They can't take that away from me..

Happy Birthday, Ella Fitzgerald



pssst.... Sorry I've been a bad, absent blogger!
I started my grad class a couple of weeks ago and
last week was Prom!
 (I'll have decor pictures to share this weekend,
but here's one of me and a couple of kiddos)

That blobby design in the middle of my dress is way more
distracting in a photo than it was in person! (the design carries
around the hem and sides too, which helps).

Back soon with more interesting bits hopefully!

A Night at the Circus

It was prom this weekend!  Our theme was "A Night at the Circus".  The kids adamantly wanted a vintage circus feel, a'la Water for Elephants.  Last year, we did A Night in Old Hollywood, so I've gotten to plan a vintage theme two years running!

Here is the entryway, originally a kit for a "Hollywood Movie Premiere" archway.  We just bought additional $1 styrofoam letters and spelled circus instead!

The students traveled down the hall from the entryway to the cafeteria, which we transformed into a "banquet" area and dance floor.  Dance floor:

Canopied banquet seating:

The canopy "circus tent" was 19" gossamer in red and white, draped over pole & drape rods.  The tables were decorated with popcorn boxes filled with swirly suckers (Oriental trading has just about every color!), mason jars with tea lights, and a fortune teller ("cootie catcher") that I made to match our theme.

The fortunes told you which circus act you were!  (forgot to take a good picture of one though. Rats.)  I printed them on parchment paper, so they looked old too.

I think my favorite part was the ceiling!  Paper lanterns (always a hit for little cash) and upside down umbrellas!   The umbrellas are paintable paper umbrellas from Oriental Trading, and the kids painted the red stripes with plain old acrylic paint. 

Outside of the dance floor, there is a glass "cross connect" between buildings, which we used for an old-fashioned photobooth and a caricature artist.  These giant letters might be tied for my favorite detail.  (the little bench is where people sat to have their caricature's drawn.)

 

The letters were for cheer or dance teams to use in performances and stand 48" tall.  Except the "I" which...was a flub and I didn't notice until we unboxed them Thursday night.  Too late to fix at that point!  THey had sent one correct side and one incorrect side.  So we cut the correct one down to match the smaller one and just glued a paper lantern on top like a "dot".  I might like them better with that red dot on the I!  The letters were all glittered in iridescent glitter (of course). 

Dance floor in the dark... It livened up and you could really see everything when the DJ started the lasers, but I wish there was an easy way to light up the ceiling (for amateurs, I mean.  I'm sure professionals could do it in no time.)

The gazebo was HORRIBLE to build.  But it looked pretty!  Here it is in a "lights on" photo:

The kids loved it too. We put 2 benches inside of it (actually to help stabilize our crap building job, haha!) and there were kids sitting inside the gazebo all night.

I designed the ticket too, and a local print shop printed them up. (I hid our school name for anonymity's sake, but it was originally above the "presents" banner). 

A lot (ALOT) of work but the kids had fun and stayed to the end (had to shoo them out finally at about 12:15 am!) which is always a good thing.  The longer they're in the cafeteria with us, the longer they're safe and sound! 

If you have a vintage circus prom or party coming up (we saw a lot of circus weddings when we were planning), hit me up if you'd like details on anything we did!  I'm happy to share!

Now I'm pooped.   I might be getting to old for this prom business. ;)

Me & Lu testing the photobooth Friday night!

Spring's a'comin!

Firstly...

Secondly, it's...

No big plans at all.  Some touch up painting in my bedroom and living room, and steam cleaning the carpets, but then it's all FREE time.  The kids say they are sleeping the entire spring break (teenagers!)  Which leaves me even MORE free time!

I desperately need to cull the closet and dresser and see what I need for spring/summer.  Then I can focus my energy on recreating pretties like these from Modcloth:

And of course I'm going to finish my vintagey Muppet's-inspired seersucker dress too. That's up first. 

Another project that's looming is PROM.  This year, our theme is vintage circus.  It's really going to be lovely.  Modcloth has the PERFECT dress too...that I will need to completely knock off since it likely doesn't come in my size (and I'm just knockoff-ey like that):

With the zoom (on the  Modcloth site), you can tell that these are seamed strips of alternating colors, in a satiny fabric.  I'm never sewing satin again (IN MY LIFE) but...a sateen might be pretty.  I'm also a terrible fit for this particular a-line flare type of dress, so I'll probably modify for a waist band and a gathered (or maybe pleated?) skirt.  But isn't it lovely??

And so perfect for our theme, which was inspired, of course, by this:

How awesome is it that I get to do TWO vintage-themed proms in a row??

But first today, I have to go shopping for a baby gift for my sweet nephew who is 1. How time flies!  I think he needs a tractor and some farm animals.   I missed Wednesday Wisdom this week (the week got away from me! And it was hard to top last weeks anyway), so I leave you with a holiday-inspired quotable.  Happy Weekend!

A Night in Old Hollywood

Just thought I would share some pictures of what I've been doing this week (not sewing related, ha!)

I'm one of 2 Junior class sponsors this year, and our main responsibility is to create "Prom".  We hold the prom in our school cafeteria and believe me it is no small feat to transform that space into another world.  We did it though! 

The kids voted on the theme last fall and I could not have been more happy that they wanted a "vintage Hollywood" prom.  Squee!!! Seriously, could there be a better match??  Here are some snapshots taken before I left last night (as in dragging my tired, aching body home and collapsing into bed at 9!)

In the last photo you can see about a dozen vintage movie star posters (we printed all of those in my classroom and "tiled" the prints so we could make large photos!  GENIUS!) and they are surrounded by movie quotes.  Honestly, me and one of the hard little workers got a little teary when it was all finished because it was soooo good.

Would you believe we did all of this for $2000?  We rock!

And now I'm off to finish my dress for tonight.  It's prom night!