Holiday Weekend...Graduation Party Style

It is Memorial Day weekend, but this year we did a college graduation party for my son Peter.  He's been asking me for this party for the past couple of years in anticipation.  I'm the Mom that doesn't let the kids have party's. I'm the Mom that is too afraid of confrontation with the neighbors, local police or anyone else that might complain about a bunch of 24/25 year old's having some fun a bit too late into the evening, but I'm happy to say I relinquished and planned the party.

Ya, I know it looks a lot like Elvis... but no, this is Peter in High School. He's a performer, always has been...always will be!

Ok, just kidding around, more current picture of Peter

"The Cake" depicting his 3 degrees.

And the catered food....(because I was too pooped out from the previous two party's and the Coffeehouse debacle! Tons of BBQ....more ribs than I've ever seen at one time!  We had beautiful weather and these kids (grown-up kids) were all really great guest!  Jack was swimming all day and we had expected him to sleep like a log last night, but instead he was restless all night. I'm guessing just too much excitement for a 5 year old in one day!  No more graduations for at least 13 years....:)  Thank you to everyone that came and helped celebrate with us!  The day would not have been complete without you!  I would have posted more pictures but I'm thinking not everyone wants their face on my blog...

I've moved to WordPress.org

I've moved my blog to http://www.therefluffednest.com

Got my own domain and server! How cool is that! Look forward to you joining me.

My Experiment with Wordpress

For any of my new friends that might stumble upon this blog, that looks so much like my blogspot blog...(though in a messy sort of way), I am doing an experiment.  Through my association with kingofalltrades.com I have the opportunity to have my blog on it's own server along with using Wordpress.  This all started when I read an article I guess last week, about taking off your blogging training wheels.   Obviously, I need training wheels since I only started blogging about 3 weeks ago.  While reading this article though I kept thinking of what a hassle it would be to move to wordpress after I had an established blog.  By established I mean something I've managed to follow through on.   And I hope to make a ton of new internet friends along the way.

So anyway...it's hard this wordpress and I'm actually pretty familiar with it from editing articles and even writing a few for koat...but jeez I never had to set that blog up!  That's the hard part.  It really is making me think about staying at blogspot where everything is pretty much point and click.  Yes there are limits, but I might just be able to live with the limits....

Tomorrows another day, I was mia today at the Cafe and need to get up there tomorrow to clear out the office!  Hopefully Jack is feeling better and we can get the rest of this taken care of!

Editing this to add that I found the most awesome of themes on WordPress that is completely customizable!  The theme is called  "Atahualpa" and now you can throw out my whole views on Wordpress.org being hard.  It took me many hours but I now pretty much have things the way I want them to be here.  A bit more tweaking needs to be done but it's good enough that I don't have to mess with it anymore now, when I should be cleaning house...;)

Closing down the Coffee House Cafe'

I guess it should be a sad day for me, but just now it's not. My Business Partner and childhood friend, along with our two most valuable and trusted employees (who also happen to be her son, and the other a long time dear friend to both of us) decided not to keep Java G's operating. Here's a link to our ex Coffee House if your interested in a peek...:)

We sold the Cafe back in Oct. 2009. Long story short, we owner financed and the business failed under the new ownership and basically he abandoned it, loan and all. For a short week or so, we considered keeping it running, but due to some circumstances out of our control, the decision was made last Friday to go ahead and shut it down.

So today was spent clearing out food. We had thought we were going to be open at least to the end of this week, so had gotten a recent food order. So lots of food! We divided up amongst us. I don't know how the others are faring, but I couldn't have fit one more thing in my frig, much less my freezer which is now full of frozen bread and cookie dough!

My overly stuffed refrigerator!

We had also just received a coffee order...:/

We have 7 of these very large jars (the picture doesn't do it justice, size wise) and I think we are each taking 2 home along with splitting up the coffee beans. And a full container of Mayan Mocha powder along with a nearly whole cheesecake. Yes I took the whole cheesecake, and also yes, I've decided to take it back tomorrow to see if someone else will take it! ;)

At the last minute I also grabbed the Cafe sign that always sat on the back end of the Espresso Machine. I actually didn't get a chance to ask said partner if she wanted the sign, so not sure it's staying. Initially I didn't think I wanted any reminders of the Cafe' but I'm now thinking as time passes, so will the more recent bad memory's and someday I will look back at this adventure in a more pleasant light. Heck, maybe partner and I can take turns with the Cafe' sign....:)

There's the Cafe' sign....

Just some random photo's of Java G's. I think I took these the last day we were there back in October.

These two photo's were taken when we were only open about 5 months. Good times those were...
Nearly 3 years has just flown by....

Tomorrow we will be going back in to clean out the Refrigerators, Freezers, Ovens and stoves, and clear out the office. We have movers coming on Wednesday to put things into storage for the time being. Everything has happened very fast and I think we need a bit of time to know which direction to take next. One door closes...another one opens...:)

wordpress Tags: Coffeehouse, Cafe, Going out of business

Baby Shower Day!

Danika's

Baby Shower has come and gone....

Let me just say I had a wonderful time planning and hosting this shower for my Daughter in Law. She is a lovely person and I really enjoyed trying to make her shower as special as she is to us. All the pictures below will enlarge when clicked on.

I had her invitations customized and printed at tiny*prints. They even addressed and mailed them for me.

The link above will give you a full size view of her invitations. (without all the addresses and phone numbers)

Danika's Mother brought this table cloth she had made for them with her from Florida.

She had the little poem embroidered in the center.

Table cloth before the pens got to it! :)

Catherine brought the cake from the Cakery...

I kept this small so as not to have a watermelon taking up half the table.

The cucumber sandwiches were made with  cream cheese and dill as opposed to butter.

It was 90 degrees here today, so these were especially refreshing!

Asparagus wrapped with homemade Boursin Cheese and  Prosciutto.

Ready to eat!

This was taken before the final table arrangement. Just throwing this one is because I failed to take a picture of the little decorations hanging from the chandelier. I stumbled across this adorable idea at Traci's Blog over at Beneath My Heart.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I know we did! Heck, we were just happy that it wasn't raining and the sun was finally out!

Baby Shower Favors

My sons wife, came over yesterday to help me assemble the party favors. With the boys now occupied with one another we went to work. I purchased these sweet little favor tins and personalized labels at "flavorstudio.com".

E, was a great help with these. I originally had intended to tie the ribbon around the tins, tying a bow...which would have taken days on end as the tins are slippery. She was so clever to come up with the cute idea to place the labels lower (rather than centered) and to attach the bows with hot glue just above the labels.

I think they turned out perfect!

I then went ahead and wrapped up the towels I had made earlier in the day as attendance gifts. My plan is to get a bit done everyday this week so I'm not overwhelmed come Saturday/Sunday. I would like to reserve Saturday for food preparation and cleaning (lots of cleaning). Thanks again for all the help E! You are "oh so" clever! :)

Attendance Gifts

I undertook a homemade gift project today. I have to just laugh at myself for giving this a go. When my 4 grown children were young, I was oh so crafty and use to make all their teachers gifts as well as Christmas gifts for the family. Back then I quickly learned my strengths as WELL as weaknesses! I have to say, time has done nothing to improve my abilities with anything to do with paint! In any case...I did give this a go, stenciling on simple flour sack towels.

The first one was terrible, and you're not EVEN going to get a peek at that one! LOL! The second one was also sort of messed up....

Those butterfly's started out as one pink heart on the right side. After finishing the other towels, and with a little more experience under my belt, I came back to this and tried to fix it. It's better, but still not great, but might pass as ok.

The one thing I think I did learn, was less was better and to keep it simple. (unless you are artsy) *g*

I ended up just using a tooth pick to apply some tiny dots. I would love some feedback as to whether you think these will be ok for attendance gifts for the Shower? It won't hurt my feelings, so be honest and any advice would be most welcome! Also, I'm just noticing that these colors may not be appearing true...the one is a very pale sage green and the other is a ballet pink style of pink.

I also wanted to share with anyone that isn't aware of this place ( I wasn't and I have a local store) Party City is the name of the store, and I was able to get everything I needed as far as disposable table ware goes, for a fraction of the prices I've seen elsewhere. I did dawdle on this chore, so ended up having things shipped next day. They offer so many colors that you're bound to find what you need.

 

The rain has stopped! Yeah!!

wordpress Tags: Shrubs, trimming shrubs

Finally….only 4 more days until my Daughter in Laws baby shower that I am hosting, and still so very much to do, BUT dear husband was able to get all the shrubs around the pool trimmed today.

Big job to be sure….

He did get these finished up tonight….

All of these yet to be done, plus the front yard….:/

Jack and I spent most of the day shopping  for things for the party. I think it’s been forever since I’ve shopped for anything for the house. I got all sorts of goodies, including some fabric Hydrangeas to replace the ones that have been on the deck arrangement for years now. This has been on my list for the last few years.

This is what they looked like after I took them out. They don't look too bad here actually, but take my word for it, they were horrid!

Much better now…the pink is a bit brighter than I actually want, but I’m depending on them fading in the sun.

I keep these out on that table all summer, and they look really pretty looking out from the family room windows.
I’m going to be working on things all week for the shower, making some simple attendance gifts and getting the decorations done. I hope to remember to take pictures as I do them. Thus far, the blogging thing hasn’t settled in very well and I forget to take pictures. Like Jack’s birthday party Sunday! Everything turned out smashing, and after every bit of food was gone, I thought “Shoot, I was going to take pictures”! (same with the hydrangea arrangements) I’m guessing blogging one’s activities isn’t second nature….:)

Blogger Tags: Landscaping, shrubs, outdoor space

More roses....

wordpress Tags: Roses, decorating, pergola

It's been raining here for days on end. Our seeds have sprouted in the vegetable garden, but it's so muddy we haven't been able to thin the sprouts out yet. The poor roses are so heavy with water, I've had to go out and trim them of their largest blossoms just to keep them off the ground. The only good thing about that is that I got to bring some in. I arranged them in my Mothers Milk Glass vase (which I'm pretty sure she has forgotten I have) and snuggled them in along some recent purchases I made from The Shabby Chic Cottage's Etsy store.

My Baby, Graduated this weekend....

wordpress Tags: Graduation, Family, Children

My baby, (before I re-fluffed my nest that is) graduated from College on Saturday, with three degrees! I'm so very proud of him. He's brought me so much joy through these University years, getting to watch his performances on stage as well as growing into a fine young man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He's the one waving here after finally locating us in the Family Arena!

More roses....

Thought I would post some more rose photos before I get busy with Jack's birthday party tomorrow.
It's been raining here for days on end. Our seeds have sprouted in the vegetable garden, but it's so muddy we haven't been able to thin the sprouts out yet. The poor roses are so heavy with water, I've had to go out and trim them of their largest blossoms just to keep them off the ground. The only good thing about that is that I got to bring some in. I arranged them in my Mothers Milk Glass vase (which I'm pretty sure she has forgotten I have) and snuggled them in along some recent purchases I made from The Shabby Chic Cottage's Etsy store.

I did manage however (rain go away) to take a few shots of the pink climber that grows atop the pergola. It's beautiful as ever, but does seem to have less blooms hanging down then usual, yet plenty up top and on the side for my neighbor to enjoy...... I'm thinking dear husband used some of his "pruning" magic on them....~@~ (that's a little evil eye there)

Once the rain stops...(any day now please!!) I'll get the outdoor cushions and umbrellas out and take some pictures to share. I bought all new cushions this year, with a change in color schemes and am VERY excited to get to this! Hope everyone is having a wonderfully relaxing weekend!

My Baby, Graduated today....

My baby, (before I re-fluffed my nest that is) graduated from College today, with three degrees! I'm so very proud of him. He's brought me so much joy through these University years, getting to watch his performances on stage as well as growing into a fine young man.

He's the one waving here after finally locating us in the Family Arena!

Obviously, we are looking at two different cameras! *g*

Long day for everyone....Jack did ok and enjoyed watching all the people.