Warming Up the House

My sweet sister-in-law Stephanie will be putting on a housewarming party in a month or so. She called me up to brainstorm about what she should do. These were some ideas we came up with. To welcome quests and quide them to the door luminaries would line the entrance to the home. I like the idea of these reusable luminaries. To make it easy on her the main dishes of the night would be different types of soup with cheese bread. Which also plays on the whole house"warming" feel. She could prepare the soup ahead of time and freeze them until the morning of. The main decorations will be each nicely decorated room in the home but to bring in a color splash, fresh flowers would be strategicly placed around the house. As the quests leave they can take one of these cute info cards to stay in touch with her family. That's all we have so far. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

{pics via flicluminaries.com, cookinglight, housemartin, target}

New Year's Eve Party?

I'm thinking of throwing an intimate party with friends and family on New Year's Eve. I loathe going down to the strip and have done the fireworks thing numerous times. It is time to throw a party to bring in the new year. I love the ideas from Real Simple on this home party. Check it out here. They have some fun recipes as well.

So what do you think? Should I? Would you want to go? Should I make it a cocktail style dress up party, if that is even something real? Lay on the comments please.
















They even share this game to do the night of to keep it fun and lively.

















{photos via Real Simple}