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

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

Fancy This Features #81

June 25, 2012 11 Comments

Hey dolls! Happy Monday!

How was your weekend??

Right now I’m going to jump headfirst into this week’s features from Fancy This Fridays… We have a FUN announcement coming your way a little later, so hopefully you’ll stop back by and check it out here in a bit.
I’ll give you a hint… Do you like getting pretties in the mail?

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First up, how genius are these paper plate containers?! You know those paper plates that are a little too flimsy to really use as a plate, but you always end up with some at one point or another… This idea from Peggy at The Decorating Files is perfect for those!

Next up, if you’ve been hanging around Truly Lovely very long you KNOW how much I love to fancy up a plain ol’ candle… See here and here for reference. So I’m loving these map candles from Heidi at Decor & more.

And finally, isn’t this wedding cake just gorgeous! Would you believe that it’s only about six inches tall?! For real! Click over to Malory’s (of Snips & Spice) mini cake post to see how she made this pretty!

Thanks to all who shared their lovelies with us this last week!!! Hope to see you all back again this coming Friday!
Again, don’t forget every feature from Fancy This Fridays gets pinned to our Featured on Truly Lovely board.
If you have a sec we would love a Pinterest follow!

Here’s a featured button for you lovelies mentioned above! It links right back to this post so your readers will know where to find you!

Have a lovely week dolls!!!

OH!!! Almost forgot to tell you the winner of our June Sponsor Group Giveaway has been announced! Was it you???

Speaking of sponsors… we are accepting sponsors for July as we speak! Join our team here! We’d love to have you!

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: Cake, Party Ideas

Fancy This Features 69 and a Weekend Recap

April 2, 2012 7 Comments

Hello pretties! Happy April!

Did you notice we have some new sponsors over on our sidebar this month? We are excited to be working with these new sponsors as well as our tried and true sponsor buddies for the month of April! Watch for some FUN sponsor spotlights in the coming weeks!

How was your weekend? Ours was SO fun!!! Kayli came for a visit on Friday night. We, with my sister in law Brianne, FINALLY made it into a Hunger Games showing!!! I’m so glad we got there when we did… We were thinking it wouldn’t be as busy… Were we WRONG. It was sold out before the movie started!

Through our movie watching we discovered that Kayli is a literature snob… As in, don’t even talk to her about The Hunger Games until you’ve read the book. Just watching the movie doesn’t count….

The movie was AMAZING. They did portray the book really well as far as we were concerned. If you wanna talk more Hunger Games with us, Kayli and I will both chit chat with you on twitter…

Source: Uploaded by user via Kassi on Pinterest

The three of us also hosted a bridal shower for our other sister in law this weekend. Think pink and zebra. Young and fun. It was a great time! More on it to come in a later post… AND we went to the Ladies Night event on Main Street… LOTS of fun!

So. How about some FEATURES! Again, we are pinning all of the projects we feature from Fancy This Fridays onto this Pinterest board.

This week we’re going a little bit country! First up we have a Cowgirl Birthday Party from Shelley at Crazy Wonderful. Her little Izzy turned 3 in country chic style!!! Love it!!!

Speaking of country birthdays… how about a Barn Yard Birthday Bash for your little one! Carlee of Ladybird Lane shared this adorable barn cake and farm animal cupcakes!

And because Easter is this coming weekend… This Peeps Garland from Two Sasters is completely doable as an evening project before the family get together!!! Plus, it’s absolutely darling!!!