Recipe for a Great Party

My friend, Cindy, had her 40th birthday party this last weekend and I just have to say that this was a party done right. So read carefully, take away a few nuggets and you can make your next party, celebration, or whatever a big old success.

So let me tell you all the stuff I think they (whoever was the brains behind Cindy’s party planning) did so very right. First they had it a great location – at a ranch with shade trees, a stream, nice grassy area, and even a rope hanging from a huge tree. You know what they say, “Location. location, location!” I liked the feel and look of this one.

They had live music. What can I say, live music is just the best. It makes the atmosphere so easy, relaxed, festive. I just love to hear music playing and when it’s live at a party you can just sit back, chill and listen or you can have it as the background to conversations with other party goers.

They picked the perfect type of food, in my opinion – which happens to be that of a food-loving Taurus! And if there’s one thing we bulls know, it’s good food. Basically it started with chips and salsa or guacamole (and good guac too). Then it was time to grab your plate, a couple of corn tortillas (being warmed right there by the caterers) and load them up with whatever fillings you liked. They had all sorts of choices – even ones to suit my vegetarian taste buds. Excellent job!

They had buckets (literally) of things to drink. Everything from water, to soda, to beer and even giant pitchers of sangria and lemonade. Then they had these cool plastic cups. They were multi-colored and were shaped like deep wine glasses. The best part was that by the glasses they had a collection of different colors and styles of chenille wire so people could make some decoration to identify their cup. Some went simple and just twisted a colored pipe cleaner around the stem of their glass. Others got all creative, using many pipe cleaners, of many colors, and twisted them into little works of art.

Now here’s the real kicker – they thing that I thought made this one of the most creative parties I’ve ever been to. They had rented a photo booth and had it just out there in the lawn area right near the band and food. Outside the photo booth they had a collection of costume pieces – hats, feather boas, and glasses. People got to dress up as crazy as they wanted to, and step into the photo booth to capture the moment. Seconds later, out came a fun, silly black and white photo. They could take their photo home, but the grander plan was for them to take that photo to a nearby table and put in the photo album lying there – after they wrote a caption a thought, or gibberish brought on by enjoying a bit too much sangria.

What a simple, yet great idea! Just imagine all the fun your guests could have at your next birthday party, wedding, retirement party or whatever. Just supply a bunch of fun hats - cowboy hats, kings crowns, princess hats, pirate hats, newsboy hats, or an Aladdin hat. Provide some funky, crazy glasses with all sorts of color and theme choices. Finally add a bunch of wigs and feather boas and you’ll have people laughing, goofing off, and having a blast at your party. Who knows one of them may even make you famous by blogging about how amazing your party was.

We’ve got a Photo-Me booth right at the entrance to our store in Santa Barbara. People just love it. Sometimes it’s a couple on a date taking a set of mushy, lovey-dovey photos to remember their night by. Other times it’s a couple of friends making the goofiest facest they can come up with. Some people do it up big and come into the store, arm themselves with some great costume pieces and then hit the photo booth. No matter who it is or how big they go, there’s always laughing, giggling and a good time being had inside that booth. If you’re Santa Barbara, come on by the store on Helena and have some fun in our Photo-Me booth.

Solstice - Santa Barbara Style

This last Saturday, I headed downtown to be one of the many spectators at Santa Barbara’s annual Summer Solstice Parade. I love this place! I haven’t lived in any other town where they shut down the main drag to have a big parade just to welcome summer. This parade and festival has been a regular event for 34 years and gets as many as 100,000 people out to watch. At this parade, over 1,000 Santa Barbarians of all ages, leave their maturity and worries about what people think of them behind, and just have some good old fun celebrating summer.

Someone just visiting Santa Babara stopped me on the sidewalk as the parade was going by, asking, “What is this parade for?” I explained that the really cool thing about this parade is that anyone can take part. Random people attend workshops where they create their own floats, costumes, and masks. Then on parade day they march, float, dance, ride, skate, or get carried down our main drag, State Street, entertaining the tons of spectators. We all know those watching just wish, deep down inside, that they had the ideas or guts to get out there and join in the fun.









Fun head coverings are on just about every participant. Top hats with artful creations glued, or otherwise attached to them, make a great hat even better and more original. With paper cutouts, a part of a feather boa and some curled paper ribbons, this hat is a example of the one-of-a-kind creations that you'll see.





A whole group of hula hoop dancers showed off their amazing skills twirling their hoops while dancing and running about down the street. I’m betting this woman picked up the butterfly halter top at Scavenge – back when we used to carry that item - and those booty shorts too. They really hold up so well and are amazingly versatile. They can be part of so many great costume ideas.





Young and old really get into the parade. Simple yet effective costume – a wild wig, an animal nose, and some snazzied-up glasses and this lady's got a great look going on. Helmet decorations along with a fun petticoat and this girl is a hit as she skates along doing circles and patterns.





Just what we needed on the hot day – a cool dude on his way-cool bike, looking perfect for solstice with his grass skirt, lei, and surfer-dude wig. He shared his coolness with the crowds, spraying them with his mister.



There are some actual organizations making an appearance at the parade as well – capoeira demonstrators, Brazilian dancers, and drumming groups. Sometimes you just can’t tell if someone is part of the group or just some lone solstice celebrant, like the guy in the toga moving among the salsa dancers. Is he supposed to be there? Who knows? And, if he isn't officially with the group, no one really minds!

Maybe one day I’ll try being a stilt walker in the parade. With a really big pair of stilts, I might even reach 6 feet tall. These people make it look so easy, just cruising around chatting with onlookers as they move past.

Even some of our local dignitaries to get into the act. Check out our Mayor, Marty Blum, getting jiggy down State Street in her Solstice costume.

From elaborate Clowns Going Fishing to the simple, yet highly entertaining, Man-Powered Balls, Solstice “floats” are almost all human-powered as they are pushed or pulled down the street.




As always, there is the grand finale – the one big float. This year’s was a giant see-through ball being pulled by Santa Barbarians looking for a good workout, with a woman doing acrobatics on a rope inside.

Gotta love Solstice; Santa Barbara style!

Fun on the Road

Last weekend I headed south of the border for that oh-so-famous of cycling adventures --- the Rosarito to Ensenada 50 Mile Fun Bicycle Ride. I agree, that is one long name for an event that only last a few hours, but, I suppose, the longer the name, the more illustrious the occasion. I have been wanting to do this ride for a couple of years now, so I was so excited as we made our 7 hour trek down, down, down, through the southernmost regions of California and into the land of our spicy, southern neighbors. On the way, I realized that I had forgotten to make the most important of preparations. This ride is known for being “fun;” thus the reason for “fun” being in the title. I had seen photos of people dressed up in fun outfits for the ride, but in all the rush to get on the road I had forgotten to plan out my fun outfit. So I did the ride, loved it, but also found myself just a tad perturbed that I hadn’t gotten that part of my act together.

You see, I have an ever-growing, truly wonderful Life List – things I want to do, places I want to go, activities I want to try in my lifetime. On this list are “do the Rosarito to Ensenada Ride” (I took poetic license and shortened the title) and “wear fun outfit or head decorations in bike ride,” among many other things. I could have done two things on my List, but now I was going to only get to do one. Making the best of it, I pedaled my way to Ensenada doing some really fun people-watching along the way. I made note of the outfits others had on – what was cool, what worked, what didn’t – so I could do a bang up job on my own outfit in my next ride.

Here’s the cool thing about cycling. It has a built in element of fun. Cyclists get to wear some fun, crazy, loud jerseys and no one thinks a thing of it. It’s just part of the sport. The whole idea is to stand out visually in order to extend your life, so wild jerseys are just the ticket. So I rode along, checking out the many different jerseys people were wearing. Some were pretty sedate and some were bright, and cheerful and fun. This is the one thing I did have prepared. I had my favorite, funnest jersey on. It’s got a huge Cookie Monster stuffing himself with chocolate chip cookies on the front and back. I am happy to report that I didn’t see anyone else wearing this same jersey. I got some compliments on it, and smiles as people checked it out. The one guy who stood out to me the most in the Fun Torso Coverings category wasn’t even wearing a cycling jersey – just a t-shirt with these words on the back in big red letters “I’m over 65, but I’m in front of you.”

Some of the riders stepped it up a notch from a fun jersey but still kept it simple, with just a fun decoration on their helmets. Some people got creative and used nothing more than zip ties to make helmet spikes. Others used colored chenille wire to make antennae. I loved the helmet Mohawks, myself. Simple, yet very fun. They were brightly-colored, thick strips of faux hair running the center length of the helmet. There were afro wigs in many colors to be seen and a variety of hats attached to the tops of helmets – Viking helmets, big tall sombreros (how they got those to stay on, I don’t know), and cowboy hats.

Small creatures and other sundry items were attached to helmets for laughs as well. A stuffed crab was perched on one rider’s head. Flags of various countries were abundant and other stuffed creatures. My favorite in the Helmet Decoration category was the man wearing the Barbie doll on his helmet. He had her nicely dressed, seated, facing forward on his helmet. She looked mighty happy to be enjoying the ride from that vantage point.

Some cyclists took their fun ride more seriously and put out some real effort in their costumes and decorations. I saw quite a few people with various types of capes flying in the wind behind them. A cape has a way of making someone look fast and superhuman. They may have been keeping only a moderate or even a slow pace, but I still looked at them with awe. Red capes, blue capes, short capes, long capes. Capes made from a country’s flag or the flag of a favorite soccer team. They were all so cool. That is a one thing I just have to make a part of my Ultimate Bike Riding Costume in the future.

In the Cool, Yet Impractical category, were all the guys wearing the Lucho Libre masks. They were fun looking, but there’s no way they did the whole ride that way. Their faces would have melted off. I think I even saw one guy’s skin dripping out from underneath the mask around mile 43. Then there was the guy wearing the Nacho Libre costume – the whole thing. He looked good at the start when we were just pushing our bikes through the mass of people trying to get to the starting line (which took about 10 minutes, by the way. What do you expect with 7,500 riders?). I saw him again about midway and I think he was seriously reconsidering his choice. Those tights were making his legs unable to breathe, and the mask was off. The cape was still looking mighty fine though, flowing behind him.

Winner in the Most Unusual category had to be the guy with the butt. Now I know, everyone out there had a butt, but this guy had the foam butt strapped on over his bike shorts. This is a pretty realistic looking set of cheeks, so it gets your attention. It got mine, at least. I’m pedaling along, working my butt off. I look up and what do I see? A guy’s bare butt cheeks – oh wait, it’s just a costume. I thought maybe this guy was working even harder than me and his butt was just about to fall off. Fun! Made me laugh – and that is what it’s all about sometimes.

This ride was a good physical workout and an educational experience. I came away with lots of ideas about what to wear when I’m ready to dress up in my Ultimate Bike Riding Costume (the date is still to be determined). For this ride, I should have at least brought along my stuffed Cookie Monsters (a 10” one and my 2” one) and strapped one to my helmet and one to my bike. A tiny bit of effort for a whole lot of fun. I’ll have no such regrets on my next “fun” bike ride though. You know I’ll at least be sporting a cape and looking superhuman as I cruise through the course. There are so many great hats and headpieces to decorate a helmet with, there's no way I'm going with a "naked helmet" next time. At the very least, I'll have some sort of head bopper or antennae on top. All of these little touches are sure to keep me smiling and laughing even while I'm working hard and sweating up a storm.

Stay tuned for my next installment – more on the Rosarito to Ensenada Fun Bike Ride. “Yippee” and “Yucko” awards to be announced. Don’t miss it.