i'm a 90s girl

By: Danielle Kearns     
     A few weeks back, we had a 90s theme night at the claypen.  I was in my element. I am a 90s kid at heart, and had way too much fun revisiting all the highlights of the era.  And what’s even better? Some of those things are still around and well to this day! Did you hear that they tried to remove Friends from Netflix and it cost them a million to keep it available for streaming because people were going to boycott the service?  It might seem crazy, but people feel really strongly when something from their youth is readily available to them, and then suddenly, might not be. It is the ultimate comfort blanket for any bad day. It is the familiar that we can quote backwards and forwards and bond over as a generation.  
     While preparing for the event, I couldn’t-help-but-Carrie-Bradshaw wonder what the main icons would be that stuck out for these different groups of people.  What for me was a decade filled with Girl Power and the launch of the internet, others remember the launch of Starbucks and the rise of Boy Band Power.

Here are my best tips to throwing a proper 90’s theme party:

• COLOR!  A splash of color is key.  This was the decade of the neon Nickelodeon explosion!  We made our photo booth backdrop using the brightest acrylic paints we could find and did crazy splatters, swirls, and those crazy “S” symbols.  (Do you remember scribbling those on your notebook as a kid?)
  
• MUSIC!  We had a setlist of our personal favorites: Spice Girls, N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys, Tupac, Bewitched, Nirvana, Britney Spears.  Use Pandora for a quick list, or head to Spotify to create a list of your personal nostalgic favorites.
  
• PHOTOS!  Grab your vintage Polaroid camera, or buy the newest bluetooth capable contraption, and turn your photo booth into the instant keepsake.  What is more 90s than a 3-ring binder scrapbook?
  
• FOOD!  We bought cupcakes from the grocery store with, yup, you guessed it, more neon, this time in the frosting.  We printed photos of our favorite 90s icons, put them on little sticks, and placed them inside. We also got Squeeze-Its, which will majorly dye your lips and tongues!  
  
• ATTIRE!  Get your largest scrunchy and MC Hammer pants out of storage.  It’s time to party. Some other popular items from the era include: overalls, flashy sunglasses, platform shoes, suspenders, flannel, should pads, and bike shorts.
  
• DECORATIONS!  We spray painted cassette tapes we found at Goodwill and tied them across the ceiling to hang as extra decorations.  It was a quick craft that made a huge aesthetic difference!