Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Julia's Scrap and Salon Party



Now that I've decided to blog about Julia's Scrap and Salon party, I realize that I didn't take as many pictures that I was suppose to. If you planned and prepared a party such as this one, you'd understand how taking pictures can conveniently be forgotten over other more pressing matters during the party. Lest you think that we had a hundred guests, it was just a small and intimate party held at our home. Julia's not one who enjoys big parties so it doesn't seem right to give her a big one even if this was her 7th birthday.

The idea for the Scrap and Salon party was conceptualized early summer. I was at the duty free shops and saw some "kikay" sleeping masks and thought it would be a good item for giveaways. To prepare for the 'Salon" part of the party, I bought the following:

1. iron curler
2. hair wax in colors pink, blue and golden yellow
3. nail polish
4. nail stickers
5. jewelled clamps, hair ties, colored clips

Since yaya is an expert at fixing hair, she took care of the parlor booth. The girls told yaya what hairstyle they wanted and chose the pins and accessories they preferred to be used on them. At first, none of the girls wanted to use the colored hair wax but when Mjane started to apply them on one of the girls, they welcomed the idea. Inasmuch as I want to show you guys how it looked like, I can't because I missed taking pictures of those. I was multi-tasking-photographer, party organizer, food coordinator kaya di nakayanan ng powers ko :-(

I also set up a nail polish area where the kids could chose their nail color and nail sticker designs. While the others were in the parlor, some were busy making scrap pages using the pictures I asked them to bring. I bought foam stickers, colored paper, boards for the scrap party. I also brought out all of my gel pens, markers, stencils etc for the kids to use. In the beginning, I tried explaining to them some techniques they can use and gave them some ideas on how to go about scrapping. But, they didn't seem too interested as they were too excited to start working. As in they looked like they were going to burst if I had to discuss some some. In the end, I gave up explaining and just let them have a good time. For most of the girls, it was their first time to scrap so they were focused on the stickers and other materials they could use.





After the girls had their hair fixed at the parlor, I took pictures of them using my camera and printed them on the spot using our newly purchased Canon Selphy printer. The girls enjoyed seeing their pictures being printed on the spot. I placed their picture in a photo slot on their canvas tote which was part of the giveaways. In the bag, I placed a set of poster colors, a giant scrap book, a 'kikay' pen with mirror, a personalized notepad and a girly sleeping mask. Of course, they also got to bring home the scrap book pages they created during the party which I bound using a single hole-fastener.




For the cake, I made around 2 dozens vanilla cupcakes and decorated it with pink and yellow icing. Using the same theme of fairy princess from the paper plates, cups and napkins, I also made some cupcake toppers to match. All these entailed several hours of planning and preparation but I was really satisfied with the outcome.



It was after the party that I realized I forgot to bring out the icecream! It totally slipped my mind. The next time I'm throwing Julia another party like this, I have to remind myself to come up with a checklist. It was tiring and busy planning and preparing for the party but I did enjoy myself in the process. It was enough for me that Julia had a great time. Maybe a sleepover party next year :-)

Monday, July 28, 2008

I'm Back!

After a long absence here, I'm back!

To say that the months of June and July was busy is an understatement. "Crazy" is the word more suitable to use. It started when I was preparing for Julia's SCRAP and SALON party and then got really busy with work and my thesis.

Each day, I would spend hours on the computer doing research, reading journals and writing the proposal. It was fine with me going through research and reading but the difficult part is how to conceptualize the problem. It didn't help when some people who don't really understand what the task of doing a thesis entails, gave some comments that make it sound easy and trivial. Just yesterday, I told my mentor that it was impossible for me to do this if I didn't take a leave from work. It was such a draining ordeal both physically and emotionally that I had to ask myself several times why I'm doing this. I almost gave up, too. Up until recently, I didn't realize I could be this persistent and persevering. It feels like a new self-discovery :-)

Not to sound too confident, I still have the actual proposal defense to prepare. I'm just savoring these few days to relax and refresh myself for more work in the next few months.

I really hope I'll have enough time to blog regularly. I miss blogging and have a handful of things to write about. Stay tuned!