Showers

Showers all day again in the Big Apple and today I'll share some of my favorite designs which I created for a bridal shower and also a fun idea I had planning a shower.






I have said before, my best work happens when I am creating something for someone I love. Now I love the young lady pictured here as a little girl, but more, I love her mother very much. Her mother is Linda and if you've met Linda, you can't help but feel like you just met the nicest person in the world. I met Linda in high school and we were very much like the girls in the movie, "The Trouble With Angels" and the crazy silly jokes and antics Linda and I shared are the best memories. Linda and I kept in touch after high school for a few years but she met and married her husband, of 25+ years now I must say, and I was the wild and crazy single girl, we kind of fell out of touch, not because we didn't care, but our lives were so different. But a day before our 20 year high school reunion Linda and I reconnected via phone.




I didn't get my invitation to the party until the day before the party, for whatever reason and when I did get it I responded yes and asked if Linda would be there. She was! I asked for her phone number and called her up. A young teen answered the phone and after I said hello and asked for Linda I heard him call to her and say Mom, Tricia G is on the phone. I almost cried, I had heard over the years from people that Linda had kids, I didn't know much more than that but to hear her son calling his mom and saying my name like it was something he heard all the time made my heart soar! We may have led separate lives for all those years but we both remembered each other, shared our love and stories about each other to our family and friends.

Linda's children are all grown now. She has three, Terence, Cristin and Sean and honestly she and her husband Tom should be very proud of them, they are awesome!

Cristin had a beautiful bridal shower planned. An old fashioned tea party which was held at Lady Mendl's Salon in New York City. Lady Mendl's is a old brownstone with a Victorian style inside. You can look Lady Mendl's up on line, it's a hotel and obviously they serve tea and fingers sandwiches, scones and jams, they host all kinds of parties and meetings, events and for Cristin, it's was a tea party.

I made chocolate bar wrappers and tea bag covers for this party and seriously when I sat down at the computer to start my work I had no idea it would come out so well. It was purple to start with but then I just started changing the lettering, things didn't match, I just keep going until it seems right! The pictures are not totally Cristin. Only the face. I found both the tea party and bride picture on line by just looking up "tea party" and then "brides".


The pictures I found were perfect and the colors made me change the wrappers from purple to the old fashioned paper look I used. That paper, I also found on line by searching for parchment and then just copied the picture onto my desktop as a jpeg. Both the bride and tea party pictures were in color but I selected certain parts to keep in color and then changed the rest of it using a sepia or old fashioned look. I had no idea what Lady Mendl's Salon looked like prior to the shower and I can't believe how perfect these were for the party. They matched. Even both the bride and little girl at the tea party pictures were little girls with hats on and everyone at Cristin's party was instructed to wear a hat. It was so nice, classy and old fashioned. Cristin and her girlfriends hats and dresses reminded me of Holly GoLightly's style in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". It was a day to remember and I'm so glad that something I made for Cristin not only added a nice little touch to her shower, but it made her mom, my friend Linda so happy.


Now since I'm on the subject of showers...I don't have any pictures this time, this was long before I started doing any of my little projects. One of my bestest friends, Karen, was getting married and I was her maid of honor and another bestest friend, Pat, was her matron of honor. Important to this shower story is that Pat at the time was the mother of a 2 year old boy and very pregnant, due to have her second son a couple of weeks after the shower. So because of our honorary duties as her maid and matron of honor, we planned her shower.

Her shower wasn't anything like Cristin's. It wasn't any theme or at a restaurant, we had it at my house. But that's the end of the story...let me begin.

I had just started video taping everything. (Everything, driving everyone nuts!) I used one of those huge video cameras that was heavy and I'm a tiny person, I would be aching after filming. It wasn't even mine, I can't remember who I borrowed it from but borrow I did, constantly. One day, another thing I have to get around to doing, is having all those videos transferred to dvd now. How many more times just in my lifetime, will we have to change the format of our old films? Mine were the old 8mm and I took them to a photo store and paid to have them transferred to play on a tape for a VCR, now I'm transferring those to dvds, not as expensive, especially if you know someone with a dual dvd/vcr with recording options, and really not that expensive if you look on line and send them your tapes. Worth it, but seriously, will it change again?! And when will I get around to the vcr to dvd transfer?

Well as I said, I was taping everything and decided to record Karen's shower from writing out the invitations, to the party itself. I haven't seen this video since before Karen got married, which is 20 years this October, I can't believe it. She just sent her oldest off to college, I can't believe that either. Time.

Pat is very funny. Silly. She would even laugh at the silly, not funny, things she said and would make you laugh too, at nothing. So writing the invitations out was just probably us giggling most of the time, then we pretended to be getting phone calls from the guests RSVPing. That was too funny. Trying to be serious, making up something that the person was saying about Karen, I have to see that video (dvd?) soon! We also filmed me and lots more of my bestest friends cooking the dishes for the shower. Bestest friends, also means my sister Linda, pregnant with her first child (so Hannah was kind of there) and her dog, Moose. We were laughing for hours cooking and prepping. And the best thing about all of this was that Karen would be sharing a day that was all about her, for her, and she couldn't be a part of because it was her surprise shower.

The day of the shower I had clothes for Karen to change into and make up for her to put on, as I knew her regular routine was going to the gym. I called Karen, and this too was being filmed, it was so hard not to laugh or sound excited. We had the shower months before the wedding so we were pretty sure she wasn't suspicious, as she surely would have been closer to her wedding date. I called and told her that Pat went into labor and her husband wasn't around to watch her 2 year old, I needed her to give me a ride to pick up the baby. She said she was just on her way out the door to go to the gym and would be there really quick. When she beeped outside my door, I was on the phone, the cordless ones with the long long wires so you could walk around with your phone, the ones that got all tangled up and we'd hang them from the second floor above the stairs so we could untangle them, those phones. So I'm on the phone, and waving her in. As she's coming to the door I think I told her that Pat's parents took the baby and we didn't need to watch him, but come in, I'm on the phone with Pat, talk to her.

SURPRISE!

Karen was! But she looked at me like I'm going to kill you, look how I'm dressed! I gave her a look that bestest friends always know, "I've got your back" and this one meant, I've got your make up!!!

Karen loved her shower, but more, she loved watching her friends plan her shower. She got to send the video to her grandmother in Florida who wasn't able to attend the shower and her grandmother so loved being a part of it in that way. It was a special memory I created for my friend, one that her kids can watch years from now and even her grandchildren, in whatever format that will be!!??

Until next time, showers of happiness.