The inspiration for this design comes from Jessica Jones at one of my all-time favorite blogs, How About Orange. I had the pleasure of meeting her at the Chicago Craft Social last year – such a nice person.
Her tutorial is here. I just made it work for Abby’s birthday party invitations, both of them. One for a small gathering of school friends, and one for the family. Thanks, Jessica, for your inspiration!
Now that the holidays are over and I’ve recovered somewhat, I tend to review our hosting strategies, successes and misses. Every year we have at least 1-3 guests stay with us for any given length of time. It could be an overnight stay or a couple of weeks. Don’t know about other people, but I get worked up. I just want to make sure that our guests feel welcome and comfortable, that they enjoy their stay and would want to come back.
We have a slight challenge of not having a dedicated guest room, but here’s how we get around that: the basement. It becomes a semi-private suite. In the case of my awesome brother-in-law, he’ll room in my kid’s room, or with my kids. No problem. However, I can’t necessarily assume that everyone will be as accommodating.
My must haves: No matter what the state my house is in, I will prep good pillows, a good air mattress (we have two), towels, sheets, clock, storage cubes doubled as nightstand, hangers, and coat rack. Don’t have yet but would like: luggage rack.
Entertaining: Here, I luck out again with pretty easy going relatives. My in-laws did most of the shuttling around last Fall with our guests. But, it’s helpful to have schedules and sight-tour brochures handy. Seriously, I even picked up at our library a few copies of “family-friendly” publications that have local things-to-do and set that on the bedside table for our guests.
Meal times: I’ll ask about favorite snacks and more importantly, kids favorites, if I’m not exactly sure what my guests are into. Putting together a dinner/meal schedule was also a super timesaver. It was more like a guideline, if anything, but sure helped with grocery lists. We had plenty of drinks on hand too.
Here’s my favorite way of setting up my towels on the bed for a cute “welcome”. One of my best friends taught me this a long time ago when I stayed at her home for a few days. Sorry, you might only get this the first time you come over, after that, you’re like family and I don’t sweat it out so much.
Abby took video footage of me putting it together (our first video tutorial), but the file was too big to upload! This will have to do.
**Update** I figured out how to add video:
1) Take the bath towel and fold into thirds along the long direction.
2) Fold into thirds the other way (short direction).
3) Take the hand towel and fold into thirds along the long direction.
4) Now wrap the hand towel around the bath towel.
5) Take the wash cloth, fold into thirds, then wrap around the hand towel to hide the ends and create a “bow” appearance.
Voila! Hotel-ish towels for your guests… enjoy!
Look at this book I found at my mom’s house. First published in 1963, then again in 1972… The ideas and recipes may be sort of timeless, but the pictures, oh, the pictures are outstanding.
And just in time for getting birthday party ideas… my daughter turns 8 in just over a month. Will she cringe when she sees some of these? (Love her haircut.)
Could the frosting on these cakes look any more “nuclear”?
These kids are decorating their own cupcakes. Love the chef hat and aprons which are all paper.
What is she wearing on her head?
Doesn’t this look mint-a-licious?
I don’t know if there are any teenagers out there who would even THINK of having a “wingding” like this. Maybe if there was a “Nancy Drew” sort of person out there in a town-that-time-forgot.
This picture below for Christmas is a little spooky to me. Dolls creep me out sometimes.
I think my parents have an indoor grill just like the one in the picture below.
Clearly, I missed the boat on having a 60s themed New Year’s party this past year. Maybe next year! I can’t get over their clothes.
But, there is Valentine’s Day coming up. I’m really tempted to try some of these throwback recipes (looks like some kind of mousse)… too bad I can’t bring “homemade” goods to my daughter’s school!
Another year of over indulging. Another year of amazing cookies, and a little, just a little, unspoken competition. More cameraderie, I’d like to think. Another year of seeing our friend’s children grow a few more inches. Another year of welcoming new friends into our lives. Another year of opening our home to loved ones, another year of laughing and catching up on all that has happened.
We paid tribute to John Hughes, writer, director of movies that define moments of high school in the 80s: Ferris Buehler’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. He holds a special place with some of us because we graduated from the same high school he attended, Glenbrook North High School.
So, our friends brought their best cookies. We tried to name them accordingly, too, (i.e. Cookies-when-you’re-“Home Alone”, or “Ferris’s thumbprint cookies”, Sloane’s Sugar Cookies, Blaine’s Butterscotch shortbread, Abe Froman cookie) Still, it was a Christmas cookie swap, so if the creative mood didn’t strike them, it was okay.
After sharing two dozen to sample, we swapped six dozen (plus some leftovers) more. Seventeen households/families… it was quite a party! We recognized the best theme-related, best tasting, best decorated, best-in-show, and best haiku.
See some pictures here taken by my brother-in-law and my pictures below. If you roll your cursor over the pictures, you should be able to see their names. Want recipes? Let me know. Enjoy!
Prepping our cookies for the party.
“Ode to Molly Ringwald” Pink Cookies – oh, how I love gold dragees.
Eastman’s “Abe Froman Pancetta Shortbread with Maple Glaze”
We’re cleaning up from a great afternoon and evening. A John Hughes themed cookie exchange, complete with best theme, best decorated, best tasting, best cookie overall and best haiku. There was an amazing display of creativity. I loved it: Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller, Mr. Mom… The party is always a good way to help bring out more Christmas spirit, but this year, it was especially good since my family had another death in the family this past week. There were moments this week when I’d be fine, but then while preparing for our party, the smallest thing would remind me of my uncle (he loved parties and threw great ones, too) and I’d start crying. *sigh* I’m better now, really.
I promise to have a link to pictures soon, but for now here are our some haikus from our poetry wall.
Butter and some sugar.
Don’t forget choc’late. And then
Tasty bits of joy.
(A.O.)
Mrs. Fields is my friend.
We go way back, to my youth.
I don’t care what kind!
(S.S.)
Delicious cookies
Look so good to eat today
The cookie crumbles
(A.T. and J.T.)
A celebration
Winter cookies and close friends
My perfect evening
(E.T.)
Uncle Buck would be proud
Baking duties thrust on us
Must use everything!
(D.M. and Y.H.)
Pretty pink panties
Day off in windy city
We miss you John Hughes
(S.C. and M.S.)
cold milk fills my glass
warm chocolate chips and walnuts;
a cookie fixes everything!
(A.C. and S.R.)
John Candy outdoors
Bald bear knocked him on the floor
Too bad there weren’t S’MORES!
(J.M.)
Oh Ferris Bueller
I wish I had lived like you
Taking Ferraris
(J.H.)
