Party Planning Tips with Storkies

This time of year is so hectic for me. My birthday is the end of the month and then 2 weeks later it’s O’s birthday. It feels like the day after is Christmas lol. My grandma always loved her Christmas cards. I remember she use to hang them over her bay window and it was always exciting to be the one around when she opened them because since she was a short little thing we were able to hang the cards for her. This year I’m going to stay on top of Christmas cards and I want to send out our Storkie Christmas Cards earlier this year so I can let them know about a fun holiday get together O wants to do for his friends. This got me thinking about what would be my top 10 holiday Planning Tips that I’ve adapted from my grandparents over the years:

#10: Relax and have fun! This was one my grandma always said and her reason was not only because you’d miss the memories but because when you stress out you’re likely to forget something. Also it’s no fun to be at a get together over the holidays and have a stressed out host. I like to spend about a week or two planning . I’m taking week 1 to plan who he wants to invite. Week 2 will be a meal and activities plan. This will be fun because I can get creative and make fun holiday treats. Plus I get to play my favorite holiday movies …. Like Rudolph lol.

#9: Have fun activities: I remember we had so much fun getting together and doing Christmas cookies as a family. This is something I want to continue with O and I think it’d be fun to not only have his friends decorate some cool cookies that they can eat while here, but I want to freeze some cookie shapes and send them home with a little zip bag of the cookie shapes and let them do them together as a family.

#8:  Have cool prizes: O wants to do some fun games so we’re going to hit the dollar store to not only find little fun holiday trinkets for prizes but to also make some fun crafts. I was thinking cotton ball snowmen. O loves those. Not only do I get to let the kids have fun, I don’t have to worry about breaking the bank with it either!

#7: Get lots of photos: This is of course a big one for me. My grandpa was my inspiration for my camera love. I remember how he use to do wedding photos and I found a small box once of beautiful photos he took of my grandma and me. I just loved how they looked and ever since I’ve had my camera glued to my hand. I want to create moments O can remember and even use these photos as ‘cheap’ decoration for his room.

#6: Don’t plan last minute! This is an obvious one. I don’t want to plan it too early but then I don’t want to wait til last minute. Nothing stinks worse than your kid getting excited … okay and you too* but then to be sad when 90% are out of town.  It can be real tricky getting the date just*right.

#5: Don’t forget to mingle! If there are parents staying don’t forget to interact with them. Also you’d be wise to at least check on the kids if they are in one area for more than a few minutes … if O is being too quiet for too long I know it’s not something good.

#4: Have a theme! Some families may not do Christmas so to make them feel welcome why not have a wintery theme? That leaves you open to so many neat ideas. A Winter wonderland for example sounds SO fun!

#3 Have lots of snacks – Not only will any adult guests that stay appreciate this … if you’re having a house full of boys you’ll hear a million times “I’m hungry” no matter if they just ate or not … unless this is just my house. Have a bunch of ready to go and healthy snacks on hand for just these moments.

#2: Create Standout moments! Don’t do out of the box ideas. Create invites and such that stand out and make your guests want to come. It’s a lot easier and cheaper than you may think to be original with your initiations and decoration.

#1: Don’t serve cold food! One thing that my grandma K was notorious for would be that the food on Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter would be cold. She was so nervous about it not being ready in time she started cooking WAY too early. That was something we grew to love and now that she’s gone I really do miss sadly lol. I don’t want to get the food cooked too early but with a bunch of hungry boys I do want to start prepping earlier lol.

So there you have it. My top 10 party tips. What are some of yours that you’ve inherited over the years?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the Storkie holiday blogging program. I received compensation for my participation. All opinions are 100% mine.

Almost Christmas?!

from AnswersClub on Flicker

As much as I hate to say it, Christmas is coming VERY soon …. and as the fall is a real busy time for most with back to school stuff, I’ve been considering shopping for things earlier. Of course the only problem with this is people ask for things all year and of course by Christmas time, they’ve already purchased it right? For example Jeff’s mom was saying like EVERY week how she needed a new coffee maker because her other one died. Well we finally found one we thought she’d like …. only for Jeff to have a feeling that he better see if she still needed it. Of course after calling his sister, he finds out she already bought on. So I want to start early but then I don’t want to end up with a bunch of useless stuff from impatient people lol!

Of course this doesn’t really work for kids either because well they change their minds like a billion times. So really does shopping early benefit anyone? I guess we could get the generic stuff but I just hate having to do a mad dash full of flying elbows and stepped on toes to get those ‘awesome’ gifts during the holiday season.

Santa’s Secrets: Personalized Ornaments

Ever since my son was born my mother in law has started a tradition that I love. She has gotten him a personalized ornament (or two lol) for every year he has been with us. I love it and so does Owen. I love how different they are and at the same time they are extra special because they have a meaning behind them.

So when I was offered to do a review of Cafepress’ personalized ornaments I was extremely excited. I thought that this was a great way to jump in on this tradition and share our love with Owen. Plus I love a tree that has more meaningful ornaments to it than just the normal the regular ones that you put up to fill those bear spots lol!

Now this is a new program that Cafepress has started with the personalized ornaments. The process of creating a personalized ornament is easy as well. Cafepress offers tools that help you a lot.

Part of showing you guys the ornament making process I got to make two personalized ornaments. I thought that while it’s been a good year for us, there was one time that was so special to my dad. It was the ONE time me, my son, my two siblings and two nieces were all in one spot to get a photo. I knew it was a great one and that my dad would just LOVE it … boy was I right. He was so excited about it that I don’t think he took it out of his pocket all night. He FINALLY put it on the tree the next night after showing to EVERYONE he knew. I knew it was a special moment for him and that this would be a great way for it to get remembered every single year.

Cafepress assures you that making your own ornaments is easy. Here is what the site says:

• Design your personalized ornaments in minutes with our online designer.
• Create great photo ornaments with our creative templates.
• Choose from multiple styles of Christmas ornaments.
• High quality porcelain.
• Fast shipping and 100% satisfaction guarantee

I couldn’t agree more. It took me literally about 10 minuets to make BOTH ornaments, mainly because I didn’t know what photos I wanted to use. Once I got that figured out it was easy peasy getting them made. Cafepress offers a wide variety of ornament options as well and even lets you choose between round or oval ornaments. Also the shipping time was right on, if not earlier than what they estimated. I was excited about that because it gave me time to figure out what to do with my dad’s.

The next time you need an ornament, why not check out Cafepress’ personalize ornaments to give your gift that extra special touch. Plus who doesn’t love personalized things lol!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

*I was given a free free product and/or was paid for this review. Any opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced in any way.

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Traditions

This is my daddy’s first year with a fake tree. Growing up we’ve ALWAYS had a huge real tree. So he has had a really not great year and the year ended not so great last year. I told him why not start a new ‘tradition’, why not have an artifical tree and lets make new memories with this (Plus in a house with two other boys that’s less for them to worry about) so Owen, my niece, and I decorated it and here it is:

Gasp! Christmas next week?!

Can you believe we’re  close to CHRISTMAS? How did that happen? Though I have to say I’m actually back into the holiday spirit that I lost last year (as is expected.) I’m glad for the holidays to actually FEEL like the holidays again. I know they’ll never be what they use to be, but it’s leading to a whole new meaning of the holidays and I’m liking where this is heading I think!

I am shocked to say all we have left to buy for is the last bits for Owen and my father in law and we are DONE! Usually we are just STARTING now lol. I still have to figure out when to wrap them. Hopefully I can get them started this week while Jeff keeps Owen busy. I have one I actually have to grab tomorrow and I still need to figure out what to get Jeff. I want to get him something and get him some stocking stuffers … just don’t know what yet lol. He is adamant that I get him NOTHING but what ever he’ll deal lol. Oh and here is Owen’s Christmas list because it’s just too funny not to share:

• Batman Puppy named Benji
  (we just got this in the mail from Build a Bear last week so yay!)
• New Kozlov and CM Punk action figures
  (which I may grab him the CM Punk since his is almost broke)
• Big Top Cupcake
  (really? lol)
• Real computer with mouse and all the sims games
  (sorry buddy that’s not happening lol)
• Lego Duplos
  (which we are grabbing him friday lol)
• Imaginext Dragon World Fortress
  (after JUST buying the Batman one I’ll wait for this lol)
• “White Cookies” aka Those white Oreos lol.
  (good thing Santa knows these are his favorite)
• Lightning McQueen Tv
  (Sadly we have no place for it right now)
• Batman Clothes
  (good thing we got pjs and some flip flops for him already)

 Since we’re on the Christmas post (and I’ve been listening to it nonstop) I thought I’d share my favorite Christmas song:

So what are on your kid(s) list this year? What about YOUR list? What about your favorite Christmas song?

Santa’s Secrets: Peace Love Mom Giveaway

Okay I don’t know about you but I LOVE to funky, coloful, and fun mom items, and sometimes really good ones are hard to find that are not outrageous in price. So when I came across Peace Love Mom I was really excited by how adorable their clothes are. I really liked the different look to the “mom” clothes and I felt they fitted my style and attitude a lot better.

Now if you have NEVER heard of PeaceLoveMom well here is a little information taken right from their website:

PeaceLoveMom is made up of a team of Moms with one common goal – to create “a celebration of motherhood” for all types of mothers. PeaceLoveMom, a lifestyle brand company was designed to share life’s many moments of motherhood. Established in 2006, the PeaceLoveMom team of ladies brings variant backgrounds, perspectives, and creativity to the table. Although the day-to-day business tasks are split, every PeaceLoveMom in our company possesses the same passion for motherhood and their new found careers. Creating designs that will both inspire and empower mothers everywhere, PeaceLoveMom represents a collaboration and true celebration of motherhood.

Also, they have been featured in such places as CNN, Atlanta Business Radio, Access Hollywood (for helping with Tori Spelling’s Winter Wonderland party benefiting Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California), as well as having been in various parenting magazines and even on such stars as reality tv star Kate Gosslin, Dances With The Stars star Tia Carrere, Idol Winner David Cook’s mother Beth Foraker, Emmy award nominated actress Cheryl Hines, and Super Model Cindy Crawford while she was shopping with her daughter Kaia. So in owning your own PeaceLoveMom shirt, you can say you shop at the same place they do (who has to know it’s online and not in the actual stores lol!) Also, what mother doesn’t want to feel like a Celeb (without all the added stresses of course lol)!

But with these awesome shirts/sweaters it would be hard for any mom to not fall in love with them.  So when it came time to pick my item for a review I was of course overwhelmed. But there was one shirt in particular that I just kept coming back to. It was the Rock & Roll Mom Black Comfy Thermal and I have to say it is SO comfy, the name doesn’t lie. I love the design of the shirt, as that is the first thing you notice, but I really love how well it fit. I was worried about it looking baggy and such, but nope it fit just fine without being too tight or too baggy. It also covered my jeans just the right amount as well (I just hate when half of my back is showing as I bend over to do something lol). Even the hubby commented on how soft and comfy the shirt felt. It has quickly became one of my favorite shirts to wear, even after how well it holds up in the wash.

Here is what PeaceLoveMom has to say about this shirt:

The Rock & Roll Mom – hip, happening, and on the move. Her heart beats with the love from her kids and the song of laughter ringing in her ears.

PeaceLoveMom celebrates with Beth Foraker the mom of American Idol Winner David Cook.

Body Style: Long Sleeve soft to the touch waffle fabric, 100% cotton, tapered waist, long length, cozy feel, garment washed and dyed. Made in America.

Right now PeaceLoveMom has a great December promotion going on:

Receive a FREE PeaceLoveMom Tote Bag with any purchase $100 and over. Use coupon code GWP100 until 12/24.

Now for the best part! One lucky reader is able to win their own Peace Sign Dot Cozy Thermal (a $50.00 value pictured to the right) and entering is so simple:

 *Mandatory Entry*

What item at PeaceLoveMom would you add to your wishlist?

*Extra Entries*

 

• Follow my blog
• comment on any of my other posts (please comment with what post it is)
  
• Follow me on TWITTER
• Follow PeaceLoveMom on Twitter
  
• Sign up for my RSS feed
  
• Sign up for my newsletter
• Email 2 people about this giveaway and include me in the CC (email on profile)
  
• Blog this giveaway 
• I entered to win a cozy thermal from @peacelovemom @creativelyyours and you can too! http://bit.ly/62yq9C

This giveaway ends December 17th, 2009

Santa’s Secrets:Stocking Giveaway!

I LOVE all the look/durability of all things crocheted and so when I seen these adorable hats and such at Jamie’s etsy store: MoMmAb7 I was just in awe of her crochet skills. After looking in her store I was blown away. She makes some of the cutest little hats I’ve ever seen, plus she has some of the cutest models around lol! But she doesn’t stop at cute hats, she also makes necklaces, stockings, purses, blankets, has patterns for sale, and even offers her own photographs and paintings. How neat is that? Plus being the mother of 7 kids I just don’t know where the time comes to be so creative.

So after chatting back and forth for awhile, we were setting up for a Halloween giveaway but life got in the way for us both and she is just a really sweet person as well, and she was interested in the suggestions I had for any holiday stockings she was making. Well if you’ve been reading my blog you know Owen is OBSESSED with Batman and I so I threw out those colors because I’ve been see those colors so much they haunt me in my dreams … I mean I thought Owen would love it … and he did. So much so that he decided it was a hat and didn’t understand it was for Christmas but what can I say he’s a bit odd at times lol.

How cute is that?! It just screams out batman and Owen stops and admires it EVERY time he walks by it , which is quite often during the day lol. He has also been talking about it non stop since it came in the mail. I think at one point he asked me if he could sleep with it but I told him he was pushing it lol.

So if you are looking for a stocking for your little ones this holiday season or are thinking they will make a perfect gift then check out Jamie’s store. Right now she has a few sales going on, her stockings are 40% , necklaces are $2 off, and even her adorable hats are on sale!

One lucky reader will receive a stocking all for themselves! One lucky reader will receive this beautiful stocking below. This stocking is double stranded for strength and durability. The stocking is about 7″ by about 16″ and the cuff fabric is a soft white red heart yarn with the body being a green and silver red holiday yarn. Isn’t this adorable? Entering is super easy!

*Mandatory Entry*

What is your favorite holiday tradition?

*Extra Entries*

• Follow my blog
• comment on any of my other posts (please comment with what post it is)
  
• Follow me on TWITTER
• Sign up for my RSS feed
  
• Sign up for my newsletter
• Email 2 people about this giveaway and include me in the CC (email on profile)
  
• Blog this giveaway
• I entered to win a christmas stocking @creativelyyours and you can too! http://bit.ly/7yu3Fd

This giveaway ends December 17th, 2009

We visited Santa!