Easter Table Decor

Looking for a quick and easy way to dress up your Easter table? Try some of these free printables.

These chocolate bunny place cards from Kodak are so realistic looking your guests will want to eat them! I love the idea of adding a picture of your guest. Take it a step further with family and an old photo of your siblings or children on the Easter Bunny’s lap for a fun trip down memory lane.

Martha Stewart’s mother hen and chicks centerpiece and favors are sure to add a sweet country vintage feel to your holiday table.

Love Peeps? This Peeps place card printable from About.com would be perfect for a children’s table. Other Peeps printables include: napkin rings, Easter card and a favor box. Add a Peeps “Party Dippers” centerpiece and you’ll have everyone fighting over who gets to sit at the “kids” table.

St. Patrick’s Day Centerpiece

Here’s a quick and cheap centerpiece for your St. Patrick’s Day celebration. I bought the shamrock plant at my local grocery store for $2.99, the green pot ($2.49) and the gold chocolate coins (2@.69ea.) came from a party supply store. I simply covered the hole in the bottom of the pot with masking tape, planted the shamrock plant and filled in around the top with chocolate gold coins. Quick, easy, inexpensive and very cute.

Cupcake Wrappers

Dress up your cupcakes with cupcake wrappers from Paper Orchid. Take your cupcakes to the next level, with wraps for every occasion. Above left to right: dinosaurs, princess crown and filigree. Other themes include, snowflakes, daisies, butterflies, palm trees….the list goes on and on. Check it out here.

St. Patty’s Day Appetizer

Looking for a way to serve up a little bit of Irish tradition for St. Patrick’s Day without making an entire meal of corned beef and cabbage? Kraftfoods.com has a quick and easy recipe for a corned beef and swiss appetizer. This yummy combination of cream cheese, dijon mustard, corned beef and swiss cheese will please everyone, after all we’re all Irish on St. Patrick’s Day!

Party Coasters

Want to add some flare to your next party and protect your furniture from the drinks your guests are setting down all over the place! Our favorite letterpress studio, Bellis Studios has a gorgeous new line of coasters. “Flower Power” round coasters and “Sunshiny” square coasters provide a nice thick layer of protection between your guest’s cold and perspiring drink and your grandmother’s heirloom buffet…or piano…or china cabinet! Trust me, at $6.50 for a set of 8, you can’t afford not to buy these!

Flower Favors

Coming from a large family and marrying into an even larger family means I attend a lot of showers. The best are the ones were the guests are the focus and not the after thought. Nothing says, “Oh yeah, I should probably thank my guests.” more than a handful of Jordan almonds in some netting. Come on, we can do better than that. Thank your guests like you mean it with a favor they’ll actually want to take home with them. I love this idea of flowers in a can. You simply open the can add water and sunshine and in a few weeks you’ll have a pretty bouquet of flowers to brighten up your windowsill. These would make a sweet Mother’s Day gift too!

Bite Size Treats

These cupcake bites are too cute! I love this idea of a bite size treat on a stick. The very talented Bakerella shares how to make her adorable cupcake bites and many of her other “sweet” creations on her blog!

Dinner for Two?

Don’t miss the chance to spend some quality time with your special someone on this Valentine’s Day. Not into dining along with a room full of strangers? Not in the budget? Maybe you’re like me and have little ones at home so trying to find a babysitter on one of the most popular nights out could prove to be more than challenging.

There is hope and not just that the nearest pizza place will still be delivering even on Valentine’s Day! How about “Dinner for Two” in a cozy and private environment with with a bottle of wine (or whatever “inspires” you) and with just your kind of music playing in the background (again…whatever “inspires” you!)? Now open your senses further to a meal that will satisfy your taste bud’s wildest cravings and include any dishes you so badly want and most importantly, the sky’s the limit for “dessert”! I know, I know… sounds all too good to be true, right?

You can have it and all from the comfort of your very own home! Surprise! Where else would you be able to have all of this and more! You were probably thinking I was onto some “best kept secret” or something. With a little effort you can make this Valentine’s Day one of the most memorable, if not THE most memorable one ever!

As I mentioned, just because I have some “little limitations” (they go to bed at 7:30pm, by the way!) I’m not gonna let that stop me from taking the time out to spend some quality time with my husband. Even though we can blame Hallmark for all the holidays, if we didn’t have them when else would be take a break from our day to day routines to catch our breath and play catch up with our mate? This inspired me to come up with a plan to include all the necessities I mentioned above for a successful “Dinner for Two” and do it with some “Shindig” flare!

The heart of it (no pun intended) is of course the meal, so we should start there. Can you say “Four-Course Meal”? Com’on…if I can do it you can!

We’re not alone…I enlisted some great pro’s to help me pull it off and of course I’m ready and willing to share with you!I found some fabulous meal ideas from one of my fav’s…Rachael Ray, of course. She’s got a few “Dinner for Two” ideas waiting for you…”Sexy Surf and Turf”, “Sage-Chive Steaks with Arugula Salad” and “You Won’t Be Single for Long Cream Pasta”. This is the one I’m gonna try out with my own twist. I’ll be adding some shrimp to the mix and making her receipe for Arugula Salad to go with it. Mix and match if you like-it’s all about YOUR taste buds!

Sage-Chive Steaks with Arugula Salad

If you can’t even boil water…RELAX! We have some suggestions for you too!

The Gourmet Station has quite an extensive menu all to be delivered at your door and very reasonable on your wallet. For under a $100.00 you can create your own four course meal from several different entree choices. They deliver “Romantic Dinners for Two” nationwide. UPS delivers, you heat in 30 mintues…quite impressive.  I’m sure your significant other will think so too!

Valentine’s Day Inspired Cocktails

Looking for a romantic cocktail recipe to serve to your sweet heart on Valentine’s Day? Look no further, CocktailTime.com is serving cocktail recipes for every taste pallet.

Love chocolate? Try the Chocolate Martini , it’s a blend of rum, chocolate liqueur, and creme de cacao. Yum.

Want something sweet? Try the Pink Passion Martini recipe. Made with rum, lemonade and champagne it’s sure to satisfy your sweet tooth, and you sweetie’s too.

Some like it hot, and for you there’s the Red Hot Martini. With Vodka and Red Hot Schnapps it’ll warm things up real quick!

Shindigs on Flickr

Check us out on flickr. These are some of the pictures from a holiday party we had! We made the paper cone party favors, filled them with some sweet treats and hung them on the back of everyones chair. The photo tag center piece was perfect for showing off pictures from Christmases past and the paper trees added a nice festive flair to the table. I couldn’t resist the ornament when I saw it. It coordinated perfectly with our paper. I simply took off the top, filled it with water and placed it in one of my vintage hobnail compotes. It worked perfectly as a vase for the lilies I put on the table.

1. paper trees, 2. photo display centerpiece, 3. paper cone blue, 4. paper cone red, 5. paper cone green, 6. ornament vase