Birthday Bash and Thrifty Treasures

I'll start with my thrifty find of the year so far! There are a couple more as you read through this post, but this silver pitcher is the big winner, in my opinion.

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It's a tw0-piece creamer, as far as I can tell. I was looking at that inside pointy jabber thing, and wondering about it, and BF said "I know what that is! It's to open a can of cream!" I was like "Hunh? Whatchoo talkin' about, Willis?" He remembered canned cream from when he was a kid. So I did a little internet research and found that during the Great Depression, people would use condensed milk in their coffee, because fresh cream was hard to come by.

What has me a little baffled, though, is why a company would make a sterling (or plated--I'm just not sure at this point) creamer for a CAN of cream during the depression. This question leads me to believe that the pitcher is indeed plated, but is in unbelieveably great condition. It's mark is WMF, which is German, and I think that if it's plated, it's worth about $65. If it's sterling, maybe twice that. Want to know what I paid?

A dolla'! Holla'! (Hee...my kid is rubbing off on me.)

Now on to my birthday dinner party. I potted up some of the plants that have been waiting patiently for my attention....

See that awesome antique basket? A dolla'! Holla'!

The flat saucer above was just collecting water, so I dug up some moss out of my yard, and planted myself a little zen rock garden. Cute, right? :)

The table, all set and ready for guests to arrive...

...see the candle from my friend Elizabeth over at A Breath of French Air on Etsy?
It smells so GOOD!

My new (old) wicker rocker. $50. Sorry, not such a bargain, but I spent two hours out there yesterday reading and enjoying a fire...

What do you think of my little pine trees? I felt very Martha-ish as I wrapped the grapevines around the bases to cover the pots. Kathleen thinks I'm a little bit crazy, and BF said "Aren't trees supposed to be planted in the ground?" I'm so misunderstood. ;P

....a gratuitous pic of my new car....I'm loving it!

.....and my birthday present from BF. I love this thing! It's so ME! And it echos the domed shape of my tent!

Thrifty find alert! The table below fold up flat! $15!

I'm thinking maybe some Formby's refinisher might be just what the doctor ordered for this table.

I know, you wanted to see that tree a little bit closer, didn't you? .....so you could copy my grapevine idea, right? I knew it!

The par-tay table!

...oh, and below are all the awesome bargain pots I got at Campo de Fiori a few weekends ago. Cheap! Tent sale! Do you see my upside-down-cloche fountain? Too cool for school! It sounds and feels like a little grotto out there now.

Thrifty find alert number three! Old church pew! FREE!! I know, right?!

I'm thinking I may paint it a bright-ish color--maybe a yellow-green. We'll see.

I'm hiding...no wait, my sister and I are taking pictures!
There were eight of us for dinner. So nice!

The cosmos were so pretty!

My friend Jennifer brought me the most gorgeous bouquet of peonies from her garden.

My toolbox pansies! They're really taking off. Toolbox: $1

My wave petunias are lookin' good too!

Jennifer bought me my very own pink dogwood tree for my birthday.
Does it get any better than that? Seriously.

This is a shot of the garage doors that I painted last week. They used to have all black squares that were totally beat looking. Now it's not such an eyesore. I'll get to the rest of the garage at some point this year.

Everyone brought me plants! I'm so excited! Below, ligularia, some big garlic thing, some euonymous...

Sedum, autumn joy:

Dahlias! I've never grown those before!

This beautiful bouquet of peonies and roses was from my friend Kelly. *sigh* I ADORE peonies.

Kathleen's End of School Party

Here she is with her best friend Shannon. They were taking pictures and setting up last minute stuff before kids started arriving.

There's the "big top" as my sister likes to call it. We had all of the food in there, and figured it would also double as shelter if it rained, which thank GOD it didn't!

I borrowed some more Adirondack chairs from my sister for the event as well, so the kids could sit. We also laid out a few quilts on the grass.

Kathleen picked out her green and blue theme. The cups matched too! I have no gardens as of yet, so I took a drive and cut some wildflowers for a couple of bouquets.

The volleyball net was a big hit. They played with that thing for about 2 hrs, and spent the other two doing karaoke and kickball. I wish I had gotten pics of the kickball game.
It was pretty rowdy!

Here's a few of them at the karaoka machine. They had a blast with that.

I think the top count was 23 kids at one point. I'm glad I got this shot before everyone got picked up. I have a couple of tame pics too, then told them to have fun with this one. I love it when everyone gets goofy and/or glamorous....cracks me up.
They all had a great time. I wish I could have gotten a good shot of them all running around with their glowing necklaces in the dark. It was wild. Kathleen said "Thanks, Momma, you're the best Momma ever" after all of her friends had left. Then: "Can we just clean it up tomorrow? I'm so TIRED."
So I let her go to bed. :)

Best Friends Ever

I had a little dinner party last night in honor of my birthday. There were six adults, three kids, and we had a lovely time. The bouquet of dahlias above is from my friend Pat. I can't even tell you how gorgeous that thing looks in real life! SO pretty!

The bouquet of peonies is from my friend Kelly...they smell SO divine! I used that potting bench as a buffet of sorts. It's where the wine and glasses went, and the metal bucket with soda and beer.

I titled this post Best Friends Ever because my friends know JUST what I need for my birthday! My friend Jennifer and her husband came over the other night with three pick-up truck loads full of topsoil for me. It has rocks and worms and everything in it! There are absolutely NO gardens here yet, so that is my jumping off point. I'm so excited to have dirt! And her mother Pat is going to bring me compost this week too! How much better does it get? Not much!!

All of these sedums and the bunny came from my friend Kelly. She bought the pots over in Massachusetts. I can't remember the name of the place, though. I'm in love with this little vignette. It looks perfect on the little painted green table to the right of my rear entrance steps.

Kathleen set the table for me. I love my umbrella so much...b-day present from BF last year...that and the hammock. BF is in Denver this week, so no prezzies yet from him! (I'm all about the presents...lol.)

I put the Adirondack chairs under the tree, and put a small table out there in the side yard. We ended up spending the whole time at the dining table out back, but the kids played out there...making mini-movies of each other, and playing frisbee...roasting marshmallows, etc. They had fun, and we hardly saw them! Yay!

Next weekend is Kathleen's big party. She has invited 29 kids over for four hours of fun. I can't wait. (Insert scared sarcastic face here.) She seems to have things all figured out, so I'm not too worried. We just need to do the big shopping trip next week, and see if we can dig up a nice big tent somewhere. You have to have a tent for it to look festive, right?! Wish me luck.