Plagued By Penguins......

The food for Tessie's party has been arriving by messenger all morning. She is trying to stay ahead of the game by setting up tables with food and various chairs to accommodate everybody.

She is employing several of the round, skirted, tables that is in a tutorial here. http://caseymini.blogspot.com/2008/04/tabled-for-today.html

Logically, the first one that she grabbed was the party table that I did for last New Year's Eve. She decided that it would be a good one for all of the boxed crackers and cookies and a pitcher of punch.....However, she didn't anticipate the penguins getting to the party a few days early. They are polar opposites of Santa(pardon the pun) They never go by the clock and usually show up unannounced when there are Animal Crackers or Oreos to be eaten.

These two got here before the rest and were very hungry from the trip north. They saw the label "Animal Crackers" on a couple of the boxes and decided that this was their table.

Then one of them saw black and white Oreos and of course, those were especially put out for penguins, being the colors that they were. The littlest penguin was eating his way through the box. The other one was fascinated by a pitcher of punch that matches his beak and feet. I didn't say that they were smart. They simply like food that matches their coats and accessories.

The other table that she is using, she "borrowed" from my stash. It's the one with the secret compartment underneath. Remind me to check that, to see what has been stuffed in it, after the party is over.

I fear that the tacos and sangria that Eskiaga sent may not live to see the party. He has a terrible time with her begging tacos from him. Then Theo begs them from her. I am not sure about the sangria. That might be safe.

Speaking of sangria, I should give you a quick tutorial on the pitcher. It is about 25 years old and has been in the Mexican room box that I made out of a stereo speaker case way back then.

Considering that it is made from a plastic bead tube and some two part epoxy, it has held up pretty well.

I was without money to buy a pitcher at the time, so I decided to improvise. I took a bead tube that they sell #11 seed beads in, and cut it about an inch above the bottom with an Exacto knife, evenly all around except for a spot on one side that I left a long strip about 3/32" wide. That would become the handle.

Exactly opposite of that, I took a pair of needle nosed pliers and pulled on the top edge of the plastic to form a spout. That took a bit of work, but I just kept at it until I liked the shape.

I bent the strip back to form the handle and fastened it to the body with glue.

For the silver on the bottom, I used a trick from long ago. Did you know that you can change gold filigree paper to silver simply by rubbing it with acetone nail polish remover? You can!

I glued a piece of that around the bottom.

As a complete experiment, I took some clear, two part epoxy from the hardware store and added some color to it with tube oil paints. Surprise! It worked. You have to work fairly fast, because the epoxy hardens quickly. So I poked it into the pitcher with a toothpick. At least I think that is what I put it in with. That was a long, long time ago.

I was afraid that it would turn yellow after a while, but it doesn't seem to have.

Anyway, that's about it for today. I have to go round up the penguins and tigers to make sure that they don't start fighting over food before the party even starts. Did I mention that the animals have invited themselves. Hey! Free food! What's not to like?

"Tessie! Put down that taco!"

See you tomorrow.