For the past two weeks I've had so much 'pre-party' energy, that I've painted and improved and vinyled and swept and cooked!
Grace was my helper when it came to painting the back porch, basement door, and shed entrances!
I found a hat for my costume, but it was blue, and when I attempted to dye it, the dye destroyed parts of the netting, so I had to find something else to use as a veil. = (
I recruited Billy to help me assemble the pergola that we were borrowing from Sarah. Once we had it completely assembled, it would have been a beast to break back down and put into her truck, and Billy liked it well enough to want to keep it. Since she was not quite ready to add it to her yard, it worked out perfectly, and we were able to buy it off of her!
With all the extra party food, I really needed room in the refrigerator, so I made some off-season St. Lucia cakes to get the jar of molasses off the shelf! They were tasty, even in the middle of summer!
I attempted to replace Billy's grill cover last year, but neither replacement was as good as his original. I bought some tape to repair the old one, and it did give us one more winter, but it was starting to come apart around the mesh, and the material was stiff and brittle, so it was time to replace it for full price.
But the new one is quite an improvement!
Over out time in this house, the upstairs sink has sunk just enough to separate from the paint. I didn't care for the chipped paint look, and so I thought I'd try some of the stick on wall stickers from the dollar tree.
First, I bought some silver, to match the faucet, but It didn't look good at all!
The second was a mixture of silver and gold, and looks much better, and way better than the chipped paint too!
I repaired maps and scrubbed walls in the guest bathroom, washed rugs, scrubbed tubs, cleaned out the vacuum cleaner, dusted, swept and vacuumed the mud room, and just put all my anxious energy to work!
I've been paring down one of our medicine cabinets for a while now, in anticipation of getting a basket for each child. (And, of course, I didn't take a before picture.. = ( ) Once I saw how cute their baskets looked, I decided to improve the other containers as well.
The last few items were too big to fit into the tiny buckets, so a third trip to the dollar tree was in order.
Project complete!
True party prep started two days before, with dish washing and making cold dishes. This was 3oz of grated dark chocolate!
For the Riccota Mocha cake!!! (It was really good, but between the (tiny bit of) espresso powder and dark chocolate I was a little concerned about it messing with my sleep. lol.)
And the day of, made up caprese salads for everyone! (But we had a salad bar, and people could make up their own salad!)
I wanted to have a record of the recipes that I made this year, and instead of including them on the party post, I'm hiding them away here. = ) As always, their recipes were delicious!
As the summer winds down, we have a few dentist appointments to get through next week, but then we have Bingo Week Camping at Jellystone, just before the twins start back to school!!!
It was a fast, but lovely summer!
later days
