Busy, busy, busy!

Whew!  What a busy, but productive weekend!  It was jam packed with lots of stuff and I feel very good about my productivity level.  Friday after work I was able to spend a little time with Bella before heading out West of town to meet up with the girls to crop.  On my way there I stopped off at the outlet mall for a quick tour of Chico's to see if I could find anything to wear for next weekends afair (more on that later).  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was down an entire size on the top and bottom and picked up a couple of tops and a nice pair of slacks.  I am officially down 15 pounds and still working on it! Then I jumped back in the car and headed for crop night.  Since I still hadn't located all of my things from my move and wasn't sure where my pictures were, I had decided to work on something that I could locate.  The 'treat bags' for Bella's birthday party.  Her theme this year is Sweet Shoppe and I needed something that would accomodate some trinkets that I had already found, one of which is a good sized picture to color.  Anyway, I was able to find some sand buckets at M's in the dollar section that are a nice size in the colors of the party.  I had been trying to think of how I could tie it in to the theme of the party when I decided to stamp the buckets.  I used Staz On ink and stamped a Bubble Gum machine on one side and a few pieces of candy on the other, colored them in with Sharpie markers, accented them with Stickles and then put 'sweet' above each girls' name.  No pics, but I'll get to it when they are completely finished with ribbons and such!

Saturday was dance pictures in the morning.  What a mess!  Picture this-about seventy girls, costumes, hair and makeup with parents, photographers and siblings in a school that has 3 studios a narrow hallway, a front entranceway and two bathrooms.  Oh and in many cases-two costumes!  Then of course there are the parents who show up late or who show up without the one item that they are required to provide for their child-tights and say they didn't know they needed them!  'How did you know that they were needed? You read it? In that letter that was handed out to all the parents you say? Oh and the teacher told us at a meeting you say? And I was supposed to read and/or listen you say?' Ha! What a mess! 

Anyway, after that we had a surprise, but short visit by our friends Andy & Durinda.  It was great to see them even for a brief time!  Then I hit the basement and tried to make some sense from the madness that was down there.  By midnight I felt like I had made some headway and headed off to bed.

After church on  Sunday we ran a couple of brief errands and then headed back downstairs to get to work on birthday stuff.  With a few weeks to go before Bella's birthday, I felt like I needed to get things in gear, so I was determined to get a move on!  Here's what I got done.

The wreath:

The table centerpiece:

One of the games (think pin the tail type)

Table decor:

And place settings:

I also got about half of the invitations finished, here's a peak:

So, as you can see I worked well into the wee hours and I worked hard!  Some of the things I admit I worked on prior to the weekend.  The gumball felt piece I had completed earlier, and I had started the lollipop topiary during the week but finished it last night.  The invitations took the longest by far!  Working out the wording the size then taking the picture and figuring out how it would fit, then adjusting the text, the stamping, all of it.  Once I figured it all out and got the template down, the rest was just a matter of putting it all together but still time consuming.  It sure was good to be crafting again though!  I'll keep you updated on my progress as I go along.  I have a few weeks to go.