My first Guest Blogging GIG!

I have been published!

I know it doesn't count on my own blog...

but how about someone else's?

Like this...

I was so excited when I got an email from the amazingly talented

Chris Nease, of Celebrations at Home, asking me to be a guest blogger on on her blog.

She wanted me to do a DIY-type post on the "SWAP TILL YOU DROP"

party I threw for Studio 5.

Let me tell you... it made my day! I look at her blog faithfully... everyday she has some amazing party featured. I have gleaned many an inspiration from this site! So... you can imagine how flattered and jazzed I was last Friday to be her guest blogger.

It was a fun experience.

I have got to get back to work thinking of something else I can guest blog about... maybe organization or laundry efficiency or food storage? Oh... that 's right I need a guest blogger to enlighten ME on those topics. I guess I can't win them all!

OH... BOY!

Baby Boy Bolerjack is on his way...

and we decided to throw a baby shower!

The theme of the shower... or what became my inspiration

was the phrase "OH...BOY!"

I used lots of "B"s for Baby...Boy...

and their last name is Bolerjack.

Plus- I love the way a monogrammed B looks-

Lori Bolerjack is the mother-to-be... she is a lifetime family friend, and very best friend of my sister, Brandy.
Viv, Jody, & Brandy all came up from St. George to pull this thing off...
Together,there is nothing we can't do! Plus we laughed quite a bit and had a good time working together on something for someone we love!
The colors were chartreuse green and brown to match her nursery...

The week before the shower I made all sorts of lollies and pinwheels out of scrapbook paper...

it is a good think I have a total scrapbook goddess hook-up... MARGIE!

I used various sized Chinese Lanterns in Brown and white zebra, green, brown and white.

My favorite piece of decor was this Oh Boy banner.

I saw one on Celebrations at home and LOVED IT!

I changed the colors and the font a bit... but I was pretty happy how it turned out.

I was sure glad my sister Jody came to town... she is a baker extraordinaire and made all sorts of fun cupcakes. We also had dipped fortune cookies, cheesecakes, red velvet cake, and pineapple coconut cream cakes.

I did monogrammed pennants and colorful circles for the cupcake toppers.

The cream cake is made in a jelly roll pan and so it isn't the most beautiful thing to have setting out. I didn't want it to look like a ward dinner so... we pre-cut the cakes and put them in little individual wrappers. A really good idea when the cake is yummy enough, but not pretty enough to serve.

I knew there were over 100 people invited so I wanted to serve something that was easy, I could do partially ahead of time, and was somewhat inexpensive to do...

ANSWER= PASTA!

I made red meat sauce, Alfredo sauce, and a pasta dish I made up and my family calls Pasta Milano.

Green salad, and pretty artisan bread... easy and yummy buffet!

It was a great night... There were over 100 people that came and the best thing was all the food got eaten and everyone had a fun night!

There is nothing quite like good food and good friends to welcome a much anticipated baby boy!

In Full Bloom... Baby Shower!

You all know how much I love a good party...

Well...

Last Saturday I attended a baby shower that

was completely OVER THE MOON!

The Shower was given by Cindy Woodward, Tasha Lemmon & Kim Chournos.

The Theme was "In Full Bloom" &

everything about the party bloomed SPRING!

I made the invitations for them... I loved the House of 3

"Spring Junque" designs!

This is Adie Mitchell... Scentsy Queen Extraordinaire
& Darling Mother- to- be...
This giant flower was hanging on the door & welcomed the guests- AMAZING!

This was the buffet's floral centerpiece. You can't really tell, but those are huge moss butterflies and spring blossoms coming out of the top.

The food tasted as delicious as it looked!

A full view of the buffet...

Now... Let's talk desserts!

The dessert table... to end all dessert tables!

I don't know if that is Mother nature representing Spring or the Sugar Plum Fairy, but it was all so- well...

FABULOUS!

Did I mention that it even tasted better than it looked too?

I know... IMPOSSIBLE!

The take home favors were home-made butter mints, rock-sugar suckers, and white chocolate popcorn...

tied up in pink organza bags- of course!

This was really a baby shower for a princess.

We were all so glad that Baby Maren is on her way...

It was the greatest reason to

CELEBRATE!

Life's a Party!

If you haven't already guessed that I love to entertain then...

let me explain...

I REALLY like to throw parties!

My motto in life is,

"Life is a Party... and I'm Hosting"

I am always ready for a good time!

I am going to offer a Custom Party Planning Board.
I love thinking up and researching fun party ideas.
You tell me what kind of party you're throwing and I will assemble an "inspiration" board especially for you. This will be complete with pictures and ideas for food, invitations, favors, activities and decor!
Each board will be $35.00 and you can choose an email file or a hard copy packet sent to your house.
Email me for specific details at thisandthat.amy@gmail.com
Let me help you plan your next event!
I am calling out to you all...
"Life is a party... and YOU are hosting!"

50th Birthday Bash Extraordinaire!

Last week my friend, Cindy Woodward, turned 50!

Her daughter Tasha schemed up an amazing 50th birthday extravaganza...

and I was able to help Tasha with a few little birthday projects.

We made big posters celebrating Cindy's life...

as a wife, mother, & grandmother.

The one pictured above is the one showing her family...

Photos courtesy of Amy Chamberlain Photography.

We used a ton of pictures from her whole life for centerpieces, posters, etc.

Here is a picture of Cindy, Tasha, and Roger just after Cindy got there...
It was a surprise party and over 100 guests were there...
It was amazing!

The fabulous birthday cake...

Some parties have open bars... and we had an open DIET COKE bar!

Anything you could imagine to spruce up your coke... they were even FOUNTAIN drinks WITH pellet ice!

I designed the insignia for the party... the crest and crown using House of 3 brushes.

We had them printed on sticker paper and then punched them out to decorate each cup.

Who needs umbrella drinks when we have blinged out flower straws?

We had a candy bar with Cindy's favorite treats.

Each different jar had a little sign explaining the

significance of each candy.

The centerpieces were floral arrangements with a picture of Cindy attached to a glitter stick.

There were pictures of her from her whole life.

Tasha dug through her grandma's house and found pictures that Cindy hadn't seen in years.

It was such a fun way to celebrate her life.

Everyone loved looking at the pics... the 70's hair was the best!

This was such an amazing party! I was going to take a million photos to show how spectacular it really was, but I was having such a great time... I FORGOT.

Thanks to Amy Chamberlain for sharing some of the pics she took with me.

It really was a stunning event!

Girlfriends!

A friend gave me something with this quote...

I love it...

"I am only as strong as...

the caffeine I drink,

The hairspray I use,

& the girlfriends I choose!"

This past Friday I hosted a little girlfriend party...
Here are a few pictures before all the ladies arrived...
There was a theme and a very special purpose-
but I can't talk about it right now...
More on that a little later.
(Believe me... you'll hear plenty about it from me in a bit)
This was right by my front door...

For good fortune... chocolate always makes a better one!

My table...

Beverage Anyone?... Diet Coke and Crystal Light... Plus check out the apothecary filled with COTTON CANDY...

I had a dear friend find out about this and brought a huge jar filled with cotton candy... she rented the machine and made the cotton candy. My friends are the best!

Meggie's pink and black beach cruiser made a cute welcome parked by the front door.

Who can resist zebra balloons? NOT ME!

A close up of the swag bag... the tag has the cutest brush by the ever so talented Rhonna Farrer...

More cotton candy...

BRING IN THE SOAP BOX...

This was a party that was a HUGE deal in my life (more details later) and I am so appreciative for friends that celebrated a pretty special event with me. It meant so much to me to have people there rejoicing and happy for me. Positive energy works... so thanks... Vanessa, Courtney, Collette, Kellie, Tiffani, Sandi, Suzanne, Marla, Kim, Tonia, Kim, Angie! I missed Margie, Cindy, Tasha & Kami... next time- for sure!

The quote at the beginning of this post is the truth!

It is a good thing I drink lots of Diet Pepsi, have some serious schlack for hairspray, and have such great friends that are able to be happy for me in life's little celebrations!

p.s. I will have more pics of the babes that attended...

19 years...Really?

19 years really?

I am going to let you all know just how very old I am...

19 years ago I was a Freshman at College and was on the drill team!

Made such fun friends and had such a great time!

Fast forward 19 years to NOW...

Some of us connected on Facebook and decided it was high time we got together...

Since my house is kind of centrally located (and I volunteered) we all met at my house!

So. Much. Fun!

Here is the little invitation I sent out...

I know there are weird brown things on it... but, I am in the witness protection program and can't divulge my personal information...

Here we are 20 years later...
Karla, Amy, Sarah, Tracy, Deena, Monica, Me, & Megan
We were missing a few, but we will catch them next time!
Megan drove all the way from St. George and then turned around and went back.
She wins the award for the most effort made...

Here are a few pics of the buffet... minus some of the food
It was so fun to use my new copper chafing dishes! Yahoo!

We looked at old photo books, watched a video (scary), laughed at all our BIG 80's hair, ate, saw pics of our kids (32 between us all), and got all caught up with each other...

We just didn't want it to end!

It is amazing how fast time flies...

It seems like just a few years ago we were all at Dixie College!

Thanks to everyone for making the effort to come...

Let's do it again soon!

The Big Kahuna's Surprise!

Thursday was my dad's 60th birthday and I went to St. George for the ultimate surprise of the year. My dad is usually not really into the crowd and the chaos of a party, but about a week ago he started asking my mom is she was going to do something really great for his BIG birthday.

She kept telling him no, but we had already decided to copy the one I put on for my neighbor and just keep it a surprise from my dad. He hinted and talked about having a party... we all just laughed and said that nobody could come and that it was a crazy night and that we would celebrate it over the weekend. He even kind of sulked because nobody was going to do anything... we all were laughing our butts off about it. On his birthday I called and told him Happy Birthday and I was sorry that I couldn't come down to celebrate it with him. I was calling from my sister's backyard. He didn't even know I was in town, because I stayed at my sister's house until that night. We sent he and my mom to the spa for massages while we got everything in place. She was so mad that she wasn't with us getting ready... I learned all of my party skills from her. Viv has MAD party SKILLZ! It was a fabulous party! My sister Jody made the cutest cake EVAH! There were about 50+ people that came..we had a Polynesian dance program that lasted almost an hour, great food, everyone hulaed and danced and sang, and most importantly...he was surprised! As I say almost every post... We partied like Rockstars- This time Hawaiian rockstars!