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Paperless Post

August 4, 2010 By

I mentioned the other day that I’m soon going to be hosting a bridal shower for two friends (who also happen to be future military spouses). I’m on a really tight timeline, so I didn’t really have time to order formal invitations, which is what I like to do for showers, but an evite just seemed a little too informal. Luckily, I had just discovered Paperless Post. Paperless Post offers email invitations a bit more formal than the standard evite. You can also customize their invitations, which I LOVED. Sign up for an account, and you’ll receive a number of free stamps and coins (which you can use to add embellishments to your invitation, like envelope liners). When you run out of free credits, you can purchase more for just a few dollars.

Because I’m throwing this shower for two ladies who will be marrying into our Navy family, I decided to do a Military Wife themed shower. Of course this means a red, white, and blue color palette. Here’s the Paperless Post invitation I mailed out last weekend (the envelope has a red and white liner):

Isn’t it cute? To RSVP, guests just click on the invitation, and it takes them to a registration page, which you as the host can monitor. I’m just IN LOVE with these invites!

What do you think? Do you like these?

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Twenty Dollar Tuesdays: No Vases?

June 22, 2010 By

The thought of a lucious bouquet of roses or peonies or snap dragons, sets my heart aflutter. I just love coming home to a full bouquet sitting on my kitchen table!

But sometimes I want something a little simpler (and cheaper!). And that’s when I go for the cheapest flowers I can find in the grocery store plopped into bud vases or bottles or whatever I can find. Something like this:

(Photo courtesy of Jena D Events)

Or this:

(Photo from Country Living)

Or any of these from Ms. Stewart:

Or this one from Centsational Girl:

Don’t you just love this look?!?  And the best part? You can get away with only buying a small bouquet (there’s usually a $3.99 one a my grocery store!). What do you all think?

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Numeros!

June 17, 2010 By

I’ve had such a productive day! After work I got my hair cut (for the first time in SEVEN months!!!), ran a bunch of errands, and then we had our friends Jana and Wade over for dinner!  I made my new go-to fast dinner: pre-marinated Carne Asada from Trader Joes (LOVE it!), baked asparagus, and roasted rosemary potatoes…with flourless chocolate cake for dessert. Yum. It was such a nice evening!

I forgot to take pics of the dinner to share with you, so instead, I’ll show you one of the projects I worked on for our reunion dinners last weekend. We needed a way to mark the tables so the various reunion classes knew where to sit.  We found these paper mache numbers online for a few dollars each:

and I found these fence post toppers at a hardware store for a little over a dollar a piece:

I screwed the numbers to the post toppers with a wood screw and then spray painted them alternating white and blue.  These were the finished project:

and

and THIS is what they looked like on the tables:

I just LOVE how they turned out (the white numbers went on tables with blue tablecloths). I’m guessing not a lot of you have a need for class numbers on tables, but these would also work quite well for table numbers at any wedding or other big event!

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Party on the go!

May 31, 2010 By

On Friday, we held a farewell party for one of my friends, Yolanda, a member of our Officer Spouses’ Club. Instead of holding the party at a restaurant or someone’s home, we decided to hold it somewhere else…but we still wanted to have food and cocktails. Rather than doing a potluck thingy, I just had everyone give a few dollars and I supplied the food and drink.  The place we went was 45 minutes away, so I had to plan on serving things easily transportable…which was a little harder than I thought it would be! Transporting everything I usually use during a party nearly filled up my whole trunk!!! I ended up serving:

Red wine, white wine, and cranberry/champagne cocktails

A selection of cheeses and nuts

Terra Chips (LOVE these!)

Berries with a fruit dip

Chicken Salad sandwiches

Chocolate truffle cupcakes

Jordan almonds

So how do you make a fabulous-looking moveable feast? Here are my top tips:

  • Bring a tablecloth. This makes ALL the difference!
  • Provide nice plates/ cups/  napkins.
  • Coordinate your serving dishes….even if this means their all white plastic…at least they match!
  • It’s okay to take shortcuts.  I made the cupcakes and the fruit dip, but I bought the Jordan Almonds, chips, cheese, fruit, and chicken salad (Trader Joe’s Wine Country Chicken Salad…yum!!!).

These tips can help you spruce up your next Girls’ Night Out, Dinner Party, or family picnic!

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