Arts and Crafts, and Loss (not a great segue)

So the engagement party is literally one week away (it's next Saturday) and I've decided, today, that I want favors and centerpieces.

And I've decided I want to make them.

It's official.

I'm certifiably nuts.

So I go online and I look up "wedding favors," "party favors," "engagement favors," and then I go back and add "homemade" to all of those. And I decide that I want something simple and easy and not expensive and not frilly and girly 'cause my daughter's not frilly and girly... Which, in retrospect, one might think would make this much easier.

But it doesn't.

So here are the final three contenders (and I'm sure there are MANY more easy favors out there, but I found these):

1. mini mason jars decorated with silver ribbon and a heart charm and the happy couple's initials, with a votive candle inside
2. Ghirardelli chocolates, those little individually wrapped ones, wrapped again in wedding/engagement paper, sealed with a "love" stamp from the post office, with their initials on the paper band
3. a small round tin filled with chocolates, with a solid piece of paper adhered to the lid, their initials on the paper, and a charm tied with a piece of tulle ribbon around the tin
4. cupcakes, individually wrapped in cellophane, tied with a ribbon, with a charm

Here's the final decision:

1. No - too complicated, to hard to transport, and who really wants another favor you don't really want to throw out 'cause "it's from M&S's engagement party..."
2. THE WINNER! Easy, quick, not frilly, chocolatey, and can be carried in a basket, and the basket can be decorated, and we can put the basket on the dessert table at the end of the night
3. No - I'd have to travel hither and yon to find the damn tins, and I'm just not in the mood!
4. This was my runner-up, but we're already having so much dessert there...

And then there are the centerpieces. The room is not huge and the tables are rectangular, so they're not very deep. A large centerpiece would just get in the way. There will be 5 tables of 6, and 3 small tables of 4 each, just with tablecloths, in case some people want to move to see the flat screens at either end of the room (is there a football game on Saturday night? Or a baseball game? If there is, the TVs will be on!). I figure I'll get small square glass block vases, a couple of bunches of assorted flowers from Costco, and I'll cut the flower stems down and just have a couple of small mini bouquets on each table. There's no need to go to a florist (sorry, John!). I suppose I'll make a vase for each of the small tables, too... And then anyone who wants to take one home can take one home, and I won't have to worry about getting them back to my house!

Tonight there's a wake for the father of a friend of ours; he's actually the head of the funeral home our families use. Jack knows him from growing up; I know him from all the people in my family who have died. Michael's dad started the business years ago, and has been living in Florida for a while now. He apparently had a brain tumor; we haven't seen Michael in a while, not since maybe the summer of 2008, so we didn't know his dad was ill. We'll go tonight to pay our respects. I said to hubby, even though we haven't seen Mike in a long time, he's helped us and our families get through so much, we need to go there for him.

Tomorrow there's a funeral mass for the dad of a friend of mine. I haven't see Mr. and Mrs. W. since they moved to Lakehurst, oh, 10 years ago or so, maybe even longer... We email political jokes back and forth, and they always sent me postcards from any and all of their trips around the world. When Mr. W. was still working (he retired a few years ago) he spent a lot of time in France. He brought me some Chanel No. 5, Chanel No. 19, Chanel No. 22 and Chanel Cristalle. When he went to an exhibit of Monet paintings at the Musée d'Orsay, he managed to take some video and even mentioned me in his home movies ("and here is Monet's Iris Gardens - just for you, Krys!"). He and the rest of his family made me feel so welcome - I used to stop by and say hi when they lived in Nutley.

I got an email a couple of weeks ago saying there would be a funeral mass for him this Saturday.

I was floored. I didn't know he was sick. I didn't know he had passed. I want to go tomorrow, but I don't know if I can. It's supposed to rain cats and dogs all day and hubby really doesn't want me to drive 2 hours each way in the pouring rain, and I can't honestly say I want to, either. I think I'm going to decide tomorrow.

We might not be going to the lake this weekend - which opens up a bunch of other stuff for me to do: shop for clothes to wear at the party, clean my house, shop for and make the favors, learn to use the sewing machine I'm going to buy tomorrow, start my art journal, work on my scrap projects (classes just finished), ...

Will post photos when I have them!