Everyday Celebrating

Still time to: Welcome your guests with streamers

Even though July 4th is Sunday, there is plenty of time to create an easy way to welcome your guests.

These streamers create gentle movement in the breeze and are made from items found at the Dollar Tree.

The poles are actually bamboo stakes normally used in gardening.  These are  green 5 ft stakes and are $1 for a package of 6 or so.   Spray paint those the color of your choice.  I used white.

Right now, most Dollar Tree stores have rolls of satin ribbon in stock.  I chose red, white and blue.  $1 per roll.  Cut long pieces of each color and hot glue one end to the top of the stake.

These can be placed anywhere... line your driveway, place them at the corners of your patio, stand them up in sand filled pots on your porch, etc.  Use any colors you want for any occasion.  These would be great for a bridal shower, graduation in school colors or child's birthday in primary colors!

Adorable baseball party cake!

How cute is this cake?   It's a home plate!  

Know what I love about it?  It's simple!  Anyone can do it!
Just make a rectangle cake and cut two angles into it.

Sprinkle some graham cracker "dirt" on home plate and it's done!

This cake was just one part of a fabulous baseball party thrown by Beth of Custom Creations.
Visit her blog to see all the cute details!  

This cake isn't JUST for children.  What about a World Series Party?  Or a tailgate for a college game?  Or a cute groom's cake?

 

SmileBooks discount for EC readers... ALL YEAR!

While I'm spending time at the Blissdom conference this weekend, I wanted to leave you with a wonderful discount from my sponsor, SmileBooks.

 

The great folks at SmileBooks were one of my sponsors for the BlogHer conference last July and are sponsoring me for Blissdom as well. They printed some amazing booklets for both conferences that feature party ideas from this blog.  The quality is phenomenal!

Have you wanted to make a nice coffee table style book?  Maybe featuring a vacation or holiday, maybe a birthday party or special anniversary, etc?   Smilebooks produces the highest quality of glossy, beautiful photo books.  

It is so easy to create a book, just upload your photos!  You can create your own layouts or have them designed for you.   

SmileBooks is offering a 30% discount to readers of Everyday Celebrating in celebration of the Blissdom conference, blogs and those that read them.  Just use coupon code CELEBRATE30 during checkout to receive the discount.  

There are so many occasions to celebrate with a book... Mother's Day, Graduation, Celebrate a high school band season or sport, etc.  These make a fabulous gift!  And... this code is good for all of 2010. With an expiration date of 12/31/2010, you can get discounted books for every occasion... all year!

Stamping napkins

photo credit:  Family Circle

Like the look of imprinted napkins but not the cost?
Create cute personalized napkins to fit in with your decor by simply stamping them!
Get inexpensive white napkins and stamp each one with a theme.  One of the benefits of stamping is that you can have many different kinds of napkins for just the cost of a single stamp instead of custom imprinting costs. 

These make a great hostess gift as well!

Airplane invitation: Not just for small children!

Remember the airplane invitation I created for my son's birthday?  Not just for children's parties!

Alexandria, 15, emailed to inquire about the airplane invitation.  To celebrate her 16th birthday, she chose not to have a large party, but instead have a very special unique outing with girlfriends.

Her parents celebrated their daughter's love of flying by taking the money they would've spent on a party and renting two planes and instructors to give Alexandria and 7 of her friends their first lesson in flying.

Alexandria used this invitation to send to her 7 friends.  Instead of the childlike logo, she placed a picture of each friend on the invitation.  Great idea!

Happiest of birthdays, Alexandria!  

The airplane invitation and logo is available for purchase in the Everyday Celebrating store. 

Smilebooks at BlogHer!

 

You may have seen the button on the sidebar there.  This one:

That's one of the largest blogging conferences in the United States and it's sold out.  As always.
I'll be there representing several sponsors and one of them is the fine folks at Smilebooks.com

SmileBooks helps you turn your favorite digital photos into treasured photo books. Within minutes you can download SmileBooks free software and begin creating permanent photo book memories.  When you're done, fill out the order form and within days you'll receive your incomparable quality photo book.  Create memories that last a lifetime, in no time at all with SmileBooks photo books.

They have several sizes to create and also great templates if you're not that creative.  However, if you do want complete control over the design of your pages, you have that capability. 

I found the software to be easy and self explanatory.  The preview was clear and I loved how it would immediately tell if your photos were not going to print at a high quality level.

To show you an example, here is one of the booklets that Smilebooks prints.  What you are seeing here are the custom designed idea books I'll be passing out at the BlogHer conference.  Please leave me a comment if you're going to be at the conference.  I'd love to meet you and load you down with some swag!  :)

If you click on the photo, you can see more detail.  The pages are a beautiful gloss and really are coffee table quality.  They make beautiful hardcover books that are perfect gifts or a great way to celebrate a special occasion such as an anniversary, birthday, graduation or wedding.

Stay tuned!  Smilebooks and Everyday Celebrating is going to be having a fun competition through this blog with lots of fun prizes!

But for now.. Smilebooks wanted to celebrate blogs and the people that read them by giving a 25% discount to readers.  Simply type in the code Blogher25 at checkout to receive your discount! 

So get busy creating a book of memories! You don't need an occasion.. how about making a Summer Fun book or a book with your vacation photos?

Don't forget!  If you're going to the BlogHer conference... leave me a comment!

Enjoy!

Graduation Gift: The t-shirt quilt

Graduations are coming up quickly!
Both high school and college students seem to amass several t-shirts over their careers and several are dear to their hearts.

Take those symbols of good times and make them into a t-shirt quilt or blanket!
There are several sellers on etsy like Katherine who made the one above. (I'm partial to it as it features my sorority, Sigma Kappa! Any SigKaps out there?)

These make a great gift that they'll keep and maybe pass down.  Imagine a parent passing down their greek shirt quilt to a child when they join.  And they don't have to be made from sorority/fraternity shirts.  They can be general college shirts or one from all the organizations they were in like band or drama, etc.

Some etsy sellers make less expensive versions that are blankets, seen below. Both are cute and equally sentimental. And they're great for both males and females.

These would even make a great whimsical tablecloth for a graduation party that they could keep afterwards!  Or can be hung on a wall for decoration.

And they aren't just for graduates.  What about making one of your favorite sports team and maybe displaying it at your tailgate site? 

Need shirts?  Goodwill or Ebay are great for local or pro sports teams.

Wish I would've kept all my shirts!!  I would love to have one of these now!

Can I buy you a drink? no, really.

Like those?
Have friends that do?
Have friends that are far away and you'd like to send out for a few?

Give Real is a website that allows you to send drinks virtually.  Not just images... REAL DRINKS!
Log onto Give Real, and purchase your friends drinks that they can enjoy at any restaurant or bar across the country.  Here's how it works:

1.  Choose a friend and select a drink credit.  You can give $1 up to $99!

2.  Style your gift by making a drink selection or including a personal message.

3.  Pay with a credit card.  Your friend will immediately receive a gift notification and instructions on how to redeem their real drink.

And they don't JUST do alcoholic beverages!  Send someone a milkshake or a coke to brighten up their day. 

Pay for a round of birthday drinks for a friend!  A great wedding gift!  Send the couple some drinks that they can enjoy on their honeymoon!  Or send drinks to friends going on vacation!  Celebrate a promotion,  cheer up someone's bad day, etc.  Makes a good Christmas present or game watching party gift... or... it's just good to put a smile on someone's face!

Gift giving just gets easier and easier, right? 

St. Patrick's Giveaway! Apple Martini Mixer from Stirrings!

The most divine box showed up on my doorstep recently.  A box of .... liquid!

from my friends at

If you haven't heard of Stirrings, I'm even more delighted you visited today. 
Stirrings is a new line of signature cocktail drink mixers, sodas, bar ingredients and amazing gift sets.
Not to mention they all come in packaging so fabulous you want to just keep them out for display.
See?  Go ahead... click on them to make them bigger.  Get a nice view. ;)

Their site is filled with fabulous ways to blend the perfect concoction for your next occasion.
Fabulous product as well as recipes on how to use them. 

St. Patrick's Day is coming up!!!!  I encourage you to begin thinking about your celebration now.
Green drinks, anyone?  Don't settle for that nasty green beer!  Apple Martini?  Mojito?  Classic Margarita?  Top them off with an amazing rimmer and garnish with even more green! 

Planning a wedding?  Stirrings has a special section on how creative drinks can liven up your event and add a unique touch.

I'm kicking off the weekend by mixing up a few of their drinks to sample!
But... I want to kick-off a Thursday by announcing my next giveaway!

We'll be sending one lucky reader a full size Apple Martini mixer so you may live it up for St. Paddy's Day!

From the site:

An Apple a Day

The Apple Martini is unrivaled amongst its cocktail contemporaries for glamour and urban sophistication. One sip of this luminescent libation and you will feel the warmth of the spotlight. Introducing the first appletini using fresh juice and cane sugar. The apple's back - be green.

Did you know: Almost 6 lbs of fruit go into making one 32 oz bottle of our Apple Mixer. This is equivalent to approximately 18 individual apples in every bottle.

Makes 11 cocktails!

Here's how you enter:

1.  Visit the Stirrings site.

2.  Pick a recipe that sounds divine and where you'd serve it!

3.  Post it here in the comments!

Since this is timely and we need to get it into your hands soon for St. Patrick's Day... the deadline is Monday at Noon, EST.

GOOD LUCK!  And Happy Stirring!

Not just for Halloween and Thanksgiving....

Right about now, you can get leftover pumpkins on the CHEAP!  Like 5 for $5 cheap in some places!
And while it's still technically the season of  pumpkins, they are great decoration and yet, you don't have to use them in their traditional colors.

It's still football season, so why not decorate your tailgate in seasonal pumpkins that support your favorite team!  The pumpkins above provided a warm welcome to guests of a homecoming parade watching party.  Tons of compliments on them and it was one can of chrome spray paint and various rolls of grosgrain ribbon.   Easy wow factor.... minimal cost.