In the interest of enabling additional Valentines Commons parties, here is a brief documentation of some of the materials used in the construction of ValentinesCommons2009.
In addition to organizing a potluck (a good way to delegate and decentralize the scaling of food and drink), it helps to provide a baseline set of entrees, snacks, and drinks for folks. Various items from Trader Joe's, some common GroceryList items, others specific to the party.
See GroceryList for more.
A few topical books, for browsing, inspiring conversation topics, etc.
Some of the simplest decorations combined with a bit of creativity can really alter a setting
If/when you have a white/pink/red/black theme, and people show up without any pink or red, it's good to have a few items to decorate them with.
Again, simplicity seems to encourage creative expression which is far more satisfying than following a bunch of notecards with specific instructions.
For convenience I've setup a custom Amazon aStore with most of the items mentioned above. I'm kinda curious if the aStore interface is actually useful to people or not. It's certainly simpler (than the noisier / more overwhelming Amazon home page), but I wonder if that makes a difference.
Return to ValentinesCommons2009.