If you haven’t guessed, our belated wedding/ house warming party  is now over, done, finito! Honestly, I wasn’t sure if we would all make it to the other side alive, the preparation, the work, the stress, the sleepless nights, (did I mention the stress?) all seemed to take its toll. But surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, we made it, and we can now relax and revel in the fact that we have our spare time back. We no longer need to spend our weekends moving rocks or scrubbing the bathroom. That is,  there are no chores or projects on a deadline any longer. Unless the bathroom is starting to turn green and fuzzy, then we are definitely on a deadline to kill that green germ-y beast!

All this talk of having no time for fun makes it sound like I did everything on my own, but that’s far from the truth. I know without a shadow of a doubt that things never would have gone so smoothly without the help of our family and friends. From set up to tear down, our sweet loved ones were there! My aunt and uncle from Ohio even flew down for the party! I never felt so loved.  My poor sweet mother came over 3 times in one week! That’s asking a lot when you consider there is 81 miles ,one way mind you, between my house and her house.  She must really love this little party planner!

By the way this little party planner would love to share lots of great artistic photos, but alas,  she was much too busy making sure everyone had a place to sit and food to eat. But now that the dust has settled, I really wish I had taken the time to document more of what we ate, and how things looked. Especially, now that I have had the chance to think about how much time went into those things. But really, I got some nice snapshots of all our sweet guests, which is much more important than the food or the decor.  Maybe I can sweet talk some of our guests into sharing the shots they were able to capture while Bubba and I were busy hosting. *Hint Hint*

In the mean time, here’s what we’ve been doing with all of our free time…

Enjoying our messy house, which has been cleaned up a bit since these pictures were taken. I can only handle a disheveled kitchen for so long.

All those glasses on the table are from the party. I insisted on using real glasses, even though I had to buy them behind Bubba’s back! He wanted to use all plastic ware as it doesn’t need to be washed which is a valid point. But I just couldn’t bring myself to seeing red plastic cups on my pretty tables. So, the morning of I ducked out to get some last-minute items, one of which was the real glasses you see here. Purchased from the dollar store, a box of 16 for $8 , not a bad deal if you ask me. However, upon my return home with my purchase, Bubba’s only remark about the glasses that we will surely reuse, “Well, your washing them after the party!” Thankfully, Bubba’s sweet aunts must have sensed the tension and took the initiative and washed all of them when I wasn’t looking! Marrying into a huge family, with 8 new aunts,  certainly has it’s benefits! Thanks to my new aunts-in law!!!

Aside from dodging dish washing, I decided that after three months of having dirt under my nails, it was high time to do something girly and relaxing.  So I went  and got a mani-pedi. The poor lady that had to sand off my hooves, wasn’t quite as relaxed. But she got a good tip for putting up with my nasty hooves and dirty finger nails. I love being a girl again!

I’m not the only one relaxing these days, no Bubba didn’t go with me to get a mani/pedi. The doggies must have gotten tired watching all the work, this was the scene on our sofa the day after…

{By the way, I have some posts coming about my new gallery wall, which by the way will be relocated,  and my new living room paint color!}

A couple days after the party, my mom was back in town to drop off my sweet aunt and uncle at the airport. As always, the puppies were oh so excited to see her. Especially Goldie…

My golden girl refused to release my mother from the ultimate snuggle…

There came a time in the middle that all my poor mother could do was grin and bear it.

When we weren’t napping on the sofa or terrorizing our guests with the never ending snuggle,  we all enjoyed a nice sunset stroll…

There’s nothing like kickin’ back and watching the sunset…

This was our view…

Sunset strolls make some of  us very  happy…

However, some of us prefer trolling the internet for good deals…

Sunset walks are fun and call for a butt wiggle at the mention of them, (yes, sometimes I participate in the excited butt wiggle) but watching the neighborhood from the comfort of your own home is priceless…

Before my aunt and uncle had to head back to the Buckeye state, my mom and I got to grab some precious time with my aunt at Goodwill. I love watching sisters shop, especially when they both have such flowery personalities (notice the floral theme). See, much like other families, in mine we tend to have similar styles and tastes. At least for the women in my family, I really can’t see my uncle wearing a pink shirt with white flowers.

Since, I don’t have a lot of party pictures to share yet, I will give you a sneak peek of what I do have. Some of these were taken after the fact, others were taken as a practice run before the party. Example, the beautiful pork loin that my sweet husband made the week before.

Here we have my tissue pom-poms, this was taken a week after the party so you will have to excuse it’s droopiness. I made at least ten of these guys in yellow, white, and green. Our theme was lemon and lime, I just love the way yellow and green just go together perfectly. If  you are interested in making your own pom-poms please visit my good friend Martha Stewart  here.

I also hung yellow and white battery operated lanterns in my little tree. Most of them came from an online store, but I picked up a few extra white lanterns at the dollar store. I found the dollar store lanterns were much brighter and held a battery charge much longer than my special order lanterns.

I had lots of color hanging from my tree with the pom-poms and lanterns, but I also wanted color on my tables. Enter my bazillion and twenty yellow flowers, I was able to use all 16 of my vintage milk glass bud vases! It was an exciting time.

And we’ve gotten to enjoy these cheerful guys long after the party.

I’ll end on the most important aspect of throwing a party, the food!! Here is the practice pork loin that Bubba smoked the week before. Isn’t it pretty, and he even achieved the much sought after pink ring, which means it was smoked perfectly, not that it’s raw! Which was my first inclination when my sweet husband proudly proclaimed the perfection that is the pink ring. At least when it comes to smoked pork.

I have a story to tell about the smoking meat the morning of the party. But since I am at 1, 326 words now I’ll end with a few words of advice. When having a party at your home, hire out as many home improvement professionals as possible,  hire a maid, and be sure the fire department is on speed dial!