Five Uses for Old Cigar Boxes

Hey! I hope all of you had a great weekend! I had a good one getting things done around the house, running some errands, and hanging out with friends and family! (And pups of course!)

I also gave the ol’ blog a little TLC and switched some things around! What do you think?! I moved the sidebar over to the other side and added some fun widgets! (Jill, I used that word just for you!)

As I was doing things around the house this weekend, I realized how much I’ve been using the leftover cigar boxes from Price’s birthday last year! So I thought I’d share 5 random uses for them (since they’re cheap, come in all shapes, colors and sizes, and are easy to come by! More on where I got mine at the end.)

USE #1: INTERESTING FOOD SERVICE

This was the original reason I bought the boxes last year– to use as food service at Price’s party. But since then, I’ve found myself pulling them out often to put snacks, etc. in when we have company! I always line the boxes with a napkin just so cigar residue doesn’t permeate the food, but for those of you who like tobacco-y flavored food… Whoever you are… forget the lining! 😉

USE #2: GIFT WRAPPING

We used one of the longer, taller boxes as part of our gift wrap (so to speak) for a stock the bar shower we went to last year for Price’s brother and his beautiful bride! The two bottles fit perfectly into the box and made for an interesting presentation! Plus, bottles are just awkward to wrap anyway, so I was glad to (a) find a way to get rid of one of the million boxes we ended up with and (2) get a new idea for bottle wrapping in the future! Even if you’re just wrapping something small, a cigar box closed with a pretty ribbon around it would be a great looking gift!

USE #3: TEA ORGANIZATION

I love hot tea! But I don’t love how much room the boxes take up in the cabinet, especially when you’re getting to the end of a box. In an effort to make better use of space, I got all of our tea bags (and hot tea-making tools!) and organized them in one of the larger, deeper boxes. It looks much neater in the cabinet than a bunch of random boxes and it’s fun to pull it out and have all my tea right there in one spot! This might be my favorite use of a cigar box yet! 🙂

USE #4: ACCESSORIZING AROUND THE HOUSE

Ever need just a little extra height when trying to get your accessories to look just right? I can totally relate! And I love how cigar boxes have come in handy in such cases! I especially like the pop of black that the top box adds in this particular stack of pretties!

USE #5: DRAWER ORGANIZATION

If you take the top and the bottom of a shallow box apart, they end up being the most perfect little drawer organizers! I have a few in our kitchen drawers and have really enjoyed having more organization in what used to be domestic aid chaos! All of my cheese knives and small serving spoons fit perfectly into this half box! (And while we’re on the subject… I have a weird love for cheese knives… Is this normal? I hope I’m not alone!)

So those are my five uses! Hope you find one of them to come in handy! 🙂

As far as where all my boxes came from… I got all of them from a tobacco shop on Lakeland Drive in Jackson called The Country Squire. When they sell all of the cigars that come in a box, they then put the box in a pile and sell the boxes at great prices! I think they’re just a couple of dollars a piece… And some of them really are SO pretty! There are lots of options as far as size and color, so it’s kind of a fun pile to shop!

If you do happen to stop by, be sure to meet Jon David. He works in there and he’s the best! Tell him the Donahoos say hello! 🙂

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you have a great one! 🙂 See ya soon! XO!

Cousin Eddie Just Keeps Getting Better!

Last weekend, Price and I hosted our third annual CHRISTMAS WITH COUSIN EDDIE party! Since Christmas Vacation is basically the best movie ever made (well, one of them anyway), a party themed around the film at Christmas time just seems like a no-brainer! Right?!

If you’re a fan of the movie, then this is one party you’ll really be able to appreciate! 🙂 We had SUCH a blast putting it all together! Of course, Price is dressed as Eddie because his outfit last year was such a hit! And my outfit was a little thrown together, but I had a Christmas Vacation t-shirt with a Todd-and-Margo-inspired silver sauna suit jacket on over it! Next year I promise I’m going to try harder on my getup!

Last year’s party (more on that HERE!) was such a success that we did a lot of repeat ideas, plus a few new ones! Here are a few of the recycled ideas and food items…

Tacky lights are always a nice touch

“Where’s the Tylenol?!” (or white MnM’s… same thing!)

“Little Full. Lotta Sap.”

The squirrel in the tree… It’s not a party without this key player!

Aunt Bethany made it! Cat food (well, Cheerios in this case) jell-o in hand!

We might should’ve named this “RV trash” instead!

Can I refill your eggnog for you?

Ol’ Roy for ol’ Snots! We made some human-friendly puppy chow since dogs weren’t invited 😉

Reprisal of the Jelly Of The Month tray! “It’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year round, Clark!”

One of the most epic rants ever…

The tried and true details were fun to improve upon and reuse, but we had to throw a few new tidbits too!

More moose mugs were added to our slow-growing collection and our eggnog recipe was vastly improved upon! We used THIS eggless-nog recipe and it seriously was SO GOOD! Everyone talked about this deliciousness! It was EXTREMELY easy, too! I think I had it made up in about… 2 minutes!

We also added a new “Mary” little cocktail for the margarita lovers (like myself!) in attendance! This was sort of a hybrid of margarita recipes I’ve used in the past, and it turned out surprisingly good, so I plan to share the recipe with y’all in the next couple of days! It’s a good bulk sized recipe!

Tis the season to be MARY! Why not celebrate with a Very “Mary” Berry Margarita?!

This next detail was pretty fun! In the movie when the cat got electrocuted and went through the floor (and “used all his nine lives” as Cousin Eddie put it!), he left a little “fried pussy cat” shaped hole in the floor… So we got some fuzzy material, cut it in the shape of a cat, then used black felt to cut the same shape a little smaller and glued them together to represent a cat having gone through the floor…

I hope to improve upon this detail next year, but for a last minute idea, it worked out pretty well!

My husband, who looks freakishly like Cousin Eddie when in full garb, is holding one of the most awesome gifts ever! One couple that came to the party brought us a signed picture of Mary talking to Clark in the department store! On the back, there’s a picture of the actress actually signing that picture. It’s pretty legit!! This will definitely be a prominent fixture at next year’s throwdown!

I was thrilled when I was shopping at Target one day and found this little beauty! We hung him right next to the “Little Full. Lotta Sap.” sign and the squirrel!

I also found this bad boy at Target which was (a) a step closer to looking like the advent calendar in the movie when compared to our old one, (2) had the tree-topped station wagon as one of the little pictures, and (d) was majorly on sale because of a pretty good little ding on the bottom right corner!

We really did have a ball getting ready for this year’s party and are already excited about next year’s! Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate our favorite movie at our favorite time of year!

If you have any great ideas for making our party better next year (or links to other parties along the same lines as ours!) I’d LOVE to hear/see! Please feel free to leave comments with your ideas!

Have a GREAT WEEKEND! And until New Years hits, I’m going to keep on saying Merry Christmas! (So MERRY CHRISTMAS!) Thanks for stopping by! xoxo!

What I Learned This Halloween

Happy weekend-after Halloween! I hope y’all had as much fun as we did getting geared up for a couple of days of candy and costuming! With Halloween falling on a Thursday, it seems like there was something Hallo-related just about every night this week! We did most of our celebrating the day of, though!

So, now that this Halloween is over and done with, in thinking back, I learned some fun stuff this year!

LESSON ONE: Making your own costumes is way more fun than buying them ready made!

We made our costumes this year pretty much from scratch, and even though it took longer than just going to the store and buying something, we had so much more fun with it! (And definitely saved some money!)

We went as Bert and Mary Poppins!

The only thing we felt we had to order for Price to be Bert was the chimney sweeper thingy. I was certain there’d be no way I could make one of those and it actually end up looking decent…

But for his getup, he wore a gray shirt and black pants that he already had. We got the driving cap and a gray sweater vest (which we made into an open front vest with a little sewing machine help!) at a local thrift shop. I got a 1/4 yard of cheap red fabric for the neck tie, and Price literally rolled that thing around in our fireplace to get soot on it. He then proceeded to rub his face with soot for that lovely dirty effect…

As for me, I ordered the shirt and skirt (both of which I think I could wear again separate from each other!) from Forever 21. I got a roll of red ribbon and made the tie and belt from that. I also made the hat by cutting down a top hat from Party City and gluing red and white dollar store flowers to it. I added some black hairspray, black tights, black mary janes, white gloves, and a black umbrella and I was set!

Overall we think we pretty much achieved the looks we were going for!

LESSON TWO: We have extremely talented party-throwing friends!

Once dressed, we went to two different parties. The first was as a couple’s house not too far from where we live! They had a themed supper/buffet going on, which not only was excellent, but very detailed. I’m mad at myself for not getting more pictures, but visualize this: The cheese for the burgers was cookie cuttered into the shape of pumkins! The salads were served out of hollowed out oranges which were carved to look like jack-o-lanterns… And the candy apples had actual sticks coming out of them! I was super impressed with the thought put into the food here! (And I did actually get a snap of the apples!)

The second party we went to had some amazing freak factor to it! This one was at Elish’s house, and she and her roommates really went all out making their house extra creepy!

There were cobwebs everywhere…

… and bats flying out of the air vent…

… and so much more creepy awesomeness that I did not capture on film… But overall, this party was over-the-top incredible! My friends are uber talented… There’s no doubt about that!

LESSON THREE: Babies do not heart Mary Poppins…

At the first party, one of our friend couples wanted to take a picture of their baby being held by Mary Poppins, so they handed him over to me. Well… When he left his mama’s hands, he completely lost it! I’ve held him multiple times before without any problem, so I’m definitely blaming the freak out on the costume… Anyway, it was hilarious! This is the best picture taken during that little photo sesh:

LESSON FOUR: Candy from Dollar Tree is a heck of a lot cheaper than candy from anywhere else!

I should have Halloween candy shopped at the Dollar Tree years ago. Handing goodies out to trick or treaters this year cost us half what it normally does!

Saving a few bucks here and there is always a good thing, yes?

Well….

I think that about covers it for my 2013 Halloween lessons!

We had such a fun time celebrating this year, and have already started brainstorming about what to dress up as next year…. 🙂

Muuaaaahahahaha….

Did y’all dress up this year? If so, what were ya?!

Holiday Highlights

H I , H E L L O !
(Imagine me saying this the way Josie Gellar’s Spanish teacher said it on her first day of class. If you haven’t seen Never Been Kissed then this will not make sense…)

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! As busy as mine has been, it has been pretty great! I’ve been up at SummerHouse a lot which is always fun. 🙂 Anyways…

So I was flipping back through all the pictures I’ve taken over the past couple of weeks and wanted to share a few highlights from Christmas and the start of 2013! I’m so thankful for wonderful friends, an amazing family (on all sides), and the health and ability to travel. Sure does make life exciting! Can I get an Amen?

Highlight 1: MISTLETOGA

2012 marked the 5th year of the always exciting Mistletoga celebration! Five years ago, my roommates at the time and I were dying to throw a great Christmas party, but wanted it to be different from the typical tacky Christmas theme. Somehow we came up with the idea to have a toga party and call it Mistletoga! Toga-like attire is strongly encouraged, and the more creative the better! This party has been a blast for all five years, so I look forward to the 6th annual in, oh… 11 months!

At this party, we had some fun beverages like Rudolph Royale, which was champagne and cranberry juice, accented with frozen strawberries. Simple and delish! We also had what we like to call “Sethnog.” See, last year, my friend/old roommate, Avery, whose apartment is still the home of this yearly shin-dig, asked her boyfriend to make eggnog for the occasion. It was so good that since then we’ve referred to the drink as “Sethnog.” This year we lacked a proper pitcher so the nog was served from a coffee pot! It just added to the party vibe 😉

The snack mix, which I like to call “S’more Pretzels, please!” (corny, I know…) was sort of born out of my need to clear out the pantry of random things… I mixed mini marshmallows, pretzels, and MnMs into some melted bakers chocolate and got everything all chocolate coated. Then I poured it into a big ziplock bag, threw some graham cracker crumbs and a little powdered sugar in there, then shook it up! It turned out pretty well, I’d say… I’ve made it twice since this party and it all gets eaten every time, so that says something! 🙂

Overall, Mistletoga 5.0 was a ravishing success! Moving on…

Highlight 2: TEA TIME!

Two of my best friends, both of whom I’ve known basically my entire life, and I got to get together for tea the Sunday before Christmas! See, one of these friends (named Lindsey) lives in Nashville, so my other friend Mandy and I don’t get to see her too often. So we make a point of having a 3-woman pow wow every year around the holiday.

Since Linds and I lived in England together (and became obsessed with tea and scones), I thought it might be fun to have a mini tea party! We were meeting at around 4:00, so it kinda turned out perfectly, since that’s official “tea time” anyway!

I made some scones which turned out… eh… Let’s just say, I’ll probably use a different recipe next time… But the three of us had a great time! And I had fun getting ready for it, which is a plus for me! 🙂

Highlight 3: The getting and giving of gifts! 

Okay… I admit… I heart gifts… But let’s be honest. Who doesn’t!?

I got some super great stuff this year, all of which I really love (and most of which was off my list! Yay! No returns!) I’ve had a little too much fun with some of my gifts (insert OPI for Sephora gift set that had like 16 different polishes) and others I’ve been wearing non-stop!!  A few faves include Versace Yellow Diamond perfume, Vintage View handmande earrings, nail polish (I also got a gorgeous Butter London color in addition to all the Sephoras!), and the Pantone for Sephora eye shadow palette… I. LOVE. THIS.

I also really enjoy giving gifts because wrapping is uber fun for me… I could spend hours with all sorts of papers and strings! I think we can all agree that gift giving is a very good thing… Yeah?

Highlight 4: The beginning of a NEW YEAR!

My family and my husband’s family all got to travel down to Jacksonville, Florida to celebrate the new year Mississippi State style! We went down for the Gator Bowl, which ended up being maybe the worst football game in history, BUT, other than that, we had a spectacular time! Lots of shopping, eating, and laughing involving the entire MillerHoo clan! (That’s what we call ourselves… Miller + Donahoo = MillerHoo.)

Yay for huge, beautifully decorated trees, fireworks, and an excuse to wear nearly every sequin garment I own! Good times for sure.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday, too!
What was the highlight of YOUR Christmas or New Year?

Christmas with Cousin Eddie Party

Christmas Vacation.

Quite possibly the best Christmas movie ever made. (There are many great Christmas movies– Home Alone is another classic fave– but there’s room for several “best” Christmas movies on any list!)

The thing about Christmas Vacation is that people of all ages and all generations appreciate this movie. It holds a special place in the hearts of Americans that not just any movie holds!

For this reason, plus the fact that it’s just freaking hilarious, my husband and I have begun an annual traditiion of throwing a Christmas Vacation themed party. We like to call it “Christmas With Cousin Eddie.”

I had a little bit too much fun getting ready for this party, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite details of this shin-dig! The party took place over the weekend and it was so. much. fun. It’s becoming a much anticipated (for Price and me, anyway!) yearly tradition!

Food and drink is the area in which I had the most fun, I think… Here are a couple of the things we served (with movie quotes when appropriate!)

Egg nog was a must. We let people add their own poison, since I’m not a good judge when it comes to mixing sometimes… When served in the moose mugs like what they use in the movie, the nog tastes so much better!

Quick shot of the aforementioned moose mug

I also wanted to have one other cocktail on hand for people to sip on, so I made a blue margarita and called it “The Blue Leisure Suit” since Eddie famously wore one during part of the movie.

The Blue Leisure Suit

Now, one of the best scenes in the movie comes when Clark famously receives a letter from his boss informing him of his end-of-the-year bonus: Enrollment in the Jelly of the Month club. So we got several types of jelly, re-labeled them, and stuck them on a cheese and cracker tray!

The December jelly of the month won the popular vote this year! It was strawberry.

Right after Clark got this disappointing bonus, he goes on a side-splitting tear about his boss! We just had to have that rant represented, sans bad words! 🙂 (Actually I missed one word on accident. I’ll remember to “bow” it out next year!)

“Where’s the Tylenol?” (or white MnM’s, so people can actually eat it!)

Another food item representing part of the movie was some puppy chow, representative of the massive amounts of dog food Eddie buys on his and Clark’s trip to Wal-Mart.

Eddie buying Ol’ Roy dog food

Our human-consumable version of dog food!

The last food item to share with you is the infamous green jell-o mold… Remember the scene where delusional Aunt Bethany brings a green jell-o mold with cat food in it to the family dinner? We had to have that represented, so we did a mold, but used Cheerios instead of cat food. It was more for a visual, but people did end up eating some!

Our version of the green Jell-o mold, made with Cheerios instead of cat food!

Enough with the food… Now for decorations and costumes!

A myriad of colored and reindeer lights add a little to the tacky theme we were sticking to!

One of my personal favorite sequences in the movie is at the very beginning of the movie when Clark and Ellen take the kids to the wilderness to cut down a Christmas tree for their house. They end up getting a HUGE one, so when they take it inside the house and realize it’s way too big, Clark says “Little full. Lotta sap.” Gets me every time! So we had to represent that somehow!

“Little full. Lotta sap”

After the “full” tree in the movie burns up and is replaced with a more normal sized one, there’s a great scene where a squirrel jumps out of the tree at Clark. When your husband comes from a family full of hunters, you might be as fortunate as I was  to find a stuffed squirrel laying around at the deer camp. Thankfully my father-in-law had no sentimental attachment to the stuffed critter, so we snagged him and stuck him in the tree!

I’ve saved my very favorite detail of this particular party for last: My husband’s outfit.

He scoured the internet and found an outfit almost EXACTLY like the one Cousin Eddie wears in the scene I like to call “the eggnog scene.” Green polyester pants, a white v-neck sweater, and a black dickie under the semi-transparent sweater. Oh, and the shoes! The white patent shoes! Price was able to find some of those too… Ladies and gentlemen… I present to you… Price as Cousin Eddie:

I’m married to Cousin Eddie…

Another key to getting this look down pat was the exorbitant amounts of really strong hair gel we used to get his hair to stay like that. It was intense.

Here’s a full body shot of Price with his friend Jared, who also had the pretty sweet blue leisure suit look going on. These boys nailed it!!

For next year’s big par-tay, I’m going to be on the lookout for one of those little candle-powered windmills like what Eddie breaks in the egg nog scene as well as some of the silver suits that Todd and Margo wear after they work out.

the silver suits

the windmill

If anyone finds a good deal on either of these, please keep me posted! The party will be much better next year with these additions! 😉