Murder and Mayhem Part 1

As I mentioned before, I had a murder mystery party in 2010 for NYE and it was so much fun we decided to do it again to ring in 2012. This year the murder mystery party was 1920's themed and took place in a speakeasy/night club called The Four Deuces. We took a ton of pictures so this is definitely going to have to be a two-parter so check back tomorrow for part 2.

For now, let's start at the beginning. Last year our murder mystery game was a kit bought at a game store in the mall. This year after some Google searching, I found our game Murder at the Four Deuces from a website called Dinner and a Murder. They have several different games on their site, but we chose to take it back to the 20's and head to The Four Deuces (which can accommodate 10-20 guests).

We chose to download and print the materials ourselves. My friend Kelly made our nametags and they turned out awesome! She made them out of playing cards to fit the Four Deuces theme and glued little clothespins to the back so that we could clip them on.

I laid them out along with each character's booklet so I could just hand them to guests as they arrived.

I also printed out a 1920's slang dictionary, which I found on the Dinner and a Murder website. I messaged the dictionary to all the guests before the party, but I also placed on the entry table so that people could review it as they liked during the party.

Kelly made a sign for us to hang on the front door with the name of the club.

In the 1920s, it was common for speakeasies to require a password, so of course we requested that our guests give us the password before they entered.

To set the mood for the party, we found a 24/7 online radio station that plays only 20's music and set that up to play during the party. We have Netflix streaming and found a Charlie Chaplin collection so we played that on the TV.

For dinner we had traditional 20's food. I discovered that Chinese and Italian food were very popular during this time. This led us to decide on ravioli as the main course for dinner (it helps that it's quick and easy to prepare). After more research we came up with a full menu for the evening that was all completely 20's inspired:

Snacks:
Potato Chips
Mixed Nuts

Dinner:
Ravioli
Caesar Salad
Breadsticks

Dessert:
Devil's Food Cake

Check out this centerpiece to go along with our club/casino feel. I love how creative this is!

My friends Bobby and Kelly purchased our decor from Party City. They purchased wall decals and card suit streamers that were perfect for setting the 1920's club mood. We also bought red balloons and put those around the room (we didn't have 99 red balloons, just about 14).

After dinner we got to talking to everyone and getting to know each other's characters. 

And then..... a murder! Fortunately we had an Inspector there to keep things under control.

After this bribery, blackmail and rumors ran rampant as we all raced to get to the bottom of things.

After talking for a bit, I passed out a weapon's clue sheet to each guest for them to fill out in order to get clues as to where they might find one of four 'weapons' in the house. I had hid those earlier in the day and it was fun watching everyone racing around the house hoping to find a weapon. If your character discovered a weapon, you had the opportunity to murder another character during the game if you felt it was necessary. This was something we didn't have the option to do in the game we played last year.

What's this? Another murder! *gasp!*

Upon arriving, each guest received game money that they could use to bribe or buy secrets/information from other characters. Money was crucial to finding out what you wanted to know so if a character was killed, everyone raced to get the money from the 'dead body.' That was pretty funny to watch.

What happened next? More drama, drama, drama. Come back tomorrow for part II!

* Note: I was definitely not perked for mentioning this game. We just found it and enjoyed playing it. =)

New Year, New Chairs

In case you didn't know, I entertain quite a bit. I use the term entertain loosely - it's more like I get bored and invite people over at the last minute for water and microwave popcorn. But still... I also throw parties often - pretty much for any holiday. I don't think I've held an arbor day party yet, but maybe this is the year?

Point being, I have people over a lot and need chairs. Of course I have the sofa, the Target chair and the 2 parson chairs we got from TJMaxx, but for watching movies and talking I wanted some more comfortable options. I searched high and low for affordable chairs and I tell you what, they are so hard to find. I finally turned to Ikea and found exactly what I was looking for - the Jennylund chair in white. The price point was great and the look was just what I was imagining. Only problem? Ikea is 4 1/2 hours away from me. I didn't want to make that long trip, but I also didn't want to pay the outrageous Ikea shipping prices.

What did I do? There is a couple here in my town that makes trips to Ikea every few weeks. You can place orders through their site and they will bring back your Ikea items for a small fee. The fee was totally reasonable and we got our chairs within 4 days of ordering them. What more could I ask for? We put the chairs together and put the covers on to see what they looked like.

Once we put the cover on, I knew that it was too white. It was so stark white and really stuck out like a sore thumb next to our couch, which is a more natural off-white color. Did I send the chairs back? Nope! I figured this would happen and I had a plan.

Tea staining.

I had seen a post on Young House Love a while back about tea staining pillow covers and wondered if it could be done for bigger pieces. I posted a comment on the post asking if they thought it might work for our chair covers and Sherry responded positively. With that vote of confidence, I gave it a go!

I followed the directions on Young House Love pretty closely, but I had to stain the slipcovers in the bathtub since they were too large to fit in a pot on the stove. The first time I did the process I used 12 tea bags and they covers still were too white so I had to give them another tea bath. This time I used 20 tea bags (I was not messing around!).

Yep, those wooden spoons were very helpful at pushing down the slipcovers in that searing hot water.

After the second time, the covers were looking much better! I threw them into the washer on cold and hung them up to dry. Once they were a little damp, I put them back on the chairs and they looked awesome! I took some pictures with my old camera, but it didn't do the chairs justice. After I got my new camera for Christmas I knew I had to take some more pictures!

Here are the new chairs (with their new color)!

It's hard to tell the new color from pictures, but they are a creamy, off-white color. They aren't a perfect match to the sofa, but I'm OK with that. I'm just happy that they don't clash with the sofa like they did before.

Yes, I finally took down the birthday banner. About 3 hours before our New Years Eve party on Saturday. =)

And yes, that is my ironing board in the background. I was still working on my costume when I took these pictures.

I am definitely digging these new chairs and they are so comfortable. It's nice to have people over to watch movies and not have to make people sit on the floor.

Yes, I probably did take too many pictures, but the excitement over having a new camera made me do it.

This next picture, as bad as it is, shows the new color as it looks in real-life the best.

Now that I have new chairs, I have more things I want to do to the living room at some point. I want to paint the legs darker because our sofa legs are darker and I just think the chairs would look better to me if the legs were darker. I also want to get a bigger rug for the living room, but we will see what happens on down the line.

2011 Recap

Everybody else is doing it! So in the spirit of conformity, I'm going to make like a high school girl and copy my peers. Here is my recap of some of what got accomplished in 2011.

I made a rainbow cake for my sister's 14th birthday.

I shared the guest room makeover.

For Father's Day I made homemade oreos.

We hosted a Fourth of July celebration at our house.

I made herb stuffed bell peppers.

After finding my grandmother's recipe in a cookbook, I tried my hand at baking a red velvet cake.

Pinterest inspired me to make mozzarella sticks.

We threw a party for Halloween.

A command central was created in the pantry/laundry room.

I painted the half bath downstairs.

Eric built me a desk.

My friend Sharon and I baked an ombre cake for our friend Kelly's birthday.

It was fun looking back on what I've done this year! Here's to more fun in 2012. =)