Maren's Fabulous Bake Sale and Lemonade Stand

So here's the thing: I haven't been blogging because my last post was #899, and I wanted to do something big for #900. However, I've been swamped and just haven't been able to get a post or a giveaway put together, so instead of waiting forever to blog the perfect #900, I'm just going to make this one it. Still want to do a giveaway, but it's going to have to be the Big 902nd Post Giveaway! or something like that, when I get it all put together.

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you all about Maren's Fabulous Bake Sale and Lemonade Stand. Actually, let me back up a bit. Last Wednesday, I helped put on a tea party for 35 of the cute little girls and their moms that I work with at my church. I decorated the entire thing, five tables' worth, solely with the contents of my house: vintage tablecloths, strands of pearls, my great-grandmother's antique tea cup collection, vintage hankies, and silver spoons, as well as all of the cake pedestals and other serving pieces. NONE of which I have a photo of, because the ONLY thing I forgot the entire night was my bloomin' camera! :( I also hand-lettered the place cards, baked 60+ mini cupcakes decorated with pink icing and blue sugar pearls, and had the pleasure of dressing up in one of my vintage dresses, a feathered fascinator, pink cat-eye glasses, pearls, and white gloves so I could give an etiquette lesson as Miss Manners. The whole thing was very fun and I think the girls and their moms had a great time, but it was just a ton of work, especially falling in the same week as the Lemonade Stand.

I tried to get things ready for the Lemonade Stand ahead of time: I baked two batches of Peanut Butter Blossoms on Tuesday and popped those into the freezer. We built the framework for the awning on Sunday, and on Tuesday evening I went to IKEA and bought the striped fabric. They were all out of the black and white striped Sofia fabric that I really had my heart set on,

so I ended up with the hot pink and white striped fabric instead.

I also loved the red and white but since I had planned a pink and yellow and black color scheme for everything, I thought this would work better.

On Thursday, I sewed the awning. I should note that our PVC pipe Lemonade Stand was loosely based on this one from Not2Crafty. However, we built our stand around a 6'6" table so our measurements were different and I sewed the awning a bit differently, but it did give us a great jumping-off point.

On Friday, I baked like a madwoman. I made Devil's Food cupcakes with butter cream frosting (two dozen),

 lemon cupcakes with citrus cream cheese frosting (two dozen),

Knock You Naked Brownies (two pans),

a batch of Oreo truffles

four pans of French Vanilla Rice Krispie treats, individually wrapped and tied with pink and white baker's twine and displayed in an old pink-painted soda crate with a hand-stamped sign and vintage pink velvet ribbon.

 All in addition to the six dozen cookies already in the freezer from Tuesday.

Basically, I was a flurry of sugar and butter all day long. That night, I finished the awning and The Mister helped me make signs

with Cricut letters and hand-drawn lemons and cupcakes. I purchased a cute money box in Target's seasonal section, we got change from the bank, bought pink napkins from IKEA and stripey paper straws from Amazon. Heck, I even pulled out my cute vintage trash can to use at the booth. I had thought of every single detail.

And then we woke Saturday morning up to this:

 and this

and this.

And just like that, all of my work, all of my planning, all of my wrestling yards of fabric through my sewing machine (how do you quilters do it?), all of my baking--totally wasted. I'd been watching the weather report all week--Saturday started off as 80 and sunny, then 76 and sunny, then 72 and clouds, then 68 and rain later in the day, then 62 and rain later. Not ideal weather for selling cold, refreshing lemonade, but do-able, especially since the folks across the street were holding a HUGE yard sale and I was counting on piggybacking on all of their traffic. But 45 degrees and thunder and pouring rain? No go.

I thought Maren was going to be devastated. I thought there were going to be tears, and I'd have to console my poor sobbing little 7-year-old girl that the event we'd been talking about for literally a month, the one that she asked daily how many more days it was until her Lemonade Stand--wasn't going to happen. And you know what? I think I was more disappointed than she was. After all, I'm the one who invested hours and $$ into it. I'm surprised I didn't cry.

So then we were left with dozens and dozens of treats that weren't going to keep. I hurriedly invited over everyone to a "Lemons into Lemonade" party that night to just help us eat everything. We had a few take us up on the offer and help us eat our way through the spread, but many of our friends had taken part in a CRAZY race that morning in the 42 degree rain and mud and were still at home trying to stop shivering, so they couldn't make it.

We set up the awning in the front room and I laid everything out, if nothing else than to console myself by making something pretty.

We still had pink lemonade, this time in my pretty glass dispenser instead of the insulated 5-gallon thermos jug.

I even had a pretty pink, black and white vintage glass pitcher for water:

So there it is. I'm tickled with how the awning came out--it is just the way I pictured it in my head, which doesn't always happen for me. And I truly believe that if we'd been able to have our sale, Maren would have raked in the cash! I've already promised her that we'll set up the stand in front of the neighborhood pool one busy Saturday this summer, and I believe the neighborhood holds another garage sale day in August as well. Now that we have the awning, I'm determined to find uses for it, and I really do want Maren to have the opportunity to earn some money.

But maybe I won't bake quite so much next time.

The lemonade stand and bake shop inspiration

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In a few weeks, our subdivision will be having its 2-day neighborhood yard sale. Now, I love going to yard sales, but fervently do NOT want to have one myself! However, Maren has been asking to have her own lemonade/cookie stand 'the next time we have a yard sale'. Since the time frame on that could very possibly be NEVER, I told her that we could just set up a stand for her during the neighborhood sale and skip dragging all of our junk out on the driveway. She happily agreed, and I happily started planning.

For me, planning a creative project is just as much fun as actually carrying it out, and this project is no exception! I've already planned out in my head just how my Maren's lemonade stand is going to look. I even created a Pinboard to collect ideas! Here's what is inspiring me:

• Black and white striped awnings like this one from MadeByGirl
• striped awnings with scalloped edges, like this one from DanaMadeIt

Original source: http://www.danamadeit.com/2008/07/bistro-awning-mini-tutorial.html

We're planning to use a 6-ft. folding table but we'd like some shade, so I thought maybe I can make an awning. I love the idea of having a striped awning and I remembered that IKEA sells this black-and-white striped fabric that might just be perfect.

My idea is to use PVC pipe to construct an awning frame, then sew the fabric to fit over the top. The PVC would be light, inexpensive, and easy to work with since they sell all of the connectors I'd need for the corners. The awning could then be disassembled when we're done and packed away to use for future lemonade stands or bake sales. I haven't been to the hardware store to check out the PVC pipe yet but in my head, this is a totally do-able project. We'll see what it's like in real life!


In my searching for inspiration, I came across this cute lemonade stand made by Lisa Storms for Fiskars. I'm in love with the clever 'lemon slices' she made using accordion paper pinwheels and white doilies:

Original source: http://www2.fiskars.com/Activities/Crafting/Articles/The-Lemonade-Stand

I'm thinking of a color scheme of black and white, yellow, and light pink. I do believe there will have to be striped paper straws, because everything tastes better when it's cute! (sidenote--Amazon carries these boxes of 144 straws in several basic colors and they're a great deal--cheaper than many online party supply shops)

Maren wants to sell baked goodies in addition to lemonade. There will of course be cupcakes, and I think this idea for packaging them is simply brilliant!

Original source: http://www.cookiemadness.net/2011/04/packaging-cupcakes/

Be sure to check out my Lemonade Stand Pinboard for lots more cute lemonade and bake sale inspiration! And if you Pin anything from this post, please be sure to pin from the original sources to give credit where it is due!

I'll keep you all updated on our progress and if I'm able to make that awning like I'm hoping--I think not only will it provide needed shade for us (and the cupcakes!), but it will be so cute that people driving by will want to stop and buy a glass of lemonade and a cupcake from a cute little gap-toothed 7-year-old girl!