Leap Year

So apparently leap year day has a publicist, and a website. They have party ideas, publicity ideas, all sorts of things. Who knew? I'm not doing anything special to celebrate the day, unless you count breakfast for lunch at the nearby cheap Greek diner.

I am most certainly not in the mood to play along with the idea that leap year is the one day women get to chase after men, maybe I'll be more in the mood after lunch but I kind of doubt it.

Image from Wikipedia

I did like this image of a leap year ball though, really I just love seeing those men benched!

Image from 1884 London News

Ooh, and I do like the idea that any man who turns down a woman's marriage proposal in a leap year owes her a kiss (on the cheek) and a silk dress. Perhaps I am feeling amorous after all...

Image from Wikipedia

Seemed like a good idea to me v.4

At the beginning of the month I planned a super fabulous birthday party for a friend of mine. Sadly, the guest of honor had to bow out at the last minute due to illness so the party was canceled, but I maintain that it would have been one of my best parties to date.

It was entitled The Great Hedgehog Caper and was to involve a mini photo studio with caper-ish props and a vintage polaroid, a detective-style hunt for the guest of honor, delicious refreshments, and a hedgehog cake that would have beat last year's out of the water. Oh well, better luck next year.

Oscar Sunday

The statuette

If I had a tv, or maybe even just a bigger computer screen, I'd host a party for the Oscars. It's one of my favorite events all year. There are plenty of fun things to do, Msn has an interactive create your red carpet look whatsit, and you can always print out a ballot to see right you were. I love doing that. Then there's Oscar night bingo. I would make up my own cards, but here is a ready made version. A little food, a few games, and a long (and hopefully entertaining) awards ceremony. Good times.

Seemed like a good idea to me v.3

While I was mocking up a wedding for one coworker, we couldn't leave the other un-teased, especially as she is the farthest along the relationship track. She has never been one to dream about her future wedding, so we promised that if she was up for it, she could leave it all to us. We had the perfect idea: reusing all of the old acidic materials from work. We are pulling out sheet after sheet of acidic tissues and papers and who knows what else, papers that have gone from white to cream and in some instances brown, pink, or full on yellow. Some even come away imprinted from the dyes of the fabrics they were "protecting." Then we could add in some used polyfelt and some other bits here and there. So really, we could have a full spectrum of washed-out hues and a natural look to the whole thing. We only got as far as designing her wedding dress, which we think will be a nice a-line gown with a paper rose on a sash around the waist.
We pulled out some old materials just to see what we could do, and this was the result:



Okay clearly I'm going to have to work on the whole sideways picture thing, but right now a nap seems so much more pressing.

Seemed like a good idea to me v.2

While my hands are very busy at work, my brain usually isn't. So, last year when a coworker was dating someone who was facing potential issues with his visa, I suggested they get one of those engagement visas or whatevers and that got us started on planning the wedding, completely putting all seriousness aside.

We decided on two themes right away. I know two themes makes one too many, but we couldn't help ourselves. The first came from the fact that, though they liked each other, the marriage would be on account of his needing a green card or citizenship or whatever it is you can get when you marry an American. Thus, making an actual green card a focal point.

According to google images, this is a green card

The second theme came from the young man's romantic notions, he had some ideal of proposing under a cherry tree.


Thus the preponderance of cherries. Now, this combination of themes could be difficult as cherry red + green card = Christmas, and that's not okay.
So, we started with using elements of the green card for the save the date, the invitation, and the place cards at the reception. Oddly enough, cherry-based invitations are easy enough to find but green card-based stationery isn't so popular, so that would have to be custom. I wonder if anybody would get any references to Green Card.


Anyway, cherry trees are incredibly easy to incorporate into a wedding, and I have to say I am a fan of this wedding cake.


The bride would wear a white dress, as usual, but with cherry accents such as these earrings

or these

maybe this necklace


This lovely bakelite bracelet (cherry red, but giving the actual cherry a rest)


and some lovely red shoes, maybe even a red sash. In fact, I'd only do one cherry accent and make the rest solid red.

As for him, I'd give him a cherry-red tie and then a pair of these cufflinks and call him good


The wedding favors would be little boxes of gummy cherries

And that's about as far as we went with that theme

Seemed like a good idea to me v.1

A few years ago (2002?) I lived with my friend Christina and two sisters, Marin and Carole. Carole was in the midst of her first serious relationship and Christina and I loved teasing her. I admit, we could be a little ruthless, but she was a good sport. Our favorite method of teasing was to sit down at the kitchen table with her and then start planning her wedding according to various themes. I don't remember quite how many weddings we planned or what the themes were, but one does stick in my memory and I hope to see it realized one day. It was the Muppets wedding.

Miss Piggy had plenty of wedding fantasies/fake weddings, etc. (for a complete list, check out the wedding entry on muppet wiki). I remember basing Carole's wedding attire off the Muppets Take Manhattan costume

with this as an alternate ensemble

As for the reception, a Kermit and Piggy cake topper would be in order, I think.

Most of the decoration details we had planned escape me now, but I imagine lots of polyester lace and pale pink roses, and probably a large dose of fake pearls. The music would, of course, be provided by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

The final touch, and my personal favorite, was the installation at the back of the reception hall of a cardboard cut-out of a small balcony with red velvet curtain, in which we would install Waldorf and Statler, perfectly positioned to heckle the whole wedding crowd.

I mean honestly, who wouldn't want this wedding?

Miss Manners

I have many fond childhood memories of sitting down with a large volume of Miss Manners columns and reading for hours. I thought she was absolutley hilarious, and I took her suggestions as gospel truth. Twenty years later I still refer to her wisdom and I still laugh. Today on the MSN homepage I saw a link to the Miss Manners column archive and that just about made my day.

Emergency Preparedness Extravaganza

I am used to hosting dinner parties small and large, game nights and holiday fêtes, but coming up is something all new to me. I am in charge of an Emergency Preparedness fair for my church and, as I think everything is better as a party, a party it will be. I mean, who really enjoys being lectured on emergency preparedness? Judging from past response, I think it is safe to say nobody. So, the next six weeks will be spent focusing on what I intend to be the greatest (well yes, also the first) emergency prep party we have ever seen.
In the mean time, check out the great Amy Middleton's animated short on the topic.
ps- suggestions are welcome

Macaroni and Cheese

I just made Martha Stewart's macaroni and cheese. I haven't had any yet so I can't vouch for flavor, but I can say it was super easy to make. Martha suggests white cheddar, Havarti, and Muenster. I went the cheap route and used white cheddar, mozzarella, and Monterey Jack but I think it turned out well enough. And yes that's easy to say seeing as I haven't had it yet, but I don't regret my substitutions.

Muse Marian

Flipping through the March issue of Domino, I came across Muse Marian, who writes the social graces bit in the entertainment section. Her particular advice this month was on not over doing it, something I definitely am working on. The website had no link to the information, but it did have a place you can ask Muse Marian your very own question about modern-day manners. So, next time I have a question Emily Post and Miss Manners can't handle (if that's even possible), maybe I'll give Muse Marian a try.
In a nutshell, her tips for the month of March are: trim your guest list (if you only have 300 square feet, don't invite more than 20 for cocktails), dress according to the dress code you give your guests, serve a balanced meal, don't go overboard with your decorations, and keep extra scents to a minimum and the music low. Sounds good to me.

Bureau of Communication

Along the lines of the fill-in-the-blank thank you notes I posted about the other day, these "official invitations" provide a highly amusing template for any kind of party invitation one may need to send. The website, the Bureau of Communication, has lots of other items well worth a look, including formal apologies, unsolicited feedback, and a declaration of romantic intent. Pretty great, no?

Folding Chairs

I have a very plain and basic table and chair set from Ikea that I bought second-hand about three years ago. It is a rectangular table and came with four chairs, but could accommodate six pretty easily. I have been on the look out for some folding chairs to make Sunday dinners a little more comfortable. Now, when I have more than three guests, I have to pull the table up to the futon and two guests suddenly become miniaturized.
So, as I said, I've been looking around and lo and behold where should I find the best deal, but at Ikea, where I can get these folding chairs for only $15 each. Now I just have to make room in the closet, which I'm afraid is easier said than done.

Chili

I had another group of friends over for dinner today and, it being cold and windy, I thought some comfort food was in order, so I made chili. I don't know where my mother got this recipe, but this is how she always made it when I was growing up:

brown together:
1 lb hamburger
1/2 large onion
fresh garlic

in a saucepan combine:
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
cumin to taste
1 can chili beans

Add meat to sauce and simmer.

It is simple but filling and, in my opinion, quite tasty.

Table manners

I had a good laugh over these tips and pitfalls not necessarily because they are inherently funny, but because I really had no idea about some of them and they do make an awfully good point, American etiquette is about anything but efficiency.
I was particularly surprised by how ineptly I've always handled the salt situation.

Mistakes I've made v.4

Now this one runs the risk of sounding like a sob story, but it isn't, not in the least.
Once upon a time (summer of 1999) in a land far, far (roughly 2,000 miles) away there was a young college co-ed who had spent her summer working hard and doing only mediocre. But she really was working hard, trust me. So she'd been too busy and too shy to make friends. She'd tried, in her own dysfunctional way, really she had. Her sister had come out to live with her during the summer term and, unencumbered by work, school, or shyness, had managed to make a passel of friends and sometimes our young co-ed got to tag along. Woo-woo. So anyway, the end of the term came, said sister was going back home, and our little co-ed was going to turn nineteen. So, the sisters hatched a plan: a double celebration.
And here we find lovely mistake v.4
Remember how our co-ed still didn't know anybody? Well, that's a problem when you're throwing a party for yourself. If you don't have a roster of friends and you're too poor to hire guests, what do you do when your sister leaves ten minutes into the party and her guests follow?
I'll tell you what you do, you fall asleep on the couch watching Strange Brew. That's what you do.
Although, to be fair, I did have one guest, the only person I knew who hadn't gone away for the summer. An engaged guy friend of mine was kind enough to come, and he also ended up falling asleep, but on the other end of the couch. Yes ladies and gentlemen, that was my first violation of my University's honor code. The other violation was just about as exciting, but that story has nothing to do with throwing parties so we'll leave it at that.
So, moral of the story? Don't throw parties if you don't have anyone to invite. It just isn't effective or enjoyable. Although it does make for a great laugh in hindsight.

Pico de Gallo

We made this all the time growing up and while I checked some recipes on line to make sure my memory served me correctly, I can't really say I followed any of them. However, I can say that more or less, I did the following:

Diced 6 tomatoes
Diced 1/2 a medium onion
Diced a few jalapeños (I was using canned slices so I don't really know how many, maybe 3 or 4)
Diced a handful of fresh cilantro
Mixed it all together with the juice of two limes
Added salt and pepper to taste

I had a lot left over so I packed it in some old jars and dropped it off at friend's houses, it's just not the kind of thing that will last forever.

Silhouette cookies

I adore silhouettes and while this is a tiny bit creepy in my mind, I mean, having your guests bite off your head is a bit odd, no? All the same, I am fascinated by the idea. Victor Trading Co. will apparently make these for you, all you have to do is send in the outline and they'll send you a cookie cutter. If Martha hadn't vouched for it, I probably would have been scared away by their website, but it could be worth a try. And hey, I'd rather have fifty cookie versions of my head dipped in tea than cut into a life-size wedding cake replica of myself. But that's just me.