I had a night alone.  B is out of town for the second night in a row, and Matthew is sound asleep.  It’s late – very late – but I’ve been working!

So I’ve been thinking about how to weigh down the balloons for Matthew’s party.  Being the person I am (perfectionist, anal retentive, detail-oriented, annoying-as-all-hell) , I don’t want the generic weights you get at a party store.

I was going to make these cute little felt animals and weigh them down with something, but I couldn’t figure out how to weigh them down enough and – well – I’ve never made felt animals!  Now is not the time to try something completely new that involves sewing – even if it’s simple sewing.  I’ve never sewn anything.  This is what I was thinking of copying doing:

After deciding to scrap the felt animal knockoffs ornaments, I was back at the drawing board.  Believe it or not, I must be the only person on the planet with this problem because the internet was no help at all – not even Pinterest.  I searched Etsy, Pinterest, and Bing (because Google is not allowed in this house for business reasons!!) and nothing came up other than boring old fake present/gift weights.  NO!  So I got to thinking.  What could I do?  What could I do?

I settled on the fake present/gift idea because – well – I’m running out of time and I don’t want to be stressing over something that no one will even notice at the party (other than me, of course).  This is one of those details that is solely being done for my own satisfaction.  No one else will even care, let alone notice.  So I hoofed it down to the basement (I hate being alone in a basement – even our finished basement) to the gift closet to see what little boxes I have.  And I found these fabulous little jobbies!

These were used by my friend, Denise, last year when she gave us ornaments for Christmas with Matthew’s photos on them.  My mind got to churning.. yes, yes… this is perfect!  I was going to weigh them down with rocks from our plant beds out front – but then I found a Zip.loc baggie full of those red glass beads that I’m sure we all have used sometime in our decorating past (don’t ask me why they were in the gift closet… I don’t know).  You know the ones – little drops of colored glass to fill a clear vase to then stick fake flowers in?  I brought them upstairs and got to work!  Once I found my container and weights, I knew exactly what I was going to do!

Step 1 was to text Denise to see if she had 2-3 more of these little boxes.  We shall see what she says tomorrow.  If not, I need to know where she bought them!  Step 2 was to fill them with red glass beads that no one will see (I clarify that because red is not one of our party colors).

Step 3 was to pull out the Cri.cut machine and get to work!  I made 3 big animal cut-outs (because I already had 2 made), put them together, and tested them out.  Final products are below.  The animals aren’t attached yet – I’ll probably do that just before tying the balloons onto the hole at the top of the box, but you get the idea!

I am pleased!  I can check this project off the list!  Now all I have left to do is:

1. Order/buy balloons
2. Buy plates, utensils, etc.
3. Make decorative pom poms for entry, mantle, etc.
4. Glue letters and animals on banner
5. Buy beverages/food for event
6. Decide on favors or not (I really, REALLY want to give the big kids sparklers and the little kids bubbles, but I’m not sure if sparklers would upset parents or not)
7. Cook food (if we’re doing more than cake – still not sure)

This list looks long, but it’s nothing compared to what I started with!  Progress was made tonight – and the mess from it is put away.  Bring on the next project!