Tag Archives: party

Summer is Party Season

Summer is almost here … It’s Memorial Day Weekend – the unofficial start of summer. Summer has the reputation of being unscheduled and carefree, but it’s not – well, not really.

During the month of May, you start getting invitations to many parties and celebrations. Between graduation parties, bridal or baby showers and weddings, the calendar fills up quickly.

All this celebrating is fun, but it can be a lot of work too.

Having a party sounds like fun, right? It can be, but it all starts with the planning. Personally, I love planning, but not everyone does. We can help you plan your event or plan it for you (with your guidance in decision making, of course). Everything from choosing the date and theme, to cleaning up afterward … you can just let us know what you want help with.

Invitations
Make Party Favors
Shopping
Decorating
Work as Your Assistant Host during the event
Clean Up

Maybe you aren’t hosting an event, but you’ve been invited to numerous parties. We can go shopping for the gifts you want to give and wrap them for you.

Or you were the honored guest at the party, and you received many wonderful gifts. We all know the old saying “it’s the thought that counts”. Perhaps some weren’t so wonderful … they were the wrong size or color … not your style … you just plain didn’t like them. We’ll return or exchange them for you.

Tracy Helps You “Your Personal Assistant” can help you handle all the details, whether you are having the party / event or you are a guest. We can take the “work” out of parties so you can have the “fun”. What are you waiting for ?? Call us 🙂

Super Bowl 50 Helps Local Small Businesses

Super Bowl 50 weekend is here … the big showdown between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers !

I must confess that I’m not a huge football fan. I’m not one to rush home to watch a game, but I do enjoy actually going to a game … I’m sure it’s the ambiance.

The Super Bowl is different. For me, it’s mostly about the party … being with friends, the food & drinks. Its fun to have friendly debates on whose team is better. It’s fun seeing the million dollar commercials. It’s fun watching the halftime show (will there be any wardrobe malfunctions?). It’s the fun party ambiance centered around a football game called the Super Bowl 🙂

Being a small business owner, I was happy when I saw a segment on the news a couple days ago. It was about how the Super Bowl planners were using the local small businesses during the week building up to the game. They interviewed a local businesswoman who owned a bakery. They placed the largest order she ever had in her 10 years of being in business … How exciting !! You can view the clip here.

As a local small business owner, I know that every day can’t be super exciting. For me, what is exciting about owning my own business is having steady repeat clients, while always welcoming new ones! Its knowing that my hard work and persistence is paying off by earning an income to help support my family!

So while it’s a one in a million shot of getting a Super Bowl type client, we can support our own local small businesses in our own communities … one purchase at a time … it all adds up. Make a difference in your community ~ #SHOPSMALL.

Let Tracy Helps You Help With Your Next Party ~ Graduation, Birthday or Shower … it’s up to you !!

What do birthdays, graduations, weddings, and babies all have in common? They all are celebrated with a party !! Spring and Summer are filled with fun parties to celebrate a graduation, a baby shower, a wedding, a confirmation, a birthday, an anniversary, and family reunions ~ just to name a few (okay – more than a few). Our calendars fill up fast with party invitations.

Throwing a party is a lot of work … picking the best date, making the guest list, getting the invitations sent out (digitally or by snail mail), planning the menu, house cleaning, shopping, cooking and preparation, decorating, and of course, the clean-up. Like I said, it’s a lot of work ~ fun work ~ but work none the less.

I love throwing parties … I love the planning … I love being the hostess, but I also love the moment, after all the clean-up is finished that I get to sit down and put my feet up 🙂 It is such a good feeling !

Tracy Helps You can get you to the “put your feet up and relax” stage of hosting a party sooner. Let us be your assistant hostess. We can help with any stage of your party. We can do the shopping for you, or help with the decorating. We can be the “kitchen help” during the party. We can keep the trays of food full, top off the bowls of chips and dip. We can stay ahead of all the dirty dishes that come with hosting a party. An extra pair of hands definitely makes the work easier 🙂

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you actually had time to enjoy visiting and catching up with your friends and family, knowing that everything was running smoothly “behind the scenes”? Plus, after you’ve said your good byes to your last guest, imagine the feeling of walking into a clean kitchen … as opposed to a pile of dirty dishes to do and bags of trash to take out.

Hire Tracy Helps You as your assistant hostess for your next party … you won’t be sorry 🙂

Homemade Soup Keeps You Warm on a Cold Winter Day

There’s nothing like a big bowl of steamy, hot, homemade soup. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods. One of my goals is to learn how to make some of my favorite soups. I’m a beginner when it comes to making homemade soup. I have a list of my favorites that I want to learn how to make.

Chicken Soup
Vegetable Beef
Broccoli Cheddar
Split Pea
Loaded Baked Potato
Navy Bean
Taco Soup
Creamy Pumpkin
Chicken Enchilada

I am pleased with my Chicken soup skills … I’ve made it successfully several times. I can’t decide which to try next … it’s between Broccoli Cheddar and Loaded Baked Potato… I’ve been checking out Pinterest for some healthy recipes 🙂

I recently read an article in Midwest Living magazine that intrigued me. It was about throwing a casual Soup Exchange party. Most of us have been to Cookie Exchange parties, usually around the Christmas holidays. This is the same type concept, except it promotes healthy recipes. I thought it might be a fun idea to have one in the midst of this record breaking Chicagoland winter.

So basically, you make your pot of soup at home, and then bring it to the party in quart size containers … one for each guest. So if 6 people are coming, they each bring 6 quarts of their soup with 6 copies of their recipe. One quart of each recipe is warmed up and shared at the party, and each guest goes home with 5 different quarts of soup to put in their freezer. I would suggest noting on the recipe if it freezes well or not. I’ve heard that cream based soups aren’t really freezer friendly. The hostess can provide a bread & cracker assortment and beverages, or make that potluck and assign each guest with something to bring. Enjoy a warm & cozy winter evening with good friends and good food … sounds wonderful to me 🙂

Have you ever been to this kind of party? Do you think you’d enjoy it? What kind of soup would you bring? Leave a comment & share your favorite recipe …

Tracy Helps You’s Tips for Holiday Parties

December is here and with it comes numerous invitations to Holiday parties and get-togethers. I attended one last night and have another tonight, and it’s only the beginning.

Santa Hats … Fun Christmas Dessert

It’s always so much fun to spend time together with friends and indulge in delicious foods. There is usually a buffet table loaded with quite a variety of appetizers, desserts and drinks … that’s probably where you’ll find most of the guests 🙂

Which brings me to my tip for Holiday Parties … I always ask if I can bring something. Many of these parties are actually annual celebrations for various groups I belong to, like my bowling league, small group or choir. We have a Christmas party every year and all bring a dish to share.

As you know, I love lists … so I created a list (spreadsheet) for Party Food. I keep track of what dish I bring to each party, each year, so I don’t bring the same thing to the next year’s party or to another group party (some people overlap groups). I also keep a copy of the recipes with my list. Then it’s easy to send a copy to someone if they enjoyed my dish and asked for the recipe. I try to plan out what dishes I’ll be bringing after everything is cleaned up on Thanksgiving night (my official start of the Christmas season) … I just love having a plan 🙂

I really enjoy looking through magazines and cookbooks for new recipes to try out. Actually, my latest obsession is browsing on Pinterest … don’t knock it til you’ve tried it 🙂

PS … I brought the little Santa Hats last night, they were a big hit … I’m bringing the Pita Christmas Trees tonight !