Pasta Dinner Night {party decorating on a budget}

 First of all I apologize for the lack of post this week. A nasty cold {no "sick days" for mothers}, plus being the decorating coordinator for my kids' school Pasta Dinner Night fund raiser took up much of my energy. I want the best for my kids and their school {don't we all}, so I was up to the challenge of decorating Lake Avenue Elementary's cafeteria to accommodate 336 people for one of the schools biggest fund raisers of the year on a verrrry limited budget {YES I CAN}. Thanks to the many blogs I read, Martha Stewart.com, and some of our very generous local florist I was able to transform the cafeteria to a trattoria! Here is how I did it...

{Our school is becoming more "green". In an attempt to stay with that theme I choose to stick with paper and recyclable items to decorate the tables with}

{the tables were covered in white paper -thanks to the art teacher, the runner is black and white wrapping paper, red paper place mats donated by Putnam Market, silverware donated by Allerdice rental, cups donated by Hannaford, the flowers that were donated by Dehns, Hidden Gardens and Price Chopper were placed in mason jars and soup cans tied with a zippy red ribbon, donated crayons from Lake Ave. parents were put on the table to keep our little "artist" busy while the food was being served}

{my friend Carolyn took our tired curtains and made them into these cute cafe curtains with hardly any effort - a true genius! Some items from home polished off one of the window beds and made a nice focal point}

{ready to serve!}