Accessorize With Friends!

This party idea was contributed by Tracy, California Director, Melanie Dunniway. “It was such a blast and the ladies thought it was such a great idea that we are going to do a purse party exchange sometime this year!!”

 

Setup:

Invite each guest to bring ten pieces of jewelry that are new or gently used and a dish for the potluck. Assigning courses will eliminate too many desserts! Or, you may want to make it a dessert-theme potluck! Each guest will leave with ten pieces. Decorate the jewelry table in boutique shopping-style fashion while the ladies are enjoying the potluck.

After the table is set up, invite the ladies to walk around the table and preview the items. Give each lady a small bag in which to place her jewelry. “I found cute little boxes with handles for a $1 each at Target” ~Melanie

Shopping:

Put numbers in a hat – one for each guest (Ten guests – ten tickets). Each guest picks a number, which determines the order they select items from the table. Depending on the number of ladies, two or three may go at a time.

Optionally, allow them to pick two to three items each round in order to expedite the process. Once one round is complete, re-pick numbers so everyone has a random chance to go around the table first.

Additional Ideas for Party Hosts:

· Guests were given three tickets and were able to pick three inexpensive, new jewelry items at the end of the event. Look for jewelry trinkets at a craft store and make your own handmade earrings. Place them in a glass bowl, each in its own sheer jewelry bag.

· Purchase a few inexpensive items for guests who did not have ten pieces. Optionally, guests will

leave with the number of pieces with which they arrived.

To see more photos from this Tracy, California LBDC event, click here or visit them on Facebook. Have an event idea or theme that you would like to see planned in your area? Just want to offer event ideas and suggestions to our club? Send an email to info@lbdclub.com. We always love hearing from you!

Party In A Bottle

One of my favorite things about spring is being able to sit on my deck with a glass of chilled wine, feet propped up and nibbling on some cheese while I watch my downy woodpeckers and cardinals fight over their feeder.

Second, is being able to share a chilled glass of wine with my girlfriends. If you find yourself looking for a good excuse to plan a fun night at home and invite a few of the girls over, consider a wine tasting…of sorts!

Below we have listed some great starting points to planning and hosting your very own wine tasting from the comfort of your own home. Inviting a group of girlfriends over and setting out a few snacks can be a great way to relax on a Saturday afternoon and can be done at little or no cost.

In addition to LBDC, I also attend and host a few events per year with the Nashville Area Wine Enthusiast group. Nowadays it seems like celebrities are coming out with their own fragrances, pocket books, and WINE! So recently I hosted a Celebrity Wine Tasting in my home.  I asked each member to bring one bottle of a Celebrity Wine. I was shocked at all the different choices: Dave Matthews, Wayne Gretzsky, Paul Newman, Ed Hardy, Marilyn “Merlot”, Francis Ford Coppola...there were at least a dozen varieties! Line them up and do a taste testing of each one. The winning bottle wins a door prize. You could also suggest guests bring two bottles. The winning bottle gets to take home the collection!

Have oyster crackers and water on hand for palate clearing. Right before the last wine tasting I hosted, I came across these rubber ice cube trays perfect for freezing individual grapes. Grapes can be great to clear your palate or even try dropping a frozen grape in the bottom of your white wine. Delicious!

Instructions:

1. Have each woman bring 2 bottles of a celebrity wine.

2. Open the bottles and pour samples for each woman.

3. Taste the wines.

4. Sample the wines with the suggested foods (below).

5. Have each woman vote by silent ballot for her favorite.

6. Tally the votes. If you have a tie, draw from the two.

7. The woman who brought the first place wine gets to take the unopened wines (yes, all of them!) or you can offer a door prize or just have a raffle for the entire group.

Suggested Food Pairings:

Keep in mind this is merely to add dimension and variety to the tasting. While it’s important to serve something of reasonable quality, don’t feel the need to cook all afternoon or spend too much money.

Red

Chocolate

Cheese – Camembert, Brie, Manchego, Gorgonzola

Tomato or tomato-based pasta sauce

Pizza (a decent frozen one will suffice)

Chili or other hearty stew (a canned one will suffice)

White

Olives

Tomato

Green peppers

Apple

Cheese – Goat, Colby, Havarti

Rose

Pizza (a decent frozen one will suffice)

Pate or Sausage

Turkey

Cheese – Choose one from each of the red and white lists above

Variation:

If you have more than 7 participants, consider splitting the group in 2. Have women sign up for a color preference or assign colors. In this case, you may have the women that bring red, vote on the whites and the women that bring white vote on the reds. The woman that wins the white competition will take home the unopened whites and vice versa. You could also have a "Battle Of the Bottles" and vote on the best looking bottle. There are some very artistic wine labels out there!

We would love to hear some of your wine tasting party ideas and suggestions in our comments below. For more information on joining the Little Black Dress Club and attending fabulous events such as our very own Celebrity Wine tasting, visit our website by clicking here. And make sure you check out our friends the Nashville Area Wine Enthusiasts on Facebook!

Cheers!

~Shay Ashcraft

National Director, LBDC

Blue Eye Shadow, Denim Mini Skirts and Other Mysteries of the Universe...

After turning 35 last year I soon realized that there were lots of things that I could no longer do. Mainly because I had lost interest, but also because, at some point during the last couple of years, I realized I had become a “grown up.”

On a Saturday night 15 years ago, you would have found me downtown, wearing blue eyeshadow and a denim mini skirt, effortlessly sliding off a barstool to sing Bon Jovi karaoke while trying not to slosh my beer on the guy next to me. True Story.

Yes, that would be me.

Nowadays, not so much. Last Saturday night I had a plate of cake and some Red Stag whiskey for dinner. I was in my stretchy pants by 6 p.m., and it was a struggle to pull myself off the couch at 9 o’clock and walk the 12 steps it took me to get to my bed. Also a true story. 

While the days of line dancing with strangers 'til 2 a.m. and the confidence of wearing short skirts are long gone, and these days I'm more likely to be found spending Saturday nights on the couch with my dog, there is a happy medium.

Fortunately my medium came in the form of the LBDC. Finding a group of girlfriends who still love to have a great time, whose husbands want them home at a decent hour, whose children need to have a good example set for them, or who are single and just want to enjoy a girls night out without being obligated to the bar scene has allowed me to experience some of the most fun and adventurous times of my life. I have made new friends, gone to new places and tried things I never thought I would be interested in.

Because I am the Type-A personality, which my friends and family love me for, I decided to make a list. I’m sharing some of these wonderful adventures in the hopes that there are other 30- and 40-somethings out there in their stretchy pants watching LMN, thinking about the 90s and wishing they could have a bit more fun, without the denim mini skirt and the late nights at the bar.

Set yourself a monthly goal. Once a month, decide that you will call up a girlfriend and randomly select from this list. Put on your sneakers, get a sitter for the kids, and go learn how to can some veggies, give manicures at your local nursing home or attend a fashion show. The possibilities are endless. If you find yourself wishing you had a partner in adventure or a group of girlfriends to meet for margaritas and bean dip, visit our siteand join the LBDC. Because as we say, finding friends is as easy as throwing on a little black dress, blue eye shadow optional.

~Shay Ashcraft
National Director, LBDC

Top 100 Things To Do That Don't Involve Going To A Club:

1. Cooking Classes
2. Pottery Classes
3. Painting Classes
4. Groupon, Big Deals, Living Social, Deal Chicken
5. Volunteer in your community
6. Glamping
7. Create a team of girlfriends to run in a marathon
8. Attend a happy hour
9. Snow tubing
10. Wine tasting
11. Attend a musical
12. Cooking demonstration
13. Visit a chocolate expo and market
14. Join a group of girlfriends at your local brewery pub
15. Learn to sail by taking a lesson at your local sailing club or showing up for a free social sail.  For example the Sailing Club of Washington offers Thursday evening Social Sails http://www.scow.org/faqs and Percy Priest Yacht Club in Nashville offers a Learning at the Helm program http://www.ppyc.org/membership/calendar.htm#LATH
16. Learn to ski- Water ski in the south and snow ski if you are up north
17. Pretzel yourself: lulu lemon stores hold free yoga classes both in store and in local studios. http://www.lululemon.com/community/giftofyoga?mnid=mn;community;gift-of-yoga
18. Bourbon Trail
19. Sushi night
20. Rock climbing

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Sex and the City – In a Little Black Dress

How many women do you know whose favorite movie is SATC? Correct answer: All of them!

Did you know that Carrie Bradshaw's computer is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution? Or that the producers had to borrow it back temporarily for the movie?  With the upcoming Valentine season, why not grab all your girlfriends and get together for a SATC themed GNO? Answer questions like these and more!

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Black Friday can be Fun Friday!

All right bargain huntresses, Black Friday is just around the corner.  The midnight shopping, wee morning hours, mobs of people, never ending lines, and aching feet. Remember those from last year?  Who wouldn’t need a drink after the race to that finish line?  Since you are going to be out and about anyway, why not meet afterwards for some girl time?  It will give you the opportunity to show off your bargains, get some wrapping done and nourish your body, soul and mind with good food and company.  Yes, I’ve got a party for it!

Invitations:
All right, this one is a no-brainer.  Quick and to the point, Thanksgiving is on its way and we have no time to delay! Use evite for the quickest invite.  You might say something like this:

Join the girls on Black Friday

after your shopping spree is done.

Let's get the gifts

all wrapped up

while we have some fun!

Ask each girlfriend to pick up a few rolls of wrapping paper, and some ribbons & bows on their way through the checkout and bring them to the gathering. It is always better to have too many wrapping materials than too few. This will also help to reduce the cost of wrapping for each person. Plus, moms take note: it is always nice to wrap your kids’ gifts in paper that isn’t physically in your own house so not to confuse the little ones and trigger ‘questions’. Lesson shared from my house to yours.

Setting:
The house does not have to be spotless; everyone is busy with the holidays and should be very understanding. They will just be excited to hang out and put up their feet.  Plan to use the room in your house with the biggest area to wrap gifts.

Set up a wrapping station.  A large table donned with wrapping paper, scissors, bows, tape, gift tags, pens and 3×5 cards—all the accessories to make a girl’s wrapping complete. The cards can be used in lieu of gift tags –just tape to the bottom of their wrapped gift. On the 3×5 card they can write what is inside and who it is for.  Just be sure to tape the 3×5 card securely; it would be a shame to have to unwrap a gift just to find out what is inside and who it is for.  Another lesson shared from my house to yours. At the end of the evening send each guest home with unused paper and bows. (For those who are like me and want to coordinate their paper with their home décor, be sure to ask them to bring their paper as well as some to throw in the wrapping station for others.)

Food and Drink:
Make it simple– order out! Just make sure to order from someone who delivers. Pizza is the perfect comfort food.  Or Italian, Chinese—whatever you are in the mood for, just make sure you can call it in. You don’t want to have to stop on your way home; the day is too busy for that. Instead, let your fingers do the walking and you can do the talking—with your girlfriends.

While you’re shopping for Thanksgiving, just throw a few extra things in the cart.  Some ideal quick munchies might include:  Hummus and pita chips, pretzels and spicy mustard, pre-cut cheese and crackers, and carrots and veggie dip. Those are all things you can throw in a bowl and serve without having to think about it.

Some drink ideas to warm the soul:  Hot cocoa with a side pour of schnapps or Baileys, spiced eggnog or any holiday-spiced beer. Be sure to offer water as well. After all that running around, everyone is sure to need a little shot of H20. Of course you can always mix up an LBDC original cocktail!

Connecting Activities:
A lot of wrapping and chatting will be done at this gathering, so the activities will be pretty minimal. But some quick suggestions might include:
Quizzing everyone after the wrapping is done.  Write down the gifts that each girl is wrapping: What gift and to whom. Then afterwards, quiz the girls to see who was most observant. The one with the most correct answers wins.

Things to talk about. 1. What do you enjoy most about the holidays? 2. Are there any holiday traditions in your family that you feel are important to pass on? 3. If you could only remember one Holiday, which one would it be and why?  4. What is the most non-traditional thing you have adopted into your holidays?

Weirdest gift guess. Ask everyone to write down the weirdest gift ever received at the holidays. The hostess will read the answers randomly. The guests will try to match the weirdest gift with its receiver.  The one with the most correct answers wins.

Prizes and party favors are not necessary for the games or this party. The unused paper & bows will be enough.  It will be enriching just to learn some things about the girls that you never knew.

I hope you take time to turn the race of Black Friday into something special, a winning finale to the busiest shopping day of the year. Your girlfriends will be appreciative, even if the invite is last-minute.

Do you have any Black Friday traditions with your girlfriends? We'd love to hear about them in the comment form below.

Happy Shopping!

~Angee Billingsley

Creative Director, LBDC

Less Sugar, More FUN!

Don’t want to contribute to your neighbor’s kid’s tooth decay this year? Not the dentist in town who’s going to profit from all the Halloween candy that’s getting passed out? I don’t and I’m not, so I thought it would be fun to see what candy alternatives I could find. Frankly, it’s easy to spend $20 or $30 on candy for the kids, and I wondered what I could find in a comparable price range. I thought it would be fun to build a grab bag (or grab pumpkin) of fun items. A visit to Dollar Tree yielded the following options at a buck each:

• Stickers (pack of 30)

• Halloween pencils (pack of 12)

• Halloween erasers (pack of 12)

• Halloween straws (pack of 5)

• Glow bracelets (pack of 15)

• Glow finger extensions (pack of 4  - not sure what you do with a finger extension…)

• Grow capsules (pack of 15)

• Bubbles (3 bottles)

• Play Dough (pack of 8 or a pack of 4 of larger containers)

• Glow Balloons, Flying Discs, and Tops (packs of 4)

Moving on down the road to Walmart, I found water balloons and henna tattoos. Hobby Lobby has Loopy Straws  (8 for $1.59), a 24 pack of bubbles for $3 and light up balloons .The light up balloons are a bit pricy, but I must confess, I wanted one for myself! Oriental Trading also had a ton of great Halloween goodies, like pencils and erasers, in bulk at reasonable prices.

The upside (or downside, depending on your point of view), is that at the end of Halloween, I won’t be left with a bunch of candy in the house that will end up on my bottom line. On the other hand, figuring out what to do with a bunch of leftover toys could be a challenge….

For the kids I know well, I’m throwing in a bag of the Original Chex Mix. Let’s face it, the homemade stuff is so much better than the bags in the snack aisle and since it’s made with cereal, I can convince myself it’s healthy!

Shay, our Social Media Director suggested Rice Krispie treats. Yes, there’s some sugar in there, but I’m going to make a case for these since they are made with fortified cereal, too. And, she had the great idea of adding some chocolate chips and red and yellow food coloring for the black and orange color effect. I think the kids would get a kick out of that.

Jen - our co-founder - says, “If you are making a homemade treat, be sure to put your name on it.” At least if the moms in your neighborhood have a question about it, they can give you a quick call to confirm, which will give you a chance to catch up.

Did you find something you think I should add to my grab pumpkin? Leave me a message in the comments below…

Happy Halloween!
Christine Z, LBDC Co-Founder

It's Fall, Y'all!

BOO! It’s almost that time again! Halloween. We could not have a DYI, Girls Night In events section without a Halloween Bash. But why go the traditional costume-party route. Have a pumpkin-themed Girls Night that won’t scare your girlfriends away!
Halloween with the girls is not the same as Halloween for couples, or Halloween with the kids. Women are looking for something different. Why? Well, for one thing, after a certain age, the traditional costume party loses its charm. (Did you see the scene in the Sex and the City Movie where Miranda complains about the costumes available for grown women? She says something to the effect of “Your only choices are French maid, kitten, or witch.” Been there, done that!)  And, there can be a lot of social pressure for single gals around Halloween. It’s nearly as bad as Valentine’s Day!  But, there’s still plenty of reason to party at this plentiful time of year. I’ve chosen the abundant pumpkin as my focus. Did you know that pumpkins are considered a symbol of women’s fertility? They are also very nutritious, and Cinderella did take a ride in one, you know. All good reasons to celebrate the many splendors of this fall fruit.

Setting and Setup
Depending on your personal style and your girl-group vibe, you may want to decorate in a Halloween-y way. Do you like spooky? Then go for it. (See ideas below) In this read you will be guided to celebrate the season. Autumn is a beautiful time of year to get together, and there is plenty of natural bounty you can use to create a festive atmosphere. Piles of leaves, pumpkins and gourds, baskets of apples, and bushels of asters and mums make for a gorgeous, abundant feeling in the air.
The scent of cinnamon in the air is inviting and evokes fall. Use scented candles or simmer a pot of cinnamon sticks in water on the stove. Or make a pot of Oprah’s favorite Mulled  Wine in the Crock Pot and let is work double duty!
For pumpkin carving or decorating, our main activity, you will need some floor space (if indoors) and some newspapers to cover the floor. You will also need carving knives and scoops, or craft supplies (see below).
Finally, you will need a selection of pumpkins in different sizes. It’s really best if you can find a low-cost source for these (pumpkin farm or supermarket) and provide them for your guests. But if you don’t want to spring for the pumpkins, have each guest bring their own –just be sure to tell them so on the invitation.
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A Little Black Prada Dress

How many women do you know whose favorite movie is “The Devil Wears Prada”? Correct answer: All of them!

Did you know that Patricia Field, the costume designer, also did the wardrobe for “Sex and the City”, the series and the movie?

With the fall season upon us, why not grab all your girlfriends and get together for a DWP themed GNO? Light a fire, pour some wine and put The Devil Wears Prada in the Blu-ray!

While watching the movie, whip up a Grilled (Jarlsberg) Cheese Sandwich and test your knowledge to see who the biggest fan is! Have prizes such as a copy of the DVD to award to the biggest fan. Draw names to try and answer trivia questions, or just take turns sharing your favorite scenes, fashion accessories or characters.

The Little Black Dress Club has incorporated The Devil Wears Prada into several of their events and always with much success! Here are a few facts, hints, goofs and trivia questions to help get you started with your DIY DWP party!

Make sure you stay tuned to the very end for 2 fabulously simple DWP recipes! And don’t forget to join usin time for the next fabulous event in your area!

~Christine Zellers

CEO, LBDC

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