These are a FEW of My FAVORITE THINGS Theme Party

This last year was a busy one for me. With sharing health and wellness to the multitudes, training, learning and growing my time with dear friends was limited. So, I decided to do something about it by planning a FAVORITE THINGS party. 

Some FAVORITE friends,

some FAVORITE snacks,

some FAVORITE products...

tied up together to create one incredibly fun package of a party! 

Well, if you have been following me long, you know me... time to create some goodness for our gathering. I came up with a couple of games: a favorite things questionnaire and a Celebrity Favorite Foods matching game. I wanted to have a little added fun to keep the theme going throughout the night without the games consuming the evening. After all we needed our time to catch up on all that  2015 brought us. 

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The Favorite Things Questionnaire was fun. We filled them out, shuffled them and passed them back out. The person drawing made sure not to get their own and then one by one we read the questionnaire we had in hand. Then we would guess who it belonged to. As well as we knew each other we did learn a little  about each person. It was fun to ask some of the why's behind the answers. 

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 The celebrity food match was fun to make. Who knew there would be so many options to choose from on celebrity favorite foods? I tried to pick celebrities everyone in our group would at least recognize. Some of the answers are quite surprising. Crickets? Really?

(ANSWERS - Angelina Jolie & kids: Crickets, Seinfeld: Peanut Butter, Betty White: Chips, Red Vines, Fries, out dogs, Taylor Swift - Cinnamon Crunch Cereal, Pop Tarts, Katy Perry: Mushrooms, Mariah Carey: Pizza, Scarlett Johansson: Buffalo Wings, Barack: Obama Chili, Selena Gomez: Pickles, Justin Bieber: Swedish Fish, Tom Hanks: Gyro / Japanese) 

I had some inexpensive craft bags on hand.

Used some cute little packaging for snacks (another favorite)

Favorite plates. Aren't these BEAUTIFUL? 

(these were gifts from our foreign exchange student from Finland in the '80's) 

I made some healthy(ish) treats and some "I am not starting my fitness resolution yet so let's have one last homemade taco dip with Juanita's appetizer" not so healthy snack. Everyone brought one or two of their favorite snacks as well. We had the yummiest danish bleu cheese, marinated shrimp, meat and cheese platters, pb*j cookies, lemon bars....

all DELISH!

Then came the time for the BIG reveal where we shared our FAVORITE thing of 2015 that we were gifting to each person.  There were no rules on this one outside of a price range of $15-20.

Looking for some great gift ideas? Look no further - we SCORED!

My give away was something that showed up in my BIRCHBOX this year. Stila HUGER than HUGE extreme lash duo. You can pick it up at nordstroms for $18 right now (usually$27).

Let me just say this.... this is the BEST MASCARA ever! I have tried a ton, and I mean a TON of different top line brands that claim to create the BIGGEST lash.  Many that extend and build end up flaking or creating black shadows under my eyes. This mascara is the BOMBdiggity. The link above comes with a primer and the mascara. Just try it ladies! 

My "loves everything ENGLISH" friend (who really needs to write a book or fifty...) brought these fun books. One is the Anti Journal which is SO FUN! I can't wait to dig in and start writing. 

My "Super Sweet" friend brought cupcakes from a gourmet bakery. She had picked cupcakes with specific flavors for each one of us. I just loved how she made it extra sweet by thinking of what flavors she would buy for whom.  

...and confession time. I gobbled both of them up before the nights end because you know... I mean really, they would have slightly hardened or crusted over had I waited. Wouldn't you agree that would be quite rude as the receiver? Yes, glad we agree... gobbling was in order. 

Our "Techy Wonder Girl" friend brought us all iTunes cards. I LOVED this. Super creative and useful. Any thoughts on what I should buy with it folks? 

And finally the last gift came from a friend who had an unforeseen health issue come up this year. One of the only things she could drink was tea, so she learned to LOVE tea.  Recently she has gotten hooked on Teavana teas. This one is heavenly - Pineapple Kona Pop. YUM. Even my kiddos are asking for this tea.  I found this gift extremely fitting because the two of us used to have a drinkey-dink club where we would go on a hunt once a week with our kiddos to find fun local non-alcoholic (making the claim because you notice I said with our kiddos)  beverages to try around our community. 

Guys, this was such a blast. I cannot tell you how nice it was to just BE with friends. Have a little theme to it but mainly just plain, good,  friendship time.  If my motto is going to be one thing this year it is to be purposeful. Sometimes we can make things so complicated with details that we lose the purpose. Keep it simple and meaningful.

Cheers to more GATHERINGS & FRIENDSHIP TIME in 2016! 

-Simply Sublime

Our Alphabet of Marriage: The Sweetest DIY Gift of Love Ever

In November my husband and I celebrated 21 amazingly difficult, breathtaking, wonder-filled years of marriage. We have experienced the "don't blink you don't want to miss one second of this" adventures of a lifetime, unfortunately we have also experienced enough loss for a lifetime, as well as everything in between. 

The more we have experienced the loss of loved ones, the more we have come to a place where "things" just don't hold as much value. The idea of working our patooshkies off resulting in more time taken away from our family in order to have more stuff, well let's say it has lost it's luster in our eyes. 

This can pose a bit of a problem for us during the "Gift-giving Holidays" of our culture. You know which ones they are, right? The ones that have all the commercials, magazine ads, and store decorations helping direct you to the oh-so perfect gift to show your undying love. If you pay close attention you may even recognize a grading scale on how deep your love truly is - the BIGGER diamond shows you love them that much more, the newest techie toy, the brand name clothing. The hope that after the recipient has gently removed the wrap and tipped open the box you might hear them utter these three simple words: "Oh...you didn't..."  

{Please don't get me wrong here - our family still has a love attraction to the stuff. We just have more inner turmoil that goes along with it. It doesn't "feel" the same as it once did. It has now become more of a love/hate relationship. So, we try to be more purposeful.}

On the day of our Anniversary my Husband was working on being more purposeful. He painstakingly lovingly searched around on the web for thoughtful ideas with a dyno-mite love punch. I am not certain of what he found or where, but he was inspired to create a very thoughtful gift. It didn't come in pretty wrap, it wasn't professionally done... yet it is my most cherished  gift I have from him. 

You see I found him the morning of our Anniversary sitting in a chair with his Bible and a spiral notebook in hand. He appeared pensive as I entered the room so I retreated back into the kitchen to give him some space. About an hour later he gifted me with the precious piece of ink scribbled notebook paper he had recently torn from one of the kids spiral notebooks. {See photo above} At the top of the page was written "Alphabet of Marriage" A through Z he had listed out the hopes, dreams and experiences that have glued us together.

There were a few misspellings & scratched over words but that only made it more precious to me. It was simply beautiful and truly heart touching. It was a line by line reflection of what our lives together were made of. Some of the life-line reflections had me in tears & some had me laughing. It was the PERFECT Anniversary Gift my heart had been unknowingly longing for. 

So if  you haven't already lined up your next token of love, I think this would make a sweet valentines gift for a husband to give a wife, a wife to give a husband, a child to give a parent - or even a gift for a friend. The title can be changed to reflect the Alphabet of Love, or the Alphabet of Our Friendship. Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Best Friends Day or Birthdays: this can be modified to make a very nostalgic & sentimental gift.

I hope this inspires you to take some time to reflect on your relationships & encourages you to let those special people in your lives know just how much they mean to you. They were written into your story with a purpose.

-Simply Sublime

Dear friends who live in far off lands: New Quote Art

This evening my youngest girlie girl and I had a date night at home while the boys enjoyed a fun night out of bowling. As we snuggled up in the living room we ate dinner and watched quite a collection of movies; Unconditional, The First Grader & now, Far and Away.

From children in need in the U.S., people standing up for what they believe in Kenya, or Immigrants leaving one land and heading to another in hopes of living out their dreams - these movies all left me thinking of  my rich collection of friends around the globe. The majority of my friends are spending their lifetimes working hard at reaching out in love to those who are struggling- loving to make a difference. A high percentage of them are working with discarded children to help rise up a new generation of leaders who are grounded in the Word of God. I so ADMIRE them, I LOVE them deeply and I LONG to just sit and chat with them over a cup of tea, sharing stories. Oh, how my heart misses them.

 Tonight I am reminded once again about God's incredible way of weaving lives together with his rich threads of love, where physical distance separates but heartstrings bind.
                                                                       
                                                  -Simply Sublime