How to Create a Birthday Party

How to Create a Party with a Theme You Know Nothing About

In my ongoing attempt to determine what career path lies ahead for a 54 year old woman with a degree in Interior Design and experience only as a mom and crafter I have offered my services in a number of different LEGAL ways. It was with great surprise when a young mom I know called asking my help in planning her daughter's ninth birthday party. The theme - The Sisters Grimm. Hmmm, I pondered and finally asked "who or what are The Sisters Grimm?" It seems they are the direct descendants of the Brothers Grimm living in today's world and encountering the many characters, with a few modern day twists, included in the stories of their ancestors. Never being one who learned to say "no", I agreed. 

I researched the series of books by reading every, and I do mean every, review of each book on Amazon.com taking copious notes as though I were preparing for the best term paper of all time. With each tidbit of information I determined that yet another task should be added to the plan. I might say that by this point I had long since stopped making any money and had not even created the first item for the party. This became a labor of love, a mission to be accomplished, a party to beat all parties, and the lowest paying job I have had since I tutored for my dad at the unbelievable hourly rate of 50 cents an hour. The week before the party I went 31 hours without sleep and then two nights later 34 hours with no sleep. I decided at that point that this was not a wise career path. My husband did note that I seemed to be having fun creating my masterpiece party and he was right. I delivered the decorations to the mother of the birthday girl on the Wednesday before the Friday evening event. She didn't seem overly enthusiastic and I felt very let down. On Friday afternoon I delivered the cake topper and was invited in to see how the house had been decorated. The birthday girl and her sister more than made up for the mom's initial reaction to my offerings. The excitement was palpable. The younger sister asked every ten minutes, "how much longer until the party". As The Sisters Grimm series does have mystery, danger, and adventure some of the stories can be a bit dark and so the color scheme was black and white. The birthday girl wanted only to be assured that there would be a "Pin the Tail on the Wolf" game. Is it wrong that the wolf I created had eaten Red Riding Hood? The menu for the evening was equally as interesting "Squid Ink Pasta with Green Gravy" and Ada's Happily Everafter Dream Cake. I have yet to receive a report on how the black pasta (food coloring) and green gravy (Alfredo sauce and more food coloring) was received. I based the cake topper on the cover picture of one of the books and included the "birthday girl" with the Sisters Grimm from the illustration. Hopefully, my party design caused no traumatic psychological damage to the party guests. 

My biggest fear now is that the younger sister is going to want a party "just like her sister's!" Aaarrrggghhh!!











Squid Ink Pasta and Green Gravy, YUM!!

The Party!

The Sisters Grimm - Book 8
Cake Topper



Pin the Tail on the Wolf Game



Thanksgiving, exhaustion, and a birthday party

I have never been so happy to see the end to a holiday.  I am exhausted.  For the first time a boyfriend was deemed important enough to be asked to Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  I don't know if our daughter doesn't trust us to behave or if she would rather the boyfriend just think she's an orphan.  Anyway, this one got invited.  So rather than the four of us having a lovely Thanksgiving meal without all the fancy china, good silver, and spooning food from the pans in which they were cooked we added one young man who, for some reason, I felt a need to impress the boyfriend with just how "classy" we are.  The first profanity was spoken when I realized that the entire meal was ready and I had forgotten to turn on the potatoes for the mashed potatoes. Whoops. We all had a wonderful time, loved the boyfriend, and looked forward to our next get together on the 28th.
I had procrastinated long enough and had to make the cake topper for my daughter's cake on the 27th.  Although she turned 31 she still gets to choose a theme. This year's theme - Cute Elephants. No, not just any elephant, CUTE elephants. I crawled into bed at 6 am on the 28th and was awake and working again 3 hours later.  If I do say so myself this is a really cute cake topper.  All clay, except for the cake.  It was red velvet.  She loved it all and the pink elephant now lives at her house.
Next year she wants cute ants.  I may finally just say NO!

I slept 12 hours today!  Two events down one to go.
Hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving.

Let them not eat cake!

The handmade wedding won't have a cake.  I love cake.  Believing that all weddings need a cake I created a faux cake for the dessert bar.  I hope Sara and Matt don't try to eat it on their first anniversary.  It might be a bit dry and crunchy.
I hand sculpted each Fimo clay flower and pea patches at the bottom of the arbor (site of the proposal). The pea patch that is, not the arbor.  Additional custom items include the bride's dress and the groom's suit, all sculpted of Fimo.  This was all done seriptiously via the bride.  She knows I'm making something but doesn't know what.  I hope she's happy and surprised.

What I did on my summer vacation

Given enough time and enough clay I will complete any project I ever start.  Well, sometimes the start of a project does turn into a blob of ugly gray/brown.  It's a color that only exists in polymer clay.  In a previous post I shared pictures of what I thought would be a quick weekend project.  It seems I should have thought a little harder.  Knowing how many individual pieces are used to make only the castle and formal garden (appr.100 pieces) and knowing how many pieces are in each flower I have estimated a total of almost 10,000 individual pieces of clay. Most people who have seen this cake topper like the dragon the best.  What is your favorite part?  Please share your thoughts and I'll post the results.  I just like that it's finally finished! Rather than trying to determine a reasonable price for 80+ hours of fun but tedious work I'm leaving the "Someday My Prince Will Come" cake topper to my descendents.  Let them wonder about the sanity of their ancestor.  The 3rd Birthday cake topper is a gift for my "Poppy" inspiration.  So Disney, don't worry about copyright and licensing,  it's a gift and not for sale.  I do have grand plans of selling other cake toppers in my Etsy shop http://www.poppylovesaparty.etsy.com/.  The shop is not yet open but I have wonderful ideas!  Stay tuned!!!