4 How to Throw a Last Minute Party, Part 5: The Gift

Hello again, and thanks for tuning into the next installment of “How to throw a last minute party.” It's a fantidlyastic series about how this procrastinator pulled together a Simpsons Themed party for my beau (he’s a huge fan) in just over a week. Today I’ll be spilling my guts about the beau’s main gift.

Main gift, say whaaat?! Yep, the beau was a bit spoiled this year as he was given two gifts. One of which acted as sort of a ridiculously-awesome decoy gift. It will come full circle once you read ‘the story,’ --currently in the works as we speak. And the other gift was his surprise birthday party. Both gifts were meant to be the perfect mix of sentimental and mind-blowingly awesome-ness. You know, for putting up with me all year round.

If you’re just tuning in, feel free to follow through the entire series (on the bottom of this post).

41 How to Throw a Last Minute Party, Part 4: Food and Decorations

Welcome back to “How to throw a last minute party,” if you’ve missed it we’ve already talked about choosing a location and theme, DIY'in invitations, and using a pretty budget/spreadsheet. Today we’ll be talking food and decorations that were thrown together, with the help of my darling family, for the beaus surprise Simpsons Themed Party.

For us, since we-- as in the MIL and myself-- chose a restaurant venue, we simply looked at their catering menu and chose food based on our estimated guests, budget, and, well, my tummy. We started off with a larger “wishful thinking” list with full intentions of narrowing it down. That’s where the budgeting spreadsheet came in handy, keeping track of totals. I know many of your kinda glaze over when it comes to spreadsheets/budgets and technical stuff but pretty pictures and auto formulas are motivating, no?! Ok call me weird.

Click here for that post + download

8 November Giveaway: 4.5 quart KitchenAid Stand Mixer + Mixer Decal + Freebie!!

Alright my super fantabulous readers, as I mentioned on Friday and all weekend long on Facebook and Twitter, I'm ridiculously excited to be one of the hosts for the BIGGEST GIVEAWAY YET here at Black and White Obsession. 

'Tis the season for baking and gift-giving so why not try your hand at WINNING your very own KitchenAid Mixer? Even if baking isn't your thang, I'm sure you have someone special in your life who would think the world of you if they tore open their present to see your generous gift:

Did you catch all that?! Using the Rafflecopter entry form below, enter for your chance to win a 4.5 Quart KitchenAid Stand Mixer PLUS one mixer decal courtesy of The House of Smiths. You or your loved one can jazz up the mixer and proudly display your cooking skills in style.

14 Blogger’s Furry Families- Around the Blogosphere No. 3 + Two Announcements!

Konnichiwa, my friends, Happy Friday! That super fun word to pronounce is actually Japanese for Hello. Whenever I hear/say it, I’m always reminded of this Karmin song. What better way to celebrate “fun” by playing along with Around the Blogosphere? 

This neat little series showcases fun topics from the most creative blog friends (or co-workers if you will) I know. Today's theme is Blogger’s Furry Families er pets so get ready for some collective AWE’s… 

26 Silhouette Cameo Tutorial: Dual Sided Business Cards

*These particular business cards and the proceeding Silhouette Cameo Tutorial are geared toward the DIY’er at heart, bloggers, and other creative businesses out there. They’re also meant to help take the guesswork out of printing double sided business cards.

For those of you wondering what the hole punch and "isn't that convenient" blurb are... well, let's just call those little buggers marketing bonuses. You see, at blogging conferences many of us tend to gather A LOT of business cards (sort of like trading cards) which can get rather messy. So we hole punch all the cards and put collect them on a binder ring. 

Back in the beginning of July while prepping early for the Haven Conference (a DIY blogger convention), I found myself putting the finishing touches on a new set of revamped business cards. Pleasantly surprised that the procrastinator in me had left for the day… I was ready to give them the little extra oomph they deserved. Taking what I learned from my second set business cards for the Maiedae Mixer- like don’t print your own business cards unless you have access to a super amazing professional quality printer- it was time to stream line their design to match the new blog design formulating in the back of my head.

26 Not a Fan of Your Current Fan? Redo It! from the Fearless DIYer Mandy

I’d like to extend a big welcome to Mandy from The Unhinged Home. She has this ridiculous ability to bring new life to ordinary things like these Nautical Flags made from MDF. I’m happy to have her here at Black and White Obsession. Today, she’s here to share how to update an old fan.

Enough of my blabbering, on with the show…

Hello Back and White Obsession readers! I’m Mandy from The Unhinged Home! I blog about all things D.I.Y. around the house and more. I’m excited to share with you guys my ceiling fan redo that I did back in July. The best part? It cost me less than $10 to do!

First of all here are some before shots:

Notice the the oak? I’m not a fan of oak (get it fan?.... the post is about a fan? Clever isn’t it... no?). If you like oak wood then good for you, I just find it super 90’s? I feel old saying that like the 90’s is bygone era, but it is. So this fan and your beanie baby collection need to move on.

2 Radio Silent

Alright friends, I admit I went radio silent last week on the blog. What can I say, things got overly busy and outta control. I was hoping to make up for it over on Instagram. If you didn't catch the crazy week, here's a little recap...

It all started with a goal to fix some errors on this lil 'ol blog, which morphed into adding a new page:

Go ahead check out the new Link Party Page. You know you wanna.

Sure the page probably took longer than it should have *cough 10 hours cough* but when inspiration strikes... you MUST take advantage of it. Maybe I should have been focusing my efforts on, you know, actually getting paid for this little gig.