HOSTESS APPRECIATION NIGHT!

Last night was my annual Hostess Appreciation Night. I had 13 wonderful gals attend and we had a great time! This was the table set up before I got their favors done. As I said yesterday, I finished with them about 5 minutes before the guests started arriving! Talk about stress!

I wished I could have gotten them all at the same table, but at least they were all in the same room-kinda.

This is what I made for each of them and filled the box with chocolate truffles. I love our Kraft Boxes from the Holiday mini! It saved me a ton of time not having to make the container too.

I used the Spice Cake DSP, fabric and buttons for these. I added some wide Striped Grosgrain Ribbon and Early Espresso Baker's Twine. And the 'eva so fabulous' Simply Scored to make the lollie flowers.

This is one of the place cards I made for them. I took the design from one of the SU! concept artists who designed ours for the Artisan Dinner at Convention. I thought it would be super easy since I didn't have to come up with an idea, but man they still took awhile. If there was a trick, I sure never figured it out! I have a new appreciation for their work.

My daughter Olivia came to the rescue and filled the boxes for me before she ran to pick up salads and breadsticks. But I almost had a stroke when she when she brought 4 boxes into the kitchen...without their coordinating place cards...that I spent hours on coordinationg...and were now not! It's a good thing my life is always in some form of chaos, or I think I could have a problem-think Monk. it's a good thing I didn't have time to stress about it, but I really wanted to!

Here's the invitation I made. Again, I cased their idea from the Artisan Dinner.

Here's the originals. Somebody in the art department has a sick sense of humor when it comes to ribbon. You thought bows were tricky! But the extra effort paid off. I think they all felt special. I know I did when I received mine.

I'm so mad I didn't get pictures of everyone.It was one of many things I thought of, but didn't get done. That probably would have been a job for my Superhero Hubby, but he was doing a remote with our local radio station at Wal-mart for Operation Christmas Child. I still managed to find plenty for him to help me with when he got home though.

One of the things he did earlier was make a couple of wonderful Pumpkin Pie cheesecakes. He even made the whipped cream for them! he got rave reviews!

We started out the night with salad and breadsticks. Next I served them spaghetti with my own sauce.   I've never liked any that I've bought at the store, so I just make my own. Can you say picky?  Next came dessert and coffee. One of the ladies brought a scrumptious Bavarian Apple Torte. It was a huge hit as well.

After I stuffed them to the gills, I had some presents for all my Club Members, and then we did a Make & Take. I'll share more details with you tomorrow...so make sure to check back in!