Asking the Looming Question...

So, I’m going to post about a subject that I know at least ONE person will probably hate me for, but here it is.

The question of the day is this: IF I did change my tablecloth color (Gasp!) what could I do to bring the color of eggplant back into my reception venue?

Yeah, I know MOH, I know. It’s almost sacrilegious typing the question…but it’s out there anyway.

I’ve come up with a few options, but maybe you will be able to help me think up something else…since I SO do NOT want to choose this option, that might have the teensiest little bitsiest part of why I’m having decorator’s block when I think about this option…

The first thing that I thought of was to incorporate eggplant napkins, elegantly draped or folded to take up a good portion of the table top. Not my favorite option, but an option that would bring eggplant back to life at the venue. The main concern? If I’m having this much trouble finding eggplant tablecloths, will I run into the same dilemma with napkins? Possibly. But it’s also possible to me that I could make 200 napkins out of that elegant eggplant satin that I found in Dallas on my last trip up there…and with my serging machine and the right shade of thread, it would be a simple matter for the most part. Of course, they might be simple to find and buy, I haven’t looked into the cost of doing that yet…but it’s an option. Also along those lines is maybe finding or making eggplant table runners…or those draping cloths that cover the tops of the tables, but don’t go all the way to the floor. Something like the picture above. My problem with this option? Once again, finding the right color in a full tablecloth is hard enough…yada yada yada, you get the point. And I’m not sure that I like the look of table runners. It seems to me that the table might get a little busy with runners, napkins, plates and glasses. Not to mention the centerpieces and anything additional that I put on the tables to jazz them up…so I’m not sold on this option.

The only other thing that I’ve thought of is incorporating my beloved eggplant color into the flowers. One of my Maids got married just last September and had some LOVELY centerpiece vase/candle holder combo thingys that Mr. CC and I liked and she has graciously offered us use of them before she sells them. So, when I first started planning this shindig I wasn’t sure about using flowers on the centerpieces, but now it looks like I will have vases for free…a good reason to now use flowers in the décor. So can I incorporate enough eggplant in the flowers to appease my whims and desires?

I don’t know. I honestly don’t.

And the whole reason for trying to bring in more color is because my photographer mentioned that her only complaint about shooting out at Texas Old Town, our fabulous venue, was that everything in sight was wood, which tends to cast a yellowish hue on everything. She photoshops it out, so that it’s not something that I have to actually deal with in my pictures, but I was hoping to bring in enough color to combat some of that for her. Plus, I think that it will look nice…

Other than those ideas, I’ve drawn a blank. Can you come up with anything else that I could do to bring in more color than just the black and cream theme that I’ve got going? Or maybe I should just leave it black and cream and go with that? I don’t know right now….I need HELP!!!

The busy life of Miss Cotton Candy...

Stress does all kinds of things to a person.

Some people get moody. Some people can’t sleep. Some people get extremely agitated or annoyed at the smallest things. And some people, like Miss Cotton Candy, seem to do all of those things at the same time!

Yeah, lots of laughs…for those of you reading this post from many miles of safe distance away…

For those of you closer to me, there is a big apology coming your way! Especially to my fiancé. How he puts up with me on some days is nothing short of a miracle. Truly.

I mean, as if the biggest project of my career isn’t enough for me to handle right now, I decided that this would be the PERFECT time to move! Yep. That’s like asking for a dose of insanity to go with the big helping of craziness that’s already on your plate. I don’t know WHAT I was thinking. Honestly. I mean, it’s one thing to be an over-achiever, and another thing completely to do something this insane. It’s just that the timing was off. Really. Maybe if I tell myself that, I’ll start to believe it!

My lease is up at the end of the month. And I didn’t really want to wait until the last minute to move the big items. We (my fiancé and I) got my daughter’s bed and dresser moved last week, along with her bookshelf and a load of her toys. So we basically moved into his house, without officially moving out of my apartment. Over time, I’ve accumulated enough clothes and things at his house to not need to go back and forth between houses. So the main thing was getting my daughter’s room set up.

Now, the bedroom that she took over used to be where the doggies sleep. And when I say doggies, don’t get it in your head that these are cute little puppies, or tiny little dogs. Although they are cute, they are also large dogs. One is a lab and something else really big mix, and the other is an American pit bull. (Not the crazy half in-bred mix that always goes nuts, but the registered breed of pits) Anyway, our two dogs slept on this old mattress in the spare room and had been sleeping there for about a year. And now that you can picture how large these dogs are, you can probably imagine that the room needed a little sprucing up before it could be my daughter’s room.

So one good wall scrubbing, a couple of coats of paint and many carpet shampoos later, the room looks great. I still need to touch up the corners with the pale lavender paint color that we picked out, but it looks like a new room. We got her bed and dresser moved in, got her TV set up, and she’s sleeping in there like a champ.

So that just leaves all the rest of my furniture to get moved. And the rest of my junk all packed up and moved over. Since we have the kiddos every other weekend, we decided that waiting until the last weekend in January was cutting the deadline too close for comfort on moving the furniture. That meant that it all needed to move this weekend. The weekend after the week from hell at work. Go live with our new system, came, went and kicked my butt in the process! 65 hours of work later, and I was pooped! After sleeping until 1:30pm on Saturday, it seemed smarter to wait until Sunday to get stuff moved, so Saturday was spent doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. Man – it was NICE!

But Sunday came all too quickly, and the grueling work of moving out of a third-story apartment. Luckily for me, the guys did the heavy work, and I hauled the smaller things that I had packed and ready to go. Unluckily for me, there’s still at least one more truck load of stuff at the apartment. But the big stuff is gone, which is good.

But man, I got to tell you. I HURT today. I can’t imagine how fiancé and mover friend feel, since they did the heavy lifting, but I hurt all over. And I have NO desire to unpack any of the boxes that are cramming up the house…but I have to unpack the boxes since I need the boxes to repack the stuff left at my apartment. Lucky for me, I have 20 more days to get that done! And you KNOW I’m gonna wait until the last minute…