Generations Of Treasures

I Am Not The Hostess With The Mostess
I'm more like the hostess without two pennies to rub together! I know I haven't blogged in a long time. I have been busy with my girls and working on my niece's bridal shower and wedding. We wanted the shower to be a surprise so, as much as I wanted to post what we've been up to, I had to wait.

Our beautiful bride

My niece is also my Goddaughter and has always been a daughter in my eyes. She lost her mother when she was 7 and was raised by my mother who passed away 3 years ago. Almost her entire life I have lived less than a mile from her. She has been a joy and a blessing in my life. You may remember in an earlier post that I was taking a sabbatical from parties after throwing 15 last year. Dummy me, I volunteered to HELP the Maid of Honor with the shower (my 3 girls were bridesmaids) and I ended up throwing the shower. 

All my beautiful girls

The theme was vintage kitchen. Early on we decided to make a recipe scrapbook as a way to incorporate my niece's mother, grandmother, great grandmother, aunts and other important women in our lives who are no longer with us. The second half of the book is filled with the women who were at the shower, the women who are there to love and support her now. My oldest daughter and I put the book together and we sent out pages and embellishments with the invitations asking the guests to scrapbook a handwritten recipe and photo to include in her book. 

Our Scrapbook

One of her mom's pages

One of her grandmother's pages

One of Great Grandma's pages

Her sister's page

My page

Kristin absolutely loved it. I felt awful when she started to cry, but everyone assured me they were good tears.

The photo booth backdrop for the shower was made using the same paper (on sale at Michael's 6@$1.00). It was a huge hit. I made it from two sheets of 8 x 4, 1/4" ply. I had Home Depot cut a foot off the top of both pieces and one in half. The finished backdrop was 7' x 8'. The ply wanted to warp when standing so we glued 5 1x2 strips to the back. One in the center and the other 4 on the inside edges so we has something to screw the hinges into. It worked like a charm. The scrapbooking paper is 12" x 12" so no cutting was involved. The hardest part was laying out a pattern. It took a couple of extra trips to Michael's for additional page styles that weren't in the scrapbook (while the paper was still on sale) to give the backdrop the right overall look. We put the paper on using white glue and a foam brush. We thought about spray adhesive (which is a favorite of mine) or Modge Podge but because of the size it was too costly. We had to do a little smoothing to work out bubbles and creases, but the end result was fantastic!

My niece Lauren putting the paper on. 

I made a silverware chandelier for the booth to tie in with the kitchen theme. All the silverware I used was $3.00 on half price day at Goodwill. I tore apart two old lampshades I had laying around, (one small, and the smaller part of a large shade) to get the hoops to hang the silverware on. I thought I was doing great! A silverware chandelier for $3.00! Then I started drilling. I have a fantastic variable speed Dremel that takes drill bits and I bought bits made for drilling stainless steel. The spoons were a piece of cake. One drill bit did all 8, but I switched to a new one for the forks. Then my trouble began! I think I went through 4 bits on the forks. I did one knife and called it quits. Luckily my husband stepped in with the big drill, lots of muscle and several more bits and finished my knives! I strung the silverware and attached the hoops together with fishing line, then added some crystals from my collection. I think it turned out cute and it makes a great wind chime! 

We won't talk about how much I spent on drill bits. The lesson I learned, spend more money on the silverware and buy vintage pieces that are much easier to work with and prettier to look at!
The antique camelback trunks I had on my blog over the summer are off the market. My husband commandeered the huge one for his office. It now holds his watercolor board, mat board, poster board, and other art supplies.

The smaller trunk paired with a rickety antique coffee table I fixed, is a perfect place to hold and display props for the photo booth. Part of the lid compartment was missing and it was ideal for sticking containers full of sunglasses, lips and mustaches, blurbs and other small props in. The bottom of the trunk held hats, frying pans, rolling pins, frames and other large props. We also put a large mirror on the patio so everyone could see how silly or glamorous they looked before they had their picture taken. By the way, the photo booth including props, is available in the Metro Phoenix area for rent! I'll have more handmade party goodies to show you tomorrow.