Second Course

Claudia, here.  Prepare for a some fun today, but don't peter out early.  Today's post is capped off with Summer 2009 Highlowaha Challenge.  You won't want to miss it!

Those of you around last year probably remember one of our most acclaimed posts, titled a Feast for Your Eyes.  It was an unbelievable display of creativity, featuring a ballroom of 50+ dinner tables - each table with their own theme and table scape.  This year was no different as I, Scoop Beeny, hit the beat in order to bring you highlights from this year's annual event.  

The event, titled Dine By Design, is a fundraiser for the church a friend of mine attends.  Women volunteer to "sponsor" a table and, in turn, develop a theme, decorate the table accordingly, and then sell tickets to seven other girl friends who will join them for an evening of fun.  Elaborately decorated tables are the stars of the night - not the food (which is spaghetti donated by a local restaurant), nor the service (which is provided by husbands dressed up in black and white).

For people like me who love details and ascribe to the belief that packaging is everything, this event truly is a feast for the eyes.  Each table takes on a life of it's own.  Each theme tells an elaborate story using props for centerpieces; carefully selected plates, chargers, and cutlery; thoughtfully packaged gifts on each woman's plate; bolts of all sorts of material wrapping the backs of chairs; clever napkin rings; and in some cases even canopies constructed above tables.  No detail is to small and no amount of effort is too big for these women.  It is a truly remarkable sight.

Let me tell you what else I love.  I love what this event stands for.  It is a grand gesture bringing together large groups of women talented women and giving them a platform to do what they do best - create!  It is everything we at Highlowaha stand for - people using their creativity to help community.  The fact that it is so well done, with such an impressive number of participants, and a following so far-reaching, that people from all over the metroplex come to take photographs, is just icing on the cake!  The event works, because it is the perfect marriage between talents (planning events/parties), interests (socializing with friends), and need (fundraising for the church)

Take a look at just a few of the tables...

Hog Wild

Aloha

Because I Said Sew

Garden Party

Treasures

Going on Safari

Birds of a Feather

Start your Engines

Sugar and Spice

Yee Haw

Highlowaha Summer 2009 Challenge:  Commit to hosting a Highlowaha Dine By Design event (dinner, brunch, coffee, happy hour) at your house sometime between now and Monday, August 31.  Claim your theme, get busy developing your table scape, invite your friends, and help us raise money for the Gift of #218 Fund (remember, every $200.00 we raise allows us to provide another family a Gift of #218 experience).  Soon after Labor Day, we will feature photographs of each of your table scapes.  Charge $20.00 a person, $10.00, or $5.00.  We don't care.  The idea is to challenge your creativity while helping us help community. 

So what do you think?  Are you in?  Want to claim your theme today?  Safari? Nautical? Ship wrecked? Hollywood?  Board Games? Wild, Wild, West?  The possibilities are endless!  As for me.... Mine is going to be a murder mystery dinner based in the 50's.  Picture the scene of the crime (my dinning room) as the quintessential 50's soda shop.

In days to come we hope to create a link on our site that helps us keep track of which of our readers is planning to host a Dine By Design event, the date, and your theme.   Until then, DIG IN! 

Signing off until tomorrow...