Wonderful Team Member Readership Award & My Mom and Dad’s 30th Anniversary

I have two really wonderful people to thank for nominating me for the Wonderful Team Membership Award, both Pretty Little Things in a Box (on June 14th) and knitxpressions (on June 17th) have gifted me with the honor of knowing that somehow or another I have been a wonderful team member! I love the idea of this award, that bloggers can thank all the people who have helped them – mainly because so many of you have helped me. I feel as though I am flattering myself here a little though, both of these outstanding bloggers don’t need my help, but I am thrilled to read their posts and offer my humble insights. To you both, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Wonderful Team Member Readership Award (I REALLY want to create a New Award for this, much like blogger Movies, Silently did!)

Now onto the nitty-gritty.

To accept this award, I have to follow some rules:

1.The Nominee of the Wonderful Team member Readership Award shall display the logo on his/her blog. (check!)
2.The Nominee shall nominate 14 readers they appreciate over a period of 7 days, all at once or little by little. (check!)
3.The Nominee shall name his/her Wonderful Team Member Readership Award nominees on a post or on posts during 7 days. (On My Way!!)

I want to say an extra thank you to all of you I am passing the award to. You have supported me with both your advice, your motivation and your exceptional kindness. I have found a family here and you have made the world a little richer every day!

A World Created  ♥ knitrun4sanity ♥ Creatively Carolyn  ♥ lollyknits  ♥ yarnycakes  ♥ DaniellaJoe’s Blog  ♥ knittingsarah  ♥ Skyscrapers and String  ♥ A Tangled Yarn Knitting Adventure ♥ Lottieknits ♥ B.G. Bowers ♥ Cross(stitch) Your Heart  ♥ Intricate Knits ♥

So here are my 14 wonderful, insightful, helpful lovely nominees. There are so many other bloggers I want to give this award to as well, your insights have been just utterly priceless. To the nominee’s – CONGRATULATIONS!

** Planning a Big Old Party **

Mom and Dad Christmas Morning. 2011.

These are my parents, and in the literally thousands of photos I have on my computer – this is the only one I have of them together. Seriously, I just spent a good 45 minutes attempting to unearth a single shot of my parents in the same frame. I could suppose that this says something (very loudly) about my Mom and Dad, but I am choosing not to go there.

Planning this party is….interesting. With T out of work and every penny we have accounted for, planning the type of party that I would like to give my parents is proving to be quite difficult. Hours spent logging serious library time looking for affordable recipes to feed all the people they want to invite, going to big box stores to find the cheapest paper on which to print invitations and trying to be as creative as possible to make their day special.

The invitations have turned out quite well, another perk of having Photoshop on my computer I suppose. I am going to mail out the invitations and include a 4″ by 6″ blank index card for everyone invited to write a little note. The plan being that I will present them with this in an album the day of the party. I would love to ask people for pictures but I am not about to press my luck.

Then there are the centerpieces. My Mom suffers from COPD, which basically means that real flowers are absolutely out of the question; her suffering from a crippling asthma attack would spoil the entire party for her. So, what is a knitter to do? Well…knit!

Assembly Line.

Loads of Flower Stems.

First Attempt at Construction.

 

First Trail Vase…Needs Work.

The plan is to make these the centerpieces, all acrylic yarn and no asthma attacks! I figure 6-8  flowers per ice tea glass (its plastic but we’re broke, so I will forgive us). I am also going to do a very delicate i-cord in blue (for water) and spring green (for grass) to place in the bottom of the vase. I may do a type of bow around the middle, but simplicity is my goal and I don’t want to verge on tacky. Bonus: this is a GREAT way to stash-bust!

I am also making a scrapbook of their married life, all 30 years. I am a bit concerned about this because I have never scrapbook-ed in my life! My Mom dearly loves scrapbooks but I was just never able to get into it, I like the photos neatly labeled and able to stand on their own. Maybe it’s OCD, maybe I just don’t like putting glitter and stickers on my photos – but for my parents I will suck it up. I just hope that I don’t make it too boring, I think I might have to buy some glitter….

Whew…long post today friends and neighbors! I hope you were able to hang in there till the end because I have a very important question to put out there. Do you have anymore ideas on how to make an amazing party for my parents on a budget? ALL SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!!