B - U - N - C - O

Howdy! and welcome to my little slice of heaven.  Yeah, crafting is what keeps me going!  I love the whole process.  I'm not too sure my husband loves 'my process'.  But, he doesn't have any household chores, so he doesn't get to vote.  [wow, that sounds kinda mean.]

I belong to a Bunco group.  If you don't know what that is, it is a group of 12 people [ladies in my group] who get together once a month to socialize and play a dice game.  We, each take turns hosting [so everyone comes to your house] and the hostess makes dinner, and provides the 'prizes'.  My turn to host is July 7th.  So, I have already started making stuff, and getting stuff organized.  I am also a theme party planner.  [once my daughter's children are all in school (in about 3 years), we are going to start our own party planning service.  It will be awesome!] I love themes for parties.  I think it helps keep the party organized and focused.  My theme this year, is 'vintage Paris hot air balloons'.  Yep, that is a theme.  Vintage, to help keep me focused as to the over-all look and feel of the decor.  Paris, because who don't love romance, sparkle, and great food!  Hot air balloons, to give the decor a little flair.  It all works.   I purchased my invites from Impressions Paperie @ Etsy, HERE. 

here are the invites I purchased from Etsy:

I selected my invite first.  That way I would have a more exact color scheme to go with, but you can always select the color theme first.  This is how my prices went.  I knew that I wanted hot air balloons, and I'm a super big fan of shabby chic,  and I love mint and pink, so this is what I decided on.  Super happy with my purchase.  

Since my invite has dictated my exact color scheme, I can proceed on!  So, I decorated some plain ugly letters to sit on the mantel: B, U, N, C, O.  Here they are:

I purchased the letters from one of those big box stores.  They were about $1.49 each.  But, if you shop during a sale, you can get them for 30% off.  Bargain!  and since I plan ahead, I waited for them to go on sale.  I used an opaque gold paint I had on hand (gold, because that is the accent color of the invites).  A quick coat of paint while I was watching TV with my husband.  And then, I grabbed some seam binding that went along with my color scheme (colors found in the invite).  I matched various paper and fabric blossoms I already had on hand.  And the final touch was to add a trio of various 'sparkle' pieces: flat back faux pearls, rhinestones, and enamel dots.  I simply hot glued the multi-loop bows and blossoms on to the letters.

Thank you for stopping by.  I'll share with you more of my Bunco items, soon.  I have a great dinner planned, and the prizes are precious!  Stay tuned!

Pretty Pink Roses

Howdy! and welcome.  If you have come to take a look at my Friendship High Tea Party, you need to be a bit more patient.  My DH took the photographs with his camera, and he hasn't uploaded them to my computer.  {frown}  He started taking pics with my point and shoot camera, and after 10 min of fiddling with it, he proclaimed that he needed a real camera, and went and got his.

But, I didn't want to leave you hanging with no images.  So, I did manage to get him to take a photo, with my point and shoot camera, of the floral arrangements before I had placed them throughout the entertaining area.

The pink roses I purchased at the grocery store, believe it or not.  These are spray roses.  So there are 3-4 blossoms on each stem.  So, it was very easy to make each bunching.  The tea cups were purchased at a big box home decor store, at a reasonable price.  The over-all color scheme was pink, of course!  {smile}    And here is the menu:

the Menu

Savory:

Crustless Quiche Lorraine  (gluten-free)

Bacon Dip & Sweet Potato Canape  (gluten-free)

Spring Salad with Warm Goat Cheese Medallions  (gluten-free)

Tea Sandwich:

Cucumber & Chive Sandwich

Scones & Biscuits:

Cream Cheese Scone

Strawberry & White Chocolate Scone  (gluten-free)

Apricot-Almond Blondie

Jam/Creme

Lemon Curd

Spiced Creme

Honey Creme Fraiche

Sweets:

Pink Lemonade Cake with Lemon Glaze

Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Frosting  (gluten-free)

Apple Rose Tarts

Most of the recipes used for this Friendship High Tea, were taken from Tea Time magazine.  Yes, I have a subscription.  The recipes were easy to follow, and the results were wonderful!  

I did post some photos on InstaGram.  So, you can take a look at some of those.  But, I will get some photos up of my party.  

Thank You for stopping by.  Now, I am working on 2 children birthday parties:  Brave and Frozen.  So, I need to get brain storming, and collecting ideas.  Have a great weekend!  I'll post more photos soon!

Weekend

Howdy.  I hope all of you are having a good year so far.  Me, fairly ok.  I seem to always run out of time.  I truly cannot tell you where this year has gone.  But, it is quickly approaching 'half gone'.  Tomorrow is June 1st!  Holy smokes!

Anyways, if you are new to my little piece of 'blog-land' I host a 'party' of sorts once a year.  It's for my Bunco group.  (That is a group of 12 women, who get together once a month, and play Bunco.)  As the hostess, you provide dinner (some of us cook and some don't) and you provide prizes.  So, once a month, we get together, play a dice game, eat, chat, laugh, and simply have a wonderful time together.  At the end of the evening, there are prizes for everyone.  Biggest winner, biggest loser, who had the last Bunco, who had the most Bunco's, and, well, you kinda get the idea.  Everyone gets a prize.

Well, I'm a theme girl.  I like things to 'belong together'.   For the last few years, I have hosted in July, and the same holds true this year.  In the past, I have had different, but fun themes: Christmas in July, Boxes and Bags, Home-made & Hand-made, and several others.  This year, my theme is: Farmland.

my inspiration

Since I am hosting in July again, I wanted something shabby chic, elegant, relaxed, and just plain fun.

So, as I get prizes and decorations complete, I will be posting them here.  My 'party' is July 10th.  So, I need to get started.  

I almost forgot.  I send out an 'invitation' to all the ladies.  Just a cute little reminder.  Sometimes, life gets pretty crazy busy, and I don't want anyone to be caught off guard.  I'll post those sweet cards here, soon.  Hopefully tomorrow.

So, I am off into town, to pick up a few crafting supplies that are on sale (and yes, I have a coupon).  See you soon. {smile}

Update on my message board:  I did find a beautiful soft brown linen material to use on my message board.  I am waiting for my husband to cut me a piece of wood to attach the material to.  Hopefully that gets done today.  We'll see.  :/

Unity of Madeline

I need a card to send out to my Bunco group.  A little reminder that I am the hostess this month, so they know where to go on Bunco night.  :)  Well, this stamp set I picked up is more Halloween than girl's night out.  But, I found some pretty paper (Madeline) and paired the two together.

Here is what I came up with:

I used Crumb Cake card stock as my base.  I matted the pattern paper on Rose Red card stock.  I added a scallop trim Baja Breeze card stock to another pattern paper.  I wrapped a scrap piece of crochet trim around the card.  I created a hand-made paper flower from circles in three different pattern papers.  I used a vintage trinket brad to hold the paper flower together.  The chandelier was stamped in Baja Breeze classic ink and the sentiment stamped in Soft Suede classic ink.

Thank you for looking!