{the crew} introducing…mayra rivera

September is such a great month! A new school year, blustery days, football games, caramel apples, hooded sweatshirts and the first hints of Halloween! We have been busy planning new designs and inspiration parties with so many fresh ideas. It’s so exciting that this lil’ piggy may break out Happy Dancin’ at any moment! If you’re ready to dance, join me as we continue our REE-launch PaRtY! We have just two more members of the Piggy Bank Parties Crew to meet!

Introducing Mayra Rivera of In Flight…

Mayra and I “officially” met when she applied to join the Crew on Oink! but she’s has been a cheerleader of Piggy Bank Parties on Twitter for a while! One of my favorite things that Mayra does on her blog is share “shopping guides.” She searches for vendors and shares favorite things with her readers. Such a fantastic idea! Here’s a little more of Mayra’s background…

“My name is Mayra Rivera and I live in Orange Country, otherwise known as Knoxville, Tennessee, with my family of five which includes my sweet husband of 18 years and three kids—16, 11 and 8. I started my ideas and inspiration blog, In Flight, in October of 2010. My passion is celebrating. Yes, you read correctly, celebrating! I believe in celebrating the small moments in life, the ordinary things, the reasons that make you smile. Planning a party and all the details involved in it go right along with my passion and I have recently given my ideas flight by opening my Event Planning business, In Flight Celebrations LLC, also in Knoxville.”

I love quirky facts about people so Mayra indulged me by answering a few questions…

Do you do this as a full- or part-time job or is it just for fun? Party Planning and Blogging is now considered to be my full time job as I work from home on my own hours but it is my only passion. I have fun while I work so I get the best of both worlds!

How did you get started? I started my blog, In Flight, in October 2010 and I am now launching my company, In Flight Celebrations LLC, on the Anniversary of my blog. The motivation and inspiration has always been there!

What is your favorite taste (salty, sweet, sour, tangy, etc.)? Gotta be sweet!

Do you prefer cupcakes, cake or cookies at a birthday party? As much as I love all the decorative cookies and cupcakes, a big cake will always be the number one option for me. It’s a statement.

What is your favorite decoration (streamers, balloons, poms, etc.)? I don’t know what it is about balloons that doesn’t necessarily appeal to me until I fell in love with the 36″ balloons. But my all time favorite is paper lanterns!

What is your favorite color combination? Really depends on the day. I can have a favorite of the day, but currently it is yellow, pink and coral.

What are your favorite penny pinching tips?

1. Create your banners, labels and toppers at home with scrapbook paper and embellishments.
2. Buy solid paper tableware and dress it up with a pretty napkin ring and place cards.
3. Bake your cake and cupcakes at home and just add your decorations and/or edible toppers to it. 

Why did you want to join the Piggy Bank Parties Crew on Oink!? Who doesn’t like to party on a budget? We all do even if it’s a challenge. I want to contribute my ideas to Oink! for DIY and budget friendly parties. It’s amazing what you come up with when you check back to what you already have on hand. By doing this you can even end up being able to afford that one particular thing in a party that you must have but it’s a little higher or it was the product that inspired your theme. I love how Piggy Bank Parties shares their ideas and beautiful parties. Talk about that plates background!!! It’s an honor for me to be here!

I am so excited that Mayra is turning her passion for celebrating into her full-time job! I think you’ll agree that she’s made a great decision after you see the FIVE favorite things that she has created…

The first two photos are from Mayra’s Fourth of July celebration in a hotel room! She packed all of the party supplies in one tub and created a fantastic lil’ party for her family while they were on vacation. LoVe. I also love that she includes a bird on her tables—can you find them? If you’re a new fan of Mayra, you can find her here…

Blog: http://inflightideas.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/InFlight

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/inflightideas

It’s time for PaRtY FaVoRs! The REE-launch Party continues with matching Fill-In Water Bottle Labels!

The best part…you can add your own text! We’ve set up the font, font color and font size so all you have to do is open the PDF file in Adobe Reader, click on the blue-ish grey box and type your text. Click here to download the Fill-In Water Bottle Labels for free!

{break for a Happy Dance!}

In case you missed the matching downloads, visit our Free Downloads page to collect them all!

I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting Mayra and I look forward to introducing you to the last new member of the Piggy Bank Parties Crew tomorrow!