thegaygardener

Changing The World One Pansy At A Time!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Happy St. Paddy's Day!








How's the weather where u are? The sun has FINALLY Started to shine here in Southern California Thank God!
As gardeners we do have a lot riding on the weather!

Tuesday is Saint Patrick's Day & let's face it HE must have been a GARDENER! How else did he stoop & find that damn Shamrock with the three leaves in order to explain the Holy Trinity! And Yes! people, I KNOW St. Patrick was Italian! But he didn't achieve CELEBRITY until he moved to IRELAND!!

I have mentioned this before but to my Irish Catholic Family... St Patrick's Day was this blessed event after Christmas & before Easter that was truly a cause for celebration!!

We always had corned beef & cabbage (disgusting!) My Mom always made Irish Potatoes (which are really buttercream Easter Eggs but rolled in cinnamon instead of chocolate!) And my Dad & his brother; Uncle Andrew; always went to Mass & then took my beloved NANA out to lunch afterwards! My Father was Charles & his brother is Andrew...just like the ROYAL FAMILY!!! So there!

I can still see my Father dressing for Mass on St Paddy's Day in a grey suit & a green tie secured by this lovely golden shamrock with real "fake" emeralds tie clasp that I still covet!

St Paddy's (please do NOTE the Ds not the Ts!) is a great excuse for decorating, taking off work AND DRINKING!!! As my beloved Grandmother; HANNAH FRIEL TRAINER used to say: "If it wasn't for WHISKEY the IRSIH would rule the world!" Absolutely ignoring the fact of JFK of course!

As you know I like to REPURPOSE things and so I love little creamers & pitchers & butter dishes & any old ceramic piece!!
Here I found a lovely cream colored sugar bowl with handles & a great green ribbon & put ENGLISH (DAMN!) Ivy in it for display!
Also my BUSTY ITALIAN friend; BRUNO sports a SHAMROCK TIARA from the 99 Cents Store! And one of my faves....a Garden Gnome Leprechaun Candle holder just DEMANDS attention on this great CELTIC Feast!

Hope you all have a great day! And DRINK RESPONSIBLY! I myself. am off to THE OLD COUNTRY....MEXICO!! For some very much needed R & R!

And By The Way...HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dearest MOTHER....MRS. TRAINER...who turns 68 on TUESDAY!!!! ANd yes you are correct...she'll SHOOT me if she discovers I told her real age on this FLOGGING thing I do all day!!
Love you Joanne!!!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Oscar 2010 Decorating





Several of you have written to me asking in advance for next year I suppose; how 2 decorate for an Oscar Party.

There are so many options!

One good resource are your Christmas Decorations!! Believe it or not!! Look for big round clear strings of lights, anything STAR shaped or any RED fabric! I made an actual RED CARPET leading into our party out of a piece of FAUX red VELVET that I once used as a Christmas tree skirt!!

Also, you know my tip about using your old Photo NEGATIVES wrapped around votive candle holders PERFECT! Also old film canisters or containers work great because HEY! We're CELEBRATING FILM!!!

Grab some cheap 35 ML film from The 99 Cents Store and use for streamers or table runners or just hang from the ceiling! Pull the film out of the cartridge...its already "curled" for you & go to town!

Also check your personal LIBRARY!! I'm willing to bet that you have at least a few ENTERTAINMENT themed books; be they novels or non-fiction works, about famous Movie Stars or famous Films!! Stack them prominently on the mantel or a table & decorate around them!! For our party I collected these titles from my personal library:

WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? YOU'LL NEVER EAT LUNCH IN THIS TOWN AGAIN, THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE, HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, HOLLYWOOD BABYLON II, INSIDE OSCAR, etc. Any star BIO would do nicely too!

Also any sort of TROPHIES After all what is OSCAR but the ULTIMATE Trophy??? I have a collection of loving cups trophies that I love to fill with flowers. You can take you little boy's PEE WEE LEAGUE All STAR Trophy & work THAT into your Oscar decorating!!

I've had yet another REALITY SHOW AUDITION that has resulted in nothing & am thinking it may be time to pack all this gay-guy-who-loves-a-party-and-a-THEME- & loves- to-decorate- with- what- is- on- hand- thingie and go sell insurance or some regular kind of job!! I am ALMOST MIDDLE AGED for Christ sake!!

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Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Oscar 2010






ugh! What a non event Oscar 2010 was! The show gets worse every year which I suppose is part of the fun!
But seriously can we all agree that CORAL LIPSTICK is just plain WRONG!!?!?!? Sandra Bullock looked terrific in that Marchessa dress but I was so distracted by her tragic lips I couldn't concentrate on anything else. Except for perhaps the sight of Sandy accepting an OSCAR for Best Actress for a role that can be summed up by:

"MAAAAKEL! Dooon't Yooooo DAIR LAAAAAAH toooo Maaaaayyyy!"

That crazy-white-lady-KANYE, that stupid matching of nominees & escorts like it was a PROM, BARBRA STREISAND giving it away that a WOMAN had won (though BIGELOW was brilliant & FLAWLESS!) ugh! Playing HELEN REDDY's "I Am Woman" after Bigelow won, J-Lo's dress appearing as if it was in the act of giving birth to another dress and so on!

It's o.k. even justified to be cheesey & campy but BORING should be a Capital Offense