Fiesta Fridays- My First Invitation

Welcome to the first installment of Fiesta Fridays. Today is all about invitations! If you know me, you know that making invitations is one of my favorite things to do. I could go on and on about them and have dozens of ideas, but we’ll just start with the first handmade invitation that I ever made. It was for a Christmas party and that probably doesn’t help you all that much this month, but maybe you can bookmark this post and come back to it in November!

Rewind to the first party I ever threw, that is, the first non-birthday, non-gift-related party. It was in the 3rd grade and it was the premier event of the holiday season…a caroling party. I created the invitations, made the guest list and planned the evening with the help of my gracious mom. After gobbling holiday snacks and sipping hot chocolate on a less than frosty night, we went caroling at everyone’s houses. Then, when we returned, we worked on a puzzle while we waited for the girls’ rides home. This was my first dalliance into the world of social event planning. I’m telling you, I love this stuff. I think the party was a success because caroling is a novel activity that most people in Houston never do (it may have something to do with the 90% humidity and 70 degree weather). Here is the glorious invitation that I created from scrap paper and crayons. As you can see, I omitted one of the most important details: the location. But, I did consider the girls’ safety and encouraged them to bring their flashlights. Seriously, chickadees, I was in 3rd grade! Please to enjoy…


So. Invitations. Basically they bring all the boys (and girls) to the yard. You may get some gracious guests to your party, after all, you are fabulous! But if your invitation is boring, chance are you won’t get any blown-away, uber-impressed, I’ll-just-die-if-I-can’t-go-to-this-party revelers (not a real word, I know). Formal printed invitations are lovely, fill-in invitations are quick and email invites can be cute and practical, but I think a fun handmade invitation really sets the scene for fabulosity. Sometimes, I follow a mailed invitation with a fun email a week before the event. That way, people can access the party location with their internet devices if they’ve forgotten their invitations on the way over. At any rate, handmade invitations rock, in my party book.

You don’t have to be an artist or designer. Just do a bit of brainstorming to come up with your theme and some fun ways to give your guests a taste of what’s to come. If you’re throwing a birthday party, call it a “Birthday Blow-out” instead and put some balloons in the invitation. If you’re throwing a Valentine dinner, call it “Hearts Afire” and tuck a tiny folded invitation inside a matchbox. You get the idea.

Back to the caroling party. You are free to copy my super fab caroling invitation circa 1981, or you can try one of the following that I came up with just for you. If you are going to pass out the invitations at your child’s school, print the info out on a sheet of paper and mount it on a sheet of Christmas music, roll it up, then tie it with a pretty ribbon. You can find an inexpensive Christmas music book and tear sheets out of it. My sheet music is from my piano days when I was little. The second photo shows a cute invitation that you can easily make and pass out to friends. Just buy some hot cocoa mix and some inexpensive mittens and stuff them into a cute Christmas bag with the party invitation. Voila! A fun, you-don’t-have-to-be-an-artist way to create a Come All Ye Faithful invitation!

You can easily adapt the last idea with other party themes. Just head on over to Party City or the dollar store or shop online at Oriental Trading Company to pick out some trinkets to toss into your goodie bag or box. Ooooo, here’s an idea—have a mystery party. Use brown lunch bags, make a plain party invitation on white paper (have everyone meet at your house so they don’t know the final destination) and throw in some trinkets to give the guests hints of the theme…white socks, little kids’ plastic bowls and a packet of relish…you’re throwing a bowling party and serving hotdogs! The possibilities are endless! Have fun!

This party was featured on Tip Junkie!

Angel Party- Part II

I am proud to announce that we collected 20 Barbies at the 2008 Angel Party! While we were considering the lucky recipient of our ginormous gift, my fellow Angel Party hostess Mary, contacted Spaulding for Children on a mutual friend's suggestion. Spaulding is a nonprofit agency that helps children with physical and emotional disabilities and those who have been abused or neglected. They have programs and resources for families in foster care, adoption and post-adoption stages. It just so happens that Spaulding has a room that parents (foster or adoptive) can visit to pick out gifts for their new family members to help the children feel comfortable in their homes. And get this, it's called the Angel Room! Serendipitous, wouldn't you say? What a fun discovery made possible by a gentle nudge from above! Mary and I were so excited when we dropped off the Barbies at the Spaulding office. The staff was gracious enough to let us check out the Angel Room (there were no clients there that day.) And they were so excited to see our Barbie dolls; we are all children at heart after all!


The great news is now we have a perfect partner to help get the Angel Party toys into precious little angel hands. Because they collect gifts for children and youths of all ages, we can choose a different theme every year as we normally like to do.

I know I can speak for Mary when I say we really wanted to find a recipient where our gifts could really make a difference and not an agency that gets thousands of gifts during the holidays. We are so blessed to have learned about the Angel Room because our gifts will serve a higher purpose for families in our community. Not only will they put a smile on a newly fostered or adopted child's face, but they will in a small way, help new parents make important bonds with their new family members.

Thank you, Spaulding and all the 2008 Angels! And to Barbie for being so cute!


P.S.- The snowflakes hanging from the ceiling in the snowman picture represent dollar donations Spaulding received during their Blizzard of Giving. They received so much money that they ran out of snowflakes!

Angel Party Turns Ten!

This is the first of two posts about the Angel Party, an annual shindig I throw with friends each year to celebrate the holidays and collect gifts for a local nonprofit. This year was the 10th Anniversary of the party! In honor of the momentous occasion, I wanted to add a few new goodies. Here they are in all their heavenly glory!





I created this door sign with a pair of giant angel wings, some chipboard letters, gold glitter and beautimous gold ribbon. So simple and really gorgeous. I love how it turned out.





I decided to use a white theme for the Angel Party this year. These snowball table decorations were super easy with Styrofoam balls in various sizes, craft glue, fake snow and a little glitter. I used a red table cloth and silver and white ceramic serving dishes. I also scattered some "pearls" that my friends, Christy and Jenny pulled off of some Christmas berry floral pics.





The first time a guest attends the Angel Party, she is given a pair of wings in the form of a cute little brooch. Every year she returns, she gets a little gold star to add to her wings. This year, everyone who attended also got a little gold bell in honor of the tenth anniversary.





Another Angel Party tradition is the party favor that each angel leaves with at the end of the evening. Every year, I give everyone an angel ornament for their tree. Sometimes, the ornament has a spot to write "Angel Party" and the year on it. I bought these plaster ornaments and painted and glittered them myself. I wanted to keep a white theme this year, so I painted them in white and pearl paint and sprinkled pearl glitter on them. I think they are super cute!


Tune in for more Angel Party fun!