Party Time. Excellent.

Well my dears turns out that all that time spent at Williamsburg Occasions and under the tutelage of MEG has totally paid off because not to boast or anything but Gus and I rocked our housewarming party.

I mean we really rocked it :) Massive success.
We had a goal in mind which we formulated on the two day drive home that at its essence boiled down to "go big or go home". Since we were already home we wanted to go really big. We wanted to throw a party like no one in Murphysboro had ever seen. It was going to be classy, great food, great drinks, sparkly conversations in a warm atmosphere.

Stacey and Clinton on "What Not to Wear" say don't dress for the job you have but dress for the job you want. Hermie and I took that to heart and we threw a party that was in contradiction to the life we live but was right along the lines of the life we want and it wowed. I think my biggest compliment of the night was "I don't feel like I am in Southern Illinois at all".

That got a big hug let me tell you :)

Our theme was a cocktail/dessert reception. I was originally planning heavy appetizers and then I realized that would be really expensive and I would be spending the whole night in the kitchen so we opted for desserts instead. Since I am not really much for 'baking' I am not going to lie I bought most of the stuff from Sam's. To me though how things are presented are so much more important than whether or not you spent three days making 200 cookies (like I did at Christmas, ugh). So everything was delicious in true Greene woman form I bought way more than I needed (food and booze) and we had TONS of leftovers which is not helpful for weight loss 2010.

Our desserts included mini assorted cheesecakes, brownie bites (garnished with v. out of season/expensive fruit), mini creme puff, mini eclairs, a massive Oreo cake, and a donut bar. For cocktails we had a huge, ornate antique bowl with Sangria, a keg of a local micro-brew "Fat Tire" in the basement and since it was a "stock our bar" party our guests went all out and we had a fully stocked bar.

Guests were required to wear anything but denim and as always you are going to have the rude behavioral psychology kids who in their too cool for a theme lame ass rebellion came wearing jeans. Bitches. But for the most part everyone played along.

Gus and I have made friends with a couple who owns a vintage store in town our "Atomic Homeboys" and Dale who used to be a flight attendant had a tuxedo that fit Gus perfectly, which he then gave to him :) I wore a dress that I found at Target for a song and we looked flawless. I know I am sounding very full of myself but I am really proud because as I said we rocked it.

There was dancing, people met and mingled, professors came, neighbors came, everyone ate and told me I had a lovely home. It was magical.

Once the grown ups left it got a little crazier but that was only to be expected. There were (female) professors doing keg stands, dancing on my front porch, girls making out in my shower, a cha cha slide dance off, and shots taken off my washing machine. Bananas.

Then of course the chaos in the morning had to all be cleaned up... Gus and I have just about gotten all the Sangria off of too many various surfaces to count (shower curtains, really how does that happen???) next time I am totally serving white wine. Our floor is no longer sticky and we have gone around town and distributed most of our leftovers to friends who could not make it.

You might wonder why I am not posting any pictures at this moment but I have a perfectly good explanation. Last week in a moment of unqualified brilliance I placed an add on Craigslist under "artist" asking for a photographer who would be willing to come to my party and take pictures for $20, and someone responded! His name is Spencer and he was a photographer in Seattle and he and his wife just moved to the area and wanted to get out and meet people. It was such a fortunate meeting. He got to meet people and his wife Gillian felt much more hopeful after talking to us and our guest about the joys and pitfalls of living out here. Anyways Spencer is bringing my pictures out on Thursday so stay tuned.

I really wish more of you guys could have come (or you know any of you) but I think that I definitely did you all proud. Now I just have to wait and hope that Gus and I upped the ante enough... cheers to refusing to settle for average and instead striving for the spectacular. Or at the very lease a night spent in heels :)