a Catered event

I was asked to decorate and cater a luncheon for the women who run kid zone during the MOMS group that meets at our church. The inspiration was a country elegant picnic. Now at first I thought those were three separate styles and how would I ever get them to mesh? We narrowed it down to shabby chic and that was my jumping off point. A few days before the event I asked if I was only in charge of the tables and was told they would love something on the stage to bring in the theme too.

I thought a box lunch would be a great idea. My vision would be a cute box decorated with paper and ribbon.I began the preparations a few days before with baking. In addition to baking off the bread I bought and the desserts, I had a pie to bake for Nick's birthday celebration. Everything was going smoothly until my red crystal light spilled all over the counter and my cookbook. I had to interrupt my process to clean the counter with lemon juice and salt and to lay out the cook book pages to dry.

Lunch would be a turkey and havarti sandwich with mayo. Only no plain mayo would work-this needed cranberries, tarragon and parsley.

A container of rice/orzo/vege salad. I chose a 4 oz. quilted canning jar to put the salads in.
An apple and a dessert. Dessert was a lemon poppyseed cake made in mini bundt cake pans.

Oh and I needed to add napkin, utensils and a wipe to complete the boxes.

Some of the salad ingredients~

Mayo with cranberries makes PINK mayo~

Sandwiches lined up ready to go~

Oh they look like fun in a box~

To fancy up the site, I collected card tables and covered them with white tablecloths. I got a floral curtain at the thrift store and cut it up for place mats. At the same thrift store I bought some silver trays for centerpieces. On top of the trays we arranged books, old cameras, tea cups, old photos and flowers from my yard. (using leftover vases from the wedding)


For the stage I brought my garden bike and filled the basket with flowers. Amy's picnic basket was set along side with a tablecloth and watermelon. I also brought paper flowers leftover from Gabriele's shower to put on the stage too.
I felt a little something to take home would be good too. The family helped me fill pint size jars with cookie ingredients and cutify the jars.
When we returned on Saturday to pick up all our stuff I was asked to cater next year's luncheon again-guess they thought I did okay. It was a lot of fun to work on this event...

In 1987...

On the night (morning) that you were born-the angels got together and created a dream come true. They sprinkled moondust (they liked glitter too) in your hair and golden starlight in your eyes of blue ( brown) ...

On this night in 1987 we were dreaming of a new kind of life. We had a little family that we loved but it was missing something. Or someone~we had no idea that our life could only get better. This was the night before our Nicholas was born. It was a planned cesarean (tmi?) birth so we knew for sure when it would happen. Miss Amy would be dropped off in the early morning and then we would head to the hospital.

We received a lovely boy who came out ready to greet the world and he continues to show the same eagerness.

I love this photo of my two men!

A little glimpse of his papers...and his tiny feet....Nick-this will be an interesting and exciting year for you as you wade through your first year of marriage. May it be as full and lovely as ours has been-

♥♥♥ Your mommy's heart and soul loves you ♥♥♥

Something to brag about!

This guy is an amazing photographer and I am so happy to be married to him! It has been a fun & busy few months as we've gotten a much earlier start on Senior Portraits than ever before. I wanted to share a few of the images since his blog features seniors we took last season.

This is Spencer

This is Matthew

This is Jessica

This is Dominique

This is Drew

This is Jenna

This is Ashlee

This is Austin

Ashlee and Austin are twins~

This is Cassie

This is Dan

This is Jake

This is Sierra

This is Bria

and the other 3 seniors and three families we did will have to wait for another post.

I told you I had something to brag about!! I think he is fantastic at this portrait work and he adapts so easily, no matter where the students want us to take their portraits.
Now I need to go and rescue him from the computer...

the one about Chairs

On our back porch we have a lovely formica table we found for free downtown. However there were no chairs with it. I have two chairs on the porch but they are too big for the table. When I saw these chairs one day as we were driving down an alley downtown...yep we were snooping on peoples backyards, they were by the trash so we scooped them up.

This first image is after the beautiful seats were removed and before Gary sanded them~
These are the colors I chose to paint them after a few coats of primer~
In process~
Ta-da~ there they are snuggled up to the table. Maybe I should have removed the tablecloth so you could see the table...I covered the newly padded seats with the other half of the tablecloth.
Ready for the close-ups~
I just love all the colors~
Chairs-free
Primer & paint- $25
Tablecloth- $5 (clearance at Target)
Brackets & screws-$0 (to reattach seats since we should have cut new wood)

Gary said the free chairs were expensive but I say the cuteness is priceless!