Fabric Bowl Cover

One of the items I made for the Patriotic Swap was a fabric bowl cover.  I had been wanting to make some fabric bowl covers for a while.  The other day when I was at my grocery store I spotted some red, white and blue melamine bowls and right away I knew they would be perfect for the bowl covers and the patriotic swap.  The bowls are 6 inches in diameter, perfect for a side dish or a small amount of chips.

I looked at several tutorials, in the end I followed this one at Green Lifestyle in Australia.   I love the idea of reusable bowl covers and NOT using plastic wrap.

The tutorial was easy to follow.  I liked that it used two different fabrics so the cover is reversible.
I used some fun Texas fabric I've had in my stash for a while and fussy cut it so a big Texas was in the center.  My partner for the swap is also in Texas.  The other fabric I used was white with red and blue stars.   I didn't think about photographing the other side until the bowl was in the sealed box ready to ship. 

I am planning on making more of these.  I think using fun seasonal fabrics would be really cute for holidays too.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Farewell Fiesta

Buenos Dias everyone,

Yesterday we had a Farewell Fiesta for one of my coworkers at work.  Somehow, I was given the task to plan the party.  How does that happen to me all of the time? 

Our coworker is relocating to Pennsylvania so obviously leaving Texas.  I asked her what she would miss the most "Texas BBQ or Tex Mex cuisine".  Once she said Tex-Mex, that was all I needed to start planning the menu and theme for the party.

Now PLEASE keep in mind this party was at work, on our conference room table no less so I could not do things to the extent that I would do at home.  I planned a simple gathering at the end of the day so everyone could come by and bid our friend farewell.  I played Mexican music but I had to keep the volume low--- because we were at work...you know what I mean.  Along the same lines, I served lemonade instead of margaritas...you get the picture. 

The menu was chips and salsa from a favorite local restaurant, El Fenix, queso made by one co-worker, corn salsa by another co-worker, Delimex taquitos with three different fillings, and Nothing Bundt Cakes bundtinis for dessert.

Here is the Fiesta table. 

All these dishes and decorations are from my personal collection.  I have an extensive collection of stuff in this theme because obviously I am Mexican (LOL) and love seasonal impractical entertaining stuff that you only use once or twice a year.   I love getting the chance to use them but hate the hassel of digging them out of my dish closet, wrapping in bubble wrap and carrying off.  Oh well....

Here is Cindy with the table.  I made her wear that hat in many pictures...LOL.  My office door is in the back ground.  You can see I hung one of Micaela's little Mexican dresses from when she was a baby on our dry erase board on a make shift clothesline. (My boss thought it was "ineresting", but hey it covered the white board.    You can also see the little bull pinata that was the focal point of our table too. 

Here is a close up of some of the bundtinis.  Nothing Bundt Cakes is a national franchise for delicious bundt cakes, they have around a dozen different flavors.  We are lucky to have a location less than two miles from our office.  I decorated the bundtinis with fiesta picks I got at the craft store.

Here are the Delimex taquitos.

If you have never had these they are great.  The are in the frozen food section at the grocery store.  You can deep or pan fry them or bake them in the over.  I prefer frying them when it's a small quantity at home but these we baked off in the oven of our break room.  We split them in half so they would be more like finger food.

Here is the delicious corn salsa made by one of our co-workers.  It was delicioius and I will share the recipe when I get it from her. 

Here is a close up of my fabulous letter dishes which are one of my most recent additions to my collection of entertaining stuff.  I fell in love when I saw these on Pinterest and quickly ordered some to spell out our daughters name.  Over the last 18 months I have been adding more letters to my collection so I can spell out more words.  (it's quite addictive but oh so fun to have them on your buffet table).  I've even started to give them as gifts and everyone seems to love them.  I realized last week that if I ordered an S, I could spell out fiesta... so here is the letter S making a debut with other letters...LOL.

The Farewell Fiesta was FUN.  Cindy enjoyed it and everyone enjoyed socializing with people from other departments on a casual basis.  The last time we had a farewell party in our department was about five years ago... people just don't leave very often so it might be a while before we do this again... 

Thanks for reading this far and I hope you have a great Cinco de Mayo manana!