TJ Knows How to Party!

TJ = Trader Joe's (aka the other love of my life)

If you've been to a Trader Joe's, you understand my affection. Awesome, awesome food...fun service...best price on organic apples any where...and if you stare long enough, they may even open that box of chocolate covered caramels for you to try & sample. :-D Oh...and every day they have a little corner cafe set up where you can sample one of their items. Not just on the weekends. See why I heart them?

Add to that list their great paper bags. I do occasionally remember my reusable grocery bags but most of the time, I end up with a collection of TJ's paper bags. The great thing about those bags is that they're recyclable. Just throw them in the recycle box....or...wait...could those bags know how to party?

Yep. I'm talking about these bad boys. 

They do....know how to party that is. And here are some great reuses of TJ's bags for your next shindig...

TJ's Napkin Ring

Simply take three TJ bag handles & braid together. Attach with tape, hot glue or paper clips & there you have it. 

Using the TJ bag handles, you can also make some great candle accessories.

I probably shouldn't have gone with the silver...do you spy my mug in the candle? :p 

Paper Placemats

I love these because there are so many different things you can do with these. You can use them as both placemats & name cards. I just used chalk to write Meg's name. You could do your own borders. If it's for a kids party, set some crayons at each place setting & let them decorate their own. Having a Memorial Day picnic? Make these up ahead of time, use them at the park, then toss them in a recycling can! 

My bags looked like a 99 yr old woman (or man...lets not discriminate). Instead of whipping out the eye cream (have you seen that Walmart commercial...so cute) I whipped out my iron. Oh if we could get rid of our crow's feet that easily. :p 

At first, I tried using a dish towel in between the bag & iron. I ran out of patience (and the commercial was about to be up in between the Bachelorette segments ;p) so it was just the iron, bag & the heat between them. 

Results are in...

You can obviously still see some of the creases but isn't that just the way wrinkles usually go. 

You could also use part of the bag to write out the menu...

I just used one of my bamboo cutting boards & tied the menu to it. Easy & free! :-) 

And banners are totally "in" right now and this banner is certainly easy on the wallet...not too bad on the eye either...

I just cut a lot of triangles, then used markers to make different patterns. Using a glue gun, I adhered the triangles to a red ribbon I had left over. 

You could also do a mini version of this, tie the ends to two tooth picks & make a banner for a cake topping. 

Tj's bags also are great to wrap up sandwiches for a casual party.

A customized sandwich? Keep em' straight by labeling them. 

Backyard BBQ? TJ's can help keep the fries easy to handle...

I've also used TJ's bags to wrap up a bouquet of flowers, wrapped some twine around it & it looks beautiful! 

Do you have any additional ideas for Trader Joe's bags? Do you use reusable bags or get paper bags like these? If you get paper...do you reuse them in any cool way? 

Have a great Memorial Day weekend! Talk to you next week.