Bridal Keepsake

You are in charge of the bridal shower and you really want to do something different. You just can’t decide what it will be.

Head on down to your local craft store and pick up a stepping stone kit.

Make arrangements to make up the stone in the time periods for when you will see the happy couple.

Now the new husband and wife to be can place their hand prints in stone with the wedding date as their promise to each other that everyone can see.

Graduation Party

You always have birthday parties, but why not have a graduation party for that special event in your child's life.

Invite over family and friends to help you celebrate. Send out invitations using old school pictures of the graduate. Set up a gift table in the foyer or next to the main table.

When everyone arrives, have every one get together for a group picture and take lots of pictures as the party continues for permanent memories.

If your child is continuing on to college, make some business cards with their new address so that everyone can keep in touch.

Leave out an autograph book for everyone to sign and leave a note about their favorite memory of the graduate.

Filling Air Toys Easily

You are trying to fill up your child’s blow up toy and you are going crazy trying to keep all the air from sneaking out.

You can actually make this easier by grabbing a turkey baster.

Remove the bulb from the end and place the small end into the nozzle for the toy.

Now you simply blow in the large end and you can easily pinch off when you are done.

Bonus Buffet

If you are entertaining, don’t be scared, have a buffet.

There is no rules that say you have to serve a four course meal.

This get together is exactly that, you meeting with your friends.

To make it even easier, assign each guest to a portion of the dinner.

Be sure to have some back up dishes already prepared and on hand in case someone is not able to make it!

Bowling Party

Most people don't think about this, but bowling is pretty cheap and if you check with your local bowling alley, they probably provide a group discount for parties.

Invite all your friends along and have some fun.

Fishing Party

Want to have a great party for a fishing fiend? Here are a couple of great ideas that will go a long way with your angling friends.

Throw a fishing party and serve up some fish burgers for a great entrée along with some fries and cole slaw.

For some fun decorations, fill some cleaned out empty cans with gummi worms, leaving a few hanging out over the sides.

You can get real creative and place some paper around the cans and write "worms .10 each"

Find an old fishbowl and clean it out well. Make up some punch and pour into the fishbowl.

For a fun cake, make up a white or yellow cake. Add a bit of blue coloring to the frosting and frost your cake well. Now using a package or gummi or sweedish fish, have some fun and place them all over your frosting "water"

You can also find all different kinds of small fishing lures and whatnot for decorations around your table and room.

Have some fun and let your imagination swim!

Cranky Candles

If you have problems getting your candles to sit up straight in their holders, here are a few hints.

If the candle is a bit to large for the holder or just won’t stand up straight, bring a large pot of water to boil on your stove top.

Once the water has reached boiling, dip the bottom 2 inches of each candle into the water.

Let it warm up in the water for several minutes.

Pull it out and gently press into the holder. The candle should gently form to the base.

If the candle is not soft enough, simply place the candle end back into the water and wait a few more minutes until the candle is pliable.

If the candle is too small for the holder you can use some double stick foam tape to hold it in place.

Don’t forget to never leave a candle burning unattended.

Awarding Door Prizes

The next time that you have a party, instead of getting the usual door prizes or ditty bags, get lottery tickets. They are inexpensive and will offer a great reward if they are lucky enough.

As each one is given their ticket, they have to say what it is they would do with the money if they win.

You can have them scratch as a group or one at a time.

You can also get regular lottery tickets and everyone can watch the drawing of the numbers together.

Birthday Party Planning

You have a birthday for a child coming up, but you have no idea where to start for the party.

First of all don't forget that the party is for your child and not you. Most of the decisions should be made by the birthday child, with this being said you will have a much more successful party.

If you are on a budget, pre-select acceptable items for your child to choose from. I usually pick the items for the treat bags and they are a surprise to all.

For the most successful party, start planning about a month or so ahead of time. I sometimes start as much as 2 months early so that I have plenty of time to pick up prizes and treats when they are on sale. It also helps financially not to have a bunch of expenses all at once.

First, choose a theme. It can be anything that your child loves. Don't worry about how crazy it sounds, it will be fun!

Select how many children you would like to have attend. I typically invite twice as many as I would like to attend and about 1/2 show up giving me the correct amount. Remember though that if you hold your party at an entertainment center instead of your house that you will have a higher attendance percentage.

Try to send out the invitations about 2 weeks in advance.

Sit down with your child and select a menu. It does not have to be real fancy and it does not have to be a full meal. You can narrow it down to a few choices and let your child make the final decision.

Just before the party, if you are having it at your house, clean up and prepare. Remove any valuables and set up the boundaries of where kids are allowed and not allowed.

Don't be afraid to ask another parent to help you. I usually have a parent who doesn't have anything to do for the hour or so that the party takes and we usually have fun catching up.

If you are planning an out door party, don't forget to plan an alternative location and plan in case of bad weather. It does occasionally rain on parties! Games that you set up for outdoors may not work indoors.

A week or a few days before the party, assemble your goody bags. I always make up a few extra just in case an unexpected arrival shows up.

Holiday Drinks

Want to have some fun with your holiday drinks? Here are some great ideas!

For frosty beer mugs, place glass beer mugs in the freezer for at least 1 hour before serving.

To spice up a tall glass of beer, add a shot of amaretto, rum, vodka or whisky. For a more subtle taste add a shot of lime juice.

Use fresh cut fruit or vegetable sticks for drink stirrers. Popular ones are carrots, celery, pineapple and pickles.

For glass decorations use thin slices of lemon, lime, orange or star fruit.

Jiggler Shots

For a more jiggly form of alcohol fun, make some jiggler shots.

Prepare a 4oz box of any flavor gelatin with 1 cup boiling water. Once all of the gelatin has dissolved, stir in 3/4 cup champagne, gin, rum, or vodka.

Pour into ice cube trays and refrigerate until set.

(if you share the house with small children make sure that you place them out of reach, or make some for them using water instead of alcohol)

Remove from the trays to serve.

Pairing Placements

When you have your next sit down dinner, have a little fun with the seating chart. Collect items from around that house that are in pairs.

A pair of dice, cards, candy, keys, coins. Place one of each item on the table in the center of each plate. Place the mates into a bowl.

Now when your guests arrive, have them select an item out of the bowl and match it up to the item on the plate for their seating assignment.

Paper Preservation

You walk into the craft room to wrap a present and you notice that all of your rolled wrap is coming unrolled and the paper is tearing.

It is easy to fix, just grab an empty cardboard tube from gift wrap, toilet paper or even paper towels.

Cut the empty cardboard tube lengthwise from the top to the bottom.

Tightly roll up your paper on it’s existing tube and slip the cut cardboard tube over the roll of paper to hold it securely in place.

Lunch with Love

Sometimes you find the perfect gift, but it is little and a little oddly shaped.

An easy way to wrap these presents is with aluminum foil.

It molds to the item easily, looks impressive with any color of ribbon.

It is also very easy for small kids to open. Just watch out for any little pieces that might choke and infant or toddler.

Cranky Candles

If you have problems getting your candles to sit up straight in their holders, here are a few hints.

If the candle is a bit to large for the holder or just won’t stand up straight, bring a large pot of water to boil on your stove top.

Once the water has reached boiling, dip the bottom 2 inches of each candle into the water.

Let it warm up in the water for several minutes.

Pull it out and gently press into the holder. The candle should gently form to the base.

If the candle is not soft enough, simply place the candle end back into the water and wait a few more minutes until the candle is pliable.

If the candle is too small for the holder you can use some double stick foam tape to hold it in place.

Don’t forget to never leave a candle burning unattended.

Curious Gift Wrap

Sometimes you find the perfect gift, but it is little and a little oddly shaped.

An easy way to wrap these presents is with aluminum foil.

It molds to the item easily, looks impressive with any color of ribbon.

It is also very easy for small kids to open. Just watch out for any little pieces that might choke and infant or toddler.

Quick Wedding Shower Votives

Great, you have just been nominated to host the next wedding shower. What are you going to do for this? Here is a quick and simple idea that everyone will love.

Go to your local craft or $ store and buy as many votive candle holders and candles as you will have guests. They don't need to be realy fancy, you are going to be doing that on your own.

Measure each candle holder around the outside. Add about 1/4 inch to the measurement. Now multiply by the number of candle holders that you bought. This is the amount of flat lace that you will need to pick up.

Go to the fabric store and find some flat lace that will go at least 1/2 way up the candle holder. (but not over the top as it might burn if the candle is lit)

Cut your lace to the what you measured and glue around the outside of your candle holder.

Now you have really classy little give aways for all of the guests.

Restaurant Fun

You love going out with the family, but some times the kids can get bored very quickly while waiting for food to be delivered. Most restaurants have the kids menu's but they are quickly completed.

A fun and easy game that you can do is right in front of you. Grab a menu off the table and open it up. Looking at the menu, pick a dish and let everyone in the family see how many words that they can make from the letters in the name of the dish.

(For younger kids, it is ok to let them make up words phonetically)

Christmas Cookie Party

Don't have time for a full holiday party this year? For a fun holiday get together invite all your friends and neighbors over for a Christmas Cookie exchange.

Count the number of guests that you are inviting, have each guest bring twice that many cookies plus a dozen and one recipe for the cookie for each family that will be attending.

Once everyone gets there, make up a plate of cookies for each family in attendance that has 2 cookies and 1 recipe for each person.

Take the additional dozen and set out for everyone to snack on.

To add a bit more fun, create a contest for the best tasting, most original, etc.

Pick up a bottle of wine or a small gift for the prizes.

The best part is that no one goes home empty handed either because each family has a plate of different cookies to enjoy when they leave!

String Along

It is always hard to try to find something fun and unique to entertain kids at a party.

This great tip will keep them busy for a long time if you are really creative with stringing some yarn around your yard.

To start with, grab a different colored skein of yarn for each guest.

To create your maze you will work backwards

Place a prize in a location outside.

Now take a color of yarn and tie it off to the present.

Unravel the yarn around the yard. Wrap it around trees and obstacles until you have a spider web maze of yarn.

Select a beginning point for the game and cut the yarn marking it with the person's name.

Repeat this for each guest, criss crossing yarn.

Now when everyone is ready give them their end of yard with a stick. They will have to follow the yarn winding it onto the stick to find their prize.