Crafty Brunch

No sewing completed this holiday weekend, folks. Nor any done the week prior. I was busy getting ready for a brunch I had with local family and friends.

I thought I'd show you how I procrastinated on cleaning and actual food planning:

There's quite a few tutorials online for these paper flowers, and I had some bright tissue paper leftover from a gift package earlier this year. It was a perfect thing to make while watching Avatar episodes. Yes, I watch Avatar, the Last Airbender. I'm a dork, but I think many a child and preteen would agree with my entertainment preferences. Well, in this case anyway. Like I told my Buddy, I think in primary colors, when it comes to entertainment.

I also used my couch potato time to use up my stash of toilet paper rolls. Sounds glamorous, right? I'm actually hoping to use these flowers to make something more substantial for a wall decoration. Along the lines of this or this.  In the meantime, I used our only spray paint, which happened to be only red, to make them seem more spring-y and vibrant than plain old cardboard. I then tried to make little multi-color tissue flowers/pompons to make it seem less like a Christmas decoration. Buddy pointed out, oh so kindly, that the flowers reminded him of tissues when you get a bloody nose. Ouch. But, I think the end result was cute, and matched my green, cream, and red enamel top table.

The amount of food involved, in large part to my guests and particularly my mother (generous with food and treats to a fault!), was monstrous! I did try to keep the food I made to generally me-friendly stuff, assuming that other folks would bring their preferred treats. We made a couple Spanish tortillas, asparagus, crepes with associated sweet and savory toppings, buckwheat pancakes, sausages, veggie sausage, hashbrowns, fresh fruit, oj, and yogurt. My mom brought locally made scrapple, longanisa (the Filipino version of this sausage, which is sweet and spicy), rice, more eggs, lemonade, more fruit, more yogurt, cake, croissants, and I'm sure about five other things I was too preoccupied to notice. Other folks brought quiches (one of which had a hashbrown crust), a fritatta, salmon (tandoori-style and lox), bread (homemade cinnamon raison bread FTW!), mimosa cupcakes, honey-buns (Buddy has a full box-worth of those now), chips, and I could probably go on even longer.  I even was made my own candida diet safe lemon meringue pie, of which I think I had four slices!! (Thanks Libby!) And it didn't even take into account all the things I intended to make but didn't need to, or those things that my mom brought but didn't make. It. Was. Amazing. and Delish.

I was particularly excited about the buckwheat pancakes, as I had made some rhubarb-strawberry compote.  I used this recipe, as it's super friendly for my needs, and was very fluffy and mild (since buckwheat can be pretty heavy).  The compote was quite easy, and there have also been a post or two on it elsewhere since it is officially rhubarb and strawberry season. I have a LOT left, so I'm contemplating making rhubarb-strawberry-yogurt popsicles for myself this summer.

The party was, in truth, a birthday brunch. Birthdays are a convenient excuse to have people come over simply for your sake, I think. I love it when people visit me, because it satisfies my social needs while still catering to my homebody tendencies. I'm a sociable introvert, or somesuch. Because I like having everyone come over, I tried to limit myself to my peer group within the extended family, my immediate family, Buddy's mom, and friends who live within an hour drive's radius. I think about 20-some folks came, though I haven't made a full tally yet. If I invited everyone... I wouldn't have had a place to stand!

Even though I have these events just to have people around that I like, people sometimes think that they should bring birthday presents. I certainly don't mind, I just don't know if they realize they don't have to do that. I'm just happy they came by. Either way, I would like to at least comment on the handmade/craft oriented gifts I received. (I also received a kick-butt water bottle that's actually easy to clean, and some sweet argyle socks.)

Click on this for a better view, it's worth seeing the cutest felt bee ever!

Buddy's mom brought me some fresh flowers that she arranged. She's a great florist, so I always love getting her arrangements. My friend Amanda gave me some intense fabric for my stash. The fabric is a border print, with a double print of blue cranes (?) against a brown background. The feel is soft and silky, and the drape is great, so I have to think long and hard on how to use it properly. And my friend Erin brought me a felted bee (my favorite of the day, I think), and a homemade necklace. You can check out her Etsy store if you are interested in her style.

I also received this wicked cute Etsy-made sloth necklace the day before. Though purchased, and not home-made, I feel like Etsy purchases are worth celebrating for their handmade goodness. And this guy is super adorable. 

 And speaking of adorable, I must correct an earlier statement. I did sew this weekend. I reattached the ear to my nephew's favorite elephant toy. It gave me a chance to practice my slip stitch, but more importantly it gave me a chance to see my nephew prance around happily showing everyone his fixed elephant (Randolph) and trying to shove said Randolph through our screened in porch. (And just for the record, the wet cardboard behind that sweetie is a casualty of the water balloon war we also had that day. What can I say? It was a fun party!)

Is he cute or what?  I love the lamb's tail of snot, myself.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!