Italy:A Venetian Masquerade

My amazingly wonderful friend Angie threw a Venetian

Masquerade for her 30th Birthday and it was fantastic!

She has such wonderful vision, I completely enjoy being

surrounded by her ideas, she also had such great friends

that helped and got immersed in the theme. Loved it! She

rented the most perfect venue for her ball at the Tuscan

Villas, so classy. Along with the theme she had activities

that would stimulate all of our 5 senses, they totally added

to the overall atmosphere and experience. Happy Birthday

Angie! Thanks for such a decadent night, may you have

many more decadent evenings....

Isn't the Birthday Girl Fabulous?

The guests were asked to either dress renaissance or toga,

but a mask was essential... everybody's costumes were so

fun.

I made Reece's red/music mask.

One activity was identifying 20 different SMELLS in mystery

jars (really tested my sniffer, but I did get sunscreen, pasta

sauce, and chocolate...) The food buffet was scrumptious to

TASTE, lasagna, salad, San Pellegrinno Lemonata, fruity

mojitos, tiramisu, cakes, and thumbprint cookies that looked like

little jewels. Yum. Along with the main room Angie also

rented the theater across the hallway were she played a movie

for all to SEE. There was italian opera and music playing in the

background for us to HEAR. I know that my fingers loved

TOUCHING the raw materials used in making the masks

as well as holding and wearing the finished products. My

birthday gift to Angie was to make her a flower arrangement

for the buffet, help out with the decorations (thanks mom for

all that I borrowed), and then take pictures of all the guests

in their masks. I brought a few period costumes for some fun

poses, but their togas looked great too. Here are some of the

pictures.....Thanks to all the couples that came over and got

into posing for my camera. Angie's drape and my inherited

chandelier in the background.

These lovely ladies painted on their masks, brilliant.

I made my silver and white mask and Kelly's teal butterfly

mask. I had too much being creative. (Ive decided my silver

mask looks better on display on a table then on my face, I

was all giggles during these pictures but....you cant tell.....

sneaky, sneaky....creepy, creepy?)

But I tried on as many masks as I could get my hands on,

this kitty one was a favorite.

Kelly totally reminded me of Christine from phantom,

I totally had "Music of the Night" and "Masquerade"

stuck on the mind.

Creativly Preparing

Girls night making masks for Angie's Masquerade themed

birthday the next week. It was so fun getting our craft on.

All the masks were custom made from plaster formed on

our faces. Meeting cute new gals, paint, glitter, feathers,

ribbons. Hot glue, as always, amazing. I couldnt stop at one,

I made three.

Greece

Went to Greek Fest with my lovely ladies, Kelly and Angie,

and we had a lovely time. We started the day with homemade

german pancakes at Angie's (thanks girl, they were amazing!)

then we continued to SLC where we were enchanted by the

charm and smells of the cute farmers market we walked

through to get to the festival. Gorgeous produce, stunning

floral bouquets, baskets, puppy pugs, fun music. Wonderful.

We took a tour of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral

downtown, it was beautiful. I loved the blue and the stained

glass.

By the time that we got to the festival it was so hot that we

didnt feel like feasting on all the famous dishes we had heard

so much about, so we settled on tasting the various pastries.

I loved the custard-like cake, the almond tart, and the

Baklava. We also enjoyed the traditional dancing. Good times.

Russia

I made Borscht as a part of my presentation on Russia

that I gave for our Culture Club Eastern European Day.

It took longer to make than expected,

Tasted better with sour cream than expected,

took much longer for Reece and I to finish than expected,

but a fun experience nonetheless.