Help! I am an addict. I am addicted to hosting parties. It doesn’t matter what the product is I am easily seduced into hosting a party at my house. Pampered Chef… ParyLite… Lia Sophia… Tupperware… I don’t discriminate I love them all.

There are several factors that I blame for this addiction. The first factor is once upon a time I was a consultant for PartyLite and I always have empathy for the consultants. I have been in the consultant’s shoes and I know how difficult it can be to convince someone to host a show. Secondly, I am a sucker for a deal! I start looking at hostess specials and free products and I am hooked. I love free, but honestly who doesn’t? In addition, I personally know a consultant for each company. Combine these factors and the result is a person who cannot say “No” to the question,”Would you like to host a party?” In the last year alone, I have hosted two PartyLite candle shows and a Pampered Chef Party.

My latest shindig was a PartyLite Candle Show.  My friend Adrianna is a consultant and when she calls I just can’t turn her down. Although I have to say I was a little embarrassed to send out the invites. My personal rule of thumb is you must wait a year before having another party. My last show was only nine months ago. What would people think? I barely got the last orders out of my basement and here I was sending out a new invitation.

To make matters worse one of my friends never even received her order from my last show. I thought I bagged up her order, labeled it with her name, and shipped it off. Then I don’t know what happened, it disappeared. I looked around and could not find it anywhere. I asked around thinking I might have given it to someone else by mistake, but no luck. Maybe one day it will emerge from the black hole that is my basement. To make amends I ordered my friend a gift certificate in the amount she had spent. I was eager to give her the gift certificate to make up for this egregious error in hosting. One of the first rules of hosting is to make sure  you deliver the products in a timely fashion. I was planning on bringing it to her holiday party in December. The day of the party I placed it on the table so I would know where it was when it was time to go. Of course when we were leaving I couldn’t find it anywhere. I was tearing apart the kitchen. It was driving nuts! The good news is I found it. The bad news is I found it chewed and in the garbage. I had to go to the party and explain my dog ate her gift certificate. Luckily, she has a great sense of humor.

So, with my face a little reddened I sent out the Evites. I chose a Tuesday night so I knew going in the turn out would be low since  it was a weekday. My work friends would not make the trek out to my house unless it was Friday or Saturday. Thankfully a few loyal friends and family members were able to attend. Evites were out, people were coming one more detail to take care of, tell my husband. I never want to tell my husband when I agree to host a party because I know he is never that enthusiastic about these parties. Doing my typical wait until the last minute move, I told him at 4:30 am the morning of the party while he was getting dressed to go to work. I really need to work on my communication skills.

With most of the details taken care of, all that was left was to stop at the store and purchase some snacks. In the end the party was a success. Even on a weeknight it is fun to get together with your friends and have a glass or two of wine.  Also, I now have $300 in free product to pick out from the PartyLite catalog. The free shopping spree is really the best part, besides being with friends of course.

I truly love PartyLite candles, they are hands down the best burning candles. They are oil based which makes them last longer , burn cleaner and  liquefy when they burn which looks so beautiful. I know I am a little biased because I sold them but they really are my favorite! I hope that I can get enough candles to last awhile because I definitely will need to wait awhile before hosting again.