Winter is coming. 

Well, actually summer is coming, but in the Game of Thrones universe, it is getting colder and colder every episode! The new season is here, and I've been preparing for the finale with baited breath. Who is going to die? Who will sit on the iron throne? If you've been wanting to host a watch party, but weren't sure exactly how to do it, don't worry. I've got you covered. 

And it won't take you too long to pull off, either! 

I wanted to put a party together fairly quickly when I came up with the ideas for this event, so you'll see where I was able to cut corners and still have fun being creative. 

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I knew that I wanted to create a banner showing some of the more important Game of Thrones' houses to hang up in our entryway. So I went online, searched "house sigil Game of Thrones" and found a few designs that I liked. Then I printed them in color, cut them out, and spread them on the table. 

How was I going to tie them together? Well, I didn't have a ball of string, and I really didn't have time to head to the store to buy any. As well, I don't use string that often, so I didn't want to spend the money on something I would only need once. 

I thought for a moment, and then realized - I could use dental floss! Dental floss is super strong, so it won't break, and it's white so it isn't a distracting color. I punched wholes in the top of each sigil (if you have a single hole punch, use that; I didn't, so I used a three whole punch and just pushed the paper off to the side), then slid the floss through. Because I didn't want the flags to slide to the middle as soon as I hung up the banner, I taped the dental floss to the back of each one, holding it in place. 

And voila! This is the finished banner! 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED: 
- Printed Sigils
- Dental Floss
- Tape
- Hole Punch
- Scissors

WHAT TO DO: 
1. Find and print out house sigils that you like. Cut them out. 
2. Hole punch two holes on the top of the sigil, as shown above. 
3. Cut a piece of dental floss long enough for your banner, then slide it through the holes you punched on the top of each sigil. Make sure to hide the dental floss by putting the long side of the string on the backside of your cut-out. 
4. Tape the dental floss to the back of each sigil to make sure the whole banner stays in place. 
5. Hang it up and enjoy! 

I thought it would be fun to play some sort of game before the show started to get everyone excited to see the new episode.

Trivia is fun, plus it's a nice little refresher reminding you of things you may have forgotten. So, I turned to Google and searched for "printable Game of Thrones trivia." Find one that works for your friends' knowledge level - we found many were too easy for us, but if you want to keep it upbeat, then choose something on the easier side! I printed out the questions and answers, since I was going to be the Game Master. 

Then I searched online for "Game of Thrones font." You should be able to find something you can download. Then you can make your own Game of Thrones trivia sheet! You can copy what I wrote above, or you can write something different. 

We had a blast playing this game, and I hope you do too! 

When it came to the food, I was ready to get punny. Dad jokes for the win!

I wanted to display the food in a fun and themed way. The only problem was, I didn't have that much time to prepare. I knew I couldn't whip up a pie or cook up a storm in the kitchen. So I came up with food puns regarding foods that I could buy from the grocery store and display in a really cool way. 

I typed up the names of my puns in the Game of Thrones font that I had previously downloaded, then printed them, cut them out, and folded them in half so I could stand them up next to each food that I set out for the guests. 

Here are the puns I came up with! Feel free to come up with your own and add them to the fun.

LITTLE LADYFINGERS: Buy some ladyfingers from the store, display them on a round plate. 

CHIPS AND  SANSA: Buy prepared salsa and tortilla chips! 

MINI GOT DOGS: You can usually find these in the frozen section. If you keep kosher, look in the frozen kosher section!

A LANNISTER ALWAYS PAYS HIS BAGUETTES: Buy a sliced baguette from your local bakery. Buy some herbs to combine with butter or margarine. Chop the herbs at home, mash them into your spread, and then reshape and serve next to the baguettes!

Of course, if you have the time, go ahead and bake or cook foods to match these puns! Unfortunately, sometimes you would like to throw a party but don't have a ton of time to prepare. And it's perfectly fine, in my opinion, to serve foods that you haven't made yourself. 

Last but not least: the cocktails. 

I had a few thoughts when I was coming up with the drinks I wanted to serve, but I ended up realizing a couple of things. First, I chose to keep it simple: all of the cocktails I served had vodka as a base. It's not hard to find a cheap, decent bottle of vodka, whereas many other liquors taste pretty awful at a lower price-range. Plus, needing to have many different liquors on hand can get expensive.

Second, I didn't want to try and design new drinks - instead I went with cocktails most people already knew, then matched their color with a name to fit the Game of Thrones theme. So a red drink, for example, became a Red Witch.

Then I used that same font that I had downloaded, typed up my menu, and printed it on slightly nicer paper!

Here was my cocktail menu: 

WHITE WALKER: White Russian
- 1 part Vodka
- 1 part Kahlua
- 1 part Heavy Cream

KISS OF A SANDSNAKE (Shown above): Pink Lemonade
- 1 1/2 ounces Vodka
- 1/2 ounce Triple Sec
- 1 ounce Cranberry Juice
- 1/2 ounce Lemon Juice
- 1/2 ounce Lime Juice
- 4 ounces Sprite
- Lemon Wedge

RED WITCH: Cosmopolitan
- 1 1/2 ounce Vodka (Technically it's Vodka Citron, but nobody at my party knew the difference!)
- 1/2 ounce Cointreau
- 1/2 ounce Lime Juice
- 1 ounce Cranberry Juice

WILDFIRE: Vodka Gimlet 
- 4 parts Vodka
- 1 part Sweetened Lime Juice

Our party turned out really well, and I'm sure we'll host another one at the finale of the series! Will you throw your own Game of Thrones party? If you do, tag me in your pictures on Instagram @ClassicallyAbby! And let me know in the comments below. 

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As I was scrolling through YouTube the other day, I found a "tag" I thought was fun. A tag is when someone comes up with an idea for a video and "tags" other YouTubers, saying, "You should do this challenge on your channel too!" 

For this tag, YouTubers asked their subscribers, "What are your assumptions about me?" Then they read those assumptions on their channel and confirmed or denied if they were true. 

For me, this seemed like a good way to get to know my subscribers and for my subscribers to get to know me. 

Do you have any assumptions about me? Let me know in the comments, and I'll try and respond! 

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Leggings seem to be a hot topic right now. Ever since a mother wrote an open letter to the student newspaper at Notre Dame critiquing leggings, women have been choosing a side and digging their heels in. Most seem to defend them.

Well, here’s another opinion to add to the mix, and this time by a 25-year-old woman and not a mother of teen boys: I think leggings are inappropriate.

I used to feel differently. Actually, let me rephrase that: I used to want to feel differently. I wanted to be convinced that what I wore was fine, even as I knew that I looked good in leggings and that I was choosing to attract attention to myself in a way that was distracting. But even when I could feel that I was dressing inappropriately, I used the same arguments every other woman has made regarding them. I didn’t want to acknowledge what I already knew: that there's no excuse for wearing leggings outside of the gym, and maybe even at the gym you should throw a pair of shorts over the top.

Now, before I continue, I want to make a couple of things clear. By leggings, I mean all leggings. The argument against too small or sheer leggings doesn't really seem relevant to me, because no woman I know would purposefully wear a pair of leggings that are see-through outside of her home. And by wearing leggings, I mean wearing them without a long sweater or blouse over the top to cover your bum. If you're doing that, that's a bit of a different scenario.

There are two reasons generally cited for why leggings are worn: one, they’re fashionable, and two, they’re comfortable.

As a fashion blogger, I take real issue with reason number one. Leggings aren't fashion! They are meant for exercising. Clothing used to be something people took pride in - it makes me sad that dressing down has become the new norm. So why do women wear leggings to look fashionable? Because if you have a nice pair of leggings, they’re flattering. They pull you in, up, and make everything look better. They match pretty much everything. It's understandable why women want to wear them. 

But they’re not fashion. They’re athletic clothing. And if you’re going to call them a fashion item, then you’ll have to explain to me why leggings are any different than a tight, low-cut, high-hemmed, sexy dress. I know that I would never consider wearing something like that, but in my head, I used to think that leggings were a different ball game. Maybe because they didn't actually show any skin, I could tell myself that they were more modest. 

But I’ve talked to many men about this very topic, and they’ve all told me that leggings are distracting. It’s not an insult to them that they know their own nature. Men are visual creatures. And the men who voice this are not weak – they’re the men who want to be good, who want to view women as more than their bodies. I know those are the kind of men I'd like to be surrounded with. Of course, that's not to say that a man should immediately treat you as less than a person if you're wearing something like leggings. But it's also not realistic to say that men won't be drawn to the physical when faced with it. 

At this point, the conversation usually shifts: we say that leggings are not about fashion, they’re about comfort. But this really gets me. Leggings are comfortable – but no more comfortable than a pair of sweatpants. So there’s no reason for any woman to wear them for comfort’s sake…unless you’re actually wearing them as a fashion item. So we end up back where we started. 

The mother who wrote the letter on this topic wasn’t wrong. She saw three young women at church, at Mass, wearing leggings and crop tops. A place of worship is not a place to either dress unthinkingly or dress with the implicit purpose of drawing attention to the physical. We dress nicely in synagogues and churches to express respect for God, not to show off what our bodies look like. And at this point in my life, I don't really believe that women don’t know that wearing leggings is distracting. If you didn't know before, maybe you'll believe it after reading this. And every time you put on leggings, you’ll have a choice to make.

Do you agree? Let me know in the comments!

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