Graduation Party Prep and Plea for Ideas

Snickerdoodle (aka Model Child) is graduating Memorial weekend. As money is really tight, I'm actually able to get a head start on it (unlike when College Dude graduated from HS).

She's having the party with two (male) classmates, so it cannot be really girly. One of the boys has volunteered his family's membership at the lake so we can have the party there...which cuts down on the need for decorations. I made a run by Goodwill today and scored a yellow tablecloth and 4 blue dinner plates (school colors). I picked up 4 black metal candleholders so, with the addition of E6000 glue), there will be serving dishes of various heights. Everything was yellow label so it was all 50% off! I also grabbed 3 black metal display thingies for decorative plates or pictures on tabletops...3 of them, 3 grads...senior pictures or mini collages in each one for display, some confetti and that is done. I have some silver holders that should have Pyrex or other glass dishes in them...no dish, but the servers....so raffia or ribbon across the bottom, towels in them and they can hold the plastic silverware. So I think that other than maybe some balloons and confetti...the decorations are taken care of!

I am starting to collect cans so I can use them to make holders for tea light candles or votives. Maybe someone else would feel like buying citronella candles...or I can pick up some oil and put a few drops in each tea light. I can always use citronella oil in summer. I've seen the can candleholder on Martha Stewart I think, but the reminder was here http://www.homemademamas.net/2010/04/tin-can-tea-lights.html

If the other two sets of parents will pick up the food expenses, I will make red velvet cupcakes (torn between quick and using a mix or being true to my Texas/southern roots and doing them from scratch). Of course, if I do from scratch I can make a batch per week, freeze half and let the family have the other half so they'll be quiet ;D

Another idea I had was to find out where the boys will go to college and have some sort of little picture of their college or mascot or something to go on the table next to their picture....what do ya'll think?

That's it for now...and any other suggestions for cheap/free decor would be greatly appreciated!

Hugs!

Susan

New Header

My new header is the work of a friend from HS. As much as I enjoy Spring in Colorado, I miss my bluebonnets and apparently this is a bumper year for them. Thanks Larry.

Creativity is back...and so am I!

I've missed you! I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a rough winter creativity-wise. Not sure why, but I was content with dreaming and considering and reading. With the economy down and loss of my job last summer...let's just say it was tight and hard.

I'm now working part time for a start-up...Van Dyne Superturbo, Inc.http://www.vandynesuperturbo.com/ It's an amazing piece of technology and I really enjoy working there. I'm busy for starters...very busy! And as most of you know, even when I was working, there wasn't much to do. Now I'm having to remember how to prioritize and organize at work! Bonus is that I worked with gearheads who like cars...the faster the better...and forget 'green' although it is a very green piece of technology.

Family update: Cabinet Man has moved his shop back to our home...need to figure out again how to heat it better in the winter (the ceiling is open to the rafters and no insulation and no real way to put it up there!). But it's warming up so we'll worry about that in September. He is down in Denver again this weekend wrapping the front columns on the house he did last summer. College Dude is on schedule to graduate next year...our first college grad! He's still living at home..but paying for his own education and working also. We told him that he has 90 days after getting a job to move out. If he goes to grad school at CSU, that will be another story, but he plans to go out of state to grad school so that won't be an issue. I have plans for his room.

Snickerdoodle is getting ready to graduate in May and go off to Elmhurst in the fall. She should hear about acceptance into their honors program soon. Her thesis (for high school) is mostly done and she is ready for her oral presentation. Yes, they have to do a 40 page senior thesis and a 15 page oral presentation! Can't remember right now what it is on. Yeah, I am a wretched mother. We did get some pics back from the agency from her photo shoot in January and she's just gorgeous! She looked at the video they sent and the pics and, in the most awestruck voice, said "Mom, I look like a model." It was so funny. So, without further ado, here she is. The first one is my favorite one. I love it.And yes, she has legs up to her neck in the second one.

Sigh, I used to be that little...and if she ever reads this blog, I am DEAD for posting those pics.

And Sunshine is trying to get her 15 minutes of fame as a lot of attention is being focused on Snickerdoodle. But we keep telling her that she will be the focus of our undivided attention beginning in September so...(insert evil laugh here). But she is doing so much better in school than at this time last year so we've been 'vindicated' by holding her back. She does understand and accept now that it was a good idea.

I'm starting to get things going again though. Cabinet Man has agreed to sell the buffet (finally!) It's early American maple and really pretty and well made, etc. But I am so very tired of it after 20+ years and ready for something else (and I have been threatened with my life by my sister if I paint it) I will get that Art Deco cabinet unveneered and upstairs for the television. Not decided yet what I'll used for storage in place of the buffet, but I will find something. Or convince Cabinet Man to build me something. I'm on the search for fabric for our bedroom. I love the paint color that I had picked out last year for it, but not sure that it will work with the fabrics that I am considering. I would love to find some vintage look floral or toile..and make sure that Cabinet Man is okay with it. Our bedroom is going to be more feminine, but since I have restrained myself for the past 29 years, I can do that now :D

This weekend I made two pairs of pajama pants for Sunshine out of an old pink sheet...she loves them. We made her a purse also out of some extra fabric around that she found. I have a bunch of old sheets to make stuff out of, so I'm playing with those. The dog bed came over from the shop space, so I am painting that today. It's raw wood so it is SUCKING up the spray paint, even after priming it. I suspect that I'll be heading to the landfill recycling and grabbing a quart of black or white for it. Not sure yet which I'll do. I have some stuff that I can use for the bedding in it. Now to train the cattle dogs to stay in it when we need them from underfoot. I hate having the crates in the family room. We had them in there for so long that Cabinet Man didn't realize how nice it looked without them. And with a big bed for the cattle dogs and my Duncan liking his basket, it will work. By summer I expect to to have NO dog crates and NO toys in the family room. A first!

I also did a first last month. I made two sunbonnets and a shopkeeper's wife apron for our school Spring musical. The apron was biggest pain. The waistband and tie directions were terrible. I would have been better off making it one very long length, then attaching it. Next time. Or I might see if I can redo it. And I had to make a bib for the top. And I decided that if women in the 1800s had had access to twill tape, they would have used them for ties around the neck. So there.

Sorry this is so long. I'll be doing another post soon showing the little 'thrifty' things that I've been able to pick up over the last month.

Affectionately and long-windedly!