Forget Winter and Bring a Little Spring Inside with Brightly Colored Parasols

I walked outside this morning and I was hit with the icy realization that winter has arrived! The change of season is here in full force. It may be bone chilling outside, but why not invite Spring in a bit early at your next party? Paper parasols in red and yellow send an unmistakable message of "Spring"!

I found inspiring Spring wake-up colors at Hostess With the Mostest. Her "Sunshine & Love Bridal Shower" party colors melt the winter freeze. I won't begin to try to describe all of the DIY ideas in Jennifer Sbranti's post - it is too choc full! You must see for yourself at Hostess With the Mostest. I'm just going to tell you about the parasol centerpiece she cleverly put together.

I had gotten a request from one of our customers for an example of a parasol centerpiece and I immediately fell in love with what Hostess with the Mostess did for this photo shoot.

Two vases glued together make a perfect base for this parasol centerpiece!

A 28" paper parasol has the perfect handle size for holding the parasol overhead at indoor or outdoor weddings. However, it is not long enough to work as a table centerpiece. To get around this dilemma, Jennifer glued 2 vases together, one right-side-up, the other upside-down, and wrapped decorative paper around the middle.

Vase Gems can be purchased at most crafts stores.

To keep the parasol and vase from tipping over, our Hostess drops vase gems into the top vase.

The Spring color theme is continued above the table by hanging paper lanterns. Jennifer uses red and yellow lanterns with parallel ribbing, and a white eyelet lace lantern.

You can check out these colors at the Cultural Intrigue store. No need to limit yourself - we have more than 60 exclusive designer colors!

A Spring Palette: basic red, orange, and yellow...
Plus our exclusive Cultural Intrigue designer colors!
Begonia and Lemonade.
Eyelet paper lanterns are available in a variety of styles and colors.

So until Spring returns again, get a few of our paper parasols and lanterns in bright yellows and reds to liven up your next event, and forget about the cold!

Decorate and Celebrate!

- Bethany

The LED Light Alternative to Candles - Here to stay.

Tired of candle light at the table?

I know that sometimes it isn’t feasible to have a lit candle at the table. It may be left unattended, or get knocked over by little ones.  We have found a few alternatives to allow you to celebrate fire-free, but keep the same ambiance.

Add LED lights and make your centerpieces glow!

We have several LED light options to help you do this.  I found this centerpiece of silk flowers done by Linda Sawyer to be a great example of something to jazz up the table flame-free.  We have similar LED Garlands available that are battery powered.  Therefore if you use one of these strands, all you have to do is hide the battery pack. Linda commented on her photo that “you could use real hydrangeas if you make sure the battery pack is hidden in the flowers and ABOVE the waterline. You can also put the hydrangea stems in their own water vials before building the centerpiece.” I am very happy to find her posts on FLICKR.

LED Garlands from Cultural Intrigue

Another item that you could use instead of the LED Garlands would be our LED Accent Lights in White, Blue, or Amber.  I find these fun and fantastic. The lights are attached to a copper wire that is very thin. You can find ways to position it so the wire is virtually invisible. The lights themselves are really tiny, but the glow is intense!
The white LED accent light is my favorite. The glow that comes off of these is cool in tone and they are definitely eye catching!  Last year at Halloween, New England was hit by a fluke storm that shut down A LOT of power, (including mine for an entire week!)  So, not to be detoured by lack of electricity, I hung these and the Blue LED Accent Lights from our front door to attract trick-or-treaters.  They looked amazing!  They are battery powered just like the LED Garlands and also have a battery pack at one end of them.  So, if you want to decorate with any of these strings, you have to find a creative way to hide the battery pack, which, depending on the garland, might be the size of a small card deck.  Here are the Amber LED accent lights shown in our small etched glass fluted hurricane candle holder.

The small battery pack for these LED accent lights
 is easily concealed inside our fluted hurricane candle holder.

You can see the battery pack is hidden in the bottom of the vase and is hardly noticeable.  The copper wire of these lights allows them to be wrapped around or in anything. I have also added floral arrangements on top of the LED accent lights.  These lights are not waterproof so I usually stick to dried floral arrangements.  LED lights never get hot at all so that won’t be a fire hazard, (since the whole point of this blog is to provide you with alternatives to fire on your table).  So, put away your fire extinguisher and get out your batteries for a flameless table topper accessory with Cultural Intrigue’s help.

Decorate and Celebrate!

- Bethany.