My first Party Decoration and how I got started...the good and bad of it.

Here's the VERY FIRST

party decoration I ever did.

It was over 20 years ago.

I find it funny and a quirky coincidence (?) that

it was something to do with guitars since

we now have a complete website devoted to 

guitar centerpieces.

We've done many other themes thru the years.

So why was the first thing I ever did a guitar thing?

Hard to figure.

I didn't make the decision to make this boy with 

a guitar. Someone asked me to.

How it came about was that I was sitting at

the bar of our favorite restaurant with my husband.

We were eating a late afternoon Saturday lunch and 

enjoying the surrounding

company and having a drink or two.

A party planner was doing a party in the downstairs 

banquet room which was an extremely 

popular party venue at the time. 

She kept coming upstairs about every 1/2 hour (or less) and 

ordered a drink and was chatty and friendly. 

We struck up a conversation. 

She asked what I did and I told her one of the things 

I had recently done was paint the doors of 

this restaurants ladies and mens room with a caricature 

of a woman and a man...sorta

vintage 1920's style people. 

A 40-ish man with a moustache and a big busted elderly 

sophisticated woman with a hat.

(It was that kind of restaurant....kinda colorful and funky and fun. 

Darn...I wish I could find a picture of those doors now.)

She asked me if I could do a figure of a boy playing a guitar if she

gave me a photo of his face.  I  figured I could try.

I have to say I worked really hard on it for hardly any money.

But it worked out well and she asked me to do more stuff.

I did and I did and I did some more. Wow... she kept me busy.

Actually she kept me very busy until things fell apart for her because

she had a drinking problem...and some other issues too like a chronic

"runny nose" and a need to wear sunglasses indoors. I was slow to catch on to

the "issues" and the fact that her 2 employees were doing their best to keep

the business going until even they gave up. They branched out on their own

and she went to rehab and then into another line of business.

Isn't life so messy sometimes?

By then, my name was getting known around town as 

someone to call for themed bar/bat mitzvah and sweet 16 party 

decorations and I started working with lots of people. 

And here I am today. 

Still working with lots of people.

Foamcore Letters for Signs in 2 different ways

COMPUTER LETTERS or HAND CUT LETTERS?

(Here's some answers to the question I often need to answer.)

Both use foamcore.

One uses the computer.

One uses paint and glitter.

The computer letters work well for
smaller letters or more intricate fonts like 
these curly letters and can be simpler to work with.

Here's a sign done all in computer letters.

Here's a close-up.

 These letters were printed on the computer and

then mounted on foamcore.

Then they were cut out around the shape of

the outline around the letter. 

Another way to do it is to cut out each letter.

Then paint and glitter those letters.

Then mount those letters on 2 or 3 more layers.

Like this one here.

Here's a close-up of the Joshua letters.

Both require a sharp knife to 
cut around the foamcore.


We like both styles.


We can suggest which is the best option to 
fit the sign situation for both the budget and 
to get the best look.

CANDY Centerpieces for Parties

 Making candy centerpieces for parties is hazardous to my health. We have to buy too many sample boxes and then I just eat too much candy. Yum Yum.....I like my job....hazards or not.

Big boxes elevated up on poles or low centerpieces sitting under eye level...both work.

I can't think of any flavor of candy that won't work for this theme. 

We've done all chocolate. That's good.

We've done assorted. That's good.

My personal favorite candy is Good 'n Plenty. 

I love black licorice.

I also like Sweet Tarts.

Don't let me near those. I'll eat the whole box.

I think these boxes of candy look cute all by

themselves but when there is other candy added, 

I think it just goes over the top.

I think other centerpiece themes are healthier but

who wants to do a broccoli party? I've never heard of one.

Maybe we should stick to foamcore lollipops like these?

We also make many Sweet Shoppe signs that
look great sitting on your candy table or sweet table.
Click on this picture if you'd like to read that
Blog Post.

Or, send us an email if you'd like
some of our designs for
YOUR PARTY or other
big party signs with sweet ideas.

marlyss@mac.com

Artsy Gazebo

When Jacob and I were in Arizona we went to the Desert Museum.

They had the most wonderfully artistic gazebo with a beautiful view.

As someone who really likes twisted wood and things built with them, I

had a hard time moving on from this spot. 

I would have like to take it home and put it in my yard. 

I'd hang some plants and put some natural wood 

furniture underneath it. 

You know... the kind you'd find at an art fair.

Maybe hang a swing....although I'm not sure where.

It's wild and crazy looking, isn't it? Maybe the swing isn't

such a good idea.

Airplane trip to Arizona

Assorted random thoughts on our trip:

AIRPLANE:
1. I love flying on an airplane. The flight attendants are old. I always thought they were young and pretty but I haven't seen one of those. They all look around 40-60 years old and tired. That surprised me.

2. Food in the airport is pretty good. Good coffee and good variety. I had some taco thing with great re-fried beans..not those mushy dog food like kind.

3. Nobody checked Jacob's I.D. either coming or going. But they patted my body down once on the way home and scanned my water bottle for "vapors" and emptied my backpack to look around it. I was fine with it all. Neither was an intrusion or anything that offended me. In fact, I like the diligence. Go for it.

FORGETTING THINGS:
I didn't forget one thing. Of course, as I said before, I pack like Monk. My suitcase weighed 44 pounds on the way home. I checked it, of course. I loved the fact that I didn't have to lug it around the airport or try and squeeze it into some overhead compartment because I had packed lighter so I wouldn't have to pay the $25. For me, it was worth it.

TUCSON AIRPORT:
Wow! Great signs everywhere. It was so easy to navigate thru. You'd have to be brain dead not to figure out how to get anywhere.

Great electronic charging station counters. I loved them and received wonderful WiFi reception.

JACOB...My TRAVELING COMPANION:
What can I say. He's the best person I've ever traveled with.

OUR TARANTULA CONFERENCE:
That's for another blog but it was unusual, interesting, informative and a well planned event. I got a kick out of it.

THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT HAVING TO GO HOME:
1'm going to get to install Lion on my computer.

TUCSON, ARIZONA:
Beautiful...absolutely breathtaking beautiful. If I couldn't live on water...which I do...I would want to live by mountains. They do what water does...change with the clouds in the sky and where your body is viewing them and every view is a good one. There is no bad view of a mountain or no bad view of a body of water.

The Raffle

We sat at the pizza dinner/raffle at the same table as the lady who started The American Tarantula Society in 1991. She is an 8th grade science teacher right now.
She had 2 sons that shared her tarantula hobby as they were growing up.

She had 1,000 (yes, that's not a typo) tarantulas when her oldest son got meningitis at 18 years old and died in 1998.

Since it was a shared hobby with her boys she couldn't even go into her tarantula room any more and they started dying. She lost over half of them before her youngest son helped pull her out of her well of despair and they could start caring for them again.

This was the 13th annual Tarantula Society Conference and the first one she was able to come to even though she was the original founder of the idea and others had to take over when her heart breaking tragedy occurred.

She's on the other side of the pain...as they say....but her story stabbed my heart.

You sure can't just look at a person and see what scars they may be carrying inside.

Tarantula burrows

Are you interested in knowing about tarantula burrows in the Arizona desert? If so, read on. If not, then run away to something else on the web. Hey...speaking of "web".....that's what this is about.

That's how you identify a tarantula hole from a hole that is not as much fun to explore. You look for the soft webbing across the hole. It's a very subtle thing and hard to spot...at least for me....not so much for Jacob.

Then you insert a tiny soft stick inside and "tickle" it out. It thinks it food and is intrigued and either comes out fast and quick or more tenuous and slowly. You never know.

You can also pour a little water into the hole and that encourages them to come out.

Jacob will sometimes start digging to discover the tunnel of the burrow if he thinks it went way down into it's hole. He gets in that hunter mode.

Now wasn't that interesting?

Night hike and Arizona scenery

Jake and I took a long night walk in the dark of night (with a guide) into the mountains looking for tarantulas in their burrows and scorpions under a black light. It was an incredible adventure. Knowing that there were rattlesnakes around us, we treaded carefully.

It was a lovely 85 degrees with a slight breeze. Nonetheless, walking up the gradual incline made me sweaty. Or, maybe it was the thought of the snakes, I'm not sure.

I really liked walking in the dark. I'm not sure why. Usually I don't like the dark. I leave lots of lights on in my house. But this was a beautiful adventure.

I even took one of those scenery pictures that probably a million people have taken just before we set out. I think I'll make it my new computer desktop picture.

Ken The Bug Guy

Jacob got to meet Ken The Bug Guy. The celebrity of the tarantula world who had the tv show.

Weird pointed kid-friendly plant?

Not touching tarantulas or sharp prickly things. Nope....he's definitely not. I won't let him and definitely wouldn't take picture.

Tarantula holes in the ground

Jacob has had amazing success in finding live 

tarantulas in the wild on our visit to Arizona.

Jake looks for small round holes with webs over them and then goes for it.

Sometimes putting some water in the hole helps the spider come to the surface.

Here's a video of Jake in action.

Tarantula coming out of it's hole from Marlyss Hollyer on Vimeo.

Type in the word 'tarantula' in the search bar if you want to
read more about Jake's adventurous hobby.

Tarantula in hand....straight from the ground

Packing and Flying

I packed like "Monk" I was told. If you've watched Monk you know what I mean. If you haven't, it's...well, a little obsessive compulsive. I packed like I was going into the wilderness and not a big city like Tucson, Arizona where I could BUY something if I forgot to pack it. I even contemplated looking on the internet to see if there was an Apple Store nearby in case I forgot some important cord for my ipad, iphone or camera. But I think I've got it all...and then some.

We left the house at 5 a.m. and headed to the airport. Everything went so smoothly it was almost like gliding on air. We had pre-printed boarding passes so we just dropped off our luggage and then went to the security line. It was a long line but clipped right along on the same smooth air we were sailing on. (Didn't have to show any I.D. for Jacob) Jacob just took off his vest and shoes and put his phone in the box and I did the same except I also had a backpack. I think this is the first time ever that I didn't beep when I went thru the scanner. I usually forget something in my pocket.

Then we sailed over to our boarding area with a quick stop for some bottled water to insert into the special pocket in our matching ScottE vests that both Jake and I are wearing.

We hardly had to wait any time before boarding and we liked the seats Susie picked out for us in row #10. Although we sat in row 11 instead. They all look the same. The couple whose seats we were in didn't care and just moved up to row 10. Jacob got the window seat and set up his homework right away and I got on my ipad.

We're having a perfect trip so far.

Falling asleep on the plane.

We are almost in Tuck-son (Tucson) so we have to keep saying the name right soon. Pilot said it's 83 degrees there and some clouds. Jake has been enjoying the window seat on both flights. He just saw another plane fly by us and spotted a low flying blimp.

The Big Adventure Begins

I packed like "Monk" I was told. If you've watched Monk you know what I mean. If you haven't, it's...well, a little obsessive compulsive. I packed like I was going into the wilderness and not a big city like Tucson, Arizona where I could BUY something if I forgot to pack it. I even contemplated looking on the internet to see if there was an Apple Store nearby in case I forgot some important cord for my ipad, iphone or camera. But I think I've got it all...and then some.

We left the house at 5 a.m. and headed to the airport. Everything went so smoothly it was almost like gliding on air. We had pre-printed boarding passes so we just dropped off our luggage and then went to the security line. It was a long line but clipped right along on the same smooth air we were sailing on. (Didn't have to show any I.D. for Jacob) Jacob just took off his vest and shoes and put his phone in the box and I did the same except I also had a backpack. I think this is the first time ever that I didn't beep when I went thru the scanner. I usually forget something in my pocket.

Then we sailed over to our boarding area with a quick stop for some bottled water to insert into the special pocket in our matching ScottE vests that both Jake and I are wearing.

We hardly had to wait any time before boarding and we liked the seats Susie picked out for us in row #10. Although we sat in row 11 instead. They all look the same. The couple whose seats we were in didn't care and just moved up to row 10. Jacob got the window seat and set up his homework right away and I got on my ipad.

We're having a perfect trip so far.