WHAT CAN I BRING?

Surely your name is not Shirly, but surely you will be attending many gatherings this holiday season and invariably you will ask, “What can I bring?”. Even if we are bringing some food or wine to a party, it is a nice gesture to bring a hostess gift. Those dishes aren’t going to wash themselves.

Here are some ideas on WHAT TO BRING that are easy and won’t break the bank!

DRINKING GLASS BOUQUETS

Shannon enjoying her drinking glass bouquet!

I have never cared what Emily Post has said before, but I do agree that bringing a bouquet of flowers to a party without a vase can sometimes be a bit of a hinderance to the host. The last thing a host wants to do is forage through the cabinet or garage for a vase to fit your flowers and then take 20 minutes to cut the ends and arrange them in said vase so that you can see that they appreciate your flowers.

I was thinking that I have seen a lot of water glasses at Cost Plus World Market or even a thrift store that are just a little too ornate to buy 12 of, but perfect for a small bouquet of flowers. I didn’t have time to visit my local thrift store, but I am sure I would have found some gems there. I purchased about 6 or 7 glasses and none of them were over $3.99 a piece. I also bagged some beautiful flowers at Trader Joes and none were over $5.99 a bouquet. My total cost for a beautiful water glass bouquet was $5 to $7 max. When is the last time you purchased flowers and a vase for under $25?

Benefits to drinking glass bouquets:

1. They are small enough to fit in the drink carrier of your car, so you can reserve your lap for the green bean casserole
2. You can make countless bouquets for yourself and friends out of only one or two large bouquets of flowers
3. They are the perfect size for the host to put on an end table, kitchen or bathroom so that they don’t have to move the bouquet they already have on their table
4. The ornate drinking glasses are something the host will happily keep or re-gift by making another bouquet for a friend

FRILLY OR FUNNY APRONS

Everyone’s a foodie and at many parties, everyone’s a chef, so why not have enough aprons to go around and why not make them cute and silly? I should have named this post, “don’t shop anywhere else, but TJMAXX and Cost Plus World Market”, but I didn’t. Cost Plus has a cornucopia of great aprons ranging from punny to cheffy for around $14.99. TJMAXX has a collection of Vintage looking frilly aprons for $8.99. You are welcomed to shop at Sur La Table and pay $40, but why would ya?

Frilly vintage style aprons. $8.99 at TJMAXX

A variety of cool aprons. Cost Plus World Market. Average $14.99.

ORNAMENTS

Who doesn’t like an ornament? I compared some of the beautiful ornaments I saw at Cost Plus with some “fancy” ones at “fancy” stores that look exactly the fancy same and the fancy stores cost $50 while Cost Plus costs a max of $10. Fancy that.

Cost Plus World Market ornaments. I HUGE variety.