Party Rockin' in the House Tonight...

 We pulled it off. I think we really brought our blog to life. She showcased our different styles, decorated an empty house and invited readers, friends and family to celebrate our love of design. 

On Million Dollar Decorators, the designers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to decorate a room in a Show House. Sure the press is better, but I doubt they had as much fun as we did. Plus, who needs hundreds of thousands of dollars to decorate? Especially when you have amazing sponsors of attainable design?

We are so thankful...Southern Living sent tons of January issues so guests could take home a copy. HomeGoods gave us gift cards to raffle off... more on that later. Maran Home (our fave local spot) let us borrow accessories, lighting, the works! Stevens Hardware loaned us a moving truck -- keep in mind, everything that we moved in, got moved back to it's real home today...sniff sniff. We were kind of hoping to keep a few pieces. World Market gave us all of the wine (yes, there was lots) and our friends and readers showed up in droves. Honestly, we were blown away by the turn out and the enthusiasm by our guests. Perhaps they were truly inspired or will do anything for a HomeGoods gift card?

 Even Laura, our (graduated) intern, came into town for the event. We were sure missing her during the installation. 

Our friends had a lot of fun taking it all in...

 Everyone was talking design.

 We had tons of food -- the room we styled together was filled with amazing desserts. 

 Thank you to my dear friend, Nikki, for the amazing cupcakes. They were a hit!

 Check out these glass decorations. We found the glass globes at Michaels and added the moss and nest. We hung them from a standard brass chandelier (you know, the type everyone has at some point). 

 Wrapped in moss and decked in greenery, it became a focal point of the room. Always, always change out chandelier bulbs to simple round ones for a more modern look. 

 Ask us about this wall.... It cost $50. Yep, 50 bucks. Each tray ($1)  was hung with glue dots -- we covered the wall for impact. 

 Guests were given a scavenger hunt, Birds of a Feather style, when they arrived. They had to answer questions to enter our raffle. Sample question: Which piece in Hooper's space did Ann find at a junk shop for $60. Hint: It is killer and everyone at the party wanted to buy it. NFS. 

 With no overhead lighting, we lit up the mantle with some Worlds-Away lamps. Maran supplied us with tons and tons of decorating books that we stacked throughout the spaces.

 Thank you Maran for this statement piece! Isn't he gorgeous?

 The beauty is in the details. We loved this pesto/goat cheese birds' nest. 

 We added design tips throughout on our $1 trays painted with chalkboard paint. 

 Ann came across these old stamps in my grandfather's office. It made me miss his sense of humor. 

 We had tons of food...mini-crab cakes with mango salsa, marinated shrimp, ham and cheese puffs -- all very Southern. 

 Guess who bedazzled this arrangement with peacock feathers?

And this wall with an "S" from the scrap yard? 

When the last guest left, we sat down to rehash and talk about our next event. It's kind of like childbirth -- a little too soon to start talking about another, but ask us in a few months. Next time, we might just add some price tags to the mix.

Also, many thanks to Blythe Cross for taking such lovely photos of the evening. To Patrick and Kim Shovlin, we couldn't have pulled this off without you. 

Stay tuned... later in the week, we will announce the winners of our raffle! BTW... Ann was at the party, she just vetoed all the pictures- she's not one for being in front of the camera!

Bye, bye birdie,

                                                        

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Write by: AN - Tuesday, January 15, 2013