Have You Put Out Your Flamingos Yet?

My neighbor and friend Marion has been telling us about "Flamingo Friday" since she moved here from Baltimore.  Being the big fan of themed-parties that I am, I waited and waited for the parties to get started and finally decided to take matters into my own hands.  I hunted through our local party store for classic pink lawn flamingos and stuck them in her yard to encourage her to get Flamingo Fridays started with our neighborhood.  It worked.  Marion and her family handed out literally hundreds of very pink flyers explaining the party (she gave some to us too and my kids had a blast knocking on doors and explaining the party to everyone), and now we are approaching our 4th Flamingo Friday this week.  Here's how to get Flamingo Friday started in your neighborhood:

Flamingo Friday is designed to help you host the most inexpensive, least time-consuming party this summer.  It's also designed to help you get invited to a party close enough to walk to each week.  It's a win-win.  First you need to get a pair of pink flamingos.  I found ours ("Ozzy and Harriet") at the local party store for about $5 each.  Each Wednesday, someone in the neighborhood displays the flamingos prominently in their yard to serve as an "invitation" to everyone that they are the hosts on Friday.  On Friday evening, the hosts put out 2 drinks- a cocktail for the adults and a non-alcoholic drink for the kids.  All this can be done in the front yard or driveway.  The point is that you don't have to spend hours cleaning your house for this event.  During the party, if someone needs to use the restroom, they can simply walk back home.  That's it.  No snacks even.  Marion's point on that one is that if she puts out chips at her party, I might want to put out chips and dip and then YOU might feel like you should up the ante a bit and have cocktail weenies.  This is a no-fuss, no-frills way to have a simple summer gathering and get to know your neighbors.  You know me- I love it and I've spent way too much time looking for flamingo wear for my family (I am particularly proud that I found a flamingo shirt for my husband too- yay for Ebay!).  So today is the day to get your flamingos out and let everyone know you're hosting the party on Friday.  Just tell them you got the idea from Marion =) And by the way, if you check out the photo of Marion and me, you might start to wonder if a love of crazy themed parties might just be a redhead thing.  And do note my sequined flamingo sweater- it arrived just in time for the Flamingo Friday party we had in our front yard- I couldn't have wished for a better themed sweater!

It's Only Hair

I keep telling myself that.  I used to tell myself that every time I would get fed-up with my long hair and would go have it totally whacked off.  That was before I really GOT it that my husband LOVES my hair.  I figure, what the heck.  If I had my druthers, I'd go long and short and long and short but it's such a small way to make him happy so why not- and really, cutting it short would always cause me a bit of anxiety-?  My daughter, on the other hand, has other ideas.  Her hair is GORGEOUS.  Really.  Long, luxurious, thick and healthy.  A friend recently suggested she try out for shampoo commercials and for a minute there, I had fantasies of Tabitha taking care of her own college fund.

Last summer, we decided Tabitha (my daughter) needed a trim but she had so MUCH hair, we had 8" cut off for a charity.  It looked cute but pained my husband- he loves her with long hair just as much as he like me to have long hair.  After a whole year of nothing more than a trim, she is back to near-Rapunzel status again and she announced yesterday that she wanted a haircut again.  I can't help but admire her.  She is 5 years-old and she is already more cool about getting her haircut than most of my friends (some of whom will cry if they see their hair fall during a cut).  "It's just hair and mine grows fast." she says, repeating my mantra that I say but don't quite believe.  But there you have it.  She's cool and now she has shorter, more fun hair.  And to make my husband feel a little better about it, she had just enough length to donate her locks again (and thanks to my friend and hairstylist Michon for cutting her hair for free because we were donating it to Locks of Love!)

 

It was 20 years ago today

Well, approximately but I'm never one to pass up a chance to sing a Beatles refrain.  Anway, in honor of my 20 year high school reunion, I thought I'd make myself a reunion name tag that truly sums up my high school days.  Thank goodness for college where these traits are expected and occasionally encouraged.  =)  Cheers to all of you braving your reunions this month!

Working my way into "Artful Blogging" one mushroom at a time.

I've had a year-long running joke that if I could just get enough handmade fimo mushrooms in a field to photograph myself in (wearing ethereal faerie garb), I might just make it to the ultimate crafter's blogging goal:  being published in Artful Blogging*.  Truth is, I've dog-eared enough issues to know it's not really going to happen.  I'm too busy trying to be funny to take such lovely pictures for each post and while I LOVE the shabby-chic aesthetic of so many of the Artful Blogging's subjects, I can't live that way.  I just wish I did. 

Still, I can't look at mushrooms without thinking of Artful Blogging.  The birthday invitations my little girl and I made for her upcoming Fairy Art birthday party are a good example.  Naturally I had to do a little photoshoot before we ran around the neighborhood passing them out.  It might be the closest I ever get to a field full of mushrooms and fairies again (well, that's probably not true since we are planning a trip to FaerieWorlds this summer in Eugene,OR).  And for the record, my husband AND son declared the photo of a forest of little Tabitha Fairies on mushrooms (above) "creepy."  So much for my attempt at being "artful!"

These were really easy but, like most of my projects, fairly time consuming.  I just sketched out a free-hand mushroom as a template and traced the top (red) part of the mushroom on textured Bazzil cardstock.  I traced the mushroom on a fold so it would work as a card that opened from the top.  I traced the stem of the mushroom on beige textured Bazill and used adhesive to affix it to the inside of the mushroom top.  I randomly cut free-hand "spots" for the mushroom making sure they were organic and not too round (my daughter tried to do this for awhile and declared it too hard but we did use some of hers- I just couldn't covince her that they weren't supposed to be "perfect").  My little girl was very cooperative about posing on a kitchen counter in a her white ballet recital gown for the fairy photo.  I simply reduced the size of the photo, cut it out and added anything wing-like I had in my stash.  My favorite wings were made by taking Melissa Frances Vintage Transfers rub-ons and adding them to some luggage tag laminate I had laying around.  I cut the finished product out for realistic looking wings that were translucent.  Ditto with the little crown.  The other, more colorful, crowns are Fiskars raindots  (which my daughter added to all the little fairy photos of herself) and the colorful wings were butterfly clips that had the misfortune of being in my line of vision when I ran out of Melissa Frances rub-ons.  The last step was printing the invitation detail on cardstock which I then cut to size and added to the inside of the mushroom top and we were ready to move on to my daughter's favorite part of invitations- going to her friends' homes to pass them out!

*I WILL be speaking at this summer's BlogHer conference in Chicago, though and that's not too shabby!  Details here:  http://www.blogher.com/blogher_conference/conf/10/speakers/2

Speaking of Crafting

Some of the fun of being part of C & T Publishing's Creative Troupe is getting my projects professionally photographed.  I have a fun time photographing my own work but really, there's nothing like really good lighting and a lightbox- neither of which I have.  Here's a project that C & T has on their blog currently.  I made these candy flower centerpieces last year with the idea that I would use them for my daughter's birthday tea party.  You can see the directions for creating these flower centerpieces on the blog here:  http://www.ctpubblog.com/2009/05/01/sweet-sensations-by-angela-daniels/

Finally! I scrap a page I like!

Wohoo!  I have all the deatils typed out on the Lucky 13 blog but I'm just excited that I actually like this- enough to consider making one for my own album!  I posted the layout of my son with candy earlier today and now this... don't hold your breath but maybe, just maybe this will get back to being a blog about crafting.                                                  ...maybe.

Secret Candy Stashes

When I was a kid, one time I came home from school and my mom had dumped out every drawer in my room onto the middle of the floor- prison shake-down style.  The contraband?  Candy wrappers.  Hundreds of them.  At my house, candy was verboten in a big way (the armchair psychologist in me swears this is why I'm obsessed with candy to this day but it's hard to know which came first, the chicken or the Cadbury cream-filled egg).  I was mucho busted.  I vowed to run away some day and live a life of Jolly Ranchers and Skittles with no one to tell me that my teeth would rot and my health would suffer- HA!  That would teach them.

Today, I live in a very happy relationship with candy.  I buy it when I want it (still with a residual pang of guilt that my Catholic friends are familiar with for different reasons) but here's the deal:  I reproduced.  My oldest got the candy gene (partially blowing my theory of my candy obsession's origin).  I try and be cool about it.  I let him eat it.  I try not to make a big deal out of it.  But to watch this obsession in another human is disturbing.  If there is a bag of candy on the loose, neither one of us can concentrate on our daily lives until we've consumed the entire thing.  ALL of it.  I think my son summed up our feelings best at the grocery store the other day when he explained to my husband, "I don't like Tropical Skittles.  They're gross.  I'd still eat them if we bought them but I don't like them."  From the mouths of babes. (and yes, this is a layout I made of him- I found him like this one morning- he had found one of my stashes and had crammed gobs of candy in his mouth but tried to tell me he had "nuh-sing.").

And this brings me to my candy stashes.  They are all over the house, hiding from my son, mostly.  I probably rival any drug addict trying to live a secret life within a suburban family.  I was going to take pictures of my stash because I know it would make some of you have a nice laugh at my expense but I seriously worried that seeing me take photos in various drawers, under the bed, behind the flour, etc. would draw attention to my stash.  I just couldn't let my son in on that.  Poor thing wouldn't be able to sleep well after that... so I'll just ask you to sit back and imagine what it must be like for unsuspecting guests at my home to retire to the guest bedroom and reach under their pillows and find a snack size Skittles pack.  Maybe they think that's our version of hotel mints on a pillow...

The C.B.C.

I'm going to get very real here for a second.  I HATE admiting this and I almost NEVER do.  I might even delete this post before it makes it here to the blog but here goes:  I have someone clean my house twice a month.  *Gasp.*  There, I said it.  I never, EVER thought I'd have someone to clean my house when I grew up but there you go.  Part of the reason I work part-time is to pay for this luxury.  So today is the day.  I'll leave the house (because I am embarassed to sit here when someone is cleaning for me) and when I come home, the house will sparkle and all will be well with the world... until we make it messy again in a few days.

So this brings us to the C.B.C. (named by my friend Colette).  Twice a month, I spend HOURS on the C.B.C.  I was us at 6 am this morning for the C.B.C., in fact (and more honestly, I'm blogging to procrastinate on the C.B.C.).  So what is the C.B.C.?  The Clean-Before-the-Clean.  Because in order for the woman who cleans our house to do the deep clean, I have to clean the clutter.   My husband thinks this is ridiculous but any other woman I know who has someone clean their house knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about. 

There.  How's that for full-disclousure?

Just Call Me Mother Hubbard...

... and not just because my cupboard is bare.  As far as my genealogy goes, I can verify that I'm at LEAST the 3rd generation woman in our family who is relatively uninterested in food at home (and the cooking that goes along with it).  What I'm talking about is the FRONT of my fridge.  I've gone this entire school year with my big family calendar floating around amid clutter and patterned paper scraps in my scrap space.  This weekend was the final straw.  I nearly forgot yet another appointment for one of my kiddos.  I could go on a rant about how ridiculous the typical grade-schooler's schedule is and how, even though I do my best to keep their commitments to a minimum, I still find us spending every day shuttling to one event or another but I will admit it:  I need more organization.  So as much as I'd love to have this cute little pink fridge all clutter free on the front (and this is not my fridge- I'm married and have had to sacrifice much in the way of personal taste to keep my home life argument free), I can't do it.  Calendar goes up today. 

Sigh. My biggest challenge?  The stress I feel if the calendar doesn't look absolutely perfect and cute.  I will resist the temptation to hand decorate each important  birthday on the calendar.  I will try not to think about how much better it would be if I could color coordnate each event with my markers.  And I will try and be kind if I permanently add an event and then it gets canceled, forcing me to make an ugly cross-out on my wannabe prestine calendar.  Wish me luck...

Hosting a Real Housewives Party

I love themed parties and since not many people have them for me to go to, it seems the best way to go to a themed party is to host one myself.  Last week, I hosted a Real Housewives party to commemorate the season ending of the NYC cast show.  I did a few funny things I'd like to share with you in case you'd like to throw your own party (and if you do, PLEASE send me photos- I love this kind of stuff- heck, send me an invitation).  So here are a few of the tips:

1.  Make your friends watch the show before they come.  They can catch enough of the gist of the show on hulu.com (I know, you've seen the commercials but haven't really checked out the site, right?).  The best part of the evening will be if your friends say "jur-ree" for "jewelry" as the Atlanta cast does and if they react in mock outrage if they think your husband has crashed the party a'la Simon.

2.  Have a charity tie in to your party.  All the Real Housewives do it- none of their parties are complete without some nod to some charity or another.  I asked a local Silpada rep to come and sell her jewelry (hence the "jur-ree" discussions).  She is giving a percentage of the sales of the night to the local charity I chose and I used my "hostess earnings" to buy a bracelet and earring set to donate to the same charity's upcoming silent auction. 

3.  Encourage your friends to wear something reminescent of a Real Housewives cast they like.  I found a very cute but very Orange County cast dress at my local Goodwill.  Most of my friends at least wore cocktail dresses and the array of sparkly shoes was fantastic.  Such a change from the jeans or workout gear we usually see each other in.  Personally, I stepped it up a notch and stuffed my bra and wore a ton of bronzer and self-tanner (that's why I look tan in my last post, Lene) to feel more O.C.  I'm an over-acheiver that way.

4.  Have drink stations representing your favorite casts.  I had NYC cast "Skinny Girl Margaritas" using cast member Bethenny Frankel's famous recipe, another station had blue-cheese stuffed olive martini's as a nod to the feud Vicky had with Gretchen about who REALLY had these as a "signature" drink on the Orange County show.  I also had Firefly sweet tea-flavored vodka as a nod to the Atlanta cast (and I had a token bottle of Chardonnay because hardly a scene was filmed without at least one Atlanta housewife having a strangle-hold on a glass of the stuff).  And by all means, make little signs with photos of each cast so there is no mistake that those drinks are part of the theme!

5.  Say mean things about all the women who you have as mutual friends who weren't able to make it to the party.  The more outlandish the gossip, the better.  If possible, consider filming rumors about one another to post on You Tube at a later date.  (hee hee- I'm kidding about this tip)

6.  And take lots of photos... even if your guests aren't used to that.  You'll love them and you can send them with your thank you notes later.  Or you can post them on your blog- I'm sure my friends will love being here in their best Real Housewives attire for the world to see (but I'm not going to tell them so I might never know for sure...).