...10.10...Friday Update...Neighborhood Party Prep...

...you know how you do things that you've kindof been putting off doing when you know you're going to have company...

...we had a few things that we just wanted to get done before we hosted a houseful of guests...

...I weeded the sedum along the driveway...it had actually needed doing for a couple of weeks...but I wanted to wait until just before the neighborhood gathering so that it would look nice and neat for that...most (all) of the neighbors use the back doors for entrance...except for the very first one I attended and I went to the front door...haha...newbie mistake...

...this is the edging that we had put in along the driveway when we first bought the house...so it's been there for a few years now...and the landscape cloth too...not sure how many weeds that's even blocking...

...but I wanted to pull that up and replace it with the same metal edging we've used everywhere else in the yard...

...and I've got two more 40' sections...one white on the inside for who knows what reason...and I'm going to use the black one here in this rather conspicuous location...

...and I'll eventually reuse that long piece of shorter rubber edging along the sidewalk...I've already done the metal edging on the outside...but I want this shorter one on the inside against the sidewalk...just to keep the mulch from drifting onto the concrete...I won't be weedeating there...

...so I rolled out that 40 foot slithery piece of metal...but it was actually pretty easy to tap into place along the driveway with the rubber mallet...

...all done...and so much neater...and one thing marked off the pre-party list...

...second check-off...wash the windows...I got a neat silicone squeegee that I use for the inside of the car windows...and it worked perfectly on the inside glass as well...I did all four of the glass doors in the living room/den/hallway...and the sliding glass door and the dinette window...

...and we do this about once a year...we take all of the little glass pieces out of the fireplace and give them a rinse off...so that they are dust-free...another thing checked off the list...

...then I made some cute little envelopes for some seeds that I was going to give away...Giant Marigolds...and Purple and White (PowWow) Echinacea...

...and I made a little sign for the back porch table so they could take a few envelopes on their way out...

and then I picked a few flowers and grasses to make a vase of flowers for the table...

...this vase is passed from person to person...if you have it...it means that you're the next one to host the gathering...

...so we always fill it with flowers and then send it home with the next hostess...

...and then I wanted to make a little dish of mixed nuts...Mom had given me the pecans, walnuts and hazelnuts...and I already had cashews and peanuts...

...so I just grabbed a handful of each nut...

...put them on a pan...and gave them a spritz with some oil...and I put some pink salt in the Man's new mortar and pestle that he got for his birthday and made a salt powder to sprinkle over the nuts...and I put them in the oven for just a few minutes until they were fragrant...

...and put them in the Man's Aunt Emma's candy dish...

...then I made a batch of ...guess what...RIGHT...Toby's tofu dip...

...started setting up the drinks on one counter...

...then I got out a bunch of veg...

...and made a vegetable tray with a dish of hummus in the center...

...finished the drinks area...there's wine...water...pink lemonade...and hot tea (Darjeeling)...hopefully there'll be something everone likes...

...and food on the other counter...

...and I reheated the little potato bread sticks from the Julia recipe in the air fryer...

...and we all had such a nice time visiting and chatting and catching up...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend!