Full On Twerd: New Moon Party

As a follow up to my Twilight party, I had my New Moon party last night as it WAS a new moon per the lunar calendar (WARNING: much nerdiness ahead). Wait, it gets better...

I decided to gear this one towards my Team Jacob friends and show some TLaut love. The basement was decked out in Native American tchotchkes: dream catcher, crazy kitschy lamp and other stuff courtesy of my friends. Faux fur "pelts" courtesy of Joann's although that stuff is wicked messy to cut!
The framed New Moon quotes were from Jen at Hostess with the Mostess! You may remember I used her Twilight quotes too. I took advantage of her tip and used the Fed Ex/Kinko's store for laser printing-- you can upload and pay online then just go to your local store and pickup. Super cheap, easy, and they turned out beautifully.
Here are my lil' favors. Inside was a coaster/jar opener/mini mousepad. These things are the best. Also, Twilight phrase conversation hearts, a wolf pack tattoo sticker, and New Moon band-aids (we don't want to incur a papercut now, do we?).Food & Drink:

• Werewolf Kibble (puppy chow)
• Fire & Ice Shrimp (the spicy recipe is here plus shrimp cocktail)
• Bella is so Blue Cheese Dip (from Paula Deen)
• Quileute Crudite (just veggies)
• I had intended on Dog Bone shaped Crostini, but it didn't pan out, so they got oval. :)
  
• Olive You Both Tapenade (from a jar...good stuff)
• Hogs in a Blanket (as in motorcycle hogs, get it?)
• Pacific Northwest Fizz (my own concoction!) garnished with rosemary stems to look like pine boughs; consisted of rosemary infused agave syrup, lime juice, grapefruit vodka and club soda-- just kinda played around with the ratio.
  
• AWESOME werewolf cupcakes courtesy of Annie's Easts. My friend Al's niece (she's 17!!), Brooke made them for me and piped like a fiend in between studying for her ACT the next day! She is so talented. They were perfect.
• And my most favorite brainstormed idea yet-- Face Punch! It's just pineapple juice, ginger ale and lime sherbet. I am still cracking myself up over thinking of the name.
  
• Chocolate Twizzlers & brown/gold M&Ms

Also decided we needed a game, of course. I love Catchphrase and thought it would be great to get a Twilight-themed version. Lo and behold, iPhone has an app called Phrase Party where you can add your own custom word/phrase list! So I came up with a list of about 70 catchphrases like love triangle, stomach flu, eternal damnation, etc. TEAM EDWARD PREVAILED!!!

Prizes for both teams were packaged in a barf bag with Face Punch movie ticket stubs attached. I made them on this site! I used the actual date and location from the book. I just printed them out on cardstock and tore them on the side. They looked pretty cool. You can use my image below if you'd like!
Losers had REJECTED UNDER AGE stamped across the front (tee hee) and were filled with fake rubber Mike Newton puke and a package of mini marshmallows (since Jacob calls Mike a marshmallow, I thought it only fitting). The winning team had prizes inside like wolf charm earrings & zipper pulls, dog bone cookie cutters, Ciao Volturi Alice magnets, New Moon Pies, slap bracelets, chocolate bars with printable New Moon wrappers, etc.

You can see all my New Moon party pics on my Flickr page.

All in all, we had a great time!!! I am sure you all think I'm some crazy who takes this very seriously. I can assure you it's only the party planning I take very seriously. I don't care if it's a stinkin NASCAR party, I will be on that theme like Miley Cyrus on a middle-aged gay dude.

I already know next year's party is going to be a (SPOILER ALERT) Isle Esme tropical island theme and take place on August 13, 2011 which is Edward and Bella's wedding date (feel free to smile and back away slowly-- I won't hold it against you). HA!!!

Fantastic Part II

What timing! Q's daycare lady's daughter works for Border's who gave Q some leftover promotional items from The Fantastic Mr. Fox! I think I was more excited about it than Q. Here she is in her super cute fox tail necktie (and her favorite nightgown-- Beatles Magical Mystery Tour tee). She also gave Q the cutest sticker book ever! A couple times Q had to tell me, "Mom, I can do it myself". I was having so much fun with it that I kinda got carried away. Sorry, Q!

A couple more things-- my girlfriend just introduced me to the wonderment that is Regretsy. Ahhhhh. I could look at it all day. I was trying not to bust out laughing in my cubicle this morning. Although, while perusing the Twilight section of goods, someone commented that, "What does suck is this movement of desperate housewives/'oops' mommies who dream of having sex with a barely pubescent vampire instead of enjoying their actual lives." Zing!!!! Damn Twi-loather. Whatev...go download some more Nickelback onto your ipod and leave us alooooone (I'm not bitter, heh). :)

And last but not least, Taylor Lautner is hosting SNL next weekend (post edit: December 12). It's not Rob, but my Tivo will be set.

Off to watch SYTYCD and Glee! Happy Hump Day.

New Moon Hangover CAUTION SPOILERS!!!

Soooooooooooooooooooooooo I've been. Twice now. Probably will see it at least a few more times in the theater. If you have NOT seen the movie yet, you may not want to read any further. But if you have, I am curious to see what you thought.

Here are my thoughts:

*I absolutely love the soundtrack, and I was happy with all the song placement. A couple of my friends and I even predicted where songs would go, and I got a few right. That sounded wayyy less pathetic in my head.

*Loved the opening scene with Bella's "grandmother".

*Loved Jasper's reaction to the paper cut and how he just kept busting through everyone to get to her. Sometimes, you forget that they are vamps and that they are bloodthirsty.

*Something little that I loved-- when Carlisle was stitching Bella's arm up, and she was resting her hand on his waist. I don't know why I liked it, just thought it was endearing and kind of showed a closeness between the two. Is that weird?

*I thought both Edward and Bella looked absolutely beautiful in the movie. Loved the kissing scene outside her truck and the desperation of it and a little bit of moaning never hurts (sigh).

*Love Movie Jacob way better than Book Jacob. In fact, when I re-read New Moon before seeing it, I actually liked Book Jacob better because I was picturing Taylor.

*Kristen really didn't annoy me at all (no sputtering!) in New Moon which is funny because she's totally getting ripped apart in reviews and Taylor's reaping the accolades. Because, and don't hate me...

*I thought Taylor's acting was pretttttttttttty bad. Still liked Movie Jacob, still like Taylor, but there were some lines that made me cringe. There was one really bad one when Jacob is yelling at Alice, and now I can't remember, but it was realllly lame.

*Where were the damn tears?????? Like seriously, can't these damn actors cry on cue? Or couldn't they have stopped the cameras and given them some eye drops or something? Bella didn't REALLY cry once and neither did Jacob. Or Edward for that matter. Fishy.

*My favorite scene may very well have been the one in the forest when the wolves were chasing Victoria. The Thom Yorke song in the back may be one of my faves now. I am going to miss Rachelle LeFevre in Eclipse. :(

*Wishing they played the music in the trailer for the running through the palazzo scene at the end (played here around 1:33). Way more dramatic!



*Of course, and it seems most people would agree, Alice's flash forward of Bella and Edward hunting in the forest was so dreadful. Yeesh. Whuuuut was up with Edward's clothing? Or hers for that matter?

*And did anyone else notice that it seemed Edward had on the SAME clothing that he did when he left Bella? Like 4 or 5 months later? Well, sans the suit jacket, but that was a little grody. Until my friend reminded me vampires probably have body odor that smells like lilac and honey. HA.

*One of my favorite scenes from the book was when Bella finally realized that Edward still loved her. It didn't work for me in the movie-- too rushed and it was supposed to be AFTER they left the Volturi lair. Felt kind of cheated just as I felt cheated with the meadow scene in Twilight!

*Bummed they cut out any good shots of the cake!!! And a whole couple lines about the cake in general. It was the piece de resistance at my Twilight party. Oh well. It was still a good schtick I suppose.


Anyway, already getting some ideas for my inevitable New Moon partay. It's going to be tough to top the first, but I'm up for a challenge. Definitely making some wolf pack tats and probably a dream catcher or two!!!

So I'm curious to see what any of you think. My husband is glad this is all over. For now anyway...he just rolled his eyes when I told him the opening of Eclipse was just over 7 months away. Yippee! xo

5 More Days...

Do you have your soundtrack downloaded yet? If not, it's realllllllly good. Way better than the first soundtrack. I already loved Death Cab for Cutie, St. Vincent, Grizzly Bear and Thom Yorke before, now I love them even more!

And once you download it, buy some CD labels and slap this baby on it...enjoy!


Click image to enlarge, right click to save to your computer. Open in CD labeling software (such as Memorex exPressIt Label Design Studio), choose "use your own background", then voila!

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!!!

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

What's New & Sneaky Peek

I must apologize for my unintended blogging hiatus! Viv is on the road to permanent recovery methinks. She had tubes put into her ears yesterday morning, so I'm thinking we may be home free!

Not a whole lot of new stuff going on around these parts-- my MIL has been staying with us all week because the girl's daycare is closed. I have been Jazzercising my hiney off to try to meet a challenge-- if I get 30 classes in (between June and July), I'm entered into a contest for a chance to win a bunch of prizes. Only 4 more classes to go!!! I can do it!!! You may have noted Skinny Girl Land has not been updated-- uhhhh, yeah. My eating has left something to be desired. I'm afraid to weigh myself, but maybe it's not as bad as I imagine. We'll see. I skipped weigh-in today because I drank my weight in mojitos last night. Not gooood!

Today I purchased presale tickets for SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!!!!!!!!!!! And guess what kind of tix I got?? FRONT ROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Snap. I'm sooooo excited to see Jason, Janette, and Ade (my faves) in the flesh. The former two were robbed, BTW, this past week. Booooooo.

One more little thing-- still putting the finishing touches on my Twilight swap package to send out by Monday. Had a small glitch-- the Etsy seller for one of my items forgot (?) to make it, and it's definitely not getting here in time, so I placed an emergency call to my friend, Karen, and she's going to make me the item I'm not getting in time. She's so awesome. Here's a little preview for you though-- been working with Shrinky Dinks and Photoshop, but received a special little package today from a certain 98331 zip code. Squeeeeeeeee!!!



Happy weekending, lovelies! xo

July So Far...

I can't believe it's already July 11. It's been a tad rough around here. V has had bouts of ear infections on and off since December. She had a doc appt yesterday, and spiked a fever of 101. She's on a 3rd (and final-- there are no other) type of antibiotic, and we have an appt with the ENT specialist on Monday. Poor baby-- she seems like she feels ok, but she's been SUUUUUPER clingy. And she's always been a great sleeper, but she woke up at 4am this morning and cried on and off until we got her up at 6:15. Suuuuuuuucks.

I am making an escape tonight to an all-girl's party, however. Eat my dust, Ryan. My friend, Jen, is having a New England clambake tonight. I made some wine glass "charms" with a nautical theme and inspired by Twig & Thistle's downloadable 4th tags.


We've also been eating our weight in...

Oh, something fun though...I got in under the wire as part of Denise's Twilight swap. Fun stuff! I'm kinda freaking though because we have to have our packages out by July 24, and I was thinking I'd have more time. Oh well. Will work out. I have a bid in on something from eBay, and if I get it, I'll be excited.

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend! It's mugglicious here in MI. Yikes.

I Still Don't Like Hockey

The Hockey Gods are stickin' it to me. Last week, I dared admit that I was OVER the whole Red Wings hockey thing goin' on here in metro Detroit. Anywho, I received this email from our babysitter this morning:

"IF YOUR CHEWING GUM, SPIT IT OUT NOW. IT MAY JUST FALL OUT OF YOUR MOUTH WHEN YOUR JAW DROPS.

A FAMILY FRIEND OF MINE (MADDY) SAW SOMEONE VERY SPECIAL ...... AT THE WINGS GAME!

JUST TAKE A LOOK FOR YOURSELF.......

If you will excuse me, I need to go cry. Not only because Maddy got to meet taylor, but also because the wings lost the cup :'("

I totally love our babysitter. She actually makes me look FORWARD to having teenage daughters someday.

I've become somewhat disenchanted with Jazzercise. If you note my Skinny Girl Land chart to the side, you will see a somewhat sudden and drastic weight gain (2.2 lbs in one week?!) Yeahhhh, that would have been the week I Jazzercised 5 times in a row. Screw that. I went only 3 times the following week, and I lost 3.6. So methinks I'll be sticking with the 3x/week. I don't even care if it was water weight, muscle weighs more than fat, I would have lost more than the 3.6 the following week, blahdiddy blah. I ALMOST WALKED INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC. That will not happen again.

Final note, almost done compiling my 2009 Girl Land Summer Soundtrack! Tune in later this week...I know you are all holding your breath (heh). Happy week. xo

8 Things Meme & Randoms

This post is light on pics. Sorry. Found this on Jenna's blog today...

8 Things I am Looking Forward to
1…..Giving Ryan his Father's Day gifts
2…..Losing another 25ish pounds
3…..New Moon, November 20!
4…..Retirement (no joke)
5…..True Blood season two starting this Sunday
6…..My birthday! I loves my birthday. 27 days, y'all...
7…..Starting Q in ballet class in the fall
8…..V walking

8 Things I Did Yesterday
1…..Coughed. I think I coughed a lung up.
2…..Watched Cop Land (besides The Fugitive, probably my favorite movie to watch when I'm sick). I stayed home from work if ya can't tell.
3…..Watched some real life MTV show called Fat Camp for two freaking hours. Two hours that I'll never get back.
4…..Watched a really bad movie, Never Back Down. Only watched it because I wanted to jump on Sean Faris. Holy hot. He's like a younger, non-crazy, smaller-nosed Tom Cruise with a super hot beauty mark at the corner of his mouth. And that damn inguinal crease does it to me every time!!!


5…..Drank 7 cups of hot tea with skim milk and Splenda
6…..Actually did take a shower though
7…..Laid on the couch
8…..Took a buttload of Mucinex (did I mention I was coughing?)


8 Things I Wish I Could do
1…..Speak my mind without getting upset
2…..Speak and understand French fluently
3…..Retire
4.....Be rid of my food issues FOREVER
5.....Wear a bikini and look good in it
6…..Be a better mom & wife
7…..Hire a professional organizer to clean and organize my house. I would just sit in a big throne, point my sausage finger here and there, and direct them what to do. Awesome.
8…..Teleport my entire family (sorry, Jenna, stealing from you)

8 Shows I Enjoy (DVR)
1…..Lost
2…..Dexter
3…..How I Met Your Mother
4…..So You Think You Can Dance
5…..True Blood
6…..The Office
7.....30 Rock
8…..Best Week Ever

Miscellaneous random stuff on a Tuesday:

• After the Tony Awards, Diablo Cody Tweeted: "And yes, I’m concerned about Bret Michaels’ fractured nose. An acute sense of smell is essential to his dating process."
  
• Someone I know and like had to get a cancerous mass removed recently. This person doesn't know that I know. I saw this person smoking a cigarette today, and it really freaking pissed me off.
• I wish I were more into cupcakes. They are so cute and pretty and you can decorate and display them in such cool ways. But the stinking frosting to cake ratio is just way too low. (photo courtesy of melisdramatic via Flickr).
• My Twerd posse is growing. Today, we added another Twerd to the mix. If she is going to accompany us to the New Moon premiere in November, that will make 11 of us. Snap.
• I need ideas of how to recreate this cake. I'm thinking I may use dummy layers for the bottom two because I'll only be feeding like 20, but how to make the stripes?? I do not want to pipe that many stinkin' stripes. I'll let you know later why, but you may have guessed. Yes, I'm that dorky.

Jazz Hands

I'm sooooooooooooo excited!!!! I'm actually LIKING exercise lately what with the Wii Fit and my newest obsession. Can you guess? I'll give you a hint...I might have to buy this from Every Little Count's Etsy shop to wear to class:


It's Jazzercise! It's soooo entirely fun. I was actually looking forward to class today (what the frig?). Their new building is just 5 minutes from my house too. I had no idea what to expect, but I looked on the Jazzercise website, and figured out it's basically aerobics but kinda more dancey. The songs are all newer REAL songs (sung by the real people), and it's so fun. I was sold when they started playing Untouched by The Veronicas (I love that song!). Plus, I'm getting to know a new friend which is always nice.

Other tidbits from this week

-I've been getting an Etsy package like every day! Today it was a bib for V's party Saturday (pic to come Saturday) and another from my newest Etsy obsession, Retro NaNa. Hold onto your hats-- I seriously almost hyperventilated over all the cuteness. Look at just a few things that I bought!


Those CD labels are beautiful. I don't know if I will ever be able to part with them.

-Wide Awake Chapter 49 is up!!!! Some very good/funny parts. I'm patiently waiting for the unavoidable smut. She has to take us out on a smutty note. Too much angst, not enough dirty stuff. No, but in all seriousness, I love love LOVE the story so much. So sad there is only 1 chappy to go + epilogue. Boooooooo.

-Lost was sooooooooooooooooo good tonight! Although I'm sad. Can't say any more...I cried. I admit it.

-Preparing for Viv's party this weekend. The 'rents are coming early to help me around the house and to help me with my YARD which looks horrendous.

Happy Hump Day, y'all! xo

Inguinal Creases...

...are probably the only thing that could distract me from this:

What is an inguinal crease, you ask?

Mini Alerts

Need to keep this short as I need to go play Dead Rising (I got a new weapon!). No, a 13 year old boy hasn't taken over my blog. It's still me. So, a couple things:

1. Had to show you my new purse courtesy of Jujie-- aren't you jealous?? I'm so kidding, but isn't it adorable??? She even custom made a larger than normal one for me because of my enormous pile of crapola I need to tote around on a daily basis.



2. I received confirmation on Decor8's blog today that harem pants are back in. My friend, Shelly, told me this a few weeks ago. She said all over downtown Chicago had them in their window displays. I searched high and low in my 90's pics to find me in my Hammer pants to no avail. I did, however, find my prom pic. If anyone knows a Matt Rossi from Solvay, NY, that's him.

3. Seriously, if you haven't read Wide Awake yet, DO IT. If you liked Twilight, you will LOVE it. I can't get enough and I'm seriously having withdrawal. She's got 2 more chapters left, and I'm chomping at the bit. It's seriously raunchy though and the F drop is plentiful, so consider yourself warned. Rob would be THE perfect Darkward.

4. I forgot to say that I finally saw Let the Right One In on Easter weekend, and it may have made my list of favorite all-time movies. I've been wanting to see it since last year. I must own it. Now I want to read the book. My bro directed me to the IMDB FAQs on the movie. If you've seen the movie, it provides some great additional info.