Tuesday To Do #78 and #77 List Makers

 Happy Tuesday Eve, y'all!!

Hope you are having as wonderful of a week as I am!

Have you had a chance to get to anything on your To Do List?

Yea, me neither, but I still have fun making the list!

Let's see who made the list this week! 

Pumpkin Pancakes from High Heels and Grills

 

 

About Blogging Time's adorable Elephant Softie

 

Great Waterless Slip 'n Slide from the Stuff of Success

 

 If you were on this week's To Do List, then please feel free to grab a  LIST MAKER button:

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Now on the the party...

 

Link up your creations!  Sewing, crafting, cooking, tips, photography, tablescapes, parties, scrapbooking, collectibles...it all works.  Please save your items for sell, your giveaways and your own parties for those specific blog parties.  You're the best!

(Borrowed these little rules from the Shabby Nest...she's got it going on!)

1.  Become a follower of The Blackberry Vine.

2. Link directly to your post and not just to your blog.

3. Grab the TUESDAY TO DO BUTTON from the sidebar, and link back to the Blackberry Vine.  (Yes, it can be a little time-consuming, but it's the sweet blogger thing to do!)

4.  Please visit other participants and leave them some comment love.  Comment, comment, comment!!!

I reserve the right to remove posts that are not in keeping with the spirit of Tuesday To-Do including but not limited to those that link to your shop, your giveaway or your linky party, and those that do not link back to the Blackberry Vine. Thanks for playing fair!!

Pineapple Vodka

Oh my friend, what have you done?!?!

Well, my little friend brought her family's recipe for Pineapple Vodka to a little soiree' I had one evening.

Hold my hand, that is some good stuff!!

The perfect after dinner drink!

 

Here's the recipe...

,

Large Jar (Clean & sterile)

Canned pineapple rings, drained (enough to fill your jar)

Good Vodka (enough to cover pineapple in jar)

 

Simply fill jar with pineapple rings.

Fill jar, covering pineapple.

Sit for 10 days in fridge.

Serve in shot glasses.

 

Strain remainder (if any) and store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

(Vodka soaked pineapple can be used for drink garnishes up to 3 days after straining.  Discard pineapple after 3 days.

 

Next time I serve this, I'm going to have enough of my DECORATED FLASKS made so everyone can take home a bit of this yummy little treat in style!

 

 

Enjoy!

Smiles!!!

 

Sharing this fun little cocktail with some of the fun parties in the sidebar.

Olympic Birthday Party

Finally, right?

Here's the skinny on the Olympic Party we had way back in JUNE!

We started by meeting at the middle school track by our school.

To be sure everything was on the up and up, I contacted the school several weeks in advance, to be sure we could use the field.  They appreciated the fact that I checked with them first.  Their only request was for us to stay off of the football field due to the sprinkler system in place.

No Problem!

Since we set up our tents & coolers at the back of the field, we had a sign near the parking lot letting everyone know they were in the right place.

As the athletes arrived, they warmed up with some light weigh-lifting.

She makes it look so easy, doesn't she?!?

They also received their name tags on USA lanyards.

Races were next.

The 50 yard dash and relays.

The relay baton was made from a cut up pool noodle stuffed with red, white & blue crepe paper streamers.  We used the same crepe paper for the finish lines.  The kiddos LOVED breaking the finish line!

  

The tents held coolers full of Gatorade and water bottles.

There were also Z bars, Z fruit, and other healthy snacks available.

We took plenty of hydration breaks! 

Also at the track the athletes participated in the long jump, discus (frisbee) throw and javelin (pool noodles) throw.

After all of the track and field activities were complete, the athletes received their medals and got ready for the parade back to the house.  There were plenty of flags for everyone.  It was a really impressive sight.  Check out that torch!  CLICK HERE for the how-to.

Back at the house, everyone took a break with a popsicle and more Gatorade before having the basketball throw, soccer kick and more javelin throwing.

The decorations started to wilt a little, the rings were made from floral styrofoam wrapped with crepe paper.  It was a little windy and they didn't hold up that well.  Would definitely do more to reinforce the connections.

 

Straw wreath wrapped in striped ribbon & star garland embellished with wooden letters, flags and an olympic insignia.

A group of international flags lined the walk way and the flower beds.  Thanks to V & M for putting those out for me!

 

The boy wanted red velved cupcakes.  I know, I know...not my usual MO.  All I can say is that they worked for this event.  Of course we also had individual Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Cups for everyone because my kids don't think it's a party with cake AND ice cream.

As the party drew to a close, we began passing out the treat bags.

To see what was inside the little treat bags, CLICK HERE.

Olympic Party Treat Bags

I know, I know...this post is way overdue.

The party was over three months ago and I'm just now posting it.

In my defense, this is the first time I've been home long enough to work much on the blog.  Summer has been BUSY!

Back to the bags.

I LOVE a good treat bag...something to match the theme.  Lucky for me I was able to pick up lots of patriotic items due to the fact that July 4th was just around the corner! 

Personalized pencils are fun and inexpensive!  I ordered these from Oriental Trading Co.

Gold Medal Cookie Pops were made by topping my sugar cookies with gold sugar sprinkles.

 

The fun crackers were found at the Christmas Store.  Each one had fun little toys inside.

 

We threw in some bubble gum wrapped in patriotic wrappers, a flag and a "thanks for coming" tag to finish it off.

 

MORE OLYMPIC PARTY IDEAS

Olympic Party Invitations

 

DIY Olympic Torch

 

 

Easy Olympic Torch

No Olympics would be complete without a torch, right?

Well, here is about the easiest torch ever!

 

All you need is:

a piece of gold metallic poster board

double sided adhesive

assorted colors of tissue paper including red, yellow, orange, gold

Roll poster board into tight cone shape; secure with double sided adhesive.

Inside the cone, make several verical lines with the double sided adhesive.

Insert tissue at various lenghts to mimic flames.

Ta-da!!  A torch!!!

Great prop for our Olympic Party!
CLICK HERE to see the OLYMPIC PARTY INVITATION

Go USA!
Smiles!


Old School Sack Lunch - PTA Hospitality

This year I plan on sharing some fresh ideas for your elementary PTA hospitality team.

If you are involved with PTA (I highly encourage you to get involved if you have children in school,) you know that most of the budget is spent on programs and items for the school.  We also know that a happy teacher = a happy school.  Hospitality is an important team that has to be creative, often counting on donations and time from the parents at our school.

This year we had about $4 to spend per gift on the 70 teachers & staff at our school.  I started brainstorming ideas, then went to different sites that sell promotional corporate items.

At this site, I found these insulated lunch bags on sale.  The minimum order was 100 but it worked out perfectly as we had a plan for the extra 30 (more on that later in the year!)  It also worked out well  that they only had the navy bags left (our colors are blue and yellow.)

They printed them and shipped them in a timely manner so I was able to get them to the teachers the first week of school.

Now, I don't know about you, but I have a hard time giving someone an empty bag.  There was a little money left in my budget so I priced out some food ideas and came up with an old fashioned peanut butter lunch.  (The teachers' lunches were actually made with white bread, but I didn't want to use one of theirs for the photo op!)  The cookies were fresh baked but from refrigerated cookie dough (it was the most cost effective way.)  I used the small cellophane treat bags from Hobby Lobby to wrap them.  A drink and a banana rounded out the meal.

 

 

 Our theme this year is an old school, vintage schoolhouse theme.

I made these tags to tie on the bags.  The back's were labelled with each teacher's/staff's name.  If you need a label, CLICK HERE for your own free printable.

 

 .

 

Oh, I almost forgot.  The bananas got a little label, too!  It says, "We're bananas for Carroll!"  The monkey graphic comes from The Graphics Fairy.  CLICK HERE for the link to the monkey.  Not sure if any of the teachers or staff saw them or not, but I know they were there!

 

If you have any fun, cheap, cute, wonderful ideas for PTA Hospitality, I would love to hear them!

 

Smiles!!!

Sharing with some of the awesome parties found in the sidebar!

Tuesday To Do #77 and #76 List Makers

It's Tuesday To Do time again!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day!

We enjoyed much needed time with friends thus a little delay in getting the party up!

Let's go ahead and get started!

Don't miss these List Makers:

 

Since I'm only days away from becoming an aunt, I've got my new niece on the brain!

With It's Always Autumn's excellent tutorial, I'm sure I can master these adorable p.j.'s!

 

Love this Poppin' Poppies Baby Shower by Kourtney at Pile 'o Craft!

 

Yummy Cranberry Crunch Muffin from Twirl and Taste!!

 

 



If you were on this week's To Do List, then please feel free to grab a  LIST MAKER button:

TUESDAY TO DO
FEATURED BUTTON  

<center> <a href="http://www.blackberryvine.blogspot.com"><img border="0" src=" <a href="<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/51243403@N02/5510091012/" title="Tuesday To Do FEatured by jamianntexas, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/5510091012_ebe78ff067_m.jpg" width="125" height="125" alt="Tuesday To Do FEatured" /></a></a></center>

Now on the the party...

Link up your creations!  Sewing, crafting, cooking, tips, photography, tablescapes, parties, scrapbooking, collectibles...it all works.  Please save your items for sell, your giveaways and your own parties for those specific blog parties.  You're the best!

Go ahead and double up your gift wrapping posts here and at the Pretty Packages Party going on now.

(Borrowed these little rules from the Shabby Nest...she's got it going on!)

1.  Become a follower of The Blackberry Vine and "LIKE" The Blackberry Vine on Facebook.

2. Link directly to your post and not just to your blog.

3. Grab the TUESDAY TO DO BUTTON from the sidebar, and link back to the Blackberry Vine.  (Yes, it can be a little time-consuming, but it's the sweet blogger thing to do!)

4.  Please visit other participants and leave them some comment love.  Comment, comment, comment!!!

I reserve the right to remove posts that are not in keeping with the spirit of Tuesday To-Do including but not limited to those that link to your shop, your giveaway or your linky party, and those that do not link back to the Blackberry Vine. Thanks for playing fair!!