More Table Setting and Party Ideas

Happy Thursday! I often spend time surfing other blogs for inspiration from hostesses and party planners alike, this week I found a great blog I would love to share with you. Chris from Celebrations at Home is a party planner from Richmond VA. Chris brings daily party planning inspiration in her blog. I absolutley fell in love with her super stylish centerpieces posting. Check out this great ideas for a beautiful spring party.

Her ideas range from fun, to pretty, to chic and modern. Not only are they great ideas they are ones you can recreate on your own. What better to share with my Swanky Hostesses than great centerpiece, table setting and decorating ideas! Any of you Swanky ladies in the Richmond VA area can contact Chris at cdnease1@yahoo.com, she is available to help you with your next event. Follow Chris's blog Celebrations at Home for inspiration for your next event I know I'm inspired! Swanky Chicks has the favors and invitations you need for your guests and Chris has creative way to present them to your guests!
Oh and I offered the Celebrations at Home readers 10% off their entire order now through May 31st! So the same applies to my Swanky readers, use coupon code Celebrations10.

Baby Shower Themes

Hi all! Swanky Chicks has been working away on updating the site and adding new products. Our most notable addition is our baby shower themes. Our baby shower themes are carefully coordinated to make you look like hostess of the year! Each baby shower theme starts with handmade paper baby shower invitations with vellum overlays. We print and assemble every invitation for you. In fact all of the favors and invitations come preassembled for you. We know how hectic hosting a shower can be, Swanky Chicks wants to make it an enjoyable experience. To continue to ease your work load the themes all have coordinating return address labels. A majority of the themes then move in to coordinating tableware, plates, cups, and napkins all made to match. To tie it all together we have personalized baby shower favors that you can put mommy-to-be's name and due date or shower date. Our adorable diaper cakes take your theme to the next level, diaper cakes can be used as a centerpiece and then given to the guest of honor to use when baby arrives. The single tier diaper cakes make adorable centerpieces for each table or the 3 and 5 tier cakes work well as centerpieces on food and gift tables! Last but not least all of the baby shower themes have coordinating thank you cards for mom-to-be to thank everyone for their precious gifts.

We love helping you look like a swanky hostess! We see our job as making "swanky hostesses" out of everyday people. We figure. "Why not make everyday events into swanky events with extraordinary EASE!"

Share our Swanky Blog and check back often for Swanky Party Tips! Sign up to follow our blog, leave a comment, and share with a friend and we will give you a coupon for 10% your next order. Send us an email at brandy@swankychicks.com for your coupon code.

Fabulous Spa Party Destinations

These fabulous spa party destinations are perfect for your next bachelorette party, baby shower or birthday! My first fabulous spa party destination is Bliss Nail Spa in Houston TX. This little gem makes me miss TX more than ever! Targeting the young and “young-at-heart” professionals, the atmosphere is New York-hip with Texas-style hospitality. Trendy music, runway news via plasma screens and hip drinks create the perfect spot for a quick lunchtime break or an on-the-way perk-up session. Bliss Nail Spa is houston's premier nail spa and the first to offer cocktails while you get your nails done! I am a bridesmaid for a fall wedding and we are doing the bachelorette party in New York. We have started some preliminary planning and my girls were just asking about such a place. Bliss Nail Spa is so hip and chic it is more like a swanky lounge than salon! Not only does Bliss offer Mani's and Pedi's but facials, waxing, and massages as well. They also have an extra special package for the man in your life. Check Out Bliss Nail Spa

Bliss Nail Spa 701 Shepherd Drive, #100 (2 blocks south of Washington Ave.)Houston, TX 77007Phone (713) 864-8787Email info@bliss-nailspa.com or http://www.bliss-nailspa.com/

For My East and West Coast ladies I bring you Dashing Diva. Dashing Diva is way more than the average nail salon. Dashing Diva is commited to reiventing the nail salon experience. They have salon opening all over the country but are mostly in New York and California. Dashing Diva salon are a girl party dream destination. The decor is top notch. The nail techs are highly trained and most importantly they have strict hygeine standards in place to protect you. Now to the fun stuff, first the cocktails are free, yep thats right free. And they can custom create a package for parties of 5-50. Dashing Diva has been written up in OK!, Allure, The Wall Street Journal, InStyle and many more hip magazines. So for the Cali and NYC ladies try http://www.dashingdiva.com/ for a location near you. I know we will definetly be there in August!

Swanky Party Tip

Today I am bringing to you my swanky party tip for the day. My Swanky party tip is for place settings. Whether you are planning a dinner party at your home, or a shower or wedding be creative and your guests will notice, its all in the details. Your place settings do not, I repeat do not have to match to look upscale and elegant. Mix it up a little be creative and have fun! Do a little thrift store or antique store hoping and pick up individual pieces. The key here is to have a common theme in the pieces. Try all the same color, or style, or pattern something of that nature and then buy different pieces. You want something to tie it all in in the end. So if you are going to go ecletic on the plates use the same napkins, place cards and glasses. Or mix it up on the place cards, or napkins, or glasses and use the same plates. Just have fun with it and remember to choose a common theme. Here's one that is a great for a sweet shabby chic bridal shower, or even easter. Three different china patterns are combined together to creat a swanky table setting!

Monkey Bread Recipe

With Easter coming up this weekend I tought I would share a swanky recipe with my swanky ladies! This monkey bread recipe is always a huge hit. In fact whenever we do pot luck I get requests for monkey bread. So I will probably be making it myself for easter sunday since we do a big family pot luck!

Ingredients

1/2cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cans refrigerated biscuits
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, if desired
1/2 cup raisins, if desired
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease bundt pan.
In large plastic food-storage bag, mix sugar and cinnamon. Separate dough; cut each into quarters and roll into balls. Coat the dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Arrange in pan, adding walnuts and raisins among the biscuit pieces if desired.
Mix brown sugar and butter; pour over biscuit pieces.
Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

Happy Easter Ladies hope this recipe is a hit!

Diaper Cakes, Presentation is key!

Diaper Cakes are one of my favorite baby shower gifts! Not only are diaper cakes wonderful gifts but they make beautiful centerpieces and overall jazz up the gift table. Prior to about 3 years ago I had no idea what the heck a diaper cake was! I was co-hosting my girlfriend Jessica's baby shower when one of her friends showed up with the most beautifully packaged diaper cake. Everyone at the shower was so impressed, that gift got lots of oohhs and aahhs.

A diaper cake is a creative way to give the mommy to be something she absolutely needs most diapers! Any mom will tell you that you cannot have enough diapers and you will get points for being so creative. I have spent the last few days adding a ton of new diaper cakes to the Swanky Chicks website, head on over and take a peak and keep them in mind for your next baby shower.

Swanky Chicks knows that not only is the gift oh so important but the presentation is key. Great wrapping and presentation will take your baby shower gift from great to oh so Swanky!

Here are a few of my tips on presentation.

1. Add something special - for example wrap the gift, tie a ribbon around the package and top it off with a couple of flowers (real or fake.) Or even think outside the box, the last shower I hosted one of the gifts had a small lantern hanging with the gift tag it was so creative and could be used in babies room. Walmart and Target are both now carrying beautiful unique gift tags and adornments.

2. Make a basket, or baby tub filled with goodies. Fill a baby bath with all the necessary bath products and tie it up in cellophane with a bow. Or create a beautiful gift basket full of small registry items and wrap it with tulle, tie the tulle with ribbons and flowers.

3. Use a gift to decorate the package - for a little boy use a tiny train or toy car instead of a bow!

4. A Diaper Cake - our Diaper Cakes at Swanky Chicks come wrapped up in tulle and tied with a bow, ready to be given to your mommy to be.

Feel free to share your ideas on diaper cakes or gift presentation. The more creative the better!