Football Gumbo Party

Being from Louisiana, I love sharing my culture with all of my friends here in Chicago. Part of that sharing is cooking a huge pot of Cajun style gumbo every year.....Yum! This year we've (Neil and I) have decided to have a Football Gumbo Party in January when the playoffs start. I've started to look around for football inspirations and I found these deviled eggs made to look like footballs from let's entertain.....very cute. More later. I'm off to my brother's wedding in Dallas. I'll post pictures when I return.

Vintage Inspired Wine Charms

These vintage Halloween wine charms are so cute. Check them out at Tartx's Shop on Etsy. This shop offers several mixed media pieces but I especially love the wine charms. They're feminine and funky at the same time. You can also buy suction cups to attach to the charms for the beer lovers.

Martinis and Mayhem

Get your girlfriends together and have a Martinis and Mayhem party! Check out this cute invitation from the Celebration Shoppe. Perfect for a girl's Halloween martini party. Create your own Halloween cocktails or you can find great recipes online. I especially love this eyeball martini, so cute.

Another fun idea would be to incorporate a Roaring 20's theme. All of your girlfriends dress in there best flapper wear. This would make it easier on guests. They wouldn't have to come up with their own costume ideas. You've already done that for them. Have guests bring nostalgic martini recipes from the 1920's and recreate them. Play 1920's music and give out feather boas as party favors. Make it as girly as possible and use lots of bling and feathers, especially on the martini glasses. Endless possibilities!

Creepy Crawlies

These glittered bugs from Martha Stewart for Grandinroad are perfect for parties and would make a great DIY project. Plastic bugs are especially easy to find right now because of the Halloween season. Just add glue and roll in orange, black, green and purple glitter and you'll have your own glittery crawlers.

These would be great for table decor'. Attach these to purple, orange, green and black scrapbook paper strips and use as napkin rings. Add colored ribbon around votive candle holders and attach the glittery bugs to them. Or hot glue these to wine glasses, martini glasses and drinkware for a cute and fancy touch. Have a great weekend!

Beach Pool Party

Check out this really cute beach pool party by Kara's Party Ideas. It already feels like fall here in Chicago. So, here's one last warm post to remind us of how great summer is. Great ideas and so colorful. I especially love the beach ball sippers!

Goolish Lanterns

I love paper lanterns! They add so much to parties (color, depth, texture). I found cute Halloween paper lanterns at Bayberry Cove. My favorite are the white skeleton ones. Any of these would be perfect for an outdoor goolish Halloween Party.

Prost!

Cheers and Happy Friday! What's an Oktoberfest Celebration without beer steins? Planning a party on a budget is always challenging but fun. Searching around to find the best deals is what makes it fun. You can find the most unexpected things at the most unexpected places. I found nice and sturdy glass beer mugs for a dollar a piece at the Dollar Tree store. Perfect for my friend's Oktoberfest party and right on budget!

Boston the Canine

Boston and I are participating in Chicago Canine Rescue's Mutt Strut on Saturday. It's a mile and a half walk to support homeless pets in Chicago. We're walking with our friends Andrea and Baxter. It should be a lot of fun and it's for a great cause. Can't wait!

Doggie Celebrations

Three Dog Bakery in Chicago make the cutest celebration cakes for dogs. They use all natural ingredients. I think Boston will deserve one after our mile and a half walk on Saturday! We can celebrate the money we raised for homeless pets in Chicago.

Art Inspirations

I love the MoMA store. The website has so many awesome things created by artists and inspired by modern art. These Frank Lloyd Wright's Coonley Playhouse printed glasses, cocktail napkins, playing cards and bookmarks are great. The colors and designs are wonderful for a Contemporary/Mondern Art inspired party. One idea would be to hang blue, green, yellow, red and orange round paper lanterns from a ceiling. Using different sized lanterns (small, medium and large) would give texture.

Badger Red

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I was in Madison, Wisconsin for the weekend and went to a Badger football game. It was a lot of fun. There were tons of party inspirations everywhere. The colors, for one are great.....red, white and black. So much you can do with those. As with every college, you can pretty much find anything with the school's logo and mascot on them.

So, why not have a fun pep rally/tailgate college team party! Invite friends over to watch a game. Decorate with school colors, serve food from the grill and play the school's fight song in the background. I found cute handmade serving dishes with red and black polka dots on them. A good idea would be to incorporate a polka dot theme into the decor'. Use red and black puffy pom poms, red and black polka dot ribbon, and vases filled with chocolate foil covered football candy as decorations. GO BADGERS!

Blue and White

I love these Bavarian flag paper decorations. They will definitely be incorporated into the Oktoberfest party decor'!

Football Madness!

I was just thinking about how excited I am about the fall season....because football starts with it! What better excuse to have a party? My football season will start this weekend in Wisconsin to watch the Badgers in their first home game.....so excited to hang out, stroll State Street and eat, eat, eat.
I recently got back from browsing the Home Goods store. There's so much good stuff. It's insane. It was hard to only browse and not buy but I found the perfect party trays and condiment holders for a fun football party. They're so cute. Add these to a table with a DIY football field tablecloth, green plates, brown napkins, pigs in a blanket, pizza, chips, dips...etc. I could go on and on. Even add your favorite team colors to the decor'. There are so many fun ideas.