have a housewarming party

I hope we get a good crowd.

Our housewarming party was a success! We had a house full of people from 7pm ‘til nearly 1 and people seemed to have a good time sitting on my floor [no living room furniture, really] and I never felt overwhelmed or bored. We bought far too much food and have a lot of beer and the like that I guess we’ll just save for the next party…

and started inviting people on lj. I need to go through my address book and see which of our friends aren’t on lj and get the invite out to them too…

I moved into my new house (that I bought) 2 months ago, and still haven’t had a housewarming.

• no outdoor furniture
• its winter
• no outdoor lighting

I think I’m just anxious because I’ve never thrown a party, and don’t want it to flop… or have no one attend. What am I afraid of? I’m always the guy at parties who tells the host not to worry, that I’m having a great time, when they are anxious for the same reasons.

We moved in in December. It is about time we did this.

so i threw a housewarming party only i was leaving. sounds foolish but i had such a great courtyard and i never took advantage of it. I guess its good that the turnout wasn’t that great because now i don’t feel so bad about moving away. It was a great setup. learning lessons include sending invite email or evite with at least a week to two weeks notice. Instead i realized there were two other events going on that day and i had to work my gathering around them. Also make sure you take care of some of the bigger issues ahead of time. the positive thing was that i really pimped out the courtyard and it looked great. i donated the tables and chairs to the apt. building so it would encourage other neighbors to do the same. I thought of it as a way to get to know the neighbors as well as i planned on doing this as soon as i moved in to get to know the people i lived with but i just kept putting it off.

Sweetie and I both had a really fun time, with about 50 friends from all our different communities mixing and mingling in all kinds of interesting and surprising ways. We would love to have a big party again… but not sometime soon. We need a break!

There is virtually no mess this morning, because we used disposable cups and plates. (But get this: they are compostable! So they won’t end up in the landfill, just in our garden.)

Things to do differently next time: Be sure to make a dance mix of music in case people feel like dancing! Use Evite instead of sending all the invitations by hand and reminding everyone and trying to tally RSVPs. And pass the camera around and ask others to take some pictures, because we as hosts will be too busy! Attached is one of the 4 or 5 pictures I got on my camera.

Well, not exactly a fight but a little misunderstanding, a little release of tension.

Now that that’s over with… The early guests will start arriving in 3 hours. At least all the food is ready. Now to finish the place and ourselves.

And I think I broke my blender. Ack! I’m going to make cupcakes tonight, and the one other spread (for people to eat on crackers or veggies) and that’s all the food I’m making. I’m getting excited!

Unfortunately budget constraints dictate that we don’t be buying any decorations or costume elements. I guess necessity is the mother of invention, and now we’ll have to be really creative!

I had some vacation days to use up anyway, so I am taking the next 2 days off work to cook, clean and relax.