All good things, even the best parties, do eventually come to an end. And now, we are bringing GirlfriendCelebrations to a close as well. It’s time for the Girlfriends-in-Chief to focus on some other projects. Life gets busy. But rest assured, we’re still making time for our girlfriends, and we think you should, too!

Over the last five years, we’ve shared in your girlfriend stories. We’ve learned how much female friendship really does mean to you. And we’ve given you a wealth of ideas you can take and use on your own. It’s been an honor to be a part of your girls nights! We’re so glad you’ve found our ideas useful and fun. Because so many of you are still searching for girlfriend party ideas on the web, we plan to leave the site running as an archive of fantastic girlfriend party ideas. However, there won’t be any new posts. We encourage you all to visit our sister blogs in the Friendship Circle to continue your discussion of girlfriendship. We wish you all the best. Remember, Girlfriends Make Life Better!

In Friendship,
Dawn and Tina
xoxo

Crossing the Chicago River

Completing the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer is a lot like childbirth: Painful but rewarding. Walking 39.3 miles in two days is, simply, hard. No matter how much you have trained, you can’t totally prepare for your feet repetitively pounding on pavement and Mother Nature dishing up some wet and windy surprises. Bones hurt, blisters pop, chafing appears in (ahem) private places, humidity induces unusual rashes. By the end of Day One, you’re not sure you really want to (or can) get up and walk on Day Two. And yet, the main takeaway from the weekend is a feeling of triumph. In fact, many find this feeling so addictive they choose to do the walk year after year (perhaps, in a phenomenon similar to that of childbirth, selective amnesia sets in).

I spent the Avon Walk weekend with eight other women brought together by our personal trainer, Tracy, a Walk veteran. Training for the walk was a classic example of our philosophy at GirlfriendCelebrations – doing something meaningful together builds friendships! Establishing a walking routine is a great girlfriend-bonding activity. During our training walks, my teammates Liz, Cathy, Robin and I had nothing to do but talk. We’re definitely closer as a result. And during the Walk weekend, I was privileged to get to know my other teammates Teresa, Bonnie, Linsday, and Sherry better as we walked and talked.

Even though our group sentiment was “never again,” after walking 26 miles (a marathon!) the first day of the event, my memory of it now is fond and framed in pink. I’m proud of our accomplishment. We did it, girls! What kept us going? The things that unite women during any bonding experience, whether it’s college rush, child rearing, or working in adjacent cubicles:

Common purpose – We were there for a reason, after all. Every single walker was mindful that we were there to end breast cancer. When we tired, all we needed to do was look around, or read the personalized shirt on the walker in front of us: “I’m walking for my mom. Miss you.” Surrounded by more than 3,000 girlfriends united by a common purpose (and yes, there were some brave men among them), we found it easier to keep walking.  More than 300 breast cancer survivors participated in the walk as well, and if they could do it, then we could, too.

Community support - In every neighborhood we walked, residents made signs, cheered, brought out their children, dressed up their dogs, and offered candy, water, and encouragement. “Great job, ladies! You can do it!” I can’t overstate how much this helped, especially when there were only a few painful miles to go.

Each other – Whenever I had doubts about my ability to finish the walk, I remembered my teammates and I knew, from training with them, that they would keep me going. I would not be going it alone. We would have each other, and that would be enough. Literally, just knowing that I was entering this event with a team made it easier to feel I would finish. Isn’t that the way in life? How many events, big and small, have your girlfriends carried you through?

Making it fun – At each city intersection, we were greeted by colorful crossing guards who decorated their motorcycles – and themselves -  as outlandishly as possible. I’ve never seen so many men in brassieres. Women piled on pink bracelets, beads, hats, feather boas, and costumes to celebrate the event. Punny team names dominated the day (my favorite team  – the Incredi-Boobs – was complete with superhero capes). What a great lesson in finding the humor in a great challenge.

Sheer perseverence. Putting one foot in front of the other. At the end of each day, that’s all we were doing – putting one foot in front of the other. Determined to finish, because we could, and others could not. Because blisters beat chemo any day. Because we wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment in doing what we promised to do. And, because we were together. We crossed the finish line arm in arm, some of us in tears, proud of ourselves and each other.

In Chicago, the 2010 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer raised more than $7.7 million to advance access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer. The Avon Walk Chicago, the fourth of nine Avon Walks this year, attracted more than 3,400 participants from 45 states, Washington, D.C., and Denmark, including 307 breast cancer survivors, who joined together to raise lifesaving funds and awareness for breast cancer. Carol Kurzig, president of the Avon Foundation for Women, announced during the Closing Ceremony a total of more than $2.35 million in grants to eight local organizations, ensuring the funds raised immediately benefit the community. More grants are slated to be awarded throughout the year to breast cancer programs nationwide. For more information, visit www.avonwalk.org

As busy women with hectic calendars, we are always looking for ways to make more time for play in our days. With this in mind, Peapod, the online grocery shopping and delivery service, invited the Girlfriends-In-Chief and some fellow bloggers on a warehouse tour to show us how they could make our lives easier with the click of a mouse. As busy wives and moms, we were all quick to see how Peapod could help de-stress our domestic lives.

Perky Produce

Look Who Greeted Us!

It’s Cold in There

Our tour guide, Tony Stallone, Peapod’s Produce Guru, helped to put all our apprehensions about grocery stores of the 21st century to rest. Being skeptical yet savvy consumers, we initially thought that one would have to physically go to a store to get the freshest produce. But Tony was convincingly quick to point out that in order for Peapod’s service to succeed, the produce has to be better than the produce you would pick for yourself.  Simply put, if you were to pick bad cherries, you would only have yourself to blame. If Peapod were to send you bad cherries, it would not only be the pits for you but for them as well because as a consumer, you’re going to complain. Peapod’s produce goes through a careful inspection process. The fruits and vegetables are not only hand-selected but they are also tasted to ensure a positive experience for the customer. After touring the many different temperature zones in the warehouse (which, it seemed to us, were cool, chilly, cold, colder and freezing—because Peapod takes pride in never breaking the chain of coldness the entire time the food is in their warehouse) and walking among the peppers and apples (each have their own temperature-and humidity-controlled zone, by the way), we were sold on the quality of Peapod’s produce. The fruit in their warehouse looks much better than the room-temperature fruit selection we see at our local Jewel or Ultra. We won’t think twice when it comes to ordering a fruit tray or appetizers from Peapod for our next girls night.

Just a side note, the Produce Guru has his own blog about *drumroll please* produce which you can find here. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to selecting and storing produce: even grandma would be impressed. Here are a few of the tips he shared with us en toure.

• Strawberries – Inspect the entire box of strawberries, don’t be afraid to turn the box over. The strawberries on the bottom and sides of the box will go bad first. Look especially at the shoulders of the strawberries, that’s where bruising occurs first.  Strawberries will last longer if kept at a colder temperature.
• Apples – Refrigerate them. Keep them cold or they will go mealy.
• Avocado – If the button pops off the end easily Makes, it is ripe.
• Guacomole Dip – To store dip overnight without it turning black, place a plain piece of saran wrap over the dip and gently press down until all of the air is out of dip. Keeping the air from coming in contact with the dip will ensure it stays green.

Entertaining Essentials

Order Picks

If you’d like to read some of our blogger girlfriends’ take on the tour and see some more pictures, you can check them out here:

West of the Loop – Emily

Peanut Butter In My Hair – Melissa

Disclosure:  We were invited to tour the Peapod warehouse and given a goodie bag which included a tee shirt, thermal mug, gift card, and produce. We were not asked to write this post, nor were we compensated for doing so. As always, the opinions expressed are strictly our own. GirlfriendCelebrations belongs to the Peapod affiliate program, which means if you click a Peapod ad on our site and make a purchase, we may be compensated.

Girlfriends, COMMENTS are closed due to spam. But we’d still love to hear from you! Just talk to us instead. xoxo

Girlfriend-in-Chief Dawn checks out the Camaro

GirlfriendCelebrations is hitting the road, courtesy of Chevrolet, and we want YOU to tell us where to go. We recently attended a fabulous blogger event at Hard Rock Hotel Chicago, put on by our girlfriends at Silicon Valley Moms Group and Chicago Moms Blog. We learned about a lot of interesting products and services, some of  which we’ll be sharing with you soon. We also were among ten lucky bloggers selected to test drive a Chevy for a weekend this summer. Not only are we excited to get our hands on a brand new car—we can choose among some great vehicles including Chevy’s Camaro, Equinox, Tahoe, and Traverse—but we want to make our little excursion as GIRL-FRIENDLY as possible! And, in keeping with the spirit of the Chevy Missions project in Illinois, we are also thinking of ways to use our Chevy vehicle to serve others. As always, our goal is to give YOU more ideas for ways to have fun and meaningful times with YOUR girlfriends. We want to make this good, girlfriends, and we need your ideas! So please, leave your comments on this post with suggestions for:

• Girlfriend getaway destinations – drivable from Chicago in a weekend?
• Service project ideas  - perhaps utilizing a larger vehicle?
• Other ways to use a vehicle for some good girlfriendly fun? (and don’t say camping – though that would make for some entertaining reading!)

We’re looking forward to hearing what you suggest, and to bringing you our adventure later this summer. Thanks, girlfriends!

Photo by the immensely talented Lahleyoo!

Hey, girlfriends! Want to read more about making, having and keeping friends? We’re pleased to announce that GirlfriendCelebrations has joined forces with four other fabulous blogs to create The Friendship Circle, keeping our online girlfriends better informed on ALL the news that’s fit to publish about friendship. If you’re visiting us here, we think you’ll enjoy visiting them, too. Let’s take a look:

The Friendship Blog: The Friendship Doctor, Irene Levine, dispenses smart and compassionate friendship advice. As a clinical psychologist and award-winning author, she is eminently qualified!

Girlfriendology: The online community for women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Founder Debba Haupert blogs frequently and interviews inspiring women.

GirlfriendCircles: Shasta Nelson blogs about how to make friends, drawn from her experiences as the founder of GirlfriendCircles, a service that matches women up with potential friends in their cities.

MWFseekingBFF: Rachel Bertsche explores the challenges of trying to make a new friend, chronicling her friendship quest with thoughtful and thought-provoking writing.

GirlfriendCelebrations: And of course, you’ll find ideas for how to spend your girlfriend time on GirlfriendCelebrations. Since 2005, we’ve been providing original thoughts on everything from girls night in to girlfriend getaways, along with articles that help you make the most of your friendships.

Happy reading, girlfriends!

Whether you’re a seasoned mom, a new mom, a mom-to-be or happily childfree, you’re sure to encounter the effects of parenthood on your friendships. Girlfriend-in-Chief Dawn was interviewed recently for an article in today’s Chicago Tribune that explores how to keep friendships strong despite the changes that come when one friend has a baby. You can keep your friendships alive, as long as you’re armed with dedication and understanding. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

3 tips for navigating a complicated friendship:

Take a class together. “Something that is ongoing so you don’t just meet once for coffee,” says GirlfriendCelebrations.com founder Dawn Bertuca. “It’s something you can look forward to and something you’ll continue to develop in common that has nothing to do with whether you have children or not.”

Remember birthdays. Parents often let their own birthdays come and go without fanfare, but friends without kids often still have the time (and disposable income) to toast their big day. Don’t assume your friend has adopted your birthday policy. In either case, your friend will appreciate a card or phone call from his or her pal.

Listen. “It’s important to remember not to talk about your kids all night,” Bertuca says. “On the other hand if you don’t have kids, be patient and let your friend talk about their kids a little bit.”

There’s much more HERE so click on over and read the entire article by Tribune Newspapers Reporter Heidi Stevens.

Sometimes you just need to get away from it all and enjoy some GIRL TIME—especially in the middle of winter—and that’s why we’re so excited to tell you about this very special girlfriend getaway weekend, February 26-28, 2010 at the charming Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel in Galena, Illinois. We’re proud to be hosting this event along with Siobhainn O’Connor VanSanten from the O’Connor Show Irish Radio Program. The time to book your room is NOW – so read on for ALL the girlfriendly details!

Girlfriends, you deserve a mid-winter getaway that offers EVERYTHING a girl needs to feel rejuvenated – cozy surroundings, gourmet food, fancy drinks, spa treatments, shopping, pampering, relaxation, and of course, girlfriends! Bring your mom, your sister, your daughter, your best friends.

The Hotel

We’ve arranged a great room rate: Just $109/night (two-night minimum, double occupancy) includes a hot boutique breakfast each morning and free wi-fi. THIS OFFER IS NOT AVAILABLE ON LINE. You must call the Irish Cottage at 866-284-7474 and ask for the “Party for the Girls” rate.

Please note: $109 room rate is for a double queen room and is based on double occupancy. Two-night minimum. Additional persons may share your room for $15 per person per night. A one-night stay will be available at the rate of $139. Tax is additional. Travel to Galena is at your own expense.

Here’s what else is included, courtesy of GirlfriendCelebrations and The O’Connor Show:

• Opening Reception/Mixer (cash bar) with Welcome Gift (Swag Bag) to the First 100 Guests
• Girlfriend Photos
• Raffles/Giveaways
• Games and Surprises Throughout the Weekend

Another girlfriend year is coming to a close, so we wanted to look back and remember some of our favorite post of 2009. We’ve had some great ones this year! In fact, narrowing the list down to 10 favorites was tough, but we selected 5 party ideas and 5 articles that we thought represented the best of GirlfriendCelebrations this year. Read on and see if you agree, and let us know in the comments. You can also VOTE for your favorite GirlfriendCelebrations party idea of 2009 in our twtpoll in the left-hand column. If you missed any of these great posts, you may want to consider subscribing to our e-newsletter. That way you’ll never miss a minute of the celebration!

Party Ideas

1. Patio Crawl Tina says: “I like this because it’s hip to host at any age. It can be held virtually anywhere from a large subdivision to a small apartment complex. If you wanted to include the opposite sex, it wouldn’t too hard to modify. What a great way to celebrate the fall season! And last but not least…I secretly really, really, really want to host one of these ~ sounds like so much fun.”

2. Welcome-to-Town Cookie Party Tina says: “I love that you can host this for girls of all ages. It’s a unique twist on the old favorite cookie exchange. It’s a fun way to get the “chore” of seeing all your close friends and extended family without traveling from house to house during the time-crunched holiday season.”
3. Karaoke Girls Night Dawn says: “Classic GirlfriendCelebrations: Fun, easy, cheap, and unique. This is a great Japan-themed girls night to warm up a winter night by bringing out your inner diva.”
4. Good Scents Fragrance Party Dawn says: “I like this party not only because it is different, but also because it was developed in response to a reader request. And, it’s a collaborative effort. Several smart readers contributed suggestions.”
5. Guide to Swap Parties for Frugal Girls Nights After the book swap, accessory swap and fashion swap, what else can you trade with your girlfriends? Well, there’s more! Here’s a roundup of ways to play swap-o-rama with your gal pals.

Friendship Articles

6. Seven Steps to Better Girls Nights Great New Year reading, this article has all you need to know about making girlfriend time a priority and how to make the most of it.

8. Girlfriends Meet Mizrahi: Another real-life adventure, except this time it was the Girlfriends-in-Chief having the adventure meeting fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi. This story started and ended with girlfriends!

9. The Mighty Queens of Freeville: Q&A With Amy Dickinson Dawn says: “We love recommending good, girlfriendly books, and this was one of my favorite interviews of the year. Amy had a lot of great insights on friendship and on women’s relationships.”

10.  Top Ten Ways to Help a Girlfriend Get Well: A thoughtful post that offers concrete suggestions for brightening the day of a girlfriend who’s under the weather. We like to think that offering easy, inexpensive, yet effective ideas is one of the things we do best at GirlfriendCelebrations.

Special Thanks to Our Guests

While we (hopefully) have your attention, we’d also like to give a BIG thank you to all our fabulous guest posters and contributors this year. They made our site so much richer and we truly appreciate their time and talents: Christine Arylo, Melissa Mellott, Casey Wohl, Julie Bestry, Kami Gray, Carly Huegelmann, Brooke Jones, Irene Levine, Izzy Rose. Thank you! (If we have forgotten anyone, please let us know.)

Girlfriends, thanks for spending time with us this year! We wish you stronger friendships in 2010 and more fun celebrating them!  xoxo Dawn and Tina

(PLEASE NOTE- Interview was rescheduled due to technical difficulties.We’ll now be appearing Monday, 12/14 at 2:00 pm EST) Hey, girlfriends, we’ll be appearing live Monday, December 14 at 2:00 pm eastern with Debba Haupert of Girlfriendology on BlogTalkRadio! We’ll be talking about celebrating the holidays with your girlfriends, and you can even call in with questions. We’d love to hear from you! Listen live on the web at www.blogtalkradio.com/girlfriendology or, you can download the podcast and listen at your leisure. (We will post the link to the podcast when it’s available). Have a great weekend!