I’m posting Eye Candy a day early this week so that I can enjoy the rest of my vacation without blogging.  The kids are still here from Florida and we’ve been doing fun (and exhausting) things that aren’t leaving a lot of time left to keep up with the blog. Anyway, the picture is of one of the bouquets my sister-in-law, Mary, put together for me for Dale’s party. I love how old-fashioned and pretty it is and I love even more that the flowers all came from Mary’s own garden.

Have a great holiday weekend and a wonderful 4th of July! See you all on Tuesday!

As I said on Monday, my most favorite thing about Dale’s party was the photo booth we set up in the yard.  I got the idea from a few DIY wedding sites and I knew I wanted to give it a shot.

I made a backdrop from blue fabric that was covered with white puffy clouds and Dale hung it between 2 trees on the side of our yard. We hauled an old bureau out of our attic and sanded it down to get rid of some graffiti left by the kids. Then I took a rubber mallet to it and banged away. Dale antiqued it with some black paint and it was just the look I wanted.

I picked up some chalk board signs at a craft store and we filled the bureau drawers and the area around the backdrop with hats and clothes and various costume stuff we found in our garage.

My idea was that everyone at the party would visit the photo booth at some point and get their picture taken. I wanted it to serve as a sort of “guest book” of the event. And it worked! To make it easy on me I enlisted the help of a good friend of Hannah’s. He’s got a good camera so I gave him one of my memory cards and asked him to take all these photos. I never could have done it without him.

This is our esteemed Police Chief with his wife – she’s a 1st grade teacher. They were the first ones to get their picture taken and I was so happy when I looked over and saw them posing.

While I know not everyone wanted to do this, most people did and they really had fun dressing up and posing. The kids dressed up the most early in the day.

But  as the beer flowed the adults got more involved.

I love the big group photos.

But I also love the photos of couples. Some are husband and wife.

Some are father and son.

Some people even posed alone, like my girlie, Hannah. I just love this photo of her.

My favorite photo of the day, though, is this one of Dale and our friend Lucy. I love their expressions and it just epitomizes everything I wanted the photo booth to be.

Finally, because I know you will ask, I did pose with the birthday boy. That leather jacket was his a billion years ago and it doesn’t fit either one of us now.  We look pretty happy, though, right?

This experience was so much fun and really not a lot of work at all. Get yourself a photo booth for your next big party. You won’t regret it!

Around my house the 4th of July is a working holiday. Dale generally has 3 big jobs on this particular day – the parade in Plymouth in the morning, an outdoor concert at a VA hospital in the afternoon, and another outdoor concert at a wonderful setting in Sandwich. Even with all that work, though, we manage to celebrate the 4th of July. Here are our 10 Favorite Things about the Fourth of July.

1. Fireworks. I mean, really, what’s not to love?
2. Cook outs. Hamburgers, hot dogs and potato salad. Okay, maybe no potato salad this year since I’m kind of sick of it since we’ve got so much leftover from Dale’s party.
3. Parades. I love a parade and the one in Plymouth is huge and in a beautiful spot by the ocean.
4. Decorations. I love buntings and flags and hats and all things red-white-and-blue.
5. The Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest. I always watch this if I stay home from the parade. So much fun!
6. The Boston Pops concert on the Esplanade. I’ve never actually gone but I love to watch it on tv. Nobody plays Stars and Stripes Forever like the Boston Pops.
7. Sparklers. They sure are fun to wave around once it gets dark.
8. The Sandwich, MA annual boat parade on Shawme Pond. Small boats and floats and canoes and kayaks are decorated with paper lanterns. It’s a tradition that’s over 100 years old and it’s a real slice of Americana.
9. Ice cream, especially if it comes from an Ice Cream Truck.
10. Dale and the Duds. Sure, Dale has to work but the music is great and I get to go with him so it’s not all bad. Truthfully, it’s pretty fun.

Can you believe the 4th of July is almost here? What’s your favorite thing about this holiday?

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes for Dale. And even more importantly, thank you for the good weather vibes you sent our way. Despite the forecast (which had me in tears Saturday morning) the day turned out to be beautiful. It wasn’t too hot and the sky actually cleared and we had sunshine for the first time in days. What an incredible gift that was!

Now, let me take you back about a year. I was just starting to plan Hannah’s graduation party and Dale happened to be looking over my shoulder while I was on the internet checking tent sizes and prices. He saw a dunk tank on a company’s website and said to me, “you can rent a dunk tank?” I told him, “honey, you can rent just about anything, including a dunk tank.” So he tipped his head to one side and said, “are you throwing me a sixtieth birthday party next year?” I said I hadn’t given it much thought yet but that I would if he wanted one and he said that he did and he wanted it to include a dunk tank and he wanted to be the one getting dunked.

I built his entire birthday party around that dunk tank and we had an old fashioned carnival for him. I think the theme was quite appropriate since my husband is really just a big kid. We had carnival food, including popcorn and hot dogs, BBQ chicken and potato salad, baked beans and . . . wait for it . . . fried dough!

Dale didn’t want a cake so we had ice cream novelties for dessert and a friend of ours got us a chest freezer to use for the day. We used a beach umbrella, a wooden wheel (from an old spinning wheel, as a matter of fact), and a dolly to make the freezer look like an old-fashioned ice cream cart.

I wanted the decorations to be really colorful and fun. In fact, the word I kept using was colorpalooza. I made these huge tissue paper things to hang from the tent.

And I made ribbon streamers for each corner of the tent.

The centerpieces were the pinwheels I made a while back and I put them in #10 cans along with colorful lollipops.

We set up all kinds of backyard games, including a balloon dart board.

There was also the dunk tank, of course. The water was pretty cold but Dale had a ball sitting in there and shouting “high and dry” and “where’s all the ball players”. He got dunked plenty of times and it was the highlight of the day for everyone to watch this routine.

We had a palm reader. Okay, it was really my friend Lois but she did research on this and did a pretty legitimate job of it. And we had a DJ who played music that was lively and fun and got everyone dancing.

There were knit bloggers and fibery friends in attendance. Total attendance at the party? 114 people!!

I had lots of help and I just couldn’t have pulled this off without it. Hannah’s friends came and ran the games and took pictures. I recruited several friends to make potato salad and others brought appetizers to share. The kids all helped with decorating the tent and making my vision of the party come to life.

My favorite part of the whole event though, had to be the photo booth. It’s so much my favorite that I think it deserves a post all it’s own – - – on Wednesday.

Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?

My beloved husband Dale is turning 60 on Sunday and we are celebrating with a birthday party of epic proportions at our house tomorrow. Think blue skies and sunshine for me, will ya? Cross your fingers that I don’t run out of food, or even worse, beer. And join me in wishing my sweetheart the happiest of birthdays, with many many more to come.

Thanks!

You may recall, from a post back in April, that I was working at spinning down my backlog of Hello Yarn Fiber Club installments. At the time I wrote that post I said I had 2 bags left to spin. I’m pleased to report that those last 2 bags are spun and done.

I have to say, I think spun and done may be my new favorite phrase.

Hooray! Spun and done. I’m just going to keep saying it.

The May 2010 fiber was 4 oz of BFL/tussah silk called Floating Down.  I left it as singles and have about 200 yards.

And the July 2010 fiber was 4 oz of Mixed BFL Wool Top called Troublemaker. I plyed it and got about 175 yards worsted weight.

As much as I loved this fiber club, I am so glad to be done with it. I just don’t spin often enough to have 4 oz of fiber arriving at my house on a monthly basis. And seriously, it’s not like I don’t have a whole lot of other fiber to spin anyway.

Maybe now I can actually get to that. Care to join me? The Tour de Fleece is right around the corner and I hope to have a fleece spun and done.

I told you I was going to keep saying it.

Last Saturday we went to see Jimmy Buffett for the 5th year in a row. If you’ve never experience tailgating at one of these events, well, it’s sort of hard to explain.

There are costumes.

Lots and lots of costumes. We call this one on Dale A Pirate Looks at Sixty. If you’re a parrothead you’ll get the reference.

People dress as pirates and mermaids and hula girls. Men wear bras and women flash their boobs and crazy things happen.

There are games. People create board games like Wheel of Fortune. And Shotz of Luck. You play these games and they give you food and drink.

People build blenders that run on weed wacker mowers.

And cook all kinds of delicious food – there is lots of food in the Buffett parking lot. There are cheeseburgers and clams.

There are huge sausages and snacks of all kind.

Of course there is some drinking. I always bring a nice big bottle of Patron.

Other people shotgun beer.

And drink from skis with shot glasses attached to them.

Everyone is in a good mood and super friendly.

Is there any wonder it’s my favorite day of the year?

Last summer we had a Ten On Tuesday topic for 10 books you wanted to read over the summer. That was fun but we had no way of knowing if any of those books were actually good reads. Therefore, with a little prodding from Ruth, this week’s topic is 10 Books You Would Recommend to a Friend.

Before I start my list, though, I want to tell you about why I usually like a book. I went to a library conference a few years ago and attended a lecture by Nancy Pearl. She is a well known reader’s advisory expert and she said that people read for 4 major things: character, language, story or setting. As she explained the concept behind this I quickly realized that I am someone who reads for the setting. I want descriptions. I want to feel like I’m actually in the book. If someone in the book I’m reading is in the desert I am going to feel thirsty.  If someone in the book is cold, I’ll grab a blanket. Hungry, I’m going to want a snack. You get the idea, right? I also enjoy good character development, interesting language, and an intriguing plot but my overriding attraction to a book is going to be based on a great setting. I truly believe that the books that become blockbusters are the ones that include all 4 attractions because they will then have universal appeal. Okay, enough explaining, let’s get on with list.

1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Pass the peanuts.
2. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Sad but sweet and not at all what you’d expect from the title.
3. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Dale and Hannah and I have all read this and we all loved it.
4. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Has anyone not read this yet? If you haven’t then read it now before the movie comes out in August.
5. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Vampires. Need I say more?
6. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. A great Gothic novel with a shocking plot twist.
7. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I probably wouldn’t recommend this to a man but it’s a wonderful story.
8. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I swear I could hear and smell the fire in Smyrna.
9. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. Break out the sweet tea while you read this one.
10. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. I don’t care for Science Fiction at all but this is a fabulous books.

As a librarian, I recommend books to people every day.  As an avid reader, I would highly recommend any one of these books to a friend.

Last Wednesday night, while pretty much all of my friends were watching the Boston Bruins win The Stanley Cup, Dale and I went to our first Brockton Rox game of the season. The stadium was pretty deserted, as one would expect on such a big night for local sports fans, but we still had a great time.

We drank beer and ate hot dogs.

We cracked up at the local score board, which generally reflects the score of a Red Sox game if they are playing at the same time as the Rox, but on this particular night the sign had been modified to post the score of the hockey game.

We watched the Rox play the best game we’ve seen them play in quite a few seasons, beating the other team soundly.

And we think the credit needs to go to this guy – someone we both admired greatly back in the day.

Yes, that’s Bill Buckner, former Red Sox, notably remembered for letting the ball go right between his legs during game six of the 1986 World Series.

I had such a crush on him  back then. He’s still pretty cute and, while Dale hasn’t completely forgiven him for that play 25 years ago, I’m willing to overlook things if he can make the Rox play better.

Maybe.

I do not like spiders at all but I do like spiderwort. I like it so much that  a few years ago I stole this spiderwort plant right out of my father-in-law’s yard. He didn’t mind. Then again, he probably didn’t notice.

I hope you notice something beautiful this weekend!