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We all know how it is this time of year… we get so busy with shopping & family & busy schedules. So what I REALLY need this time of year is just a fun night out with the girls (no offense, guys!). So that’s what we did the other night — left the kids and the boys at home, and hit the town! Well, hit the town as much as moms who have to get up early the next day can, at least…

Recipe for a successful girls night:

1. Good friends (and mine are the best!)
2. A good place to go that’s conducive to talking and sharing.  We decided on tapas at Pura Vida (highly recommend, for those of you in Atlanta).  This worked out great since we just orders bunches of good food to share.
3. Fun cocktails – my favorite for the evening was a margarita made with grapefruit soda, which I’m determined to recreate… Stay tuned for that!
4. Money to spend*.  The nice thing about tapas for dinner is that we set a general budget at the beginning, and then just split the bill up 4 ways at the end.  No stress.  Consider it a Christmas present to your mental health!

*This girls night was especially fun since we had some money to spend from Serve, the new service from American Express.  It’s super easy… we all signed up for Serve online first, then it is simple to just email your friends money.  Plus you get $10 just for trying it if you sign up right now… a great start to your girls night out budget!

Want to treat your friends to a girl’s night out?  Just comment here, and one lucky winner will win $100, perfect for just that purpose!

Remember to sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account! Official sweepstakes rules and regulations may be found by clicking here. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Like a summer blockbuster movie, these cookies are chock full of explosions: they’re both infused and garnished liberally with Pop Rocks. This not only makes them crackle like fireworks but also pays homage to that other all-consuming american obsession: truly trashy candy (and I say this in the most loving way possible).

So–are you ready to make your fourth of July extreme?

Go read the whole thing, and get the recipe at Cakespy:  Pop Rocks Cookies

It’s a really neat technique that just uses acrylic gel medium from the art store– no toxic chemicals or anything like that.  The toner from the photocopy remains on the wood, so the white areas of your photo become wood colored, which is a really nice natural effect.   I’m planning on make a bunch using some wood veneer cards to use as keepsake gift tags for gifts this year.

For the tutorial I used one of my squid watercolors — in the example above I used a photocopy of a photo of The Boy, perfect for grandparent gifting! And it’s easy to do, though I will warn you it does take a little practice to get the timing exactly right, so plan on practicing on some scrap wood first.

I didn’t really go over how to use photos for the ornaments in the tutorial, and there’s a few things I’ve learned.  Pick a photo with a lot of contrast, and ideally use photoshop, or some other photo editing software, to turn it black and white and bump up the contrast.  In Photoshop, use play with the layer Levels to get a good effect.  Remember to reverse it, especially if you add text!  Make a bunch of copies on the same page (try different sizes). Then print it out, and photocopy.  For the ones shown here, I actually printed out the text separately, and put in on first, then put the photo on top of the text, so I get the ‘white’ background behind the text.

Wanna do it yourself? Go get the instructions…

(Past ornament tutorials: Resin Stars, Easy Gift Card Holder, Champagne Chairs, Sweater Photo Frames, Shrinky Dinky Santa)

After my big Halloween Parties, my next favorite party to throw is a White Elephant gift exchange party. I do one every year in mid december for our close friends, and if you’ve never done one, they are a lot of fun. A great icebreaker type party if people don’t know each other well, and even more fun with a group of friends who have inside jokes! We do ours prior to the holidays, but this is even better to do in January so everyone can regift the crap they got from Aunt Hortense! … So here’s the deal:

A White Elephant gift exchange, sometimes called Dirty Santa, is where everyone brings a gift of a set dollar amount (extra credit for re-gifts!) and you pick and steal the gifts from one another. Detailed rules & hosting hints are below, as well as an invitation you can feel free to use, numbers ready for printout, and a “Steal Tally” sheet..

The Rules:
-Basically, everyone brings a WRAPPED GIFT, of whatever dollar value you set. $15-20 is a good amount, but you can go higher or lower.
-Gifts can be anything, newly bought or regifts that the person received previously (going over the $ limit is allowed with re-gifts). Fun and silly gifts encouraged, but remind your people that crappy ones aren’t. If in doubt, alcoholic gifts tend to be popular!
-All the wrapped gifts are put out on display so everyone can see them.
-At the beginning of the gift exchange, everyone draws numbers from a bag. This is the order they will choose their gifts in. #1 goes first.
-Whoever gets #1 will also get a chance to steal at the end.
-#1 picks a gift from the table. They are stuck with that gift, unless someone steals it from them, (or they have their chance at the end)
-#2 can either pick a gift from the table, or can steal #1’s gift. If they pick from the table, it moves to #3. If #2 steals from someone, that person then gets the option to either pick from the table or steal.
-Play continues in this manner. Each guest can either pick from the table or steal. And if someone is stolen from, they get the same option.
-Each steal should be recorded in the Steal Tally. Once an item has been stolen 3 times it is LOCKED (ie the 4th person to touch it gets to keep it). Once it is locked it should be noted on the STEAL TALLY.
-You cannot steal from the person who just stole from you! So if Person A steals item from B, then B cannot immediately steal it back. But if C steals it from A, then B can grab it back.
-When the last # comes up, that person can steal or choose the last gift. If they choose the last gift, move to next step. If they steal, then continue the steal process till someone has chosen the last gift.
-The person who had #1 then gets to steal a gift if they wish. If they don’t game is over. If they do, then stealing continues until either all gifts locked or the person who is currently up is happy with their gift.

Host Hints:
-Have an extra gift or two on hand for that couple who only thought they needed one gift, or the slacker who forgot. It makes it more fun if everyone plays. Have extra gift bags for anyone who shows up without their gift wrapped (unlikely, but possible).
-Either print out numbers before hand and cut onto slips of paper, or handwrite on slips of paper – 1 number for each gift.
-You’ll need seating in the gift exchange area for all guests.
-Make sure you set a ‘gift exchange start time’ after the party start time. We know how people are fashionably late– let them know that if their too late, they’ll miss the fun.
– When everyone arrives there should be a place for them to put their gifts. No one should know who brought what.
– Appoint one guest to keep the Steal Tally (provide tally sheet and pen)
– Remind people that stealing is fun and encouraged!

Invitations, Tally Sheets, and Numbers – these are all CC licensed, so feel free to use. Though credit is appreciated!

Invitations (3 options)

Steal Tally Sheet and Numbers (up to 36)
Steal Tally: Numbers:

Alternate rules for big groups: I’ve organized these several times for office holiday parties, and with big groups I recommend (for time reasons) reducing the steals to 2 (ie the third person gets the item) and labeling each gift with a number (1-n number of people). Each person must receive the gift with their number (if they chose to not steal), rather than picking a gift. This saves time on the initial gift choosing. Everything else continues as normal.

Hope you have fun with this!

PS: Welcome those from various places, including Tip Junkie :) And if you’re doing a White Elephant, I’d love to see your own tips, comments, and pics – post ’em in the comment section!

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Originally published Nov 2008