There's No Place Like Home...

My sister has worked enough years and reached that point in her life where she can hang up her typewriter and retire. I knew the transition from working to not working would take some adjusting to. So to make her feel better I visited on her last day of work and decorated. My theme? "There's No Place Like Home" aka a Wizard of Oz/Dorothy inspired event. I ran to our local Target. Did you know that the movie version of The Wizard of Oz is celebrating it's 75th Anniversary this year? Target has the movie on DVD available for just $12.99. If it isn't already in your family's collection that is a great price point to acquire this wonderful classic.

For the decorations I wanted something simple yet cute to welcome her home that evening after work. So from a dollar store table cloth I created a yellow brick road. I taped a yellow table cloth down from the front door to the landing by the stairs. With a permanent black marker I drew a brick pattern. My mother couldn't get over how quickly I put that together. I think she may have enjoyed it even more than my sister did.

Did I mention that the idea for this party and the idea to have a small family party only struck me at 8pm the evening BEFORE her retirement?! So here is what I managed to put together in a few hours. I was finished decorating by 2pm the next afternoon. Perfectly ahead of her finishing work around 5pm.

So the thoughts began to swirl like the Kansas hurricane...
I own some brown and white gingham tablecloths from my country Christmas party. I had considered using them. After all the scenes at home in the Wizard of Oz are in black and white. So I post this as an idea in case someone wanted to replicate this and use that color scheme. But I decided to embrace the technicolor side and go with blue and white gingham. So the thoughts began to switch. The house to pitch and suddenly the party was pulled off without a hitch.

I had white Styrofoam cups. I went online and found a picture of Dorothy with the caption "There's No Place Like Home". I always try to give credit where credit is due: http://nolaridge.com/sites/all/files/XL1729_1.jpg?1329408757
I printed these on labels. Placed the labels on the cups to fancy them up. And I taped a strip of white paper around water bottles that I had left over from the Shoe Shindig. Then added the same graphic on top.

I flew faster than the Wicked Witch on her broom to our local Party City. In the Halloween costume area, they had Dorothy's ruby red slippers, Glinda's wand and a Toto in the basket. Snatched and added to my cart. Flew to the Christmas Tree Shops for tablecloths. Found round ones and rectangle ones. Perfect. I had also headed to the Christmas Tree Shop for I had seen a puzzle rollaway there the other day. Earlier that morning at Target I had found a Wizard of Oz puzzle. What a great gift! Snatched all and added to cart then back out to my sister's to go decorate.

The night before I had printed a copy of this adorable graphic that I found online at http://mlblogssfdiamondgirl.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/no-place-like-home.jpg. This was used on the Kitchen table as the perfect theme accent. On the way to my sister's I grabbed Munchins (of course) from Dunkin Donuts. I had Hershey Kisses (labeled Tinman Hats) and Green Rolos (labeled Emerald City Rolos). We had hot dogs (Toto Dogs). My family loves marinated artichoke hearts. I happened to have had a jar. so they received a label that read, "The tinsmith forgot to give me a heart".

Credit must go out to: http://getsboredeasily.blogspot.com/2013/01/wizard-of-oz-retirement-party-tables.html for the theme idea. At 8pm the night before her retirement I had the idea that maybe I should surprise her and decorate while she's at work. I took to the net for ideas on what theme. Surf, sailing, luggage, etc but nothing felt right. Then I saw a horse of a different color on this lovely blog. I had been teasing my sister earlier in the week that "There's No Place Like Home" as she retired so it seemed perfect.

Here are a few photos of the decorations that welcomed my sister home:

"Eggcellent" Easter

I suppose friends and family appreciate the decorating that I do. My neighbor commented, "Aren't you going to decorate our hallway for Easter? When I opened the door the other morning I thought for sure you would have made it look pretty". Hehehe hadn't really planned on decorating the hallway. But okay why not. So I got creative with some Crayola Construction Paper. I made Easter Bunny ears for the hallway window. Simple, easy and yet adorable. And best of all a decoration for in the hall and out the window.

I still had the pretty blue garland from the Shoe Shindig so I left that up. And tied a bunny headband to the railing. And on our apartment door, I rehung last year's green basket with the little white stuffed bunny rabbit.

I spent more time on decorating the outside. I found two inexpensive large sets of plastic Easter Eggs at our local CVS pharmacy.  As I had ExtraCare Bucks this made the eggs not just inexpensive, but free. Free is always Fabulous! I always have ribbon. I love that our local dollar store sells huge rolls for just a dollar. Purchase once and decorate forever. I wove the ribbon (you need to fold it in half - rather a pain by the way) through the small holes in the plastic Easter Eggs. I created two garlands of Easter Eggs. One was used to decorate each side of the front steps.  

Last year I found a blow up Easter Bunny in the clearance bin after the holiday. I thankfully found it again in time for this Easter. I admit I love those blowup Easter Bunnies. They remind me of one that my Aunt Joanne gave me when I was a small child. The thing was bigger than me at the time. But I paraded around the house carrying that thing forever. We had it for years and years. It was pulled out of my mother's Magic Closet this time of year. (Hehehe guess the decorating bug is hereditary. Yes, my mother had what she called her "Magic Closet" as we got older it was the off limit closet where presents were stored and decorations were kept)

Hope you had a very Happy Easter!