Parking...

My Mr. Fix-it Fiance and I had an argument conversation about a potential party in our cute and cozy townhouse and he won (because he was right... but don't tell him I said that okay?).  The conversation consisted of me thinking there was enough space for the number of guests we wanted to invite (including chairs, standing room, places to put coats, etc) but he said it wouldn't work due to a lack of parking.

Now we weren't planning a rager or anything, just an open house type set up of a party and he totally brought up a valid point (one point for Mr. Fix-it and zero for the Classy Event Organizer!), that all of our friends' cars would not fit in the couple parking spots that we have here in the townhouse parking lot.  Even using the open spaces in front of the other adjoining townhouses, we'd only have a total of six spots.  So even if we moved our cars out of the parking lot to another area, only six cars could be parked at once.    

This might not be a problem for people who's streets allow parking on them (score!), but even if you have a drive way, you don't want to play a game of tetris to get all the cars on the drive way and then have to figure out how to move them all off when someone wants to go home. 

I have yet to figure out a solution to this problem (other than MOVE!) but wanted to bring up the point to other hostesses that might be held to the same constraints as I am so to not look over this very important detail like I almost did!


(P.S. If you have discovered a wonderful answer to this particular issue PLEASE let us know!!)

DIY Decorative Candy Wrappers

Sometimes as the hostess of a party you don't have a LOT of time to make delicious treats, or perhaps you want to add another element to a dessert table.  One option is to take candy bars, whatever size, shape, flavor, and cover them with paper to create a treat that matches the decor of your party (or perhaps is just a little cuter than the average candy bar sitting in a dish). 

  How To:  Create Decorative Candy Wrappers

Bill of Materials:

Candy

Decorative Paper that matches the party decor

Scissors or Paper Cutter

Ruler or Measuring Tape

Tape

First,  measure the size of your candy.  Both width and "around" length to make sure you cut paper long enough to wrap all the way around. 

Second: cut paper to appropriate length.  

Tip:  If you want to cover the candy with two colors, cut second paper color a bit smaller than the first.

Third, cover the candy by taping one end of the cut piece of paper and wrapping around candy once.  (In my example I had to cut excess paper off because my strips were too long.  

Tip:  If you are using two colors, wrap the candy with one color and then again with the second smaller strip of paper.  


Fourth, tape other end down.  

Done!   Wasn't that super easy?!

How Late is Fashionably Late?

Fashionably Late.

It's something we all have said or done at one time or another, but what exactly is it?  And how does a Hostess see this phenomenon?


What exactly is "Fashionably Late"?

There are many articles and online postings about what "Fashionably Late" is.  Infact Ehow.com has a "How-To" about being fashionably late.  After reading that article you find that being fashionably late is more of an art rather than just not wanting to be the first one at a party.  Also if you are a fan of Yahoo Answers, this question comes up very frequently with many different ideas on what is acceptable and what is just down right rude.  Yahoo Answers averages from about 5 to 10 minutes late, with 20 minutes or more beign rude.  However there are a few Yahoo Answer entries that say with today's technology (cell phones, smart phone, facebook) there isn't a good reason to be "late" at all. 

Why do we participate in being Fashionably Late?

As I said before, we've all been guilty of being "fashionably late" at least once in our lives (and if you haven't I'm sure you've seen or heard about someone doing it).  However, why do we do this?  Sometimes it's because we don't want to be the first person at a party (perhaps because we don't quite know the hostess all THAT well).  Or maybe its because we want to "make an entrance" at the party and be the center of attention for a while.  Or is it that we want to make it seem like we have more going on in our lives compared to everyone else.


From the other side....

I know I have been fashionably late one or two times my self (usualy because I don't know the hostess all THAT well and I don't want to awkwardly stand around by myself) but I also have been a "victim" of the fashionably late guest.  From the other side, (the side of the hostess) guests that are "fashionably late" can be very annoying (especially when EVERYONE wants to be fashionably late).  Perhaps its not as aggrivating when you are having an open house type of party, but at a dinner party or party with some sort of schedule or itinerary, it is hard to deal with a lack of guests who are 5 to 10 minutes late.

How to combat the "fashionably late" guest(s)

As a hostess, there are a few things you can do to combar a guest or guests who are going to be arriving late due to whatever reason. 

First, make sure to put a start time on the invitation and include a schedule if you have one to stick too.  For example if you are having a dinner party with a cocktail hour and dinner put both times on the invitation so that a guest will know when dinner will start and hopefully come in time for at least the sit down part of the party.   

Second, plan ahead if you think guests will show up late.  If you want to plan a dinner, invite people over earlier than you normally would and hope that the stragelers would arrive by the time you would like.

Third, come to terms with the fact that some guests are always going to be fashionably late no matter what and go with the flow!


Have you ever been fashionably late to an event or gathering?  Why were you late?  Have you ever had guests be fashionably late and ruin your party?  Or do you have any good ideas on how to combat those who are fashionably late?  Please share your "Fashionably Late" experiences!!

 

Turning Good into Great

I don't want to bore you with a list of my New Year's Resolutions, I'm sure you all have your own to worry about (and hopefully you are still sticking to them!!)  However, there is one that I really want to focus on this year (and continually afterward as well) that you might be interested in.  (If you are interested in my new years resolutions, you can find my Resolutions board on Pinterest to see what else I've been working on!).

Picture from This Heart of Mine 

That resolution is to turn "good" into "GREAT".  I thought about this after I saw this great picture of hot chocolate (I know what you're thinking, how does this relate?)  This picture reminded me that not only is Hot Chocolate delicious but also that if you just take a few extra seconds or get a bit creative you can turn "good" into "GREAT"!  (This LOVELY picture is from the blog This Heart of Mine and features a Nutella Hot Chocolate recipe.)

Yummm!! 

For example, this morning while making my latte (yes, cutting back on buying Starbucks is also part of my 2012 list) I decided to put some left over peppermint white chocolate bark in the bottom of the cup before pouring in the espresso and steamed milk.  And then I topped it off with a decorative candy cane.  I know I could have gone to the store, bought some peppermint mocha creamer and called it a day, but I have decided that I want to turn "good" into "great" and get creative (while not taking up too much extra time!)


Usually I write about party planning, etiquette, or show fun party related "How-To" posts, and although this morning's peppermint white chocolate latte was not for a party, this idea of turning good into great can be used from personal morning lattes to just an extra splash of creativity for any "party" situation.  An extra "splash" of creativity can come from things such as adding cupcake decorators to cupcakes, putting ribbons around pretzel sticks, or decorating cake pops with sprinkles.  


Okay, enough of my ranting, but I hope you all join me in turning 2012 from "Good" to "Great"!

Star Wars Birthday

FINALLY, my boyfriend’s birthday is here!  I am SO excited to share this themed birthday celebration with you!  I put the final touches on the baked goods, made a birthday sign, and gathered up some star wars toys to spread around the house for easy and free décor! 

This is what I ended up with:

I currently don’t own a lot of plain white platters, so instead of spending a small fortune on new ones that I will only use a few times a year, I decided to cover my colorful cake platter with parchment paper.  Then for cup cake and cookie trays I turned pink paper plates (from a bachelorette party) upside-down. (can’t even tell!)  Look at all those yummy goodies and how cute are those Yoda cookies! 

Tip:  The cup cake stencils were a BIT disappointing because the image didn’t come out right every time.  If I were you, I’d skip the cup cake stencils and create/buy some tooth pick decorators instead.  They are much cheaper and easier to use!)

For the Birthday Sign, I decided to stick with the black and green theme from the Yoda and Darth Vader cookies and cupcakes.  The Star Wars font was downloaded from a free font website and I taped some construction paper together.     

I have a bit of a “coffee nook” in my kitchen (I LOVE lattes!).  I used the Starbucks Star Wars picture in this area to bring the theme into another room. 

I also decided to display my Star Wars apron for the occasion as well.  

Lastly, I placed some Star Wars toys on my sofa table.  (Doesn't that flameless candle look familiar?)

Now I'm going to go eat the scrumptious goodies! 

Have you ever had a Star Wars party?  Or do you want to see how a classy low-budget party can look?  Leave a comment below!  I’d love to hear from you!

You Should Have Paid More Attention In Science Class…

Don’t you hate rushing around at the last minute trying to prepare everything from decorations, seating arrangements, to even the preparation of food for a party or event?  Often times this might be due to your procrastination, but other times, like when making cookies, you have to wait until the last minute because if you don’t your cookies will turn into objects fit more for construction rather than consumption. 

Here are a few of my previous scenarios:

1. I stay up WAY too late the night before to bake the scrumptious cookies rather than getting my well deserved (and sometimes needed) 8 hours of beauty sleep.  Then because I’m sooo tired, I end up accidently leave the cookies in the oven a tad too long, creating hockey pucks rather than cookies.  
2. I have tried to fit in a special trip to the store (usually bumping any of my other planning responsibilities back) to pick up freshly made store bought cookies.  Even if I put them on my own platter, they still will never taste as good as my mom’s recipe (and my guests notice). 

However, There is one sure fire way to keep cookies soft and moist (and perhaps bring some back to life) that works like a charm every time!  All you have to do it put a fresh piece of bread in the cookie container.  Seems too easy… right?  Nope, it is just that easy!  And it’s not magic, its SCIENCE!

When any baked goods sits (even in a closed container, the water in the cookies will evaporate making the baked good become dry and hard.  So, why when I put bread with my cookies, the bread becomes hard and not the cookies?   This is due to Hygroscopy.  I know, it sounds scary, but all hygroscopy means is that a substance can change its properties with the absorption of water (for further understanding, look at Wikipedia).

 Both the cookies’ and the bread’s water evaporates, but due to the sugar in the cookies (sugar being hydroscopic), they are able to absorb the water that the bread’s water is evaporating, making them soft again.  The bread does not have sugar, so it cannot do this.

 You can also use this trick with any “sugary” item, such as “unclumping” brown sugar or softening stale marshmallows (or even for science projects with kids!)

Now if I want make a batch of my homemade chocolate chip cookies for an event, I don’t have to wait until the last moment!  Tricks such as these make any hostess be able to spread the stresses of party preparation over a couple days rather than a couple hours.

Do you have any other ways to keep from slaving in the kitchen the night before, or a way to keep your store bought gems fresh until the day of an event?  Please share!