Let's All Go To A Renaissance Fair

Set your time machine back to the time of Henry VIII. Invite your guests to come in costumes of the 18^th Century – Vikings, pirates, maidens, belly-dancers, fantasy characters, jesters and knights.

The Renaissance was a time of inspired painters, the occult, danger on the high seas, and a hint of the erotic. They threw axes at a target for fun, had beer fests, and women were buxom and wore laces to accentuate their waistlines.

They loved comedy, puppet shows, and improvisational stage shows and concerts. Some even have realistic re-enactments.

Renaissance food consists of a pot of stew over an open campfire, some freshly baked bread, and lots of ale! Nothing fancy, but a lot of food and fun! When people stay in costume, and use language of the Renaissance times, it is a blast to participate in.

Holding a Renaissance Fair can be a lot of fun. You can have it outside, and raise a tent if the weather if too damp. Sitting around a campfire will keep everyone warm on a cold winter's night, and food cooking around the campfire

Determining Color Schemes

When trying to come up with a color scheme for your event the easiest way to do that is to use the color wheel. With this you can get a visual idea of what you can work with.

Traditionally, the color wheel consists of your primary colors: red, blue and yellow, and all other colors are a mix of these three. The wheel has the purest hues of the colors, all others are tints (lighter hues) and tones (various darker shades of the color). An example: you could go with a soft sage (hue) or a hunter green (tint) which is darker. Their value is made by adding white, black or blackish brown (umber) to make the pure color lighter or darker.
   Basically, there are three ways to use the wheel that will give you co-ordinating colors: complementary, analogous or in a triad.

Complementary colors are that are opposite on the color wheel. When you put them together it makes the other color stand out.

Analogous colors are those that lie on either side of your chosen color (if you choose purple you will see blue and pink on either side of the wheel). They go together because they share a common hue.

Warm colors are the half of the color wheel from yellow-green to red. These colors are more vibrant and stand out. The are associated with the sun (yellow) and fire (orange). In fact, if you were to put red and purple together (from both ends of the spectrum) your eyes won’t be able to focus them at the same time and puts a strain on them.  You will want to add a bit of warmth from a cool color to help you round out the color scheme.

The Cool colors generally are those that recede. An example: a small room will appear larger if you use a cool color on the walls – like blue, green or purple. A cool theme will need at least dabs of warmth to pick up the beat.

Triads are a combination of three colors equally spaced on the wheel – like yellow, orange, purple and blue/green.

Since green and purple can be considered warm or cool, in some context, they often are considered neutrals that can go with any color.

Don’t forget to balance your colors. While light and medium values work well together they can get a bit boring, so add a darker value. Example: light blue and light yellow are great, but add a bit of navy blue or cobalt blue to give it depth.

Wedding Gifts That Will Be Remembered

Searching for the p erfect wedding gift is not as difficult as it may seem. If you are not sure of the couple’s taste, a simple gift of something they could use, like a keepsake box to store memories in, would be most appropriate.
Photo Frames always are welcome. Surrounding yourself with memories of events, family, friends or your wedding makes a new couple’s home feel warm and inviting. You can get frames with personalization or character.
If they enjoy wine, and taking wine to friends, a wine carrier or storage would be an excellent choice. For those who enjoy sporting events stadium seats or coolers would come in handy.
If you want an elegant gift that is unique a pewter wedding certificate holder , engraved with their names would make a wonderful display. Another gift that can be enjoyed year after year is a Love Letter Ceremony Box , where the couple can write a letter with their thoughts on their wedding day, and open it up on an anniversary to reminisce – like a time capsule of love.

Happy Labor Day!

No Labor Day party is complete without games and fun things to keep the kids busy while the adults sit around and talk. Party food is important, but so is fun.  Take the time to enjoy the last holiday of the summer with friends and family, and put your outside worries aside for a few hours with these last minute party games.

As a kid we always enjoyed "Simon Says." Both adults and children really can have fun with this. You can have the kids play with the adults, or have their own version, but creativity is the most fun part of this game.

Another game both adults and kids will have fun with - pass the water balloon. It's similar to musical chair, but instead of sitting down you are passing a balloon filled with water. The person holding the balloon at the end of the music has to get wet. A great way to cool off on a hot day!

Giant Marbles is played with as many round sports balls as you can round up (basket ball, soccer ball or kids plastic round ball). Mark a perimeter with either a rope or chalk and with each person taking one turn at a time, kick one ball to hit as many balls out of the perimeter as possible. It's similar to playing marbles, where the shooter kicks out the rest of the marbles from the circle. 

Have fun with the kids, they will appreciate it and you will remember how much fun it is to play games too.