New Years Eve: Bringing in 2013 in Style

Happy New Year!

It's all in the details

The magicians. Ashlee (left) is the amazing designer and Lori (right) is the amazing photographer!

 Last minute touches

Food

Drinks

Details

Party girls

 Fireworks!!

I want to thank my good friends, Ashlee and Lori for allowing me to show you their fun New Year's Eve party. It looks like it was all girls, but I think the men must have been out back around the fire, not inside with all the pretties! Ashlee has such an attention to detail. I'm so glad she is letting me show it off! Lori knows exactly how to capture the atmosphere. It makes me want to jump right into the pictures. One funny detail is that this party started at 4:00pm on New Year's Eve and was over by 9:00pm. Life of mom's with small kids! I love that they went all out and didn't even stay up to see the ball drop, not even over New York City! I wish I could pick one favorite detail. She left nothing untouched. I have a feeling you are going to see a lot more of Ashlee's creativity on my blog...at least I hope so!   Happy 2013!

DIY Food Labels for a Party

I love to be crafty! I made these several years ago for my Annual Ornament Party. I had the buffet set up in the middle of the kitchen. My friends are very informal, but I thought this would be a cute addition to the table.

I went to the office supply store and picked up some extra large clips. I got home and went through my stash of paper. It's a large stash, but I knew exactly what I would use. October Afternoon. They have some of the best papers! This christmas line, Very Merry,  had so much personality! I loved the peppermints all over this one paper...I have a thing for circles!

I picked one sheet. It's two sided, so I used both patterns. Sorry the picture is pixelated, I pulled it from their site. You can check out the other papers that go with this line and the newest releases at October Afternoon.

I cut the paper to fit the width of the clips. Next, I just held the paper up to measure the length. It just wraps around the bottom of the clip. On my last Talk of Alabama appearance, I showed these little cuties! You may remember seeing them!

Voila! You have a place card or food label! 

You can add tags to write the name of your dish on....or the person, if you are using for a place card. I used these tags and embellished them with some flowers and twine I had in my studio.

Turkey Craft Night with The Smoking Glue Guns

The Smoking Glue Guns: Crafters who get together once a month and craft. and eat. and drink. and talk about girl stuff. 

Filling our bellies was the first priority!

Ashlee is the hostess with the mostess. Seriously, I want these turkeys. the feathers, oh my! Her house is amazing. I'm going over to take pictures after Christmas so you can see her fantastic decorating skills!

Craft: Stamping salvaged wood. aka vintage to vogue. The beginning: stamps and ink.

A sample....or two

The mess:

The action: 

We used rubber stamps and clear stamps. The creativity was flowing along with the punch!

Nichole made these cute wedding blocks! We decided she should hang them together and link with a little piece of chain. 

And this "my sunshine" she wrote on the back to her daughter! #swoon

This is one of my favorite shots! A pile of thankful goodness!!

There were a couple of these! Too bad we didn't have more long pieces. 

Christy's stash. She knew what she wanted and got right to it! I love her "stack"

I'm giving these as hostess gifts this year! Wine or Champagne? It WILL have a cute tag on it!

Lori gave me the idea to do a house number! It's my FAVE!

22. twenty-two. 2-two. twenty-2 

It's her number.

Ashlee's finished products! She was full of fun ideas!
Does anyone see a Christmas tree? or is it just me?

The group shot. Missing Krista :-(

So glad to get to know this girl! 

Lori even did a little impromptu photo shoot for Lucy Lockets! 

All of the photos were taken by Lori Gordon. She is an amazing photographer and if you want fabulous photos of your family, she is the one to call! If you want to learn how to take photos like her...she will teach you! Click Workshops