A Women's Party that Celebrates Friendship

Every year for about 14 years I have had a potluck party in March called the Women’s Party. It started out because we all had young children and never got a night off. The rules we had when we first started were.

1)  You have to buy the food that you’re bringing to the party already made and bring it in its original container. (In other words no work and no talking about recipes, not that I have a problem sharing recipes I do it all the time. But I just wanted to have my friends share there lives, not there recipes.) This rule had an interesting side effect. We learned where in our town we could get good deli food and take out.

2) You’re not allowed to go home before your kids are in bed.

3) You can invite your friends too. (Every year new faces show up and different combinations of friends come. Keeping the party ever changing)

These three simple rules make for a really fun party. Everyone catches up with each other and meets new friends. My family, all boys were banned to the upstairs with pizza or they went out for fast food, which made a fun tradition for my husband and boys. Their only complaint has been how loud the party gets, but when you put that many women in one house all talking it does get loud.

Over the years we have weathered lots of problems together, celebrated lots of achievements, changed things in our community for the better. We’ve now seen many of our kids grow up and move out leaving us with empty nests, but we have each other which help fill some of the emptiness and give us strength to look for new passions and new directions. Also we can catch up on what everyone’s kids are doing out in the world,

which has been so interesting and fun to hear about.

The new rule change is, we don’t have to go home when are kids are in bed, we couldn’t possibly stay up that late…

Chicago in March

           Chicago Millennium Park was beautiful, full of white blossomed trees and tulips.

Chicago is such a nice city, very clean, with such beautiful old architecture. The people are so kind and helpful. The shopping is great for all price points. It can be very expensive to stay in the city proper. But this trip I found a 2 star hotel, my criterion for a hotel is that it has a great location, also that it’s clean and price well for what it offers, I think the Inn of Chicago is a great find. So if you’re on a budget and need a place to stay try it.

Spring Windows in Chicago

These are some of the fun spring windows I found in Chicago, I love window shopping.

Chicago

Hi from Chicago in March,

The people here have been wonderful so kind and helpful. It's beautiful and unusually warm 70's, the blossoms are out tulips are blooming.

Dress for a Night Out

Years ago I painted Frog Women, the painting ended up in "The William and Mary Review" Volume 35.
Which is kind of funny because the poems and art in the review were very serious and there was Frog Women smiling from her page? Ever since that time she has brought me luck, so I thought she should grace my Blog. Have a great day.

Easter Baskets on a Buget

 

We used to do Easter egg hunts every year when my boys were young. Now they are home for spring break from college, boy do the years fly by.  I found these great eggs at Michael’s and thought it would be funny to hide them in the yard. I will probably get some funny looks at first but I think they’ll find it comical after they find the eggs.

Here are some more Easter Baskets I made this year for family. I had to find a way to make nice baskets on a budget this year. Here are some of the things I did.Easter Basket Ideas

1) You can buy a chocolate rabbit at the grocery store and take it out of its wrapper then rewrap it in a cellophane bag and tie it with a ribbon, instantly it looks expensive.
2) You can buy your baskets at the goodwill for $1.99. Also I bought the swan and the angel pulling an egg there.
3) I found the rooster at a second hand store and bought the big eggs at Costco.
4) If you want your basket to look even more expensive keep your colors in the same family. Example: blues and greens

Hurrah! It's Spring!

Hurrah! Spring is here!

Tea in China

These are a few pictures from a trip I took to China we went to a Tea Farm and then had Tea in one of the oldest Tea House in Shanghai called Old Shanghai Tea House it’s in the middle of a wonderful market. It’s definitely not like having an English tea. The tea was served as loose tea in the pot with no strainer, that’s the way we drank tea all over China. The treats that came with it were tiny quail’s eggs, a hard sour round item I did not recognize and a sweet I did not recognize but all in all it was a wonderful experience and a great way to relax in a busy market place.

My Paintings

Here are some of my paintings. If you like them and the crafts I do you may be interested is my new website I plan on publishing it on April 1st. It will be called teawithlavera.com and I'm planning on teaching several crafts and showing paintings in process. It will also include gardens, free clip art and lots of other fun things to see and do. I hope you'll watch for it.

Rosey on Etsy

Hi, I added some new things on Esty here's the link if you'd like to see them.

http://LaVera.etsy.com

Have a nice day.

LaVera

Fairy Doors

Here are some fairy doors I've made. I live by an elementary school and its lots of fun to look out my window and see the little kids enjoying them. Sometimes I decorate them for the holidays. You can make your own by cutting a cedar shake into a door shape and taking the tiny tack nails and hammering them in a decorative design. I used an acorn top for the door handle and curled bark to decorate the sides. The window is a piece of wood cut in a rectangle and painted black then I put a piece of lace over that. Cover the whole thing with a piece of plastic I used velum. For trim around the window I used pieces of green Ivy stems and nailed them on before they hardened. Finish with hooks used for paintings on the back.

And you’re set to go.

My Studio

Here are some pictures of my Art Studio it's pretty chaotic, but lots of fun.  I find things everywhere, garage sales, estate sale, Goodwill and The Salvation Army. The problem is trying to fit everything in.

What you can do with some old things

And then she needed friends.

These are candle holders, with vintage birds in their hands.

Porcelain Doll

                        

 Above is a porcelain piece I made with a porcelain doll head and arms I found at a thrift store plus a tea cup that lost its set. The skirt was a glass cheese cover that I covered with beads, pearls and porcelain flowers I broke off of old bouquets that had some broken flowers.