Gala 2012 aka Adult Prom

This past weekend I went to a Gala that was a fundraiser for the

Paramount Arts Center in Ashland KY. It's basically a bunch of old

people getting dressed up like they are going to prom. And I eat it up!

It's nice to see my hubbie all dressed up in a tux, and I love everything

about dress shopping, picking out jewelry, shoes, and a hairstyle.

I found my dress for a GREAT price - $100!!! I spent another $5 to get it hemmed

and have the strap taken up.  I found my earrings and bracelet at a store in New

York when I went there with some friends a few weeks ago - everything was 50% =)

I already had shoes and a clutch that worked perfectly and I did my own nails and makeup. 

Anyways, my mom and dad wanted to see us all dressed up, so we stopped by their

house on our way to the Gala. And of course, we stood outside and took "prom pictures."

My husband, who is 33 years old, even got asked which prom he was going to when he

picked up his tux! We had lots of fun at the Gala and even won two items from the

silent auction. We ate good food, although it didn't quite fill Isaiah up - our "afterparty"

was going to the Wendy's drive thru!

I definitely hope we get to go back next year... I'll take any excuse to get dressed up!!!



Candy Mini-Reception

I haven't posted anything in a while... but that's because I've been so busy

planning bridal showers! I will have to get better at posting them, because they

are just too cute... anyways... this past Sunday, my church had a little reception

to honor a couple who served as Interim Youth Directors for the last 14

months. So I put together a few decorations to go along with the reception.

It isn't too over the top, but it's still adorable.

We thought something fun to decorate with would be candy... who

doesn't like candy?!? I decided I was going to make gumball topiaries.

They turned out super cute.... but I'll be honest - it was HARD to make them!

My sister had a bunch of these little pails that she painted bright colors for me.

I put a piece of floral foam in the bucket, stuck a dow rod in it, and covered it

with glass beads.  I hot glued gumballs to a circle styrofoam and then put the gumball

circle on the top of the dow rod. The final touch was a simple bow around the dow rod.

Making these were more difficult than I thought, because the gumballs didn't stick

so well to the styrofoam. They kept falling off and I had to re-glue a LOT.  Also, the

gumballs were pretty heavy, so the circle would have a tendency to lean to one side instead

 of straight up. I even had one dow rod go straight through the top of the gumball circle.

Also, hot gluing the gumballs was messier than I thought - glue strands were everywhere

and I spent a lot of time picking them off the gumballs.

After I made four of the gumball topiaries, I decided to make things easier

on myself and made the rest of the centerpieces with blowpops. This took

about 5 minutes total, and the blow pops could still be eaten after they served

their purpose. I put glass beads in the bottom of the pail, bought a half circle

styrofoam piece, and stuck the blow pops into the styrofoam. Added a bow

around the pail, and it's done.

I made a couple banners to hang at the reception using a Cricut. They said

"thanks john & amy" and "you did a SWEET job!"

I didn't want the reception to look too girly... so I decided to use blue as the main

accent color. We used blue plates and blue polka dot napkins.  The drink dispensers

had blue fabric in the bottom, and then I put some leftover gumballs on top of the fabric.

I used gray fabric to make "curtains" on the black scrims and white lattice, and cinched

the fabric with blue ribbon and blue fabric. 

My favorite part of this reception was the Candy Thank You Card. I came

up with the wording, and my sister put the card together for me. She took

the pictures before she found all the candy for it, so some parts of the card

have post it notes where candy bars ended up being. But here's what it says:

Dear John & Amy,

We were going to give you 100 GRAND to show you how much we

appreciate you. With that money, we thought you might get a pet KITKAT,

or go on a trip to New YORK, or ORBIT around... 

the MILKY WAY. But... the money slipped right through our

BUTTERFINGERs. We are down to zilch, really, I mean ZERO.

We didn't have an EXTRA WHACHAMACALLIT to sell, and it wasn't

PAYDAY. Then we realized that a WHOPPER of a gift would be to tell you

that even though we sometimes act like AIRHEADS and may have played

TWIX on you, we think you are such a SMARTEE and have taught us

RUNTS in the youth group GOOD N PLENTY about our LIFESAVER.

Hopefully, leading us this past year gave you MOUNDS of

ALMOND JOY!!! From the GOOBERS of youth group

who love ya to PIECES.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting more often... Have a

great day and God bless =)

Leopard Themed Appreciation Reception

Before we hired our new worship pastor last fall, we wanted to honor

a woman who served as the choir director at our church for 22+ years.

Brenda is such an incredible woman and really taught me (and many others)

so much about singing, and this was the least we could do to show her

just a glimpse of how much we love and appreciate her.

I wanted this Appreciation Reception to reflect Brenda's personality, and

knowing Brenda like I do, I knew I couldn't go wrong using leopard prints!

Here's a view of the room as a whole (sorry that they are kinda dark).

I bought this leopard fabric and used pinking shears to cut them into strips

wide enough for a table runner (well, my sister cut them!). For the centerpieces,

I wanted pops of color, so I bought yellow, red, and orange austemaria flowers

and had them arranged in vases.  I also wanted a musical aspect to be

a part of the reception, so I had my mom print hymn music onto gold velum

and put it in a vase with a tealight candle illuminating the music. I typed up cards

for people to write their most favorite moment concerning Brenda and the choir.

These, along with pens, were put in vases with small pieces of a black feather boa,

and the instructions were on the outside of the vase, lined with leopard tissue paper.

I knew I wanted to make leopard wreaths with some kind of feathers for the

reception. So I was at the store and had about 15 spools of ribbon

in my arms (wasn't smart enough to grab a shopping cart or basket!)

and was headed to the checkout when I noticed these bins of colored

duct tape. And wouldn't you know, they had leopard print! I wasn't

sold on the idea yet, but I bought some and tried it out - and it looked

great! You couldn't even hardly tell that it was duct tape! It was also much

quicker (and cheaper) to wrap a wreath this way as opposed to ribbon or yarn.

For the finishing touch, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a few different

feathery items - most of which were originally designed to be little girl's

hairbows, but I also got a black feather boa. I just hot glued those suckers

on, and had adorable leopard wreaths, just like that!

I knew I wanted some kind of sign that said "thanks" but I just could

not figure out exactly what I wanted. The day before the shower I

went to Hobby Lobby and saw some letters on sale for 40% off!

I painted the edges black, put a layer of gold paint on the front,

and then did two coats of gold glitter paint over that. Then I hot glued

the letters together and it was done!! Ready for a helpful hint??

When gluing these letters together, you have to overlap them, otherwise,

they will not hold. I starting trying to glue the sides together at first,

but it kept breaking apart.  At the reception, we hung the sign using fishing  

line.  Then set it off by flanking it with gold sparkly fabric ( leftover from my

wedding). It ended up being a great focal point in the room.

Since Brenda was involved with the choir for such a long time, I wanted

to show one of the programs during the reception as part of the entertainment.

I got a DVD player and projector/screen, and had a choir program playing softly

the entire time. It was neat to have that as "background music." The hardest

part was narrowing down which program to show!

There was SO much delicious food at this reception - most everyone

that came brought something to eat.  I made chocolate covered strawberries

and grape salad (which might sound gross, and may look a little weird,

but TRUST me, it's amazing! I may have to put the recipe on here sometime!)

My mom made cupcakes - since she knew the theme, she got leopard

print cupcake holders and made music note toppers. Adorable!!!

  

  

It was such a nice time to honor Brenda. We had a great

turnout and people were so good to Brenda, bringing her

small tokens of appreciation. My dad (who is the

senior pastor at the church) presented her with a plaque

recognizing her service, and also presented her with a gift certificate

for a spa weekend! I think she had a great time =)

  

 

And I have to add the picture below, because the four

of us girls (Butch jumped in the picture - gotta love him!)

grew pretty close over the last few years... Evie, Bethany and I

learned so much from Brenda and she truly was a mentor to each

of us. We all love her dearly and are blessed to have had her

to influence us and invest in our lives.