pamgarrison

why i didn't send holiday cards...

Our daughter turned 16 this December and we threw a dance party. All her idea, but a lot of work for mom too. As I'm not the most organized person (understatement), it pretty much took all my extra time and energy (is there any during the holidays? or ever? hmmm). Anyway, I thought I'd eventually get cards out but let myself off the hook when December 25th came and went. There's always next year. Here is the birthday girl with the dime-store crown her friends put on her while they were all getting ready upstairs. She's out front with her bouncers...how cute are they? They really got into the roll, checking names and VIP passes and handing out glow sticks and necklaces.

Here is the front of the invite all the guests received. The details were on the back. She decided on a purple/silver/black theme and requested they "dress to impress". I thought that the kids wouldn't appreciate this, but actually they loved it. Even the boys wore ties ... so cute!

We moved all of the furniture out of the family room to create a dance floor, rented a helium tank and blew up about 2oo balloons, found  strobe lights (Spencer's Gifts if you are in need -around $20.00)  and  she had her ipod blaring. It really did feel like a little club of sorts.

We adults were pleasantly surprised to see that all the kids danced and had fun. Here's the birthday girl with friend in the center getting the dancing started...

It didn't take but a minute to get them all going.

Hey wait...do I see two party crashers? I guess the bouncers were no longer worried about what was going on at the door. One too many pretty girls must have walked by. As you can see the big girls were sweet to the little guys, but the big boys were really sweet to them too. These two were in heaven.

After lots of dancing, there was cake and ice cream and then the party moved into the living room for a very large game of Catch Phrase. 

 

Gee, do you think she had fun?

 

Of course she did. And you know what? We parent chaperons did too, much to my surprise.

It was quite a night to remember.

 

etsy update!

Finally uploaded some handcrafted ornaments and a few other Christmas things over on etsy.

pamg.etsy.com

coffee filter love continues...

 

I knew I could count on you to understand my lust for Anthropologie props and my copy of their giant pom pom garland!!! What ever did we do before the internet? I know, we did the same things, we just didn't necessarily have friends that shared our love of what we see as beautiful in our home regularly. Thanks to blogs, we can always have our creative loving friends over. (And better yet, I don't have to put the mess I made from creating away first.)

So, like I said in the post title, I still have a big crush on coffee filters. I made this garland with little pom poms from the scraps left over from making the giant pom pom garland. I am sure it was my attempt to copy this beauty that I recently stumbled across. She said she bought this one at Conran's years ago, but she makes lovely paper garlands herself as well. Another artist makes lovely paper garlands seen Here.

I also made some extras, some pom poms just because.    

    

         

The ones above I thought would also be pretty all along the bottom of the tree. As if the tree itself had a pom pom fringe edging.

I'm trying to move on from coffee filters, really, I am. It's just that I'm itching to go dip some white coffee filters in pink dye...

For more garland joy you can check out this flickr group that someone mentioned to me at Silver Bella.

i'm crushing on coffee filters

 

Finally made something I've been wanting to for a couple years now. ...a giant pom pom garland.

A couple years ago, Anthropologie had this amazing garland used in their display that I fell in love with. I checked it out each time I went to the store. I think it was up for over a year.  Anyway, I wish it was still up, because I've forgotten exactly what it looked like. From my memory it looked like coffee filters and paper scraps. For mine, I've added a bit of crepe, music and ledger paper here and there, but mostly just coffee filters, sewing pattern paper, tissue paper and string. I thought about using old tinsel, but I preferred the string, which surprised me. It kind of looks like giant macaroons to me. My family just shrugs it off, they are used to the non-traditional around here. Does anyone remember the Anthropologie one? Mine is not quite what I remember, but I love it anyway.

I wonder what Anthropologie does with all those old store props. Do they have a giant warehouse somewhere where they store them? Do they have some amazing secret sale somewhere? Oh how I'd love to volunteer my services when they make their incredible display creations!

Here are the materials I used:

and another view just because I have to show someone who would understand it (ever thankful for you guys).

You get it right? Or have I gone over the crazy crafter edge? {I can hear what guests will be thinking, "why does Pam have a bunch of coffee filters strung together?!?"}  Ha! It won't be the first time, nor the last for that matter.  If that's the case, all I can say is, I swear, the original Anthropologie one I'm trying to copy was cool! You gotta know that's true.

cmas crafting with the kids

 

paper.scissors.wire.glitter.glue. it was that simple for an afternoon of fun together.

it worked great as a "finish your math homework" motivator as well. :)

goodies from omaha

Sweet Jenni Bowlin gave me these letters. I love ampersands and pink makes it all the better.

I found a lot of ornaments when we popped into an antiques store. I haven't been to a flea market at home forever or plan on going, so I knew I wouldn't be finding any once home. They were priced really well compared to antique shops out here. And Charlotte, I am happy to report that not one ornament broke in shipping. I am not happy to report however,that not only did they not come via FedEx ground as hoped, but came urgent, next day, in the morning delivery. So now those ornaments weren't such a good deal after all. I haven't mastered the shipping while on the road thing obviously.

I bought these crown jars on vendor night. Does anyone remember the name of the vendor in the back right corner with lots of French things? She had more crown bottles if you like them. I'm going to use these for glitter storage.

I bought this super cute birdie ornament from Holly.  I know she has more too.

I'm not sure who I bought this birdie from. Holly? Someone else on vendor night?

Always love treasure hunting in a new town. I just ordered one of Charlotte's  kits, so I'm going to make one of her Christmas trees and use the green cardboard can above for it's base. Determined to use up each and every treasure I brought home (even though finishing off what remains of that paper curling ribbon will be painful)!

silver bella 08

Me behind my vendor table. As Jenni Bowlin's adorable husband (seriously, could the two of them be any cuter or sweeter?) said, "Pam, it looks like a bomb went off". It sure did. I needed two tables I guess. :) YES! I have plenty left and will be listing it on etsy. (pamg.etsy.com) Sometime this week is my goal. Of course, I'll mention it here.

The girls taking their prom class photo. Can you see the also adorable and sweet as pie Amy Powers? (think pink)

And the rest of my photos are blurry. I tried to travel light without my big camera. Big mistake. Even my photos of Mary Engelbreit of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion, blurry.  She was very real, cool, dry witted. Love that in a girl. Some of my favorite answers to audience questions: (ok, I'm paraphrasing here, but the meaning is what counts)

Q: What one special possession would you take if your house was burning down?
Mary: None. It's just stuff. I like my stuff, but it's just stuff.

Q:How do you balance it all?
Mary: I don't. There is no balance...When I'm home I think I should be doing that, when away doing that, I think I should be home. You do the best you can.

Q:What does the future hold for Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazine now that the publisher has announced it's closing the doors?
Mary: We have lots of irons in the fire and are even thinking of new inventive ways to publish ideas. Stay tuned!

And then there's one of my best friends, Kelly and I, goofing around. I see her only once a year at Silver Bella and we never get a photo...so the last night as we were going out to dinner,...more blurry photos:

 

miss you Kell!    As with all retreats, the time goes by waaayyy too fast.

And in other news, we heard great medical results yesterday, so things are looking up here! Thanks as always for the prayers and well wishes.

Back soon...