We're Off to See The...Quilt!

 A couple of weeks ago, one of my mother's best friends (and a friend of mine as well!), was down-sizing from her family home to a smaller apartment. She was having a big sale and getting rid of years worth of wonderful collections. My mom, being the savvy bargain hunter that she is, headed over to her friends house to check things out. Yes, my mom did buy several things (for me and herself!!). But it was this gift that absolutely made my day. Or week. Or month! 

 Our friend held this hand-stitched quilt out of the sale, and instead gifted it to me for becoming a grandmother. Wait till you see how sweet this baby quilt actually is! 

 Our friend cross-stitched the entire quilt herself. That makes it even more special in my book, because every time I think of it, I will think of sweet MFH. It is in absolutely perfect, mint condition (as was everything from her house.) 

 What makes it even more special is that the quilt is all about the Wizard of Oz. When my children were 1 to 8 years old,  I made Wizard of Oz costumes for the group. I stayed up the entire night before Halloween trying to get all five costumes done.  At the time I had never seen a "group" go in a themed costume set. I think it is more common now. That night, my little gang of five turned many heads. Luke (the 1 year old) was the scarecrow. Coulter (the 2 year old) was the lion. Taylor (the 5 year old was Dorothy (and carried Toto)). Annie, (then 7) was Glenda the Good Witch and Fielding (8 years old) was the  Tin Man. We lived in Oklahoma at the time and had no thoughts of moving. 

 Later on that year we did in fact make a move to Kansas (home of the Wizard of Oz, of course!). It was like it was fate. I had dressed my crew up as the Oz characters and then we moved 350 miles away to the Land of Oz, where we would live for the next 17 years. Every time we made the trek back to Oklahoma, we went through Sedan, Kansas, that has a huge memorial to the movie/book, replete with yellow brick roads and characters on Main Street. 

 So when my mom told me that MFH had given me a hand-made baby quilt I was very excited. When I saw it and realized it was the Wizard of Oz, I was just ecstatic...and touched. The small details in the quilt are just wonderful. The lion has a 3-D tail. Dorothy has 3-D braids. There is a yellow brick road throughout the quilt and yellow X's all around the edge. 

We have a bedroom at our house that will be "Leightyn's Room" (and all future granddaughters!). I have the cutest four poster twin beds for the room. I had not begun to decorate it yet, as I was waiting on Leightyn to get big enough to enjoy the room. I had not really thought about what I would put in to the room besides the cute beds. 

 Then I received this quilt and I knew instantly the colors of Leightyn's room at our house. This quilt will take center stage and the muted primaries will be my colors-of-choice. 

 How cute is the cowardly lion?

 And the scarecrow and tin man. Be still my heart. (Like that pun?)

 Even the mean-ole witch is not too mean looking. (Thank goodness!!) 

 The outside edge is finished with a double edge of ric-rac. Just as cute as can be. Can you see why I want to use the colors from the quilt for the room? 

 It will not be a Wizard of Oz room, but will just showcase the quilt which sets the color tones. 

The quilt is so exquisite, that I do not want to take away from it by bringing in any more Oz things..... Unless it was of course one certain picture.......

Of my own little Oz bunch!

Linking to:

Metamorphosis Monday

Thrifty Treasures

Wow Us Wednesday

The Domes Have a New Home

 My mother, who is probably best known for NOT ever having gone to a yard sale, bought me the three glass-covered tiers at a yard sale. 

 To be quite honest, the yard sale was that of one of her best friends that has decided to down-size and move into a smaller home. She is selling many of her beautiful collections. My mother "helped" her get rid of many things by buying them. I think originally, most of the pieces my mother purchased were supposed to be for me. But now she has decided to use some of them "for a few years" then give them to me. HA!!  My mother needs more "stuff" as much as I do. But, I was glad she did pass several pieces from the sale on to me! 

 I left the price tag on just to show you. It is long-gone now. My mother paid just $2 for each of the domed tiers. What a great deal!

 As you can see, there are three different tiers, each at different heights. I think they will work beautifully at our two weddings next year on the brunch table (for Annie) and the reception table (for Luke). 

 My mom gave them to me the first of July and I added some red, white and blue dishes to each of them. I snapped a few pictures THEN I went back and cleaned them and took the price tags off! Nothing like working backwards!

 I don't know that I will always keep them out, but for now they are mingling with other pieces of glassware and china on a dresser in the dining room. 

 This past weekend, we had a very special party where we celebrated our daughter Taylor graduating from radiology school. (I'll post the entire party decor (of skeletons!!) later this week.) I used the trio of tiers to put out several glittery skulls we used for the party. (The large piece in the background is really a drink container with a spigot. I just used it for that party to hold one of the skeletons!) 

As you can see though, the tiers really are cleaned up,

with price tags off too!

This is how they look today. The red is gone. The skulls are gone. They each just sport different blue and white china pieces. They will probably stay this way for..............at least a week!! 

hahaha

Besides weddings, I have thought of several more ways to use the stands, the domes, and the pieces together. There are endless possibilities. They've come to a good home!

Linking this to:

Metamorphosis Monday

Thrifty Treasures

Proms and Viral Videos!!!

Yes. I am worn out. But Prom (Star Struck) 2012 is in the books ladies.  Now it is just a VERY good memory.

We began decorating at about noon thirty on Friday. For the first time, our prom was not being held at the school. In years past, the prom was always held at school and because of that, school was let out on Friday, so students and sponsors could get in and decorate. 

This time we DID have school on Friday and the prom was held in a building downtown. It was my first time to be a prom sponsor at this school. I dreaded it with a dread like no other. 

Which is really odd if you know me well, because I LOVE to plan and throw parties. In this case though, we do two years worth of concession stands to raise the money for prom, then we do prom. When I saw "we" that includes four sponsors (per grade level) total. The work is supposed to be doled out equally between parties. HA!!!!

I was the only female on the committee. Guess who got to order, organize, decide what to sell and make sure all the food was ready for every concession stand? Guess who got to do 
99 % of the prom?  If you guessed me, then you probably hear a bell going "dingdingdingding"! 

Let's face it: Men don't care about proms. Throw up a few strands of crepe paper and call it even!!!  I knew if I wanted it to be special for my students then I was going to have to do it. And I DID want it special. So I did it. The dread came because at times, it was a little overwhelming. But it all turned out, and turned out great!

I was determined from the beginning that the prom would be a WOW factor.  I wanted the students to walk in and literally say, "WOW!!!!"

We started on Friday at lunch and by Friday night at midnight our blank room was at least an "Ahhhhh" factor.

I knew that with more work, it would become the 

WOW factor I wanted.

There were one or two "minor" (hahahahaha) glitches that day. First, all that day and the day before the National Weather Service was sending out a very dark warning that we were under a "life-threatening storm prediction." In the history of weather forecasting, they had only issued such dire warnings once before.

We live with tornadoes in Oklahoma. It is just a reality of our state. But the gloom and doom that was being painted by the weathermen was quite foreboding.

And rightly so......As it turned out there were several schools in our area that did postpone their prom(s), just on the weather warning. And sadly, a high school having prom less than 100 miles from us did have to get all their students to safe areas as a tornado struck their town. No one was killed at the high school in that town, but 6 people in the town did die.

So it was with a great measure of caution that I did decorate for prom....with an escape plan for my students planned out.

The second problem was that I had ordered all my prom decor from three different companies. Two of the companies had sent my stuff on a super-quick turn-around. The third company, Stumps, had the worst service. EVER. Not only that, but I had bought the majority of my things from them.

They had given me a guaranteed delivery date and they did not keep their word. Not only that, but by late Friday afternoon they were giving me a big-time run-around.

I finally called the trucking company they had put my HUGE order on. (It took Stumps an hour to tell me they did not send it UPS!)

The trucking company had a sub-company helping them out, so then I had to track down that company.

When I finally got hold of that company, they had no idea my order needed to be delivered by Friday and were not planning on delivering it till Monday. (AFTER the prom!!)

When I explained to them the importance of my packages, they said I could come and get them. The problem was that the packages were in OKC, which was an hour from where I was. There were also thunderstorms coming in from every direction.

I was torn as to what to do. I could have quit and had just an "ahhh" prom (which I would say equals just a typical dance),

or I could track down a brave soul that had a pickup to go and  save my order.

I knew just the student!!

He drove into OKC, through the rain and saved the prom.

(Or at least saved it from an "ahhh" factor!)

His retrieval of my long-lost packages took our prom from 'ahh' to 'WOW'. 

So we ended up staying up decorating till almost one in the morning. Then Saturday morning we came back and worked till three that afternoon.

I can't even explain to you how tired my poor (old) feet were!

But on Saturday when the students were walking in and "WOWing" everything, I was one happy camper.

We had fun glasses to give away. We had glow sticks to wear (however creatively you so chose!)

We had tons of food. 

We had a photobooth for all those fun, goofy pics with friends.

We had balloons and stars out the whazoo!

The students were truly "Star Struck".

The students were on their best behavior.

They looked beautiful and handsome and 

some of the dresses made me wish I was

young and skinny!

The capstone of the night might have happened right smack dab in the middle at 10 o'clock.

If the weather held out and there were no 

thunderstorms or tornadoes,

we had worked out a deal with the local police to shut

down the block in front of the building we were in 

right at 10.

At that time, the students were to go out 

to the Main Street of

Small Town Oklahoma USA

and perform their 

choreographed version of 

FOOTLOOSE

which is incidentally, based on an Oklahoma town!

Well the weather did hold out.

We were under a tornado watch, 

and it was unbelievably windy,

but we were determined.

If you have come this far in this post, then you 

MUST watch the Youtube video.

This is in the middle of our prom. Only outside. On Main Street. 

And Footloose!

I GUARANTEE it will bring a smile to your face.
Turn up your volume!

And that my friends, was the recap of the WOW factor prom.

What a great, great, fun night!

Linking with :

Between Naps On A Porch
Wow Us Wednesday's