Five Party Ideas to Celebrate Oktoberfest

It’s the world’s largest beer festival, but you don’t have to travel to Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest. Or for that matter, you don’t have to host guests for 16 days, which is how long the German folk festival typically lasts!

What you can do is host a fun fete for your closest friends full of traditional foods, colors, and music. Plan your own Oktoberfest celebration with these five tips.

Create a Biergarten.
Of all the varieties of brews in the world, only six pass the Reinheitsgebot or “purity” law passed by Germany in 1516. These biers all come from Munich, and you can find some of them in your local stores: Paulaner, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, Augustiner, Hofbräu, and Löwenbräu.

However, you can go slightly less traditional and select some Oktoberfest-style beers from other breweries, which are increasing in popularity.

Serve the beers in traditional steins, or simply host a tasting with smaller glasses and let your guests enjoy small samples of each.

Serve German foods.
Oktoberfest fare consists of pretzels, bread, and meat (although you can find substitutes for your vegetarian guests). So pre-heat your oven and try your hand at these delectable treats:

• Large soft pretzels (you can also serve the small, crunchy kind on strings for guests to wear around their necks)
• Sausages
• Sauerkraut
• Bratwursts
• Potato dumplings
• Potato pancakes
• Bierock, German bread with meat and sauerkraut filling

Add fun to traditional decorations.
Although bold colors are on full display at Oktoberfest, the main colors are light blue and white displayed in a diamond-checkerboard pattern. It’s easy to make your own bunting, stamp table cloths, and create place mats using these colors, but why not get more creative?

Use well known elements of Oktoberfest to add flair to your celebration. Beer stein, pretzel, and lederhosen shapes can easily be cut out of paper and incorporated into table designs, hung from strings, and even painted on shirts.

Share the celebration with a selfie station.
No doubt your guests will want to share the fun on Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat. Arm them with the hastags #prost, #käse, and #Oktoberfest and give them a place for perfect pics.

Props like traditional German hats, oversized beers, and German sayings can be made out of paper and taped to sticks for easy posing. Or you can visit your local party and craft stores and find a wealth of themed props for a low cost.

Make the mood with music.
It isn’t Oktoberfest without German tunes. You can find preset playlists on Pandora, Youtube, and Spotify. Or if you’re feeling confident, you can always create your own. Many websites offer free downloads of Oktoberfest music.

Your apartment may not be in Munich, but you can still throw a memorable Oktoberfest for you and your friends. With a little bit of planning, the best of Germany will come to your home.

Enter today to win a $125 gift card to the Container Store for your Oktoberfest party goods
Click here for rules and entry details.

Ends 12/31/16.

Jack-o-Lantern Shenanigans

Not all jack-o-lanterns are created equal, but don’t worry. You don’t have to be a French sculptor or even a good artist to create funny, spooky, or beautiful jack-o-lanterns and pumpkins.

If you’re feeling crafty, grab a knife, some glue, and maybe some glitter and try out some of these pumpkin decorating tips.

If you want funny …
Some people don’t like digging out a gourd’s innards with their hands, and that’s okay. A simple solution is simply using the yucky to your advantage! Cut out some eyes and a mouth, and let the seeds and slime slip out of the mouth like your jack-o-lantern has had healthier days. You don’t have to touch the seeds, and your pumpkin basically decorates itself!

For those who want to use that same “sick” sense of humor at the table, empty out a small pumpkin, give it a face, and replace the seeds with guacamole. It’s up to you, however, to convince diners that the joke is in good taste!

If you want kid friendly …
Avoid knives and get some pumpkin decorating items from your local craft or dollar store. Stickers, pom poms, googly eyes, rubber bugs … The list goes on. If it can be glued, taped, or pressed onto pumpkin skin, it’s fair game.

You could even let kids simply paint pumpkins with puffy or latex-based paints. They can paint faces or Halloween scenes, write their names, give their jack-o-lanterns stripes, and so much more. Let their imaginations do the work.

If you want pretty …
In recent years, designers and pumpkin professionals have turned jack-o-lanterns into a classy affair, decorating pumpkins with lace, beautiful ribbons, and jewels.

Paint your pumpkins with black chalk paint, or spray them silver and then add glitter in patterns. Or keep the pumpkin orange and glue on buttons so they spell out “boo,” “spooky,” and other Halloween phrases.

You can even carve patterns into your pumpkin—forget faces! Carve out circles or triangles in a pattern and have a pretty jack-o-lantern. Scrape the pumpkin, don’t pierce it through with the knife, and you can make intricate tattoo-like patterns that light will shine through.
COPY (cont.):

When it comes to creating a memorable jack-o-lantern, your options are endless. With a little creativity—and maybe some glue—you can turn an ordinary pumpkin into a personalized masterpiece.

Enter today to win a $125 gift card to The Container Store for all your Halloween decorating needs.

Click here for rules and entry details.

Ends 12/31/16.

Innovative Kitchen Storage

When it comes to keeping kitchens tidy, there’s an entire industry full of tips, tricks, and ideas to help. There are TV shows dedicated to kitchen design. There are stores that focus solely on organization. And there are countless products created to help you reduce clutter.

So how do you sort through your options? No worries! We’ve taken some of the most apartment-friendly and easy-to-implement kitchen storage ideas so you can get the most out of your kitchen.

Make your shelves work double duty.
Even the best cabinets cannot possibly use every inch inside effectively without a little help. Get move storage for your bowls, plates, pots, and pans by adding additional stacking bins and baskets inside of your cabinets. That way, you can take advantage of all of the vertical space, doubling your cabinets’ capacity.

Get more from your doors.
A pantry or cabinet door can offer a surprise amount of storage space with a simple addition—a hanging rack! Stores like IKEA and The Container Store offer over-the-door hanging racks with adjustable shelves that you can pack with canned goods, snacks, cleaning supplies, kitchen utensils, and anything else you want out of sight.

Declutter countertops.
Sometimes, it’s unavoidable to keep things on the counter (and some people simply prefer to have commonly used items within arm’s reach). In that case, baskets, decorative jars, and racks can provide neat and tidy ways to keep clutter at bay. Check out stores like Home Goods, Target, or even local garage sales for trendy items fit for storing spatulas, knives, and flour.

Take lesser used items out of the kitchen.
If you have trays, linens, and plate sets that only get used once or twice a year, you may want to consider storing them in another room. (After all, that valuable kitchen space could be used for food!) Try storing these items in a bin that slips under your bed, can be stashed away in a closet, or tucked in the corner of the laundry room. Label the bin so you know exactly what’s inside.

Organizing your kitchen may take a bit of work, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. These simple ideas are a great start to getting the most out of your space.

Enter today to win a $125 gift card to The Container Store.

Click here for rules and entry details.

Ends 12/31/16.

Greystar launches #Greystarmyspace Sweepstakes

Beginning October 1, 2016, we are offering our residents the chance to win weekly prizes when they share their style ideas. Each week Greystar will be posting new content around ways to style your space, fun do-it-yourself projects and hosting/entertaining tips and tricks.

Share your own inspiration by submitting an entry through our #Greystarmyspace Sweepstakes tag and you will be entered for a chance to win our weekly prize as well an entry into our $5000 grand prize drawing. The grand prize winner will receive a $5,000 check provided by our partner Cort Furniture Rental, which will be awarded the first week of January.

There are lot’s of fun ways to participate! This week you can get a chance to win a $125 Container Store gift card by submitting an entry and sharing a space that inspires you, showing us your best storage trick, or participating in our Jack O’Lantern Shenanigans. We love our residents and want to make living in a Greystar property the best it can be. We look forward to seeing how you #greystarmyspace!

Click here for rules and entry details.

Ends 12/31/16.

Help us Welcome Maple to Folio!! Send in your pet photos and we will be happy to share them on our social media pages with our community! We love our furry friends here at FOLIO!