Favorite Things

Oh. My. Word.

I just experienced one of the coolest party ideas ever. Stinly (aka Kristin), a friend of a friend, graciously included me in her annual Favorite Things party. Stinly is....well, quite simply put...AMAZING. She's an editor, wife, mother, and homemaker extraordinaire. She is so amazing that one of our mutual friends, K.Lo, often clutches her fists and shakes them at the sky exclaiming "Stinly!" There's no way to live up to her delightfully creative ways.

Let's just start with the fact that she hand-sewed all of the streamers for the event and crafted dozens of gorgeous paper flowers. She made a variety of tapas from scratch and delicious sangria. And the main thing...the favorite things part.....well...I have few words to describe how cool it was.

Basically everyone brought five of one item that is $6 or under that was one of their favorite things. Each guest then wrote their name on five slips of paper (Stinly had them color-coded so each woman had their own color). Then everyone selected five different colored slips of paper (avoiding her own color) out and we went around the room, each person doing a show and tell of their favorite thing and then presenting it to each of the women whose slips of paper they pulled. Each guest leaves with five groovy gifts and a host of ideas. I brought my favorite little gadget, the purse hook:

No longer do you have to set your purse on the floor at a restaurant. You hang the hook on the table and BLAM! Instant resting place for your handbag.

I received a garlic peel remover, a sweet succulent in a ceramic vase, aromatherapy lip balm, a cool candle holder painted with chalkboard pray paint so I can write on it, homemade flip flops, dental brushes and dried mangoes.

Stinly made the bag on the left for everyone to carry out their treasures and provided the little notepad for us to take notes of our favorite things amongst all of the favorite things

Best of all, Stinly introduced us to the wonder that is Pinterest. Check it out! An amazing way to organize all of your recipes, decorating ideas, favorite images, fashion, crafts, books.....and share ideas with others. I'm hooked. If you're someone who rips articles and ideas out of magazines, this is the tool for you to virtually store everything in a visual format. Holy rigamaroley!

And while I would like to spend the rest of the morning creating my boards on Pinterest, I have crappier things to deal with. Literally. All of the units on the first floor of my condo complex had sewage backups in the bathtubs and leaking toilets simultaneously. Gross. The clean-up begins.....