A St. Paddy's Day project

So, I mentioned in my morning post that I had been enlisted to do a project...

My husband is having a party in his office with... conservatively 50 people. Honestly, he has no idea how many will show up, but he invited a ton of people, not just from work, but since he works in the financial sector, he knows a ton of people at banks, accounting firms, law firms, etc.

...around 5pm tonight, there'll be a limbo contest.

He asked me to pick up some kind of leprechaun prize for the winner, but I'm not the kind of person who can do things half way.

So... I made a trophy. And a limbo stick.

click to see at full size

I started by buying a fencepost cap from Home Depot. Since that was treated for outdoor use, I sanded off the top layer, then applied 2 coats of natural wood stain. When that was dry and sanded again, I applied 4 coats of Varathane diamond wood finish, so it's hard/shiny/protected. Then I drilled a 1/4" hole in the leprechaun figurine (who is holding a keg... brilliant find!), and another in the trophy base. I used wood glue to set the dowel in the base and crazy glue to stick the dowel to the figurine and the figurine to the base.

Then I drilled holes for the limbo rack, bent the wire so it would hold the pole, decorated the pole (paper-wrapped wire, used for flower decorations) with bands of sparkly glue (gold & green).

Finally, I got the brass plate made up and an engraving shop. I did everything but the plate yesterday/last night because the stain needed 2 hours between applications and the Varathane needed 4 hours between applications. Thank goodness I could speed up the process with a hair-dryer!

The plate (since you can't read it) says:

The 100% Unofficial
-husband's company name-
"How Low Can You Go?"
St. Paddy's Day Limbo Tournament

For the limbo pole, I used a hollow/metal shower curtain pole, put 4 strips of double-sided tape lengthwise, then wrapped it with ribbon and that sparkly wire with little shamrocks. After, I got gold and green ribbon (like you'd use to wrap presents), cut a ton of it, knotted it in the middle. Then I made 2 plugs out of Styrofoam, punched a hole down the centre and fed the ribbon through (so the knot is inside -> this way it won't fall out).

By the way, none of this was pre-planned. The husband asked me yesterday morning to pick up a prize and something to use as a limbo pole. I conceptualized, shopped and built everything yesterday except for the brass plate and decorating the limbo pole.

...do you think I have too much time on my hands?