Sometimes in our society I think there is an unspoken idea that creativity is confined to art or the studio. In reality creativity is all around us in every choice we make as we move through our day. If we try to bottle up our creativity and let it out to play only during certain times we deem appropriate, eventually it's going to get angry at us and stop working. (I mean, I wouldn't enjoy getting locked away and ignored for days, weeks or years at a time either!) As creatives our creativity is not simply something we do for a living, it is simply a part of who we are. In the spirit of that we are going to start running a new set of features on the blog called: Life In The Right Brain. In these we are hoping to share how our creative juices really do seep into every aspect of our lives and aren't just confined to our artwork.
Up first is a little something I threw together for a few friends on memorial day! I love throwing parties. When I was little I used to have a dedicated notebook I would us as my "party planner" and all year long I would gather ideas here and there to inspire me for my yearly birthday party. I would rent books from the library, look at magazines, and one can only imagine how my little 8 year old head would have exploded if pinterest had been around back then!
It's been a while since we really threw a party at our place so on memorial day this year we decided to have a few friends over for a good old fashioned vintage BBQ.
For anyone interested in all the DIY goodness that went into this, heres the scoop on that:
Table Setting:
Flowers: Joey and I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon the day before the party and picked a TON of simple wildflowers. They ended up being one of my favorite parts of the party and they were totally free!
Vases: Most of the vases were just old liquor bottles we've been given or collected over the years along with a few vases and jam jars I picked up from a local thrift store for about a buck. For a couple of the vases I cut strips out of paper bags and secured then around the glass with some simple twine for a little more interest.
Table Cloth + Runner: The table clothes came from the 99 cents store and the runner I made out of cheap butcher paper cut in half.
Candles: I pretty much just raided our house for every glass candle holder and tea light we own for the rest of the table which worked out to be just enough! (see mom and dad, eventually all those bazillion candles we bought back in the day for my wedding came in handy again)
Hay Bales: We totally lucked out on this one, I told Joey I was thinking of picking up a few hay bales for seating (since I only own like 6 chairs and didn't know where the hell all these people were going to sit) and after asking around at work to see where he could pick some up an amazing co-worker with horses offered to just let us borrow a couple for the party! To make them a bit more comfy I just laid down a few pillow cases I got from the thrift store for about 2 bucks on top.
Bites N' Booze Striped Food Table Awning:
This was probably my absolute favorite thing at the party. When I first told my husband what I wanted him to make me for the party I could see the small freak out taking hold, however I assured him it would be cheap and easy. The cheap part totally worked out, as far as easy… well we'll just say it was a little more time consuming than expected. We constructed most of the frame out of 2x2 boards and a couple of 1x4 furring strips. For the base we used a couple of cheap discount bin 1x6 fencing material boards. For the awning I just bought a white king size sheet for a buck from the thrift store and painted red strips on in! All in all the whole thing only cost about $10!
Make-Your-Own-Smore's Table:
This was super simple. I just set up an old bar cart we own in the yard, filled a couple of paper bags with graham crackers, filled a tiny portable grill with marshmallows and laid out a bunch of gourmet toppings like Nutella, sliced strawberries, carmel, granny smith apples, and tons of different kinds of chocolate! Finally I grabbed an old vase to hold all my marshmallow sticks!
Bean Bag Toss:
My awesome hubby was able to make this for about $3 out of some MDF board and old 2x4's he had lying around. I just added a little left over red paint to make it pretty.
Fabric Garland:
This was probably the most time consuming thing we did for the whole party. I bought about 12 yards total of assorted clearance fabrics, ripped them into two inch strips, then looped the strips around a long piece of twine. Doesn't seem like it should take almost 6 hours huh?
All photos are © Kadie Pangburn and Joseph Ho.
Now that you have seen a little of what I think is awesome, don't forget this week we are giving away FREE STUFF! All you have to do is share your own #something awesome on our Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest to enter! We'll be picking one lucky winner at the end of the week!
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