Category: Just for fun

Ye Olde Arrington

Did we go back to England?!  Nope.  Try the Tennessee Renaissance Festival.  There is a “castle” in the middle of the Tennessee countryside, just down the road from the Tractor Supply, (aren’t they all?) with a complete set up for the month long festival.  The Things and I decided we needed a little adventure over the holiday weekend, so we headed out to Arrington, TN to check out the fayre.

Sadly, we didn’t take the castle tour this year, so no snaps…that line was crazy long.

If you’ve never been to a Renaissance or Medieval Festival, you need to fix that.  Treat yourself.  The people watching alone is worth the price of the ticket.  Carnie GOLD.  The Things were captivated, and even a bit scared at times, but in the end we had a HUGE time.

When we saw this guy…all I could think of was this.  That song was stuck in my head ALL AFTERNOON.

The fairies/elves were everywhere…we were in love with the ears…..

I wouldn’t be a true patron of the festival if I didn’t partake in a little something…..maybe even something that might embarrass my kids?

Indeed, it is.

Turns out they LOVED it.  Gotta try harder next time.

Chigger Face

via Leigh Machin

This is how I feel like I look..and those razor sharp nails actually look like they could relieve some of this itching.

Somehow, someway while working in the yard on the treehouse…I was attacked.  Silent and stealthy, the chigger (Trombiculidae if you’re fancy) is the source of seemingly interminable and agonizing itching.  I really hate those bastards.

My face and neck are covered, and I’m still trying to solve the mystery.  For the past two weeks, I’ve been putting granules down on all of our paths and work areas to prevent THIS EXACT THING!  I wore my high boots, sprayed with repellent…I was careful!

I got them really bad last year on my legs, but legs full of swollen bites don’t repel people in quite the same fashion as a half chewed off face does…imagine that.

Feelin’ pretty…and smelling like a giant Tea Tree.

Fiesta FAIL

Well, I didn’t get many photos from the Fiesta, there was too much going on…as usual, I was so busy setting up, there just wasn’t time to leisurely snap away. Besides…not my best work.

The round tables were so hard to make look decent.  I hated them, but everyone was very nice and seemed to like the pale blue overlays with the kraft. The clean up committee really, truly loved me though.  It was a snap for us to uncover the tables at the end.

I had really wanted to cover the ugly legs with paper to the floor, but we couldn’t do it…not enough money in the $100 budget for the extra paper it would take, and not enough volunteers to help wrap the tables.  Sigh.  That’s life.  It’s not the costume gala at the Met, so just have a margarita and get OVER IT.

Did I mention I HATED how this ended up looking?  Let’s not even discuss the chairs.

I hung the tissue pom poms from the ceiling and they seemed dwarfed by the massiveness of the room and tent, but again…just not enough manpower or budget, so I broke down and resorted to the flags for impact.  Have another margarita.

This is where all the auction items were…it’s Nashville, so we had lots of signed gee-tars from your favorite country stars.  What I wanna know is where our school’s goddamn Jack White connection is?!  I don’t listen to country music, so it’s kinda wasted on me.  Jack could change my interest in the music prizes, fo sho.

Packed house..haven’t heard the grand total yet, but hopefully that margarita machine lubed up folks enough to make some nice sized donations to the school.

There was a wheel, kinda like on the Price is Right….I gave it a few spins, got a few small prizes.

I decided to make a few woodland scenarios for those not digging the Southwest vibe of the evening…..Everyone loved the terrariums, but didn’t/couldn’t read the tags, so we didn’t sell them all.

You knew there would be fawns, right?

I must have made the flags too tall since many people didn’t know they were for sale…boo.  It’s funny, of the ones that did sell, some swapped their figurines with other arrangements, so I ended up with a “desert fawn” since someone obviously wanted a “woodland coyote.”  I don’t know why that cracked me up so much…possibly exhaustion.

A really fun, yet super tiring weekend….

I’ll update you on the treehouse later this week.  Adios amigos….

Fiesta!

There is a school fundraiser this weekend, a Fiesta no less, and guess who signed up to head decorations?  It will be parents only, read, margaritas, so everyone will be able to chat it up without anyone pulling on their appendages.

The words public school fundraiser = no budget.  Can I make the place look fun, yet tasteful, for $150?  Yes, $150 for a party hosting hundreds.  Challenge accepted!

Our awesome Spanish teacher had the kids make tissue flowers to help out and I was delivered 2 big garbage bags full. Now to make it work for our event…hmmmm…..

That’s a LOT of little flowers.  I had no idea what I was going to get, so now that it’s all here…how do I make it work?  I decided to group them by color to make pom-poms that I can hang with invisible fishing line from the tent beams.

I think I like these.  This is only about a third of what I finally ended up with…..I will intersperse them with these white ones below I’ve been making at home….the simple tissue Peony everyone always makes…a classic, and so easy and inexpensive.  Tutorial here.

 

Now, how am I going to cover 62 tables for under $150?  The cheapest linen rental was going to be $850, so that’s out.  BTW, what a racket!  You can buy them from a restaurant supply for the same cost as some of the rental rates….I’m missing a business opportunity for sure.

So this is what I think we can afford, that will look nice….

Photo via escarabajos bichos & mariposas, which is a seriously cute party post.

All the colored burlap in town has sold out, so I can use kraft paper to cover the tables instead of resorting to icky roll plastic naffness.  I can then layer on some colored paper I got from the teaching store for bulletin boards, and hopefully, it will look good.  My plans for the centerpieces are mini terrariums/tablescapes (?)  that will be for sale-hopefully parents will want to bring one home to surprise their kiddos…

Wish me luck, I’m a wee bit nervous about how it will all look, but I’ll remain optimistic that we can pull it off.

I’ll try and take snaps when it’s all set up….