Halloween Party Time

Although I am REALLY enjoying Fall this year, I am still not a HUGE fan of Halloween (I admit, I am a scaredy cat!!)  However, I can up with "not so scary, but still Halloween-themed" party theme last year, and this year I have made it even better 

Use these Water Bottle labels to decorate some boring ol' water bottles.

I like using the colors purple and green, just to be different!

Don't forget some candy!! 

Get the printables on the Freebies Page!

  Need an idea of some "not so scary" movies to watch?  Try these:

Practical Magic

Bed knobs and Broomsticks

Hocus Pocus

Corpse Bride

Scary Movie 1, 2, 3 and 4

There you have it!  A wonderful "not so scary" Halloween event!

An apple a day...

We enjoyed the nice fall weather this weekend, and went out to the local Apple Butter Festival!  Let me tell you, one of the BEST places to get unique autumn party inspiration is at a fall festival.  There are so many different sights and sounds, you can almost get lost in a world of fall, apples, pumpkins, mums and more! 

With this in mind, I have decided that next week is going to be FULL OF APPLES!!  

Here is the Schedule of Apple delights:

Monday:  Centerpieces

Tuesday:  Drinks 

Wednesday:  Appetizers

Thursday:  Desserts

Friday:  Party Favors 

Join this festive week by following while I make these decadent creations via twitter.

Or by following via Pinterest or Facebook all week!

And remember.... Save a Pumpkin, Eat Apple Pie!!

How to Introduce Guests

Today is the first day of October, meaning only one more quarter left in the year!  I have found that this part of the year has the most holidays to celebrate.

Here are just a few biggies:

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Christmas

New Years Eve

.. not to mention you might have anniversaries, family birthdays, or other religious holidays.
In preparation for these upcoming events, I was thinking of a short and sweet little tip that will really help you, and your guests have a better time mingling with others.

Have you ever been to a party and have either not been introduced to other guests, or have been introduced to other guests by just their name and then forgotten it two seconds later?  I am REALLY bad with names and I realize lots of other people are too, so I use a bit of a "tip" to help my guests remember people's names.

It is easier to remember someone's name if you know something about them.  So rather than just introducing guests with just names I add a bit of information that they both have in common.  If you don't know of anything they have in common, try to give another piece of information, such as where they are from, or where they work.  It not only gives guests a common ground because now they know a bit about one another, but if they are friends of yours, they will probably be seeing each other again at another one of your future functions.

Happy First Day of the Last Quarter!

Something Rather Controversial...

I have been tossing an idea for a blog post back and forth in my heard for a while, because it is sometimes rather controversial.  I know what you are thinking… a party planning blog is not a place for a political discussion.  It is, however, a place for a discussion on Gift Registries.

I have my own opinions on gift registries and it is probably the closest to those of Emily Post and Martha Stewart.  My only "rule" if that you DO NOT under any circumstances write the places you are registered (wedding, baby or otherwise) in an invitation to a party.  The information of a registry is to be given out by word of mouth only.   

However, I know others have different opinions:

Some think that a gift registry is like billing your friends for the sheer fact that you are getting married.  Thus, not needing it to be in an invitation, because one would not exist.

Others think that it is okay to have a registry, but not anything extravagant (perhaps just bed linens, towels, and some things for a kitchen).  These types of items would be things the couple would not have already due to just starting out. 

And yet others think that if a host is going to foot the bill for their guest's expensive meals, they should be able to ask for what ever they want and the information regarding such registries should be placed in invitations because how else would guests know?


Being of the age where my friends are getting married, (and planning a wedding myself) I have seen the many "ugly" sides of a gift registry. 

What are your thoughts?  Do you like the idea of registries?  How about in an invitation?  Or do you think the whole idea is just rude to your beloved guests?

Share your thoughts in the comments!!

Best Laid Plans

Everyone Makes Mistakes

Practice Makes Perfect

I'm sure you have heard these phrases before, I certainly have.  From playing the clarinet in high school, to learning my debits and credits in school or at work, I have had to practice to hone my skills (and I have made mistakes!)  

This is no different when learning about a hobby such as sewing, decorating cakes, or even blogging!

I had this phrase come to life while trying a few new things this week in preparation for the Mr. Fix it Fiance's birthday.  I had a plan of an awesome XBox themed shin-dig, (rather than duplicating the Star Wars birthday from last year).  

I decided that since I had an opportunity to play around with new recipes, I was totally going to try some I had been waiting on... 

That's when it happened, everything went sooo horribly WRONG!   

Here's how:

1.  The Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake Fiasco:

Due the fact that my Mr. Fix it Fiance is not as big of a fan of CAKE and I am, I decided to make him a chocolate chip cookie cake instead (MY FIRST EVER!)  I followed this recipe to a T, except for using a pizza pan.  I don't have one of those, so I just laid out the dough on a regular cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  

Only about twelve minutes latter I smell a burnt smell around the apartment.  Apparently the cookie cake expands WAY more than the size of my cookie sheet.  The edges slid off the sides of the cookie sheet, broke off, and landed in the bottom of my oven.  I had a HUGE mess.  

Okay, so I learned my lesson, next time use the proper utensils that the recipe says to use.  (Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the cookie dough STUCK to the inside of my oven, I was a bit preoccupied with the clean up!)

2.  Flooding Gone Wrong:

I had an AWESOME plan to use the icing from Bake at 350 to decorate the cookie cake (or cookie blob) to look like a Xbox controller.  (ALL her cookies are LOVELY, so why wouldn't I, right?)  

Wrong, .... SO wrong!!

Bake at 350's directions where fantastic, but the icing colors I bought would not turn the white fluffy icing, to black, so I got purple.  Yes, I had to use purple to create a Xbox controller. 

I then was going to use the "flooding" technique to make the controller come to life on the pan, however, after I failed at the outlining, flooding the joysticks, and making the light up buttons look anything like buttons, I gave up.  You can see that mess below:

3.  Icing Plan 2

I used Bake at 350's cookie recipe as well, to make the MOST delicious cut out sugar cookies and held up to being tortured by my icing- capades.

I wanted to make circle cookies to look like the Xbox logo.  By this time, my kitchen smelled BURNT, the icing was hardening and I was already upset about the hideous cake, so I put the logo on the cookies with just two green lines... no flooding.  

Since my Mr. Fix It Fiance would much rather his bake goods have little to no icing, he was happy, but my pride was hurt BIG time!

After having so much trouble, I tweeted Bake at 350 to tell her about my hideous cake/cookie fiasco, she told me:

There, I had a professional telling me that practice makes perfect.  I will certainly be taking these two sayings to heart the next time I attempt a new project or recipe.

Have you had any kitchen mishaps lately?