entertaining — pleasure in simple things

Tag: entertaining

jaws 40th anniversary party with printable

June

Duh-duh, Duh-Duh, Duh-DUH! (Click here for more!) That’s right…40 years since the movie Jaws hit the theaters for the very first time! No doubt, the movie needs to be watched (for the five hundred and thirty ninth time?) on June 20th to mark this very special day!

My family is one of shark fanatics…we anxiously await Shark Week on Discovery Channel each year…we have had the pleasure of eating a dinner of freshly caught shark (by my fisherman dad), AND, we know most of the significant (as well as the not so significant) lines in the movie Jaws by heart! So, in honor of the Jaws anniversary, Friday field trip will go back 40 years this week to pay tribute to this cinema classic.

Granted, many of us in New England have had issues with going in the water since watching this movie – particularly after the very first viewing.

A 40th anniversary viewing party is in order and there will be plenty of themed snacks and fun trivia contests! Some of my family members are impossible to stump, but I keep trying! Why not send your party invite on a beach ball? Blow up a small beach ball and add the party details with a permanent marker. Then, deflate the ball before mailing…fun!

And, who could resist these fun ice cube trays!

So, amidst all the decorating you may do for your viewing party, a little candy treat favor is fun to add to to the mix. For my candy bags, I have packaged up blue gummy sharks and candy beach balls. There are so many candy options you can use if you prefer to substitute what I chose to use. You can even do Swedish fish or goldfish crackers –really, any beachy item will work!

I piled mine up in a beach bucket and added it to my Jaws themed décor. The printable I have included here is sized for 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper – I prefer the weighty paper of a card stock, but you can use regular weight paper if you prefer. Four treat bag headers print out on each page. After cutting the paper in four, you can fold each piece to use as a header for a Jaws themed treat bag! Purchase cellophane bags that are the same width as the headers and trim to the length needed based on your contents. I use a couple of staples to attach the headers – first using a blue permanent marker on the staples so they coordinate a little better with the blue on my header design.

Click here for a free printable of the treat bag toppers.

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat!” Happy Viewing!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

P.S. If you’d like me to send you a copy of my Jaws trivia contest, just shoot me an email and I will email it to you!

Sharing with House of Hipsters, Thoughts from Alice, The Shabby Nest, Craftberry Bush, and Crafts a la Mode.

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april book giveaway!

March

‘Spring has sprung*’ and with it starts the season for entertaining! Beginning with Easter, the events in spring just seem to parade on, one after another – bridal and baby showers, graduations, Mother’s Day…the list seems to go on and on.

The thoughts of celebrating in mild weather is so appealing after the crazy winter we had here in Connecticut – where guests needed to negotiate snow drifts to get into the house and subzero temperatures made warm weather gear a necessity like never before! Don’t get me wrong, cozy fires and warm drinks do have a certain appeal – but, enough already!

With these thoughts in mind, I have come up with a really unique book giveaway idea for April and I am excited to tell you about it!

I found a great vintage book – published in 1966 – about entertaining, titled All About Entertaining: Everything You Need to Know to Have a Fabulous Social Life by Kay Corninth and Mary Sargent. With talk of “gloves are not only correct but called for” and “no matter how generous your husband may be with your clothing allowance…” this book is sure to be an interesting read!

I thought it would be fun to contrast the old with the new – SO. the winner of this month’s giveaway will receive TWO books. One is this vintage find and the other is a more recent book on entertaining called The Butler Speaks: A Guide to Stylish Entertaining, Etiquette and the Art of Good Housekeeping by Charles MacPherson. This is an author signed copy and is a great reference book for contemporary entertaining. The author has over twenty-four years of experience in household management. In 2009, he opened North America’s only registered school for butlers and household managers in Toronto. MacPherson is an expert in the areas of staffing, training and planning, and is recognized as a world authority in the household management and butler fields.

How fun to see the differences – and similarities – in entertaining guidelines between the 60’s and today! Leave a comment to be entered to win. The winner will be chosen at random from the comments. Good luck!

Congratulations to Becca, a blogger over at Becca’s Backyard, winner of the March selection Lazy Days and Beach Blankets. Shoot me an email with your address, Becca, and I will send it right out to you! This book about alfresco dining is a winner!

In the spirit of the giveaway, our Instagram challenge this month will be to post pics of entertaining. Please share the favorite moments of your celebrations by using the hashtag #pleasuregram during the month of April.

*P.S. I am ignoring the fact that it is snowing as I write this!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie xo

7 comments » | food & festivities, good reads, monthly book giveaway

patriotic mason jars

June

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint can be very dangerous. Once you have some in the house, you can think of so many ways to use it!

Painting mason jars is nothing new, but since I had some leftover paint from my last furniture project, I thought I would share how I decided to paint some blue Ball jars to use at my 4^th of July celebration at the beach.

I liked the idea of using blue jars so that it would be possible to catch glimpses of the inside blue hues even after the jars were painted.

I started by painting the outside of the jars with two coats of Paris Grey. Then, after cutting a kitchen sponge into a star shape, sponged stars onto the jars using Primer Red. I used some sandpaper to distress them a little bit and then gave them a coat of clear wax.

For the one jar I wanted to use as a candleholder, I masked off a star shape (a little smaller than the size of the sponge star) before I started the painting process (also leaving the metal top ring screwed into place). By masking off the star, the clear blue jar stayed clear in the masked area, enabling light from a candle to shine through.