Just in Time for Thanksgiving...How to Make Your Own Easy Centerpieces

I made these centerpieces for my recent birthday dinner party.  Here is how I did it.

1-Drink a lot of beer and wine (not at one time) and eat a bunch of spaghetti sauce and mayonnaise (also not at one time or even at the same meal).  Ok really you just need some bottles.  For some reason my husband had been stacking empty wine bottles beside the sink so I decided to go ahead and make something out of them.  Then I realized it had been awhile since I had cleaned the fridge so I went ahead and threw away some old mayo and salad dressing and pasta sauce and cleaned out those jars. 

2-Peel off the labels of the jars.  I used a tip that I learned here, and with some assistance from B, I removed the labels from the jars and bottles.

3-Buy some flowers.  I bought a mix of 4 different bunches from Harris Teeter.  I picked Fall colors since that was my theme.  I have heard great things about buying flowers at Trader Joes and Costco as well. 

4-Arrange the flowers and the jars so that they look amazing on your table/tables.  I decided to use green and brown jars on one table and clear jars on the other.  Then I had to arrange the flowers.  That was probably the hardest part.  Sometimes I'm not good at figuring out what looks good together but I think I did a decent job.  I went with single flowers in the tall glasses and groups of smaller flowers in the smaller mason jars.

And there you have it.  Lovely table centerpieces that are easy to make and not too costly.  (PS-I got more complements on the flowers than the giant pot roast I made.)

Oh Yeah, How To Actually Throw the Murder Mystery Party

So I showed you how to decorate and I showed you how to make a costume but I didn't actually show you how to throw the murder mystery party. My husband volunteered to be in charge since he had actually been to one of these before. We got our party from this website. But I think there are other ones like it out there.

How to Throw a Murder Mystery Party

1-MOST IMPORTANT STEP. WATCH THIS EPISODE OF SAVED BY THE BELL AND THIS EPISODE OF THE OFFICE. THEY ARE BOTH INVALUABLE.
2-Send out an Evite to approximately 10-20 people stating that there will be a murder mystery party and that you need to know if they can come before assigning roles. Give the date and time and link to a website about murder mysteries.
3-Quickly re-send the evite when you realized you listed the wrong date for the party.
4-Send the invitees updates three to four times a day with things that you forgot to put on the original evite and then demand that they RSVP by a certain date.
5-Be sure to mention that if they RSVP and then do not show, they will be dead to you.
6-Have your husband (who is in charge of the murder mystery party) assign roles. Try to determine which of your girl friends will be the least likely to get mad at you for assigning them a male part due to the fact that 10 girls want to participate and only 4 guys.
7-Husband or leader emails the info on roles to everyone so that they have about a week to work on costumes.
8-Husband does a bunch of secret stuff involving secret files, lots of printed paper, sticky notes, etc. He finds it hilarious when your friends refuse to tell you their characters b/c he told them not to tell anyone, specifically you.
9-Work on Costumes and Decor
10-Have everyone agree to bring food or booze.
11-Have the party. The leader will have everything in the packet necessary to throw the party. Essentially when the guests get there they will be given a packet telling them how to act. One person will have a packet that says that they get murdered. Then mingling and eating happens. THEN THERE IS A MURDER! Everyone gets a second packet telling them how to act. One person is given a packet that says they are the murderer. More mingling and evidence is presented and then everyone guesses who the murderer is and votes on best dressed and best acting. Murderer is revealed and taken away, preferably in cuffs. Prizes are given. And then everyone eats, drinks and smokes cigars. Cigars are optional.

According to our un-scientific word of mouth poll, everyone had a great time and we'll proably do this again. Should we go cruise, western, pirate or Vegas theme next time?

How to Make Your Home into a Roaring Twenties Style Juice Joint...

As I have mentioned, I participated in a 20's themed Murder Mystery Party this weekend. My friend $hanzie hosted it at her house. While she was not in charge of the actual murder mystery story line and game, she was in charge of transforming her house into a Juice Joint, which is apparently a Twenties Style Bar. Now while she did not get the Live Jazz band or Fog Machine (as was suggested), I think she did a great job.

From $hanzie herself...
A How To Guide for Turning your House into a Jumpin’ Speakeasy from 1920. Things to Purchase: Everyone needs to know that as hard as it may be to believe, the Dollar Store is an excellent resource for parties. Here is a list of things I purchased at the local Dollar Store...
Plates,napkins, plastic utensils
Black tablecloths
Candles and candle holders for both my mantle and as centerpieces for the tables

Party trays for food

Then of course there were a few items purchased at Party City...

Gold fringe outlining my stairs to give the feeling of a stage

Plastic martini glasses and plastic cups (I know I used a lot of plastic and that is not super environmentally friendly but I had enough dishes to clean from cooking as it is)

Hobby Lobby...

Feathers- feathers are key but are a little pricey- I just bought a few and featured them on the mantle in a vase that I filled with wine corks. I usually have a vase filled with wine corks sans feathers anyway.
And from ebay, I purchased The Greatest Hits of the 20s for $4.95. it was great background music when the boys turned down the basketball game.

As well as, candy cigarettes to place around the party. (JMJE say-I think shanzie got these from the Internet as apparently stores don't sale them b/c it makes smoking seem "cool")

Ok, the rest of the things used to decorate were just found on the Internet, in other parts of my house, or at Tiffany’s place. I used the tablecloths to cover my end tables and put those in the middle of the room with dining room chairs around them to give it a lounge/restaurant feel instead of living room feel. We took a few pictures down and replaced them with simple black and white pics of Chicago and various speakeasies from the 20s. I didn’t print anything out on photo paper, just normal white paper and we taped them up to the walls. I found pics of labels under google images of Bath Tub Gin (popular thing in the 20s since gin and most other drinks were kept cold in bathtubs) and printed them out and taped them to wine bottles around my house. And I found an awesome “this thread is closed due to Prohibition” picture of a sign on the Internet and printed that out for my front door. Everything else was sort of just found- some old ash trays courtesy of B’s granny (JMJE says-those were Gammy's not Granny's), poker chips, decks of cards, etc.

Then Curly T or Tiffy as she is called by $hanzie made this awesome sign......

As far as the sign goes...It was actually an old sign from my tutoring place (academic development services). I just attached (with ghetto push pins) some fabric to cover up that writing. "The Juice Joint" was hand drawn onto some poster board and again attached by push pins. Doesn't really seem all that exciting/impressive when the process is described.

That is wrong T. I thought the sign looked awesome. The party would have failed with out it and the 20 food dishes $hanzie made. Overall they did a great work on the decor and it really completed the party. I especially liked when the police sirens started blaring right after the "murder" happened. $hanzie says it was just an amazing coincidence but I'm not so sure.

Rosie Marie, Owner of the Juice Joint takes one giant final drink as the party comes to an end!