TBT - Birthday Fort

This blog is called "the creative endeavors" and not "the artwork of" for posts such as these. Creative inspiration often pops up at random times for numerous reasons. It's a way of life more than just that thing you do.

Today's throwback Thursday endeavor is from February of 2012. It was going to be the first time Brian and I getting to spend his birthday together, ever, but of course, as is the military's specialty, his shift changed just for the few days of Valentines' Day and his birthday. He was working the noon to midnight shift. Bummer! But hey, at least we got to see each other at all on these days, right?

Him working the noon to midnight shift made planning for time to celebrate his birthday that much more difficult. What was I going to do to make both days special?! I thought and thought until my thinker was sore. Nothing came to me. Then I had this revelation: sometimes "special" means something specifically meaningful and other times it just comes from doing something you've never done before, together. So, what could I do??

For Valentines' Day, I ended up preparing nothing (lame), but Brian ended up making me breakfast in bed–raspberry crepes and bacon. He had just learned the recipe from one of our friends and surprised me with it. How sweet is that?

Later I ended up making chocolate covered strawberries...

...and we went for a walk in a local park and took pictures at a tree marked with the words "Valentina e Valentino per sempre" (Valentina and Valentino forever). My little sister and I found the tree when she came to visit a few months earlier. 

This one is blurry, but I still love it:

So I had failed to plan for Valentines' and it turned out alright, but I couldn't just expect the same miracle for his birthday, could I?

Then it came to me. I don't know when, where, or how, but all of the sudden I had a plan–I was going to make a fort to surprise Brian when he got home on his birthday eve, and we'd ring in his birthday with movies and snacks. That was definitely something we had never done before, and all I could do was hope he would think it was special. So I got to work...

First I set out to make a frame. I strung a medium thickness string through and around the entertainment center in two places.

Then I ran the string through the holes in the ends of the broom and mop handles that I stuffed in the back of the couch. from there I ran the strings down and around the feet of the couch, using two sharpies as "tourniquets" to remove any slack.

Next I brought out all the blankets, sheets and other large pieces of material I had and just started covering and attaching with clothespins.

This is how the front of the fort turned out:

And here's the back. I wanted it to have a nice roomy feel and I think I accomplished that (by making it practically the size of the entire room).

I also added a little flair by wrapping the light fixture and hanging some stars. 

Then I made a welcome sign on our chalk board wall for Brian to see when he walked in.

So let me give you a tour:

This is the entrance, welcome!

If you were sitting on the bed with your face to the tv, you would see this lovely drying rack turned bookshelf/magazine rack.

And at the foot of the bed, a basket full of movie watching goodies, including girl scout cookies!

So I had everything set, and was ready and waiting for Brian to come home. He was supposed to get off at midnight, so I expected him by 12:30. By the time this next picture was taken, it was 1:45 in the morning and I was still waiting. That's the thing about surprises, sometimes they don't go as planned because the person in question has no idea (or hopefully has no idea) the surprise is happening. Me calling at this hour would have tipped him off. So I sat. I waited. I tried to figure out how to work the new Bluray player so I could watch a movie or show while I waited, but was unsuccessful. I ended up finding some other features and thus enjoyed a little Italian karaoke all by my lonesome. Turns out trying to sing along with songs you've never heard with words you don't know very well isn't so easy. I'm glad there was no one there to have recorded the moment.

By 2:30 Brian was home! He was so surprised, and since it was already so late/early we went straight to bed and awoke the next morning and watched our movies with breakfast. Turned out to be so much fun, we kept the fort up and slept in it for over a week! :)

Thanks for visiting Humphreys' Hideaway. Hope you enjoyed your stay. Come back soon!