Under a Blue Moon

Big happenings around here, much to the consternation of the feathered contingency.  Can't you just hear Ina, "What the devil…."

The deck demolition is underway.  The new deck, which will look exactly like the old deck minus the rotting underpinings and badly needed refinishing, should take about three weeks to complete. 

In the mean time I'll try to remember not to step out of the living room door into nothing.  

The past few Summers we have had elderly skunk decide their final resting place should be under my kitchen window.  So it will be interesting to see what is under there when those boards get pulled up.  Who knew we lived over an ancient skunk burial ground.

Of course up until this week it has been unseasonable cold around here.  Now the temperatures are in the 90's.  I feel for the construction crew.  

This upcoming Monday we have the landscaping guy starting on the driveway circle.  That, at least, will look new and different.  I can't wait for all of it to be finished and to start the Summer entertaining.

Here is the last project from the baby shower.  Sorry for the quality of pictures – using my cellphone and all….

I saw a cute bunting out of dyed doilies and I wanted to replicate it for the baby shower.  The original post I saw used Rit Dye.  I wanted something cheaper and easier to come by (the stores I went to didn't have a big selection of Rit Dye colors to choose from).

First I tried Jello.  It didn't work at all.  Then I tried some left over tie-dye dye.  Nothing.  

Then my son Evan suggested Kool-Aid.  He said when he was in Jr. High the kids would use it to dye their hair.  It worked brilliantly. 

I just mixed a package of Kool-Aid (leaving out the sugar) with boiling hot water.  Then I dipped the doily into the dye until it was saturated (just a few seconds) and then gently lifted it out and let it dry on the counter for a bit.

At first the doilies were tearing when I took them out of the dye but I realized that since I was going to fold them over and you wouldn't really see one side of them I just held onto them and dipped them mostly into the dye.  Still managed to dye my finger tips.

After I dyed them all I hung them over a string in my Dad's garage.  He is a very patient man.  I think he is used to my "projects" starting with my first one, at age four, when I thought it was a good idea to paint all the bathroom fixtures chromium yellow with my older sister's oil paints.   I painted the door knob too, for good measure.  Come to think of it I think I am still grounded for that….

Anyway – after they were fully dry I ironed them so they would be nice and flat.  

I like the slighty ombred effect the Kool-Aid gave the doilies.  I used two packages of Kool-Aid (one in each color) and dyed about 80 doilies.  

It is nice to be home and back into my routine.  I am not as enamoured with traveling for work as I used to.  I understand it is necessary for my job but what a hassle.  I never sleep or eat properly.  

Anyway – I totally intended to blog from the road but we know how well that worked out.  I just have a couple of easy projects that I want to share.  I think are fun for any type of party.

The first one is the ruffled table cloth. 

This project couldn't have been any easier.  Since this party was honoring a baby girl I wanted it to be super girly and had my mind set on a ruffled table cloth.  I was fully intending on making one even though, as anyone that has made ruffles can attest to, they are a pain in the butt. 

This, however, is a shower curtain hack.  Yep – I just bought a ruffled shower curtain from Urban Outfitters and cut it into three sections, each having five layers of ruffles (there were two layers left over).  Since I was pressed for time (like cutting them 45 mintues before the party started) I just folded over the raw edges at the top.  I intend to go back and hem them.

Then I applied two-sided tape to the back of the top edge and affixed it to white table cloth that was already on the table.  

This particular table is quite long – about 12 feet.  The three sections were enough to go around three sides of the table.  Worked out fine since I pushed the table up against a wall. If you have a smaller table I'm sure it would go all the way around. 

Initially we were going to have the party outside and I was going to put a plain white table cloth over two picnic tables that were lined up end to end.  I was then going to just tack the ruffled part on but the double sided tape worked perfectly and I didn't put any holes in my dad's dining room table.

One last thing – a few weeks ago I had the Ikea lacy cache pots as a Friday's Favorites.  I picked up six of them and plopped begonias into them for decoration.  We gave them out as prizes during the shower.  They are really sweet and a bargain.   I think I need to back and pick some more up for myself. 

 

One of the things I wanted to do at the shower was honor the two Grandmothers-to-be.  Just something to commemorate a very special time in their lives. 

I decided to put together a little "Grandma Survival Kit."

 

In it was:

• How To Be The Perfect Grandmother (both could probably have written it…)
• Lip balm for kissing boo boos
• Band-Aids in case their kisses needed a back up
• Hand lotion (because grandmothers always have the softest hands)
• Hanky for drying tears (and the occasional tell-tale signs of chocolate before the parents get back…)
• Hard candies because Grandmothers ALWAYS have hard candies in their purse.
• And a purse sized photo album so they could prove their granddaugher was the sweetest one around.