Happy Birthday, Viv!

Happy 2nd birthday to my little baby girl today. I love you soooooooooooo much, and I can't believe you've already been here with us for 2 whole years. You are so smart and funny, and I'm so glad that you are finally warming up to your mommy (she's been a daddy's girl since birth!). Sorry your sister had to throw up this morning and steal the limelight from you. But we'll make it up to you! xoxo

And a Partridge in a...

I want to take a picture of every spring flower I see. I saw a house the other day that had an azalea (pinkish purple) next to a forsythia bush (bright yellow) next to some small tree that was just leafing out (bright green leaves), and if it wasn't on such a busy street, I would have stopped to photograph the color combination because it looked beautiful.

I'm kind of in love with our Cleveland Pear tree. It's only a few years old, and it's already ginormous. It has wonderful green leathery leaves and the white blossoms make it look like it's covered in snow. We walked by a restaurant in Ferndale last weekend, and they had twinkle lights on their pear trees, and at night, they totally looked snow covered.

Here are a few pics:




If you want to see some seriously beautiful TTV pictures of springy flowers, go check out my bud Alli's blog. Aren't her pics dreamy???

So back to my pear tree-- we had this tree planted in the right of way (which is the area between your property line and the street) by our City Forestry Department for a measly $150 or something which is really CHEAP especially since they do the planting in the right of way. Lots of municipalities especially in Michigan offer this type of thing, so check with your local Parks & Rec or Forestry division.

Speaking of Parks & Rec, do any of you watch the NBC show??? If you do, it is LITERALLY my job on TV. Well, I'm more Mark Brendanawicz (who's a city planner), but I think the writers should contact me because I could give them sooooooooo much material. :) If you haven't seen it, you can watch most of the eps on Hulu.


I love all the characters, especially Aziz Ansari's. Ryan's mind was almost blown when he heard AA would be starring in a movie with one of his other faves, Danny McBride AND it's being shot here in Michigan.

Ok, that's all kiddos. I hope your weekend isn't flying by like mine seems to be. Bleh. Plus, the weather isn't too great, so that's a bummer. Good news is that Ryan's taking Q to Jungle Java tomorrow morning (aka Lord of the Flies in a strip mall), and I don't have to go! Yippee!!!

xo

Party Central

Just having a partial family party for Miss V's second(!) birthday, but I can't resist the opportunity to design some cute stuff. My parents are coming on her actual birthday, and Ryan's family are coming 3 weeks later to celebrate because it's also the date of Q's first ballet recital!

Front:




Back:

The backgrounds for both sides are from Maybemej Sporrong. I found her via Danielle Thompson. I am so in love with her site and photos and FREEBIES are dreamy. You may recall my previously posted Scandinavian Love. I think I may have been Swedish in a previous life.

Here's another invite that went out via email last week (tee hee):


Speaking of time flying, A) I can't believe I haven't posted in so long and B) next week, I am taking Q to Kindergarten visitation!!!!! She'll be 5 in November (and in Michigan, they have to be 5 by December 1), so we opted for her to start this year. That girl is READY.

Happy weekending all!! xo

Cake Cake Cake Cake Cake

You know I'm mad about cake, right? Thanks to Rachael who saw this cake on Cake Wrecks and thought of Girl Land (aw, so sweet). I feel like Veruca Salt, and I want it NOW.

Photo courtesy of Sweety Darling via Cake Wrecks via Rachael!

I'm gearing up for my New Moon party which will be on June 12, 2010 WHICH, by the by, is a new moon (see how I do that? See?). And my cakestress will be making these bad boys:

Photo Courtesy of Annie's Eats

And I'm thinking about bringing one of THESE to Easter dinner at the in-laws this weekend. I have such a craving for a big fat piece of..............CARRRRROT CAKKKKE!!!!!!! Doesn't this look good?

Photo courtesy of Fefa74 via Flickr

Happy Shamrock Day!!!!

Hope it's a lucky one!

My Eyes Are Smiling!

We are an Irish household. Today was spent tending to the corned beef and cabbage. Hubby needs 3 hours+ to prepare, so we typically do it the weekend before. He eats all the leftovers. We figured it out today, and this is the 12th year of the tradition. Good stuff.

This feat requires two LARGE stockpots. He boils the corned beef with seasonings for 3.5 hours. In the last half hour, he throws in the cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. He pulls the corned beef out, puts it on a baking sheet and coats liberally with honey mustard glaze then broils for 10 minutes. The piece de la resistance is his honey mustard glaze which is just French's yellow mustard and honey. No recipe-- just to taste. Again, good stuff.

So in the wake of St. Patty's Day sneaking up on me, I thought I'd throw out some festive Etsy picks:
Left to right, top to bottom:

1. Irish Rose Green Stud Earrings by Forevermore Creations
2. Vintage Good Luck Care Bear Magnet by Green Clean Toys
3. Mini Green Cowboy Hats by Imagine Art 7
4. The Leprechauns Craving Soap by AJ Sweet Soap
5. My Everyday Rainbow Necklace by Bikimiki
6. Leprechaun Stache by EllieKat
7. Green Beer St. Patrick's Day Letterpress Coasters by The Paper Peony
8. Vintage St. Patrick's Day Cake Picks by Tinsel and Trinkets
9. Pastel Rainbow Pocket Mirror by Starry Eyed Bowtique

Have a wonderful week! :) xo

AZ

So I got to get away for a nice 4-day excursion to see my girlfriend in Phoenix! What a lovely break from routine and from the horrrrrible weather we were having in Michigan. My hubby was so great, and my parents were around one of the days to assist, so that was nice of them. But to him, "piece of cake". He's a good one!!!!

Highlights of the trip (please note most of these things center around food):

• Ross: a pair of sassy Etienne Aigner shoes for $20?? Shut the front door!
  
• Sweet Tomatoes: I am sure people who have these restaurants take them for granted. Do you KNOW how hard it is to find a good salad bar in the Detroit area???? I could have stayed here all day.
  
• Ginger Lychee Mojitos and eel & avocado rolls at Sushi Roku = yumz.
• The Desert Botanical Gardens:

• The Crazies: Loves me some zombie-types AND Timothy Olyphant (who is now, consequentially, officially on my top 5 laminated card). A winning combination.

• Smeeks: been wanting to visit here ever since Nie Nie's post and even MORE after seeing her more recent post (featuring Heather's sweet birthday banner)!
• 
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• QCumberz: got an awesome little strawberry creamer and these sweet arse AZ postcards:

• The Parlor Pizzeria: was an old beauty salon turned super cool pizza parlor! Even have the original chairs up at the bar. Our fave was the funghi (truffle oil & mushrooms) with added bacon!

• And finally, the best part, my FF: