A couple of summers ago, I got ridiculously carried away one day while online shopping, and bought cute little cardboard french fry boxes in several colors. When they arrived a week later, I wondered exactly what I was thinking.(setting the table like it's fast food for my gal-pals? Um...not happening at my house.
So, the cute (if you could find a use for them) little fry boxes ended up tucked into a drawer in my craft room, waiting for the moment of inspiration to hit me.
Each time I opened the drawer, I would see a sliver of bright orange, yellow or turquoise polka-dot paper peeking out and I would be reminded that I need to not let clever marketing sway me into tapping that silly "Add to my cart" button. (I do not even remember what the clever marketing was at this point in time, but I know me, and I know that is how this occurred.)
Anyway.
Fast forward a couple of years, give or take. As I shared a few days ago, I have two of the bigger grand-boys staying with me while their parents are on an anniversary trip. We were working on a handmade bookmark for a contest at the library, and I went into one of my drawers to get the paper punches out, and what did I spy with my little eye, but a sliver of turquoise polka-dot paper peek-a-booing out.
The teeny tiny light bulb in my head flickered and I realized the moment had (finally!) arrived to use the little fast food fry boxes. (Four of them, at any rate.)
Yesterday we picked up some potatoes at the grocery and I set about to make a fabulous boy-friendly meal. I whipped the place settings together very spur of the moment, and looking back, now see a multitude of other possibilities that would have been even cuter. (Things like cute name labels on the fry boxes...)
I used my roll of freezer paper with crayon names written on them for placemats, and paper plates. When the little men (and my Rock n' Roll Buddy) came to the table, it was hard to tell who was the most impressed.
(Note* My homemade fries look really odd in the photos for some reason... I leave the skins on. In person, they actually looked and tasted just fine.)
I laughed out loud as I listened to them ooh and aah over the french fry containers, and the littlest man, who was even more impressed to see his name on the placemat.
Men.
Go figure.