Since I finished my "have to" projects last week I've been keeping myself busy, well, watching 1970's sitcoms and doing crafts. I like Three's Company because it kind of reminds my of my life... imagine if Jack and married Chrissy and Janet had a baby - that's pretty much how I see us... the uptight and neurotic, yet loveable brunette; the crazy and ditzy blonde; the goofy and hilarious dude. Either that or I think of us as the I Love Lucy show, if Ethel and Fred got a divorce and Ethel moved in with Lucy and Ricky. Hmmm... There must be something wrong with me that I interpret my life through the lens of television sitcoms.
Regardless- all that t.v. watching and crafting came in pretty handy this week. Luis's bank branch was due for their annual summer party. Usually, the entire area gets together at a park in Orem (about 300-500 Wells Fargo employees from the Provo/Orem area). They have a huge catered bbq, a prize raffle, and then they take everyone out to the movies. Last year, Luis won a laptop in the raffle. It was sweet.
The thing is, this year the area president for Wells retired and the new dude is way uptight. Furthermore, with all these bank bailouts the heat is really on all sorts of financial establishments whether they received gov't money or not. Wells was not involved in the bailout much. They are one of the top 5 safest banks in the world (the only American bank to make the list, btw, which contains the top Brittish and Swiss banks and some bank in the Middle East or something like that). This is because they are very cautious with their image and spending habits, though, so they sent out orders that there are to be no large public gatherings. So no big summer party.
Instead, they gave all the branch managers $15 a person with which to throw a party and instructions that the money was to be spent primarily on food and disposable supplies- no rented venues or gifts. Hmmm... This is where the t.v. and crafts come in to play.
I got the news on Monday that we were to have the party at our house this weekend. I had about $30 for decorations- the rest was to be spent on plates, napkins, utensils and food. The employees voted and selected to have a traditional Mexican Carne Asada. A good choice, if I say so myself. If you've never been to a Carne Asada, I highly recommend it. Come over to our house on a Sunday afternoon in the summer and we'll be happy to hook you up.
As for me, I got creative, dug through my party supplies (which are rapidly multiplying in number) and this is what I came up with-
Not bad, if I say so myself. The pom-poms were made from tissue paper left over from the Dia de Los Muertos supplies I had laying around. They were fun and easy to make and look like scoops of ice cream hanging from my ceiling. The vases are just regular glassware I have laying around the house. I covered them with matching tissue paper, and filled them either with flowers from my garden or the electric candles I got on sale at Walmart last year (8 for $5! I should have purchased 3 boxes instead of just one... d'oh!). The white table cloths were discarded by the Relief Society 5 years ago because they were very badly stained. They said I could keep them, because they were too ugly to donate to D.I. I worked some stain-removal magic - now they are as good as new. I made the table runner with fabric scraps I had laying around. I used some of the $30 budget to buy a few coordinating prints to fill it out. The leaf-pattern place mats were on sale $1.5o each so I got a few. The paper lanterns on the twinkle lights were purchased with the rest of the budget.
Anyway, it's been a fun project. I think that it turned out beautiful and gave the party great atmosphere. Luis hooked up his computer to the surround sound system and serenaded us with tropical tunes. The food was awesome, too. Ana made a 4 layer chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse, and we had a Cheesecake Factory cake with homemade berry topping.
Food, fun, friends....
Don't you wish you lived closer to me and could come to parties at my house? Thanks Wells Fargo for footing the bill on this one!
1 comment:
Too cute!
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