Throwing a party is hard work (unless you hire The Party Planning Committee to put together the fete for you...)! Give all of those hard-working hosts and hostesses something great this holiday!
Here are some of our favourite picks this year:
1. Flowering teapot (Available at Canadian Tire - around $20 with tea flowers).
2, A handsome Christmas ornament (we're impressed with
Bowring's selection this year)
3. New kitchen tools wrapped and tied with ribbon in a festive oven mitt.
4. Personalized Pyrex dish full of brownies! (Glass etching cream and stencils are available at Michaels.)
5. If you're handy in the kitchen, these homemade stained glass cookies from Martha Stewart are a showstopper! Even if you're not so handy, buy a roll of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough, cut out ornament shapes, and fill the centre with crushed hard candy (like Jolly Ranchers). Punch a small hole at the top before baking and tie with a ribbon!
6. We love these Kate Spade gold dot napkins. Even better - DIY some with linen napkins, a pencil eraser and gold fabric paint!
- rosemary infused sea salt put your sea salt and rosemary in a sauté pan and warm up for about 15 minutes. Then discard the rosemary and pour salt into individual containers.
7. Rosemary infused sea salt (Warm sea salt and rosemary in a pan and for 15 minutes. Discard rosemary and pour salt into individual containers with fresh rosemary).
What hostess gifts do you love giving?
Love,
Ashley, Jen and Alessandra
To create the perfect ambiance at your next party, try this idea for displaying candles: collect glass jars after using up sauces, olives and pickles, wash and remove labels (for really tough glue spots, use GooGone), fill with tealights, and group in bunches. This simple and inexpensive project will provide a warm glow at any event, and can be used afterwards as home decor!
A cake smash is a must at any first birthday party! And, as anybody who has children knows, one-year-olds are the messiest eaters around. If you don't want to be scraping icing from between your floor boards for the next year, a splash mat is therefore also a must!
We came up with this cute, easy, and very inexpensive splash mat for our vintage farm-themed party this past weekend (full party details to follow!). Here are the only two things you'll need:
- plastic table cloth: we found this blue gingham beauty at the dollar store!
- scissors: for cutting the table cloth
Here are the easy-peasy instructions:
1. Cut your table cloth into a square (if it isn't already square) with sides that are slightly larger than the diameter of the circle you want to end up with.
2. You'll need to fold the square table cloth several times.
For convenient photo-taking, we show the folds you'll need to make on a sheet of 12x12 paper. First, fold your table cloth in half twice, as shown below. It should be a square that is 1/4 of the original size after these folds.
3. Fold the table cloth again, this time on the diagonal, to make a triangle.
4. Fold the right-angled tip of the triangle (in the picture above, this is tip on the right-hand side) down to meet the long side of the triangle.
5. Cut a semi-circle as shown below. When you unfold the table cloth, you should have 16 ridges.
Easy, right? Here's the final product:
Love,
Ashley, Jen and Alessandra
For next weekend's vintage farm-themed 1st birthday party we've designed a simple and sweet rustic bunting to wish the guest of honour a 'Happy Birthday'!
With its chevron-style flags and neutral colours, this banner fits perfectly with the intended vintage feel. This design could also be easily adapted to any celebration with different coloured materials, lettering and flag shapes!
To create this decorative sign you will need:
- cardboard: quantity depends on size & number of flags. For the fourteen 12 x 15 cm flags used here we required 2520cm-squared of cardboard. Tip: use a cardboard box - they are easy to cut and the flaps/sides are already in convenient-to-use strips!
- burlap; again, quantity is flag-dependent
- ruler: to use as a cutting edge for the flags
- utility knife and cutting pad: for cutting out the flags
- twine: to string the flags together
- scissors: for cutting the burlap and twine
- letters: cut out of cardstock or stenciled on with paint. We used outdoor burlap (much cheaper!) and the large weave was not easy to paint on so we chose cardstock letters cut with a Cricut.
- glue: to hold everything together!
Now on to the easy assembly:
1. Create a template for the flags by cutting out a rectangle of the desired size from the cardboard. To make the chevron cut-out, cut on an angle from the center of the rectangle, at the desired height, to the corner. Repeat for the other side of the chevron.
2. Put this flag on top of the remaining cardboard to use as a cutting edge for the other flags. Cut out the number of desired flags.
3. Use the flag template to cut out burlap pieces to cover the flags.
4. Glue the burlap to the cardboard flags.
5. Glue the letters to each flag and place under a heavy book, or other object, for 1 min to ensure that the burlap and letters are flat.
6. Cut small slits in the two upper corners of each flag.
7. Cut twine to the desired length and string between the holes in adjacent flags using a knot to secure them.
Voila! Now you have a fun sign to hang for your next celebration!
If you have other DIY projects that you would like us to post a how-to for let us know!
Love,
Ashley, Jen and Alessandra
