Category: Hosting

Before 2020, NYC natives, visiting tourists, and East Coasters alike practiced the long-held tradition of venturing into the heart of Manhattan on St. Patrick’s Day to enjoy the festivities. What festivities, you may ask? Well of course, there was the late morning parade, but before, during, and after that parade, folks celebrated in Irish pubs drinking proper pints. New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is sadly cancelled again this year and instead going virtual. BUT, just because we can’t celebrate in the manner we’re accustomed to, doesn’t mean we should forgo the rowdy Saint Paddy’s Day traditions that are typically found along 5th Ave or in NYC’s Luck of the Irish Pub Crawl. Bring the NYC experience home this St. Patrick’s Day with this list of festive activities!

---

At Home Pub Crawl

Picture this: infamous NYC St. Patrick’s Day bars like Blarney Stone, Bar None and Plug Uglies meets your living room. Stay with me here.

It’s casual, it’s rowdy, and it’s a bit grimy, but that’s the true experience. Deck out your living room and kitchen with dive bar decor and dim the lighting. Think: chalkboard menus, wooden serving platters, and plenty of pint glasses. Prepare to play some rather loud, traditional St. Patrick’s Day bar music that’s folk style, yet eclectic.

Need help with a playlist? Try this custom St. Patrick’s Day Playlist on my All the Best Moments Spotify Account.

Invite that punchy green color into your home with pennants, four leaf clovers, shamrocks and ivy garlands. Green yourself out, and accessorize your friends with green wigs, leprechaun hats and beaded necklaces with shot glasses attached.

Play bar games like darts, pool, Jenga, beer pong, and flip cup, or go all out with karaoke. Stream the virtual parade in the background.

Serve shots of Jameson, Irish car bombs, and classic pub food. If you want to take the NYC St. Patrick’s Day experience to the next level, serve a signature Irish drink, like a Massey cocktail with Irish whiskey, out of individual flasks.

Keep the drinks flowing and the folk music on high, and you’ll have yourself an at home pub crawl atmosphere in no time!

---

Floor is Lava: Pot of Gold Edition

NYC on Saint Patrick’s Day involves drinks around every corner, and the luck of the Irish calls for a quintessential pot of gold. So why not combine the two? Thus I bring you, Floor is Lava: Pot of Gold Edition.

Fair warning, this game is best played at the beginning of your gathering, before the festivities get carried away. It’s a GREAT icebreaker, and is sure to jump start those rowdy NYC St. Paddy’s Day vibes.

Gather as many throw pillows and blankets as you can, and spread them out strategically around your living room furniture. The goal is to leave enough space to create a bit of a challenge between safe spots (if you’re competitive, you know what I mean).

Pick up between 3-5 nips (tiny bottles of booze) per person, but don’t be the host that makes people drink the whole thing straight. Instead, empty out the different kinds of liquor into their own respective glasses. Create mini mixed drinks that pair well with each liquor (try these Shamrocked Shooters or these Irish Margaritas), then pour those mixtures back into the nip bottles. Make sure to use the right nip bottle for the liquor you used in the mixed drink, because some people don’t tolerate (insert liquor here) very well.

Disperse the nips around all of the “lava” areas that are in-between your pillows and blankets. Ask your guests to start at one end of the room, standing on a shared blanket, and make their way across the room to the pot of gold, without stepping on the lava. When someone lands on a pillow or blanket, they’re safe. If they fall into the lava, they need to drink the nip that’s closest to them!

Don’t forget the key rule: only one player can make a move at any given time. This way, folks will have to hold their awkward positions a bit longer than usual (perhaps I’m the competitive one 😉).

As the host, you get to decide what’s in the pot of gold. I’d recommend picking up some chocolate coins, because… nostalgia.

---

St. Patrick’s Day… But Make it Classy

If you’re the kind of person that likes to indulge in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, but without all of the drinks to imbibe, I’m here for you. Your lowkey, but still festive, St. Paddy’s Day at home calls for another form of indulgence; baking.

There are endless recipes for authentic Irish comfort food to host a seated dinner with (think of it like Thanksgiving, but swap the turkey for corned beef and cabbage). Although, I personally prefer to satisfy my sweet tooth, and if you’re reading this, I think you might too!

Your baked goods don’t need to be authentic, or complex, to be celebratory. Pick up a four leaf clover shaped cookie cutter, bake a batch of sugar cookies, and frost them in varying hues of green to create an aesthetically pleasing (and very Instagrammable) ombré pattern.

If you do want to dabble with a dessert drink, try an Irish coffee, or make it a milkshake!

---

🍀Disclaimer: this blog post is intended for readers 21+. Please drink responsibly!🍀

Have a question about something specific? Ask it on my Q&A page!

Read more from the Happy Hostess.

Hosting a party, or even a small gathering, can feel overwhelming when your home is tight on space. Perhaps you’re living in a tiny apartment, working around roommates, or you’re planning to invite more bodies than your place can hold comfortably. In any scenario, don’t let your small space prevent you from thinking big. It’s taken me a few tries and a few different living situations, but I’ve come to establish a bit of a routine for hosting in a small space. In this blog post, I’ll share a list of tips that I follow to maximize space, reduce clutter, reinvent and repurpose the use of everyday furniture to create an open environment for guests to flow freely. Welcome friends, family and neighbors into your home with confidence, by implementing these tips for hosting in a small space.

---

Tip No. 1

Establish party zones. Chances are, you aren’t planning to open up your bedroom to guests. Or your linen closet, or any other storage areas that are tucked away behind closed doors. Think of these spaces as the crown jewels of your party. They offer entirely open and usable space to conceal any clunky home furnishings, hide personal belongings, and temporarily store unneeded items that take up too much surface area or floor space.

Determine which rooms you’ll invite guests into, and which rooms will be the main areas dedicated to the party, AKA, the party zones. The majority of house parties tend to rely on kitchens and living rooms as dedicated party zones, especially when hosting in a small space.

---

Tip No. 2

Walk into your party zone with a fresh perspective, as if you’re seeing that space for the first time. What impression do you get from your home? Consider how it makes you feel, where your eyes are drawn to, and what words you would use to describe it.

Pay extra attention to any clutter, piles of empty boxes, overstuffed shelves, unused dinnerware / kitchenware / home decor. You don’t need to tackle these areas right away, but do make a mental (or physical) note of the obvious stuff.

Allow yourself a healthy dose of criticism, and identify any spaces that aren’t serving their full potential. Untapped potential is going to be your biggest waste of space, so don’t let it rob your party of that coveted square footage!

Evaluate how you could better capitalize on those areas. Do a massive clean out, donate unused or unwanted items, or rearrange any sections of your home that stand out as an eye-sore. Remember, the changes you make don’t have to be permanent. You could always rely on those crown jewels spaces to temporarily store your things.

---

Tip No. 3

Reconfigure the floor plan. Before you roll your eyes at this tip, consider the possibilities. The way you use your space to live your day-to-day life isn’t very harmonious with the way your space is used during a party.

The top changes that will make the biggest difference in opening up your space include:

Relocating furniture to the perimeter of the room to develop an open floor plan.

Remove extra seating, especially if you’re planning a cocktail style event. Leave enough seats for guests to rest comfortably, but not enough for the same guests to remain seated the entire time. You want to encourage a version of musical chairs 🙂

Shift chairs and ottomans around to create vignettes. In a small space, you could use two ottomans and a side table, two chairs, or a couch and coffee table to make your vignettes. These furniture pairings will give guests a designated space to have a more intimate conversation.

Pro-Tip: Use software like AllSeated or Merri to generate a floorplan of your space that’s completely to scale. Or use the Houzz app to upload photos of your space and test out different remodeling options.

---

Tip No. 4

Get granular about the dinnerware, platters and glassware that you intend to use. The more that you limit these items, the more minimalistic and streamlined it will feel when guests are actually in the room.

Take your food and beverage presentation for a test run, by setting aside some time to put together a mock table sample. In events, we call call this a design presentation. Though, it doesn’t need to be as elaborate to be as effective.

Pull all of the items that you plan to use and arrange them strategically on your kitchen table, island, or countertop. Play around with the placement until it’s as concise as possible. Remember that less is more, because once your gathering rolls around, each of those dishes will have food on them and will look much more abundant than empty serving trays.

When your final few trays are left standing, use post-it notes to label those trays with how you plan to use them (i.e. “Crudités,” or “Petit Fours”). Take a photo of the full set up and revert back to it on the event day. This will reduce clutter by keeping you from grabbing more dishes than you need.

---

Tip No. 5

Use vertical space!

Consider your closet, for example. If you’re hosting an event in the winter, folks will likely arrive at your home wearing heavy coats, hats, gloves and scarves, and will inevitably leave them all over the place. If you can clear out any seasonal items from your closet (either in your entryway or bedroom) and temporarily lay those clothes under your bed, you can use the closet space as a coat check of sorts.

Get that recognition as hostess with the mostess by offering to take your guests’ jackets when they first arrive. Stuff the scarf into the sleeve, the hat into one pocket and the gloves into the other pocket, and hang up the coat in your closet. It’ll stay out of sight during the event, and mitigate one major reason why small spaces fill up so quickly.

More vertical space hacks:

Tiered serving trays and risers to optimize food stations.

Decorative ceiling or wall installations to maximize standing room.

Eliminate curtains or open blinds entirely to draw the eye up and create a sense of more space.

---

Tip No. 6

Don’t go crazy with decor. Negative space is important at any gathering, but especially when hosted in a small space.

Clean, untouched areas give the eye a place to rest. These open areas will help your guests feel calmer, less confined, and eager to keep the party going rather than feel overstimulated and uncomfortable.

Choose a neutral color palette that evokes a fresh, light and airy vibe. Try to stay away from patterns and stick with solids.

Utilize pre-existing decor in your home, instead of bringing more materials. Think: greenery, white candles, and transparent materials like glass instead of heavy materials like gold. Again, bear in mind that less is more. The perk to this tip, is that it’s really budget friendly!

---

Tip No. 7

Make friends with the neighbors, but do it authentically! Relationships with your neighbors are everything, and if you buddy up early on, you can often lean on them for a helping hand when you’re hosting.

The favor could be as simple as storing a few bottles of wine in their fridge, or keeping desserts on their table until after dinner. A note on etiquette; if the gathering lends itself to it, invite your neighbor as a guest. It’s the polite thing to do, especially if you’re hosting a more casual affair.

---

Tip No. 8

Do away with the conventional bar or buffet. Instead, disperse drinks, appetizers and desserts throughout the home to prevent heavy foot traffic in the kitchen. Serve a charcuterie board from a coffee table, or a coffee station from the entry table, to help alleviate congestion caused by serving all of the food and beverage from one central location.

There you have it! Now go own that tiny space and make something beautiful.

If you’re like me, it can be hard to stay in one place for long. When you’re eager for a change of scenery, find the nearest beach, and plan a few special touches to elevate an evening away from home. Celebrate life over a glass of rose and good conversation, watching the sunset at the beach.

---

Sunset Vibes

Sunset at the beach is quite possibly one of my favorite ways to spend an evening. I don’t get to the beach as often as I’d like, so it feels really special when I can block out an evening to getaway.

---

Beach Moment

Plan to arrive to the beach a few hours before sunset. Typically, two to three hours is the perfect amount of time for me. Though, if you want to spend the latter half of the day at the beach, be my guest!

When I go to the beach for a day trip, chairs are definitely my forte. But when I head to the beach for an evening away, I like to keep it as simple and lightweight as possible. I pack a blanket to cozy up on, and set up a little vignette of the following things.

---

Bubbles & Bites

Wine, rose, and champagne always taste better at the beach! Chill the bottles beforehand, and add them to a little cooler or insulated bag with ice right before leaving. Always opt to bring acrylic wine glasses or plastic cups over glass.

I’m a big fan of a charcuterie board. It feels super indulgent, but it’s relatively low maintenance to compose. Plus, what goes better with wine than cheese?

In the morning, prepare the board with a few cheeses, prosciutto, bread or crackers, and jam. Cover the board with tin foil, pop it in the fridge, and take it out right before heading to the beach.

Don’t forget: plates, napkins, cheese knives, hand sanitizer, and garbage bags for trash.

Pro-Tip: Don’t go overboard; less is more for an evening at the beach. Think: easy in, easy out. The simpler, the better!

---

Games & Activities

If you’re going to the beach with family or friends, consider packing a few lightweight games to play when you first arrive. It’s an easy way to break the ice, kick off the evening and keep people entertained. Especially if little ones are involved!

A deck of cards, kite, or a game like ring toss are perfect options.

---

Music

Most beaches are pretty lenient on allowing visitors to play music, especially in the evening when it’s less crowded. Charge up your portable speaker, and find a few good playlists to set the tone for the evening.

Music is such a simple way to completely transform the vibe of a space. Plus, it can inspire off-the-cuff moments of singing and dancing, spark a new conversation, or give a little background when the conversation falls as you watch the sunset.

---

Relax and Enjoy

It’s so important to build in time to recharge and celebrate the small things that life has to offer. What better way to do that than with your feet in the sand, and sunset on the horizon?

For more ideas to elevate special moments, see my blog posts under Happy Hostess.