Candy Bar

And here we are at the end of Halloween Week. Our penultimate "fake party" has  to be a candy bar. You've seen them at weddings and at birthday parties, at showers and well everywhere. But the most logical of the bunch is the Halloween Party!

I have married the card I made at the beginning of this week with the label. I chose orange and black candies because I could. It's amazing what you can get these days. Whether you head to Party City or Amazon or your favorite local candy shop, the variety of candies you can get to match your color theme is amazing!  I bought most of my candies in the grocery store. And then tried to limit myself further because I can't really have all this candy in the house!

If you were looking for a wider variety you could add:
Black Crows
Mary Janes
Circus Peanuts
Orange slices
Licorice whips

On to Christmas!

Maggie Monday: Party Edition

Thanks so much for your blogiversary wishes. Sorry I dropped that on you and went away again! I do appreciate your sentiments!

While we were all up in New England, we celebrated Maggie's 90th birthday. My aunt and mother invited 40 people, and 40 people showed up! We had told her she was coming to lunch with family. She was quite surprised! You can see how bright the room we were in was, and with her bad eye she had difficulty seeing when she first came in. When she walked in, there was a table of women with whom she has traveled the world (Greece, Russia, Austria, etc.) and she walked by them like she had never seen them before in her life. (Of course, she wasn't expecting them.) My other grandmother (O.G.) had just arrived, and was saying hello but Maggie couldn't see her. My O.G. introduced herself by her maiden name, like that would help! But the worst indignity was suffered by my sister. She came up to say hello, and my grandmother asked, "Who's that? Jody?" My cousin's friend Jody looks great for her age, but she is almost 20 years older than my sister! Maggie finally made the rounds of all the tables and knew everyone once her eye had adjusted to the light. She's mostly still got it.

We had a wonderful lunch at the Copper Door in Bedford, NH. You can see the fabulous decorations my aunt's friend used. The theme was lime green and pink. The flowers were beautiful including chrysanthemums anastasia and dianthus barbatus "Green Trick." Very unusual. There was pink and lime tulle and glittery pink ornaments--one of my grandmother's personal style mottoes is "sparkle plenty!"--including the pink glitter shoe you can see near the perfect cake my cousin made. We also had lottery ticket holders for everyone--Maggie loves lottery tickets! They were lime green with a pink ribbon and the message, "Happy Birthday, Maggie/ March 13, 1922/ You're one in a million." (Though I think the biggest prize won was $2.) The invitation had requested Maggie stories rather than presents, but few people had prepared themselves. My mother got up and told "sounds good since you had it fixed" and then bullied several people into telling stories. The family genealogist told everyone there were 39 cousins at one time, and 13 survive. Many of them were at the party. 

My sister and I scanned hundreds of family photos and made a PowerPoint presentation that ran in a continuous loop throughout the party. Unfortunately because the glare, I'm not sure my grandmother saw much of it. Fortunately, my sister had the foresight to make a beautiful book of the photos with Shutterfly.

My grandmother's speech (bottom photo) was mostly about what a lucky person she was. I'm pretty sure that outlook is what has helped her last this long!

Unfortunately my youngest cousin was unable to attend. She is in the hospital gravely ill. She has an infection in her spine and "vegetation" in her heart. Between the pain and the medications, she's delirious. I know my aunt, who visits here regularly, would appreciate your prayers and good thoughts. Many thanks.

Adrienne's Salon

For the past few days, I've been writing to you in my head, dear reader. I've been avoiding the computer--or pretending to--in order to clean the house--or pretend to--in preparation for the "salon." (I love that; it seems so French and modernist and sophisticated. I like to pretend that I am sophisticated.) I have three posts but I am going to give them to you backwards, most recent first.

Adrienne's visit was a treat. About 13 people gathered in my tiny living room. The range in ages was great as were the geographical locations. Two women drove up from coastal Maryland (three hours) and of course Lee came all the way from Pittsburgh even if she pretended only to come from Philadelphia where she was visiting her mother. Mostly knitters, as you would expect, three cross-stitchers, a seamstress (better than a sewer), and a crocheter. And spinners! One woman spins directly from her rabbit. (I'm easy to impress.) We had a free-ranging discussion.

Adrienne asked me to remind her to take photos. So I took one. The woman in the pink is newly-famous Anj, the steek cutter. (If you took photos, have pity on Adrienne and me: please send.)

Adrienne herself is delightful. If I closed my eyes and squinted my ears, she reminded me of bestpal. They use some of the same phrases and have some of the same stances on things. Maybe we're kind of like planets and our gravity attracts certain kind of um, other planets into our universes. Okay that was a weird simile. But I think you get the idea.

Speaking of the "wrong voice," it was kind of funny to hear Adrienne read because when I read the book, I had a different voice in my head reading it to me. (Neither hers nor mine.) When I went to see Lorrie Moore read A Gate at the Stairs, she talked about having the character's voices in her head but not being able to replicate them when she read so she was always reading in the wrong voice. Yeah, I just compared myself to one of America's great short story writers. Something's gone to my head.

I would like to say that my brownies (a Katharine Hepburn recipe) or lemon bars were a hit, but my cousin's cake (pictured) stole the show. I should do a post on her cakes because she is so talented. She's our family Ace of Cakes. Only much prettier. And you never worry whether she'll make it in time. She's a good scheduler.

Speaking of scheduling...I couldn't hide my crazy for the whole time Adrienne was here, and I'm sorry to say that I actually waved a knife in her face while I was ranting about the casual understanding most people have of RSVPs. People, it's a commitment. You can't cancel the day of for vague reasons. (I probably would be a nicer person if I cut people more slack. But here's a thought, "I'd love to come to your party, but work is hectic this time of year. I'm going to have to say no." And then your host can say, "well, why don't you let me know on Wednesday how things look," if she's willing to be flexible. She gets to decide because she is doing the hard work, not you. Still you should be prepared to miss many a dinner party. "Maybe" simply isn't an option.)

In my defense, the knife was plastic.

Adrienne is a lovely guest who goes with the flow but uses remarkably little water. You should invite her 'round.

Dirty Linen

The dude and I left the house this weekend and went to a birthday party for Sissy's friend, Marebear. She had given me this apron a while back to stitch up for her. I thought I couldn't get to it in time, but then I just sat down and did it. When I studied the apron carefully, I realized it was linen. I know what to do with linen!

The dude helped with the layout of the daisies. That's why there are so many. Lots of miscommunication. "Here?" "Yeah, two there." {stitches two daisies} "I kind of meant more over there." Until we ended up with what you see here.

So anyway, I've been thinking about opening a little shop with "dirty linens." Now I just have to come up with some sayings for bed sheets, pillows, kitchen towels, etc. Of course, when I suggested this at the party Sissy and Marebare told me not to worry about that end of the business--they have it covered.

I tucked a little something inside the box with the apron:

I was at Wegman's in the international food aisle, looking for some "tastes of home" to stick in the dude's Christmas stocking. Suddenly, I found myself in Jamaica where "Cock flavoured soup mix" was on offer. There are so many reasons to giggle over that. Fortunately, everyone did. Even though we were among the youngest people at the party, the dude and I were the only ones who didn't look at our handhelds even once during the party. We're just so unimportant. But frankly, far more interesting.

Our Family Believes in the Party

I have been asked for a party report. It all came off without a hitch, even though I was burning the CD party favors up until the taxi came to take us to the airport. On Saturday night, we took my parents to Lindbergh's Crossing in Portsmouth as a decoy. We kept telling them we couldn't afford a party since we just bought a house last December and my sister closed on hers on the 26th. They bought it. We had a lovely dinner. We sampled the escargot and the cheese course. We had haddock, boulliabase, duck, and tenderloin. We finished with a medium rare chocolate cake and a coconut cheesecake. Oh, and it's my new favorite restaurant because I got carded.

On Saturday afternoon, my mother called her grand-nieces to talk to them and beans were spilt. Alexa told her that Baby Kate had a new dress and she had light up shoes for the party. We told my mother she must have just meant the brunch we were planning to have with my aunt and grandmother, and the story was bought. About 40 people showed up and boy were my parents surprised. Two groomsmen came--one of them I tracked down via the internet--and my parents were floored. They haven't seen them since 1983. It was a nice combination of family and friends. T-Bones, not my first choice but it ended up being scrumptious and affordable, did a really nice job. My cousin's sister-in-law did the flowers and they were lovely. My cousin made a beautiful cake with royal icing daisies that stood on the top of the cake. My mother cried when she saw the cd cover--a picture of her and my father at their wedding next to a photo of them dancing at mine. She was even more pleased with the songs we had chosen. She told anyone who would listen the significance of each song we chose. My father asked, "Where's the AC/DC?" I told my sister we needed one of their songs, but she claims she was just thinking of the older relatives. I don't know how my cousin did it, but she managed to put these tiny daisies we bought onto the sacks of Jordan almonds. My sister and I couldn't make them look good. I don't know where we would have been with out my cousin; she booked the restaurant, acted as the contact, baked the cake, got the flowers, stuck the daisies on the tulle, and set up. Really, she deserved the acknowledgment I gave her before the toast. (The one I wrote at 6:00 am on Sunday.)

And the Souvenir Sampler was very well received. My mother hugged it. Pictures as soon as she remembers.

But I Am Stitching

My life is loca right now. When I'm not burning cds, tying Jordan almonds into tulle bags, or putting together a slideshow for the anniversary party, I am cleaning the craft room for my MIL. I'm really starting to realize how nuts it is to have your MIL come stay the day after you return from throwing a party for 40 people. And I'm not even doing that much work on it! (I am, however, burning CDs as I write.)

Work is even crazier. My boss is departing, and I see the chance to move up if I can prove myself. So I am working, working, working every minute. I do get an hour and a half of stitching or so every day still...on the commute. I have made great strides in three projects I am currently working on: a Mill Hill Cozzolino Santa ornament, a perforated Santa ornament from a BH&G Christmas book--a gift for a nephew--and the Ewe and Eye sheep on a chair. If I had it more together I could have scanned them when my sister had that rig all set up in the dining room. I also have the handwriting meme ready but no virtual visual at this time. Time, why can't I have more of it??