Hey y'all!!

Forgive me for my long absence! If anyone has that pause button on LIFE ready, will someone let me know??? I could sure use it!

Anyways....

So, back in November (or was it February? I don't remember...), I picked up some blouses from a thrift store while I was on vacation down South.

One of which was this little beauty....

The original blouse. I apologize for the horrid wrinkliness.

It is a nice simple fitted blouse, in a really pretty shade of lavender purple. I LOVE the color lavender and always wanted a nice lavender blouse to go with some pretty spring colored skirts I have. 

There was some nice top-stitching on the front placard and on the collar

That, my dears, is a finished notch. *sigh*

Now, where was I?

Oh yes....day of the anniversary gets here. I think I mentioned in the last post that there was a nice snowstorm outside, so all of us were stuck at home, right?

Not that I sat around and twiddled my thumbs and fumed for most of the day....okay maybe only half a day.

In the early afternoon, I mixed up what was called a Silver White Cake. I broke down and used the mixer even (even though I hate using that thing, I'm a hand mixer to to the day I die...). I even made some frosting (we didn't have enough store frosting....yet another thing we never picked up.)

Everything went smoothly with the cake, and it got stuck into the oven.

Then the realization hits us at 2 pm...as one of the boys asks what are we going to do for dinner...that we realize that Mom and Dad were going to be stuck at home due to the snow.

Talk about an "Oh crap" moment. We did NOT plan for this. Now what in the world were we going to do? No way were we pulling the quick meal option, not that day?! 

Now, it providentially was my brother Tyler's turn to cook dinner that night. Tyler, while a good cook, is still a novice in the kitchen. But, with my mom out of the kitchen, we had a fighting chance.

So Tyler and I made a fast scour through the deep freezer and the pantry. We found a leg of lamb (Mom's favorite), an old recipe for a fancy macaroni casserole, enough vegetables for a salad, and even some biscuit mix.

After we shoved the lamb in the oven, I moved to get the cake out of the pans.

And what do you know.

The durned thing stuck to the pans.

I cried. Cause a stuck cake spelled disaster and crumbs everywhere. It was right about then that I texted Matthew at college with the following exchange:

yeah...I may have been a little stressed out that day.

Mommy came to the rescue though, and managed to save the cake from being a major earthquake (thank heavens for the motherly talent of fixing things!!). Once the cake was safely deposited in the cake tray with minimal frosting cover, I set it aside to juggle macaroni, cheese and biscuit dough.

Somehow, between Tyler and I, we managed to cram all the prepping and cooking for the dinner in 3 hours without any major catastrophes....which was a miracle in itself.... 

In the meantime, my other brothers Anthony and Robert made themselves useful by cleaning up the kitchen and helping me set up the table with a new cloth and napkins. I even opened new white taper candles.

We cleaned up a little, put on some better clothes and all sat down to dinner, complete with soda for the boys and blueberry schnapps for Mom and I. (Boy did I need that schnapps....).

After dinner, I finished icing the cake. The roses were a bit of a pain - blasted frosting was very cantankously warm. I practically had to freeze it in order to get it to shape. But in all, I was very happy the way it came out.

why does it look PINK in the camera?? I assure you, it was cream. Buttercream, to be exact

So, the day ended well. We told Mom and Dad that their presents were coming, and no one was the wiser.

In the three days afterwards, I finally got the greeting card, deposited the rest of the cash in the bank and got the picture of the silver pattern. It turned out to be a pattern that had a fair selection of pieces in stock, to my relief.

In a phone conversation with Matthew, we picked 2 silver napkin rings and placed the order. Processing took about 4 days and shipping took another 5. All of us kids were on pins and needles waiting for that package to come.

But it finally did. I'm sure I looked like an idiot when I shouted for joy in my pine sappy vest and dirty skirt (I was pruning a pine tree earlier that afternoon.....) when I saw it in the mailbox.

From there, it got opened and rewrapped - with the order slip safely stored away where my dad won't find it, LOL.



And so, two weeks late, Mom and Dad finally received their silver anniversary gifts from us kids: a $25 restaurant gift card and 2 silver napkin rings. Complete with official greeting card, and unofficial note attached to the rings...with missing words and everything. *facepalm* You'd think a writer like me could actually write a note to a present with proper English...

And so completes my tale of the disastrous 25th Anniversary celebration scrape that I got myself into. My dear friends, please learn from my mistakes and plan ahead...at least a month in advance. And have a contingency plan in case you deal with a snow storm.

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

Hey y'all!

I assure you, I'm not dead. Just have had a LOOOONG absence.

So, an update from my personal life - I didn't get the job that I had applied to at the beginning of the month. Hence I'm back to looking again. In the meantime, I've been keeping busy around the house, writing like crazy, and trying to keep my sanity and soul intact in all the craziness we call life.

Speaking of which....I got a doozy of a story to tell y'all.....

Several weeks ago, we're just about to say family night prayers and I happen to look over to the calendar hanging on a closet door.

And made the causal remark that my parent's 25th anniversary was in 10 days.

That realization sunk in like a lead weight. As we all knelt, I'm sure my blood pressure was hitting the roof. Because Miss Melancholy Temperament had no blooming clue what her Plan was to execute this thing.

Then I looked towards the door where my brother Matthew was kneeling. As soon as he caught my gaze he mouthed to me:

"Shoebox"

It take me a minute to catch what he was saying but then it clicked and my blood pressure went back down to normal.



See, about 2 years ago right after Christmas, we kids were scheming to buy our parents a replacement washer and dryer set for their 25th anniversary...as our current set was reaching the two decade mark. Pretty ambitious for 2 kids in college and the others on a minimal allowance. Of course, we all thought that Matthew and I were going to have higher incomes 2 years down the road. In the meantime, we all chipped in what we could set aside at the time and set it in a Christmas shoebox. Which immediately got stashed under Matthew's bed (best place for it, no one would think of looking under there....LOL).

2 years went by. A little more money was stashed in the shoebox. Our 20 year dryer bit the dust and our original scheme, and the shoebox, was largely forgotten as the finances got tighter and tighter for Matthew and I.

Until that particular night at prayer.

After we finished, Matthew and I sped off and dug out that old shoebox. We counted all the cash and we had slightly more than expected (~$120). Which was a miracle of providence in and of itself!

So, the schemes began.

We came up with the following plan:

1. We would get a nice card, and include a gift card to a nice restaurant, $25 worth.
2. While they were out, the rest of us kids at home (cause Matthew had to be back at college), would decorate the house a little, have a cake, and give a little silver present.

Simple, right?

If only.....you know that proverb about best laid plans, right??

We managed to get the gift card before Matthew had to go back to college. The problem happened when trying to find the silver present.

Nothing we tried was working or clicking with us. A photographer was way too expensive. Scouring of gift websites drove us batty. Antique stores yielded only silver plate. Talk about frustrating....

So, we had to maintain semblance of daily life while attempting to find a solution.

We quickly discovered that silver, at retail prices, was a lot more expensive that we bargained for too. Which only increased our frustration levels. Deals fell through because of technicalities, and many silver items were out of our reach financially. I'm sure Matthew was ready to string me up because of the grief my perfectionist streak was giving him....

I'm sure Matthew's face mirrored this guy's at least half of the time through this whole mess....

Then finally, 5 days before the anniversary, I found Replacements, Ltd. This is a company that specializes in making replacement pieces for old silver sets. And for decent prices at that!

I knew that we had an old heirloom set in the family. All we had to do was match the pattern and order two silver napkin rings. Simple. We got this.

Only problem was I didn't have a company name or picture of the blooming silver pattern....both of which were very necessary in order to determine which pattern it was! So, I got in touch with some of the extended family to procure a picture and the company name (which was apparently easier to find than the picture...).

In the meantime, in my stupidity, I never grabbed the greeting card or deposited the rest of the cash in the bank before the actual anniversary. See, it was only going to be a quick trip, just hop and the car and go, and life has a funny way of getting in the way all of a sudden...

And yeah, that came back to bite me, big time.

Dad snitched my car cause his was in the repair shop for two days. The two days before the anniversary, of course. Great timing...oh well, there is always the day OF the anniversary right?

RIGHT.

You know what came the night?

A snowstorm. A bad snowstorm. Of course it would. There is over 8 inches of snow outside in the morning, the roads are a mess, snow is falling very finely very steadily (anybody that has lived up in the North KNOWS that that means lots of it).

Perfectly. Squashed. EVERYTHING.

*insert frustrated scream*

But that's not all, of course it isn't....you think that's all?

Keep your eyes peeled for part 2!

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine