When a movie like “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” is about to be released in theaters (Wednesday, July15th) Gryffindor costumes fly out of closets and fans flock to bookstores for Potter Parties.
But what if you want to host your own Harry Potter party? Don’t worry, you don’t need a magic wand to create an evening of enchantment…just a few party planning tips.
Decor
First you need to set the right mood. Line the tables with black vinyl table cloths and sprinkle star confetti down the center of the table. In the middle of the table you can put a cluster of battery operated candles or you can line the center of the table with them as well. Hang crepe paper in your favorite Hogwarts house colors like Gryffindor’s gold and scarlet (you might have to use yellow and red). For extra atomosphere, play the Harry Potter Soundtrack in the background.
Entertainment
For activities, play toss the bean bag in the cauldron (check your local party store or online for cauldrons). Stir up a little magical competition with Harry Potter trivia or costume contests. Don’t forget to fill a glass container with Jelly Bellies and have everyone guess how many “Bertie Botts” are in the jar. Give out a prize to the person with the closest guess. For an easy craft, make wizard hats by simply gluing foam or paper stars and moons to black, purple or blue birthday hats…sprinkle with glitter to make them extra magical. Give everyone a disposable camera so they can take fun pictures of each other in their favorite Harry Potter costumes and take home their memories.
Treats
Buffalo wings can be served as “Bat Wings” with blue cheese or ranch dressing (to make it more fun, add green food coloring to the dressing and give it a mysterious name like, “Swamp Dressing”). Motts Magic Mix-ins (applesauce with Pop Rocks) will give the kids a thrill as they watch their applesauce pop and change colors before they eat it. Large pretzel rods can be dipped in chocolate or icing and dusted with colorful sprinkles for an edible magic wand. You’ll need to brew up something to drink, too. Make wassil and serve it as “Pumpkin Juice.”
To all you wizards and muggles out there…we hope you enjoy the magic of Harry Potter!
Last Friday, CEO Kate Maloney was honored as a finalist at the 27th Annual Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Banquet. She was one of the 28 finalists selected out of over 100 nominees. We are so proud of her! And doesn’t she look incredible in that dress?
Costume Craze employees accompanied Kate to show our support. It was certainly a night to remember. Over 1,200 people attended the event, held in the Grand Ballroom of Salt Palace Convention Center.
The evening started with a cocktail reception which included tasty hors d’oeuvres and a live jazz band. It was so much fun talking with so many intelligent and interesting people.
After the reception, we all took our seats in the gorgeous ballroom and the event began. The finalists were all asked to stand and they received a thunderous round of applause for their excellence in business.
Then, dinner was served. The food was absolutely delicious! They served beef tenderloin w/ fried onions, dijon and herb salmon filet, sweet potato gratin and vegetables. For desert we were given a choice between chocolate mousse or blueberry & mandarin orange yogurt mousse. It was out of this world!
As we ate, Utah Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert started things off as the keynote speaker, and it was an honor to hear him speak. Then, they honored each finalist by showing a video clip of each finalist being interviewed.
When Kate’s name was called, we applauded, cheered, let off noisemakers and blew horns. Heh, not to brag, but Costume Craze employees can be a loud bunch when we want to be. We made the most noise by far, and probably also the greatest mess.
After the event, we had fun taking photos – some VERY silly. When Jeff Wiseman, our V.P. of Marketing, gets in front of the camera, he turns into the world’s funniest comedian. He’s so funny!
It was quite an honor to be a part of this year’s Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Here is a list of this year’s talented and amazing winners:
Technology: Matthew Heaton — BlueHost
Retail and Consumer Products: Jonathan Freedman, William Freedman and Charles Freedman — DownEast Outfitters
Emerging: David Flynn and Rick White — Fusion-io
Contract services: Douglas Sayer — Premier Technology Inc.
E-Commerce: Ryan DeLuca — Bodybuilding.com LLC
Social Entrepreneur: Matt Minkevitch — The Road Home
Services: Andrea Anaya — Career Step
Distribution and Manufacturing: Dallin Larsen — MonaVie
We’ll post Kate’s video interview soon, so be sure to check back! And feel free to view all photos of this event in our Photo Gallery.
Congratulations to all winners and finalists for being such amazing entrepreneurs and talented business leaders. It was an honor to be included among you.
Last week, Kate Maloney attended the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist Reception at the Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City.
This was a fun opportunity to mingle with the judges and other finalists over delicious appetizers, drinks, and live music.
The Red Butte Garden is utterly georgeous this time of year. Here are a couple of great photos of Kate and Jeff Wiseman, our V.P. of Marketing and Business Development, and his wife, Iris.
What a great picture of Kate, so fun and photogenic – she’s the best. Let’s hope the judges think so, too!
Here is a list of the judges for the competition this year:
• Becky Anderson, Chariman & Founder, For Every Body
• Mark F. Burton, President & CEO, International Armoring Corporation
• Nick Efstratis, Managing Director, EPIC Ventures
• J.I. “Chip” Everest II, Director, EnergySolutions
• Michael J. Glauser, Director, Institute for New Enterprise Gore School of Business, Westminster College
• Tim Layton, Founder & Managing Director, Sorenson Capital
• David J. Ludlow, CEO, Bullfrog Spas
• Jeramy Lund, Treasurer, The Lund Foundation
• Jeanette Lynton, CEO, Close to My Heart
• Brad Walters, CEO, EarlyRun Ventures
On May 20, 2009 the judges will perform an in-depth review of each finalist. By the end of this meeting (behind closed doors), the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year award recipients will be chosen but will not be revealed or announced until the evening of the awards banquet, which will take place on June 12.
Doesn’t this look great? Yesterday, we all wore shirts and superhero capes with this iron-on and declared ourselves to be Kate’s Posse.
CEO Kate Maloney has been nominated for the “Entrepreneur of the Year” business award, and Ernst & Young came to interview Kate and shoot video footage of Costume Craze!
It was a lot of fun, and everything went very well. We’ll have video from the interview available soon. The winners will be announced at an awards banquet at the Salt Palace Grand Ballroom in Salt Lake City on June 12, 2009.
Good luck, Kate – and congratulations!
I’ll leave you with this fun Ernst & Young video I found on YouTube. Apparently this is a teambuilding video they made back in 2001. LOL, it’s too good not to share. Enjoy!
Costume Craze was the proud recipient of two awards at the recent 2009 UV50 Award Banquet, presented by BusinessQ Magazine. Costume Craze placed 17th in the Fastest Growing Companies category, up from 21st place in 2008. We were honored to also place 13th in a new category, Top Revenue Companies.
The BusinessQ UV50 Award annually recognizes Utah County’s 25 Fastest-Growing Companies, 15 Top Revenue Companies, and 10 Startups.
The awards banquet was held on Wednesday March 11th at UVU in Orem, Utah. Food was provided by Culinary Crafts with a menu of salmon or fillet mignon, salad, mashed potatoes and green beans—a beautiful spread. Curiously, the salad dressing was served in shot glasses, confusing many attendees and leading to an explanation by way of announcement.
Entertainment was provided by ComedySportz of Provo, Utah. ComedySports offers a unique blend of fast and funny improvisational comedy that is appropriate for all ages. Red and Blue teams battle for audience favor through improvisational acting games with hilarious results.
Costume Craze is honored to be recognized by BusinessQ Magazine again this year and hopes to repeat the effort in 2010!
Visit our photo gallery to view the rest of the pictures.
Barbie didn’t come out of the box as a mere plastic doll. Launched March 9, 1959 by Mattel, it was clear the girl had a serious sense of style. Her first outfit was a fetching, and very fashionable, black and white zebra striped swimsuit. She was marketed as a “Teen-age Fashion Model,” and early Barbie dolls are said to have emulated style icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.
Barbie has evolved with the times, adding Olympic skater and presidential candidate to her impressive fifty year career resume and fashion portfolio.
The woman even has her own crew of designers and stylists.
As the most iconic fashion doll of the last 50 years, Barbie was recently honored during the star-studded, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City.
No sir…Barbie’s not just some plastic doll. She has achieved what most dolls never will, a permanent (and coveted) place in pop cultures fashion spotlight.
Shop for stylish Barbie costumes in our online costume shop!
There are a lot of great things about working at Costume Craze. One of them is that our CEO, Kate Maloney, is frequently nominated for business awards. Which means we get to attend a lot of award banquets!
On February 25th, Utah Business Magazine honored the top “Forty Under 40” business entrepreneurs for their unique contributions to Utah’s growing economy.
The 6th Annual Forty Under 40 award banquet was held in the grand ballroom in the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City and included a welcome reception, luncheon and video & award presentation which was hosted by local celebrity, Keith McCord of KSL 5 television.
This gathering of entrepreneurial experts, tech wizards, finance gurus and executive captains were recognized as “Standouts who are guiding industry trends and shaping future outcomes.” We’re proud of our very own “Standout,” Kate Maloney!
Members of the marketing, IT and warehouse teams carpooled to the banquet where we enjoyed a delicious lunch and practiced our clapping skills on previous honorees so we’d be ready to properly applaud Kate when she was presented with her award (you can hear our impressive clapping in the video). We actually learned to manage the skill of eating and clapping simultaneously.
Maybe Dave, our warehouse operations VP, should have received an award too…I don’t think the guy stopped working long enough to eat his salad.
By the time we headed back to the office, we’d had our pictures taken so many times, we were saying cheese for the rest of the afternoon.
But it was all for an exciting cause. Congratulations Kate…you’re a real winner (again)!
Costume Craze was the proud recipient of two awards at the recent 2009 UV50 Award Banquet, presented by BusinessQ Magazine. Costume Craze placed 17th in the 
