Michonne is My Spirit Animal

For some reason, Buzzfeed is NOT latching onto my recently created quiz-- "Which 'The Walking Dead' Character is Your Spirit Animal?"  WAHHHHHH. 

I've been tweeting back and forth with Cullen Moss (the guy who played the rapey lollipop cop), and if it is really him, he's pretty cool!  We shall see if he takes my quiz.

Anywho, comment on who you got!  In conclusion, let's take a look at my favorite TWD meme.

V's Carnival, Mustache, & Strong Man Birthday Party

So it was 6 months ago (May), but better late than never!  If you know my V, you'll know that she is quite the tomboy.  I struggle with finding any theme that she finds acceptable.  At some point, she pretty much always says, "Whatever, I don't care" AS LONG as it's not too girlie!

This year, we did a carnival theme-- aqua, black, red, and white, stripes and mustaches!  Last year, she was all about the 'staches.  So this worked.

We did a table runner of red and white striped wrapping paper (Party City) and Spritz brand (Target) mustache plates and red plates and striped aqua/white napkins.  I served corn dogs in cute aqua plastic baskets with red/white checked wax paper sheets.  For snacks, we had grapes, popcorn, soft pretzels with chive cream cheese for dipping, Swedish fish, cotton candy...

And I made these rootbeer float cupcakes!!!  They turned out soooo good if I do say so myself.  Got the idea from Pinterest of course.  

It's really simple, and I'm ALL about simple.  Mix a yellow cake mix as directed except substitute 1 cup of water with root beer & add one dram of root beer flavoring.  I used to be able to only find this at Joann's or specialty candy or cake making shops, but Michael's has recently started carrying the candy flavoring.

Make your favorite buttercream icing recipe (this is my absolute favorite recipe from The Repressed Pastry Chef) & add 1 dram root beer flavoring. Top with root beer hard candy or whipped cream & cherry & paper stripey straw cut in half.  If you are serving them right away, I prefer the whipped cream and cherry, but I knew these would be sitting out for a bit.

The stand came from Amazon.com (gotta love Prime).  I made these labels on Photoshop.  I got the strong man clip art online.  The cotton candy really held up!  I was a little worried, but I ordered it on Etsy from Candilicious Randolph.  Perfect!  I clipped them with colored clothespins onto a big strand of ribbon.  Eh, not the classiest presentation, but still turned out cute.

I designed the water bottle labels to match the cotton candy and popcorn labels:


 

 Activities were pretty lame, but I knew that they were probably going to be most interested in just playing.  We did coloring pages and make your own frame kits from Oriental Trading.  Ugh, never again.  Those things are the worst.  They probably just ended up in the trash anyways. 

I did the runner again down the center of the table.  In the center, I put this jar with tiny plastic top hats and clown noses.  The chalkboard label on the jar said "Wear Me".

They also did a ring toss for fun and ran around like crazy people outside.  For favors, I bought mustache favor bags on sale from World Market.  I bought mini whoopie cushions, fake mustaches, and candy from Party City.  I bought the circus themed rubber stampers from Oriental Trading, and these super cute pinback buttons from Distinct Designs Unlimited's Etsy Shop.

 


I love this pennant!!!!  It was adorable.  From Little Free Radical's Etsy shop.

I think it was safe to say that a fun time was had by all!

Mindy Project Quiz!

I'm such a nerd.  My hubby was out of town and I made a bunch of quizzes on Buzzfeed.  The first one was "Which "The Mindy Project" Character is your Soulmate?" 

Source:  Fox

 And guess what?  It got promoted to the front page of Buzzfeed yesterday!  As of right now, it's gotten 206,139 views which I think is kind of amusing.  Who am I kidding, my inner nerd is FLIPPING OUT.  ACK!  What accolades do I get for such an accomplishment??  Nada.  Zip, zilch.  Pbbbt.  Notoriety for having a good quiz?  I'll take it!  If anyone from Buzzfeed wants to hire me, hit me up.  I'm the biggest pop culture junkie you'll ever meet.  Ok, maybe the 3rd biggest.

 Buzzfeed did change a few of my answers, but in retrospect, I guess I understand.  For example, my question was "Describe Yourself", and one of my answers was "I'm a caramel princess", a direct quote from last week's ep, "Caramel Princess Time".  But it was watered down to "I'm a princess".  I get it, Buzzfeed, I get it.

Anyway, take it, and if anyone is still reading this thing (since I haven't posted in like 2 years), comment and tell me who you got!

P.S.  I have a big post scheduled for tomorrow...waiting to see if I can offer a free download from someone.  I am gonna give this blogging thing another whirl.  

Night Owl 8th Birthday Party!

All I'm going to say is I'm the worst.  Let's move on.  I'm planning Q's French soiree birthday party next weekend!  But here is her 8th birthday Night Owl themed slumber party from last year.  I can't believe it's been like 2 years since I posted.  I'm SMH at myself.

She only had like 3 girls so I could go a little nuts with the favors and ideas.  Her colors were aqua, lime green, yellow, and navy inspired by a bunch of cute owl stuff I found last year at Michaels (dollar section!) in that color palette.  Here are the invites:

 

I bought the owl clipart from Miss Kate Cuttables.  I found a similar invitation on Pinterest (yes, I'm an idea poacher).

With the clipart, I made the favor tags and water bottle labels.  Feel free to use this label template for yourself!  Just click HERE to download a sheet of 5, and I like to print the labels on cardstock.  I cut them out and use clear packing tape to cover the ENTIRE label and wrap around the back.  It makes a waterproof-ish label.  Not like you could submerge in an ice bucket, but if water drips down the side, it doesn't smear the ink.  Please remember that these are for personal use only!

The cake was from a local bakery called Love & Buttercream.  Their cakes are good, but not as good as their FRENCH MACARONS.  Ack.  To die for.  Anyway, they matched the cake colors to the invites.

And I made owl cupcakes for Q to bring to school. Sadly, Q's school says no more treats from now on due to nut allergies.  :(  So no school bday treats this year.  These owl cupcakes are made with split open Oreos and Reese's Pieces!  Obvi, you could also use orange and brown M&Ms, but I didn't have to pick around colors as much with the Reese's Pieces.

  

 
Now to the favors.  Ok, I kinda went a little nutso.  Here's what I bought:

 

Row 1, Left to Right:
1.  Travel toothbrush & toothpaste (Dollar Tree)
2.  Fuzzy socks (Dollar Tree) & Hair Ties (Michaels-- 3/$1.00)
3.  Party blowers!  I bought the blowers at Dollar Tree & made the tags
Row 2:
4.  Back massager (Michaels dollar section) and stickers (local paper store)
5.  Cute small frame (Michaels dollar section)
6.  Owl erasers
Row 3
7.  Owl soap
8.  Notepad (Michaels) & pen
9.  Sleep mask (Michaels dollar section-- my fave item!)

Also, they each got a nightshirt that I designed and had printed at Overnight Prints:

AND (OMG, I know I went crazy) I found the most adorable Etsy shop, Gail Rene's Creations.  I picked out coordinating fabrics, sent them to her, and got these PERFECT owls back.  Gail is wonderful!  I had such a great experience.

We played owl bingo, they decorated pillow cases, and the girls watched "Because of Winn Dixie".  A fun time was had by all!  I think I like party planning more than my kids like their actual parties.  :P  No, it was her first slumber party, and I think she really enjoyed it.

Crafty Valentimes

I go in spurts with my Valentine's craftiness.  Some years I've bought boxed Valentines, sometimes not.  I was pretty early this year in my planning.  Q (she's in second grade) picked these out from Pinterest:

They actually turned out pretty good!  Here are ours:

Here's what we did:  1.  Take string (I used white embroidery floss & pink/red baker's twine), cut 2 pieces into 6" length and tie in knot about 1/3 of the way down.  2.  Tape to box at longer end.  3.  Cut scrapbook paper (I used one pack of Target's Dollar Bin paper) down to box size (ours ended up being 3.5" x 8").  4.  Wrap paper around candy using tape to adhere on back.  5.  Print out labels.  6.  Cut & stick labels on front (side without tape seam).  7.  Attach Hershey kisses on to string using small heart stickers (tape would work too).  8.  On back or sides, write To and From info.

Here's another site that includes a printable and uses Reese's miniatures.  She includes a color printable which would be way easier, but I didn't want to use all that ink, and I liked the patterned paper.  I didn't want to do the Reese's because of nut allergies in my daughter's class.

Next will be V's daycare Valentines!  She wants to do heart-shaped crayons.  I've been furiously scouring the crayon bins for broken crayons to melt down, and I don't know as if I have enough.  We may have to go with Plan B.

Target Valentine's Stuff is the Best

Target has the cutest Valentine stuff!  One of my prior faves at Valentine's Day were red and pink owls.  I still have paper plates and napkins from that year.  This year, it's like French circus theme in aquas, reds, and pinks.  This is just some of the stuff:

Here's stuff that I bought the girls.  Love the strong man cups!  The covered cup twists so that the strong man can be mustached or not.  The covered snack cups in the shape of a tent would be so cute as party favors filled with candy.

Supah cute!!!  That Target!

2013 Resolution: Read More!

I'm what you might call a binge reader.  I received Gillian Flynn's three books for Christmas:  Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl.  I read the first two in two days.  I am obsessed with them!  They are apparently both being made into movies.  The only person rumored to be cast so far is Amy Adams in Dark Places as Libby which I think is a good choice (although I see her more as the mother).

The third is Gone Girl.  Hmm.  I guess people really love it.  I tried to love it.  I do love her writing style, but I just can't get into it.  The thing that I love about her other characters are that most of them come up short on morals, but you root for them.  She somehow makes even the worst characters display a glimmer of likeability (albeit many times faint).  But with Gone Girl, I don't like or really care about anybody.  I don't like Nick.  I don't like Amy.  I don't like Margo.  I find them boring and kinda nutty with no good reason for being nutty.  Plus, Reese Witherspoon is going to be starring in and producing the film version which kinda makes me say ICK (even though I don't hate her, but I can't see it being good).

Anyway, I don't think I can finish it, but I'll probably read ahead to see how it ends. 

Any good book recommendations for me?  Anybody else read these books and love them?

Averting a Pinterest Fail

How is your 2013 so far?  Did you have any fun New Years Eve plans?  We have been lazing around the house with the girls for the last two days reading new books, watching fluffy movies, and playing card games with the girls.  It's been lovely!  Oh, and eating.  My husband has decided that he is really into cooking lately (which is great for me!).  He made a whole mess of appetizers, my favorite being parmesan puffs (mmm  fried!), fontina fondue (with green apple was best), and bacon wrapped dates filled with goat cheese.  YUMZ.  Last week, he made Moroccan Chicken with Lemons & Olives, and it turned out very good!

We've been so lucky to have great neighbors on our old street AND our new street (which is right around the corner from where we used to live).  Our neighbors across the street brought over wine & two little stuffed bears for the girls the day after Christmas.  I decided I wanted to make some cute Pinterest New Year's Eve cupcakes for them.  Here are what they were supposed to look like:

Here is what the clock faces looked like after simply following their instructions (not good):

Those Wilton food writers they say to use?  They don't work.  At all.  Maybe they would work better on fondant, but they do NOT work on Oreo cream.  And they were expensive too. 

First off, you need to use a sharp knife to cut off the top layer of cream & Oreo crumbs.  Good thing I bought Double Stuff!  Luckily, I am a huge hoarder of sprinkles & baking products in general.  I pulled out my bottle of Halloween sprinkles containing confetti & tiny nonpareil sprinkles & pulled out all the black ones.  Then I sent hubby out in the snow to a candy shop to get black licorice strings (I'm not that mean-- he had other stuff to get, and it was on the way to the grocery store). 

Here's what I ended up with!  Did not nail it, but not exactly a Pinterest disaster either.  Give-worthy I'd say.

And here are the little labels I made to attach to the top of the cupcake box:

Feel free to use.  You can save these at the original size then paste them into a Word doc or otherwise.  Print out on cardstock or full sheet label sheets and attach to hostess gift bags, boxes of treats, wine bottles, etc., and I left a place to sign your name!  Voila.

2013 Resolution: Blog Again!

Tap, tap, tap...is this thing on?  Is anyone still there?  *crickets chirping*

For anyone who may still be listening, I must apologize for my absence.  I have been away building up my immunity to iocaine powder just in case a battle of wits should occur. 

 
I'm making a conscious effort to get back to blogging in 2013.  I have a lot to say!  Those of you who are Facebook friends with me know this.  But we're old friends, right?  And old friends can pick up right where they left off, so I hope we can do that. 

So many things to talk about!  We have been in our new house for over a year now which I cannot believe.  Um, Pinterest??!!  How great is it?  Although I don't know about you, but I've had my share of Pinterest fails (nailed it!).  Also, a friend of mine has started a new personal stylist/shopping business in the Detroit area called What to Wear.  I designed her business cards, Facebook page, and website!  I don't have a whole lot of room on the old hard drive that is my noggin, so I'm not sure why I opened up that WordPress can of worms, but I've been learning as I go.

I will be posting more, I promise.  But in the meantime, and in the immortal words of one Mr. Andy Dufresne, I hope this blog post finds you and finds you well.  xo

Q's Bedroom & Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum

We took the girls to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. It reminds me of some cool place that Heidi might find and explore with her kids. It is literally 20 minutes from my house, and I had no idea that it existed.

It's a zillion old timey coin-operated machines-- some from the early 1900s and some from Coney Island. There are some newer games like Dance Dance Revolution and such, but of course, I was loving the oldies. And there were some CREEEEPY machines! I could not talk Q into having her bday party there in November. Booooo. Their favorite was the very realistic-looking dude who pukes. I know it's only fake puke (it's some sort of brown liquid), but I can only imagine how nasty the inside of that machine smells. Ew...now THAT creeped me out big time.

Here are some of my favorite pics:





And a video of Wally & Wanda, the Polka Babies:

Besides that, I completed my first Craigslist transaction!!! I got this super pretty French Provincial nightstand for $20 (!), and it's wanting a beautiful coat of turquoise paint for Q's room (like this).


Speaking of, here is the design board for Q's room:


Inspiration was taken from Lay Baby Lay's Little Girl Wonder inspiration board! I couldn't work the peach in there properly and Q wasn't feeling the peach anyway (she was allllll about the purple-- I could barely get the teal in there at all). But I think it will be good. I am bummed that her forest-themed room is already defunct, but once we get the attic playroom finished, those items will be transferred up there.

Hope everyone's weekend was swell!