You are Gnome Around Here

This post is in honor of my sister who has recently gone bonkers over the designing and making of fairy gardens. (We differ in a number of ways, however, FAIRIES have always been quite mesmerizing to us both.)

Since it's been two years since I helped with the retirement reception (pics below) for a teacher friend and I honestly can't remember doing a blog about the entire affair...my sister's recent preoccupation with the fairies jogged my memory and I thought you might enjoy some of the pictures from the Roaming Gnome reception. (I like themed events...themes are a great jumping off point from which to dive head long into the pre-event planning. I relish this phase with great abandon!)

Theme: Wherever You Roam, This Will Always Be Your Home...may sound trite to you (and now that I've retired, it sounds a little wonky to me, too, )but at the time, the Roaming Gnome was hot on TV and I used "his hotness" for the feature of our event. (This adventure took no less than 10 months to plan...that's the part I love..the planning. I'm not too much on the actual day, maybe it's because I'm so exhausted from living with the theme for so long beforehand. After that length of time it's sort of like company that won't go home.)

 Here are a few items that made the day special:

(Pic 1) Marzipan mushrooms for the cake,

which was to be furnished by the Air Force.

(I still don't know how the armed forces got involved,

 but I am never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.)
Marzipan is great fun...
sort of like the clay I used to spend hours playing with.

 

(Pic 2 A&B) Centerpiece: large twig double basket with two Boston ferns,

Queen Anne's Lace and assorted Gnomes,
mushrooms (see pic 5 below), and tin flowers.

Oh, yes and red birds, butterflies and birds' nests.

 
Close up of basket handle.

(Pic 3) The "autograph" book featuring the Roaming Gnome

was filled with pictures of the faculty and sweet little

ditties written by  them  to the sweet retiree. (She plays the guitar..

if you wondering why the Gnome is in guitar mode.)

(Pic 4) Close up of the centerpiece.

 (I still haven't gotten the hang of this new blogger system..

can't rearrange the HTML very well,

so the picture below is out of order.)

I accidentally broke a flower pot and it ended up housing

the bird's nest. I found the gnomes at a very inexpensive

store and re-painted them to suit our color theme.

Moss bows came a la Dollar Tree!

(Pic 5) I needed small mushrooms

and naturally I couldn't find any,

so I made them and had them

fired. Then I painted them with acrylics and

sealed them with polyurethane.

(Pic 6 A & B) Another twig arrangement.

(Pic 7) All tables were covered and featured vases of

Queen Anne's Lace and fern.

(Pic 8) Another vignette featuring moss mushrooms from

Paul Michael's in Monroe, La and

a cross canvas (my gift to my retiring friend.)

(Pic 9) The two fairy godmother decorators.

You can tell in this photo how large the centerpiece was.

I sort of overshot it...but it filled the table nicely.

We had a really fun day and it was a great remembrance for a favorite friend!

Bippity Boppity Boo!