Last Week of Big Top Prep

If you are new to this blog: you can read what Big Top Tuesday is and how is came about here.

If you want to track my progress: you can access all Big Top Tuesdays here.

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Well, the other day I was talking to my sister and she said "So....are you excited about Monday?!" and I said "Why? What's Monday???"

Then she said...."uh----the circus party. dork."

And I said, completely aghast, "WHAT?! That is THIS Monday?"

And now you know how my preparations are coming... :-)

Welcome to my LAST installment of Project Big Top. Next week you will get to see the end result. (Hopefully not a total bomb.)

I have been pretty busy and accomplishing a lot, though there is PLENTY more to do. Of course, Corynn is my trusty sidekick, often asking first thing in the morning what we might do today for the circus party. Sadly, I just realized I don't really have any pictures of her helping. :-( Only a picture of the littler ones making....well, a mess.


When we went to the circus this year I learned firsthand how gaudy flashy anything circus is, so I have been gathering "stuff" from around the house. That bin of florals from my wreath-selling days has come in handy. I don't know HOW I will use them, but it is good to know I can do flashy.



Homemade face paint: We did a trial run to make sure it doesn't backfire by staining skin or causing rashing. It works great and guess what? It comes off great too!

The recipe~~~~

Mix together:

1 teaspoon of corn starch
1/2 teaspoon of cold cream
1/2 teaspoon of water
drops of food coloring

I think I ought to make up some designs to choose from though, in case children can't think of something spur of the moment. I found the recipe here, though I used CVS stash lotion instead of cold cream. Or maybe that is what cold cream is? I have no idea.


I finished up the button candy this week too, using this fabulous recipe. Oh my. I am in love. The original recipe is:

2 tablespoons meringue powder OR 2 egg whites

6 tablespoons water

1/4 teaspoon almond extract or lemon juice

1 box (1 pound) confectioners' sugar

ziploc sandwich baggies

food coloring

artificial flavoring (optional)

I didn't use the water at all. And I am afraid if you did, it may not work. And of course, I used egg whites. ;-) Do go to her site, if you plan to make some, as she created a pdf that you can print to make your buttons line up well.

These are such fun and so reminiscent of my childhood. Love 'em. It is taking all my willpower not plucking them off.


Jazzed up some recycling for a tin can game using scrapbooking paper from my scrapbooking days...haven't scrapbooked a single page in about, oh, three years. That stopped when I started going nuts with photography so I gave up. But being the packrat I am, kept all the supplies.)
I made some beanbags but we may use them for a different game and use Matt's hackysack for this one.


I have loved tissue paper balls/flowers ever since I was a KID so the new craze they seem to be causing in the crafting world, is in fact, nothing new. I remember making a bunch of these when I was like 7. I would love to make a bunch MORE for the circus party, but alas, this is all the tissue paper I had in my gift-wrapping stash. :-(


And finally, I did it. I spent money. But I did it before a circus party was even definite. I bought $3.00 worth of rubber duckies for the swimming pool, thinking Adele' would have fun with them in the tub/creek and that they would work awesome for a circus party if I ever had one. Even still, I am going to count it toward the party expenses. As far as I can see, unless I cave on the circus peanuts, $3.00 might be the only expenses this circus party will have accrued.

I believe we have all the plates and utensils to use already still left over from when we moved out here and some other shin-digs we have had in the past. May not be theme-ish or pretty, but they are definitely usable. We may not have enough cups, but I will use canning jars if necessary.

We have fireworks that I bought for last years' Fourth of July party that never happened because I was too cranky and pregnant with a certain little Smooch.

And I am using only food I already have on hand. But a couple families who are coming have offered to bring something as well.

The menu thus far includes:

Lemonade (homemade from lemon juice in pantry)
Mint Iced tea (from homegrown mint)
Good old-fashioned water

beef/chicken spiedies (from our cow and chickens)

rolls (a friend from church gets Price Chopper bakery stuff for free once they have reached their peak of freshness and shares the booty with us (and our chickens/hogs when we had them). I have been freezing rolls and stocking them up for a while.) So yeah. Free.

From pantry:

cinnamon pickles( sound gross but are sweet and delicious)

regular pickles

pickled beets

pasta salad (probably with homemade pesto?)

chocolate cake

sugar cookies (as prizes)

caramel corn/ salty corn (popcorn happens to be our pantry's staple snack)

Possibly some jello?

And that is all I can think of right now. I may add more to the list as I explore my pantry options.

This week is go-time.

I have lots of food to make.

Lots of details to finish.

Gotta plan where/how I am going to set up the yard.

Gotta think about costumes....YIKES.
Gotta......GO.

BiG Top TuEsDaY

If you are new to this blog: you can read what Big Top Tuesday is and how is came about here.

If you want to track my progress: you can access all Big Top Tuesdays here.

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This past week I had a yard sale, had health issues and had Father's Day pie(s) to bake so I didn't have too awful much time to devote to party preparations. I was able, however, to work on making a few prizes all from things I had on hand. Probably about half done, half to go.

((Haven't bought anything for the party yet!))

Mustaches. These are super cool to make and I think they will be a big hit too. If I were spending money, I would hop to the store and buy black foam sheets for this project as it would make it much easier but since I am NOT: I am using black and brown felt and hot-gluing two layers together to make them firm enough to stay straight, then hot-gluing meat skewers (also had on hand) in between the felt. I haven't made them yet, but I intend to make some clown mouths and maybe a nose or two as well.



Friendship bracelets: the simple kind because that is the only kind 1) I know how to make and 2) have time for. I hope to have about 20 of these made. I have plenty of embroidery thread but I may try to do a few in yarns so they will work up more quickly. Corynn has been helping me with these. She is almost as fast as I am!


This week I am going to focus on FINISHING the prizes and working on party decorations and game preparations.

Here is my (hopeful) To-Do list for the coming week:

~ MAIL/Hand out invites (was supposed to do that last week)

~ Decorate empty soda bottles

~Decorate tin cans

~ Make string balloons

~ Make tissue paper pom poms

~ Figure out the photo booth plan

~ Make a layout in the yard of where everything will be.

~ Trial run the homemade face paint.

~ costumes?

BiG Top TuEsDaY

Here we are, first round of Big ToP TuEsDaY!!!



This week was spent mostly compiling ideas, making lists (I *LOVE* making lists) and planning things out on paper and here.

Just a sneak peek at all the inspiration floating around the web:



I finished making the front of the invites today. Corynn, of course, jumped at the chance to help.
I am pretty confident she is going to be right there with me every step of the way in this little project of mine.

Goals for this coming week:

~ start collecting clear, empty soda bottles

~ start collecting tin cans

~ print insides of invites, send 'em off

~ work on the prizes

~ figure out costumes for everyone and begin working on them

Three things you didn't know about me and BiG ToP TueSday

I like to throw parties. I do, I really, really do.

We don't do birthday parties because, well, I hope to someday have a child or two each month and birthday parties would be too hard/expensive/exhausting at that point, so I never started. (Did I SHOCK you just then?!?)

Instead, I like to throw a BIG hu-rrah at least once a year that we can all enjoy equally as much-probably even more. And I really like THEME parties. I hope to get so good at throwing parties that Knights of the Round Table parties and Renaissance Fair parties and Archeological Digs are not out of my league.

After our Big Top experience a month ago or so, I knew that this years' party just HAD to be circus-themed. I knew also, given our present circumstances, it had to be CHEAP. A circus party seems perfectly suited to making do.

Another thing you must know about me is that I love challenges. So I have challenged myself to throw a ROCKIN' circus party over July 4th using ONLY WHAT I HAVE.

Decorations. Games. Invites. Prizes. Food. Everything, using what I already have on hand. Or can borrow.

I may need to purchase a few things for food (30-40+ people are invited!), but if I spend money, you will know about it. I want to see just how cheaply this can be done.

I am determined to live out my belief :

• That you can have a smashing good time on a dime.

• That you can decorate nicely on a dime.

• That hard financial times doesn't equal no fun.

• That cool storebought things can also be made from scratch.

• That hospitality can be given no matter the circumstances.

If I can pull this off successfully, it will speak more to my packrat-eering and less of my frugality, I fear. But it is worth the embarrassment.

Basically~ this party is going to force me to live strictly by my life motto:


A motto which I have already found to be difficult, especially when I see the COOLEST popcorn containers that just SCREAM circus for $2.00 at the store (but NO. Must refrain!)

One exception I *MAY* make is buying a bag or two of circus peanuts. I just can't figure out for the life of me how to make them successfully at home. Seriously, how fitting are THEY?!

To accomplish a party of this magnitude using only what I have means lots of planning and lots of making from-scratch.

The third thing you probably didn't know about me? I love, love, LOVE to procrastinate.
And procrastinating is something that just can't be done in this situation, unless of course, I want to kill myself (or other people) by the end. So I have decided to write down all my circus party progress on what I am going to call BiG ToP TueSday.

Thataway, I actually work on it. Wish me luck! (and if you have any awesome ideas you want to share-let me know in the comments! I'll love you for it!)

This should be fun.............

Just a Heads Up:

The first (real) installment of BiG ToP TueSdaY will be tomorrow and since I have done NADA, I guess I better get cracking.