One of the doctor's at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
where I work recently retired. The other doctors in his
practice and the nurses in our unit wanted to give him
a retirement party to commemorate and celebrate
the many years he has dedicated to helping premature
babies and sick term babies survive and thrive.
This is an Anne Geddes photo but it COULD be Dr. Woodall's hands holding a premie.
One of the other nurses and I like to grow grass for inexpensive
party decorations so we collaborated on that part.
To further enhance the grass and tie it in the theme of the party,
I also made tiny signs to stick into the grasses' soil and to place around the venue.
To further enhance the grass and tie it in the theme of the party,
I also made tiny signs to stick into the grasses' soil and to place around the venue.
Dr. Woodall is affectionately called "Dr. Woody" so I tried to use the letter "W" and "wood" as a decorating theme for the party.
Michael's had a scrapbook paper pack that had several
pages of various wood prints as well as other masculine
outdoors-y papers that worked well together.
Once I cut out the "W"s, it was obvious that they were
white on the back (the paper was not double-sided).
In order to make the little sign look good from both sides
of the centerpiece, I glued the "W" on a backing made
with a co-ordinating paper.
The co-ordinating paper was also white on back so I
printed out sayings about "retirement" in a similar size
to cut out to hide the white of the backing paper.
A wooden skewer was then glued in between the
two pieces of paper to be the stake.
Party guests would have either a "W" or a retirement
saying facing them in the centerpiece
with a small amount of white paper showing anyway after all of that effort
because I was running short on time and was being a frantic sloppy gluer person.
To feature the "W" portion of the decorating I had kept my eyes open for inexpensive initials pre-cut in the craft stores and
then just painted or stained them.
then just painted or stained them.
When I was editing this photo, I realized that the letters plus the stain top looks like "WoW".
I didn't make all of the "W"s wood looking. I just wanted to try
out making some of them look like metal (as is they were "finds" from an old sign). Also, it tied them in with the galvanized containers.
out making some of them look like metal (as is they were "finds" from an old sign). Also, it tied them in with the galvanized containers.
We didn't want too many flowers since the party was
for a guy, but we did have a few daisies in vases.
The leftover grass pots got used as end and coffee
table decorations.
A few years ago one of the nurses asked Dr. Woodall (who is
now 70) when he was going to retire and he said, "When I draw my last breath."
He is really dedicated to helping babies and their parents.
Recently he has had health issues that caused him
to retire earlier than that, thank goodness.
We all wish he has many years to enjoy his retirement.
For instructions on how to grow grass for fun or decorations, here is a blog post about that.
We grew our grass in casual containers but the grass also looks elegant in more refined containers.
For assorted ways to use the grass once you have grown it, is another blog post.
