Christmas in July Pinterest Party

 

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Sooo, there has been quite a lot happening this summer. To start, the last Pinterest party that happened was in May.  I had planned to do one for June but had 2 camping trips, a hot air balloon event and an unexpected family funeral in Northern California. So that pushed out any plans I'd made for doing a party that month. Now - July - almost over! I was gone for the holiday, then went up to Utah and a day later drove to Northern California again for another week of girls camp. I badly wanted to do a Christmas in July theme since somehow I've never done that before! But with very limited time to plan, it just didn't turn out like I had hoped in some ways. Keep reading though to see what we made and what we ate....

I want to confess, I had quite a lot of failures with this Pinterest party. Somehow it all turned out (mostly) but I am really disappointed in myself and feel like I did not do as good of a job as I normally did. 

Cons

1. I never linked the board to the Facebook event for ideas and inspiration. Btw, here's a link to the board.

2. We only got through 2 of the 3 crafts.

3. I didn't get to advertise it as much as I would have liked ahead of time. Payment is due by a certain date and because I didn't send out reminders...it was late. But it worked out.

4. I really wanted to go all out with decoration but lack of time, needing to clean up the she-shed quite a bit after being gone for so long and just the thought of pulling out all the Christmas tubs felt too exhausting. So there was very limited decor which I was really quite disappointed at myself about.

5. I didn't put together any swag or drawings like I really enjoy doing.

6. I didn't get to make an example craft, which I try hard to do but man, this time - I didn't get to make any of them ahead of time. Ugh.

Pros

1. I had FOUR new people come! That was pretty amazing and I am not sure I had had that happen for a pretty long time.

2. The food was a good variety and all really tasty.

3. One of the ladies had better music than Google Music (which didn't stick to my request of "play Christmas music" for very long. So she hooked up her phone and we had some nice Christmas music

4. Everyone seemed to have a really nice time. I hope the new people will be able to come back again in the future.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest...

First up - the food!

Caramel Filled Bon Bon cookies. I subbed Rolo's for Caramel Hershey Kisses since those were nowhere to be found in town!

Watermelon from Albertsons, cut with a Christmas tree-shaped cookie cutter. Perfect!

Ice cream bar cake! Super simple and easy to make. Great treat for a hot day. Now the one I linked to does not exactly look like this but basically the friends who brought this laid out ice cream bars in a pan, put whipped cream on top and sprinkles and put it in the freezer. See how easy? Plus  very tasty too!

Popcorn is always a great snack and easy to make

We also got tortilla chips and some of this yummy dip! Link coming soon!

Had to make these cute water bottle labels!

I also made a cranberry orange mocktail but sadly I could not find the Sprite Cranberry anywhere! So I used regular sprite. It was okay, the flavor of soda was not so strong in this drink. Didn't love it, but didn't hate it. Might make it again in the future.

The cake is store-bought but my friend had a really busy day at work so I gave her a pass. It was yummy.

Then, these fun fruit Grinch hats - a healthy treat to make for the holidays or any time of year really. 

Now, on to the crafts!

I got little wood decorations from Wood Connection in Utah. Pulled out the paints, Unicorn Spit and wood burning tools <-- new for a Pinterest party! Everyone got creative and this craft definitely took most of the time. I think everyone spent about an hour on their projects.

I love how these all turned out! The Christmas tree looks like the northern lights to me. Too cool!

Then we made these funny Santa paintbrushes. Some people got a little silly with theirs but they all turned out so unique! Paintbrushes and googley eyes were from Dollar Tree. Ribbon, accessories, pom poms were all items I had on hand. Then we used Plaid Crafts paint for the red!

Paintbrush Santas

Not everyone made one of these but those who did a great job.


The 3rd craft I had wanted to do but we ran out of time, was this felt tree which I think is just so cute and I may end up making some anyways. 

I truly appreciate everyone who made the time to come on Wednesday evening and I apologize if you felt like things were not up to par. I will work harder to make the next party - whether it's in CA or UT - even better and the quality you expect. 

Thanks for reading!