The Best Dressed Trees!

The sophmore draping class at Virginia Commonwealth University dresses many of the trees at work every spring.  They are usually up for the Easter celebrations and enjoyed by thousands of people.  This year I loved the red that was added to the different tree skirts.

A Jumper Tree Skirt!

Cute Details

Love the Ruffles

Lots of Red!

Wonderful Full Skirt

It's hard to see in this picture but there is a ton of detailed work on this one.

The bows are sweet.

See the cute ruffles at the bottom?

I wish I could have posted all the tree skirts!  There are some very talented people in this class.

Craftaturday

Krista, Woody and I have started crafting together. Our crafting get togethers are called "Craftaturday" and we had our first one recently. They came to Richmond for the purpose of visiting Hobby Lobby. That was our first Craftaturday activity. After all the time spent at Hobby Lobby there was not much time for the actual crafting part.

Once we really get the ball rolling Craftaturday will have its own blog!

Easter for 10,000+...A Glimpse Behind the Scenes

I have been working 12 or more hours a day for over a week now. We are preparing for the annual Easter event this Saturday. The weather is supposed to be sunny and in the mid 60's. I anticipate that more than 10,000 people will show up. My all time record for this event is 18,000 people...there were lines everywhere for everything!

Here is a quick look at what I've been doing!

500 bunny faces ready to be colored by little fingers.

21,000 (yes, thousand) eggs ready for six egg hunts!

Egg hunt eggs and prizes bagged, boxed and labeled for each hunt.

Bonnet making supplies cut and packaged into "packs" so guests don't have to wait to make their bonnet!

Painting two new game boards

This is only a small glimpse at what I've been doing. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the day will be wonderful for the guests that attend!

Molly's Princess Party

I had the honor of helping my Godsister, Krista, with her daughter Molly's 5th birthday party. Molly's wishes were pretty simple - girly princess with a pink and purple color scheme.

The invitation design was one that I adapted from an invitation I did for my niece almost 10 years ago. The great thing about doing it again now is HOBBY LOBBY. That place is amazing and I found so many fun things to use to make the invitations.

I started with a piece of stiff felt, added some tulle with sparkles on it, embellished it with trim and jewels and topped it off with a glitter covered flower at the waistband.

The party information was on the back.

The birthday girl loved her invitation and told me I needed to make lots more - she wanted to make sure everyone had one.

As a surprise I decided to make tiara cookies. My friend Jessica gave me a great recipe for a cut out friendly cookie dough and my husband was awesome to help me. Neither of us had ever done these types of cookies before so we just started and figured it out as we went. He rolled out, cut and baked all the cookies.

What a guy!

After the cookies were baked I outlined them in hot pink and Michael filled in with white icing. I then added the pink pearl decorations, one by one, with tweezers!

The finished product!

After the icing dried, we bagged and tagged them and they were ready to go!

At the party I placed them all on a tray which the birthday girl used to share her cookies with her guests at the end of the party.

I also dipped pretzel rods in white chocolate and rolled them in pink and purple sprinkles for the Princess Wands and blue sprinkles for the Magic Wands.

I printed out these labels for the baby water bottles that Krista had already purchased. I think Molly liked seeing her face on all the water bottles!

For decorations I made tissue paper puffs and we had lots and lots of balloons. Yes, that's my husband manning the helium tank in the background of the balloon picture. He is the best helper!

And here is the birthday girl blowing out her candles!
Thanks for letting me a part of your birthday celebration, Molly! I love you so much!

My Favorite Guys

Even though the circumstances were not perfect, I was able to have lunch with three of my favorite men in the whole world yesterday. My mom and cousin Debbie joined us as well. Family really is the best!

Left to Right: Husband-Michael, Father-Ron, Brother-Chris

Flowers Flowers Everywhere

Okay, even I can appreciate the beauty of flowers...for a day or so or until my car is covered in yellow pollen. When spring rolls around I often get asked how the grounds at work are looking. So, I snapped a few pictures of a spring day in Richmond. I Hope you enjoy!

This patch of flowers is outside of the entrance.
The Stone Barn and it's lovely tree.

The Italian Garden in all it's tulip glory!
The Italian Garden
The Italian Garden - This is the favorite wedding spot,,,you can just imagine a bride walking towards you!

A close-up of a fully opened tulip.

Weddings occur under the dome at the top of the picture.

The Italian Garden overlooks the Japanese Garden which is down at the river level.
A path up from the Italian Garden. Everything is so green!
Looking out into the Italian Garden. I love the columns!
Looking back towards the Italian Garden from the path. That arch is one of my favorite picture spots. That is the end brides start at as they walk towards the dome.

Love the color of this flower!
Simple white flower over flowing onto the original walkway,

More flowering trees off in the distance as seen through the porte-cochere of the Mansion.

A Walk into Work

Today is the first day of spring. I was greeted by flowering trees seen through a dense fog as I walked to my office this morning.

Happy spring!