My Favorite Things

Last night I went to a friend's house for a themed party. I'm guessing most parties this weekend revolved around Halloween and getting dressed up, but luckily, no costume was needed for a "My Favorite Things" party!

The party crew in our costumes. Most of us are current or former COUGARS, can't you tell?! 

(Though Laura is dressed more like a leopard.) 

It was so truly so much fun, from start to finish with planning what to take, spending time with friends, and now getting to use my new items from friends' collections of their favorite things. If you were like me and hadn't heard of this type of gathering before, here are the details:

-it is based off Oprah's 'favorite things' episode, except real people's parties give out things like coffee rather than say, oh, a car. 

-you think of something you just love and want to share with others, and then you go out and buy 5 of the same thing. 

-you must stay within the price limit! Coupons and discounts allowable to get you to that magic number - our price limit was $8. So the initial cost of the party for us was around $40 (5 gifts at $8 each), and then we all brought a little appetizer or dessert to share. BUT, it was like Christmas in that you get all these fun parting gifts to take with you, you enjoy great laughs with friends, and you get to eat delicious food (from people who actually make the recipes they pin!).

-You can either bag your item(s) individually or bring them all in one bag.

-We had several participants (including me)  bring a 'few' favorite items, as they wanted to get close to the $8 price limit as possible but their 'main' favorite wasn't that much.

My 'favorite thing' is the "Yes to Cucumbers" facial towelettes - I seriously love them! And because they weren't $8, I threw in some tissues & a semi-healthy chocolate chip cookie bar - all great things for traveling.

-Once at the party, you write your name on a five different pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. 

-When the party is ready to get to the presents, we went around in a circle and presented our 'favorite thing(s)' to the group. Everyone ohs and ahs over the others' selections and you create a mental list of whose name you hope to draw. 

-We then passed the bowl around the circle with each of us drawing one name, and the person whose name was drawn would present their gift to the recipient. It really was like Christmas! We did this five times. 

The way we did it was really fun, but we did have a little snafu at the end with Michelle still needing a fifth gift but having already received from the person whose name she drew. We then spent a ridiculous amount of brain power trying to figure out how we could have done it differently to prevent this from happening again! I lost focus somewhere at the end when a conclusion was drawn...our way was just fine! We worked it out and everyone went home happy, full, and with new goodies!  

These are all the things I came home with (except some candy bars, I already ate those).
I also used my French lavender lotion and my dry shampoo!

Then I started thinking, what would be on my list of "favorite things" for vintage and antique goods within that same price limit of $8. Here is what I came up with:

1. Skeleton keys. They are great for decor and jewelry!

2. Several little glass bottles grouped together.  

3. Old paint brushes with lots of former color showing through. 

4. Vintage light bulbs! 

5. Crusty old clocks. 

6. Tarnished silver (not all shown are under $8, but most smaller pieces are)

7. Ironstone dishes (same deal as the silver)

 

With the fall season virtually dead in the retail world, I need to start looking ahead to CHRISTMAS! So I will add to the list:

8. vintage ornaments, especially silver

 

Notice you don't see any silver in my pictures of the booth from last Christmas - that's because I keep every one that I find. Some favorites I just can't part with! 

It has been quite some time since I showed some pictures of  my space at the Austin Antique Mall, so here are some of my 'favorites' from the last month. Notice lots of my favorite things in them!

What are your favorite items under $8? I would love to hear from you!

Have a chic week,

~Sarah