Party Ideas

DOT Girls Mocktail Party

May 1, 2013 2 Comments

Hey friends! This last weekend I had the opportunity to host a fun mocktail party as a member of The DOT Girls on Crowdtap. {If you haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for!?!} I received a party kit full of all kinds of dot goodies including a full size bottle of the new DOT by Marc Jacobs fragrance, a small travel size bottle of the fragrance, samples to share with friends, dot nail decals to share and decorations for the party!

The day of the party my sister helped me get together a few fun dot snacks and drinks. I pinned some ideas on Pinterest and picked a drink and ‘dot’ snacks that I thought everyone would enjoy. To start with I made melon ‘dots’ for what seemed like hours… but wasn’t really all that long. Have you ever tried to make a decent melon ball?? It’s harder than it looks!

Kayli helped me make some yummy spice cupcakes that she iced and I topped with polka dot sprinkles for the sweet. I also served some chips as a salty option. Since I’m 29 weeks pregnant, one friend is nursing and the rest don’t normally drink I stuck to one ‘mocktail’ for this party and made some virgin Sangria following this recipe. I served the Sangria in wine glasses and the treats on red plates with black and white polka dot napkins!

The main table was decorated with a black table cloth, red dot confetti, a red dotted handkerchief as the centerpiece and then I displayed all the samples right in the center.

I also hung red dotted balloons above the table. All of the decorations came in my party packet excluding the plates and napkins that I purchased at Wal-Mart.

Once my guests arrived we enjoyed some snacks, visited and talked about the new DOT fragrance by Marc Jacobs. Because two of my guests had baby boys with them we opted to send the nail decals home for when everyone had some time to try them out for themselves. The babies made for some fun entertainment during the party though!

You can see my in my dot shirt here with two late party comers. My sister and her friend had a church activity to go to during the party, but they came afterwards and enjoyed some snacks and some samples.

My thanks to Crowdtap and the DOT by Marc Jacobs fragrance for giving me a fun reason to invite my friends over to enjoy each others company, some yummy treats and a delicious smelling perfume!!! I live tweeted the party and party preparations here if you’re interested. Or you can check out my live instagrams from the event here.

If you haven’t tried the DOT fragrance yet I highly recommend it. I have been wearing it for the weeks leading up to the party and since then… My husband even likes it and he’s picky about smelly stuff…

Tell me friends, what is your go to perfume???

Filed Under: Party Ideas, Sponsored Tagged With: CrowdTap, Party Ideas

Woolite Clothing & Accessories Exchange

April 11, 2013 8 Comments

Hey friends! How’s your week so far?? Today I’m sharing my recent Woolite In Home Clothing & Accessories Exchange Boutique! What a mouth full, right!?! But we had the BEST time! {Please pardon the photo overload!}

First things first, this was a sponsored party via Woolite and Crowdtap. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, if you haven’t joined Crowdtap yet, you really should get on that! You’ll have the opportunity to host fun parties, try free products and share your opinion! I received several samples of Woolite’s Everyday Laundry Detergent to share and discuss with my guests. Then I got to plan a fun party around doing so!!!

I decided to purchase my own bottle of Woolite Everyday before the party so that I could test the product and then be able to share my own opinion at the party. The verdict? I loved the scent! My clothes came out of the washer smelling fresh and clean, but not overwhelming. I really do think that with continued use my clothes will look better over all.

The party planning started with inviting several friends and family over to my house for a clothing and accessories exchange. I asked everyone to bring 3-5 items to trade and even sent out a few ideas via my Facebook page and through Instagram pics. You can check out the live tweets from before and during the party here. Just look for the hashtags #wooliteers and #woolitewashed.

I went with a sort of bright colors and Spring theme for the party since it was held right before Easter weekend. Treats were centered around bright colors and Easter candy! {Please excuse the bad lighting, it was late evening during the party!}

The pink punch was served in mason jars with striped paper straws. To make your own Sparkling Spring Pink Punch combine two, two liter bottles of Strawberry Lemonade and one 20 oz. bottle of club soda. Serve on ice!

Sweets included chocolate dipped Peeps on skewers, Jolly Rancher Jelly Beans {my favorite!!!} and chocolate dipped pretzels with pink sugar sprinkles!

To offset so many sweets I also served a fruit tray and this easy two ingredient fruit dip. {It’s a party staple in my house!} And I made up my own version of the tortilla pin wheels! To make your own you’ll need:

5 or so large flour tortillas
2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (room temperature for easier mixing!!)
A small can of chopped black olives
A small can of chopped green chiles (or use fresh like I did and just peel and chop about two large chiles)
1 package of ranch dressing mix

Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl or electric mixer, then spread on your tortillas. Roll tortillas up, wrap in plastic wrap and store in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Cut into thin slices and serve!

Once my guests arrived we enjoyed some treats, visited and talked about the Woolite Everyday Laundry Detergent samples.

I decorated the boutique area with a bright striped table cloth and bright colored bags for guests to take home their goodies. I stuck a ‘Thanks for Swapping‘ message on each bag.

After treats it was time to swap!!! The table was covered with cute tops, jewelry, scarves, dresses, shoes and more! I made paper numbers and had each guest draw a number. Number one got to choose one item of clothing, then number two took her turn and so on.

Oh, and just in case you were starting to wonder if I was even there… haha. I took a turn shopping as well! I even found a few really cute items to wear with my preggo belly for the next couple of months!!!

By the time all of the items were gone from the table everyone had several new to them items to take home!

Thanks to Woolite and Crowdtap for sponsoring this fun party! As always opinions expressed on Truly Lovely are 100% my own thoughts!!!

Filed Under: Party Ideas, Product Reviews, Recipes, Sponsored Tagged With: Party Ideas, Recipe

DIY Fancy Drink Cozies

April 9, 2013 18 Comments

Hey there pretties! I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on the blog yet, but this September I am a bridesmaid in two different weddings for two of my closest friends. In case you missed the memo, I am also expecting our first little one this summer, in July to be specific, so around the time I’m supposed to be hosting bachelorette parties, bridal showers and the like I will also be caring for a brand new baby! My plan is to get as much done ahead of time as possible so hopefully I won’t be too stressed out when the time comes. SO today I’m sharing my first bachelorette party project!!

When I think of bachelorette parties words that come to mind are BLING, FANCY, PRETTY! So I went with that theme for my bachelorette party favors and made these fun DIY Fancy Drink Cozies.

To make your own you’ll need:

Foam drink cozies
Bling on a Roll
Feather boa accents
Glue gun and glue sticks
Scissors
Spray adhesive (not pictured below)

First you’ll want to measure how much Bling on a Roll you’ll need to wrap around your cozies, then cut it to fit using the scissors. FYI: It’s super easy to cut into any shape you’d like!!! Then spray the back of your strip with the spray adhesive and wrap it around the cozie making sure it sticks down as you go.

Once all your cozies are blinged out, measure and cut a length of feather boa to go around the top of each cozie, then glue it on using a hot glue gun.

Just keeping it real… crafting with feather boa makes a CRAZY mess!!! But it’s so worth it! OH and a quick tip, the feathers vacuum up really easy with one of those little hand vacs!

I’m excited to gift each of the bachelorette party guests with their own fancy drink cozie including the bride herself!

Your turn! Know of any fun bachelorette or bridal shower ideas I should consider???

Bling on a Roll can be purchased in several different widths and colors! Also shown in my materials photo up above are Gemz. They are another fun option for blinging up your projects and can also be cut into any shape and size. To find more fun project ideas Become a fan of Darice on Facebook, follow @Darice_Crafts on Twitter or follow Darice on Pinterest.

I wrote this post as part of campaign with Blueprint Social. All opinions are my own.

Check out the links below for more ideas on crafting with Bling on a Roll and Gemz products!!!

Filed Under: Crafts, Party Ideas, Tutorials Tagged With: bachelorette party ideas, party favor ideas

Cowboy Baby Shower Games

September 19, 2012 2 Comments

Today is the final chapter in my Little Cowboy Baby Shower series!
To wrap it up, how about some baby shower games!
You can see an overview of the entire shower here, the chocolate favors that I made here, and what I wore here.

I kept the games fairly simple. You’ve seen this photo before, but what you can see here is that one of our main ‘games’ was to have each guest write their address on an envelope and put it in a bowl. From there we drew out names to win door prizes. This ‘game’ as it were, saves Mommy to be from having to address thank you notes or hunt down addresses for her guests!

You can also see the cute country ‘wrapped’ door prizes on the right of the table. To see how I crafted those make sure to visit my craft contributor post on Making the World Cuter tomorrow!

Another of the games we played was ‘Guess the Items for Baby Cowboy‘. I took several baby items, nine in fact, and put them in a brown paper bag, labeled them with a number and stapled them shut. Shower guests were able to pass the bags around, try to feel what was inside and then write down their guess.

Once each of the nine bags had made the rounds Mommy to be opened them. If a shower guest had guessed the right item they got a point. Most points won a prize! The items I used included a bottle, pacifiers, baby socks, etc. To make things a little tougher I purchased one of those travel kits that includes baby items like shampoo, baby wash, powder, etc. Because most of the bottles were shaped alike, it was a little harder to guess which was what! As an added bonus, at the end Mommy to be got to keep all of the baby items!!!

Baby shower tip: I had a box of cheapo pens on hand so guests weren’t searching for one… You know how that goes at most showers… There’s never enough things to write with!

I also created some printables that guests could write their answers on. I printed this game and another that I’ll talk about shortly on each side of a paper. So when it came time to play we passed out the papers to each guest, they played the first game, turned their paper over and played the next game!

Because I love you, you can access all the printables I made for this Little Cowboy Baby Shower here. It’s in Google docs, so you’ll need to download the file, then re-space the items to your liking before you print them out. The file includes sheets for the guess the items game, numbers for the guessing bags, AND sheets for Mommy and Daddy Trivia, the third game we played.

For Mommy and Daddy Trivia, I emailed the mommy to be a set of questions to answer before the shower.
Questions I asked included; Where did Mommy/Daddy grow up? What was Mommy and Daddy’s first date? Who did Mommy tell about baby first? Who did Daddy tell first? What was Mommy/Daddy’s favorite book?
The person that answered the most correctly won a prize. Don’t forget to have a tie breaker question or two!!! We needed one and had to have Mommy to be make one up on the spot!

So that’s it! The Little Cowboy Shower was SO SO much fun! Hope you find my tips and ideas helpful for YOUR next baby shower!

Before you go… What’s YOUR favorite baby shower game???

Filed Under: Party Ideas

Cowboy Baby Shower Chocolate Favors

September 18, 2012 13 Comments

Remember last week I promised a post on the Cowboy Chocolate Favors that I made for my best friend’s baby shower?
Well here you go!

These were so, so fun to make and I was completely pleased with how they turned out!
It just so happened that a few weeks before the baby shower Kayli and I walked into JoAnn’s to find a sale on candy supplies! I got everything I needed to make these adorable favors for about $20!
The cowboy boot and hat chocolate molds came from here.

I used Kayli’s method of melting chocolate…
A saucepan of boiling water, a pie pan on top, chocolate in the pie pan, stir until completely melted.

Then I filled the candy squeeze bottle with the melted chocolate and then filled the candy molds. I didn’t need the squeeze bottle so much for the cowboy hats as they were a larger mold, but it was SO nice to have for filling the smaller boot molds!

A quick tap or two of the molds on the counter top and the chocolate smoothed right out! The molds went into the freezer for about five-eight minutes. Once I took them out they popped right out of the molds!

I made both blue colored and brown chocolates. To package them I put a mix of blue and brown in a candy bag.

I stamped some brown Kraft tags purchased from Pick Your Plum with a red ‘Thanks Friend’ stamp.
{Thanks to my sister in law, Brianne, for the stamp!!!}
And tied one tag around each bag of chocolates.

To display the favors at the baby shower I used a rope basket from my wedding, a basket I snagged from my mom at some point {thanks mom!!} and some red paisley fabric…

We handed one out to each guest at the end of Meghan’s baby shower to say thanks for coming.

If nothing else, Meg was impressed… She kept telling people, “Look, these are chocolate!”
Her dad cracked me up… he told her, “Good… just what you need Meg.”
I couldn’t agree more… any pregnant mommy-to-be should have some chocolate!!!

Linking this here and here and to these.

P.S. Hope you enjoyed this post! If so, we’d love if you’d follow along!

Filed Under: Party Ideas Tagged With: baby shower, Chocolate, cowboy, party favors

Little Cowboy Baby Shower

September 11, 2012 31 Comments

I am SO excited to share this baby shower with you dolls!
One of my best friends in the world is expecting a little cowboy in October! I am thrilled for her and her first baby!!

Kassi and Meghan – My wedding July 2011

The theme was based on the bedding she chose, red paisley, denim, brown…
Little cowboy!
The invitations for her shower and the Daddy Diaper Party {hosted by my husband for her husband, Kenny} were designed by my friend, Laura of CMI Quick Copy. I gave her the wording I wanted, the outline of the cowgirl mommy, the colors, and she did the rest!

The shower invite reads,
“A little cowboy is on his way… So let’s shower mommy before the delivery day!”
And then, “One last request: instead of a card for baby and mother please give a child’s book with your thoughts in the cover. By signing your book, they’ll remember and share your special gift even when you’re not there!”

We had so many comments on what a good idea the book instead of a card was!

The daddy invite reads, “Daddy Diaper Party! Join us for a round of golf, drinks and good eats to celebrate father-to-be, Kenny! Please help Kenny prepare for lots of ‘changes by bringing a pack of diapers.“

My favorite part of the decorations was the little cowboy onesies. I purchased the iron-on set from Whimsical Printables. The rope they were hung on matched the table clothes and other decorations that came from Party World via Meg’s other friend (and my partner in crime for this shower), Kendra. I made some in several sizes so she’ll have some cute cowboy onesies to dress her little guy in for awhile!

Above you’ll see the games and door prize table. I have a whole post planned for those. Perhaps next week.

How stinkin’ cute is that cake!?! Meg’s Aunt Alysha, commissioned it for us… Adorable!!!

Kayli and I made the little blue cowboy cookies using this recipe and this royal icing recipe. I purchased the cookie cutters here.

For the punch we mixed a blue Hawaiian punch and club soda. It was delicious!!! Drinks were served in mason jars with cute denim striped straws from Snippy Lou’s on Etsy.

How cute is this watermelon buggy that Kendra made!?! The rest of the food was a combo of finger foods brought by close family members.
I made this queso dip and served it in my warmed crock pot… it was a hit! We invited the men from the diaper party in to eat after they finished golfing and they practically licked it clean.

Guests signed a red photo mat that goes inside a lovely barn wood frame for the little cowboy’s room. Kayli found the frame and mat on sale at Hobby Lobby for me! Whoot! You can see the favors in the baskets here as well. A post of their own is coming soon!

We hosted the shower at a local country club so while the ladies showered mommy inside, the gents entertained daddy outside with a round of golf! It rained all day but they carried on anyway! And daddy received a ton of diapers!!

That’s the hubs and daddy-to-be, Kenny at the front of the pack there.

I had an absolute blast planning and putting this little cowboy shower together for my sweet friend. Kendra was awesome to work with… we did it all through text messages if you would believe it. And sweet Kayli came the weekend of as added support.
It was just perfect!!

Plus, mommy to be, Meghan received more baby stuff than she’ll know what to do with… I call that a baby shower success!!!
Hope you’ll be back tomorrow for a special baby shower addition of What I Wore Wednesday. And I promise to share more on the games and favors next week.

Thanks for ‘partying’ with us dolls!

Linking this here and here and to these.

P.S. Hope you enjoyed this post! If so, we’d love if you’d follow along!

Filed Under: Party Ideas Tagged With: baby shower, cowboy, Party Ideas

S’Mores and Cider

April 4, 2012 3 Comments

Here in Arizona the weather is already warming right up!

We still have a cool evening every now and then though…

Two things needed for the PERFECT cooler weather evening?

S’Mores and Cider!

They also help to make a perfect warmer weather evening if you go with cold instead of hot cider… But I digress.

My Hot Caramel Apple Cider recipe is SUPER easy!!

All you need is 1-2 gallons of store bought apple cider, an orange, some caramel syrup and a couple of cinnamon sticks.

Pour the cider into a crock pot about an hour before serving time so it can heat up.

Slice the orange, then add the slices and the cinnamon sticks right to your cider.

Your house is going to smell AMAZING while it warms up!

Once it’s ready squirt some caramel syrup in the bottom of your cup and fill with cider. Stir and sip!

It’s so yummy and so easy to do!

For S’Mores, we roast marshmallows over the fire pit in our backyard, then sandwich between two graham crackers with a hunk of chocolate. S’Mores are my favorite!!!

Chancey loves them too.

Especially the roasting part.

Hubs and Kassi… A little smoked out from the fire…

You can have a fun, but inexpensive evening get together with your family this Easter weekend!

All you need is a little S’Mores and Cider!

Have fun lovelies!!!

Linking this here and here and to these.

Filed Under: Family, Party Ideas, Recipes

A uh.. Unique Date Idea

February 1, 2012 8 Comments

I may have mentioned before but for those new to Truly Lovely, the hubs and I attended the same university.

Go AGGIES! {NMSU, specifically.}

In college we played a lot of a game that we’ll just call um… water pong. haha.

Also known as beer pong to some… but any who….

It was kind of our thing. We even had a HUGE piece of plywood that we spray painted black, then invited all of our friends to sign using those paint marker things.

It served as our pong playing table top.

It was awesome!

While doing our Christmas shopping this year we discovered that Wal-Mart carries a Sports Pong set.

Yep, you can now buy your plastic cups and ping pong balls in a nicely boxed set for less than $10!

Who knew?!

I thought it would be fun to get a set for the hubs’ birthday and surprise him with a college flashback style date night!

It’s been windy here lately and everyone knows you can’t play water pong in the wind!

So I set up a pong court, as it were, inside! Complete with plastic drop cloths to save my carpet if any water were to spill… which can happen.

The note in the middle reads, “Consider this a challenge! See you tonight!”

The sports pong set comes with 12 games, which makes for lots of fun, friendly hubs and wife competition. ;) Don’t worry, if you can’t find a Sports Pong set, a package of those good ol’ Red Solo cups (Toby Keith, anyone?!) and a set of ping pong balls is EXACTLY the same thing.

The point of the game, in case you’re unversed in the art of water pong, is to stand at one end of the table, and take turns tossing your ping pong balls into the other person’s (half water filled) cups, essentially knocking out all of their cups before they get yours!

SO if you’re looking for a fun date night idea this Valentine’s Day…

Or any night really…

Maybe a friendly game of water pong would be just the thing.

In this date night version winner gets a back rub.

Or if water pong isn’t your thing, the point is to think of something your love used to really enjoy and bring it back for date night!

Have fun lovelies!

Linking this here and here and to these.

By the way… Did you know you can find Truly Lovely here…

* Facebook * Twitter * Google+ *

AND Kayli will be ANNOUNCING something SUPER fun here in a few hours!

Hope to see you back later for that!

Filed Under: Kassi, Party Ideas, Stuff for the Hubs Tagged With: Date Night, Games, Just for fun

Wanna cookie, sugar? Er…sugar cookie…?

January 24, 2012 8 Comments

Hello loves! It’s Kayli!
So…. I don’t know if you know this but… I’m sort of a party animal. I really can’t be tamed. Quit laughing, I’m for real.
IF by party you mean chilling with my Nook, a bag of pretzels and some Nutella, it’s true. I’m wild.

I really did PLAN a party once though. It was a bridal shower!
I was pumped because it’s all food and games and catching up with everyone. I’ve been to a few bridal showers- so I knew the protocol. Cupcakes, some toilet paper, women walking around with clothespins clipped onto their clothes…. no biggie.
I wasn’t really up for baking and frosting 3 dozen cupcakes though.
So the Sugar Cookie Bar was born!

{All spread out.}

So I started with a super delicious, easy sugar cookie recipe.
But you can use yours if you want. Whatever slides your toboggan.

2 cups of sugar
1 cup of butter
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt
1tsp vanilla
1 tsp nutmeg
3 cups of flour

I refrigerated the dough overnight so I could put them in the oven in the morning and they’d be ready in time for the partayy.
I pulled them out of the fridge, and baked them for about 10 minutes at 375 F.

Once you get your baking rotation going, let each batch cool for a bit and then put them on wax paper, then put more wax paper on top and stack. This will keep your cookies in good shape while you wait for guests and are serving the food and what not.

Now for the bar part! Beforehand I went out and bought all kinds of candy. Gummy worms, Gummy bears, Pieces Candy, Sour Patch Kids, all that fun stuff. Just whatever catches your eye!
Then I opened up a few cans of frosting.
(I might be becky homecky but I am NOT superwoman homes. If you ARE super woman, feel free to whip up a few flavors yourself, but count me out- I’ll be at the other end of the table “opening” the potato chips.