A Wonderful Gift

This past Mother's Day was a little rough for me as that was the long weekend that my husband drove my oldest daughter Jess out to Southern California to start a new job. My youngest daughter Jenny saved the day by bringing me flowers and taking me out for dinner.

This past weekend, Jess came back to attend her sister's high school graduation and gave me a painting (that she painted)for my Mother's Day gift.

Isn't it beautiful?

Here's a closeup of some of the detail...

This is what she wrote on the back...

Isn't that sweet?

Now, all I have to do is find a great place to display it!

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Pam

Graduation Dessert Table

Hope you all are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Today we are resting after a long hectic week(month). Friday was graduation day for my youngest daughter Jenny.

 Here she is with her boyfriend right after graduation on Friday.

Jenny's graduation party yesterday was so much fun and the food, decorations and dessert table turned out really nice!

Saturday was a really long day and we began working at around 8:30 am and finished cleaning up after the graduation party around midnight.

Knowing Friday and Saturday would be pretty hectic I started setting up the table on Tuesday. Here's the progression:

I highly recommend Sunkist Lime Jellybelly jellybeans! They are sooooo good.

Flowers and Limeade from Trader Joe's added a little green to the table.

I saw some daisy cookie pops over at Sweetopia and thought they'd look cute on the dessert table.

Ours weren't quite as perfect as Sweetopia's, but they still were tasty.

Daisy Cookie Pops

Daisy Cookie Pops

I finally used the Silhouette machine I received last Christmas to make the Congratulations banner. It cuts out perfect letters!

The table was looking really pretty at this point.

The cupcakes were added next...

We hadn't ever made cake pops before and had a little trouble with them but they turned out yummy anyway.

I found a recipe for cake pops over at Love From The Oven.

We originally wanted to cover them in white chocolate, but couldn't get it the right consistency. I saw the cute graduation caps over at Frog Prince Paperie and made some for the cake pops.

Cake Pops

We finished up taking photos as the first guests were arriving at 5:30.

After baking and decorating cupcakes, daisy sugar cookies pops and cake pops, I definitely have a lot of respect for those who  bake for a living. I think we will find a good bakery next time and buy them... It would  be worth it!

Jenny and I took most of the photos above with her new Canon Rebel T3 that we gave her for her graduation present. It is really easy to use and takes some good photos on the auto setting. I am looking forward to playing around with it and learning  how to take photos using the manual settings, as well.

Hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Pam

To give credit where credit is due... Mr. Fanatic decorated the cookies, cake pops and cupcakes. Ya'll know he used to be a pastry chef, right????

Joining:

Getting Ready...

Two more days to go until Graduation day! It's been a busy week getting the decorations made, buying a couple of gifts, cleaning the house, planting flowers, buying party food and getting ready for my dad and oldest daughter to fly in.

Here's a glimpse of what I've been up to...I will be sharing more after the party, which is Saturday.

 I just have to clean the house a little more, buy the fresh food and finish setting the table.  Oh, and make the food, cupcakes, cake pops and pick my dad up from the airport this evening and my daughter tomorrow!

Hope you are having a great week! Next weekend I can relax because my husband and I are finally taking our anniversary weekend, which was rescheduled due to my oldest daughter's move to SoCal!

Pam

Getting Ready To Party!

Went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and picked up some supplies for my youngest daughter's graduation party next week. As much as I love Hobby Lobby, I was wishing I could just drive over to Fabric Barn in Long Beach California. All of you who have been there know why. That place is amazing with all their ribbons, laces, trims and a few fabrics. They are cheap, too.
Ah, but I digress.

Last year we held a graduation/18th birthday party for my oldest daughter who just moved to California. Hmmm, next time I'll ask her to go to Fabric Barn!!!

Her party last year looked like this:

For my youngest daughter's party, my inspiration is from Frog Prince Paperie:

How cute is that! It's funny how inspiration works...my dessert table will look nothing like this,but I will be using certain elements of it.

Here are a few things I will be using for my table:

This weekend Mr. Fanatic and I, ok, mostly Mr. F, will be hanging a white piece of fabric behind the table and between the two side windows to give a nice backdrop. Last year I really didn't like the paint color on the wall messing up the colors of the party! Hopefully I can take some better  photos, too.

The center apothecary jar will be filled with flowers and the two short ones will be filled with green candy...maybe those yummy bright green jellybeans I bought for last years party!

I'm also going to make a photo mobile like I made for my oldest daughter. I got this idea from Holly over at 504 Main

Ok, so there you have it...wish me luck!

Pam

Banished To The Driveway...

We have a three car garage that only has room in it for one car (don't ask)... and that one space is reserved for me. But, last weekend Mr. Fanatic had some time after unpacking from his adventurous trip to Southern California to work on a project. In order to do this long awaited project, my car has been banished to the driveway, at least for awhile because.....

We finally started on my daughter's bookcases!!! 

Those of you who visit regularly know that this project keeps getting pushed back due to other things... namely moving our 18 year old daughter to SoCal, which was a huge project in itself! We purchased the bookcases several months back from someone who listed them on Craigslist. We felt it was easier to customize them by raising the base, adding a soffit and crown to the top and painting them, rather than building them from scratch. The inset doors are solid 5 piece mitered raised panel doors with applied molding. (only a cabinet person will appreciate that detail). These doors alone would cost more than what we paid for the two bookcases. Mr Fanatic is almost finished customizing them and then I can begin painting .

Graduation is in less than two weeks and we have guests coming in, so the bookcases will probably be finished mid-June..

Just had to throw in one more photo of my car.... I LOVE this car and say that every time I get into it or walk past it. This is soooo weird  as I've never been a car person, but my car is so fun to drive and it gets 30MPG (plus there's no note on it!). Ya can't beat that!

Anyone else have or had a car that you absolutely loved??? 

Do tell!

Pam