This is my niece, Lu, who is about to turn three. She also just became an older sister, so her mom (my sister-in-law) isn't exactly in party planning mode with a newborn. To help her out, and because I'm a nerd for all things fun and pretty, I volunteered to throw Lu's birthday party this year. 

I spent many years of my youth stacking and un-stacking chairs in church basements and cafeterias and have a special fondness for the ubiquitous colorful chairs found in those spots. Here are some contemporary examples with a similar vibe, perfect for small space and outdoor entertaining. 

Cocktail shakers with recipes printed on them are excellent space savers for your bar or tabletop. With these, there's no need to store and fumble with recipes. The best of the bunch is the shaker featured in the main photo by Kikkerland. It is printed with pour markings so don't need a measuring cup or jigger either.

On first glance, the events in my new book The Art of the Party are large and extravagant, but the truth is that those events are filled with smart ideas that utilize inexpensive, highly accessible, every day materials that can be lassoed for parties of any scale – even a dinner party for six at home! 

Whether you’re trying to remember that catchy song you heard at a party the night before or you're just searching for new artists, there are some excellent song-searching and discovery tools available online. I’m always searching for new music sources to refresh my playlist and these are my current three favorite places to find new music...

The era of setting up a home theater is changing: wired connections between speakers to a receiver and to an audio or video source is becoming hopelessly outdated. There are now so many easier ways to attain home theater sound and now even video, and none of them involve little white, red, and yellow cables, let alone speaker wire or HDMI cables...

Do your kids start talking about their next birthday within days of the birthday they've just celebrated? My daughter is super prepared - she started planning her next birthday 11 months in advance. Every week she adds a new element.

The concept: party guests tag Instagram photos with a hashtag unique to the event, a Web-connected printer automatically prints them out, and voila!—photographic party favors are collected at the end of the night. The hosts, as well, get to keep a physical reminder of the night that was. How fun, I thought, to wake up in the morning after a house party to more than just scattered chairs and empty bottles!