these are a few of my favorite things...

I haven't been blogging this past week because I've been preparing for this party that finally happened today! Two of my good friends, Kari and Alicia, and I hosted a girls party. It was a favorites party. This means that everyone brought a present of some of their favorite things, and then exchanged it with someone else. As each person came in, we numbered the presents, then all drew numbers and received the matching present! As each recipient opened hers, the giver would explain why each item was one of her favorites. It was so much fun, and everyone put a lot of thought into their favorite items, they were all great!
This was the most planned-out party I have ever thrown. It was Kari's idea to begin with, she included us in the planning, and we had it in my backyard. We had a black-and-white theme, which was so fun and easy to find ideas for. We were inspired by the Hostess with the Mostess site, which has the best entertaining ideas! It's safe to say that we were giddy about doing this party, so we went all out on everything. We made the invitations and hand-delivered them, here's a sample of a few:


Almost everyone that we invited ended up coming, so we had a big group. That really made a difference having so many people there. And everyone came dressed in black and white too, so it made for a cute group picture (that's towards the bottom).

The hostesses ~ me, Kari, and Alicia. We each accented our black and white outfits with red - they each had it in their hair, and I had red shoes of course!


It was a brunch too, and we ended up making a ton of food.


The drinks ~ cucumber limeade, complete with little drink umbrellas that we made!

Alicia's beautiful cake

The whole spread! We had blueberry turnovers, zuchini bread, deviled eggs, sandwiches, bacon roll-ups, fruit pizza, truffles, and chocolate-dipped strawberries. Sooooo good!

The present table ~ a lot of effort was put into these!

The whole group

I forgot to take a picture of the present I put together, but here's the one I received, which Katie made match the theme! Katie and I actually ended up switching presents! I got a plant, a scrapbook with some supplies, a cute framed picture, the yummiest smelling soap, and some chocolate chips with her famous cookie recipe!

I know I've said this a million times already, but this was such a fun party, I would encourage anyone to do it with their friends! And it was nice to have a party for absolutely no reason!