The key to any casual get-together is making sure your guests feel relaxed and at home. Make sure to serve comfort food that is easy to eat and simple to make. Grilled cheese is always a crowd pleaser, especially when you use artisan cheeses, freshly baked bread and unique toppings for a gourmet touch. We like to make our sandwiches on a panini press like the Breville Ikon, which leaves the most amazing grill marks on your bread. Place the grilled sandwiches on a loosely covered cookie sheet at 275 to keep them warm before serving.

Besides the classic cheddar melt, try interesting flavor combinations such as Brie and Pear on Brioche or Green Olive and Mahon cheese on Sourdough. One of our all time favorites, the French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese with Spiced Jus comes from Tillman’s Lounge in New York. (For the secret sandwich recipe, courtesy of owner Lesly Bernard, click here)

Check your local grocery store or farmer’s market for ingredients or order online from Fresh Direct, which is a great resource for gourmet cheeses, fresh breads and prepared catering platters. If you want to save time, order the Crudite Masterpiece, which is a beautifully presented tray of celery, red and yellow pepper strips, baby carrots, grape tomatoes and broccoli florets. Just make sure to transfer the blue cheese and ranch dips from the plastic tubs into glass or ceramic containers before serving.

And, no Game Night would be complete without a wide array of sweet and savory snacks that can be placed around the party. Try one of the gourmet popcorn combos by Dale and Thomas, which has an assortment of amazing flavors including White Cheddar and Black Peppercorn, Frosted Gingerbread and Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Drizzle.

As for the actual games, the choices are endless. We like to play “The Name Game” or “Celebrity” because you don’t need a board and your guests can participate in creating the “names.” Here’s what you need to know…

The Set-Up:
Give each of your guests 20 strips of identical paper and a pen to secretly write down names of celebrities, personalities, well known public figures and fictional characters. Remind your guests to submit fun and recognizable names instead of foreign or obscure ones that no one will know. All strips are folded and placed in a bowl. Split your guests into two or more teams of three or more players.

How to Play:
The first team starts with one team member as the “clue-giver” who selects a name out of the bowl. That person has one minute to give his/her teammates clues so that they can guess the name on the paper. The goal is to guess as many names as possible within the allotted time. Once the time is up, the next team goes and so on. Make sure to give each team member the chance to be the clue-giver.

Once all the names are guessed, all the names go back into the bowl for Round 2 where the clue-giver can only say one word but allowed to use hand-gestures. In Round 3, the clue-giver is limited to hand-motions and gestures only like in Charades.

The Rules:
The clue-giver is not allowed to say any part of the name on the paper. Points are won on correct answers and lost on illegal clues. The team with the most points after Round 3 is declared the winner.

Don’t forget to have prizes for everyone so that all your guests go home a winner!

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Tillman’s, Fresh Direct and Williams Sonoma

BEST PICTURE
Great pictures are made, not just taken. Shoot at your child’s eye level. Incorporate natural light by shooting near a window or in open shade. Take advantage of your digital camera’s fast shooting speeds and always avoid harsh sunlight. I like to take pictures of my own kids an hour or so before sundown when the light softens up and everyone looks better.

BEST ACTION SHOT
Try and predict where the action is going to be and pre-focus. Because most consumer digital cameras have a slight lag time after you click the shutter, it is always going to be hard to capture movement. Shoot lots and lots of pictures, review and delete afterwards. Always shoot with your shutter speed as fast as possible. Avoid bright sun as digital sensors do not handle contrast well.

BEST DUO (CUTE KID AND ADORABLE PET)
Shoot close ups, take a ton of pictures, and make sure the animal is calm. I tell clients to thoroughly walk/run their dog before the photo shoot. A tired dog is a good thing.

CAPTURING THE SHY GUY OR GIRL
Do not pull the camera out and announce you are going to take his or her picture. Do not ask them to pose. The less fanfare the better. The child might react the first few times by looking away but eventually he or she will ignore the camera so you can capture that great image. Pull out the camera more than once a month. Bribing a child is totally acceptable.

BEST NATURAL SHOT
The best photographs are when people (kids and adults) finally relax and stop posing. While shooting, talk to the child and make jokes as a way to distract him from the fact that he is having his picture taken. My five year old son loves to make insane faces at the camera and try to ruin every picture. I just continue to shoot and eventually I usually outlast him.

LAST INSIGHTS
Post-production is super important. Learn how to use Photoshop to make your amazing pictures even better. It is the pro photographer’s secret weapon to staying in business.

Ron Holtz photo sessions range from $500 to $750 depending on the location. For more information, visit Ron Holtz Photography (417 5th Avenue, 212-738-9398).

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Ron Holtz

Kelcey Kintner is the creator, writer and editor of the mama bird diaries, a smart, funny and always unpredictable take on motherhood.

So to capture some of the excitement from the Fall photography auctions at Sotheby’s this week (which brought in over $12 million), Notes on a Party hosted an intimate art event at the private home of Demetra Marcus on Wednesday night. With our co-host Margo Spiritus, we invited world renowned photographer George Tice and Susan Spiritus of the Susan Spiritus Gallery to speak at the first Young Collectors Salon about the art of photography.

“Buy what you love,” was the advice from Spiritus whose philosophy on collecting has served her well both in her 30 year career advising private collectors, corporate clients and museums, and in her own personal collection which includes work from Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Imogen Cunningham, Andre Kertesz and many of the artists whose careers she helped to launch.

Spiritus began the presentation with an amusing story about her first encounter with Tice nearly three decades ago. After approaching Tice to participate in a one-man show that would launch her new gallery, the photographer agreed on one condition – that the young gallery owner buy all of his work upfront. She agreed and went on to sell every last piece. Artist and gallerist have been working together ever since.

Considered one of the best known American photographers in the world with prints in the MOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Met, Tice shared a few stories of his own from his early days in the Navy and later answered questions about his new limited edition platinum prints which were unveiled for the first time for our guests.

Young collectors and notable names from the worlds of fashion, art, design and media were in attendance: Jennifer Zuccarini of Kiki de Montparnasse, Melissa Skoog of Prada, Rebecca Sternthal of Gagosian Gallery, Ian Alteveer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Melanie Charlton Fascitelli of Clos-ette, Michal Oberlander of Style.com, Kelcey Kintner of the mama bird diaries and her husband Rick Folbaum, anchor on Fox News.

Guests were able to preview and purchase artwork by both emerging and established artists including Roman Loranc, Julie Blackmon, Dave Anderson, Hiroshi Watanabe, Gunnar Plake, Susan Burnstine and Camille Seaman whose haunting photographs of melting glaciers in Antarctica sparked many conversations.

Events and cuisine company, Williamson Calvert created the menu of elegantly presented hors d’oeuvres such as Black Misson Figs Wrapped with Hudson Valley Smoked Duck Breast and Baby Arugula as well as Grilled Shrimp with Cashew Butter and Thai Basil. Navan, a new Moet Hennessy brand, sponsored the bar and created delicious Vanilla Martinis made with Navan Vanilla infused cognac, Chopin Vodka and fresh lime juice.

To visit the Susan Spiritus Gallery (3929 Birch Street, Newport Beach, CA), please call 949-474-4321 to make an appointment or visit the web site to view artists’ work online.

To purchase a book by George Tice such as Patterson II or Urban Landscapes, click here

The Young Collectors Salon is part of a series of events that will be hosted by Notes on a Party for our readers and advertising partners. To find out more about upcoming events, join our database by becoming a subscriber (sign up on home page – top right).

We recommend heading to the new Kolo Bar. You won’t be able to order a cocktail but we promise that you won’t need one once you realize what they do. Housed in the upscale stationery store, Kate’s Paperie (72 Spring Street, 860-816-6075), this photo album bar is staffed with a Kolo designer who can transform your shoe box of prints or CD of digital images into an heirloom quality album in just a few days.

A variety of albums are available so that you can order copies for all your favorite in-laws.

Mini Album $30
The Noci album has a book-style sewn spine and a fine linen cover with a ribbon tie in a contrasting color. Up to 24 4 x 6 photos will be printed and loaded into this miniature album.

Couture $65 and up
A customizable scrapbook designed with a variety of unique templates, the Newport album can incorporate both photos and memorabilia including your invitation, seat cards and other nostalgic items.

Perfect $90 and up
Digital images are printed on archival paper for this Newport album which comes in two sizes (8.5 x 11 or 11 x 14) and in an abundance of beautiful colors like chartreuse and mango.

Simple Elegance $110 and up
Covered in European book cloth, 200-300 photos can be printed and loaded into either the Catalina or Hudson style albums.

The 450 square foot Kolo boutique inside Kate’s Paperie carries the entire product line of luxury archival photo albums, binders and boxes as well as limited edition offerings. While you are there, you might as well pick up some thank you cards for those notes that we all know are well overdue.

UPDATE: On July 30th, 2008, the Kolo Store moved from Kate’s Paperie to A.I. Friedman (44 West 18th Street, #4, New York).

PHOTO CREDIT: Images courtesy of Kolo

From my best friend’s wedding to our safari in Africa, I would spend hours on albums – arranging prints, gluing corners by hand and writing captions in pencil. Choosing an album to house all the images was just as much of a production. Would it be the Smythson leather or linen-covered from Kate’s?

Now that everything has gone digital, it was easier than ever to capture memorable moments of birthday parties, baby showers and weekend trips to the Hamptons. But, I always cringed when I went to share them with others. The photo sharing sites were either covered with banner advertising or endlessly spammed all my friends after they signed up. And, did they really think I wanted to silkscreen my face on a T-shirt or have my dog’s photo on a coffee mug?

Thankfully, I found a stylish alternative – Phanfare, an online photo and video site, creates and shares chic looking albums without any trace of advertising for a low fee that ranges from $6.95 per month to $54.95 per year.

Besides having a much cooler interface, some of my favorite features are:

• Unlimited storage (protects your albums if you computer crashes)
• Allows images up to 20MB and videos up to 10 minutes long
• Allows guests to download full sized images from your album
• Uploads music from iTunes for slide shows
• Doesn’t hijack your albums if you don’t buy prints
• Has advanced password systems so you can share only the albums you want (Girl’s Weekend in Vegas doesn’t need to be sent to your boss or your boyfriend!)

Now you can give your most precious memories the home they deserve.

Vanity Fair, Ports 1961 and the Accompanied Literary Society hosted a party to celebrate the launch of, “Photo by Sammy Davis, Jr.,” a book of previously unpublished images by the legendary entertainer.

The Ports 1961 showroom was transformed into a cocktail lounge at The Sands casino in Vegas and featured an installation of personal photos taken by Davis over the course of his tremendous career and life.

Only his closest friends and family knew that the talented singer, dancer and actor had a passion for photography. And, it was Davis’ inner circle – Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, May Britt, Jerry Lewis, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Paul Newman – that he captured in their most private, candid and revealing moments.

But, the night revealed more about the photographer than his subjects. During a Q&A with Burt Boyar, (Davis’ longtime friend and author of the book), we learned about Davis’ struggle as an African American entertainer during a racially divided time .

Boyar said that, “Sammy’s camera often served as a shield to gain access to places he couldn’t because of his color.” Despite his fame and success, the A-list insider always felt like an outsider.

In true Vegas style, the sentimental tribute to Sammy Davis, Jr. ended with a stellar performance by another ground-breaking entertainer – Adam Dugas of The Citizen’s Band, a Cabaret-inspired collective of singers, dancers and actors who use their art to comment on political and social issues.

Photography by Sammy Davis, Jr.