4 Tips For the Perfect Galentines

Some of us love it, some of us dread it-Valentine’s Day. I always think of elementary school and making a cute little mailbox covered in pink hearts to be filled with Valentine’s Day cards and candy. Now as an Adult I’m still excited but I think there’s always a little bit of stress that overwhelms me. Like finding the right outfit and getting gifts. Leslie Knope from Parks and Rec created this wonderful holiday to be centered around celebrating women called Galentines. Galentines is all about bringing your best gal pals together and having a great time. At the end of the day, you’ll always have your girls so why not have a day to celebrate? We’re only a couple of days away from Valentines Day so here are my 4 tips for throwing the perfect Galentines.

1. Bomb decorations

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have great decorations. Honestly, the dollar store and Target have the cutest Valentine’s Day decor. Target even has a ‘be my Galentine’ banner, in fact they have an entire galentines dollar section. The decor just needs to be super girlie. If you have a letter board or white board at home, putting an empowering feminist phase like ‘girl boss’ or ‘no boys allowed’ on it as greeting when people walk in. Mason jars filled with candy hearts to place on the table add a fun esthetic. I’ve been to a couple Galentine parties in my lifetime and I think that the more pink you have, the better so don’t shy away from letting your inner girlie girl come out. Pink table clothes, napkins, plates, silverware, cups are always a go. If pink is not your favorite color you can bring in Metallics, white or pastels to keep the girlie vibe. Balloons are a bold easy decoration, the dollar store has letter balloons. You can spell out ‘gals’ ‘xoxo’ ‘bff’ ‘grl pwr’ etc. try to use acronyms or short words because the balloons are $1 per letter. One last tid-bit, if you have access to a printer whether at home or work you can make your own welcome cards and glue them onto a popsicle stick(see below).

2. Interactive games/activity

Depending on the type of friends you have this tip could make or break your party. I wouldn’t recommend doing embroidery if your friends aren’t into art or anything that would take a great deal of skill. If you want to do something artsy so your gals have a souvenir to take home, making vision/dream boards is a unique and inspiring take away. All you need is old magazines(you can have everyone bring 2 or 3), card board paper, glue, scissors and pens. My roommate had a Galentines this weekend and everyone brought 1 or two bouquets and a vase. We put all the bouquets together and pulled from each to make our own bouquet. I thought this was a fun idea and everyone really enjoyed picking flowers for their bouquet.

Pin the heart on the guy is also a cute game. My sister made this up when she had a Galentine party last year. Basically, you print off a headshot picture of a hot guy like Michael B.Jordan and draw an outline of a Body and cut out a red heart.

If your friends aren’t into games, that’s fine! Having a cute brunch or just watching your favorite Chick-flick will be a great time. Even finding topic of discussion to kind of break the ice (even though you all are y’all comfortable with each other) could be a good starter. This leads me to my next tip having a killer playlist.

3. Killer Playlist

We’ve talked about decor and games but TBH music is the heartbeat of any gathering. For a Galentines party you have to play Beyoncé or other Powerful female artist. This is the one time where it is ok to not have any male artists on a playlist so take advantage of it. Below are a few song choices for you Galentines playlist.

4. FOOD! And drinks

Waffles are the staple Galentines day food so they’re basically a requirement if you’re throwing your Galentines during brunch hours. A waffle bar is very low maintenance, all you need is pancake batter, a waffle iron and your favorite toppings. Fondue is also quick and easy if you don’t have a fondue fountain you can melt chocolate in a crockpot on low. Dips are perfect, make a buffalo chicken, French onion or artichoke dip and pair with tortillas or crackers. I’ve seen mimosas bars and juice bars which I absolutely love. I don’t think it’s necessary to have a full-blown meal, but finger foods and desserts are essential. I made a BOMB banana pudding that was a hit. It made about 15 serving and was not hard to make. Below is the recipe!

4 bananas, sliced

3 cups milk (or almond milk)

1 box Nilla Wafers

2 small boxes instant FRENCH vanilla pudding

1 {8 oz.} pkg. cream cheese

1 {14oz.} can sweetened condensed milk

1 {12 oz.} container Cool Whip

-slice bananas and layer on the bottom of pan

– mix together milk and pudding mix in a separate bowl. I don’t own a hand blender so I just used a whisk

-In a separate bowl, mix together cream cheese & condensed milk until smooth.  Gradually fold in whipped cream. Again I don’t have a hand blender so I used a whisk to mix as best as I could. It’s ok if it has a few lumps.

-add in the cream cheese mix to the pudding mix and blend well

-pour over bananas and place the rest of the vanilla wafers on top

-refrigerate for 1-2 hours and serve:)

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

It’s That Season…

December is all about Christmas. But during the holidays there’s almost always an ‘Ugly Christmas Sweater’ Party. If you are like me and many people I know, you probably don’t have an ugly sweater just laying around. BUT don’t freak out, I got you. There are plenty of ways to make sure you’re looking your best (or worst) for the party.

This Past weekend I had the pleasure of attending  an HBCU Alumni Ugly Christmas Sweater party. I was so excited when one of my girlfriends put the flyer in our group chat. This was my first time to finally experience what one of these parties was all about!

Everyone got their sweaters a day or so prior to the party. Me, on the other hand waited until 3 hours before to shop for a sweater. I went to TJ Max, Marshall’s, Ross and forever 21 to find a guiltless sweater. Marshall’s had the cutest, most unique sweaters for less than $24. But nothing was screaming ‘SOLD.’

Until.. I had the thought ‘what if I just make my own sweater?’ Dollar Tree was right around the corner so I went in to see what I could find in their Christmas  section. I found a cute little dog, some bows and a light necklace and TADA!

Super easy, $4, make in 10 mins or less Christmas sweater. I used an Old Navy sweater I already had and safety pinned the bows and dog on! Had I known it was that easy I would’ve saved myself the stress of running in and out of stores but it was all worth it in the end!

So, when the time comes and you have to attend an ugly Christmas sweater party- Get Creative! (: Merry Christmas!