Scenes from an Italian restaurant...western style

Every once in a while, you have to step out of the box in your dinner party decorating.  Last summer, I did a 'Spaghetti Western' themed wine dinner.  I wanted something relatively easy to dress for, being that summer in Texas means 197 degree temperatures.  A western theme allowed guests to wear anything they wanted, as long as it went with the theme...somewhat.

I made centerpieces out of old liquor bottles and made 'old-timey' labels for them and filled them with wheat stalks. 

I used bandanas from the craft store, and folded red napkins to resemble hankerchiefs.  Some handmade Sheriff's badges, tin can candles and mustaches-on-a-stick for everyone rounded out the decor. 

Yee-haw!

It's 5 o'clock somewhere...

To celebrate the upcoming Jimmy Buffett concert, I present the Margaritaville-themed wine dinner we had last summer.  I made centerpieces out of various glasses, fake flowers and lots of glitter.  Oh, the glitter.  I still can't get the glitter out of places in the kitchen. 

Side note:  don't ever use glitter anywhere near a self-healing cutting board.  Just don't.

I painted a few signs, and used those for decoration.  In some cases, I used guest's names to make it more personal and fun. I had originally ordered blue tablecloths, but they didn't come in, so I ended up using purple and aqua.  Happy accident, however...they worked just fine!  I covered the purple cloth with a fishnet purchased at the local party store.

At the last minute, I decided that things looked a little boring around the restaurant, so I purchased a bunch of mini-beachballs to hang from the chandeliers.  It was well worth the five bucks I paid a teenager to blow them all up for me.

The placecards were my favorite part.  I played around with scrap paper until I came up with a folding-chair pattern, then made umbrellas with colored toothpick stands.  They didn't stand up well at first, so I punched out circles of a sand-looking piece of scrapbook paper to help stablize them. 

I drew inspiration from one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett signs.

And in my new tradition of posting photos of my "fuzzy children", here is our very own Strange Bird:

Her name is Lola.  She was a showgirl.  With yellow feath....well, you get the idea.

You make me...burlappy, when skies are grey

I've been obsessed with burlap lately.  I love the 'old' feeling of it, the color, the texture.  These days, burlap is being used everywhere in home decorating, weddings, accessories and more. 

As seen on In Honor of Design

It's relatively inexpensive, and can usually be purchased at a fabric store for $4 or less per yard.  But I especially love burlap that was originally used for something else; such as flour sacks or coffee bean storage or....something else. 

Image from savvycityfarmer.com

I'm especially loving burlap lamp shades in particular. 

As seen on my sweet savannah

I really like the painted and/or embellished burlap shades.  Maybe not so much for my house, but I love how they can be personalized. 

Lamp by Carole Hicks Bolton

Feeling inspired, I created my own  (plain) burlap shade and one embellished and painted burlap shade.  One of them, I love:

The other....meh.

(back side of shade)

And because I said I would, here is a cute photo of one of my children...also on a lampshade.



I wanna be a cowboy...or just decorate like one

It's great as a designer to have these really huge budgets to work with, and the sky is the limit for any ideas you might have.  But, more often than not, you are given a huge project to accomplish....with very little funding.  I was called by a friend to help decorate an elementary school nurse's office with a western theme.  I see this blog as a perfect opportunity to teach a little lesson of my own.  Take notes.

How to decorate an elementary school office on a very limited budget:

1.  Beg, borrow and steal....well, maybe not STEAL, anything you can from anyone who will let you.  We were able to snag these awesome denim draperies from a student's mom.  Some grommets, rope from the hardware store, and dollar-store bandannas complete the look.

2.  Paint the existing cabinet hardware to match the theme.  This school had an overall western theme, with the nurse's office being called, "The Okay Corral."  To buy 376 new knobs...okay, 72.... would have been waaaaaaayyyy beyond our budget, so I compromised. 

3.  Think outside the norm.  The nurse needed a privacy curtain, so I fashioned one out of a hardware-store canvas dropcloth, and had the third-grade students design cattle brands to adorn it with.  I made a creative decision to leave out some of the more...uh...colorful designs.

 4.  Turn scrap wood into creative signage:

5.  Splurge on inexpensive wood plaques and a mirror from the hobby store if you can't resist buying stuff at those hobby stores.  I mean, really?  Who can possibly resist buying things from those places?  I can't.  Really.

6.  Look at garage sales for painted canvases.  With a little sandpaper and primer, you can easily cover something ugly into something wonderful.  Just sand the painting, prime it, and paint anything you like over it.  I used some leftover twine to make a frame and added accents with leftover rope.

(I had to paint a few of these....they kept "disappearing" suddenly)

7.  Paint anything and everything that will stand still:

  

On this tree mural, I was able to just tell a couple of the moms and their daughters what to paint and where.  I painted the individual birdhouses myself.  If you watch the sale ads and coupons for craft stores, you can usually find these birdhouses for 50% (or more) off. 

8.  Finish with a few well-chosen items scavenged from your family and friend's houses.

9.  Take a well-deserved break! 

Red, red wine...dinners make you feel so fine

I've been a bad blogger again.  When I started writing this blog, I wanted to post my own photos...rather than someone else's from their blog.  So I dug deep into my computer files and found the pictures from my first Wine Dinner, with a picnic theme. 

I made table squares out of fat quarters, in different shades of blue and red.  I made centerpieces out of paper flowers and craft tissue stuffed into a brown paper bag.  My place cards were simple calligraphy on plain white business cards, trimmed with plaid scrapbook paper and placed on cut corks.

A few months later, I used the same theme, but took it a step (or four) farther.  I used most of the same table squares, but this time on an ivory tablecloth.

  

I used more paper flowers in ice buckets lined with blue gingham as the main centerpieces, flanked by the smaller brown paper bag centerpieces on either side of the table.  I made paper napkin rings to look like old wine labels, with burgundy napkins rolled inside.  I cut butterflies out of scrapbook paper for the place cards and lined small candle holders with autumn leaves for some fall color. 

 Stay tuned for more Wine Dinners!

Do a little dance, make a little...dinner party

Do you ever go into something knowing it's not going to turn out well, despite your best intentions?  Well, that is this post.  I wanted to show photos of the disco-themed wine dinner, but I don't appear to have any good photos.  But, I missed talking to y'all, dear readers, so here are the few measly pics.  I promise I'll do better next time, m'kay?

I used old cassette tape cases for the placecards, and made my own 'album' covers for the various guests.  I searched high and low for inexpensive cases in good condition.  Granted, they are available in most thrift stores, but I had to buy at least 50 of them...and with a $10 budget.  Not such an easy task, but remember that I am ShelSquared, SuperDecorator.  I searched garage sales, thrift stores, and my parent's garage.  I had three different emails going on with Craigslist folks. 

Side note:  if you're selling something that is fairly obsolete in this day and age, don't feel that you have to drive a hard bargain.  If someone desperately needs to buy 50 of your best Country Christmas from Cleveland County cassettes, work with them.  Seriously.  This is clearly a desperate measure from a desperate woman three cities over. 

Anyway...I finally tracked down a boxfull of cassettes from a church tag sale.  Crisis averted.  Whew!

I made centerpieces out of brightly colored feather picks from the craft store, 45 records, glow sticks and dollar-store bud vases. 

The best part of the decor was the napkin and menu combo.  I made the menu to look like a big-collared black shirt unbuttoned, and folded the standard white napkin like a white jacket. 

Overall, it was a rockin' huge success.  Groovy!