hosting a swap party

Last month I hosted a swap party at my house for some friends.  We'd gotten together for some impromptu swaps before, but now that summer is in full swing, I wanted to make it more of a party.  I strung up some lights, put up some decorations and grabbed a pretty bouquet of farmer's market blooms to make things more festive.  Some people brought cupcakes and I made cupcakes too, so we had a ton of treats, and I had some bottles of wine and mimosa makings.
It was a pretty successful evening!  There weren't a ton of people there, no more than 10 at the most, but there were lots of clothes and I'm pretty sure everyone walked away with at least a small bag of new things.   I got new jeans, a cardigan, a dress, and more!  I'm not sure if I've featured any of the new swapped items on the blog yet, but I've been wearing them all the time, so I'm pretty happy with my new finds.  I think swapping is such a great way of expanding your closet.  Even though the Delightful Dozen stopped swapping a couple years ago, I'm still a huge fan of the idea of swapping, both permanently, and also just trading clothes with friends to get a new perspective on how to style them.  I know of a few blogger swap groups that started because they were inspired by the Delightful Dozen.  As a blogger, you can become closer to online friends and even start new friendships!  You don't have to have a big group of blog friends to start swapping, maybe just one or two friends you trade back and forth with.  Plus, it's just nice to get packages in the mail with fun surprises.

 

If you're not a blogger, or just want to have a swap party of your own, it's super easy!
Tips for hosting a swap party

• Make sure everyone knows to bring cute things.  The first time we had a swap a lot of people brought old ratty t-shirts.  Think about items you still like, but maybe don't fit, or aren't your style anymore.  No one wants your old gym t-shirt with stains on it.  

• If you have a bunch of people who are different sizes, consider making areas for people to place their clothing according to size.  Our party was small enough and most people were close enough in sizes that this wasn't necessary, but if there were a lot more people who wore different sizes, it would be nice to be able to look through items by size.

• Have an area to try things on with a mirror.  Since we were at my house I let people try things on in my bedroom and bathroom, but if you're somewhere else, make a little dressing room.  

• Make it a party!  Have drinks, snacks and music!  We went through phases of just sitting around and, munching, drinking and having fun and then spurts of digging through clothing.

• Plan ahead and give people time to dig through their closets to find items to swap.  We made a Facebook event a couple weeks beforehand to let people know and kept them updated that way.

• Have a place set up to hang or rummage through the clothes.  I had a little pole that I hung up, and then once that was overflowing we hung clothes on my back fence.  If you have a ton of people coming, make sure you have a place for all the clothes to go!

• If you're hosting, offer to take the leftovers to donate to a local thrift store, so people don't have to haul their old stuff home.

Have you ever had a swap party?  Did you get some awesome stuff?  Have any other tips for throwing a successful swap party?

 

t-town barbie

I learned from reading Tom & Lorenzo long ago that matching all your accessories is tacky and something that only Barbie should do.  Despite this knowledge there are times when I just can't not do it.  I didn't even realize that I did it in this outfit.  Shoes, bag, shades.  Mint.  Well, I'm not sure anyone ever said I was a sophisticated broad, so matchy-matchy it is.  T-Town Barbie I shall be.  T-Town Barbie has no boobs, a big ass and tangly brown hair.  She comes with your choice of a '73 Winnebago, '70 El Camino, or a Goodwill bike.  Matchy-matchy accessories sold separately.
Speaking of non-traditional Barbies, have you seen the "real" Barbie?  Someone took the CDC measurements of the average 19 year old woman and made a Barbie doll based on those measurements, and she looks awesome!  Standing next to a regular Barbie she makes the original look bizarre.  My favorite is the side view where you can see she totally has thighs and a booty!  Even her head and face look more natural.  Even though she still only represents one size (and relatively slender, at that), it's nice to see a body shape that is actually biologically attainable, rather than something totally bizarre and not based in reality.  Seeing them side by side you can tell how abnormal regular Barbie's dimensions are.

 

dress (worn as top)/courtesy of lace affair :: belt + skirt(similar)/thrifted shades (similar)/courtesy of lulu's :: purse (similar)/courtesy of handbag heaven necklaces (long similar, short similar)/courtesy of jewelmint 
I opted not to wash my hair after working out the other day, in lieu of the decidedly less time consuming option of figuring out a style that would hide post-workout sweaty, slightly limp hair.  I figured putting it in a fancy pony would take less time than washing and drying.  I'd seen this tutorial on Pinterest earlier in the day so it seemed like a prime time to give it a try.  I think it'll work a bit better when my hair is longer and I have a bigger ponytail, but I like the twisty effect it gives the back.  Pretty, simple, and easy.  I'm for it.  My hair is getting to the length stage of being able to do more fun styles, which is exciting.  I still can't wait for my giant mane to return.  It's getting there.  In other hair news, I'm actually doing the growing-out-the-bangs thing and it's not driving me nuts!  We'll see how long the sans-bangs thing lasts before I see a picture on Pinterest that sends me launching towards the scissors.  But for now, I'm happy with this growing out game.

 

brussels sprout cheddar bake

I discovered Brussels Sprouts this spring and they've become a slight obsession.  So much so that I accidentally planted an entire garden bed of Brussels Sprouts.  No, it really was accidental.  I meant to plant half Brussels Sprouts, half Broccoli, but apparently I only planted Brussels Sprouts.  Whoopsnotwhoops.  Anyway, I've been mostly just roasting them with olive oil, salt and pepper with a medley of other veggies (new favorite way to eat veggies, btw), but I was getting a bit bored of that schtick so I perused Pinterest for some new recipes to try and stumbled upon this baked Brussels recipe by Emeril (bam!), and it included cheese, garlic, bacon and onion... how could it go wrong? All of my favorite things in one place.  
If there's one thing to be said about this dish, it's that it's not a beautiful looking thing to photograph.  Eventually I gave up trying to make it look appetizing in a photo.  Here's a pile of baked cheese, bacon, brussel sprouts and onion.  I promise it tastes good, even if it just looks like a mound of bleh.  It's really easy to make, and would actually be a good side dish to bring to a potluck or Thanksgiving, but we just ate it as a whole meal on it's own.

(Recipe adapted slightly from  Emeril Lagasse)

Servings: ~4-5

Prep + Cook Time: ~30 min

Ingredients

4 slices bacon

1 cup onion, small diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 pound Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1/4 cup chicken stock or water

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar

1. Preheat your oven to 450º  F.  Cook the bacon until crisp, and then remove the bacon from the pan and set aside.

2. Add the onions to the pan and cook for appx 4 minutes or until translucent and beginning to caramelize.  While the onions are cooking, chop up the bacon into little bits. Add the garlic to the pan and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the onions and garlic from the pan to a bowl with the bacon.


3. Add the butter to the pan along with the Brussels sprouts and 1/4 teaspoon thyme. Cook the sprouts  on one side until they begin to brown. Add the chicken stock, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Flip the Brussels sprouts and continue to cook for another couple minutes.
4. Throw in the bacon, onions and garlic from the bowl you set aside and mix everything together. Pour the mixture into an 8 x 8 inch baking dish. Sprinkle the top of the dish with the cheese and bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown on top.  Enjoy!

a tradition

Almost as long as I can remember, my mom and I have been making a flag cake for 4th of July.  Always with strawberries and blueberries.  In the early days, she would obviously bake the cake, and then we'd frost it with cool whip and I'd place the strawberries and blueberries on top.  There are many photos of me over the years, holding a flag cake on the 4th, just like the one up top.  This year I decided to switch things up a bit and make a cupcake "cake."  I grabbed a box of pink lemonade cake mix from the store yesterday and mixed up the lemon buttercream frosting I made for the black tea cake a while back (becuase it's seriously one of the best frostings things I've ever put in my mouth, uuugh).  The poor frosting was getting so sad and melty in the heat and fruit kept trying to fall off, but I threw it in the freezer and it firmed up.  So not used to these heat related problems!

head scarf updo tutorial

After posting the outfit where I was wearing my hair up with a scarf, I got a lot of requests for a tutorial, so I made a quick video to share how to do it!  It's really easy and very quick, so it's a perfect hairstyle if your hair is yucky, but you don't have time to wash, dry, and style it.  I also wear my hair like this to air dry it, so if you have big curly hair, you can also wear your hair like this while it dries!