Last Thursday, I opened up my home for a a super fun
"road show" party previewing
Land of Nod's Christmas line. When LON first contacted me, I was elated because I love their stuff. But then I grew hesitant - I'm not exactly a party planner, my idea of a good time is pizza or bbq and a keg. So when LON started asking about my planned menu, I responded with "um, maybe Trader Joes? They sell a lot of appetizers, don't they?"
Luckily my friend Rebecca (also known as
Not-So-SAHM) just started a new blog/business with her friend Suzanne called
A Feteful Life, their motto is "always simple, never plain." After I saw their blog I almost screamed out "THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED!!" Once they agreed to cohost, things became fun.
A Feteful Life planned our whole menu, coordinated decorations, and BUILT A CHALKBOARD FIREPLACE (seriously, isn't it the coolest thing ever?). They also styled the first floor of my house, turning the whole place into a winter wonderland. All I had to do was (1) unload boxes (lots and lots of boxes); (2) find an Xmas tree (we ended up cutting one down a tree from our backyard, as Dan has new landscaping plans for the spring); and (3) keep my kids from playing with the numerous toys that now occupied our home.
The third was NOT an easy task, eventually I caved and allowed for "gentle" play, especially from T and his friends (as adorable as
John Murphy's plush-o-saurs are, they're even more adorable when engaged in dinosaur attacks). Of course, now that we've actually sampled many of Land of Nod's Christmas products, we're even more eager to purchase some for keeps.
Aren't the signs awesome? The best part about hosting this party was that at the end of the night we raffled off all of the toys (thousands of dollars worth) to our good friends (regarding the guest list, I couldn't decide who to invite, so I kept it simple - in order to receive an invitation you needed (1) small(ish) children (2) and to live within walking distance of my home).
For the raffle cards, Rebecca and Suzanne created these funny little quizzes next to the party's stuffed animals. The guests just had to fill them out and put their names in a
kneatly knit storage bin (love these) - so much more fun than dropping names into a hat.
The
fox sleeping bag is one of my all time favorite LON products, T sleeps in his every night (on top of his comforter).
I found it pretty challenging to keep my kids off the adorable
rocking pig, but I wasn't sure the pig could carry the weight of an 8 year old.
When it came to the
Where the Wild Things Are masks, I caved and let T and his friend become rabbits and tigers for awhile (they couldn't agree on who would be what, so they both became half tiger/half rabbit).
For the craft table (can you believe I had an adult party with a craft table? And people actually crafted at it. Crazy world we live in), Land of Nod sent us several
crepe paper flower kits. Suzanne and Rebecca made an awesome chalkboard table runner (using craft paper) to write directions on, isn't it incredible? Click
here to see how they made it (note - it's easier than you think).
Land of Nod sent all of the hosts
Cottage dollhouse kits to personalize. (By the way, did I mention that several of these parties took place throughout the country last Thursday? Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the other awesome bloggers and how they decked out their digs.) Rebecca and Suzanne created a "chalkboard" house that made me want to shrink myself and move in for awhile.
As my kids are growing a little old for dollhouses (sniff, sniff, it goes so fast), I gave mine to an artist neighbor who made it look AMAZING. Then T added zoo animals because "every house needs some" (??). Anyways, just a quick shout out and thanks to Melissa! (while she builds dollhouses, her husband builds crazy beautiful real houses - check them out
here).
And finally, a few pics from the party itself. The food was so yummy that we didn't have any leftovers (sadness) and everyone seemed to have a good time (so much fun watching the city folks and the Arlington folks (I still refuse to call us a "suburb", rather we're an "almost suburb") mingle). Thanks to everyone who came!!
I (of course) drank a little too much of the punch, but had a fabulous night.
EVEN IF YOU MISSED THE PARTY, YOU CAN STILL RECEIVE THE DISCOUNT - JUST GO TO LAND OF NOD AND ENTER PROMO CODE "MONSTER" TO RECEIVE 15% OFF FROM TODAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY (THE 27TH). SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? HURRY UP AND SHOP!!
________________
Other party hosts:
*Atlanta: Joni Lay of
Lay Baby Lay
*Boise: Kirsten Grove of
Simply Grove
*Charleston: Chassity Evans of
Look Linger Love
*Kansas City: Carrie + Morgan of
Ampersand Design Studios
*Los Angeles: Kelly Lanza of
Studio DIY +
The Honest Company
*Nashville: Raechel Meyers of
Finding My Feet
*Salt Lake City/Provo: Kirsten Krason of
6th Street Design School +
Small Fry Blog
*San Francisco: Cristin Bisbee Priest of
Simplified Bee + Michaela Warner of
Michaela Noelle Design + Mary Heffernin of
The Makery
