Archive for August, 2009

A Wonderful Bride And Groom Gift!

You get favors and gifts at wedding showers, bachelor parties, and bachelorette parties. Such get-togethers present a fun opportunity to give your almost-married friend a unique gift or two. A number of the gifts my husband and I got were rather remarkable. Of course plain old money works just fine, and that’s what our engagement party gifts consisted of for the most part, but there were a lot of more creative presents as well. Many of the presents we received from our friends and family were small items, like champagne for our wedding, gift cards, sports tickets, and theater tickets. A lot of our loved ones gave us presents, even though it was not required for engagement parties.
My man’s bachelor party must have been fun because he got some funny tee shirts that they made him wear with funny little phrases printed on the front. He got more than one bride and groom gift, including some wine bottles and a sun visor that said ‘Groom’ on it. He came home from the party with an inflatable doll and a ball and chain that he said they made him wear the whole time the party was going on. He got other mock bride and groom wedding gifts besides, that gave them all some laughs. My girls night out party was fantastic too and I got a lot of gag gifts, but also quite a few nice bride gifts too. They gave me a shimmering white satin purse with a clasp made of crystal on it and a ribbon on top to boot. They put a pin and a shirt inside the bag that I had to wear for our night on the town, and there were some make-up and manicure accessories inside as well. They got me a ‘tonight’ pillow that, when you flipped it over, said ‘not tonight’ to go with whatever mood I’m in. It was definitely an unusual and funny throw pillow.
At our wedding reception there were no gag gifts, just very nice bride and groom wedding gifts from all of our friends and family. We did get extras, like a couple of extra toasters, two identical set of dishes, and more waffle irons than we’ll ever need, but that’s par for the course with such a large wedding. We did get some of the things I had written on to our bridal registry, like the china I wanted and the food processor. One of the gifts my husband truly loves is his bar side set, which also included a very nice pool table from his dad and mom. The plane tickets to get to the Greek Isles for our honeymoon came from my folks. Our family and other loved ones really gave us some outstanding wedding presents.
Most of all, our friends and family being at our wedding to share that magical experience with us was the greatest gift. They have shared so much with us, our last night of being single parties, our engagement party, and our wedding and reception. It’s good to know you have so many people that care this much about you and are there for you during the good times and the bad. Having those crazy friends that go all out to give you the best girls night out party or a super cool bachelor party, means a lot too. With friends like that around, your life will be anything but boring. The magnitude of our gratefulness for having them as friends, along with the most fantastic families, just cannot be expressed in something as small as a thank you note.

Adorable, Affordable Duck Baby Shower!

Kids need bathtub toys, and Sesame Street’s Ernie even sang a song about one of the classics, a tune called ‘Rubber Duckie You’re the One.’ It seemed like such a unique idea that I wasn’t sure if there would be enough duck baby shower around to plan a theme around, but I realized what I started looking into it that the idea was more popular than I had imagined. I got so many great ideas over the net, and finding adorable little accessories and supplies to go with a duck baby shower was easier than I had expected. There are a lot of adorable little duck favors and decorations to be found on the internet for baby showers and even toddler birthday parties.
I put tables that could seat four apiece in my basement rec room since that was plenty big enough for this size crowd. I put baby shower gifts in one corner, and then at the opposite end of the den was a table with appetizers, drinks, deserts, and a layered cake in the form of a rubber ducky and the words baby girl written on it. There were posters of Donald and Daisy Duck, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and the rest of the Disney cast all over the place, and the Daisy Duck one was huge.
At each table were little pink picture frames that I used as place card holders and each frame came with a baby duck in the corner. There were duck favor candles at each table too and on the buffet table were paper plates, cups and napkins all with little baby ducks on them and even the punch bowl was unique. I went to a department store and purchased a little duck shaped baby bathtub and placed a glass punch bowl inside. It looked pretty adorable. I found an ice cube tray that made little duck ice cubes, so I put yellow water in them and froze them. I went all out on this duck themed shower.
On the world wide web, I found a bunch of great ideas, and that’s pretty much where I found everything I needed, but I did get a few recommendations from some of the people at my school. On the Internet is where I found duck shower favors, such as the precious rubber duck favor bookmarkers I found, and the duck candles, too. We used them as prizes for the contests we had at the baby shower, and all of the guests adored them.
Before the guests starting arriving I filled a big square container with water and placed little rubber ducks in it. Every duck had a number on the under side of it, and every guest grabbed one duck out of the tub as they walked in. A couple of hours into the shower, I picked a number out of a jar, and the person with that numbered duck received an award. We had a lot of fun with the guess the baby picture game, too. I hung a baby photo of every guest who brought their baby picture along on a bulletin board. Each guest got a chance to check out the board and see how many pictures they were able to match up with the faces of the other guests. The one with the most correct matches won a prize.
We had a lot of fun, great laughs and the mother to be got some really neat gifts for her little girl. I’m so glad I found this idea for the baby shower online. I didn’t know how it would all come together, but it all worked out very well in the end. The idea of centering it around ducks made for an absolutely adorable theme.

8 Hour Shot Battles 5 Hour Energy!

In a time where Americans will drive the extra mile to save a few pennies on fuel, there is a booming new energy drink category that goes for 20 times more per-oz than Coke – the energy shot.

More and more people are turning away from $3 coffee, in favor of $3 2 ounce shots of solid caffeine – and most of them taste disgusting.

The demand for energy shots is expected to double this year, reaching $700 mil in sales – and Living Essentials will likely be responsible for over 80% of those sales, as they created the original product – the 5 Hour Energy drink.

Several companies are already following in 5 Hour’s footsteps – products like 6 Hour Power, Fuel 7 Hour Energy, and Mr. Energy 8 Hour Energy are all competing to tap into the energy shot world.

8 Hour Energy, though the name is similar, has taken the industry a few steps further. In addition to caffeine, it includes Acai, Gogi, and Tahitian Noni – three incredibly popular berries, each known for their natural energizing and dietary benefits. Usually, these berries can only be attained by purchasing a $40 bottle of juice.

On top of everything, 8 Hour Energy contains no calories or carbs, and it tastes great!

“I’ve seen the 5 Hour ads plastered all over the media. But if people read the labels before they buy, I think they’ll go for 8 Hour Energy. It’s just a better quality product,” says Darin Steen, one of the top 10 health and fitness trainers in the world.

In a double-blind taste-test, 9 of 10 college students preferred 8 Hour Energy over 5 Hour Energy. Other test-groups were given free samples of the Mr Energy 8 Hour Energy shot, and returned with rave reviews.

“Wow… after taking the 8 Hour Energy, not only was I able to stay up to study for finals, I picked up a basketball game after! Without it, I probably wouldn’t have managed to do either,” laughed Troy Smith, a senior majoring in Finance.

“The 8 Hour Energy shot is amazing. I stayed energized and focused, and totally aced my final. It’s like time in a bottle,” said Stephanie Wilcox, a grad student in the UF School of Dentistry.

Despite 5 Hour Energy’s 60 million dollar advertising budget, Bhelliom Enterprises, 8 Hour Energy’s developer, is confident their product will succeed due simply to its superior ingredients. “The ingredients speak for themselves,” says CEO of Bhelliom Enterprises, Casey McCarthy.