Painted sticks in vases

Last weekend, B and I caused quite the stir in the neighborhood. Well, technically, there was no evidence to support my "stir" statement, but I sensed the neighbors' curiosity. After all, why would two grown adults spend hours plucking stick-like plants from the ground, gathering them together in a garbage can, and bring the sticks inside the house?

The reason, dear readers, as some of you have probably already figured out, is centerpieces. I suspect that centerpieces have driven many an engaged couple to engage in activities that they might not do ordinarily. For example, when we were at Michael's yesterday buying glass vases at 50% off (bargain hunters extraordinaire!) and the young hooligans behind us were noting with no small amount of frustration that they had chosen the wrong line, I wanted to interrupt their Cap'n-Morgan-and-Coke reveries and tell them that while 17 glass vases might seem like a useless purchase--unless they were to be used as drinking receptacles--the hooligans would understand when they got engaged. But I digress. Back to the sticks.

During our visit-ten-wedding-venues-in-one-weekend tour, we visited a ballroom that was already set up for a wedding, and they used very creative centerpieces--tall sticks, painted and glittered, in tall glass vases filled with colored glass beads. We decided against the venue but in favor of copying the centerpieces. During a later recon mission at Michael's to investigate centerpiece options, we found bunches of sticks that we could buy and then paint ourselves, but common sense (and frugality) posed the question, Why buy sticks when you can cut them yourself for free? Naturally, we had to give the embrace-nature-and-steal-her-sticks approach a try, and it turned out that thanks to years of a live-and-let-live landscaping philosophy, my parents' yard was the ideal location for picking tall, straight sticks.

To sum up, we've made good progess:

• A garbage can o' sticks is living in my parents' basement in preparation for the painting and glittering process.
• Two boxes of vases are sitting in the guest bedroom, waiting patiently for their sticks to come home.
• Several beaches on Cape Cod are producing sand grains at a rapid rate in preparation for sand pilfering by the light of the moon.

Fear not--if the painted sticks in vases approach fails, we have a backup plan involving jelly beans, sea shells, and cotton candy (just kidding).