Vintage Homemaking Week: Day Two

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Did you find your way here after reading my Proverbs 31 devotion today called I Don’t Want to Pick Up Any More Socks? If you haven’t read it yet, catch up with the rest of us by clicking here

VINTAGE

Welcome to Vintage Homemaking Week! This series is designed to bring back some of the old-fashioned skills of homemaking for the woman of today.

Each day I’ll feature a post or guest post here on my blog as well as links to some others who are participating. Each individual post will not only have a how-to on a skill of homemaking, but also a great giveaway!

And, there is a grand prize giveaway for one gal who either Tweets, Pins on Pinterest or writes a Facebook status about our series. She’ll win a $50 gift certificate to our Proverbs 31 ministries Online store to buy books and products just for her! {details at the end of this post}

Today here on my blog my ministry partner from Proverbs 31, Sharon Glasgow, will teach us how to throw a vintage party. But first, here are the others posting today in our series:

Clutter_Free_Forever_{Vintage_Tips_for_an_Organized_Home}My friend Ruth Soukup is a coupon clipping, sneaker-wearing, DIY-loving, homemaking mama of two. Her blog, Living Well Spending Less, follows her adventure of finding the Good Life on a budget.  Her passion is her family and creating a home filled with joy and purpose.

Today she is explaining how to live clutter free forever by following the example set by our parents and grandparents.  She is also giving away a $50 Amazon.com gift card!  If you’ve ever struggled with the problem of too much stuff, you won’t want to miss these vintage tips for an organized home.

MomsWhenTheWorldMy other friend—also named Ruth—is a blessed mother to her four beautiful children, and she eagerly awaits meeting her five others lost through miscarriage, in heaven one day. Ruth Schwenk is a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. She has a passion for following God, leading worship, rescuing orphans, and inspiring others to create a God-honoring family.  Ruth is the creator, editor, and owner of The Better Mom (TBM), www.thebettermom.com. TBM is a contributor website where a community of over 100,000 moms gather every single month for learning and sharing life together.

As moms, we are faced with a continual stream of media messages telling us we can “do more” and “be more.” We feel the constant pressure of a world that views each mother as “just a mom” and a culture that is turning its back on the family unit. Such messages trickle down even to our youngest children….

Click here to finishing reading Vintage Mama (being a mom matters) at The Better Mom. She is giving away two copies of The Mission of Motherhood and two copies of The Ministry of Motherhood both by Sally Clarkson.

RetroArtofFreezerCookingFinally my friend Kathi (no, not another Ruth!) is also on our blog tour today. Kathi Lipp is a prolific writer and funny speaker who helps women to get organized and grow their relationship with God. Today she is teaching us about freezer cooking over at her place and offering a wonderful giveaway: Her book The What’s for Dinner Solution and a $25 Amazon gift card. Click here to see her post.twfds-giveaway

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Now for Sharon’s party-throwing post. Sharon Glasgow is a member of the Proverbs 31 speaking team and a devotion writer for Encouragement for Today. She is the mother of 5 grown daughters and lives on a farm in Virginia with her husband Dale and their milking goats, chickens and organic fruits and vegetables.

s1Throwing a Vintage Party

Vintage parties are the rage! If you’ve ever thought about throwing one, don’t think about it anymore, just do it! Whether it’s a baby or bridal shower a birthday party or vintage tea- people love them. Whatever party you’ve got on the horizon these tips will help you make it a success. We had a vintage bridal shower and a vintage wedding this year and did both for next to nothing in cost. We made everything ourselves and so can you!

1.     Set the date- Prepare your invitation. The invitation will be the mood setter for your party. Make sure it looks vintage! You can order them online or have one designed by a graphic artist (my daughter made ours). If you want your guest to wear something in particular to the party, tell them on the invite. If you want them to bring a recipe include a blank recipe card in each invitation. The one below was filled out by one of our guest.
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2. How many guests do I invite? Numbers are everything. A smaller party is more affordable but more people make it more exciting. How many can you accommodate?
s43.     Decide what goodies you want to serve. If you want an upscale party, never ever tell people to randomly bring what they want. They may bring Wal-Mart potato salad. Mind you, I’ve never eaten Wal-Mart’s potato salad but I know I don’t want it. I want fresh and homemade delicacies. Think carefully about who likes to bake and cook and who would do it well. Then ask those to make specific items.

Below are cupcakes I made for our vintage party. The guests went crazy over them, ½ pound of homemade frosting on each cupcake!! Famous cupcake recipe here.
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Retro mints are a huge hit!!

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More Idea’s for party foods for your vintage party here.
4.     How to decorate for your party. For our bridal shower party we hung vintage aprons. For our vintage wedding we hung starched dollies.

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5.     How to dress for your party. Vintage or vintage inspired clothes are fun. You can find them for great prices on e-bay. I found the dress I wore to this bridal shower for $10 on e-bay!! I found the dress I wore to my daughter’s wedding for $20.

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6.     Party favors- We didn’t have any party favors at our bridal party but we did at the wedding. We made homemade truffles in the shape of jewels (used plastic ice cube form). Filled them with hazelnut truffle filling and put them inside painted boxes. We made homemade marshmallows with name of each guest on top.

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Click here for more photos and ideas from our vintage bridal shower.  Click here for more photos and ideas from our vintage wedding. And be sure to come to my site today where I am teaching a doily how-to and giving my truffle recipe.

IMG_2830SHARON’S GIVEAWAY: Sharon is giving away a vintage cake decorating kit and a $25 gift card to Ebay to buy a fun retro apron.

To be entered to win this giveaway, leave a comment here on this post about party planning. All winners announced the Tuesday after Labor Day.

To be entered in the grand prize drawing for the $50 gift certificate to Proverbs 31,Just grab a Tweet, Facebook status or Pin below and then tell me by clicking here and commenting that you did so. If you share one way, you’ll be entered once. Share two ways? Twice. All three? {You get the picture}

Here are two tweets to copy & paste into Twitter:

Old-fashioned how-to homemaking skills from over a dozen bloggers! @karen_ehman Its Vintage Homemaking Week at karenehman.com

Homemaking need some new ideas? How about some old? @karen_ehman Vintage Homemaking Week karenehman.com A dozen bloggers & prizes!

Facebook:

Homemaking need some fresh new ideas? Well…….how about some old-fashioned ones instead? It is Vintage Homemaking Week at karenehman.com Over a dozen bloggers & awesome prizes! Baking, canning, freezing, gardening, cleaning and organizing strategies, re-furnishing furniture, throwing a vintage party, retro-hair & make-up and other old-fashioned how-tos! It will spark your creativity and re-energize your home, marriage and mothering. Join us!!!

Pin:   http://pinterest.com/pin/149744756333513747/

See you tomorrow for more vintage ideas!

71 Comments

  1. I love the vintage posts! I have a tip for small parties/weddings. Always have more punch and beverages than you think you will need. I prepared a small wedding reception years ago and had plenty of food but ran out of punch. A dear older friend saved the day by opening up a large can of o.j. and dumping it in my punch bowl. It was a lesson I never forgot.

  2. I AM the “reluctant entertainer”! If I’m going to have a party, it needs to be spontaneous or I start to panic. I’ll call and invite everyone over for that evening or the next day and use whatever is available to decorate. I love re-purposing items and thinking outside the box. I love the idea of a vintage tea party!

  3. I love the idea of a vintage tea party. My wheels are turning now! Thinking about having one in the fall, and inviting everyone to come dressed up in their finest vintage attire!

    1. I hope you pin photo’s on Pinterest. I would love to see it. I have wanted to have a vintage tea party for years but have chicken out every year Except October 2012, for which I was hosting a Wedding for a $0 dollar budget with my Mom for my 20 year old cousin.
      I even read a book called, “The Reluctant Entertainer” but still No Fall tea party! The Wedding itself, I think got me over the hump for 2013 but I would love to see other’s pictures.
      Sincerely,
      Lisa

  4. LOVE the VINTAGE THEME!!! I was just talking to a friend last weekend about wishing vintage house keeping skills, such as ironing or canning were offered at the local vo-tech instead of just cake decorating. I have put it on the request form for “classes offered” with some eye rolling in return. Ask and ye shall receive!
    Thanks Proverbs 31 Ministries and Karen Ehman!

    1. I should say I have a Biology Degree and I am a Professionally trained Chocolatier…
      However, I still wish to have an adult overview of realistic and trustworthy sources for vintage house-keeping, ironing, canning and cooking tricks from Women, whom made that their lives work like Proverbs 31 Women!

  5. Wow!! I love the vintage!!! This so cute and looks so fun!!! Hope I can throw one soon!! Maybe a fall version!!! Thank you for all of these amazing ideas!! God is good!!

  6. I just love the idea of a vintage party! My problem is that I AM the girlfriend that likes to cook! I always tell my girlfriends when they can’t believe I made something from scratch…”YOU are creative in decorating (or gardening or jewelry making), I am creative in the kitchen!” The clear solution for me is to assign the decorating to my “classically” creative girlfriends and the food to myself…the culinary creator.

    I feel a party coming on~

  7. My daughters love to have tea parties with their siblings and their friends. We are incorporating a mom and me tea for a group of 10 year old girls and their moms at our church. I love some of these ideas for our tea partt!

  8. I am really not a party person. My children get birthday parties where they can invite friends when they turn 7, 10, 13, and 16. So, a few weeks ago when we were eating dinner and I said, “How would you like to throw a tea party for Grandma’s 87th birthday?” and my younger girls who are still at home (8 and 12) excitedly agreed to it, I immediately thought, “WHO SAID THAT?” Honestly, I did not pre-plan it – the idea just came out of my mouth. And then it was out there, so there was no backing down.

    So, I let the girls do much of the planning, and we shopped together and prepared the food together. We had the party at my mother-in-law’s house, since she (the birthday girl) has trouble getting around. She was delighted to bring out her mix-n-match fancy teacups and saucers and share with us how she received them when she was engaged to their grandfather.

    Our menu consisted of homemade tomato bisque that we made a couple of days in advance, a plate of cheese and grapes, two types of tea sandwiches, and homemade mini cupcakes. Of course we offered a variety of teas, and also made raspberry lemonade for non-tea drinkers.

    What surprised me most was how expensive it was! We are on a limited budget, and since I owe a child a 13 year birthday party in two months, I’m already cringing over the cost. Would love very low-cost ideas that will keep guests happy and that don’t look ‘cheap.’

  9. I love this party idea! We have just started a new women’s get together at church and this is going to be my theme!! I cannot wait to try it out!

  10. I don’t throw parties (except for my daughter’s birthdays). Although it is a nice thought, I just don’t have the time. Maybe when my daughter gets older, she will want to throw a party like this. Way cool, by the way!

  11. I host an annual Caramel Apple Party at my house, every October. My tip is to plan ahead and make a schedule for the “day-of” event. Once people start arriving I always get distracted, so I have things planned out for the day: when to put the chili in the crockpot, when to the light the candles, and even time to play the piano which always relaxes me before guests start to arrive.

  12. I love the idea of having a girls vintage party just to celebrate friendship. So often, we miss that important aspect of just having sweet moments to share and rejoice in the blessing of friends that God has put in our lives. I love this idea!

  13. I remember Sharon sharing the pictures of the wedding. They were beautiful and how I would love to visit her farm. I would love to have a vintage wedding for my daughter when she gets married.

    1. Thank you Cindy! I would love for you to visit the farm one day! Just let me know when you’re nearby and we can plan it! Love and hugs! Sharon

  14. I’ve got 2 girls that I throw birthday parties for each year – and there is sooo much planning that goes into it. When both girls were in the Pinata age, it was fantastic because one was just after the 4th of July, so we used left over parade candy, and the 2nd was just after Oktober Fest, so we were able to do the same thing. It was a great time to do some paper mache with them and create our own unique pinata with left over tissue paper from previous gifts / clearance purchases.

  15. I have to admit, I like easy. So some of these ideas seem harder than what I would normally try. I need to get a group of friends to ban together and try it–that way it is fun and easier than one person doing it! I do like to save decorations from one event to another to use though.

  16. How lovely- and wise to use thrifty resources and still create a beautiful, memorable experience…my idea for party planning is to shop year round for small clearance items in sets of 10-12 {or however many guests you typically entertain at one time} and use those gifts as part of your place setting and a sweet little gift to go home with the guest and remind them of the evening and how loved they are! i LOVE this retro week!!

  17. I’m sorry that Sharon isn’t my neighbor! Her parties, family and love for all things simple keep pulling me to her blog!
    Love her wedding posts.
    Daughters are beautiful just like their mother.

  18. How fun! We’re planning a ladies tea party for our small group this fall, now I want to make it vintage! Usually everyone brings their favorite tea cup and saucer, and the host provides the tea service. Thanks for the great ideas.

    1. Love that idea were planning a lady’s night at our church I also pinned and Facebook’s it so that they can see.

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