Grabbing drinks at the local watering hole after work or meeting for coffee at your favourite café on a Sunday are reliable standbys, but this routine can get stale fast. Whether you are catching up with old friends or looking to cement relationships you have with new ones, it’s easy to fall into a rut with your gal pals.
Life gets in the way, you get caught up in work or family, and it gets harder and harder to make the time for friends when it means also shelling out your hard-earned cash for overpriced cocktails or coffee.
However, it’s important to prioritize the time for your friends and loved ones, and it’s much easier to do so when you’ve got a fun activity to keep your hands busy. Here are a few ideas that women of all ages can use to make the most of their quality time with their girlfriends.
1) Mixology Nights
Love specialty cocktails but hate the specialty price tags that go along with them? Skip the overpriced liquor and the crowded bar rail where you can barely hear yourself think and treat your friends to a night in. Find the recipe for your favourite mixed drink online and show your friends how to make it.
Next month, someone else hosts and teaches you to make their favourite drink. The best part is that you get to enjoy what you make. And even if you don’t particularly enjoy it…at least you get to laugh about it.
2) Get a Makeover
Why not take a day to get a makeover with your friend? Makeovers can instil confidence and get you ready for a fun-filled weekend, whether you plan to take selfies at dinner or go out to a nightclub.
Give your hair a styled blow dry, get some eyelash extensions, opt for an eyebrow wax or threading, and stop at makeup counters for some in-store, hands-on application assistance. Whatever you need to complete your makeover, schedule appointments for the day and enjoy pampering in style.
3) Open Mic Nights
Open Mic nights might get a bad rap as the stomping ground for out of touch poets or sub-par songwriters, but the truth is that there are likely many talented people in your community you just don’t know about. It’s nice to catch a big name concert with your friends from time to time, but there’s something special about supporting local acts in your backyard. Who knows?
Maybe one of your friends secretly has a knack for spoken word poetry and has been looking for a little nudge to get on stage themselves.
4) Group Exercise
Exercising with a group of your friends is one of those things that’s easier to imagine than it is to put into practice, but it’s worth putting aside the time for. Getting active with friends is not just great for your body. It’s great for your mind too! You learn a lot about people when you see them sweat and just how they choose to do it.
You might never have known one of your closest gal pals was a yogi in the making if you hadn’t asked to tag along to her weekly hot yoga session. Next week, take her to your favourite cycling class.
5) Arts & Crafts Night
Bust out the hot glue gun, because arts and crafts aren’t just for kids anymore! There are so many cost-efficient, low effort projects that you can complete over the course of a night in with your best friends.
These projects can be as simple as painting canvas or as involved as knitting or cross-stitching, depending on how much time you have and the attention span of attendees involved. The best part is that the end product is something with a nice memory attached that you can display in your home.
6) Trade Styles for an Evening
Swapping clothes isn’t just for frugality’s sake or the planet’s sake—it can be for fun, too! Even the most individualistic of women can fall into a rut when it comes to personal style. Sometimes, it is nice to get a fresh perspective from people you trust the most.
Even when you don’t want to swap full looks with your pals, giving them some input into your outfits for a fun night out can make everything that comes after seem that much more interesting. Not the same size as most of your pals? Let them do your hair or makeup in their traditional style instead!
7) Dessert Night
Potlucks get a bad rap, but we all know the part of the potluck we most look forward to…dessert. So why not make the best part the main course? Go all-in on a group cheat day, fire up your favourite movies on demand, and have all your friends bring their favourite homemade (or, let’s be real, store-bought) dessert to share.
No need to stress about your culinary expertise: even a poorly made dessert is still better than dinner! It’s fine to treat yourself and your girls to something sweet once in a while.
Hi, I’m Anna the Editor of Beauty and Lace.