Inside Out Themed Birthday

The latest Disney phenomenon is "Inside Out" and it has captured the heart of my niece. For her birthday I wanted to give her a small party with an "Inside Out" theme but with the film being so new and  no branded party supplies in stock, I had to improvise.

Colour plays a big role in the film and I decided rainbows were the best way to illustrate all of the characters plus they are easy to find and incorporate.

Cake: I had the bakery decorate her cake with a rainbow and instead of the traditional Happy Birthday message, I had them write "Who's the birthday girl?" - one of the funniest lines from the film. Next, I used the Holiday Ornament template found here and printed it off in colour. Cutting each out and attaching them to toothpicks, they gave the cake a true "Inside Out" theme.

Decor: For decor, I had balloons in red, green, blue, yellow and purple to represent the characters of the film. I would also suggest a rainbow tablecloth and rainbow streamers to brighten the room. Her gift was in a very large rainbow bag that provided a backdrop to the side table (and enclosed Inside Out PJS!).

Favours: For favours, I found rainbow dance streamers and rainbow hair clips that the kids loved. You could also include an Inside Out colouring book which are out in stores now.

There is much more you could do but these few things really carried the theme well and the look on her face was pure delight!

Happy planning!

Amber

Housewarming Gift Help

I always seem to have friends on the move. Be it buying their first home, upgrading for more space or relocating for work, the question of what makes a good housewarming gift often comes up. Here are a few of my favourite (and practical!) picks:

1) A gift card for a home & garden store

If you rent or own, there are always things you need to buy to make your space work. This is a gift that will get used. 

2) Plants, planters or a hanging basket

Easy to find and available all year, this is a great gift for condo dwellers and house owners alike. Go low maintenance if you can and nothing too large. I'm currently loving succulent gardens as they fit both criteria. Feeling a DIY? Try the succulent wreath featured in the photo with how-to by prettyprudent.com.

3) Wine, salt and bread basket

Wine so your home has joy and prosperity, salt so that life will always have flavour and bread so the house will know no hunger. It's practical and easy to assemble. Plus you can include the sweet feel-good symbolism in the card or with tags on each item.

4) Address Labels

Easy to make or to order online; designs range from something fun with caricatures to traditional typeset. Inexpensive and personal.

As for no-nos: art (unless they have specifically selected a piece), furniture or anything to do with redecorating the house (paint, curtains, throw pillows, carpets, etc). These are far too personal and decisions that should be left to those who live there.

Happy gift shopping!

High School Reunion Planning Tips

I recently planned my high school reunion (this was number two!) and there are a few tips I thought I'd share that made ours a success.

1) Give people lots of notice! I secured a date and started spreading the word in September for our June event. This gave people who were coming from out-of-town lots of time to plan.

2) Keep the ticket cost low and the event casual. I know of three sit-down dinner reunions that have been cancelled due to low attendance. Keeping it at a pub allowed people to come dressed like they want to, the opportunity to stay for as little or as long as they wanted and gav people the freedom to move about and chat.

3) Provide name tags. People do look different and even if you recognize their face, after 10, 20 or 30 years, you won't remember everyone's name. Go the extra mile and photocopy grad yearbook photos and attach that to the name tag. 

4) Plan some element of surprise. I had a 90's themed candy bar, provided some fun 90's props plus a cool Instagram frame and at 10pm circulated mini cupcakes in school colours.

Overall it was a super fun night with many people suggesting another reunion sooner the later. 

Best of luck with planning and if you want any details on the candy bar, ticketing, name tags or photo props, please send me an email. I'm happy to help.

Gorgeous Milestone Photo Cards

Know someone expecting a baby and looking for a gift? I love these Baby Milestone cards to mark baby's first year of accomplishments. Gorgeously illustrated with a space for a date, just add to your baby's photos and you have a beautiful way to keep a record of memorable moments. Just found out your expecting? They also have a sweet set of milestone cards to mark your pregnancy progress and your belly grows. Sure beats those handmade signs in photos we've all seen on Facebook.

Visit milestonecards.com for store locations near you.

Strongbow Ginger Cider Cocktail

It's getting warmer and outdoor entertaining is in full swing. It's time to crack out the summer cocktails. Now I'm normally partial to sangria or a great margarita on the rocks but one sip of this Strongbow Ginger Cider Cocktail and I was hooked. Plus it's gluten-free friendly.

Enjoy!

Strongbow Ginger Cider Cocktail

Ingredients:

Juice from one lemon

1tsp of freshly grated ginger

A few dashes of Peach Bitters

1 x 355ml Bottle of Strongbow Cider

Ice

Directions:

Mix juice, ginger and bitters. Add ice and cider.

A Perfect $10 Gift

As we get older, we fill our homes with all kinds of things - buying what we need or want. This can make gift giving very difficult as we try to find something unique and inexpensive that says Happy Birthday or Thank You that isn't flowers or wine (not that I don't love receiving either!).

Well, look no further then Blue Owl Design studs. They are so sweet and stylish. And at $10 a pair, they won't break the bank. They are the perfect token gift that says "I thought about you." I bought the Faux Druzy Studs in rose gold and love their understated sparkle. Promise the next pair I buy will be gifted.

Porch Pillows

After our porch renovation last summer, I secured the perfect furniture set but had not found the right pillows to complement our new house paint colour. I love bright summer prints, but wanted something that really worked with our victorian house. So, I had this vision to create pillows with historical photos of the City we live in and from the year our house was built.  I scoured our local archives and found a number of digital photos from 1895. I copied them to my desktop and printed them in a 5x7 format on Jolee's iron-on transfer paper for dark fabrics ($9.99) from Michaels. You must use an inkjet printer and I suggest cutting your images down to exactly what you want transferred on your pillow, otherwise you'll end up with white borders. I used IKEA cushion covers ($5.99) and a quick iron on your highest setting and voila, they were done. I now have some very unique porch pillows that are a real conversation starter and look so good on the porch.