We had the great pleasure last week of co-hosting one of The Land of Nod’s holiday trunk shows, where we started celebrating the winter holiday season early and shared all of Nod’s wonderful Holiday Collection and fabulous toys with a great group of friends. Both of us have been long-time fans of Nod and have used them for decorating and organizing our homes, and as a great source of real artisan made toys. It should be obvious by now, but we love and value crafted, handmade items. Accordingly, we admire The Land of Nod’s artisan partnerships, which create really unique products — not just cookie-cutter items shipped from a factory. AND they were kind enough to share those items through nine trunk shows across the country all on the same night — how awesome is that!? Read on to find out what goodness Nod is sharing with you, too ….
A Feteful Life and Darcy of No Monsters in My Bed were the lucky DC hosts and we decorated, styled, crafted, ate and cocktailed while getting to check out some of the Nod product in person. Woodland creatures are featured predominantly in Nod’s collection this year, so we decided to go with a rustic woodland style for the party. Still on our chalkboard kick, we built an awesome chalkboard faux fireplace {thanks for the construction help, Jim!} and carried the chalkboard theme throughout the party with hand-lettered chalkboard signs, stickers, and our DIY chalkboard tablecloth runner for the craft table. We also made a super cool wreath out of Nod holiday catalogs for above the fireplace, topped by a chalkboard paper accordion-folded fan of course. A healthy dose of string lights and Nod decor rounded out the rooms and we displayed the beautiful toys throughout the party, which we highlighted by playing a silly trivia game.
Several Nod animals sported chalkboard word bubbles to draw people’s attention and were accompanied by a trivia card asking a funny question about that animal (e.g., the fabulous fox sleeping bag had a trivia card prompting “My online profile accurately states ….” The correct answer? “I’m looking for a real vixen.”). The idea was that partygoers had to answer the trivia, write their name on the card and then enter the card into our raffle Nod storage bin. The more trivia cards you filled out, the more likely it was that we’d draw your name first. And then you got to pick your own Land of Nod prize. It was a big hit and friends took home wonderful presents for their littles.
In addition to decorating Darcy’s house for the party, we were able to decorate one of The Land of Nod’s ridiculously adorable Cottage Dollhouses using their decor kit and our own imaginations. No big surprise that we painted the second floor, which we imagined to be the kids’ floor, with chalkboard paint! We numbered the staircase in a bright rainbow of colors (and one of our real homes may be getting the same treatment in the future, we loved it so much), added Land of Nod artwork to the walls, and hung chalkboard wreaths in the windows. We chalkboarded the welcome mats, too (watch out — we may chalkboard each other soon). It turned out so awesome that we decided it needs to be displayed front and center in A Feteful Life’s office (that would be our childrens’ playrooms).
We rolled out some of our loved recipes to serve at the shindig, as well. Our menu included:
It was all fabulous and we’ve got all the recipes for you, of course! Just click on each menu item above for the particular recipe card.
Now, we know what you are thinking: “Gee that all sounds super great. Why didn’t these yahoos invite me?!” No worries. The Land of Nod is continuing to share the holiday spirit by letting us give you 15% off from November 25 – 27 when you use A Feteful Life’s promo code: FETE15. You know we have our orders lined up, now you can do the same!
You can check out how we used Nod’s wonderful holiday collection below and then jump on over to visit the other hosts’ parties for even more inspiration!
Photography credit note: Almost all of the photos below were taken by the talented Darcy. You can find more photos of the evening’s festivities by checking out @thelandofnod on instagram and #nodevents.
And now for a few party instagrams ….
A Feteful Life 