Lisa the Butterfly

This is Lisa the Butterfly. Lisa the Butterfly was purchased by Q's father at the Minneapolis Airport. Here are some fun facts about Lisa:

1. When she sleeps, a monster wakes her up.
2. Her tongue got blooded because she was bonked by a car.
3. A mouse was trying to eat her.
4. She likes to be walked around with a leash attached to her tongue.
5. She is Q's new best friend.
6. Q likes to warn her about stranger danger. As in, "Don't go with any other butterflies, Lisa, or you will be killed!" I swear, we don't say that about strangers...exactly.
6. She'd better not touch Q's ice cream sundae or she's getting a time out.


Sooooooooo was anyone else reading Sweet Valley High circa 1985? It was my life. That and going to Circus Circus every day after school for ring pops and slushes. Circus Circus was an ice cream/candy store/arcade a block away from our middle school. It had an awesome tiny merry go round and penny horse rides in front. It was torn down to build a parking lot I think in the late 80s.

But I digress. I also read the Sweet Valley Twins series a little later on. I was a die-hard. And that damn Jessica Wakefield-- I had a love/hate relationship with her. So imagine my excitement at the news that Diablo Cody is re-making the book series into a movie! Pretttttttttty good.

I also learned a valuable life lesson in the pages of SVH-- you try cocaine-- even once-- you will DIE. Do you remember Bruce's girlfriend, Regina Morrow? She died. From snorting coke. One time. Had a heart attack. Burned in my memory forever. Seriously, even if I ever had the opportunity to try coke (which I haven't), I would have passed SOLELY because of this book, no joke. Good stuff.

Happy weekending all. xo

Coraline Obsessed

My niece's 8th birthday is coming up, and she wanted the Coraline movie. As a result, I decided I needed to see it to get ideas of some possible accompanying handmade gifts by watching the movie on PPV. I know I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I'm now obsessed. I decided it was too scary for Q (I was freaked out!), but it was right up my alley. I bought my own copy today.

So far, Sophie's getting the DVD and this awesome dolly from Etsy seller, Figurines by Ingrid:


Here's her bday card fashioned from a fun name generator from the Coraline website:



Q and I also made some pics of our OTHER selves this morning (creeeepy!):
Really, go visit the website! The visuals are amazing. More fun from the website:


Last but not least, I have been looking at some awesome pics from various Coraline swaps. Here is my absolute fave from Francie Horton (photo courtesy of her Flickr page)! The vintage Woolworth box??? The felted mouschka??????!!! To die for!


In other movie news, I took Q to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I bought her the book before she was born because it was one of my faves as a kid. Didn't think I'd like the translation into film, but it had its own merits for sure. Really liked Mr. T as Earl the policeman and Andy Samberg as Baby Brent. Good stuff.

Hope you all had great weekends! xo

P.S. Viv's gonna be a hot dog for Halloween. To be continued...

Happy Birthday, Bella Swan

No joke-- today is the ACTUAL day of her birthday per the Twilight books. Yes, I am a super nerd. Yes, the party was last night and might I say, it was AWESOME. You can see all my Twilight party pics on my flickr page, but one of the highlights was Ms. Swan's birthday cake (I made the nerd disclaimer!). Here is the still from the New Moon trailer:


And here was Jen's version:


I painted the wooden letters on top silver. They weren't as cock-eyed as they look IRL. Found the gerber daisies and pink roses no prob, but couldn't find green gerbers, so had to go with Bells of Ireland. Bottom two layers were dummy layers. There were only 16 of us, not 100! :) We also played Twingo (Twilight bingo), and I made some prizes, but I realized I didn't take any pics! Boooooo.

Hope you all had a GREAT weekend! The highlight of my weekend besides the party was Q's first official ballet class. Looked something like this (she's second from the right):

Have a wonderful week! xo

Annnnnnnnnnnnd Scene!

So you guys are all right. I have received emails (thanks Denise, Theresa, and Michelle) making sure everything was A-Ok. It is! I promise. :) Just getting caught up with LIFE. Feeling disorganized and unmotivated is not a great combo. I feel a little like Jessie Spano on pep pills (except I'm not really scared...).

But I got a grrrrrrreat little pick-me-up from Alli yesterday. She sent me a postcard from Greece.


On the back, there was a little dialogue that went something like this:

-Woman on left: "oh yeah, check out my ruffle."
-Man on left: "She and her stupid ruffle. No one ever admires my man stockings."
-Woman in center: "why can't I have a ruffle like that?"
-Man in center: "What a ruffle *dreamy sigh* Anyone want to change partners?"
-Children: "How long do we have to stand here awkwardly?"
-Couple on right: "What the hell are we doing here? Dear God, please let Vesuvius erupt and put an end to our misery."
AND SCENE

I giggled all day about the ruffle. Snort.

We decided at the beginning of the summer that we weren't doing a vacation this season. The girls are horrid in the car, they don't sleep well in other locations, and it's just not fun with them. V has to be shadowed all the time, and Q is, well, three. And wherever we go, we'd need at LEAST two rooms and even that's difficult because the girls totally wake each other up. I know, I know. Woe is us.

Anyway, two weeks ago, we'd had it and decided we needed to make a break for it. I still have NO IDEA how we got it, but we found a vacant cottage only 1 hr 10 min from our house. Right on Lake Huron. It was reallllly fun. The water was freezing, and the temps were only in the 60s, but both girls had their own room, and so did we. They slept GREAT and were perfect in the car. We so needed a break. Only bad side is I ate my weight in s'mores and Ashby's ice cream.


That's about all. I've been party planning my Twilight Screening event for next weekend. Seriously, this is going to be the mother of all Twilight parties. I'm making up games and designing the party favors as we speak! Here's a little taste of one of the favors...Ryan said he is officially scared of my dorkiness. HA!!! I found small bottles of body glitter at Michael's-- 6 for $2.00! They were in the princess birthday favor section, so they needed new labels:


Happy Hump Day!!!

Still Here...

...and still summering! I apologize for the brief hiatus. Cross my heart I am trying to get back into the swing of posting on a regular basis. These pics were taken along the Detroit Riverfront at the Ren Cen Plaza last weekend. We had so much fun! That place is wonderful.

Oh, and pssssttttt...DUCF 2009 applications are now up! Trying to get my brain together to narrow down what I want to make so I can get my app in.

What is new with you all? In a nutshell, I have been signing Q up for ballet, planning a party at our house, planning some handmade gifts, eating lots of ice cream (bad, bad!), still Jazzercising, Wii'ing, estate saling, zoo'ing, having some fun with those two little girls of ours, and last but not least, figuring out how I'm going to handle my boss leaving for another City (he's been at our City for 28 years and my boss for 12 years!). Phew!

Can you believe summer's almost over?? I have to admit something-- we were watching The Office last week. It was an old ep where Michael goes to NYC, and he decides to go get a "New York slice" from his fave pizza place (Sbarro, ha!!!). He was all bundled up, and you could see his breath and MAN did that make me crave some cold weather. Am I sick or what???

Another reason I'm looking forward to cold weather-- it's been over TWO YEARS since I first mentioned my Lovely Bones fixation, and it appears that it's official release date will FINALLY be December. The trailer is amazing. I can't embed, but you can watch it on the official site. My brother is skeptical of the CGI heaven scenes (as am I), but even moreso is Mark Wahlberg's portrayal of Mr. Salmon. Maybe I will eat my words. I was just so excited about Ryan Gosling that it's hard for me to picture anyone else in the role. Have you read the book? Have you seen the trailer? I predict Stanley Tucci will be the best part of the film. He looks super creepilicious!

xo and more soon!

SPOILER ALERT!!!! SYTYCD Season 5 Recap

Do you watch? Did you watch???? I am obsessed, and I love So You Think You Can Dance sooooooooooo much. I will have to admit that my front runner was Janette and that it was a sad day when she was booted instead of Kayla "we're all winners on this stage" Radomski. I can't believe this is the first time I've blogged about it this season because I almost think this season 5 has been the best so far.

I was so happy Jeanine won though!!! She has been consistently great, and only was set back a bit by her partnership with Philip. Without further ado, my FAVORITE dance by Travis Wall (God, Jason is a HOTTIE):

A very close second was Kupono and Kayla's dance by Mia. Lemme clarify-- I did think Kayla was a good dancer, but in the words of Mia Michaels, she "bugs the shit outta me". Even so, this gives me chills:

Also loved the Argentine tango with Janette/Brandon as well as the Wade Robson jazz number to Ruby Blue by Roisin Murphy also by J/B and the butt dance by Evan/Randi by Mia. Evan went to the girl's babysitter's high school! Yay for a fellow Metro Detroiter.

Oh, I almost forgot-- the tour is in October, and 4 of us are going. WE MANAGED FRONT ROW SEATS!!!!! I fully expect to be able to feel the sweat flinging off the dancers. Loverly.

Hope you are all having a wonderful week. I just looked at the clock! TGIF!!!!

Twilight Swap

Sorry my posts have been few and far between! I have no excuse besides laziness. Well, and my parents and Ryan's mom have been here for the past two weeks, so it's been hard to get away without seeming rude.

Sooooo the Twilight swap has come and gone. My lovely swap partner, Jessica, sent a TON of awesome gifties.

An assortment of Twilight goodies. Plus, a cute little length of black and white French ribbon because we love French stuff (yay!):

A bookmark with pieces of Forks forest in it and a pebble from First Beach:



A Xmas ornament of Forks High School:


Some AWESOME smelling lotion and lip balm. Edward-scented of course-- honey, lilac and sun. Mmmmmm!


Twilight conversation hearts and a Ghiradelli Twilight Dark bar. Yummers!

I can also show you the complete pic of what I had posted here as a teaser...wine charms! They were so fun to make, and I think they are hilarious.


Here's everything I sent to Jessica. You can see more pics here!


And on that Twilight note, I'll leave you with a little tidbit from New Moon. I think it's fanmade, but I don't care!!!! xoxoxoxo