It's summer time - party time!

Nothing makes a house feel like a home more than a party with loads of good friends and family!  Summer is filled with many reasons to have a party - warm weather just makes you want to hang out with a lot of friends out in the sun or under the stars, long holiday weekends, fireworks, birthdays, and the overall relaxation that inevitably sinks into your bones making you want to stay home and invite some friends in for a drink and some casual food.

Over the next few weeks, I'll give some tips on how to prepare your house for parties (both indoors and out), what serveware we love and what food to serve (keep it simple!).  We'll also be hosting our FIRST FREE GIVEAWAY starting this week!  Stay tuned!!! 

Of course, we cannot risk any excuse to have a party no matter what time of year.  Summer hadn't even officially started and we were preparing to host our son's first birthday party with 75 of his closest friends in the backyard.

This was our first large gathering outside since we moved back in after our renovation last year, and the house lived up to its potential.  Entertaining was a major consideration when we renovating our house.  We wanted great interior flow, preferably a circular flow in the entire first floor.  We also wanted the inside spaces to flow with the outside spaces.

I whipped up the below inexact floor plan to give you an idea of what our first floor looks like (for those who haven't been here).

The circular flow works great for parties, both in the entire first floor and in the kitchen around the island.  So far, it has been great and people commented on how much easier it was to get around the house during our large fall/winter parties.

Come party with us!