As I mentioned, the week or so leading up to my brother's surprise 40th birthday was, as I like to call it, full. Charlie has another name for it--he calls my pre-party crunch mode 'FLAIL EX'. I have no idea if that's how he would write it but it's a military thing to put 'EX' behind something, standing for exercise. I am getting the feeling that this is not translating well, but believe me, it's funny when a Marine says it (unless, of course, it's said during FLAIL EX).
So back to the crazy week before the party. I decided we needed--and I do mean needed--a nice sized table to set up an appetizer station. I was determined to make people mingle, after all, most would not have their children hugging their legs like a koala pencil-pal.
Hello 5th grade--remember these? Image from Giggle Time Toys.
(We interrupt this post with an important aside: I have always wanted to dress up for Halloween as a pencil, with our toddler dressed as a koala hugging me. I have yet to actually do it. Could someone else, please?)
Since a new table was not in the budget, I went scrounging in the garage and happily unearthed an old patio table bought in my apartment days. For the last few years it has served mostly as a surface for DIY projects. And it had the paint splotches, burn marks, and gouges from the hacksaw to prove it--not pretty. But after some elbow grease and a couple coats of Rust Oleum Ultra Cover Gloss Sun Yellow, it was more than presentable.
I have no pictures of the staged room to share; isn't that sad? But here's one with some half empty trays of appetizers (the biggest hit were the gorgonzola stuffed apricots wrapped in bacon--yum).
Once I introduced the yellow (which I picked because I have lots of pretty bowls, service ware, and linens in yellow), I decided that the rest of the room needed a dose of it, too. So I whipped up some pillows. And I should probably mention that my 'must have yellow' moment came to me the night before the party. If you have ever witnessed FLAIL EX, you saw that coming.
The trick to pillows, generally, is to make them the same size as your form, otherwise you get a slouchy pillow. But the trick, specifically, to churning out five pillows in less than an hour and a half is to be flexible. The bow tied around the round pillow happened because my free-form circle was anything but round and I went with the ruched pillow because I was too lazy to get up from my sewing table and remeasure the rectangle form. I of course now pretend that both of these details were by design. Also, decide whether you want matchy-matchy or coordinated but asymmetrical. Since I have three boys who think throw pillows are named as such for a reason, I went with the asymmetrical look.
William obviously approved of the yellow.
Happy Friday!
xoxo, Sandra