Taking care of business (cards)

I was running out of my event planning business cards - they are so four years ago, and designed some new cards. My old cards were not reflective of me at all. At them time I had them "professional" and safe, they were black and gold with a photo. *yawn* borrrrringggg.

Now that I am -ahem- older and don't give a hoot, I decided to design cards that were more me and my fave colors. I made four differnt cards and one postcard. Here they are:

For weddings:

For children's parties:



For social events/tea parties



For showers:

Yup. Livin' the dream....

This is why I haven't been posting or commenting on y'all's blogs much. It's the last couple of weeks of summer, and want to take advantage of living five minutes from the beach before school starts.

When school starts and I don't have to be Activities Director anymore, I'll have a bunch of things to post about!

Tie One On

I have to order some red bow ties for a birthday party I am doing on Saturday, and thought I would share the info of Solid Color Neckties. I used to buy from them when they were just on eBay, but now they have a great website. I like to have all my staff/servers wearing ties when we do tea parties or other events, and will try to match the color of the event. For $3.75 each you can go all out! Okay, so they aren't silk Italian ties, but they are great quality and look so cool!

One of my staff with their tie.

Here are some other ideas on how you can "tie one on":

~ Is there a wedding in your future? The ties are great gifts for all the groomsmen and the fathers of the wedding party too. They can even do little boys ties to match (so cute!). They also have women's scarves to match.

~If you are going to be hosting a dinner or cocktail party at your home and will be having catering or bartender staff - get them matching ties to "tie in" the colors of your theme.

~ Or if you are hosting a bridal or baby shower dress up the hubbies or other fellas to be the "servers" and have them wear ties to match the shower colors. Don't want men folk around the shower? Pay some teen gals to come assist and do the same. Just have them wear black pants, white collar button shirt and then provide a tie. But have hubby pre-tie it for them, then they can just slip it around their collar and tighten.

~Useful for prom, to have the fella's tie match her prom dress.

~ Cool idea for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. As soon as an invited young gentleman has RSVP'd to attend the Bar or Bat Mitzvah, mail him off a tie in the event color and include a note from the guest of honor saying something like "Green Tie Required."

You get the idea....

If you have any other ideas on how to "tie one on", feel free to leave a comment!

Congrats to PresentPast Collection

Heather just launched her new and beautiful store at The PresentPast Collection tonight. So to show my support, of course I had to buy something!

See, see what I got.........*opening shopping bag*

12 Georgian Eggshell Homer Laughlin Cake Plates (for my tea parties).

Paper Millinery Bouquet (2 bunches).
Have no idea how to use them, they just sang to me.

.....and Antique Ledger Paper.
Again, clueless.

Boy, this whole blogging thing is getting expensive! JK.

I wish Heather the best of luck and much success with her endeavors!

Nothin' but net

This net is a great idea if you are having a wedding - it can be used for a huppa or for a sweetheart table, or for just an intimate dinner area in your backyard!

Children also love to be enveloped by a "canopy" (I was having a tough time keeping my kids out of it when setting this up!) and this could also be big enough to fit a lager table for approx. 12 children for their birthday party. I also purchased one in hot pink for a girl's party or bacholerette party. You can find them from this eBay seller, they are simply bed canopies and come in different colors and sizes. For this purpose I got the queen/king size.

Then to do-it-yourself, you will need four 8' pipe, cross bars and bases (you can rent pipe & base from party rental company or make your own out of PVC pipe and market umbrella bases). The corners of the net already have a metal ring so all you have to do is secure them to the poles.

If you can attach a cross bar over and across the top, you can hang a chandelier or I call them "candle-iers" in the center of the canopy by putting a heavy gauge wire or zippy cable tie through the canopy net holes and attach onto the cross bar. Then use a sturdy ribbon (one with wired edges will work) to secure the chandelier to the wire or zippy tie. This is so you don't rip the net. You could also use paper lanterns or tissue paper pom-poms to hang from the top. Go wild!

(To view a close-up of the faux cupcakes I made, click here.)

Does this make my GLASS look big?

The other day I was at Marshalls (cuz we all know about my shopping/hoarding issues - that's a whole seperate blog) and came across these beauties. So I bought 'em all. They'll be perfect for a candy table or to use as centerpiece vases.

Chai me a river

Ever since I had my first really good Chai tea about a month ago, I have been addicted.

Bad. Like drinking about four cups a day bad.

So now I am on search for the best-tasting Chai tea. At least what the local markets can offer until I get my shipment of loose leaf Spiced Chai tea from my wholesale tea importer to try theirs.

The ones from grocery stores and Trader Joes aren't too bad. Even beats Starbucks. A whole box of tea with 20 teabags is cheaper than one Venti. After trying all the above brands (I like it hot), I have to say that I prefer the Bigelow brand as far as taste and spiciness goes. The Trader Joes' pre-sweetened mix is a lot easier - there is no brewing and it already has the dry milk/sugar mixed in the powder - just put in hot water and stir. But it is higher in calories. And I have a little bit of lactose intolerance, so I usually make mine with vanilla soy and sugar or Splenda.

My least favorite was the Stash brand. Just had too much of a "bite" to it, almost metallic taste.

So if any of you are Chai lovers what brand do you like?

Tiara Swap

So after being pathetically late in making Heather of Bluhm Studios her tiara for Holly Doodle Designs Tiara Swap, I finally got it off to her! You can view all the fab-u tiaras the group made at Flickr, here.

The photos are not my best since I can't access my PS, as my main computer had a hard drive crash this morning. I am very afraid, because my beloved Photoshop is on that computer...cute techy-geek hubby will have to check it out tonight....crossing my fingers he can fix it.

Here is the tiara I received from Heather. The colors are absolutely perfect, and I adore the vintage bling and pom-poms! The "R" could be for either my name or my event planning company Romanza Events. Perfecto!





And here is the tiara I made for Heather. She likes vintage buttons, and glitter. But she LOVES birds, so I thought this lil' cutie birdie could oversee her work as she creates so many wonderful things that she does for so many people. She even has her own tiny tiara! She is dressed and ready for a tea party...



The materials are: raised wallpaper on the bottom portion with glitter highlighting the raised scrolls, silk flowers with rhinestones centers along the bottom edge, tinsel ribbon on edges, vintage music sheets cut into hearts & edged with glitter, a party cup cut in half for the bird's nest filled with feathers, vintage buttons I got from a gal at etsy, a rhinestone spray and pink tulle at the top. The bird's "tiara" is made from a tinsel pipe cleaner.

It is much sparkly in person, and I hope Heather likes it. I have been so insecure at trying my hand for the first time in these crafty ephemera projects/swaps since these ladies are hard-core talented at it!

Thank you Holly for hosting such a unique and fun swap!