Birthday Week

Charm me
Harry Potter date with my scrumptious manfriend.

Surprise party
My bocce team threw me a party last Thursday. (Check out their sneaky surprise at HJEntertains.)

Drink and food
Atelier wine tasting and night out with men only slightly less handsome than my husband.

Tiny Sleepover party USA
Tom Petty cover band hashtags, exquisite cheese and campfire clothes.
And wine.

This was a really good birthday, helped in no small part (hee. I accidentally typed “party”) by my excitement about the future.

I also wrote an article outlining nine ways to improve your email subject lines.
If you’re a person who’s responsible for such things, maybe it could help make you some money.

I like you.

Helen Jane Surprise!

(This week I’ll be posting more slow cooker entertaining ideas, but wanted you to hear about my glorious bocce birthday party first. Glorious.)

Can you believe my team did this for me?
The decor, the food, the styling?

All this.
They surprised me by changing the bocce theme to
“Foods that remind you of Helen Jane.”

There was a CHAMPAGNE CAKE.

They wrapped shrimp in bacon. They made cocktails from Morimoto’s cookbook. They brought pizza and sushi and some flipping amazing egg salad/smoked salmon toasts.

We may have lost all three games, but one team member couldn’t stop grinning.

I mean, peppered salami and sliced cucumber?
Brilliant!

This is how we roll.

On the eve

I turn 36 this week.

Thirty-six is one of those birthdays that makes me gasp a little, put my hand on the nearest wall and say, wait, WHAT?
I’m not gasping because I’m getting old, I like getting old.
There’s power in age.

It’s coming to terms with the expectations I had.

See, when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time dreaming about how awesome it would be to be a grownup.

When I was a grown-up, I would:

Go to restaurants when ever I wanted.
Eat all the donuts in the world.
Dress myself exactly as I wanted to.
Have very, very, very long hair.
Run inside.
And most of all, I would enjoy choice, glorious, glorious choice.

No one would make my choices for me.
Just me, me and my choices.

Problem is, whether due to money, time-constraints, or the demands of tiny, helpless offspring, life choices haven’t felt like mine.

As I prepare to move on from the last 5 years of self-employment (Isn’t it crazy that when I started Maplevine, I said I’d do it for 5 years and then move on to something else? And then at FIVE YEARS TO THE DAY, I’ll be starting my new jobby job. We listen to ourselves! We do!), as I prepare to move on to something else, I am giddy.

I get to try on some new habits, be something new.
And mostly, out of all of this, I want to own my choices.

I want to make my choices the best they can be.
I want to choose wisely.
I want to choose what I WANT.

But I have no idea how to get started.

Do you own your choices?
Or does life feel like a series of choices you have to make?
How do you choose?

Swiss banner how-to

My friend Bird is headed to Switzerland next year for her Junior year of high school. Her insurance, her flight, her prep, it’s all more expensive than anyone thought. So those of us that love her, help her throw fund raisers, find families to babysit for and projects for her to raise the money herself.

This year, she threw a bocce tournament. We met at the park, made some teams, ate some food provided by Bird’s family and paid for the honor. There was a DJ, there was hugging, there was a megaphone.

And lots of fun.

My contribution was a banner that looked like the Swiss flag to hang at the courts.

Ingredients
1 length 7/8″ grosgrain ribbon – I bought this cream ribbon from Uline and have been very impressed with the quality.
As many pieces card stock as you’d like to make flags out of – I used this card stock from Amazon. It was hearty enough to handle the wind and easy enough to cut
Thread in a complimentary color to your flags
Exacto knife
Sewing machine

Directions
Cut the card stock into half.

Cut out the design in the middle that you’d like. I cut out a cross shape to look like the Swiss flag. You could probably handle something more complicated.

Pin the ribbon to the card stock flags all the way down the length. You could measure it, but I just used my eyeballs. I folded the ribbon lengthwise down the length of the flag.

Set your sewing machine to zigzag.
It’s the funnest.

Sew down the length of the ribbon, attaching the ribbon to the paper flags all the way down as far as you’re going.

Hang where it pleases you.
I know we did.
Grin.