Celebrating the Holidays Suz Style!
No one seems to love the holiday season more than my kids (except maybe my husband!), so I decided that this year they could have their very own Christmas tree in their bedroom. And since our family Christmas tree is very traditional with large colorful lights and antique glass ornaments, I figured that the girls could have a tree that matches their big personalities!
So what do they get?? A girly glitter tree topped with beads, stars and unicorns!
This year I had the honor of being a Bridesmaid in my sister-in-laws wedding. Conveniently enough, she was getting hitched on Cinco de Mayo. Not only did she make the date easy for me to remember (it’s one of my favorite “drinking holidays”), but she gave me an excuse to celebrate Cinco de Mayo more than once this year! Double score!
The theme for the party was pretty obvious – we threw her a big ‘ole FIESTA!
The Inviations: I designed and crafted the custom invitations on Cricut Access and used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to do all the cutting.
In hindsight, I would have chosen images that were a little quicker to cut. While adorable, the prickly cactus cutouts took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to make because the machine had to cut every single little dot. Next time, I will just use a solid image that will cut in a matter of seconds! Lesson learned.
For the traditional flags on the invitation, I strung them on sewing string and looped them onto the invitation between the front and back layers. This gave the card some depth and a unique flair.
The Decorations: Color, color and more color! We decorated my house in an assortment of “papel picado” which is considered a Mexican Folk Art. Papel picado banners are traditionally made of tissue paper, but I used card stock and cut out the banners on my Cricut machine. We created a photo area in front of one of the living room windows, which was decorated with mixed color tissue paper and a traditional colorful rug that I had picked up at HomeGoods for $19.99! I think the rug made a great statement piece! I picked up the small batch of cactai at the Dollar Tree for $1 each and they were later handed out as favors with a custom sign that said “Pick your Prick!”. The photo booth props were made with the assistance of my Cricut machine.
Bachelorette Ideas: For the bride, I created her very own “Bridal Sombrero” – complete with a veil. It started off as a very basic sombrero (compliments of Party City for $3) and I customized it for our party! I used an inexpensive white wedding garter to go around the center of the hat, which also served as something to pin the veil onto. Around the edges of the sombrero, I hand-sewed on medium sized white pom balls (roughly 1 1/2 inches apart) the entire way around the brim of the hat. To finish it off, I made a pink paper flower that I cut with my Cricut machine and embellished with a gold-tipped feather.
(Above, you can see the Bridal Sombrero being modeled by the beautiful bride herself as well as my oldest daughter!)
Bachelorette Favors: To add a touch of fun (and inappropriateness), we made custom gifts for each of the attendees. We had guests come from as far as Ohio and Texas (so we definitely had to go big and do it right!). Everyone received a mini sombrero headband and also their own personalized cup with a festive saying on it. Each girl had a matching black shirt with their custom saying on it as well. Pictured above your will see a few of them: “I like my men like I like my margaritas, strong and delicious”, “DTF – Down To Fiesta”, “Drinko de Mayo”, and “Tequila Por Favor”.
In-home Paint and Sip: We decided that rather than just going out for some drunken debauchery, we would have some sort of activity for our group. We thought a themed paint and sip would be fun. Rather than trekking our large (slightly inebriated) group to a set location , we found a fabulous instructor that came right to my house! Jackie from Paint with Jackie in State College provided everything for us – from painting supplies to our canvas as was very reasonably priced at $20 per participant. I would highly recommend her if you ever want to host a sip and paint! She was very tolerant of our terrible artistic skills and inappropriate jokes.
Pictured above are some photos of our painting session. My finished painting looks more like a dog wearing a sombrero than a llama (don’t judge me…I blame the sangria!) and you also see our whole group will all of our paintings!
What to Serve?: No Fiesta would be complete without some traditional Mexican (and “American-Mexican”) dishes. Our menu included:
The Drinks: We had a mixture of both alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic drinks for the party. Once again, we tried to stay on course with the theme and served a variety of:
Overall Take-away: This party was a blast to throw! All the guests for both the Bacholorette and Bridal Showers seemed to have a fantastic time. I will definitely re-use many of these ideas for future FIESTAS!
Suz on the move 