Apartment Blog

Green doesn’t just have to be the color for your party, make it the theme!! Green living can extend to how you entertain! Making it green is easy on the environment and easy for you to do! Mimicking the tips we’ve already given you for St. Patrick’s Day Party Ideas, we’ve matched some eco-friendly ones. Check out these tips:

Tip 1: Invitations
As I always suggest, send out electronic invitations. Besides giving your party a more casual tone, you also save on paper that is just going to be thrown out later.  Or if you’re party is going to be formal and dictates having an invite, try to use recycled paper invitations.

Tip 2: Decorations
Just for the sheer expense, I always try to recommend fun crafty ideas for holiday decorations. Take a look at our St. Patrick’s Day Party ideas. But it turns out, not only will these save you money; they are also more environmentally friendly! Making your decorations would be a creative and a fun thing for you and your friends or kids to do.  And as much as it hurts, my favorite party staple that I always recommend–balloons–is actually pretty bad for the environment! They often end up in the ocean where they are consumed by sea life, which eventually die from balloons blocking their digestive system. So looks like all my ballooning days are over! 

Tip 3: Food & Drinks
A cute and easy idea to avoid waste is serving finger food. By serving finger food, you alleviate the need to have utensils or plates.  Your guest can just have their little sandwiches, cheese & crackers, cookies, chips on napkins.  And if you want to save on purchasing cups, offer your guests canned or bottled beverages. You can recycle them when they are done!  Wow, this tip allows you to save on a little bit of money as well! Cha-ching!

Tip 4: Entertainment
If you’ve read our blog about St. Patrick’s Day  Party ideas then you know we suggest doing contests, having music or a movie playing in the background.  These ideas don’t require too many materials. But another idea I’d like to add is doing Karaoke! You don’t necessarily have to have a machine (although it helps), but just grab a bunch of your already ‘tipsy’ friends for some movin and groovin and perhaps a little singing!  This should make for a lot of entertainment!! 

While we are making suggestions about how to make your St. Patrick’s Day party more eco-friendly, please remember these tips can certainly be used for your other parties.  If you’re having a Birthday celebration soon, think about using some of these ideas. Not only are you helping the environment but you also may be saving some money in the process!! Bonus!!

Source: Progressivekid.com

So this year you want to host a fun green filled St. Patrick’s Day party, huh? Well, follow these tips and you’re sure to not disappoint!

Tip 1: Invitations
As always, we start our hosting parties with letting the guest list know who, what, where, when, etc. These invitations can be hand crafted, store bought or emailed! Chose whichever suits the party you’re throwing or guests attending. Regardless of the medium chosen, have the St. Patrick’s Day theme clear with lots of green, shamrocks, leprechauns, etc. Think of clever phrases or jokes to get a rise out of the receiver, such as: ‘Knock Knock, who’s there, Irish, Irish who?, Irish you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!’ Ha ha ha!!

Tip 2: Decorations
Think green and silly when it comes to decorations for your party! Shamrocks and leprechauns are a must on the walls and windows. Take a look at our St. Patrick’s Day Crafts blog for ideas on how to create some of your decorations or go with store bought ones. I always advise using balloons as I think they scream party! But additional decorations would be needed on the buffet table such as green table cloth, napkins, cups, confetti, centerpieces, etc. Also make attire a decorative element by having everyone wear green and leprechaun hats!

Tip 3: Food & Drinks
Keep the green theme going with your food too! You can have green cookies, green M&M’s, chips with guacamole, fruit that’s green, green beverages, etc. Let your imagination run wild! And if you can’t think of enough foods that are green, you can always use food coloring! The obvious drink choice for a St. Patrick’s Day party is beer. Traditional Irish beers, such as Guinness or Murphy’s Irish Red Ale, would be served. If your party does have alcohol please be responsible for all your guests. Have someone as the designated driver for those that drink or offer guests to stay the night.

Tip 4: Entertainment
A must in every party is to have entertainment for your guests. You can have contests such as a limerick contest, St. Patrick’s Day games or just music or videos playing in background for noise. A suggestion would be having the music/movie coordinate with the theme, i.e. St. Patrick’s Day party having Irish music or one of the Top 10 St. Patrick’s Day Movies playing on your T.V. Either way, you’ve got to have something fun and interactive so your guests won’t be bored!

With these four tips your St. Patrick’s Day party should be a blast! Your guests will have a smashing time and you’ll be regarded as the best host! Enjoy!

Source: ehow.com

Are you throwing a Valentine’s theme party this year? Do you need some ideas? Check out our five tips for throwing an awesome bash this year!

Tip 1: Invitations

Depending on the formality of your party, you can choose official invitations, emailed invitations or just verbally announce. Either way you choose, make sure it’s using the holiday colors and verbiage (lots of LOVE) while also setting the tone for the party.

Tip 2: Décor

Obviously you’ll want to stick somewhat to the color scheme of Valentines, like red, white and pink. Incorporate these colors in many of the decorations to give your party a truly lovely look. You might want to think about streamers, plates, napkins, cups, table cloth and of course the party staple balloons! And as I mentioned in our ‘cheap decorations’ blog, you can always make a lot of your decorations by using construction paper, colored plates cut out in the shape of hearts, or print out images on your computer. It’ll add just a bit more flair while not depleting your funds!

Tips 3: Food/Beverages

This is where a lot of your budget is going to be spent. You could do the usual finger foods for the party, i.e. chips, dips, wings, etc. Or you could do a dessert buffet! Give your guests all the treats they can take! J For beverages you can have the normal soda, water, etc. Or you can have a theme drink like ‘lovers punch’ or something of that nature.

Tip 4: Entertainment

You’ll want your guests to be entertained during your party. So make sure there are plenty of fun games for everyone to be involved in, music for the background and/or dancing as well as crafts for any children involved or adults that particularly enjoy it! But if you’re having an informal gathering where everyone knows everyone, then it may not be necessary to do all this. Just let everyone mingle!

Tip 5: Gifts

If you are going to be doing games, make sure there is a prize for each of the winners. You could also do door prizes or a gift exchange. And don’t forget little party favors as a thank you for the guests attending.

Did these ideas help? Will you incorporate them in your Valentine’s Party? I sure hope so!

Spicy Seven Layer Dip

Items you’ll need:

1-2 cans Refried beans

Container of Avocado Dip

1-2 tubs of Sour Cream

1 lb of ground beef/turkey/chicken

1 Green Pepper (diced)

Sliced Jalapeno Peppers

1 bag of Shredded Cheddar or Taco/Mexican Cheese

1-2 bags of Tortilla chips (recommended Tostitos Gold Tortilla Chips as they are thicker & will hold the dip better)

Process:

1. First Layer: Heat up the refried beans in the microwave until it becomes smooth (a few minutes), you’ll need to spread a flat layer on your pan. Then let it cool.
2. Second Layer: smooth over the avocado dip onto of refried beans layer leaving a ¼ to 1/8^th of an inch on the side.
3. Third Layer: smooth sour cream over the avocado dip, also leaving ¼ to 1/8^th of an inch on the side (so you can start to see the layers on the side of the pan).
4. Fourth Layer: sprinkle the ground beef onto of the sour cream layer. For a healthier alternative you can use ground turkey or chicken. Depending on your taste you can lightly sprinkle or pile on the meat. (or none for vegetarian dip)
5. Fifth Layer: add the diced green pepper on the ground meat
6. Sixth Layer: add Jalapeno peppers onto of the green peppers (more if you like extra spice, less if not too spicy)
7. Seventh layer: depending on your preference for cheese, you can sprinkle or just dumb the whole bag (evenly distributed) on top of the entire dip!

This dip can be refrigerated until needed, so you can do this in the morning, make all your preparations for the party and bring it out as guests start to arrive.

You want to host a Super Bowl party with all your friends and/or family, but have to watch what you spend? Food/drinks is obviously going to be a larger expensive, rightfully so, but how can you have a bit of décor to your themed party when you’re on a budget? Well, here’s a few tips to keep in mind:

1. Make Your Own Football! This is a really cute and neat idea. Just take some paper plates, cut them into shapes of footballs and decorate them (i.e. color them brown w/white threads or in the colors of the football teams playing that day). You could even hole punch them and string them up around the room like a banner!?!

2. Bake A Football Cake! Since you’re already going to be providing food (or maybe have a pot luck) make sure there is a football decorated cake. You can use food coloring for the icing and little sticks (or going really economical-matches) for the goal posts. It’s sure to be a crowd pleaser, decoration centerpiece and a yummy surprise!

3. Styrofoam Bricks! These are really cute ideas for people to throw on the ground when the referee makes a bad call or their team gets scored on. Guaranteed to get some use!! Just go to your local arts and craft store and pick up a bunch of blocks. Get some spray paint (preferably the reddish/brown color of bricks) and paint away! Stack them up in the middle of your room, they’re bound to be discovered!

4. Balloons Galore! Balloons are a cheap and easy way to decorate your house for this party. Get a few bunches (probably not more than a dozen, which can cost you about $6 dollars) and strategically place them where the majority of your guests will be. They will make a big impact for not a lot of $$!

5. Paper Chains! Going back to your childhood days when you use to make decoration out of paper strips, staple them together in circles and build from there. It made a cute little chain that you could decorate the classroom with. Why not mimic that for your party? Sounds goofy, but for two packages of different colored paper (very inexpensive), you can cut them into five strips each and get a pretty decent size streamer around your room! Be creative and do one of the teams colors around the food and the other team’s colors around the T.V.

6. Use Your Computer! Have you found all sorts of neat graphics online that you’d like to use? If you have a color printer, why not use it! Print out some of these images and cut them out. Tape them on various surfaces around your apartment. It actually turns out quite nice (and really good for your budget)! Place them on the bathroom mirrors, the kitchen cabinets or on the fridge. It’s just a little bit of decorations everywhere without a lot of extra money coming out of your wallet!

7. Use The Dollar Store! I swear by this place to everyone! Seriously it’s amazing. Go here for your other items that you have to buy (i.e. paper plates, napkins, cups, utensils, table cloth, etc.). It’ll really save you money in the end and still be sufficient enough for your party! Other stores that are economical that might be in your area are: Dollar Tree, 39 cent store, Party City, etc.

Do you have anymore cheap ideas for decorations? Let us know! The more ideas you share, the more money in everyone’s pockets this Super Bowl Sunday (especially for any of you who have wagered on the game and might loose!!)

So you want to throw a little party this Sunday, huh? Celebrating the Patriots and Giants going to the Super Bowl? Well, here are a few tips for the host of this year’s Super Bowl party:

Tip 1: Prepare

You’re going to have rowdy activity take place in your home. So make sure you remove any fragile or breakable items out of the rooms where guests will be. Also start assembling a list of whom all you would like to invite and verbally invite them. A Super Bowl party isn’t something that’s formal so written invitations or RSVP’s wouldn’t be necessary.

Tip 2: Decorations

If you’re cheering for a specific team, make sure you incorporate their colors into the decorations for the party. You might also want to bring out all your memorabilia of that specific team. If you’re hosting the party and not for any specific team, then just incorporate football themed decorations like napkins, plates, banners, balloons, etc. I wouldn’t go too overboard with the decorations as the main purpose for this event is to watch the T.V. and not the area surrounding it! (p.s. make sure none of your decoration hinders the ability to watch the game for anyone!)

Tip 3: Entertainment

Yes, your guests are there to watch the football game! The T.V. is the most important piece of entertainment, but be sure to have activities for those not interested in watching the game. Have a separate room for those who would rather chat and make sure that room won’t interfere with those watching the game & vice versa. Also try and have fun activities for half time, like maybe a football shaped piñata!

Tip 4: Food/Drinks

This is a BIG tip, as most of your guests will be snacking on quite a bit of food. So buffet style is really your only option. You can have finger foods such as chips & dip, pizza rolls, veggies & dip, wings-‘easy food’. And make sure you have plenty of napkins in the areas where the food is and where the guests will be seated!! Usually the drink of choice for this manly custom is beer, but you don’t have to serve it if you would rather not. Just be sure whatever type of drink you are serving is enough for your guests to have more than a few glasses of since they will be there for several hours.

Tip 5: Clean Up

You’ve just had a successful party! YAY!! Hopefully your team won! But regardless, you’ve just hosted a party that you have to now clean up after! Don’t worry! If you bought plastic/paper plates, going through should be easy! Just take your trash can and dump everything! You need to vacuum up the little crumbs that are everywhere and wipe down any surfaces that are messy. If you have a few friends that’ll stay a little while after the game, enlist their help too!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Super Bowl Sunday!!

As you know, For Rent Media Solutions is environmentally friendly. Our efforts have extended not only to the paper our magazine is printed on, but also within our own office! So to help you do your part, we’ve complied a few tips to help your office be on it’s way too!

1. Have a recycling coordinator. This person in your office would be in charge for arranging the collections, placement of the bins, public awareness, etc. Choose a person who actually cares about recycling and who would see it through.

2. Organize the collection process. The recycling coordinator needs to find out how the recyclable materials will be disposed of. Whether it’s an employee who delivers the recyclable materials to a recycling center or your janitorial staff collecting it, make sure there is a process in place!

3. Get Recycling Bins. In order for your employees to recycle, there needs to be a place for them to leave the items. When you find bins to use, make sure they are clearly labeled for what items go in it. (I.e. Aluminum Cans) And I would advise you to tell your employees (or have it written on the bin) that the items need to be cleaned first!

4. Consider the location! First off, you’ll want to have multiple bins for your office to ensure maximum participation. Use central locations such as break rooms, office work rooms, etc.

5. Announce the program. What good is having a recycling program in place, if your co-workers don’t even know about it! Make sure you announce the program to everyone and let them know the benefits of having it. Send out reminder emails occasionally too so they’ll keep it on their mind!

Now you know some tips of how to create an office recycling program, here is the fun part-incentive! Make this a competition with co-workers. Have them compete for “Recycler of the Month” or have departments compete for a party each quarter! See how many participants you get then!!

Source: www.greengiftguide.com

We often feel that we need to go overboard with the holiday season in order to show how much we care. Decorations need to be plentiful; gifts need to be expensive, etc. It’s no wonder so many are going into debt during the holiday season!

If you’re like me and hate the idea of going broke in the next few weeks, take a look at some of these ‘frugal’ tips to help you with the added expenses.

Reducing, reusing and recycling are definitely the motto here. If you don’t like the idea of re-gifting because you think it’s impersonal or tacky, just think of it like this: you have received a gift that is not your taste (a glass vase for example), however your best friend LOVES vases and would kill to have the ‘stunning’ piece you’ve received. Should you really keep the gift in a box to collect dust or should you give your friend joy by offering it to her? Other economical gifts would be to make coupon books for your loved ones. Include activities such as breakfast in bed, dog walking, shoulder/foot massages, etc. Everyone gets what they want!! And while you are already shopping for extra groceries during this time of year, why not pick up a couple extras of what you’re buying to make a holiday gift basket. For example, a baking basket can include, cake mix, spatula, vegetable oil, icing and a $5 gift card to your local grocery store for items such as milk and eggs-total cost less than $20!

You could also reuse some items for your holiday parties this year. Instead of purchasing something for everyone, play secret Santa or holiday gift exchange. That way you’ll save money not buying multiple gifts and everyone can dedicate more effort into getting one person a gift they’ll like. Another idea that is more of a multifunctional party idea is a gift wrapping party. Have each person bring wrapping supplies (i.e. gift wrap, tape, ribbons, etc.) and let the conversation flow while whittling down your checklist. (You could also have it be a pot-luck so everyone can eat while working!)

Decorating your home doesn’t have to be costly either. There are many inexpensive ideas you can use to add holiday spirit. Just check out our blog ‘Cheap and Easy ways to add Christmas Spirit to your Apartment’.

Here’s wishing you and me a debt free holiday season this year!!

I just love decorating for the holiday season. But if you’re like me, you don’t have a lot to spend on Christmas décor-given that most of your budget is dedicated to gift purchases and food. So here are a few quick and easy (plus cheap) tips to get your apartment festive for the holidays without spending lot of money.

1. Decorate your apartment with bows. You can put them on chairs at your dining room table, door knobs for the bathroom/bedrooms, wreaths, baskets, etc.

2. Create your own wreath. Last year I made my front door wreath and it only cost me $20. Most of the ones that I saw were at least $25 to $50!! I bought a medium sized artificial wreath, a pack of bows, red berries and holiday ribbon. I arranged them in a way that I liked and bam, I’ve got a wreath that’ll last me a few years!

3. Let there be light. Candles are a perfect way to add warmth to the chilly weather; you should definitely get some that smell like the holiday season! Remember to never leave a burning candle unattended and be sure to extinguish candles when you leave a room. If you have pets and small children and do not wish to have real candles then consider using battery-operated flameless candles.

4. Table décor is a must! Whether you have plates, bowls, cups with a festive motif or use a table cloth, be sure to decorate your table as it is the center of your feasts this month! For inexpensive centerpieces you can use candles, a bowl of fruit (preferably with the holiday colors, i.e. apples), nature (twigs, pinecones, leaves, etc.), fake snow and many other creative ideas.

5. Use ornaments in other places than your tree. Another idea I did last year for a Christmas party was use left over ornaments. I used them everywhere. I strung up various shapes and sizes of ornaments on ribbon and dangled them on my staircase. Another great idea is to place colorful ornaments in a hurricane lamp, ceramic bowl, and festive basket or on a large serving platter (This makes a great centerpiece).

6. Make edible centerpieces. Fill glass jars or hurricane lamps full of Christmas candy (like the green and red mints). Tie a ribbon around the top and place them anywhere in the apartment. Another candy idea that works well around the apartment is candy canes. You can put them on your tree, dinning room table centerpiece, in cocktails and more! Letting each guest pick a candy cane out of the centerpiece is a great way to say thank you at the end of a holiday party!

7. Recycle your Christmas Cards. Use Christmas cards that people have sent you (this year and in years past). Place them on bookshelves or on the T.V. stand. I have also strung them up (by binding them to ribbon) on a spare wall (I did it over my breakfast nook). You could also string them along the staircase banister. In addition to that, you can use recycled cards to make name placement holders and coasters.

Many of these ideas I did last year and plan to do again this year. Do you have anymore cheap and easy ideas to decorate your home this holiday season?