The Gibson County Extension Homemakers held their annual Achievement Day on Thursday May 3rd.  My club was in charge of the decorations.  Since the banquet is on a Thursday, I didn’t get to go.  Not all homemakers are stay at home – I have a job.  But the club did get together on Wednesday night to set up the decorations.

Source: Martha Stewart

With the banquet in May, we did a May Day theme with the decorations, creating may pole centerpieces (a la Martha Stewart).  Our centerpieces were made with floral foam pieces, but the dessert cupcakes did go on them.

I started with a cheap foam piece meant to go inside of a pot, and painted it with spring green craft paint.  I then took 12-inch dowel rods and wooden thumbtacks – painting them white.  Once they were white, I pre-drilled a hole in the top of the dowel rod so the thumbtack would go in quickly and easily.

The day we decorated, I started by pushing the dowel rods into the center of my foam piece.  Once I had a hole, I pulled them back out and added a little hot glue for good measure.  Then we cut yard long pieces of 1/8-inch ribbon.  Each of the centerpieces got 8 of them.  They were stacked evenly, and the push pin, pushed through them.  Then the push pin was pushed into the pre-made hold at the top of the dowel rod.

We then spaced all of the ribbons evenly, attaching them underneath the cake stands with tape.  As a finishing touch, each of the centerpieces was given daisy chain flowers – in pink and green, attached with straight pins.

The cupcakes were added the next day.