Butterfly Pasta!

Who knew?  Certainly not me...Denise brought me some Butterfly Pasta from World Market!!!  I told her I'd have to use the same tablecloth I had on my table for the party since it matched the pasta!  Love it, Denise!

Cambria Pines & 50th Birthday Gift Idea

Ahhhh...Cambria Pines Lodge

I have been to Cambria Pines Lodge many times and this time was extra-special because the gardens were just lovely. From blooming wisteria to enchanting birdhouses to adorable 'flower beds', Cambria Pines is a delight, not to mention the wonderful food.

I was invited to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday last weekend and couldn't figure out what to get him for a present. The crafter in me took over and I came up with the idea to find some 60's candies and decorate a container to put them in. Finding the candy was less of a challenge than I thought it would be. My local Rite-Aid had some of the old favorites like Abba Zabba, Big Hunk (gotta put at least one in a guy's gift) and Sugar Daddy's. To my surprise, I found a ton of 60's candies at World Market - they even had Bubble Up and Nesbitt Orange Soda to round out the gift.

For a container, I went to my local hardware store and bought a white bucket for a couple of dollars, printed off some 'groovy' images on my computer and to make it even more interesting I searched on the internet for interesting facts from 1960 plus I printed the baby and high school pictures from the party invitation and put those center stage on the bucket. I used double-sided tape to adhere all of the images and info on the bucket.

The party was down in my old stomping grounds of Los Alamos - I wish I'd taken my camera because it was a gorgeous day, the setting was beautiful with majestic oaks and we even had a surprise visitor - a gopher kept poking his head up from a hole and he was even eating grass we hand fed him.

Make it a groovy day!

Joan