I Made My Own Multicolored Fonts

It all started with a PINTEREST post.  I saw a title I loved.  It was all patchwork like the third font down.  That one I found after sifting through hundreds of fonts to find it.  I desperately needed a distraction from a very sad situation at home.  I went online to see if there were any PRE-COLORED fonts to download.  I was even willing to shell out some bucks for one.  Alas...alak...just plain shucks...I couldn't find one.

So, I downloaded the above fonts.  I opened a separate Photoshop document for each font.  Then I made 26 layers in each document.  Yep!!! One for each letter of the alphabet.  I made the page 3" x 3" and the font size 200 pt.  

Then...I started coloring each individual letter.  Please notice the scrapbook looking font called KARAMURUH from dafont.com is not colored.  I didn't have THAT much time.

Now I can make posters, etc. and just drag the letters onto the blank new document.
The above is my first attempt.  Because the letters are on different layers, I can make each one bigger, smaller, overlapping, twisted, or anything I want.  The top font is called FATTY HEART FILLED. The second one is called EPIC AWESOMENESS.  The big green T is from a font called THE BUBBLE LETTERS.  THE is part of the font's name.  The big bottom N is a font called ANYWHERE BUT HERE.

I am happy with my results.  This is another reason I love Photoshop.

Getting Ink Out of a Shirt

I looked in the back seat of my husband's car this past weekend.  There sat his tuxedo shirt with a HUGE fresh ink stain.  I asked him why this shirt was even in the car.  He complained that the dry cleaners had wanted $15 to clean it, so he wasn't going to do that right now and threw it back in the car.  I was curious as to how the ink stain got on it in the car.  He had no idea, but he guessed a pen might have fallen out of his pocket (common happening for him) and leaked.  He told me that was $60 down the drain.

I had seen a Pinterest pin on using rubbing alcohol to clean furniture.  I know this works, because I have a velour footstool my dog rubs against.  I put the alcohol on a clean rag and the dirt rubs right off of it.  I have removed PAINT from a pair of his pants with the alcohol.  I had gotten another smaller ink stain out of a patterned shirt of his--after rescuing it from the trash can.  But...this stain was huge.  

First I found a clean white washcloth I was willing to trash.  I blotted up as much of the ink as I could.  Then I started pouring the alcohol directly on the stain--which was about the size of a dollar coin.  I blotted and rubbed as the stain started disappearing.  I continued to pour alcohol and rub and blot for about an hour.  But, the results in the picture above are the results.  I wish I had taken the time to take a before picture as proof.  But, you'll have to try this to believe it anyway.

How I Taught First Graders to Draw the Statue of Liberty

I found a Pinterest pin where an art teacher was teaching 5th graders how to draw the Statue of Liberty.  If you are interested go here

                                     

I started wondering if I could teach first graders how to draw the Statue of Liberty.  They study American symbols in Virginia for social studies.  I carefully studied this drawing of the Statue of Liberty and broke it into the following 8 pieces.

The art teacher had her class draw the statue in pen.  I let the first graders use pencil.  

Once they had completed all the steps with me, they went over their drawings with a black marker.  I started by giving them each a LARGE piece of white construction paper (at least 11 x17").   I had them mark of a line three fingers from the bottom for the top of her base box.  Then they made a dot in the top middle of the paper three fingers down from the edge.  They made a second dot three fingers down from the first dot.  This second dot told them where to start the oval for the face.

After checking that everyone had done this correctly, I went to my REALLY BIG statue I was drawing along with them on the white board.  I showed them how to do the hair on the face.  We did not draw the features until the statue was completed.

Step 2:  showed them how to add the curls around her face.  The class compared this to putting petals on a flower.  Step 3: showed them how to draw a semi circle around the curls.  Step 4: showed them how to put triangles two at a time across from each other on her crown. We kept adding them two at a time until we got to eight.  Then they got to add her neck and the extra loops for her hair.

                                                    



Step five: they added the line under her neck that stretched out to the right for her shoulder.  Then they drew the left line up at an angle for her left shoulder.  They then added three curved lines for the drapes.
Step six:  all they added was the loops on bottom line for her feet.
Step seven:  They connected the right shoulder down to the feet to make a box that went up to capture the drapes, then stopped.  We drew a six sided polygon with a rectangle under it for the torch. I showed them how to draw loops for the fingers.
Step eight:  We drew a rectangle for the arm and continued a curved edge down to the dress.  We drew a slanted box for the book with more loops for fingers.  We added the right sleeve to the dress. (These are the first drawings I have made to show you something.  I am not an artist by any means, but the kids drawings were outstanding.)

The other first grade teachers saw them and immediately decided to try this.
Study the picture by the fabulous art teacher above.  Go to her web site and read how she did it.  The class was so proud of themselves.  Isn't Pinterest fun?

How I Built Two Wedding Flower Pots

The idea started with wanting to put a tree on the altar.  My BFF asked me if I would buy two yellow azalea bushes instead.  If you see the previous post on this, you will begin to see the process.  The yellow bushes didn't work.  Since the bride's colors were yellow and blue, I started with the idea of blue pots and yellow forsythia.  I had this vision in my head, but had no real idea of how I was going to accomplish this.


  I am going to update this with photos later, but the wedding is at noon, and I have a car to pack.  I am just going to tell you that when I went to my local flower shop to buy the fresh stems, there sat these white plastic buckets that were just the right size to fit in the blue ceramic pots.  But, how was I going to get the layers I needed.  I drilled a 1.5" diameter hole in the bottom of the plastic pot near the back side of it.

I hot glued a sturdy piece of styrofoam to the bottom of the pot.  The white plastic bucket went in on top of this block.  Then I rubber banded the forsythia branches together and pushed them through the hole.  Each pot held 12 branches.  

Next I used silk flower foam cut in half blocks to stuff in the bottom of the plastic pot.
On top of that I placed soaked oasis into which I placed the flowers.  I used green hydrangeas, since they never wilt, white calla lilies (bride's choice),  and purple (blue) iris.  The florist threw in the large palms and smaller greenery for free. (I have ordered from them a lot before).  The small yellow roses I bought at the last minute, as the bride's bouquet has yellow roses in it.

I showed you the beautiful ivy baskets I bought in that previous post.  I removed the ivy and dirt with roots completely from its pot.  I bravely ripped it all in half.  Then each part in half again.  I tucked the ivy into the fronts of each pot.

So, I ended up with silk, live, and potted plants in this arrangements.

Update notice: the deacon (minister) liked the flower explanation so much, that he used it in his sermon.  The back of the program is here  in case you missed it.

The Farmer Stands Alone to Simplify Equations

I called this entry The Farmer Stands Alone to remind you (or your students) that when there is a variable in an equation, it belongs on the LEFT side and needs to stand ALONE. Since we will be moving things around in the equation, I chose the farmer on his tractor to remind you.  This gets kids ready for the y=mx + b equation, where y needs to stand alone so that you can begin graphing it on the y axis (or yellow axis) as I've relabeled it.  Even adults have trouble remembering which axis is y and which is x, but they can remember that the y stands for yellow and it goes up and down on the map.  If you want to stay with the farmer analogy, tell them the yellow y stands for the color of corn.  The farmer needs a map to find his way around his fields.

 See my Pirates and Graphing blog to understand this better. (www.funjani.blogspot.com).  Hit the math tab.

   

 I am going to give you examples with the answers right there, so you don't have to go to the back of a book to find out if you were doing it correctly.

    1.    4x-7 = 2x + 15.  Let the variable always stand for the farmer.  Move the 2x to the left side of the equation FIRST.  Our object, tell the kids, is to get the farmer by himself on the left side of the equation. Remind kids that anything you do to one side of the equation, you do the same thing to the other side of the equation.  In order to move anything, you must use its OPPOSITE sign,so you can subtract 2x on the right side  because it is a positive.

4x -2x -7 = 2x-2x + 15.  This leaves the simplified equation of 2x-7 = 15.  Using my tagalong theory (see blogspot under math tag)  -7 is along for the date as a chaperone.  We must add +7 (his opposite) to both sides.  2x-7 +7 =15 + 7.  Result:  2x = 22.  Now we go to divorce court (see blog). We must divide the properties equally on both sides.  2x/2 = 22/2.  We can do this because we can do things to both sides of an equation.  The 2/2 is really ONE, so x=11.

    2.    11h - 14 = 7 + 14h.  Since the "farmer" is h, he must be moved to the left side.  He is a positive guy, so we are going to SUBTRACT him.  The result is 

11h - 14h -14 = 7.  This next step gets visual learners mixed up.  Please see the Darth Vader blog on my www.funjani.blogspot.com to make kids understand positive and negative numbers. It basically tells you to have them consider the negative number as a light saber.  Because the -14h holds the light saber, he has more power.  So the result will be a negative number.  Result  -3h -14 = 7.  We are going to ADD -14's opposite to both sides.  Result:

-3h-14 + 14 = 7 + 14.   Then:  -3h = 21.  Back to divorce court (dividing assets on both sides)  -3h/-3 = 21/3.  -3/-3 is ONE, so h stands alone.  Final result:

  h= 7.

    3.    36  + 19b = 24b + 6.  Can you find the farmer?  He's b this time.  So, the first step is to move 24 b to the LEFT.  24b is a positive guy, so we have to subtract him from both sides.

36 + 19b -24b = 24b -24b + 6.   Simplified this is: (19b -24b = -5b) (bigger guy with sword wins the sign), so 36 - 5b = 6.  We must left the farmer stand alone, so we are going to subtract 36 (since he's positive) to both sides of the equation.  Almost final result:  -5b = 6 - 36.   Leaving:  -5b = -30.  Back to divorce court.  We are going to divide both sides of the equation with -5.  Result:  -5/-5b = -30/-5.  Because all numbers have negative signs or light sabors, they cancel each other.  (or -5/-5 is ONE).  Final result  b= 6.

If you are trying to teach this concept to a visual learner who hasn't learned the lessons from my algebra blogs,  this student will be basically lost.  They will not be able to go on to graphing equations without the SILLY STORIES foundations.  Some kids just see numbers and know what to do with them.  Visual learners need stories. 

Wedding Flowers

I am helping plan a wedding for a best friend.  The reception will be a casual one at their home.  We did want programs for the church.  The bride wanted to cut expenses by not having any flowers.  I was AGHAST.  (Not really, I just wanted to use that word.) Anyway...I offered to give the couple flowers as their wedding present.  In order not to break the bank, I did some research on the meaning behind flowers.  The above paragraph is on the back of the program.  I printed them landscaped onto card stock to save paper.  

My next post has photo of actual flower pot at http://funjani.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-i-built-two-wedding-flower-pots.html

Because the wedding is late April, I am using silk forsythia.  All of the other flowers are fresh.  I will update this post with photos when I have built the arrangements. Originally

we were going to use yellow azalea bushes on the alter.  The wedding colors are blue and yellow.  YELLOW AZALEAS ARE RARE, but I found two bushes at a local nursery.  They were the only two they had.  I bought them 6 weeks in advance.  The nursery let me keep them in their green house for a month.  I brought them home and noticed there still WASN'T ANY GREENERY.  Alas, yellow azaleas are deciduous plants.  I did not know any azaleas were deciduous.  My friend said, "Ooops, I forgot about that."  It is one week until the wedding.  In the photo above you can see the plants starting to flower, but the flowers will die before there is any greenery.  Scratch that plan.  The same nursery had two blue pots on sale.  I decided to make the yellow silk forsythia into little trees.  See same photo above.  The live hydrangea, lillies, and irises will be below this level.  I bought two beautiful ivy plants for the base of the arrangement. The clipart above is just to help me visualize what I want.

Going with the same flower theme, we made cellophane bag toppers with a thank you message.  It says, "We thank you for witnessing and celebrating our marriage.  It "mint" a lot to us."   We are putting GIRL SCOUT THIN MINTS in each bag.  Yummy!!!

Cardboard Pirate Ship

Working model of Pirate Ship.  I will update photos with completed ship and sails at a later date.

     I am planning for the office's annual Margarita party to have a shipwrecked theme this year.  Since desert islands usually have pirates, I started searching for pirate themed clipart and boat patterns.  I came across a simple boat pattern that I enlarged below. The boat is 10.5" long and 5" high at the back.

     I needed a quick piece of cardboard to make a model.  I looked at the empty Domino's pizza box on the counter.  The lid was perfectly clean.  I wondered if the four pattern pieces would fit on the top part.  As you can see from the photo, they did. Below are the two jpegs for the pieces.  Just print the side pattern twice.  Don't change the size.  Print them on cardstock 8.5" x 11."  I have already adjusted the pieces to make the boat a nice size for a centerpiece, picnic lunch, or food server.   
     I made the mistake of putting the print side of each piece inside the box.  You need to put the print side on the outside of the boat.  WHY?  Because you want the inside of the box to be just plain brown.   After you have cut both the cardboard, use tacky glue to put the pieces together.   Because I wanted to hide the corrugated edge of bottom sides, I added the glue to the edges of the bottom piece. Bend the cardboard sides so that they aren't too stiff to glue along the curve.  Use masking tape to hold until dry.  You could paint these if you are making multiple boats for a party.  Or...you can print out the back piece 8.5" x 11 on CARDSTOCK.  I have already sized the graphics to match the cardboard patterns.  Print out the side of the boat graphics on 11" x 8.5."  I landscaped the side graphics.  I printed the second side as a mirror image. Glue the side graphics on first. Glue the back of the boat graphic on last.  I made the back graphic bigger so that you could overlap it around the corners.
     Note: Dominos will either give you empty boxes or sell them to you inexpensively.  Their cardboard can be cut with scissors.

 

 I will be updating this post with final pictures.  I am making a mast with a small block of wood and one large dowel and two smaller dowels. The  block of wood will help the mast stand up by giving weight to the dowel.  I drill a hole to match the size of the large dowel and glue it.  The other two dowels are the cross poles for the mast.  See photo below.
Most of the pirate ship images I found have red and white striped sails.  I will probably just lash the side poles to the main mast with twine.  Then I will just tie the four corners to the side poles.  A pirate flag at the top of the pole, and you are good to go.  

Catapulting Easter Bunnies

I finally broke down and bought chargers.  I chose bamboo ones because they are so flexible.  I saw the little bird's nests on Pinterest last year and decided to get them for this Easter.  I used the same woven napkin rings from the Safari baby shower, but added a chick graphic to them tied on with ribbon.  The robin's egg candies were a hit.

I made chocolate bunny cake pops.  I rolled chocolate fondant into logs, then I pushed one end onto the counter to make it flat.  I used my fingers to flatten the log from the flattened end up to the top.  At first, I made the ears short.  Then when I realized that they were drying quickly at longer lengths, I got braver.  I used one heaping tablespoon of shortening per bag of candy melting disks.  I had the eyes, noses, and cheeks all ready in an assembly line.  I put them in each in a cellophane bag tied with ribbon.

I found egg clipart.  I used my PrintShop program to enlarge them to 2 x2 sheet size.  I used them as targets.

  

I had purchased bean bag bunnies and ducks to use with the catapult.  Even the three year old had fun stomping and watching them fly.  There was a lot of elation when a bunny or duck landed on the egg.  I only put out two targets due to the rain.  If you look carefully by the top corner of the red cushion, you will see a bunny and a duck mid-air.  I gave you the plans for your own catapult in an earlier post.  Use the search box to find them.

I made lemon mini cheese cakes following the oreo cheesecake recipes.  I just substituted lemon cookies and put extra lemon juice in the cream cheese mixture.  I used lemon flavored pudding mix in the whipped cream.  I molded little chicks and topped each cheesecake with one.  I used TWO pound cake mixes in my four 9" round cake pans.  They baked up thin enough to make this very tall strawberry shortcake torte.  I sure made an impression on everyone.

I couldn't show you kids faces when I made all the adorable hats with drawing tissue paper.  See blog post:  Adorable Hats.  My daughter let me take her picture wearing one of the hats.

My sister-in-law took an "after" photo.  But, you can see the jelly beans layered with peeps in the centerpiece.  We kept the tulips in our downstairs fridge to keep them from opening too soon.  If you look out the window at the end you can see mama bear in her Easter fur coat.  Her babies all have bunny ears on their heads.  They were supposed to be posed under a jelly bean tree, but it rained, so I couldn't glue the beans onto the branch I had sprayed white.

 Here is my sister Patty showing that with 30 people for dinner, I wasn't going to put out plastic cups that people use, put down, throw out, grab another.  So I used my collection of empty Starbucks bottles from the past two baby showers.  I used "Glue Gone" to spray the sticky stuff off of them before hand washing them, then running them through the dishwasher.  I LOVE acrylic straws and have LOTS of them. I had enough for every bottle.  We made name tags, so that everyone knew at all times where their bottle was.  I found nice sized acrylic glasses at World Market for $3 each.  I bought a dozen of them for adults wanting a little something "stronger" than punch.  I had a drink station set up for water and punch in the front hall.

Since I had nieces and nephews and adopted daughters and long term boyfriends of the kids, I bought the 15oz Tervis Tumblers and lids and straws for them.  I put grass in the bottom of each and filled them with candy.  I kept them in the plastic bags they each came in, but put name tags tied on with ribbon around each.  These were a hit with all these coffee drinkers.

With all of these people, I had to use my round outside table in the sun room.  I had these tablecloths left over from my girl scout party days.  I used three of them.  Two of them, I cut in half lengthwise.  I sewed all of the ends together, pleated them, and sewed the tops to hold the pleats.  I just taped this unfinished edge to the table on the edge with masking tape.  I squared off the third cloth and used it as an overlay.

Here is the table all set in its finery.  I am so glad I made the chair covers from a tablecloths years ago.  I have to use so many different chairs of all sizes from around the house.  I would love to make some with big ties I've seen on Pinterest.  I saved the pin.  

The Drink Station

I love my Gardening Bunny.

   
             

After cartooning everyone in my family who came to dinner, and their friends, I put together a book for my five year old nephew.  Everyone at the party was on a page. Nathan and his brother Benjamin laughed when they saw the book and had fun pointing out everyone.

 I just printed out the ten pages on cardstock landscaped.  I put the family portrait as the front cover and stapled the book together.  Nothing fancy, but a lot of fun.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party on the 125 Day of School

    I was asked to substitute on the 125 day of school for a friend's first grade class.  I bought this Mad Hatter hat at Disney World two years ago and really wanted to wear it.  I also bought the crazy sneakers down there.  I added some capri black pants, a long white shirt, and my velvet coat to complete the ensemble. 
     The teachers and I set the rooms up so that we had 7 tables of four in each class.  We bought 7 different colors of plastic tableclothes to cover them.  You can see in the picture that we are packing everything up at the end of the day.    

I bought this cute apron on Etsy.com.  One of the teachers wore this.  I have ordered more for next year, since the day was such a success.

I made four big white rabbits--one for each classroom.  I also made 28 centerpieces--seven for each of the four classrooms.  I cut oasis styrofoam in half and made colorful cardstock boxes to fit around each one.  I bought 2 bags full of wooden dowels at Michael's.  I cut tissue paper stacks straight from the package into four sections.  I used these sections to make tissue paper flowers.  We hot glued those to the tops of the dowels.  I found a leaf pattern and put a box between two leaves.  See below.  We cut these out and folded two sets around the dowels for leaves.  Print these out 8.5 x 11.0."
                              
     I brought my silver tray in and two silver teapots.  We served apple juice from them.  I found disposable cups on Amazon.com.  I ordered enough for the entire first grade.  They loved pretending it was tea.  The parents sent in oreos, but that didn't seem festive enough for me.  So I made tiny pie shells in my mini muffin pans.  I used boxes of refrigerated dough and my scalloped cookie cutter.  I brought in four boxes of vanilla instant pudding, milk, and zip-lock bags.  You put the pudding and milk in one of the  bags and seal it.  Then you put that bag upside down in the other bag and seal the second one.  The kids can pass it around to shake it up.  It makes pudding.  We all did this in the four classrooms.  Then we snipped a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and piped the pudding into the shells.  We used Cool Whip (no dairy issues with it) in pastry bags with a star tip.  The kids loved watching us pipe the cream onto the pies.

 I made up the chart above.  I had an Alice in Wonderland clipart to go with each box.  We made posters for each classroom.  When the answers were all added up, they totaled 125.

Disney has a free clipart site to grab these characters.   We printed out these Mad Hatter hats on cardstock for the kids.  They colored them and glued them to sentence strips.

 

In the Alice box above, there was a house with the Alice parts enlarged and sticking out of it.  The questions in the box were "the number of windows and the number of smoke puffs coming out of the chimney."

 Finally, we printed off this coloring sheet for each child.  Some of the kids were happy to just color these characters, cut them out, and glue them to their sentence strip headbands.   The teachers and kids had such a great day.  Me...I was super hot in the hat and velvet coat.  The kids begged me to keep it on.  I ordered a rabbit hood for next year.  I can wear it with a LIGHT WEIGHT white sweatshirt.

Chili Cookoff Roundup Photos

Let's start with the desserts.  I saw this recipe on Pinterest.  I ordered the cheesecake pans on line from Sur la Table.  The pans are deep cupcake sized and have 12 cups.  But, they have a metal disk at the bottom of each cup.  When your treat is finished baking and cooling, you simply push up the metal disk from the bottom of the pan, and up pops a finished cheesecake.  I bought two pans, so that I could make 24 at a time.  Since the office parties usually require me to make 48 treats at a time, I found that I need two more pans.  When reading the recipe, I realized you need to let the cheesecakes cool, then refrigerate them for a minimum of 4 hours.  The next step was to put whipped cream on top of each one.  I found out from Pinterest that you can make cream that stays firm by doing the following recipe:  1 cup heavy cream, 1 tablespoon confectionery sugar,  1 tablespoon of vanilla instant pudding powder.  I doubled this recipe for a pint of cream.  It covered 24 cheesecakes.  Those are tiny Oreo cookies on the top.  

Since a part of this blog is about trying things I've found on Pinterest, when I saw a photo of these strawberry shortcakes on skewers, I really wanted to try them.  These are not picture perfect, but of the 48 I made, there were zero left.  I decided to put them in these little cups the office supplies for easy grabbing.  I made Bisquick dough with sugar in it.  One batch made 48 treats because you are cutting the dough with a 1 and 1/2 " circle cutter.  Michael's sells these.  The grocery store actually sells the extra long tooth picks.  The directions called for you to cut the tip and bottom off of each strawberry.  Then you are to slice the strawberry middle section into two pieces.  I soaked the strawberry slices in sugar water, but because I had to do things ahead of time, they soaked for about 4 hours.  This made them too mushy.  But, they tasted and looked great.

I also found these horse cake pop directions on Pinterest.  I hesitated making oval cake pops for awhile.  I worried that they would fall off the sticks while dipping in chocolate.
They did not.  I always clear a whole shelf in my refrigerator to keep a baking tray full of pops while I am dipping them.  When they stay cold,  there is less likelihood of them falling off their sticks.  I dipped the sticks in chocolate and put them in the cake pops in the refrigerator to set up.  I had two corrals of ponies or about 40 from one cake mix and 1/2 can frosting.  I used chocolate chips and ready made candy eyes (which Michael's sells).

You put those on while the chocolate is still wet.  While they were drying on two rectangular styrofoam sheets, I made up my egg white/cream of tartar/vanilla and confectionery sugar recipe of frosting.  I learned from my Olivia the Pig disaster to add a teaspoon of confectionery sugar to each bowl of frosting I am adding food color to--even paste food coloring.  So, I added just enough brown to make the horse mains.  I used my grass decorating tip (it has lots of tiny holes) and held the bag up in the air over the cake pop pony.  The frosting dropped in strands between the ears and down the back.  Then I colored another bowl of frosting with orange.  I used a standard hole decorating tip to make the circle around the mouth.  Then I just piped the side striped to the back of the ears. 
                         
 I found a clipart of a corral.  I printed it front and bac, glued the pieces together, and pinned them to the styrofoam.  I put my green paper through my double shredder to make the grass.

I used three different cowboy clipart pieces to make this guy.  I had planned for him to be mounted on a big piece of cardboard to greet guests, but the staff liked him on this column in the main lobby.  Here is out accountant posing with him.

My husband wanted the eight large cows I ordered online (5' tall each) up on the edges of the half walls.  The rest are marching down the main hall.  The clients thought this was hysterical.  

          

 Here are two of the window graphics to show you how much character they add to the theme.

Every roundup needs a covered wagon.  I used this one I found on Etsy.com as a centerpiece for the long table I set up for guests to take a "sit down" break.

This is Aunt Polly.  She is holding her basket of vegetables.  She is a centerpiece that lets you know that the chili on this table was meatless.

I made her from four different cliparts.  Here she is if you ever need her.

Here is our band.  They followed through and played my favorite round up song--the theme from an old western series entitled "Rawhide."    We gave away colored cowboy hats as favors this year.  The green ones were the most popular because the party was only days away from St. Patrick's Day.  It would have been fun to have you see the crowds at the party, but I am always too busy working it to take pictures.  If you'd like to grab the graphics for your own round up, they are on a previous post.