S'Mores & Schnapps with your Sweetheart Party

A couple of years ago for Valentine's Day we hosted a 'S'Mores & Schnapps with your Sweetheart' Party.  

It was so much fun! We copied the idea off of ice bars. We had gourmet S'mores and hot chocolate 

with peppermint Schnapps.

Here is the S'more Bar!
Graham cracker and cookies for the outside
Regular and Strawberry marshmallows
White, milk, raspberry, and Caramel filled Chocolates!

 
Chris shoveled the backyard to create a snow hole for the fire pit

The fire area, complete with tikki torches and marshmallow sticks

Here is everyone drinking hot chocolate around the fire!  We had a secondary party with snacks, wine, and a fire inside too so no one got too cold.

White, Gray, & Yellow Couple's Shower

We threw a couple's shower for our friends Jesse and Patty who were married last year.  The theme was gray and yellow. I thought the yellow was feminine and the gray was masculine making it great for a couple's shower, but I love the color combo too!

Here are the details:

The invite, found here

Tissue Paper puffs for decor

Lemontini's--the perfect yellow drink!

The food table. I created a table runner by placing 12x12 scrapbooking paper in the center of the table

LOVE Cookies-just sugar cookies cut out with letter cookie cutters and decorated

Snack cones made out of coordinating scrapbook paper

Brownie pops in a styrofoam block wrapped with scrapbook paper

I covered my normal wall Art with 'Jesse & Patty' signs for decor

Soothing massage CD and lemon massage oil for couple's favors

Wine Tasting Party

A few years ago I had a wine tasting birthday Party for my Mom.  

Here are the details:

The invitation.  Printed vellum over wine themed scrapbook paper

I got wine in mini plastic wine bottles, made everyone drink white Zin for a week until they were all empty, rinsed them out, and used them to mail the invitations.  I rolled the invites to fit inside and sealed them with a fresh cork.

The food table decorated with fake grapes and vines

Christmas lights draped over empty wine bottles made for easy decorations, and look really cool when it's dark!

We kept the wine cold in a decorative punch bowl filled with ice.

I made wine glass markers by printing wine sayings on paper and tying them to the glass stems

Wine tasting bookets so everyone could mark their favorites

For Favors, I made wine glass markers using colorful beads and charms that said 'Thank you'.  I tied the charms to little individual serving bottles of wine.  Everyone got to pick out their favorite kind to take home.

Blue & Orange Baby Shower

I've decided to make January the month of parties!  I'll start with the most recent, a baby shower for my friend Alli who is expecting a boy in April!  The theme was blue and orange.  It was a lot of fun to throw, especially with help from my friends! 

 Here are the details:

The invitation, found here

Chocolate cup-cakes with peanut butter frosting, decorated with orange reeces pieces and topped with "It's a Boy" and ultrasound cup-cake toppers.  

I made the toppers but printing on paper and gluing the paper to appetizer pics (thick toothpicks)

Blue & White tissue paper puffs in the entryway

Christmas CD's and blue and Orange wrapped chocolates for favors (the shower was the week before Christmas)

Ultrasound photos on display for decor  

Baby banner made out of rosettes

I added blue and orange bulbs to my tree to tie it into the theme 

I found BABY goldfish crackers! They're baby themed and orange!

Blue and orange scrapbook paper rolled to make snack cones

The Food

Blue Christmas bulbs scattered on the table were fun & added color

Orange Izze and Champagne

My friend Lisa brought the "Guess the Baby Food" game

My friend Jena brought onezies to decorate with Jungle stamps,since the baby's nursery will be Jungle themed.

Yearly Scrapbook

Similar to our Yearly Christmas Scrapbook, each year around New Year's I make a page for our yearly scrapbook. 

Each year is just two pages which contain a summary of what we did in the year and a few key photos of us.  

Here's what we have so far:

 

Merry Christmas!

Gift Tags

I started to print my own Christmas gift tags which has saved a lot of time and money.  Rather than write 'From Chris and Debbie' on each gift, I just print it right on the tags.  I also type out who the gift is for, since we typically give gifts to the same people each year.

Here's what I used to make the tags:

Vellum paper printed with out 'To and From' and a cute design

Glittered scrapbooking paper for the background

Snowflake stickers

White ribbon

A Paper trimmer

Hole punch for the ribbon holes

Here are more examples:

I love that the tags all look clean and consistent, since my handwriting is anything but!

Each year I pick a color scheme for all of the wrapped gifts.  Some people think this is crazy but you have to wrap them anyway so why not just buy matching wrap? It's as easy as that and makes the gifts look like they came from a Macy's display!

This year everything is white and silver to match our white tree!