Two Days of Birthday Fun with Friends and Family!

Yep that's right, when you turn 57 there are not enough hours in one day to cram in all the fun and celebration!!  It all started the day before, when I was only 56 and I joined with excellent friends

Michelle and Wendy.  Actually it was a shared celebration, as Wendy who is infinitely older than me (having lived on earth for a month longer) was finally able to squeeze her own birthday/friend celebration in for this year!! I know its crazy but the only way this trio can celebrate is on Fridays, or should I say on Estate Sale day?!  Here we see Vanna-Wendy showing off her packing skills, as she managed to tuck in half a dozen side chairs!! (Mid 1800's and French too!!) We had a great lunch at 5 guys!! And exchanged gifts! Thanks Girls.

Later that day My sweet husband took me to dinner at Crown Burger (yes, a two burger day ...) and then to our Favorite Bed and Breakfast, http://www.armstrongmansion.com/.  He choose a couple of movies from their DVD library, and one 'haunted' movie turned out to have been filmed there at the Armstrong, how fun is that?

The other crammed car picture is of our garaging through the Avenues Saturday morning, where Scott was able to fit a full size 1930's book case into his back seat.  I had called my daughter Darby(4) for help, but he was sure he could do it. As my mother used to say about him, Man what a man!!

 After a morning of garaging we were off to one of our favorite events of the year, and one which we often meld into my birthday celebration, the http://www.utahheritagefoundation.com/ sponsored Historic Home tour.  This year the homes were all built from 1910 through the 1920's and were for the most part heavily Craftsman style.  I am not a fan of the bungalow in general, but some of these houses leaned toward the Prairie style, and were stunning.  And I do LOVE Arts and Crafts decor, like this amazing, and original, tile work bathroom.  Above the tub to the left is a mosaic of black swans, I thought this bath was seriously delightful.

In this picture we see Scott and myself in one of the

 fabulous back yard gardens to be seen accompanying the wonderful homes on the tour.  One garden was filled with tulips as the owner hosts a tulip festival every spring. 

Many of the homes showcased original stone fireplaces, built in book cases and benchs as well as stained glass interior doors. There were also stunning collections of Arts and Crafts furniture, pottery, stained glass  and paintings.  The houses were amazing and one of them even looked like people lived there, which did not detract, I promise!!

In this picture we see the line at one of the homes.  This one was a bit unusual as it was one of the latest homes and is, as you see, a Tudor style home.  The guides at the homes are all volunteers, who have been given a script sheet and are seldom very knowledgeable about antiques or period styles, but they are all sweet, and enthusiastic. 

After the home tour and a little more garage saling and a trip to my fav store Di's Place (as my friend Marci terms it), we headed back down town for a birthday lunch at Cafe Rio planned by my darling daughter Darby (4).  Being a busy Saturday

not everyone was able to make it, but I greatly appreciated the sacrifice of those who did.  Above you can see me with my daughter Emily (8)and my granddaughter Eva, whose parents, Trevor (5) and Nell are shown to the left.

It was also a wonderful surprise to see my sister Joyce.  Darby(4) had called and left a message, and I just guess my lucky stars aligned and Joyce was able to come.  In the next picture we see her getting acquainted with her grand niece Eleanor.  When El was born both Trevor(5) and I both thought she looked a bit like her Aunt Joyce, so how fun is this!!

 Below We see the founder of the feast, Darby (4) with all three of Trevor and Nell's cute children.  Thanks Darby!

 After lunch and a trip to another Di's Place, we had a couple of hours to kill before meeting our good friends for dinner, also in Salt Lake, so we went to the dollar movies and saw 'The Adjustment Bureau'.  Probably not one I would have normally seen, but it had some interesting perspectives about just who is in charge of this world, and how they 'help' us in our lives .... pretty thought provoking. (provoking being the operative word here :-))

Next we met our friends of twenty years, the Heuers and Moes.  In this picture we see Scott, one of the actors for the dinner theater we were attending and adorable Robin.

The http://www.huntmysteries.com/index.php
provided the entertainment while we enjoyed dinner at Spaghetti Mamas, a first for us.  We had all been introduced to Hunt Mysteries when they provided entertainment at a Celebrity dinner several years ago, but this was our first time to see them in their own 'digs' so to speak.

This is the entire group, except Scott who is unseen behind the camera.  I am first on the left,then Robin, her husband Jeff, Barb with her husband Randy, and Kelsy with her husband Zach and baby Kennady.  It hard to believe that Kelsy was 3 when we three couples started finding fun things to do together back in 1991.

Well, a special thanks to everyone who made my birthday unforgettable.  I love you all!!

Capturing a Fairy and Keeping it as a Magical Friend!!

A Sweet Fairy Friend to Keep and Love!

I made some fun fairy party favors this week.  I loved how they turned out and received lots of oohs and awes.  I thought I would share this fun and funquie craft with all of you! But first I need to give credit where credit is due and tell you a sweet, story.  My friend Jennifer is BIG into fairies and events.  So she has often had fairy parties for her 3 dotters, and they have 'captured fairies' for jars that they have kept.

On Valentines she was doing this craft with friends, and had sheets of the fairies ready to cut out along with the other supplies.  Her four year old daughter saw the sheets of fairies and recognized her own captured fairy among them, and said, in a disappointed voice, "Mom, those fairies are just paper!" Jenn had not realized that her little girl had thought the fairies in the jars were' real'!

Step 1:  Find a fairy graphic that you love ... this one came to me by way Jennifer who buys them by the page from some  altered artist on etsy.  I cut this one out for my own fairy jar at her Valentine's party.

Step 2: Find jars to collect your specimen.  Jennifer likes jars without raised words on them, but I actually like the 'ball mason' type letters on the jars, first because they further distort the 'fairy' making it seem more possible that it is real.  Second mason jars is what I always used as a kid to collect bugs and butterflies. 
Step 3: Find a graphic for the lid of the jar.  I printed off these fairies on card stock.  I found them and other fairies I used later,  at http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/p/search.html
Use the mason jar lid to trace the insert, then cut it out to fit inside the ring (which I spray painted).  Be sure to punch holes in the card stock fairy circle so your little fairy friend can breath.
Step 4: Loosly fill your jar with shredded gift bag filler, leave the top part of the jar empty.  I like the cellophane, iridescent stuff because it seems ethereal to me.
Step 5: Place your fairy into the shredded material, somewhat towards the middle, with some of the material covering the bottom part of her/his body, so that it appears to be emerging.  (The example below was put together by one of my guests and the fairy was put against the front of the jar, which shows off the fairy better, but seems less dimensional to me.)

Step 6: Put together items to help insure the survival of your little captured friend in a 'fairy survival kit'.  I bought wedding bubbles (Thanks Michelle for this suggestion) and made labels (graphicsfairy) that said "Magic Fairy Orb Potion". I also bought tiny craft glitter bottles (Thanks Nell for this suggestion) at the dollar store (5 on a card for a dollar) and labeled them "All Purpose Fairy Dust".  Tiny wax 'sodas' were labeled with a fairy picture.  I used another fairy picture to make fridge magnets, then added Disney Fairy notebooks I got 6 for a dollar in the party favor section of the dollar store, and small treats, a plastic 'jewel' ring, etc.
Step 7: I arranged the goods in a small decorated zip lock bags, and made a header listing items in the "survival kit", mine had silver stars.

 This is a gathering of the 'survival kits' ready to be placed with the completed 'captured' fairies.

These fun favors were really a hit.  I still have the one that I made at Jennifer's Valentines Party, and I smile whenever I look at it. I hope I have made you smile as well!!  :-) I would like to thank all of my friends who brainstormed with me and inspired me and shared their ideas for my fairy favors.  Thanks girls!

Hey Meester Did We Miss Easter?

 Nope, We had Easter, and a rather festive day it was.  What I missed was blogging about it in the midst of everything else that was happening.  Fortunately I took pictures and have a few minutes this morning to play catch up.  

Rui (pronounced Roo-ee), who is our Japanese exchange student, and I had a lot of fun doing the Easter eggs.  I found a method for leaving designs on eggs at a blog I love to frequent in their 'I Did It Wednesdays' section. http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/ One writes or draws on the cool egg with a glue gun, then dyes the egg, removing the glue residue when the eggs is dry.

 Here we see Rui posing with some of the eggs in a new version of an 'egg cup'!

Of course when there's eggs there is bound to be an egg hunt and this year it is possible that we had our worst egg hunt ever. In fact we could dub this year as 'Rui and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Egg Hunt Day'.  It wasn't Rui fault, mind you,  but it will be her only Easter with us, and this is her egg hunt memory with the Perkins.  First of all we had exactly 'One' grandchild of ten to participate and she is our oldest at age 12.  Our 9 year old grandson is not as social as his sister and opted to stay home.  Our other grand kids in the area had planned to be here before it got dark but got held up at other festivities.  Thus we had to rush the hunt as it was getting dark, and just at dusk a storm came up, so my 'children' and their spouses (ages 23 to 32) along with Rui (16) and Kim (12) ran through the dark and sleet dutifully collecting eggs that two of them had just 'hidden'.  Ah well, I guess it was a historic hunt anyway, as in one we won't be able to forget, and look how happy those hunters look!! Above we see my son Davin (through his egg bag) with his wife and her 'basket'!

 This of course is our one bonafide 'Grandchild' collector, Kim, who is always, always a good sport!!

                                                                     These egg hunters include my oldest and youngest participating children.  Darby at 32 and Rebecca at 23!

Of course baby play is always a fun part of any gathering as these two cousins get a chance to get better acquainted.  They are the oldest, Elias and youngest, Titan of our three grand babies that were born in six weeks back in the fall of last year. (with Grandpa Scott and Uncle Sam as props!)

Of course Easter dinner is a must with Ham, Funeral Potatoes  http://www.grouprecipes.com/12808/funeral-potatoes.html and the one thing I make that ever gets compliments, my homemade rolls.

And below we see my two cute daughters-in-law in their matching spring greens.

Of course my favorite part of any family get together is the sitting around visiting part, is anyone who knows me actually surprised by that?

And look at the cute Easter outfits that Eleanor and Eva came to charm with.


All in all we had a delightful Easter evening, though we missed our daughter Brittany and her boys for the first time at Easter, as they have recently moved to Idaho and were enjoying their own celebrations there without us. (Though fortunately their other Grandparents were able to drive north to enjoy the 'spring orb' festival in Twin!!)


Rui will definitely have 'memories' of her Easter with us, but next year she is sure to have the BEST Easter ever as she will be living with the Best Family.  Not that we are not the best in many ways, its just that our family name is Perkins, and her new host family's name is the Bests.  Luckeeeee! (and they really are great people!)


Last of all, we will rely on the Easter fairy, seen below with her crown and magic wand, to bring us some better weather and maybe even more grand children to enjoy the festivities with us..    Happy Easter a Month Late!!