Merry Monday: Spa Party

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a spa party for some gal pals from the MOMS Club I belong to. And I have to say–fun was had by all! Here are some photos of the night. Make sure to read the details about the massage therapist we had and tips–ideas you may want to use with your friends one night. (Excuse the poor photography. It was at night, red room and all I have is a pocket digital camera!)

• Some girly flip flops invited guests right in as soon as they got to the door to set the mood
• You'll see more photos of the table below, but here is the center of the table. When I was thinking about the tablescape I knew I wanted to incorporate water to give a spa-like feeling, and filling the cylinder vases did the trick.
• I created standing letters out of foam core board and leftover Christmas scrapbook paper to remind all the moms why they were there–and not to think about their little ones at home.

• One of my favorite details on the table was the loofah on the center vase. It really almost looked like a flower on the table!
• For the cylinder vases, I just added one drop of green food coloring to the water. I purchased one bunch of flowers at the Dollar Store (one bunch gave me six flowers for $1), and using kitchen shears, cut the stems off. A couple of tips for you: Positioning the cylinder vases diagonally into the table, instead of just lining them up along the back, allows you to fill up the table when you're not serving too much. Second: Fake flowers do not float. So, I used mini glue dots to hold the flowers in place at the top of the vases, just giving the illusion that they're floating on the water. Party styling magic!

• Since this was later in the evening, I kept the menu light. I served cheese and crackers, cucumber cups topped with hummus, and margherita glasses filled with grapes and kiwi. And no ladies night is complete without chocolate: a dark chocolate chex mix, Andes candies and white chocolate covered pretzels--all keeping with my green color scheme.
• If you look closely at the cucumbers, you may notice that they're set on ice. This is a great tip Kim of Party Frosting reminded me about. If you need to keep something cold during a party, fill a tray with water and scatter in some fruit. In this case, I used sliced lemons (since it went with my spa theme; Kim used cranberries for her table... here) Freeze it and it makes a really nice presentation that'll keep your food cold. *Make sure to only freeze it for about 4 hours or so. If you freeze it overnight, you'll get horrible bumps and cracks because water expands when it's frozen. Also make sure to use a pan that can handle extreme tempertures. I used a glass Pyrex baking dish. Lastly, I set a pane of glass over the ice to avoid the cucumbers from getting soggy if the ice melted during the night. (I have a small wine stand I popped the pane of glass out of, but you could use anything clear)

• I wanted to hang strings of bath beads from the room's chandelier, but could not find them anywhere! Are they just old school now?? So, I used a beaded garland I had that were meant to be reminiscent of bath beads.
• I arranged for a massage therapist to be at the party. I set up a private area where people could get their massage done. We each got a 10-minute massage. It was so great to get the kinks out from being on the computer all week! I set up a table in the room with a CD player and some Enya, a small basket of towelettes and hair ties. These lit branches I bought on a Christmas sale set the perfect mood for those getting a massage done.
• While we waited for our massages, we made peppermint sugar scrubs. I'll share the recipe with you tomorrow.

If you want to get some of your girlfriends together for a night, this is the perfect way to do it! Enjoy!