider looking for fabric remnants on Ebay.  Often, the remnants are just the right size to suit a table, and you'll pay much less!

"Fake It With Takeout" by Real Simple

Real Simple's website is full of great tips for entertaining.  For those of you who are still a little gun-shy about throwing a party because it just seems too overwhelming or you don't want people to realize you're not a gourmet cook, check out the Real Simple article called "Fake it With Takeout."  Using typical takeout items, you can make gourmet appetizers for your guests...and nobody needs to know that the ingredients started out as a pizza from Gino's down the street or your local Chinese restaurant.  :)

Cocktail, anyone?

Oh, that Martha! 

This photo is from Martha Stewart Weddings, but we think it's a clever and festive way to dress a table for your next cocktail party!  Think about it:  at cocktail parties, the men are usually excited about a robust drink and good conversation about the stock market, sports, or current events while the ladies are excited about the fact that they are attending a party.  Make it a memorable event for the gals by dressing up your cocktail buffet with a strong color and florals!  This table uses bright yellow and orange orchids and sets them off with succulents and bunches of grapes.  Very pretty.  And very EASY.  Now, send out those invitations, choose a signature cocktail, and bottoms up!  (But remember:  all things in moderation, dear!)

Your Easiest Party Ever...

Spontaneity rocks.  Being spontaneous enables you to enjoy something without over thinking, over planning, or over discussing it to death.  Let's apply that same thing to parties...be spontaneous.

Your easiest party ever will be the one that is relaxed, spur-of-the-moment, and casual.  Consider this:  it's Monday today.  What if you decide tonight to throw an after work happy hour on Friday to celebrate the end of the work week?  Tonight, email your friends---a big group of 'em---and tell them that Happy Hour is at your place on Friday.  Tell 'em to come over anytime after 5:30 or so---or, tell them just to drop by whenever they get off work.  On Thursday, head to the grocery store and get a few blocks of cheese, some olives, crackers, some fresh fruit----all easy stuff.  (If you are ambitious or can enlist a willing husband, you might pick up some sausages to grill quickly, slice up, and serve with mustard).  Then, on Friday, put it all out on a table for people to graze on.  Choose only things that don't need to be kept hot or refilled.  Put it on the table and walk away...let your guests munch at their convenience.  Your only responsibility is to put a cold drink in the hands of new guests and point them toward the food.  Since you called it a "Happy Hour," you can figure folks won't stay too long and the atmosphere will be a casual open house-type event.  Easy to throw together, but it serves the important purpose of getting friends together and starting the weekend off on the right foot.  :)

Paper Flowers = Mood Lifters!

Happy Weekend!  

We thought we'd leave you with something cheery for the weekend, until we resume blogging on Monday.  And what could be cheerier than paper flowers?  Okay, we admit, we detest fake flowers of the silk variety.  Or plastic variety.  Or basically anything in the faux floral section of your local Michael's, Jo-Ann's, or Hobby Lobby.  But there is something about these hand-crafted paper flowers that is happy and, dare we say, chic.  The photo above is from Ms. Martha Stewart herself.  We think these are quite fabulous and would be great for either baby or bridal showers.  You can click on this link for the how-to, or you can head on over to Michael's and buy a Martha Stewart paper flower kit.

Below are some more paper flower ideas, kits, and how-tos.  Enjoy...and happy weekend!

Find the how-to on these colorful paper flower here.

The how-to for "Mexican Paper flowers" (like this cheery pink one) is here.

We love this fun bouquet of white paper posies.  Check out the easy how-to for this bunch here.

These paper roses are a cinch to make!  Check it out here.

Last, but not least!  We are crazy about anything that comes from Paper-Source.  These fun flowers come in color-coordinated kits, making them easy to put together.

We Heart Estilo...

Throwing a party and looking for that little extra something?  A good resource is Estilo Weddings.  From laser-cut cupcake wrappers to fun lanterns to cake toppers/details to candles, Estilo has lots of fun, hard-to-find items at reasonable prices.  If you are throwing a Valentine's Party, this site would be a good one to check out for some fun, unexpected details.

With a Twist...

Planning that fun Valentine's Party for a group of girlfriends or a bunch of couples?  A signature cocktail (something red or pink) is a festive way to get started.  At Plum Party, you can purchases fun candy twists to add to the rim of your cocktail.  The flavors are:  espresso (in an espresso hue), apple (shown above), peppermint (in a red/pink/white stripe), and citron (in a vibrant yellow color).  What a fun little detail!  Of course, Plum Party is an excellent site to peruse for all sorts of fun party details---and it's a great site to get inspiration and ideas!