Irregular Party Animal

I'm sure you all remember the infamous Grace-T, my very saucy, one-year-old niece who put me on hat detail for her party. Well the party was Saturday. And, due to all the pressure and breathy phone calls, I was still scrambling and having a fairly full-blown panic attack on Friday, and still no head-topper in sight.

Before I left the office, I called an emergency strategy meeting with our two best designers and one hellofa good project manager. They all took the meeting very seriously, (see how seriously?)



until I mentioned that the meeting was to discuss designing a birthday hat for my niece's first birthday party. I found myself sitting alone in that very same board room almost immediately after that tiny detail was revealed. Perhaps it's because they weren't invited to the party. I'm sure that's what it was.

I was left on my own with very rudimentary tools.



So I decided to bring in the heavy artillery.



Now, had the other professionals hung around, I'm sure they could have warned me that mixing scissors, one VERY hot glue gun and wine is not necessarily recommended. Thankfully, after a quick stop here,



I was sufficiently briefed on the hazards of such combinations.

And after I learned to work WITH the bandages rather than AGAINST them, I produced this.



And after the very-nice-physician-prescribed painkillers set in, plus a little more wine, my real creative "self" began to flourish. My fear of one particularly feisty one-year-old began to subside, and I worked like fluid feng shui—improvisation flying all around. I was the Charlie Parker of birthday-hat decorating.

First I tried this.



Then I saw this.




Yep. Totally fluid, right?



And it didn't stop there. Oh, no. I was on a roll.



And so was the blue paper. I DO have a photo of what eventually became of the dining room walls, but have decided you can probably imagine how that one would look. No need to over-illustrate my point. Or embarrass myself needlessly.

We'll just fast forward to the next day. See how well the hat went over? See the scrunched Gracie mug? See the look of "just keep it on for one more photo and please don't scream or my upper lip will bead with sweat" on her mother's face?



Well, let's just say that there's one more photo I won't be showing here, in the effort to not embarrass myself needlessly, one more time. Let's just say someone was not very happy with her auntie.

And let's just say that picture might involve one tiny birthday girl giving me "the look" and pointing in the direction of the corner, where, apparently, she had made me a hat of my very own.



So thoughtful.

Thankfully, Miss Ive always has a Plan B, especially when infants are involved, and she intentionally created the hat topper from a baby hair clip. Miss Gracie was quite pleased with this particular improvisation. And so Miss Ive was allowed to rejoin the rest of the party.



But no cake.

Miss Grace was in no mood to share her cake.

Maybe next year.