Type B decorates for a party

Night before last, I tossed and turned, even after Harper and I had a busy day of snow playing and fort building.

Brandon was at the hospital until well after midnight and while I was quite unnerved by a few DVR'd episodes of The Vampire Diaries, what kept me awake was that, due to the snow, I hadn't been able to purchase a key piece of decor for the next day's party.  20 table cloths stood in the way of peaceful, type b slumber.

They were the very last piece of an intricate puzzle I spent the week putting together.  It took a week because I had a budget of $50. Yes, $50.

On Monday, I did the centerpiece vases, comprised mostly of ornaments from our home (some stolen directly from our tree) and some over which I nearly took out a lady's kneecap in the Target $1 bins:

On Tuesday, I made tissue paper pom poms (snow balls) to suspend from the ceiling with fishing line (not enough to make it look like a junior prom or low enough to catch a toddler's roaming paw):

On Wednesday and Thursday, I scoured shelves of Target and Michael's for beautiful ribbon, lights and candy canes to decorate the tree.  In my head, it went something like this:

When yesterday morning mercifully came, I bolted out of bed at Harper's first "Baah, Maa!" (This means that after a good deal of crib acrobatics, she's tossed her blankie overboard and needs my assistance).

We rushed to Target at 8:00 a.m., because I realized at 2:00 a.m. that Harper didn't have appropriate party attire, and we rectified it with this:

And as soon as Dollar Tree opened at 9:00, I was able to shake the sleepless monkey off my back by purchasing 20 white plastic tablecloths. Not red, not green.  White. White, so the ornament vases would be the focal point of the table and white, to draw the eye up to the pom poms. 20 of them so that if the tables were dark or big, the cloths could be doubled.

A few hours and a poor excuse for a Harper nap later, I was almost nervous as a few men unloaded the decorations at the party site and I went off to park.

I only had an hour to decorate, so while we stalked old ladies for spots in the parking deck and walked the bazillion miles back to the party, I lamented the time lost and anxiously planned my attack.

I was so relieved to know there would be six, maybe even seven men in the room to help spread tablecloths, string lights, hang pompoms and chat with/chase Harper while I got down to business.

A mere 20 minutes later, rosy cheeked from the windy walk, Harper and I blew through the door and into the party room to be greeted by the men, for whose extra hands I had been so grateful.

Right away and with much excitement and satisfaction, they informed me that they had already done the decorating. . .and in just twenty short minutes! 

This is the only picture I had the stomach to snap with my phone, but I think you'll be able to imagine the tree accordingly.  That hair tinsel on the table, well.. that was their own special touch ;)

I'm thrilled to report that everyone had a wonderful time at the party - especially Harper and anyone under 8 years old - who spent the majority of their time volleying the delicate tissue paper snowballs "big puff balls" and throwing tinsel in the air.

I was commended multiple times for my wonderful job in decorating, but finally had to shrink away from the limelight as Harper, double-fisting two pieces of HoneyBaked Ham, began to nod off in my arms.