Linen cocktail napkins numbered one through eight. Hand write guests names on these and you have a napkin and escort card in one. Helps drinkers keep tabs on their glass during cocktails and saves from wasting paper bev naps.

cocktail napkins, 8 for $24, wisteria.com

What guy doesn’t worry about getting food on his clothes?!? These Dress for Dinner napkins by the Spoon Sisters can help any guy stay clean and cool. Great for a bachelor barbeque or any manly feast. Bring these to the table and I bet no one will be tongue tied!

Dress For Dinner Napkins, 20 per pack 4 designs - 5 of each $5.95, spotted on Daily Candy, spoonsisters.com

Something functional, delicious, good looking and conceptually tied to an event theme - so few can conquer the never-ending favor dilemma and Sunday Suppers nailed it, this olive oil favor is superb! For those that don’t know Sunday Suppers they create, plan, prepare and teach you a meal for a sit down, stomach-savoring experience. In one of their classes they used Frank’s restaurant olive oil and had the genius idea to use it as favors. Linda & Harriett was enlisted to create custom signage and labels. Tea-staining the paper gave the perfect old world feel. Oh to be in Tuscany again! Bellissima ladies.

see other event details on sunday-suppers.blogspot.com buy olive oil, 1 Liter $27 frankiesspuntino.com

photography by Karen Mordechai

Spotted yesterday at Mxyplyzyk 125 Greenwich Ave, NYC.  These fabulous tin cans come numbered by the dozen and only cost $6.50 each. Perfect for table numbers for smaller soirees like a garden luncheon, baby shower, or bridal shower. Fill them with flowers or luminaries, or fill them with candy and use them to weigh down balloons. Make guests excited when you raffle them off as prizes. Now what to do if you have more than twelve tables use the single numbers to make a double digit, this will work up to 19 but will cost more to duplicate the idea for a single table. These tins could also be used for centerpieces for a birthday or anniversary party where the number is the theme and will be repeated throughout. There are countless possibilities.

Mxyplyzyk call to order 212.989.4300, more at mxyplyzyk.com

If you like this see more table number ideas here

Rain or shine let your table setting this Easter speak of Spring. Take tips from the experts using found objects like bird cages, pitchers, vases, empty egg cartons, and nests of shredded paper and fill them with flowers, eggs, luminaries, and sweet treats. Let Martha show you how to rabbit a napkin, use lemon wedges to add a special touch to your stemware, mismatch your plates for added variety and use eggs (real or fake, colored or plain) and stick the names of your guests to them.  Even better, if you have children at Easter, they can enjoy racing their spooned egg for a small price. Well go on, hop to it!

1, 2, 7, & 8.  elizabethannedesigns.com, 1, 3, & 6. Speckled Eggs, Cream quail eggs - set of 8 & Blue robin eggs - set of 12, $14, Potterybarn.com, 4. Bunny fold Napkin, instructions on marthastewart.com, 5. This is Glamorous.

Daily Candy dropped into my inbox this morning these beautifully illustrated hat templates designed by NYC illustrator Nicole Killian. Now you really have no excuse to not don one on your noggin this evening.

Download here, here, and here.

Oh Martha! Aren’t you clever!?! Ring in the New Year with a few easy to make decorations and party favors. Hats are a must-have for any great New Year’s party. Make hats ahead of time or lay out sheets of paper (patterned, construction, wrapping, etc) markers and tape and let your guests go to town. Grab all the clocks you have to make a fun mantel or table centerpiece. Counting glasses can be constructed using simple champagne flutes and buying adhesive numbers at any office or stationery store. Make a table runner or fill a tray with leftover metallic wrapping paper. Purchase a 2010 rubber stamp or tape together the numbers if you already have stamps and let your imagination run wild! Stamp balloons, napkins, coasters, placemats, runners, toilet paper (make sure ink doesn’t come off when wet!) I think you get the idea. Lastly, keep the celebration going on New Year’s Day surprise guests or family with 2010 pancakes. All you need is confectionary sugar and cookie cutter numbers or homemade stencils. Let the countdown begin!

marthastewart.com (search New Year’s Eve for even more great ideas)

Need to dress up your table, holly napkin holders made of felt and a jingle bell can be just the right festive touch to add to each place setting. Or use larger bells with ribbon tied to the napkins and let your guests take them home as favors. Centerpiece or mantel decorations can be easily constructed using ornaments, greens and a little glitz purchased from a local craft store. Add illumination using recycled wine bottles topped with tapers or fill large clear pillars or vases with cranberries (buy frozen inexpensively) and top them with votives. Stockings not fitting the presents they hold, personalize a canvas tote with iron on letters and hang it instead.

1. marthastewart.com, 2. & 3. realsimple.com, 4. betterhomesandgardens.com, 5. this is glamorous, 6. createmyevent.com

It doesn’t take much to dine in style this Thanksgiving. Let the earth be your inspiration and grab from your garden: fruits, veggies or flowers, survey the ground for fallen pine cones or leaves, or pull wheat or hay from a nearby field or farm.  Of course please ask permission before trespassing on another’s property. Use elements you already own, mix-matched ribbons make easy napkin ties, recycled brown paper bags can be filled with luminaries or used for tags or other decorations around the house. My favorite Thanksgiving craft as a kid was the pine cone turkey. Don’t be afraid to be a little different and please send if pictures if you care to share your design with others.

1.-3. Designer Erinn Valencich’s ideas spotted on HGTV.com

4.-6. Martha Stewart’s ideas, marthastewart.com

1. Black Devil Martini

Dark & mysterious… use dark rum and a black olive garnish to give this drink its midnight hue. Orange sugar on the rim will add some Halloween spice.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. dark rum
• 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
• Black olive

Preparation: Stir and strain into chilled martini glass, garnish with olive.

Recipe courtesy American Professional Bartending Schools of Illinois in Chicago, fineliving.com

2. Vampire Cocktail

Scream with fright and delight drinking this vanilla ice cream, tripe sec and white crème de cacao concoction with grenadine blood dripping down the sides of the glass.

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop vanilla ice cream
• 1 oz. triple sec
• 1/2 oz. white creme de cacao
• Drizzle of grenadine

Preparation: Blend all ingredients except grenadine until smooth, pour into a stemmed cocktail glass. Drizzle grenadine over top.

Recipe courtesy American Professional Bartending Schools of Illinois in Chicago, fineliving.com

3. Cemetery Slime Punch

Even goblins may be grossed out at this grave yard worm punch.  Non-alcoholic, with diet root beer and frozen yogurt it won’t add to the sugar highs of the young ones.

Ingredients: Serves 12-15

• 2 liters diet root beer
• 24 gummy worms, plus more if desired
• 1 pint low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt
• 1 pint low-fat chocolate frozen yogurt

Preparation: Arrange the gummy worms in a 12-compartment ice tray, letting them hang out over the edges of the tray. Fill with root beer and freeze at least 4 hours or overnight.

With a small ice cream scoop, fill the bottom of a one gallon punch bowl with scoops of both frozen yogurts, using the full container of each. Very slowly fill the punch bowl with root beer; it will foam up.

Float the wormy ice cubes in the top of the punch. Fill each punch cup with a scoop of ice cream and an ice cube. Float additional worms on top of the punch or in each glass.

Recipe courtesy Wes Martin, New York, N.Y., fineliving.com