4:00 PM

New Additions and Special Flower Favors

I took it easy last week blog-wise. It was February vacation here in Massachusetts and although I do not have children in school anymore, I do have a daughter who is a school teacher. Often February vacation gives us time to do the things we like to do together like shopping, going to lunch and consignment shop perusing; things she can't normally do during the week because of her teaching schedule. However, this February vacation she began the week with a new addition to her family-- a new puppy! Here she is~~~~~Lucy. Isn't she adorable?!! Lucy is half Springer Spaniel and half Poodle. She is just the cutest thing! Well, needless to say, Lucy took most of my daughter's time over the week and I really didn't see her as much as I usually do but, I TOTALLY understand :). Who wouldn't want to spend all of their time with this cutie?!

As it turned out, I was busy with a "puppy" of my own. My other daughter, Amanda, and her family are vacationing at Disney World in Florida this week. So, my husband and I are dog-sitting our grand doggy, Kona. She loves the car so she's been keeping me company while I do my errands around town.

Although my husband and I didn't get away on vacation last week ourselves, we were able to take in some of the activities in our local city of Boston. A group of us went into the city to take in the New England Boat Show down at the Seaport. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the event but, suffice to say if you make it in to that show, you start dreaming of summer and buying a boat. It's a great way to spend a February day.

(Full disclosure: the below picture was one I already had and it was taken in April.)

From the Boat Show our group traveled over to the Boston Restoration Hardware Gallery. The store is housed in the old Museum of Natural History Building. I've been wanting to go for the longest time. What a gorgeous store!! The architecture is something else!! Do yourself a favor when you have a minute and check out how Restoration Hardware restored this building into one of the most beautiful and tasteful stores I have ever visited.

After drooling over the dining tables at Restoration Hardware, we made our way over to a restaurant called the Salty Pig on Dartmouth Street where we could drool over appetizers and pizzas. It's an interesting casual dining experience and topped off the day just perfectly. For a country bumpkin such as myself, it was great getting into the city to see a few sights. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, as well, and that is something you don't see very often in Massachusetts in February. All-in all, a great day!

******************************************

That was last week. This week, besides dog-sitting, I have been planning a special birthday party for my mom. I won't say which birthday it is. I am pretty sure she wouldn't want me to say, but it is a special one, none the less.

The party is going to take place at one of my mom's favorite restaurants on Cape Cod, where she lives. This limits the amount of decorations we can have but, I have decided to make party favors to give to each guest anyway. Since my mom is an avid gardener I wanted the favors to reflect her passion for gardening.

Here is a small sample of Mom's garden.

So, where did I go for inspiration for the favors? The Dollar Store! And, I found these seed kits there. They were such a bargain. They were the beginning of my inspiration.

I also grabbed some tissue paper at the Dollar Store too.

I decided to make paper flowers out of the paper. If you would like to see my tutorial on how to make tissue paper flowers, you can see it here.

I had some white netting left over from my wedding work and the jelly beans came from the local grocery store.

I used the netting to hold the jelly beans together and tied everything together with a string.

This created the center of the flower. (I wish I could remember the official name for that part of the flower but I can't at the moment :/. )

Next I took the tissue flowers (centers securely tied) and taped them to the seed kits. The finished product is supposed to look like a blooming flower pot. What do you think? Did I come close?

I brought them outside to get a little fresh air :).

Since there are going to be children at the party as well as adults I thought the idea of mixing the seed kits with candy would be a good combination all-in-all. I added caramels and chocolate to round off the candy idea.