Women's Luncheon Table Decorating 2018

I've taken a few years off from going to my church's women's luncheon due to conflicts.

Mainly:  prom.

I was excited to get back to it.

This year Ellie's Young Life leader's grandmother was the speaker so she decided to host a table too.

I knew it was going to be a busy weekend because McDaniel was bringing A BUNCH of kids home with her from college.

And they were all staying at our house. 

More on that later.

So I wanted to keep my table decorations simple and/or that didn't require much shopping.

I decided on a dinosaur theme.

Why?

1) I love dinosaurs.

2) I have a lot of dinosaur home decor.

3) Dinosaurs seem to be popular right now.

When I told Ellie my theme she told me to not go crazy and keep in "Dino Chic."

But of course.

In the center is my Tyrannosaurus Rex cookie jar from Target the girls got me a few birthdays ago.

I ordered the big leaves from Amazon to use as chargers and a centerpiece.

I brought the other dinosaurs I had from home and put fake succulents in them to "Dino Chic" them up.

I alternated between driftwood napkins holders and gray napkins and galvanized metal and gold napkin holders and light beige napkins.

Those white plates came from a thrift store.

You might recognize my chia pet dinosaur I painted silver after I couldn't get a single chia seed to sprout.

I bought a bag of plastic dinosaurs on Amazon and spray painted a handful of them white for each place setting.

McDaniel got me this salt and pepper set from Target for Christmas.

Now on to Ellie's table.

She has a real eye for design and definitely knows what she likes. Most of this came from her room.

When I was 15, I had a poster of Prince on my wall. 

That's all I can remember about it's design theme.

One of the sweet college girls from my small group made Ellie a beautiful eucalyptus and white flower garland that she put around the center of her table. I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of it!

I love that each place card said Woman of God.

I wish I'd taken more pictures the next day!

The themes stuck mainly around spring.

After this forever winter, 

I loved all the blooms and color.

There were so many women there--the biggest luncheon I've been to yet.

And the speaker was FANTASTIC!

A few Young Life leaders came and one of Ellie's friends.

Two of the leaders are in my small group so when we discovered that we all were wearing jumpsuits, I suggested the natural thing.

Take a picture doing the Charlie's Angels pose.

Except I couldn't remember exactly how the pose went.

There's a Karate chop in the pose?

I'd like to say we were praying here but we were probably comparing shoes or pedicures.

It was an awesome event.

Grease is the Word. So is Halloween.

This was our first Halloween without McDaniel.

We knew this was coming and started talking about it last year.

While we were home in Indiana last Easter, I ran into a dear high school friend at my parents' church.

He brought up our Halloween costumes and I shared our concerns of how to do pictures so we can use them for our Christmas card with one away at college.

He suggested taking them in the summer while McDaniel was still home.

Of course!

We always get our costumes early during sales so that wouldn't be a problem.

It was so simple yet it had never occurred to us!

So, we contacted a talented photographer, Meghan, who we know through Young Life and had her come over in August.

We borrowed our neighbor's vintage Cadillac convertible and went to the local middle school that our girls attended.

It's almost 100 years old and seriously looks Rydel Highesque from Grease.

On the way to the school, I quickly filled Meghan in on our Halloween tradition and how she was sworn to secrecy on what we were dressing up as until Halloween.

She did a great job.

With the pictures AND keeping the secret.

We live in an area where people are always out and about.

Walking, running, walking dogs, biking, etc.

For whatever reason, 

it was super quiet the day of this photo shoot.

Just one car of teenagers pulled up and got out our their car and stared at us for a moment.

One of them came over and said they were doing a scavenger hunt for their youth group and needed a picture with a hot rod. They couldn't believe we were there in the Cadillac.

We stepped away from the car and allowed them to snap a shot.

They never asked why were dressed the way we were 

or why we were taking pictures in a convertible 

by the middle school.

They got there shot and sped off.

Go Grease Lightning!

We ordered the Pink Ladies jackets online and they came with the scarves.
They rest of their outfits they pieced together from their closets and thrift stores.

Sandy and Danny…at their 30th high school reunion.

Pink Ladies

It was 96 degrees on the day of our photo shoot.

Just two months later, it was in the 40s for Halloween and we FROZE!

I bought cheap canvas shoes on Amazon and used a Sharpie to make them look like
saddle shoes. Ellie has already borrowed them. 

My skirt and sweater came from Amazon which was WAY cheaper than buying the costume.

I printed out the R and megaphone onto iron-on paper and ironed it onto the sweater.

We missed McDaniel but we felt good that we hadn't missed our tradition.

Of course the T-Rex had to make an appearance too.

I feel a new tradition coming…

My baby came by for a visit again.

I had fun chasing this super hero to the candy bowl.

I have wanted to take these pictures for a long time.

There's a Port-a-Pot in the front yard of the house under construction two doors down.

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

Hope everyone had a good Halloween!

Dino Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's sad that the only picture I could find in my photos of Monte and I together was a bad selfie in the dark while it was snowing or this:

Notice the leg pop.

Speaking of dinosaurs,

Monte and I rewatched Jurassic World the other night.

I forgot how intense it was!

I had to "go to the bathroom" during one scene 

because I couldn't take the suspense.

And I already knew what was going to happen.

That night I dreamed that Monte was bit in half by a dinosaur.

What kind, I'm not sure.

I thought for certain he was a goner but he kept talking.

Talk, talk, talk.

I thought to myself, in my dream, can you survive being bit in half by a dinosaur?

Somehow Monte was offended that I "killed him off" in my dream.

I tried to explain that HE WASN'T DEAD 

and still had a lot left to say.

The girls went to a church youth group white elephant party around the holidays.

Ellie came home with a dinosaur chia pet.

Not any real dinosaur, mind you.

The made up one from Jurassic World.

Indominus Rex.

Interesting that the word "minus" is right in the name.

Not that I'm bitter,
she gets it in the end.

But I was still excited.

I read the instructions and instantly got to work.

I soaked the whole terra cotta dinosaur and some of the seeds and then painted them on.

It was so exciting.

And drippy.

So much so that some of the seeds slid down onto the dinosaur's elbow and onto the platform.

I was supposed to keep it near sunlight and mist it daily to keep it hydrated.

Here's what it looked like after Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 3.

Day 4.

Day 5.

Day 6.

The box said I should see growth in a week or two.

I stopped spritzing it somewhere after the second week.

I was washing all the seeds off when I realized that I put chia seeds in my green smoothies.

Hmmmm…

I could've grown my own chia pet anytime I wanted.

Or not.

After staring at this chia-less terra cotta dinosaur every day as I did the dishes, I decided I would paint it.

I bought acrylic paint in metallic gold and metallic silver.

Monte voted for the silver.

Hello there!

I just saw this on some HGTV email I get because I clicked on something one time and now get daily emails.

I'm unintentionally trendy!

Now to hunt for the smallest little plant ever…

Sorry if this creeps you out.
It makes me laugh.
Look at my cave man feet.
And seriously, who wears a white bathing suit?