Magpie Ethel

Pirate Auction...A Year of Lasts

This has been a years of "lasts" for me.  My daughter Kate is a senior in high school and I have been to my last "back to school night", my "last parent/teacher conference" etc.  This past weekend was my last school auction.  I have been a stay at home mom since my kids were born (and Ben is almost 20) so my life has been field trips, teaching art classes at the elementary school, chairing school carnivals, creating year end yearbooks and such. While I have enjoyed my volunteering greatly...I am glad to have some lasts....I have put in my time.

After helping with school auctions since kindergarten years, I am happy to say this is my last.  This year's auction was pirate themed and my co-chair and I had a great time with the decorations.

It was held in an old building nearby at a local amusement park. We had dinner inside the pavilion and a silent auction set up in a tented area outside.

Come on in Matey..but enter at your own risk!

We covered all the tables in paper that resembles barn plank wood...with the idea of "walking the plank".  Each table also had a pirate flag, a embellished treasure box full of trinkets, a mason jar with sand and a candle as well as netting decorating the tables. We had almost 300 attending the auction.

We hung handmade paper lanterns from the ceiling.  We decorated the ends of each table with a "curtain" made of black plastic, netting, cheesecloth, tulle and ribbon.  The curtains floated a bit and looked like an undersea scene.

We borrowed some great pirate props from our local children's theater.

Paula (my co-chair) made an awesome corner screen that lit a pirate silhouette from the rear.  It also had a fan that blew up red and orange "flame" material.

Our food table prior to our food being set out. We had two large wooden wine barrels that flanked the table and held our plates.

We had a silent auction set up in the tent outside.

Complete with bar decorated with raffia skirting and old fishing nets.

This is what happened to those that did not bid.  I painted the signage in the background to look like large tattered sails and we had the signage scattered about the room.

We also made large cardboard pirate chests that were filled with fresh popcorn and caramel corn for silent auction snacking.

The auction went really well.  We had a small budget, and we made the most of it with some creative crafting. I am ready to reclaim my life and get back to estate sales, blogging and crafting.  A year of lasts for me...my last school auction as a volunteer...this pirate ship is setting sail!

Party Check List

Kate asked if she could have a few friends over for a back to school tea party/white elephant.  I currently have 25 teen girls in my backyard sipping icy drinks (it is in the 90s today) and munching on cookies.

I do so many family birthday parties for big crowds (our usual size is about 25-30 - big Italian family) that over the years I have developed a routine that I follow. This is what I do when I don't have to cram everyone in my house and the weather is decent.

I use my existing wooden picnic table and pull out a couple of folding tables that I cover with table cloths.  I usually use vintage cloth floral ones, but this time I did not feel like washing them all after the party..so I resorted to vinyl.

This is the first year I used this vintage find.  It is vinyl and I love, love it!

Even the woman on the packaging it came with marvels at its beauty!

I pull out my cute colorful folding chairs from the attic. The hot pink chairs are an IKEA item and the green are an estate sale find.

I tuck a table for drinks back under the trees.

Drinks go in a bucket with ice next to the drink table (this shot is post party). Ice water in the big green container with spigot.

I use a vintage ironing board for serving in a narrow space.  This party it held the cookie bar (not home made...I was lazy and the temps are too hot). Drink table is beyond the cookie bar.

I also have a huge collection of vintage glass dishes for parties. These are the variety that were intended for snacks and not full meals.  Great for a cookie exchange or appetizers.  They come in a variety of sizes and shapes.  I have about 40 of them.  I am crazy.

I also got out my vintage punch cups for the girls to use.

I have a stash of silverware that is specifically for parties.  I did not use it today, but it is great to have on hand.

Most of my serving platters and such are vintage.  I got a great stash of plastic serving dishes a few years ago that resemble hobnail or pressed glass and are in awesome colors.

I always have fresh flowers.  Today I used vintage milk bottles and glass jars to hold the blooms.

Sticking to my tried and true methods and having an assortment of serving pieces on hands  makes throwing a party fairly easy. I stick to the same colors - green, pink, blues and yellows as I collect,so everything is mix and match . I do throw orange in occasionally too.

I can hear Kate and her friends laughing in the backyard...the party sounds like a success!

Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Kate's 17th birthday this weekend.  I had 29 family members over for dinner and cake. I thought I would share her cake and the great Krispy Kreme donuts that I bought as well (thanks for the tip on the donuts Elizabeth!).

I am not an amazing baker, so my cakes are pretty simple.  I did a triple layer cake and made a cute little birthday flag.  With Kate's birthday falling so close to Halloween she always has some orange or black as part of her celebration.

Happy Birthday Kater-Tot!

 

Graduation Party

My son is leaving a month from today to head to Oregon State University for his freshman year there.  We did not do a party immediately after graduation as we had to much on our plates and the weather wasn't great.  My house is too small to host a big party, so I needed a nice summer day. I got a 95 degree day...I am not a hot weather person!

I decided to do an ice cream social theme with a 1-4 open house time.  I wasn't sure on the number of party guests that would show (invites went out to a potential 70 guests) but figured with the ice cream theme, folks could drop in when they could, make their own sundae and visit for awhile.  We also had quite a few little nieces and nephews coming and I knew they would love making their own sundaes.

The mascot for OSU is Benny Beaver and the colors are black and orange. I did a postcard style invitation and took this photo for the one side of it (the Beaver was a cardboard cutout we got during orientation and I knew I could use it for something).

I did the whole ice cream sundae area in the black and orange theme. 

 

Lots of toppings. Lots.

If made sure I had some black and orange toppings and added a "Go Beavers" message to those tags.

  

I purchased a styrofoam cooler for the ice cream and added some OSU logos.  I got dry ice to keep the ice cream cold (dry ice on the bottom, ice cream on top of that) and this worked really well for the party.  People could serve themselves and  the ice cream stayed hard despite the hot weather.

I had to add some vintage ice cream bowls even though they were small. We also had disposable paper bowls.

I found this great old Benny Beaver stuffed animal at an estate sale the weekend before the party.  I stuck him in a wire basket and he guarded graduation gifts that Ben received.

Ice cold drinks.

I had fun with the orange and black theme, but my backyard where people ate, had my more typical colorful vintage theme. 

A peak over the back fence.

Vintage tablecloths and dahlias.

The table on the left with the green container is actually an old ironing board that I always use for extra table space.

We ended up with just over 40 guests and my backyard was fully shaded by the time the party started. It was a fun time although it was lots of work (glad it is behind me). Go Beavers and congrats to Ben....may you have a wonderful college experience!

Golden Birthday Snippets

My son Ben turned 18 on Sunday, April 18th.  When your age and your date of birth match up that is called your GOLDEN BIRTHDAY and is supposed to be particularly lucky.  I took the gold theme (and added red as well) and thought I would share some snippets of the party.  We had a glorious spring day and had 28 family/friends come over to celebrate!

I have old gas station numbers that I always put out on the front lawn to announce the age for the birthday. My neighbors know my kids are having a birthday and I think my kids secretly like the attention.  Added gold and red balloons.

I had an old gold and red chinese lantern that I hung from the living room chandelier and hung the number "18" from it.

Cupcakes decorated with tiny gold pinwheel flags.  Golden candies in glass containers.

Unexpected party guests with party hats.

I set up the bar area with the gold and red theme. I used gold pinwheels to add to the fun.

I had a bowl of gold Mardi Gras necklaces for guests to wear in honor of the golden birthday.

A little fun arrangement with old plastic sign letters.

Fun to have an outside party after all the cold winter weather.

A birthday message written on our driveway in sidewalk chalk.

I went the ice cream cake route as it always gets devoured.  I always order a super plain cake and gussy it up myself.  I added gold coins and gold colored Reese's peanut butter cups.  I used extra long red candles as they took awhile to light - 18 is a big number! (note Ben's multiple gold bead necklaces)

I even got into the theme and wore a vintage gold little jacket.

Happy 18th Ben...

hope you had a wonderful golden birthday!

 

Summertime Flatware

Last year I did a post that mentioned my flatware collection.  Alot of people contacted me about where I found my flatware, and for the most part I have found it to be a seasonal item.  Well the CUTE FLATWARE SEASON has begun again.

Today I found these cuties to add to my stash.

I found the set when I browsed my local Homegoods store today and was smitten.  I am quite drawn to polka dots.  They were added to my pretty patterned stash.

I know they are mismatched, but they work together and make me happy when I use them.  They are the flatware that I pull out for parties, not our everyday use.
I love them all jumbled together with their different colors and patterns.

So for those of you interested in starting a fun flatware collection...now is the time to keep those eyes open.  Look in the summertime section.  I've had good luck at Target and TJ Maxx in the past as well.    This wasn't an overnight collection for me as I've been at it probably five or six years.  I seem to add a pattern or two each year, but look where I am now!

Let the flatware season begin...the hunt is on. 

Party Time

Celebrated Kate's 16th.  

 

Family party with 26 party guests in my little house.

The house was tidy and decorated.

I like to come up with a color theme and carry it thru the party.  This year was black and orange (thank you Halloween) with some blue and pink thrown in.

I carry the colors thru with my present wrapping.

And my balloons.

I like to set up a bar area in the living room so I can keep guests out of my tiny kitchen.

I made little cupcake decorations.

Was a great party and fun to celebrate with grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces!

Happy Birthday Kater-Tot, may all your wishes come true!

My Superpowers Were Put to Use

I have been a bad at blogging lately as I was in charge of decorations for our high school auction where my kids are a freshman and a junior.  The theme this year was "Captain Cleveland and the Wonder Warriors".  (Cleveland is the name of the high school, warriors are our mascot).  It was a fun superhero theme and I wanted to share some of the fun I had while staying within a small budget.

This is the logo - so we went with a kind of old superhero theme.  The colors were red, green and yellow.

We held the auction at an old amusement park here in Portland called "Oaks Park"  It was built in 1905.  We used the old dance pavilion for the event as well as renting a huge tent to give us some extra space.  It was a wet, cold day and they even predicted snow in the evening perhaps.  The pavilion is on the right of the tent.

I created a "Captain Cleveland" from old mannequin parts that I duct taped together. Initially he was going to hang from the ceiling, but he had weight issues with the old ceiling.  We ended up having him stand on a podium on stage with a fan behind blowing his cape to give the illusion of flight!  His hands are made from dish gloves.

I used some old donated comics and cut out the pages into triangles.  We made a banner with them and hung that from the ceiling.  We also hung honeycomb balls to give us some color and to give a center-point to the banners.

There is a very focal lattice wall that you see when you first walk into the pavilion.  I wanted to do stripes of color so I bought IKEA shower curtains and split them in half.  We created a striped wall when we hung them from the lattice.

This was one of my favorite ideas.  I needed to make reserved table signs. I asked a local trophy company to donate just the trophy figures.  I spray painted them yellow, added red superhero capes and mounted them on tin cans that I covered with pages from a superhero calendar.

We didn't' want to use the traditional votive nor did we want to use flowers (not alot of superheros with flowers).  We used mason jars and filled them with the floral stuff that expands into a gel (like jello) when you add water.  We colored it green or yellow.  We also inserted glow sticks in the goo - great idea, but our room wasn't quite dark enuf for the full effect. We used soft wire to do the spiral at top of the jar and added a superhero comic square. Rounded out the table with a splash of color with IKEA napkins, a black superhero mask, and postcards made from old comic book covers.

I painted about 30 big posters with various superhero action words that we sprinkled thruout the tent and the pavilion. My favorite words were "sploot" and "blak".

View of the inside of the rented tent. We also used alot of balloons for color as well as using them in arrangements in vases.

Auction went well.  I am exhausted.  I even wore a superhero costume, carried a glue gun and called myself the "Crafty Crusader".  For some reason I didn't get a picture of that! 

I'll be back in the studio this week...Easter bunnies will be jumping out of the studio soon.

A Summer Party

Time to celebrate my  hubby's birthday with a family party.  Perfect sunny day and so fun to decorate the back yard for the festivities.  Lots of pinks and flowers...not really a very manly decor party, but so totally me.

Here we are peeking into the backyard about to enter through the picket fence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hubby's concrete deer even got in the act.  I would have had the deer wear an embellished hat, but Tom doesn't like me to gussy up the deer...he wants him au natural.  I'm lucky I got away with the plain party hat and festive necklace!

 The table is ready for guests.  I finally got to use my vintage pressed plastic pieces that I posted about a while ago.  Don't you just love the PINK folding metal chairs?  I found them at IKEA a few years ago.  I didn't really need folding chairs, but HEY they were PINK and I couldn't pass them by.

Everything looks better with my fun vintage pressed plastic serving pieces.

 We have alot of family parties and I always use part of my collection of fancy handled silverware.  It is all about color and whimsy for me.

I love this little table where I have the self serve drinks.  It was my grandfathers workbench table.  I asked for it after he passed away and it has been in my backyard since.  I added the metal stars and galvanized top.  It has weathered really nicely.

Thanks for checking out the party...had a great BBQ and a fun visit with family.