3 Amazingly Easy Party Games to Wow Your Group

October 25, 2017 by Florence 37 Comments

I’m participating in the Fantastic Fifty Fall Blog Hop, so with party season approaching, I thought it would be fun to share 3 amazingly easy party games to wow your group.

They were a HUGE hit and my group couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had! Now these would work with any adult group, but my ~~victims~~ guests were Seniors, just like me. Before I came up with these ~~brilliant~~ fun game suggestions, I looked to Google for inspiration.

But doing a Google search was practically pointless, I found. It was either too elementary (Pin the Tail on the Donkey), or the old favorites like “Charades, Twister, or

Spin the Bottle.” As you can imagine, these wouldn’t work for a group of Seniors who:

can’t sit on the floor (they may never get up again)
can’t contort their bodies like “Twister” (heaven forbid)
we’re a little too old for “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” or “Musical Chairs.” (with age goes the balance and the energy.)

More searches, which were fruitless. I googled up party games for adults, and got racy games with sexual overtones. Didn’t want that either!

So I put my thinking cap on. “What did I have a lot of?” I mused. Well, as a picker, I have a lot of vintage junk, and I have a lot of hats. I’ve sold hats, and I have my beloved goofy hat collection! Germs of an idea began to form, and I came up with the 3 games below:

The Tray Game
The Hat Game
The Bidding Game

The Tray Game

The Tray Game is very easy, and totally relies on the power of observation to play it.

Preparation Ahead of Time

Select a large tray.
Go on a scavenger hunt in your house, gathering up a collection of small objects.

What I used: a battery, matchbook, spoon, Sharpie, pencil, letter, small book, small light bulb, cassette, piece of chain, bottle of pills, etc.

To make it challenging: Use small objects, which blend in with each other better, whereas a large object will stand out more.

Place all objects in the tray, scattering them out so all can be seen fairly easily, yet fill it up enough so that you have a LOT in the tray.

The Game:

Cover with a towel.
On party night, hand out paper & pencils.
Bring the tray out in front of your guests.
Allow them to look at it for 1 minute, then re-cover again. A timer is helpful.
They will fill out what objects they remember seeing on the tray. Usually you get about 6-8 responses. The person getting the most right wins.
I give out prizes for more fun and incentive.

Suggested Prizes

Small box or bag of candy, nuts, specialty cookies or crackers etc.

The Hat Game

This is another game relying on the power of observation. Enter the goofy hats, which were perfect for this game. Most people enjoy dressing up a bit or wearing hats, but they wouldn’t be caught dead wearing one if everybody else isn’t doing it. In this game, you are giving them permission to be a little goofy, and my group had a ball wearing them, taking photos, and putting themselves on Facebook.

Preparation Ahead of Time:

Host and Hostess select a goofy hat to wear for the evening. The Hostess hat needs to be flat and unnoticeable.
What I call “The Hair Hat” is fairly unobtrusive and flat
Have a collection of hats by the door….the goofier, the better.
Wearing his goofy hat, the Host greets each person at the door telling them to select a hat to wear for the evening, and explains the rules.

The Object:

The guests are to observe what the hostess does throughout the evening. When she removes her hat, (as unobtrusively as possible), then everyone else is to follow suit. I wait till the evening is well advanced, usually during the first or second game. By that time, guests are having fun, and forget they’re even wearing a hat, so the last person to remove his/her hat is the loser. You can have the loser win the prize, or the first person to remove their hat be the winner. However you want to do it is fine.

What if You Don’t Have a Goofy Hat Collection

Go to the Dollar Store, pick up some party hats, and draw on goofy faces or glue on googly eyes. You can really get goofy with this step! Go pick up hats at the thrift store and decorate them.

The Bidding Game

The object of this game, is to auction off prizes you’ve put in paper sacks. They bid with play money. The auctioneer (you) needs to be animated and endeavor to get the bidders going without telling them what’s in the bags.

When I realized that I, a slow-talking, soft-spoken, quiet, laid-back introvert, would have to become animated, I was a little chagrined (and I made up these rules,) but you can do it!! If I can do it, anybody can!

This game is great for me because I can get rid of a little junk. It can be anything…white elephant gifts you’re planning to donate, or things you don’t need anymore, or extra nice things…whatever.

This game can go on as long as you have prizes to give out.

That’s my 3 games, but here’s~

One More Popular Activity for Groups

I guess you could call this the Talking Game…LOL

Everybody loves to talk about themselves, so…

Develop a list of Trivia Questions
Cut them up into single sentences
Fold each up into small squares
Pass out to the group to answer one-by-one.
Or you could give everyone the same question, such as “What was Your Most Embarrassing Moment?”

Which is your favorite, and which can you see yourself doing? Do you have more suggestions?

And now, don’t forget to visit all the other blogs below! You’re sure to come away inspired!

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing with these link parties….

A Farmhouse Birdfeeder Made from Horseshoes and an Old Icebox

August 20, 2017 by Florence 38 Comments

Alright, I can’t take credit for this darling old farmhouse birdfeeder made from horseshoes and an old icebox. It was given to a friend of ours over 20 years ago, and he gave it to us. It was love at first sight when I laid eyes on it, and this was waaaay before “farmhouse” came into vogue.

The Prized Farmhouse Birdfeeder

This has been hanging on a tree limb in the back yard for over 20 years, and it finally rotted after being exposed to our searingly hot summers, torrential rains, and the occasional snow storm.

Rotted yes, falling apart yes. It even retired from birdfeeder duty because the seed fell out through the cracks. It was that bad. Even before that, once the squirrels discovered it, seed was gone in 15 minutes. Just a mite discouraging when you want to feed the birds.

We couldn’t stand the thought of further retiring this to the trash heap, so hubby took on the task of restoring it, and now the seed doesn’t fall through the cracks, but it’s still open season for squirrels.

Isn’t this the coolest! Maybe you’d like to make you one! Hubby thinks it’s made with zinc-coated metal from an old refrigerator (icebox). Barbed wire, or as we say in the South…”bob wahre”…forms the hanger. The horseshoes aren’t real iron ones. He says they’re aluminum. New old wood has re-fortified it for another 20 years. 4 screws hold down each side of the deliciously rusty roof.

See that thing that looks like hose on the hanger? It is exactly that! My one and only contribution to the farmhouse birdfeeder. Since I originally hung it on a tree limb, I didn’t want the wire growing into the tree…hence the hose.

A Few More Views of the Construction~

So the birds are flocking to it, and I’m sure the squirrels will too eventually. I’m resigning myself.

WILL YOU PIN? THANK YOU!

A True Birdseed Story~

Talking about birdfeeders today, I have to tell you my true birdseed story.

A few years ago, hubby & I went by “Wild Birds Unlimited” where we usually bought seed. While there, we spied lovely looking suet cakes made with raisins, seed, and other things delicious to birds. They looked so tasty, I was about ready to chow down on one myself!

An impulse buy brought us a special metal feeder and 4 suet cakes. The special feeder was a hook on one end to loop over a tree limb, and a spike long enough to hold all 4 suet cakes. So we thought, “why not?” We’ll just put all 4 on there & be able to enjoy a constant show of birds coming to feast on the suet. HA! WE THOUGHT!

Next morning, we got up and to our horror, and unbelieving eyes, all 4 suet cakes were completely gone! Not even a plastic wrapper left! NOTHING! Only the hanger.

I would like to have witnessed the “show” of seeing the possum…raccoon…squirrel, or whatever…remove those suet cakes one by one, and carry them off into the woods! That’s the show I would like to have seen! Well, the joke’s on us. We never bought another single suet cake.

Beneath the Surface Bathroom Decluttering

January 21, 2017 by Florence 12 Comments

Beneath the surface bathroom decluttering is a needed project in the Urge to Purge series. Joining with “No Place Like Home Bloggers,” we are all decluttering and organizing for the month of January. As this week’s challenge is bathroom decluttering, I jumped in because my bathroom hasn’t been really decluttered in 20 years. I didn’t realize I had so much excess because it’s all beneath the surface.

Here is a view of the bathroom…pre-purge and it doesn’t look too bad, but just stay with me.

Bathroom Decluttering

Four grocery bags of old makeup, dried up lotions, nail polishes I haven’t worn in umpteen years, contact lens paraphernalia, (I haven’t worn contacts in 4 years) half-empty bottles…you know what I mean!

My 40-year collection of soap scraps has finally bitten the dust (I made soap bars out of the scraps 35 years ago. Ask me if I’ve done it since), and my pink hair brush I’ve had since Junior High, missing most of the bristles is also gone. Can you tell it’s hard for me to throw stuff away yet??? Yes, I had to get firm.

And just the other day I was thinking I need to buy some red lipstick. After the purge, I found 4 tubes.

I’ve finally broken myself of the habit of cleaning out old lipsticks with a brush to get to the very end. Did you know there’s a lot of lipstick left after a tube is “empty”? My mother, who grew up during the Depression, taught me this years ago. In fact, if you want to read more about those down home lessons, click to read Depression Thinking.

We have no medicine cabinet, unfortunately, so everything has to go in a drawer. I’ve found it very helpful to label the tops of bottles so I can tell at a glance what something is.

See all those headbands? I haven’t had long hair in years! Gone

I used to pull cotton out of medicine bottles to save it, another down home lesson….no more.

2 Undersink Cabinets below:

Top: 3 bags of old makeup. I’ve needed for years to purge this!

Now it’s all in a basket…easy to find and pick up.

I went through 9 drawers and 2 cabinets. Hubby just did these three, but he got in the spirit and did a good job. No before photos.

Thanks for sticking with me in my bathroom decluttering project!

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How I Organize My Ebay Etsy Home Office

January 15, 2017 by Florence 33 Comments

I guarantee you that having a well-organized home office is part of being a good seller! When you sell an item, you want to be able to find it! In my Etsy shop, for example, I have over 200 items listed and more than that in my inventory, and it’s ~~sometimes~~ always challenging to find a place to store all that. Especially if you live in a home, rather than a warehouse! Today I’m showing how I organize my Ebay Etsy home office in the Urge to Purge series. Mine is located upstairs in a small loft where I keep desktop, printer, office supplies, and Etsy shop inventory. We are blessed to have a large bedroom, bath, loft, and several unfinished attic rooms upstairs, and it’s all devoted to my business.

The goal is/was to keep ALL my inventory up here, and not have it strewn all over the house. I strive for that, BUT! You have only to refer to Vintage Picker Off Limits Home Tour to see reality.

At one time in the distant past, our loft was a cute and cozy room, decorated with a vintage 1930’s radio, floral sofa and rug, vintage quilt displayed on the banister, and a couple of club chairs. Now it’s almost a room again!

Loft from the Great Room….I love that the old quilt covers up most of the ~~mess~~ valued inventory upstairs!

How I Organize My Ebay Etsy Home Office

Storing Inventory

This corner of the loft is in front of the antique radio…

As part of my inventory, I keep a large box of vintage buttons, old sewing patterns, and a stack of Bibles. A Baby First Step doll not in great shape cosmetically. No longer walks. Not very rare either.

My Etsy shop, vintagesouthernpicks.etsy.com, is a vintage one (what else?), so my inventory is highly varied. I carry crochet, yarn, and sewing supplies, paper ephemera, books, and knick-knacks….just a bit of everything. Since it’s all different sizes, open shelving was the answer, but it instantly looks very cluttered.

Center of Loft room before……Really hate the clutter of open shelves!

Now most of that is stored right here in an old chest of drawers.

My dad fixed this up for me years ago when I was moving into my first apartment, so it’s pretty old and very basic. I would love to paint it white and distress it…a job for another day.

Now I have a shipping center! I was using the sofa before, which was too low making it backbreaking bending over to pack stuff.

And the other side of the room….Left side of banister railing…..

These banister shelves are in an L-shape, so at least they look uniform, even if still cluttered.

Right side of banister railing…..

Over here I have smalls like dolls, toys, games, vintage cigarette lighters, vintage padlocks, glassware, and crochet supplies. I know where everything is (I think!)

My computer desk and printer. For 3 years I’ve been running across the room for access to the printer, so I’m glad to have it close.

For the first time in years, I’ve been able to get to this bookcase, which needs purging. If there’s one thing hard for me to get rid of…it’s books!

In the whole purge, I eliminated 3 black shelving units…

And gained 2 full boxes of smalls for the HUGE GARAGE SALE OF 2017!

Garage salers, eat your heart out! It’s gonna be good!

Storage for the Etsy Home Office

Part of the issue of a home office is where to put all the stuff already listed and waiting to sell. Sellers do this different ways…

*Box is weighed, then flattened again, item goes back into inventory until it sells. Advantage is saving room on box storage.

*Box is weighed, then find a place to store it until it sells. This is my method.

For either method, ample storage is a must, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each one.

After much frustration and wasted time, I learned I had to take the time to label the outside of boxes. I was spending way too much time opening boxes looking for stuff.

In fact, I still spend a lot of time looking for things even though the boxes are labeled. I’ve never had to tell a customer I can’t find their package, but almost!

Since I don’t live in a warehouse, I have to find places to store, but at least it’s all upstairs.

My Storage Places…

Large Shelving Unit in hall holds mailers filled with smaller items…..

Alcove off the upstairs bath holds my scale, shelves with small boxes, and mailers that hold books…..

Closet off the bath is my kitchen room, holding all kitchen-related items.

One wall of the bedroom holds large mailers…

And against another wall are boxes holding items that can’t stand attic heat…..

When we have overnight guests, they naturally agree to sleep among all the mailers!

3 Years ago, hubby built these wonderful attic shelves which I love….

Storing Packing Supplies

Running an Ebay/Etsy office also involves storing packing supplies…boxes, tape, bubble wrap, peanuts, air pillows, mailers. I also use foam rubber occasionally and styrofoam, all of which are bulky items requiring ample storage. Luckily, I have a large attic room off the loft where I store all that stuff.

This is just half the room….

I use peanuts ALL the time….

Foam rubber and styrofoam occasionally…..

Bubble wrap ALL the time….

Air pillows in an old laundry hamper & window seat….

Thank goodness for a friend running a Christmas shop, who saves me all her air pillows and peanuts.

My system isn’t pretty, but it’s serviceable for my needs. My advice is to use what you have on hand. I love the feminine, color-coordinated craft rooms I see in blog-land. In a perfect world, mine will look like that!

Thanks for sticking with me on how I organize my Ebay Etsy home office! Any sellers out there reading this….what is YOUR method? I’d love to hear new suggestions!

Don’t forget to pin!

Thanks!!

Urge to Purge 1

January 5, 2017 by Florence 16 Comments

Christmas is over. January is usually a home improvement project so I think “urge to purge 1” qualifies, don’t you? I’m joining blogging friend Brenda Kula-Pruitt from CozyLittleHouse and we’re all purging our excess stuff together. Mine will result in a gigantic yard sale later in the year.

First job to tackle is the Master closet, but I’m not going to show you that till next week. This week is the Linen closet. I was so anxious to start I forgot the before pix. It didn’t look bad, but it was driving me crazy anyway.

How only 2 people can accumulate so many towels is beyond me. A lot of the sheet sets had to go too because once we got a mattress with deep corners, the shallow pocket sheets had to go.

I debated saving the sheets for sewing projects, but the object here is to get RID of…not keep more stuff. Besides, I haven’t sat down at that sewing machine for at least 2 years.

urge to purge 1 — linen closet top shelf straightened & purged

You see, we live in an open floor plan house, which is great in some ways because it’s trendy, and it makes small rooms look bigger. But the downside is, there’s not many walls or closets. So your wall and closet space is at a premium.

Therefore, we needed our heads examined, when we trained our Alvie to go to bed at night in the linen closet.

The only time of day he gets a cat treat, he looks forward to going beddy-bye. He is one hairy cat that sheds like crazy, and he has not only totally ruined one blanket, but made the largest section of the precious closet totally unusable. But he is so darn cute & we love him to death so I guess anything for Alvie. Might as well make it official. I had a brainstorm to put the bed in just in case he might like it better.

And I want you to know I made a special trip to Wal-Mart (hate going to Wal-Mart) to get the little bed for the dog, but now it’s Alvie’s. What can I say…we’re nuts over the cat.

We found Alvie in Tennessee when we visited the Alvin C. York historic site and cemetery. A screeching little kitten running up to anybody and everybody. We promptly adopted the starving little thing and named him for Alvin C. York…Alvie for short. We name all our animals for where we get them.

The sum total of the purge: 3 queen sheet sets, 1 plastic tablecloth, 2 single sheets and pillowcase, 3 bath towels, 8 hand towels, 13 wash cloths to Goodwill.

Do you have the urge to purge in the new year?

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