Archive for June, 2009

Adult Birthday Party with Kid-Like Fun

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Several years ago, a good friend of mine opened a ‘paint your own’ pottery studio. A great place for a birthday party! Everyone gets to choose something to paint, that becomes their favor, then there’s cake, ice cream, presents… the usual list of activities. However, hosting a birthday party for the ladies puts a whole new twist on things!

Most pottery studios, if they are large enough, have ‘party rooms’ designed to let the group be sequestered away from the rest of the customers. The events I’ve hosted there for my friends, we asked everyone to paint something for the birthday girl in colors that she liked… usually salad plates. One group did all blue and yellow in their choice of designs, another took portions of the design from a favorite tapestry pillow and created similar floral patterns. One friend’s birthday was shortly before Easter, so we made a basketful of Easter Eggs for her!

Check the house rules of the studio near you. You may be able to bring your own luncheon or dinner picnic, wine, dessert, whatever…  Make it as festive as a kids party, but with grown up party touches!

 It’s good for grown ups to have as much fun as the kids, to be creative, to act silly! It keeps us young. However, you will probably want to leave the Pin the Tail on the Donkey game at home for the kids!

Counting Silver

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

As I stared into the flatware drawer, I realized that I am missing more than a few pieces of stailess flatware that had belonged to my grandmother. Of course, it is no longer made. I mean, it wasn’t that great to begin with, but it had a lot of sentimental value and I am quite fond of it to this day. The Mister, on the other hand, not so much. I’m not saying that he had anything to do with the disappearance of the flatware, but it is a fact…

My momma always counted the sterling flatware before and after using it which, as it turns out, was quite a good thing to do. Many a night, after a dinner with extra ‘helpers’ (aka – “friends”), Momma and I would be digging through wet, stinky trash looking for an errant spoon or salad fork that had been carelessly tossed away. Now I am beginning to think that I need to include the stainless flatware in the count… even when it is just the two of us!

When the children were small, we ‘lost’ quite a few pieces of our wedding stainless, which I attributed to having small children in the house. I assumed that some had been lost when small hands tried to throw away the reminents on their plates or when they needed something with which to dig outside . While I can still replace those pieces, I need to get that done. They are grown and out of the house. My concern, here is, that The Mister and I cannot keep up with the flatware either. Maybe it wasn’t the children’s fault with the wedding stainless, afterall.

Moral of the story? Count. Count sterling. Count silver plate. Count stainless. Which makes me think that there is fortune to be made at the city dump with a metal detecter. And some gloves. And a mask.

Never mind.