MASQUERADE!!!!!

See what a trip to Italy will do to a Halloween freak?
I found a beautiful mask and some black and white pasta while in Italy earlier this year, and the planning began!!!! I have always been in love with the Phantom of the Opera (seen it 7 times, love it, love it, love it) and have wanted to do a Masquerade Ball for years for our Halloween party. So, this was kind of a dream come true!!!!
It was so fun to plan this party, I went with a black and white and gold theme, decorated masks to make a centerpiece and napkin rings, painted some white pumpkins with paint and glitter and planned around that! I had everything all ready and pictures taken before 3:00 pm and thought I was pretty on top of it!!!
I was really excited when our friends went all out for the party too, they all were soooooo creative and beautiful!!!! (Tara your kitty was so cute, Shannon, Monica, Marcia, Julie, and Amy you were all GORGEOUS!) Even the husbands were in the mood.
We ate a yummy pasta dinner, which Jenica and her two friends helped serve (they were so cute!) played some fun games, and even danced the waltz to the Blue Danube (believe it or not, we really did DANCE!!!!!)
For dessert, I made a black, white and gold cheesecake with a mask and candles for the eyes, (oh so cute :) ) and a chocolate fountain, which didn't work very well, but tasted pretty good.

I was so happy with how the whole thing turned out, other than one small mishap (besides the gloopy chocolate). My centerpiece on the table was a huge vase full of water, glass pebbles and ribbons (along with 7 masks on wooden dowels) I lit some floating tea lights and it looked so pretty. Well, at 6:50 (10 minutes before the party was starting) I heard a crack and a whoosh. I went in to the dining room and water was pouring out of the vase and running all over the table (which of course had 14 place settings with good china and lots of other decorative stuff) and all over the floor, (onto our quite expensive, rather loved wool area rug.) Of course, being the refined lady that I am (ha!ha!) I only let out a few choice words before I started screaming to anyone and everyone to bring me towels of any nature and to start pulling stuff off the table in truly a dizzying speed!!! It was absoloutely ridiculous and funny now that I look back at it! I am very glad most people were fashionably late, because by 7:20 we had dried the tablecloth, changed napkins, put the vase back on the table (crack and all :) ) taken the EXTREMELY heavy rug down to the storage room, replaced the chairs, mopped and dried the floor, thrown the 8 beach towels we'd used to mop up into the wash, put all the centerpieces back on, and not let the pasta burn. I was sweating like a stinkin' pig, so my lovely wig was all droopy and my eyeliner was running, but thank goodness for that beautiful Italian mask!!!!

So, I guess the moral of this story and of all my party stories is......go with the flow, things will not always be perfect, there will be unexpected "surprises"....always. I have been nicknamed the "party girl" by many members of my family and friends, and I guess it's true, but I have yet to learn that no matter how well you plan, you never know what's going to happen, and to just grin and go with it. It will always turns out fun!!! That's what Halloween to me is all about anyway...... fun!!!!!

OOOOOOOH I Love that mask :)