The Christmas Party

Christmas 2011

Here is a post I wrote and never uploaded for the Christmas Party I was so excited about

So about a week before Christmas I host a Christmas Party.  I have to admit that I went a little decoration crazy.   

I was mostly trying to decorate with red, white and silver.  All of the glass ornaments hanging from the red cloth draped over the mirrors are the no mess glitter ornaments that I had made a few weeks before (see post below).  

The spread was pretty simple, though this wasn't done on purpose.  Two nights before the party I was making some zucchini bread and zucchini muffins and suddenly I noticed sparks in the back of my oven.  The heating element on the bottom of my oven had one spot and it was glowing orange and sending out sparks.  So I immediately turned off the oven and removed all the muffins and bread from the oven.  Luckily the muffins were finished, but the five mini loaves of bread all had to be thrown out, because they had not cooked through before this happened.  This is the moment I started to freak out, I had a chicken wellington wreath shaped entree I was planning to make for the main course, and a bunch more baking to do between this and my party.  So the next day at work I call every appliance part place I can find and they all tell me that they can absolutely get me my part, as long as I can wait about a week.  UM, NO!  Then I finally find a place (in a suburb that is of course on the other side of Dallas from where I work), but they had one in stock and would be open until 7pm...I was saved.  So now it is the night before the party; my husband and I drove all the way across town during rush hour to find this little hole in the wall shop that did have the exact part I was looking for, and all I could think was 'alright, if we get home get this fixed I can get right back to it and still have like 4 hours of baking time'.  We get home to repair the oven, now before you replace the heating element you have two options; the first is to pull the oven out and unplug it or second to use the fuse box to shut off power to the oven.  In my house we had two problems with this our oven and stove top was built into the existing counter and even if we pull out the bottom drawer you can not see the plug, the other problem is that not one of the circuit switches in our box turned off the oven light.   I know what your thinking, flip the master circuit breaker and boom easy, that is what I thought too.  In my house if you turn off the master breaker switch every light in the house goes off, except the one telling me that my oven is on. 

Long aggravating story short, I didn't have an oven for the Christmas Party.  I did however make some great crock pot recipes, some awesome crock pot hot chocolate and for the rest I either made no bake options or gave in and used store bought.  Either way it was a great party.

**Months later I would discover from my electrician that as long as the oven isn't turned on it is safe to change the heating element.  Oh well, now I know**    

Halloween Party 2011

I’ve been so busy doing fun projects I haven’t had time to sit down and tell you all the fun things that I have been up to.  First, a few weeks ago was Halloween, I helped some friends host a party at their house and I used a project I found on Pinterest.com to make some party decorations.

Yarn Spider Webs

First, the supplies:

Yarn (I chose Orange, Purple, and Black)

Ribbon

Plastic Spiders (I used spider rings)

Modge Podge (or do what I did and make your own= 50% glue, 50% Water; and mix)

Balloons 

Scissors

A large trashbag (I used a 45 gallon)

Curtain rod/broom/sturdy long stick (whatever you have)

2 chairs

Then I set up a place for all my balloons to dry.  I secured the curtain rod to the chairs using some ribbon tied around enough times to keep it from sliding.  Then I slice the trash bag from the opening on both sides, to create one giant drop cloth (by the way this is my new favorite way to create a drop cloth, I will be using this a lot when I have kids).  Now you can see I pre-tied all the balloons to the curtain rod with ribbon.  Hindsight being what it is, I don't know if I would have done this had I known how often that ribbon got in my way while I tried to twist sticky yarn around the balloons; that being said it did make the process go faster, because I didn't have to stop every time to cut and tie ribbon with my hands covered in glue (maybe tie the ribbon to the rod and not the balloon until it is wrapped with yarn) .  The ribbon around the curtain rod was wrapped around twice followed by a slip knot.   

This is where it gets really messy.  My little 2 cups of homemade modgepodge was barely enough to do three balloons.  I learned quickly to make bigger batches.  

Have you ever been working with yarn and suddenly you had a huge knot to dislodge that felt like it took forever?  Now imagine adding glue to the equation.  Yeah, those moments were frustrating.  The key I discovered was to diligently wrap the yarn around three fingers, as much as you can.  Cut the yarn, and VERY CAREFULLY dip it into your glue mixture and keep it in the loop that you began with.  It is not impossible if you get a knot, I untangled every sticky nightmare, but GRRRRRR!  

Then wrap your balloon leaving a 1 to 2 inch diameter circle open, around the balloon's knot.  Once you hang the finished product leave to dry for at least 24 hours.  Make sure the drop cloth is spread out beneath, they will continue to drip for quite a while.  

**I didn't do this for mine, but I discovered a hint after the fact, to go back over all the yarn again using a paint brush to add an extra coat of glue.  Mine could have used a bit more for stiffness.**

Now this step is IMPORTANT...after 24 hours of drying, as carefully as you can, use your fingers and thumb to push the balloon (still inflated) inwards away from the yarn ball.  The yarn will have dried to the balloon, and if you just pop the balloon the yarn will deflate and twist with the balloon, destroying the perfect shape you had.  

When you are sure that you have adequately done the previous step, because one spot missed can be a killer,  use a pin (from your pin cushion) and slowly make a hole in the balloon, I kind of roll it slowly in a circle, once inserted, making it a slightly larger hole; if you do it right the balloon will slowly deflate through the semi-controlled hole that you made.  This will help you to find problems before they become disasters. 

When you are done gently add the plastic spiders (spider rings).

  

Another thing to know, these are SUPER FRAGILE.  I placed them all in a box with the top open, and I lost three in transit to the party location, due to complete structural failure and crushing.  I did eventually find success with putting each one in their own separate plastic grocery bag, but I will still not be shocked if they don't make it to next Halloween.

I also did most of the cooking for the party.  I made guacamole and laid it out on a platter to look as though a pumpkin (which I carved earlier that day) was puking the guac. onto the platter.  We had mummy dogs, and bone sticks with blood sauce (marinara), and a mummified calzone (made two, one pepperoni and one cheese).  

I froze (the night before) orange juice with grenadine and a bit of red food coloring in an inside out and brand new rubber kitchen glove.  Then I made a drink I found online called Sewer Water, find this recipe it is delicious!  I served the Sewer Water in a plastic Cauldron and removed the frozen hand (though most of the fingers fell off) and floated all of the pieces in the water.  It looked repulsive, but just telling you about it makes me want some.  I do not drink often, but I imbibed A LOT of that stuff.  We  soaked an entire jar of cherries in Everclear (not sure if that is right, like I said I'm not a big drinker), the night before, amazing! We also hollowed out a bunch of oranges and and filled the halved peels with jello shots.  It was a great party!