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)!
• 
• 

• 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:

Hearts to You!

Hearty Paper Bag Book

So hubby gets some candy and the girls and I made him a paper bag book this morning while he was grocery shopping. The idea came from Rosy~Posy via The Crafty Crow, and I'm so excited at how it turned out!

Page 1: Cover-- used decorative tape I've had for awhile at the edges and stickers from my stationery stash


Page 2 (Viv was trying to help): V's page. Paper doilies from Target's $ Spot and decorated by V


Page 2: Q's page. Q wrote her name on the doily. The valentine scrapbook paper was also from the Target $ Spot!

Page 3: The girl's favorite page. I put red lipstick on them and had them kiss the page. Heh. Q drew the hearts on the right page.


Page 4: on the right page is Ryan's old dog, Brentwood. When asked why he was included in the valentine book, her response was, "because he's dead." (?)


At the end, little inserts with stapled-on ribbon pull tabs. Insert #1: pic w/ Q in the hospital.


Insert #2: Asked Q what she thought of her daddy when she looked at him.


Insert #3: love note from Q (she told me what she wanted to say, and I told her the letters, but I didn't have to help her write the letters at all).


Insert #4: Ryan w/ newborn V. Note the panic/terror in his eyes this time around.


Insert #5: I asked Q one reason why she loved her daddy. The note below means he makes her forts out of cushions...close enough translation.


Insert #6: the little doobies...


Before you go thinking our family is all sweet and nice, take a gander at our newest favorite pasttime...fun with fake poop! Ryan likes to make the girls put it between their legs then have it fall out like they're pinching a loaf on the floor. Good times. Sorry it's sideways...

Snowmageddon

What do you do with two sickly, snotty, coughing kids on a snow day?

• Make a Valentine's Day tambourine (from No Time for Flashcards found via The Crafty Crow, my absolute fave kid's craft site!)

• Pack up treat bags for daycare Valentine's Day party. Q picked out Tinkerbell valentines for her to give and pop-up doggie ones for Viv to give. We added Reese's PB hearts, a heart sucker ring, valentiney pencil, and fruit by the foot in a baggy which says "Whoooo loves you?" with an owl on it. Never met a pink and red owl I didn't like. So lots o' junk food, nothing crafty. I had every intention of melting down broken crayons in my silicon heart tray, but I didn't have the energy.

• Have a Pee Wee's Playhouse marathon

• Print out rainbow coloring pages. Preferably weird ones with angels in them.

• Cut bread into hearts for grilled cheese

And I'm spent! I don't know how you SAHMs do it. I guess that's this thing people call "being a mother". I am embarrassed admitting I couldn't do it full-time. Sorry this post is heavy on the Poladroid. I uninstalled it awhile back because my anti-virus software said it found some questionable file related to it, but I couldn't stay away for long. Seems ok so far...

Hope you're all having a great week! xo