Saturday morning...woo hoo!

What a party!

I mean, seriously, WHAT A PARTY!

You know how sometimes you give a party and afterwards you think I wish I would have done this and done that?

I can't think of a single thing.

Everything was totally perfect.

BUT I'm tuckered out.

We went to a soccer game this morning at 8:30 and then to visit some cool relatives at my parents and I am really wanting to just sleep the day away...but that's not going to work BECAUSE we have another party tonight AND I'm going to meet my daughter to get a mani-pedi and maybe another up-do AND we are going to have a little party here tomorrow afternoon cooking pizzas in the wood-fired oven AND...

I ate a tiny piece of left-over cake and I think I am hopped up on sugar.

One more thing before I show you photos, K?

Tomorrow is my first SPONSORED GIVEAWAY on my blog! I am sooooooo excited cuz I get to share a cool prize with you all AND if I do good they will let me do it again with a bigger prize! The giveaway will be all week but I just wanted to remind you!

And I gotta run but the girl in pink is our oldest daughter and her husband...the funny look nerds are our son and son-in-law (with the tennis racket) and the guy in the white tux is my Dad ...












I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about the giveaway and hopefully put up a few more photos!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Oooh, oooh, oooh!

I got my hair done. No party make-up yet....

This first picture is no styling product, no blow drying...but I'm keeping it real and letting you see the true before... And...get ready... I love this...even though it was actually painful with all the teasing ...

Drum roll please!
I mean, seriously, does this rock or what?

OK, off to figure out how to lay down with this hair...

Yee haw!

This is officially fun now!

Mid morning update!

Things are getting done - woo hoo!

Our daughter-in-law is getting her bee-hive done so Morgan is here today helping me.

This is the chaos that is in the dining room (aka staging area)
And Dad's finished picture board... I think it turned out good...disregard those two photos that just fell off... And the lipsticks I bought...even though they don't like quite as garish in this photo... And the laundry basket-o-planes that my husband assembled last night... and my emergency basket I always make up for larger events... pepto bismal, aspirin, lotion, tape, scissors, baby powder, kleenex, bandaids, etc. My appointment for my bouffant (apparently that is what they call it if your hair is short) at 1:30 is on track!

I'm going to wait until my daughter-in-law gets back to show you her hair and then I'll hit publish and keep you all posted!

Look, my granddaughter and I got everything loaded into the trunk and backseat of my husbands car! And our daughter-in-law is back, too. Look at this cute hairstyle!
I got all the girls dice purses to carry. Aren't they neat!

And now I can go get ready to run errands!

Oh, I am having soooo much fun!

And I'm not even stressed!

And since that fact seems so unlikely I'll prove it is really me writing this post and not some alien abduction substitute.

Sigh.

See? I told you it was me!

Spam and Sacrifice...(and a teensy giveaway, too)

You know how I told you about all the food the caterer was making?

I didn't tell you that I came up with the brilliant idea of using cans of Spam for risers under certain trays. I love this idea. It makes me laugh.
I told the caterer I would bring the cans along and he looked at me a little weirdly. I'm not sure why. Doesn't everyone use Spam on their buffet table?

Besides. Spam is Crazy Tasty now. At least that's what the can says.

Somehow, oddly, I doubt that to be true advertising.

Gosh, I'm running out of time to tell you stuff.

Did I tell you that we have a live swing band playing, which is cool! But do you also know that you can call Arthur Murray Dance studios and they will send a couple out who will do a dance demonstration followed by a little dance class - for FREE! I'm excited about this even though I don't dance. But I'm gonna dance on Friday night.

After all, I will be in disguise and no-one will know it's me! Between the cats eye glasses, a beehive, and the authentic shades of lipstick I researched and bought (bright orange and bright red)no-one will believe that plain, old me could be so glamorous and exotic. So when the crowd gathers around the dance floor they will be struck with admiration and awe wondering "who is that glamorous and exotic woman wearing cat eye glasses and a beehive" and I will simply ignore them like the peasants they are and dance on...basking in the glory and dancing with wild abandon.

Ha.

That was actually really funny.

And now for the sacrifice part of this post.

I totally did this for you.

If this doesn't prove that I appreciate you for reading my blog nothing ever will.

Ladies and... ummmm.... ladies... I give you... I was shocked and amazed that hardly anybody knows this candy. This is possibly the best candy ever invented in the history of candy. It contains all natural ingredients such as corn syrup, sugar, corn starch, modified food starch AND artificial flavors and colors such as Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1 and Yellow 5. If that is not enough to whet your appetite I give you, in all its unwrapped glory...a Chuckles Jelly Candy Bar... Please take a moment to admire the glistening beauty of the sugar encrusted jewels of gummy goodness.

Chuckles must be eaten in descending order of preference. Always. For me, the green one must be sacrificed first. Followed closely by the yellow one. And then and only then can you move into the sweet perfection that only the orange, black and red can give you.
The last morsel must always be the red. The red is the pinnacle of jelly candy perfection. It should be savored like a fine wine...enjoyed and admired like a Rembrandt or Picasso. Ahhhh....

I am complete now. I have shared the glory of a Chuckles bar with you and I think, perhaps, my mission in life is complete.

And since I feel somewhat cruel having tortured you with all this sweet perfection I am going to do a silly little giveaway .... just today... out of all the comments you leave.

In the giveaway will be one of every single kind of candy I have on the candy table for my Dad's party PLUS a WW II foam plastic-y glider plane PLUS a pair of Cat's eye glasses.

Can you imagine such riches?

Well, if you are the lucky winner of this amazing giveaway you won't have to.

You will hold in your own two hands the perfection that is Chuckles (along with all the rest of the candy INCLUDING a giant box of Crows)

I'll do the drawing tomorrow night around 8:00 pm Arizona time so any comments made before that time will be eligible.

I won't, however, ship your prize out until Saturday or Monday cuz I am gonna be one busy, busy girl!

And don't forget, our second practice of Alphabe-Thursday will be on ... well, d'oh....Thursday. McLinkey will be open for your links Thursday, Friday and Saturday...

And our letter for this week will be "B".

Thanks for making this party planning so much fun!

I really appreciate you all.

And to prove it I'm willing to put my Chuckles on the line.

Just for you.

Because I'm cool like that.

Sigh.

Did you miss the previous story in the ongoing party planning saga! Don't panic...simply click here and it will be amazingly displayed before your very eyes!

NOTE: There is a small chance that your particular Chuckles package may be missing the red candy. Probably not, but there is a small possibility and I am all about full disclosure here at the Jenny Matlock blog.

To see the winner of this giveaway just click here!

Nine, ten...a big fat hen...

I know that doesn't tie in really well with my party planning post of the day but I wanted to talk about finishing up number 9...and it was either that or Love Potion number 9 which didn't make any sense either.

Hey, quit laughing at me.

I'm true to my inner muse.

And my inner muse is stupid. Some days anyway.

OK.

Number 9 was finish up nametags and I was going to do some boring, cheesy nametags BUT I found Lorell's really sweet blog and for a measly ten dollars she made me the most wonderful, wonderful nametag ever developed in the history of nametags. No, I'm not being dramatic...see for yourself... Isn't that cool? I totally love it. If you need some paper designing stuff done (I suspect there is a better word for that) check Lorell out. And Lorell, if you are reading this, Thank you!

Number 11 which wasn't technically on the list yet but was going to be the next thing was to finish up centerpieces for the round tables.

First I have to tell you that the tables are set up right among the airplanes and some are going to be right under the wings! I am soooo excited about this and I am soooo gonna put a reserved sign on the best table under the wing. For me. Heck with my Dad. He gets this party. And that is enough. He can sit somewhere else. (just kidding)

And because I have followed my budget to the penny on this party (if my husband comments differently I'm just going to say right now he is lying! My version of the story is ALWAYS the true version)

rats....lost my train of thought...

ummm...

oh yea. Budget. So since I am following the budget to the penny and since I figured flowers don't really go with planes unless they are huge and extravagant which wouldn't fit into my budget I needed to think of something else.

(You're getting scared aren't you? Scared because you are now starting to follow my circular logic patterns...You're welcome!)

So genius Lisa came up with the idea to use pictures from the little bio I wrote for my Dad BUT I tried it and it looked kinda/sorta skimpy.

So I thought up another modified idea.

To be sure it worked I set up a fake table outside...you have to kind of use your imagination here because this table is the wrong size, tablecloth is the wrong color, I didn't have any planes assembled (except the one), there are no cat eye glasses on the table AND I was too lazy to get out the ration cards which I'm also going to put on the table. But even with all these things wrong I didn't hate the idea... Instead of fabric squares I decided to use printed vintage-y scrapbook paper around the little triangle picture thing and I like the look...it's kind of propeller looking almost. And clean looking. And I can re-use the paper that doesn't get Singapore Slings spilled all over it.

I think you could use this idea for a lot of parties...add lace, sparkles, grommets, etc. to dress it up or down. And it was super cost effective. Each table will cost me about $6 AND I will have some supplies left to re-use.

I took my Dad's bio to Kinko's and ran color copies of various pages. Then I took some inexpensive black card stock and used my little scorer to score a 2 inch margin. I only know about scorers because of my beautiful cousin Allie who taught me everything I know about papercrafting. She will be embarrassed I said this because I'm not very good at it!

For each centerpiece I scored three black letter-size sheets of cardstock. Please disregard that old persons hand in the photo. I don't know whose that is. Sigh.

Then I just used this fancy little stapler thing my cousin gave me to staple on the pictures. I actually did try grommets first but it was a pain and would have taken too long and I have a thing about staples. After I stapled on all the pictures I used double stick table on the seams and attached all three panels together like that. And then I took my fancy little stapler and put two staples close to where it would fold. I did try using some ribbon and stuff but it looked too fancy. I just wanted it to look sleek and plain. And then I put double-stick tape on the last edge, folded it, made it into a triangle and put the last staples in.

I like them. I think this would be neat to make for other events...you could put cute copies of valentine prints on pink card stock and make them all frilly, put a glass jar inside the triangle and fill it up with flowers...a kind of paper looking pedestal.

So, anyway, that is number nine looking fine!

And today I am going to make a huge personal sacrifice and photograph something you've all been curious about. But I'm not telling what it is.

I'm just saying one more day of party planning will be revealed tomorrow!

So come back.

If your headache is better.

And be thinkin' about Alphabe-Thursday, too! We're doing the letter "B"... And no, that isn't the old Beatles song.

Did you get that?

See, I told you my inner muse is stupid.

Sigh.

If you missed the previous post and you are not totally insane by now, you can click here to read it!

Moving on from the sugar coma...

...into finishing some of the paper craft type stuff I need to get done. I gathered up all the stuff onto the kitchen table to get started... But I am having a hard time staying focused. It is beautiful outside the kitchen window... But since I'm all about the laser-like focus I'm going back to my walk through review.

So I think about when people get to the hanger. I will set up a little table there with a guest book, some nametags and a little tri-fold table display with pictures of my Dad and cool quotes and stuff. I have the guest book done - just made it today. But number 9 is make the nametags and number 10 is make the table display.

Here's the little guest book I made. I had this little drawing pad and this scrapbooking paper. Not sure if the red ribbon is weird or not so I may take it off. I kinda/sorta like it but my husband kinda/sorta hates it...and our weiner dog Oskar sniffed it and really didn't care one way or the other.
And since I have all my paper stuff out and I'm not feeling really motivated to make the centerpieces I decide to make up the out-of-towners gift bags for people that are coming from Iowa and South Dakota and Ohio and Wisconsin.

I bought a whole bunch of Arizona made stuff like tequila suckers with worms in them (yum...NOT!), Arizona honey and jalapeno and prickly pear jelly, cool rock candy, some Arizona made chocolates (which my husband graciously taste-tested for me) and an Arizona Highways magazine.

On Thursday I'll pick a few fresh oranges to put in the bags...but look!

I think they turned out pretty cute!
Did you see my cool invention there on the table to the right of the gift bags. I love this free craft idea. Click here to read how to make this ribbon organizer. And now I am going to go lay down and take a little rest and...

Hey? What's this? How did this little piece of Arizona chocolate get in my pocket?

Oh my. That is a shame.

There is no way I can pick up all that heavy, heavy tissue paper off the top of the gifts bags so...

mmm...MMM...MMMM.mmmmm

Maple nut candy. It's not quite Chuckles but during party planning like this some sacrifices must be made.

Sigh.

If you missed the story before this just click here to go there now!