The year was 1939....

So, as usual I have been asked for my help to throw a party. Anyone who knows me, this is just what I do. Yes, I do love it, but it's more than that. It's a knack. It is a chance achieve a moment of perfection, no matter how small or fleeting. Thats what parties are. The rest of your life can be a big pile of you know what, but when you have a successful event or party, you have thwarted all of the nastiness life can some times offer. It is escape, pure, simple, attainable escape. When you think of the good times you have had at parties you have gone to or had, even the not so successful ones are still pretty fun, right? Candles, and party lights, flowers and festive decorations, good music, happy people. The allure of all of that is just simply irresistable to me.

The party I am helping to plan is for someone so special to me. It is my little nephew who will be turning 8 this June. He was "my" baby before I ever realized I would ever want a baby. He was a sweet and happy and playful baby who never fussed much. When he did cry you could easily stop it by singing "Bingo" over and over again. "B-I-N-G-O and Bingo was his name, OH!"As he has grown he has developed certain fixations for things he really really loves. When he was really little (like age 2-5) he was completely and utterly obsessed with trains. With his little lisp and his neglect of the letter "r" he could tell you make, model and type of nearly every kind of toy and real train. The rail road museum was his most favorite place to be. Nothing made him happier than train songs, shows or movies with trains and of course playing with his sets. Later he got really into Star Wars. The action figures, the movies, the characters. I think we were all very surprised that he would ever move away from his train obsession, but it happened. We never really thought much about it, it was just him. Well, it turns out that his single mindedness is not just a personality trait but has to do with how he has learned and developed. It is actually a type of condition. It's not really anything serious and he is recieving tutoring in school to help him with the way he learns.

And so, given that bit of history, "Bubba" as I call him has a brand new fixation. It is that of most thing Disney, but especially for the ride inside Disneyland's California Adventure called "The Tower of Terror". There is a movie that goes along with the ride and a story line, too. Bubba has gotten really into the style, the music, swing dancing and everything to do with the era that the movie takes place in. (The year was 1939.) So a brief summary of the movie and the story is that The Tower of Terror is the elevator that is inside the "Hollywood Tower Hotel". Basically the elevator killed a child star and 4 other hotel guests who were on their way to the "Tip Top Club", and now the elevator and hotel are haunted by their ghosts.

Kinda creepy, but kinda cool, toSo Bubba now likes to spend a considerable amount of time at the www.towerofterror.org website taking in and learning every morsel he can. He can tell you about the ride of the same name at all of the different disney resorts. (no, they are not all the same.) He is really just the cutest, smartest and most unique lil dude that an auntie would be lucky to know!

So yes, this party is special. He wants a "tower of terror" birthday party. Yah. How ya gonna pull that off, right?

Well, finding the location was the hard part! We considered homes of friends, a beautiful period hotel on the delta (wayyyyy tooo pricey!) parks (not period!) and other ideas. To no avail. Then I remembered a place where local swing dance fans go weekly to dance. Eureka! So I called, and they wanted $400 for the day. Not a horrible price, but a bit much for an 8 year olds birthday. So a bit bummed, my sister and I were back to the proverbial drawing board. Then I decided to take a chance. I called the place back and offered $200 for a 4hr. time slot. THEY AGREED! So with the place taken care of the ball really got rolling. The first thing I started to work on was some decorations. At my daughters preschool one of the parents brought in some very thin tubes of rolled newspaper. And my first idea came. Those would make some awesome flower stems. Paper flowers would be much cheaper than the real thing, and I figured that calla lillies were period-y and within my skill level.

This is my forty stems I made by rolling newspaper onto a long wooden dowel and then taping. (thank you, Coffee Garden and Sister for helping!) This picture was during the painting process.

This is a picture of the "blooms" I made with thick paper towels, cut and rolled and fixed with a gold pipe cleaner "stamen".

And here is the finished product after the blooms were spray painted and affixed to the stems.

Next on the list My sister really wanted to make a pinata. But not just any pinata, of course. A replica of the tower of terror itself!

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.

So here is the Tower of Terror. We studied it alot. We gathered our supplies. We went to work!

This is my totally cool sister, ready to ROCK some art! (wearing what else, a Disney shirt!)

Here you can see the form we created. Some cereal boxes, some foam, some tape. Some of the archetecture would be lost due to scale, but we continued!

While I was working on my flowers, sister rocked the paper mache'! The girl is a PRO!

When our form was dry, it was time to paint! My honey, Rob brought home some very closely matched spray paint-and we had in our collection some rock-texured paint. We layered the paint on to give it a stucco type texture.

Here is Rob lending a hand. He did'nt mind at all that he had worked all day-he was down to do some art, too!

I got busy making the hotel sign.

Next it was time for some details.


I did the "fire damage" paint and the "copper" domes, rob made the teeny windows and the mouldings. My sister had gone home, and it was fully dark. But then I got so excited with how it was turning out, I called her up, made her get out of bed and come back over. Yup. Tweakin' time now, huh!!? Those spray paint fumes got me! ha ha ha!

Windows, windows, windows. Rob made a cool detail for over the arched doorway-the glue stick helped to hold it in place as the caulking dried. Yes, thats right. I said caulking. Rob went to his truck and pulled out the big guns...the caulking kind that is.

Well, so here she is, the finished product. She sits on top of my cabinet...waiting for the best birthday party ever. However, we have decided that no one in no way can beat this thing with a stick. After like 14 hours of work...no one better do any thing but look! Besides, my sister and I are pretty sure that Bubba would cry!

In the meantime I have also made 20 plus wee boutineres for lil dudes at the party and am starting work on the same number of corsages for the girls. I also want to make some "hotel" coasters using this art:

I have also arranged for some swing dancers to come and do a performance, and we are planning on using a projector to show the movie.

I am so excited to do this party!!!! More pictures will follow!