Anyway, in my continuing efforts to be craftier I have some photos from my St. Patrick’s Day party from this past weekend. This was for my in-laws so it’s more “having flowers” than “having keg”.

Food in the dining room.

Booze and snack in the living room.

It was a lot cuter in person but, though it was nice to set each up in front of windows in real life, it didn’t lend itself well to photographing. Also I’m a terrible photographer with a point and shoot that I really think is a little off ever since I may have mistakenly dropped it in the snow this winter.

But I was proud of my thriftiness in decorations. Let me tell you, the day after a major holiday is a great time to get party supplies! (St. Pat’s was on a Thursday, our party 2 days later on Saturday) The table cloth and plates were cheap all the time (at the Christmas Tree Store which is theoretically a half step better than a dollar store or a Party City type store) but I got a nice cotton green striped valence which I used as a table runner on the main table for less  than a dollar and those green little foam shamrocks which I strung together to make a little garland.

The flowers were Bells of Ireland and some purple thing which vaguely resembled heather. Since my flower arranging skills are novice as well I like to try and stick to only 1 or 2 varieties in an arrangement and concentrate on having different heights. I think it turned out a little wild but acceptable.

Things I’ve been digging around the web this past week (or two):

• Fresh Spring Colors at Decor8
• Confetti Party Invitations by Jordan over at Oh Happy Day
• The “bake sale” and centerpieces (scroll way down) at this wedding featured on Snippet and Ink

Yesterday was full of general craftiness. First there was the sewing craftiness. I have a simple sewing machine from Sears that I got a couple of years ago and get inspired every once in awhile. I am BY NO MEANS a good “sew-er”. But I have fun- and that’s what counts in my book.

It all started with me smelling like beef. We’re still training our puppy so I’ve gotten in the habit of carrying a handful of the soft puppy dog treats in my pocket. Now all my pants smell like beef, chicken, salmon or liver. Then Fiona on Burn Notice (on USA Networks) was occasionally wear a magical NON-FUGLY fanny pack and I remembered a cute wallet in Denyse Schmidt’s Quilts and it kind of went down like this:

And then I realized that although I kind of like the idea of this hip hugging design that smaller would be better so I started making another smaller one and then something happened with the bobbin or rather the thread from the needle ends up wrapping around whatever encases the bobbin and yeah- no idea how to fix it so the other one is half done.

Second bit of craftiness was that I made Chocolate Caramel Crack(ers) that I saw a couple days ago on Smitten Kitchen and… well… Hi, my name is Kristen and I’m an addict.

(image from Smitten Kitchen- I didn’t do as nice a job cutting mine)

Honestly, if you think your job/friendships/etc. are in peril: make some of these, don’t tell them where you got the recipe from and believe me, they’re going to have to hold on to you. Deb says you can add nuts (I used walnuts on half) BUT as I was considering sprinkling some on my grapefruit this morning I thought “coarsely chopped pretzels would be out of sight on this”.

Hopefully it will be as nice for you (where ever you are) as it’s forecasted for the Northeast this weekend– we may see 80 DEGREES! AHHHHSOEXCITED! Go play!

*My birthday is Nov. 1st. I think she’s adopted an annual birthday present concept where you get it when you get it and you’ll get about one a year. I think it’s a fabulous idea present-wise. Cake should always be there to acknowledge the actual day.