New Blog Look and promised pics

I was getting tired of the old look of my blog so I spent some time searching online yesterday for a new look.  I was originally thinking of going wintry, but the more I searched I thought, no I think an ‘almost spring’ look would be better – so here it is!  What do you think?

I did snap a few pictures, but the quality is not that great still.  I need to start a fund for a new camera!  Anyway, first up is the Altered Lunchbox I made for Catherine.  I still need to print the photos of all the guests and stick them to the other side of each of the cards – but you get the idea.  Next is the decorations.  I made the invitation, altered a candle, made a pennant, and candlelit paperbags to line our sidewalk.

I wanted to include the text of the invitation here since you cannot read it on the invites.  It is pretty clever if I do say so myself.  However, I cannot take complete credit for it – I found part of the text online on a Fourth of July invite.  Here it is:

We the people, of ______________ (The Anderson’s) in order to form a more perfect party, establish good will, insure memories, provide beer, hot dogs and other good things, promote a good time, and secure the blessings of friendship hereby invite you to a American Style Going Away Party for the Elfick family.

Going Away party

I already wrote about the party a bit.  But, I did want to share some of the ways I used my scrapbooking supplies to make the party scrapfabulous!  The Elfick’s are a wonderful family.  They lived two houses down from in the corner of our cul-de-sac.  I miss them tremendously already!!!  Dominic is from Scotland and Catherine is from Australia.  They have been here in the US for a number of years, but the opportunity arose for Dom’s company to transfer them to Australia.  Catherine was ecstatic, of course – her country, her family and friends.  I cannot blame her at all!!!  Anyway, when we started talking about having a Going Away Party for them, I thought we should have an American theme party to send them off in style.  I had some small American flags in the attic, but that was about it for USA decor.  So, I set off searching at my fave stores, Target, Hobby Lobby and the $1 Store and Michael’s.  They actually had some, I was surprised.  But then as I was checking out with my red, white, blue napkins, drink stirrers, plates, paper lanterns etc the sales clerk asked if I was having an Inauguration Party – Ohhhhh!  Lightbulb moment!  That is why there were displays of USA themed decorations around!  Oh well, works for me and my needs.

I made the invitations, with the help of this digital kit from Scrapbook-Bytes.  Todd helped me with the pennant.  I bought one sheet of all the American themed scrapbook papers from my LSS.  I had about a dozen sheets or so.  I told him my plan, Cut as many triangles from each sheet as you can, glue them back to back if they were not double sided patterned paper, and then string them with some red fiber.  He was a champ – handled that one all on his own!  I covered a plain white candle with scrapbook paper scraps from the pennant and then wrapped some gold star wired garland around it.  The picture stinks, the light was bouncing off the glass globe and the glass pebbles.  I found some blue paper lunch sacks and used my star punch to punch a few stars in the bags.  I weighed them down with rocks and put a votive candle in them.  I used those and the small flags to line our sidewalk.  Again, the picture stinks – hard to get a picture of a bag lit from within by a votive candle when said candle keeps blowing out due to the wind.

I think that is it for decorations.  For the kids in attendance, I covered a folding table with butcher paper and set out crayons and playdough.  That kept them busy for a while.  I had also printed out copies of Patriotic Airplanes and Patriotic Pinwheels from Family Fun At some point they got tired of all my activities and moved on to the destruction of Lael’s bedroom. Oh well, they all had fun!

The other thing I made was a gift for Catherine and Dom. I used one of the lunchboxes that were so popular a few years back in the scrapbooking world. I altered it with some paper from my stash and then was totally stuck. It was like I was a first year scrapper, paralyzed by all my choices. I was opening boxes and drawers and folders looking for that perfect something for the front of the box. Finally, I found it – and it was not even something I made! It is a chipboard frame with a big “F” for friends and ribbon on it. It was made by my friend Liza and given to me years ago. I never found the perfect project to use it, til now! So, big thanks to Liza for that!! Then I cut a bunch of chipboard squares to fit inside and altered them, one side for notes and one side for pictures. Each guest was supposed to write a note to the Elfick’s, along with their contact info (email, addy, phone #), then Aimee took their picture. Each family unit had their own card. I thought this would be a wonderful way for the Elfick’s to keep in touch with all their friends here in the States.

Finally – the food and drinks.  I found some cute little mason jar mugs at the $1 Store and got a few of those for our guests.  I wasn’t sure if I would have enough glasses without breaking out my good crystal (which I really did not want to do!)  Plus, I thought that they fit the theme!  The signature drink I served was Carolina Ice Tea. Here’s the recipe:

Add alcohol and stir lightly. Pour in iced tea. Stir a few more times and serve.
It was actually tasty. I was kind of worried with that many liquors it would be way too strong, but the sweet tea was the perfect complement.

Food – there was so much! Before everyone arrived, I was looking at all the trays and platters and thought wow, we have lots of stuff leftover. That was so not the case! Practically everything was eaten! We had chicken fingers, shrimp, sausage balls, pigs in blanket, fruit, cheese ball with crackers, deviled eggs, Kahlua cake, flag cookie cake, Southern Caviar, buffalo chicken dip, Party mix, pretzels and nuts. People kept asking me about the Cheese Ball. So, here is the recipe for that:

Soften cream cheese. Add all ingredients except 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Chill, then shape into a ball and roll in pecans. Serve with crackers.
I didn’t have any pecans, so I just left them out and it tasted great. They just add a bit more crunch.

I think that is all I have to share.  It was fun, I would definitely love to host another party, but not a Going Away one for any more friends.  All of my neighbors MUST not move for many many years!

OK, will have to add photos later – can’t get them to work now. boo-hoo

Day after Party

Last night was the Going Away party for the Elfick’s. It went really well, wonderful turn-out, we had 30 adults and 18 children. That is a true testament to the Elfick’s, great people who have a host of wonderful friends. They will definitely be missed! Everyone is starting to save $$ for a trip to Australia. I posted some pictures on my Facebook page – but I will share a couple here in another post with details about the party. But, first I wanted to share the destruction of Lael’s bedroom. I expected messy, I figured there would be plenty of toys to pick up after that many children are here to play. But, this room gives a whole new meaning to messy! Caeden’s room came through mostly ok, just a few toys here and there. On an unrelated note – it snowed here today! Nothing really sticking to the ground, but real snow!

Halloween Party

We had the most fabulous party ever!  Yes, it was a lot of trouble, trying to plan it with 3 different people’s input, but in the end it was well worth it!  Catherin, Julie and I joined forces to throw the first ever annual Halloween party.  We started at Catherine’s house for a Costume Parade and Contest.  The kids paraded around the cul-de-sac and then they all won awards for various categories.  Lael won for “Most Terrifying”, Caeden won for “Most Realistic”  They were both happy with those results.  After that, they were led to the backyard where there were goody bags hidden.  Catherine had hid extras, just to be on the safe side.  But, of course that meant that some kids came running up with 2, 3, or more goody bags.  We had to convince them that each guest only gets one bag, and they had to put the others back.

Next up was Julie’s house.  She had some awesome games planned.  The first was the most hilarious, I think.  “Turn Daddy into Mummy”  Each family was given toilet paper rolls and they had to wrap Dad up like a mummy, then all the Dads had to run a race.  Hysterical!  Next was the Pumpkin Carry Relay.  Simple enough right?  small pumpkins held on even smaller spoons, given to children who are supposed to relay race.  Lots of pumpkins hit the ground, but that’s ok, just made it more funny!  Finally was “Pass the Pumpkin”  Julie brought out her iPod stereo, got all the kids in a circle and they started passing pumpkins around.  I was in charge of the music, and I kept forgetting that I was supposed to be stopping the music!  Lael and Dylan were the two left at the end – Yay!

Our house was next.  The kids took off before I could even say Go – so by the time I got there most of them were already in the backyard standing in front of a doughnut on a string.  This game involved yummy treats!  The first child to eat their doughnut without using their hands won a prize.  It was much harder than I thought, but most of them prevailed, eating every last bit of their doughnut.  Next we played Toss the ring around the pumpkin stem.  I got embroidery hoops for them to use to toss, which weren’t really heavy enough to toss.  Oh well, they had fun anyway!  Finally, I had bought face paint to paint on their cheeks or hands.  When I first started painting the first child, I immediately had a circle of a dozen kids chanting, “Me next, I want a ghost, I want a pumpkin, It’s my turn…..”  Thankfully, Aimee stepped in to help.  By the time we finished with that it was time to eat.  We had more than enough food, which is usually the case with parties, but it’s better to have leftovers than not enough!!  After everyone ate, the kids drew with sidewalk chalk, pulled each other in the wagons, or rode bikes and skooters.

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Impromptu Parties

Todd is the King of the Unplanned Party!  He has done this several times, and I finally asked him Saturday if he does it on purpose so that I won’t get myself worked up into a lather over planning.  He shot me a guilty look and said, wellllll, maybe a bit.

This time he invited the guys from the neighborhood over to watch the UA football game.  They were supposed to be playing poker Saturday night, but there was not enough to play, so Todd said they could just come here.  This was Friday evening.  He said it would not be a big deal, just beer and pretzels or something like that.  Yeah, right – like I can have people over and not feed them????  So, after the soccer game and Connie’s Lia Sophia Party Saturday, Lael and I went to Sam’s.  We got sandwich stuff and some other things and threw together a fabulous event in less than a day!  Yay me!

Lia Sophia Jewelry Party

Aimee asked me to go to one of those jewelry parties a few weeks ago at another friends house.  I tagged along and we had a great time.  While we were there, of course the consultant asks if anyone would like to book a party.  Aimee asked if I wanted to co-host one with her.  SURE!  that sounds like a fun excuse for a party!  I told her if she provided most of the friends to invite (since she knows much more people than I do) and the chocoloate martinis, I would provide the food.  It’s a deal.  We had the party last night, and it was so much fun.  Aimee had to ask the last few guests to leave after 11:00, it was a school night after all!  I made Nena’s Pound cake, (which it turns out, I am becoming famous for, LOL!), spinach dip, Mom’s Mini Cheesecake recipe, Jezebel sauce, Chicken Salad Rolls and Peppered Pinwheels (Lynda made something like this once and everyone loved it!).  Aimee did end up adding a few things, since a couple of her friends are vegetarians.  I made invites for the party, which of course I had to get a picture of! 

Here is the Mini Cheesecake recipe.  It is so good, and not really difficult at all!

Mini-Cheesecakes

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. strawberry preserves

Combine graham crackers and butter.  Line 1 3/4″ muffin pans with paper cups.  Spoon 1 tsp. crumb mixture into each liner and gently press.  Beat cream cheese at high speed until light and fluffy.  Gradually add sugar and mix well.  Spoon mixture into liners and bake 350 for 10 minutes.  Spoon 1/4 tsp. strawberry over cheese cake and chill.  Makes 2 dozen.