Heather's Creative Life

Checking In...

2011-11-14T06:53:00.006-06:00

So when you fall through the ice in a Minnesota winter, your body tries to survive by shutting down function to the extremities in order to keep the core going. Bodies are smart that way.

That's pretty much my new mom strategy too. Apologies to "extremities" that have been put on ice for a while - i.e. cleaning, socializing, brushing my hair...

I've also taking a bit of a sabbatical from blogging I guess, it wasn't intentional but it's working out just fine. I just had a few too many balls in the air, and it's amazing how much easier juggling is when you kick a few of those balls under the couch and forget about them.)

So, YES, I am alive!

Yes, I will blog again - eventually! I even have a few projects I really should put up before I forget them.

And if you are visiting from [MN]Love's newsletter, welcome, thank you, and you'll find my "Marriage is..." pic and post here.

And this is The Cupcake at 10 months + change, using her FOUR new teeth to test out a pickle:

Ta ta for now...

In the Closet

2011-09-05T09:52:00.000-05:00

I haven't been able to do much on my bucket list since I checked off "#2: Have a child," but I am working on one item little by little. It's number 156: Love all the clothes in my closet. And it's a pretty big deal. I mentioned before that I've drastically changed sizes over the past year and a half, and I'm currently finding myself down to a size 10 for the first time in more than a decade, and while I've never been too focused on my weight, wow is this making shopping a LOT more fun! Now, if only I had some MONEY to shop with :)

But as much as buying new clothes is important, the other and perhaps larger task in this project is getting RID of things. My closet is more or less full, I own clothing...I just don't love it. I don't even like it all. And I don't want to be bogged down by it anymore.

I'm sick of throwing on clothes in a rush, and then being uncomfortable the rest of the day as they don't fit or flatter. I'm sick of getting all bent out of shape before I go somewhere because I "have nothing to wear." My life is very full. I barely have time for the things and people that I DO love, I'm done wasting it on things I don't. So I have some prioritizing to do.

Here are some of the rules I'm going by:

1. Always try it on. I've never been a catalog or online shopper, and I'm terrible at knowing how something will look on me or feel. So even if The Cupcake is throwing a fit, no buying and returning later - that's just double the work. Try it before you buy it.

2. If I don't immediately love it when I try it on, I don't buy it. Don't even consider it. There are so many beautiful things in the world these days, there is no need to settle or talk myself into something - I don't have $$$ to waste on things I don't love. In the past if something was a really great deal it has sort of elevated my opinion of it - but no more. No instant love = no sale.

3. If it is inconvenient, it goes away. If it needs to be hemmed or taken in or otherwise repaired - even if it's a great deal - no sale. I just don't have time to get to those things right now, and I know it.

4. Consider the ladies. This means if I can't wear a bra, or would have to buy some sort of special bra, or if my straps would hang out and annoy the crap out of me all day, no sale. When I got my mermaid I went out and bought a bunch of backless shirts...but stick on bras suck. I end up cupping myself all day, and that's just not a good look. Perhaps in some really specific situations this might be allowed (formal wear?) but for daily outfits - no go.

5. It all goes in the wash. I hate to iron, and I definitely don't have time in my day for it. I'll never hand wash garments either. And I can't really afford to dry clean. Everything in my life has to tolerate puke, poop, and pureed carrots (which stain like a b!@#$). I don't have time right now for high maintenance clothes.

6. If it's too big, it goes away. I know, I know, this might not be permanent weight loss, and maybe I'll have to buy a whole new wardrobe if I gain it back or keep shrinking - but I don't have room to keep multiple separate wardrobes, and I'm sick of grabbing clothes that seem okay in the morning, and are falling off my hips halfway through the day. If I wear something, and it proves to be annoyingly large - it's going in the GET RID OF bins, the same way I am constantly rotating TC's wardrobe.

(GET RID OF method is yet to be determined. I'd love to have a yard sale, or put everything on ebay, take it to a consignment shop, or otherwise profit from it - but that takes SO MUCH TIME. For now, it's all getting piled in boxes in the attic).

7. The Norm rule. This has been in effect for...oh, 11 years now. Norm is mostly white, and constantly freaked out, which means my house is COVERED in tiny white hairs that stick to everything. Especially black clothes. Or navy. Or anything fleece. I haven't seen hubby in a black t-shirt forever. When I was working full time I occasionally had "work only" black clothes that I rarely wore around the house, but now that I'm home more than away, it really doesn't make sense to invest in things I can almost never wear. Nina Garcia would not survive in my house :)

I'm trying to pay more attention to clothes that can work together, though I've never been able to limit myself in terms of colors. I have an odd attachment to tie dye, I know, but I'm okay with that. I'm trying to ease up on the sparkles - if only because they often complicate rule #5, but also glitter and studs are a baby hazard (gasp!) so I'm toning it down a little...at least until I can wear jewelry again :) (TC has a mean grip and lightning speed, she WILL rip that crap right off of you). While my life is pretty messy right now, I don't need to keep "paint clothes" or things "I might wear in the mud" - keeping clothes BECAUSE they are ruined already is silly, that's what aprons and bleach are for.

I've hauled 3 giant laundry baskets out of my bedroom so far, and since I had TC I believe I've purchased 3 pairs of pants and 12 tops - plus a bunch of jeans from the goodwill. Half of those jeans ended up violating my "rules" above and got the axe - mostly because I found myself hiking them up all day long, I'm just NOT made for low rise jeans, and there are better options for me. Hoping to finish this project by the end of the year, get some photos up of what I'm keeping and ditching, and slowly build my closet back up while keeping to the rules above.

Material Girl

2011-09-02T05:18:00.001-05:00

We went to a bridal shower last weekend, which was a perfect excuse to wear a party dress:

I <3 this outfit! And it was SUCH a steal - a few weeks ago I heard a rumor that Ella's organic baby food was on sale half price at Babies R Us, so I ventured in and stumbled on a gigantic clearance sale. All of their clothing on the clearance racks (which were all over the store, there must have been over 20 circular racks) was $5 or less. That meant we got this $29 dress for just $5!!!

She was in a great mood, but had no intentions of posing for me - she's ALWAYS on the move right now!

The leggings she already had, and the hair clip I bought for her newborn photos but never used - I was worried she'd rip it out, but she left it alone all day! (the other baby at the party tried to jack it several times, however).

We even had a matching bib and shrug to accessorize with later on!

Replace the necklace she is holding with a phone (the old corded style), change auntie Laura's lap to some shag carpet or a Lisa Frank comforter, and she's a child of the 80's just like myself:

I decided not to curl her bangs though :)

Fair Time: Round II! DING!

2011-09-01T06:56:00.011-05:00

The kid was in great spirits for her second day at the fair (yes, it's so good we go multiple times. Plus it helps to spread out the walking and overeating). The weather was GORGEOUS - cool, with a light breeze - and it was pretty uncrowded for the fair, we could actually get around okay most of the time even with the stroller.

Food the adults ate this time (less Cupcake-friendly fare, I'm afraid):
teriyaki chicken noodles
blackened Caribbean chicken
a couple of beers in the Bazaar, a milk, and a Sun Drop soda
wild rice cheeseburger
corn on the cob
Sweet Martha's cookies
free sample of sparkling cranberry juice

Stuff I bought:
(much more reserved this time!)

I only spent $6 on "stuff" this time, I couldn't resist these two little sea horses. When she's old enough TC has a few matching mermaid dolls from the same vendor. Maybe next year I'll get the octopus and sting ray :)

Stuff the kid did get to try:
strawberry shake
nitro ice cream sample
sweet corn ice cream
and then there was the chocolate cream puff, clearly the highlight of the evening:

I like to think she was in a state of perfect happiness with her first taste of the creamy chocolate filling:

Holy smokes, those eyes!

She liked it right away, and actually got fussy after a few bites when I stopped sharing!

Yes ma'am, more cream puff filling coming your way...and then the silly kicked in...

She was in QUITE a delightful mood!

She had a fit of the giggles!

I totally understand, chocolate cream puffs make ME happy too...

Then she slowly wound down...

And fell asleep soon after. Another fantastic evening at the fair!

The light at the end of the aisle...

2011-08-31T05:39:00.000-05:00

How cool is this?

It's The Cupcake's new nightlight! I fell in love the first day we were at the fair and had to scoop it up (new booth in the grandstand this year!) I had gotten this one at IKEA and was really excited, but it actually puts out too much light, and she stays awake trying to do things, but this one was a softer glow and really fits the watery theme of her mermaids & pirates nursery so well. I haven't decided where to hang it for sure yet, but it makes me super happy:

TC's First Day at the Fair - in Pictures!

2011-08-30T06:52:00.014-05:00

I promised more photos, and who knew, I'm actually delivering! I never said the were GOOD photos, but this is not one of those slick mommyblogs where everything is is photoshopped and staged. This is REAL, and in REAL life we have bad hair and a lot of the same photo of a kid in a stroller with spoons in her mouth. So here's a look back at TC's first day at the fair (we went again last night actually). We live walking distance from the fairgrounds. TC probably had no idea this wasn't her usual evening stroll to the zoo...

She was SPELLBOUND watching all the people and activity!

She had her first bite of fair food and first sample of fish - walleye cakes from Giggles Campfire. Her standard reaction to all foods so far is to look horrified, but then beg for more, so we never know what she really thinks of anything :)

Strawberry milkshake, which she seemed to like, but mostly she just wanted to eat the paper cow hat. I never did manage to keep it on her head long enough for a photo. Mom fail.

Then came the ICEE...She had an ICEE once before and LOVED it, so we figured that was a good route to go again. First came awe (you're going to let me touch that?)

She proceeded cautiously (Can I really?)

But quickly decided it was hers (Hey, where did it go?)

If we would have left it within reach, she would have been purple in no time, I think an ICEE would work as well as a cake for a 1st B-day smash party. So we spoon fed instead:

And she was very pleased (GLEE!)

She didn't seem as fond of the lemon Italian ice, but she wasn't going to let it go either (MINE!)

I thought we might be in trouble after all that sugar, but TC was great the whole time - particularly after her final drink: (ZzzZzz)

Welcome to the Flock Bridal Shower - Kiss the Groom Game

2011-08-29T05:32:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I put together two games for the "Welcome to the Flock" bridal shower I threw for my sister-in-law-to-be. The first one was called "Kiss the Groom":

A few weeks before the shower I borrowed the disc of engagement photos the happy couple had taken and picked out a nice close up. I uploaded them to costco.com's photo site and printed the largest size - 20" x 30" - that they offer - for just $8.99! The game is played like "pin the tail on the donkey", but instead of tails you use kisses - which I got in the form of stickers at Michael's (really cheap too! I think it was $2 for 3 pkgs!).

We hung the poster up on one of the large windows in the party rom and covered the surrounding area with saran wrap to protect the windows in case someone was REALLY off on their sticker placement - I didn't want to spend the afternoon chipping adhesive off the windows. If you want to re-use the poster, I suggest you cover that with wrap as well - the industrial kind will stick to the window on its own, you don't even really need tape.

I used a thin sharpie to write names on each kiss sticker, and guests spun around 3 times and then tried to stick their kiss on the groom's lips. I brought a mask, but it was just easier to have people close their eyes since we had over 30 to get through :) No cheaters as far as I know!

The winner, very pleased with her performance :)

It was really fun to watch everyone play, so it was a fun social game for a shower and the photos give it a very personal touch. I gave prizes both for the closest kiss and booby prizes for the farthest away (cute little travel sized sanitizer gel from Bath & Body Works in all sorts of fun scents). This is a really easy, cost effective, and fitting shower game I'd definitely recommend.

Better Late than Never (especially in this case)

2011-08-27T05:21:00.003-05:00

I started the "30 Days of Joy" posts on July 15th, with the intention of changing my life to make sure there was some bit of joy in every day.

That was too hard.

Some days were just devoid of joy and the idea of forcing some in was just an oxy moron, so it didn't happen. Other days I probably did have bright spots, but couldn't remember them long enough to include them on my blog (I'm still basically a drunken amnesiac, remember?) So it took me an extra 10 days to hit the big 30, rounded out by:

#29 Wednesday - payday is ALWAYS a bright spot, and generally calls for a celebratory lunch, for which I chose Chipotle this week. My boss was gone, so I got much accomplished (particularly for non-work-related tasks), and as I've mentioned before, checking things off my to-do list makes me UBER happy. And I may have spent a significant part of the afternoon googling baby Halloween costumes, and falling in love with this strawberry.

#30 Thursday - The State Fair was clearly a joyful time for all of us, it could not have gone better. The evening was cool, the crowds were on the light side (for the fair), and TC was in a wonderful mood. We spent more than we planned, but we always do, and we got some great things we weren't expecting.

So I guess that means at this point 3/4 of my days are at least somewhat joyful, and 1/4 are completely craptacular. If you would have asked me 6 months ago, we would have been at 95% craptacular and 5% what's my name again? and 15% more "OMG HOW AM I GOING TO SURVIVE THIS?" so we're actually moving in the right direction.

Guess my days are like the little girl with the curl from the nursery rhymes - when they are good, they are very, very good (but when they are bad, they are horrid. Or maybe it's awful. They both work).

When The Cupcake is happy, she is COMPLETELY happy. Her whole face scrunches up in a wild smile:

Here's hoping your days are mostly joyful :)

The Great Minnesota Get Together

2011-08-26T06:55:00.005-05:00

The Minnesota State Fair is a BIG deal. Perhaps you gathered that from the State Fair Bridal Shower I helped throw earlier this summer, or maybe you've been there before. If not, you really have to experience it - it is unlike any other fair you've known, it is really like a sub culture of its own. The people watching is amazing. There are 400lb women in tube tops, mullets along side goth kids, hipsters and soccer moms - all floating around sweetly (we are Minnesota Nice, after all), waiting in long lines for overpriced unhealthy food.

Mmmmm, I love it :)

Last year the State Fair had it's ups and downs - literally - as I passed out in the line for sunflower ice cream (and never ended up getting any, boo!). We had just found out that The Cupcake had girl parts at our 20 week ultrasound, and I couldn't really eat much by that point between the nausea and heartburn. I did temporarily forget I wasn't supposed to eat hot dogs and buy a corn dog, and then felt bad when I realized it halfway through (so far, TC shows no ill effects of said corn dog). I wasn't allowed to ride on the sky glider, but I did have a LOT of fun catching up with Ryan. It was at the State Fair that I bought TC the ONE item of clothing I couldn't resist before her birth - seriously, I managed to stay strong in the face of all the beautiful dresses, costumes, and other finery, but I caved when it came to this:

And then guess what?!?!? SHE NEVER WORE IT! I was so crushed! The hoodie said "3-6 months" and silly me, I waited till 3 months to try it on her...and it was WAY too small! New mom fail :(

But that's okay, because I think it might fit an American Girl type doll (oh yes, I am counting on building an American Girl wardrobe and accessory fleet. Might as well mortgage the house now). And guess what? TC got a NEW tie dye garment that DOES fit her, because it is so much easier to size things on outside babies:

TC's first fair - CHECK! More pics to come if I ever have a chance to upload them - and just so I don't forget, here's what we (the whole family) ate (I like to put a list in the scrapbook each year):

Walleye Cakes (TC's first taste of fish, I abstained from these)
Pronto Pup
Free Juice Samples
Caribbean Jerk Chicken
Cinnamon Roasted Almonds
Strawberry Milkshake
ICEE (TC LOVES icees)
BBQ Beef Sandwich
Luigi Fries
Lemon Italian Ice
Big Fat Bacon
S'more
A Coke, a Root Beer, and an RC Cola
some kind of beer
Strawberry Smoothie
CinnieSmiths to take home

Stuff I bought:
tie dye dress for TC
AWESOME night light for TC's room
Stamped Metal Ring for myself with TC's name on it

The weather was wonderful, and if I weren't so tired we could have really made a night of it, since SOMEONE was abnormally good:

Welcome to the Flock Bridal Shower - prizes

2011-08-25T05:10:00.000-05:00

We played two fun games at the shower, so I needed to have a few prizes on hand. I came across these adorable bags on Etsy and fell in love with the design, but I didn't realize quite how small they were till they arrived. So I took the bags into my local Bath & Body Works and walked around like a lunatic fitting little things into them to see what worked and what didn't, and I ended up going with some items from their aromatherapy line (shower gel, lotion, and a candle) in three different scents. I tied each set of 3 bags together with some bright colored ribbon I had on hand, curled with the scissors, and voila:

Effing Joy

2011-08-24T09:09:00.007-05:00

#28 - looking back, yesterday was totally FULL OF WIN!
A: Happy Cupcake while we ran all sorts of errands
B: "Book club" night
C: MOST AWESOME PRESENT EVER from the dear sweet Alison....

I'm sure you heard about this book when it first came out and caused a little media stir, but did you actually read it? I assumed it was just a cutesy idea...but the text is SO WITTY! It's all very profane, and not at all aimed at children, but I laughed at EVERY. SINGLE. PAGE. For example, my two favorite pages:

The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest
And the creatures who crawl, run, and creep.
I know you’re not thirsty. That’s bullshit. Stop lying.
Lie the f!@#down, my darling, and sleep

AND

The cubs and the lions are snoring,
Wrapped in a big snuggly heap.
How is it you can do all this other great s!@#
But you can't like the f!@# down and sleep?

Here's a tip: Don't get it for parents-to-be, they have no idea. They'll chuckle and smile, and throw it in the pile with all the other advice books. Get it for parents of a 2 year old, or a mom whose maternity leave just ended - they, (now we), truly get it.

Thanks Al!

Oh, and btw, TC went to bed 2 hours late and woke up 3X last night.

#27 again

2011-08-23T11:05:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I wore a fabulous new outfit to work (no pics, sorry), where I got to snag free breakfast and lunch due to a conference we were hosting. Definitely brought me joy :)

Backpedal...

2011-08-20T21:56:00.004-05:00

I spoke too soon on day #27, Saturday was devoid of fun. The kid slept none too spiffy the night before, and continued to fight it all day long. I tried to put her down for naps at least half a dozen times, and all told I think she slept less than an hour combined. I slowly got crabbier and crabbier as the day rolled on, and now I'm trying desperately to stay awake until she's definitely under...she has this wicked habit of waking up 100 times in the first hour she goes to sleep, just to mess with me.

Here's hoping tomorrow is more fun...

Babysitters, bookclub, and butts

2011-08-20T08:25:00.003-05:00

If I don't write these things down immediately, it's almost impossible to remember what I did from day to day. Maybe I should think of getting a smart phone...but of course, then I'd have to remember to haul it around with me, and somehow not break it...Maybe I should just start hauling around a paper and pen instead...Anyways, we're getting close to the big 3-0 goal here, and not too far behind - here's how this week went after we last left off:

#23 Tuesday - "Book Club!" Always a happy time. This week was dubbed "Cake & Butts" week as there were ubiquitous Nordic vampire @$$ shots, and I brought leftover treats from the bridal shower! Win-Win!

#24 Wednesday - I got a large chunk of a creative project accomplished while TC and the hubs were on a walk, but it's still top secret so no sneak peeks. Move along, nothing to see here...

#25 Thursday - TC and I headed out early to run errands, and I had heard a rumor that Ella's organic babyfood was on sale half price at Toys R Us, so I decided to venture in. It was a bad idea. Or a good idea. All their clearance clothes were $5 or less, so we got some great deals on bright Carter's sets. And I even somehow found restraint and whittled my choices down to four (including a new rock and roll tu-tu dress, originally $29 by itself!) so we made out like bandits.

Also, I got this hilarious email from a fellow book club member:

THEY ARE MAKING A MOVIE ABOUT MALE STRIPPERS AND ALCIDE IS GOING TO BE IN IT!

The article is here, in case you are also a fan.

#26 Friday - Hubby and I took the rare step of hiring a babysitter and going out on a date! We went to see "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and we both mostly liked it. And then, since we're lame (and kinda broke), we came home early and got to play with TC for a while - almost as "joyful" as going to a movie, she was in a GREAT mood and all smiles for the babysitter. Makes it easier to think about going out again in the future.

#27 Saturday - FREEEEEDOM! TC had a terrible night last night (after a week of pretty good ones, kinda depressing), but it's okay because we have no commitments today. Grandpa is coming over to help hubs clean out the gutters (we seriously could sell seedlings, it looks like "life after people" up there). Grandma specifically told us NOT to drop in on her, as she never gets anything accomplished when TC is around to coo over. So instead, we're free spirits today, allowed to wander and set our own schedules. Sure, there are a million things we *should* do, but nothing that we *have* to, and those days are few and far between. We will definitely enjoy this one.

Welcome to the Flock Bridal Shower - Goodie Bags!

2011-08-18T21:58:00.003-05:00

I've professed my love for goodie bags before, so you know I had to have them for this shower :) They turned out very pretty!

The glittery baskets were from Target, I found them on clearance and bought every one I could find - well before I had a use for them! But the colors were PERFECT for this event. I filled them with shred from the Dollar Tree, jewel toned eggs I scooped up at Walgreens after Easter and filled with Hershey and Reese's candy. Then the main favor was a birdseed heart from Etsy. The hearts turned out great, but I wasn't super happy with the communication from the seller, so I'm not going to link to the shop here.

The final piece of each goodie was a note of thanks. I made these with my Cricut, the Straight from the Nest cartridge (I think I set it to cut 6 per 12"x12" sheet - still learning how it works), and then used an acrylic stamp I had on hand to add the simple message in a handwriting-esque font.

Welcome to the Flock Bridal Shower - Tablescape

2011-08-17T06:21:00.002-05:00

I had so much fun with place settings at this shower! Unfortunately, I didn't get any great shots of the whole tablescape before people came in and started sitting down, so bare with me. There were two long tables for guests to dine at, for a total of about 35 attendees, and of course I was rushing around setting things up until the very last minute!

The beautiful bouquets were from the St. Paul Farmer's Market and arranged in vases I already had. I re-purposed one from Halloween that I got to hold an octopus in the voodoo shop, I wish I had gotten a better photo, but here's sort of the back of it:

I found the green glittery bird picks at Setzer Pharmacy, I wish I had gotten a close up! We did a drawing at the end for the large arrangement, and I sent the two smaller ones home with each of the mothers.

The birdcages were a small craft project - they originally looked like this:

but I de-cluttered them, sprayed them solid gold, and adorned them with a bright pink feather pick.

I ordered bright tablecloths on Ebay. The strips of lame came on on a roll I found in a bargain bin at JoAnn's - I got green, orange and pink, not sure what I would use them for at the time. They were perfect! The pink faded on top of the purple linens, but the green and orange added a great little strip of contrast and shine.

My favorite part were definitely the place settings:

The large bright napkins I happened upon during our impromptu trip to IKEA, and the clear plates are from Costco (I also got clear dessert plates and soup bowls). The silverware (also clear) are rolled in napkins, and I could have sworn that my local party store carried the little sticky strips you use to secure them, but they didn't, so I improvised with a brand new package of colorful children's hair ties from the Dollar Tree. They worked perfectly, came 30/$1, and were quick to loop on. The crowning touch was clearly the little feather bird on each set of silverware :) They also came from The Dollar Tree, and each had a wire sticking out the bottom that I threaded into the silverware pack.

I love having menu cards! Maybe it's just because I'm a picky eater, or maybe it is because the midwest is the hotdish and casserole capital of the world, but knowing the choices before going through the buffet line is a big help to me. And menu cards are adorable :) I used the same design as I had created for the invitations including punching the corners and matting on bright cardstock.

Tablescapes are fun and some of the best places to spend your decorating budget, since people spend most of their time at these events EATING! (or maybe that is just my family?). You just have to remember to get some good photos of your hard work before the party starts - someday I'll have an event where I'm ready in enough time to get all the photos I want!

Joy Update

2011-08-16T06:01:00.005-05:00

I'm going to intermingle my "Welcome to the Flock" bridal shower re-cap with some "Brought me Joy!" catch up this week

Day #21: Sunday was a little hectic, but I'm so happy I survived my first big event "Post Cupcake." With my WONDERFUL little sister's help, everything I had hoped to do got done, and from what I hear people had a pretty swell time. I won't lie, I do love hearing people react to the little touches I put into an event, it may be shallow but the praise really makes it all worthwhile :) So thank you everyone who attended, and who fed my ego, I'd say it was a rousing success!

Also, gotta mention here that TC SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT Saturday-Sunday, which brings me LOTS of joy...in theory. In practice, I still get freaked out and can't sleep myself. I end up watching - or worse, poking and prodding - her to make sure she is still okay. Someday I'll get over that, right?

Day #22: Monday I was pretty tired from the big weekend, and my back was barking from all the lifting and carrying I did, but it was DEFINITELY fun to have a fridge full of leftovers (power breakfast: cupcake and a coke!), and I got to wear my NEW CLOTHES to work! New clothes make everything better, even work.

"Welcome to the Flock" Bridal Shower

2011-08-15T09:26:00.005-05:00

My little brother is marrying a delightful young woman (AKA "The Other Heather" or "Brett's Heather")this fall, and months and months ago I volunteered to host the shower. Somehow that time just RACED by, and before I knew it the day was here! I chose a "Welcome to the Flock" theme, both since I love puns and because the guest list was mostly "our" family, the one she was marrying in to, so it seemed very appropriate for the occasion!

Unfortunately, I was so busy I didn't get great photos, and taking pictures of a lot of things all together, but hopefully I can share a few projects. I'll be labeling everything with the "bird theme" label (see bottom of post), so if you want to see all posts on this event, click on that. Now on to the projects, starting with:

Invitations! (click to enlarge)

The bird cage clip art came from a google search, and the font is my current favorite, "Harrington" downloaded from 1001Freefonts.com . I laid the card out in Powerpoint, printed in color on white cardstock, and trimmed & punched the corners so that I could mount on this colorful card & envelope set from Target. The bling are self-stick jewels from Michael's, and each one had a slightly different design. I even mixed and matched each of the envelopes so that they were a different color than the invitation. I loved the bright color palate, and it became my inspiration throughout the rest of the shower planning.

I made address labels using Microsoft Word, and another bird image found online, and paired them with some really bright return address labels some charity sent out. I don't get guilted into donating by free address labels, but I feel no need to throw them in a landfill - so I gladly use them up!

I even got really cute stamps to match the mood, if you'll remember this post (guess I didn't get a photo of the final product). Invitations are tricky business, while it is fun to make cards (or was, back when I had time) it often ends up WAY more expensive than buying, and if you need special postage the cost can really escalate quickly. When you start stamping, layering, and otherwise papercrafting, you can burn through materials and time before you know it. For this party I knew I wanted to stick to a budget AND that I wouldn't have a lot of time for crafting. I was able to meet both criteria with a single pane, standard size invite that was modern and bright.

#20 - More Melons FTW!

2011-08-14T19:04:00.002-05:00

Saturday I had a nice sized to-do list that started with a trip to the St. Paul Farmers' Market, then the grocery store, then home to prepare the fruit platter, bake cupcakes, and pack up the car.

I finished everything!

We got some GORGEOUS mixed bouquets at the Farmers' Market to be the centerpieces for the wedding shower (along with some great sparkly bird floral picks I found, and then forgot to take a photo of). Then at the grocery store I loaded up on fruit, and spent the next few hours slicing and dicing melons of all sorts - watermelon, cantelope, honeydew, and also pineapple. I washed grapes (red and green), strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, and then rearranged the fridge a few times until everything fit. It actually made a really pretty rainbow that I almost took a photo of. Then I baked and frosted 4 dozen cupcakes, sliced a few loaves of fancy breads, and got all of the serving equipment, favors, and other items packed up into the car.

I just love checking things off my to-do lists! I was a little nervous about getting everything done for a big party around TC's schedule, but I think I'm starting to learn my new normal :)

19 - Who says you can't buy happiness?

2011-08-12T21:30:00.005-05:00

Yeeeeee Hawwww!

I definitely had a fun day today! On Fridays I work just 1/2 day (that's not even the fun part) and TC was at Grammy's house (usually she comes to us, but she had some tasks to accomplish at home), so I got to run a few errands after work on my way to pick her up. Since I had actually FINISHED my to-do list for this weekend's wedding shower (with a day to spare?!?! WOW!)I decided to use that time to go SHOPPING!!! The husband, apparently fed up with my whining about the sad state of my wardrobe*, and possibly in celebration of the end of pumping, had given me a big old giftcard to waste all on myself, and boy did I do a good job! I had 2 $10 off coupons in my purse, and found another in the dressing room - and they let me use all 3! I may be en route to completing bucket list #156, Love all the Clothes in my Closet, so stay tuned!

----
*I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I actually LOST weight after having TC, and so far it is staying off. I'm not shy about my weight, so here's the story: I'm 5'7", and pre-pregnancy I was a pretty solid size 14, weighing in around 173. I n my first trimester of pregnancy, I lost 11 lbs. I was pretty nauseous, had a hard time keeping food down, and at the same time switched my eating habits pretty significantly, including giving up caffeine and moving from soda to milk. In the second trimester I started having ridiculous heartburn, so my normal diet of pizza and frozen pasta meals was out...in fact, by the end of 3rd trimester the heartburn was so extreme that I was pretty much living on oatmeal, toast, and a half gallon of milk a day. On the week that The Cupcake was born I weighed in at 189.

And then I never had time to eat again.

Okay, that's not completely true, but I definitely had a drastic increase in activity, not to mention the extra calories I was using pumping breastmilk, and my caloric intake was limited to whatever I could grab off the counter with one hand while holding TC with the other. Despite that all too often being Girl Scout cookies, I actually lost weight pretty quickly, and have been hovering around 150lbs now for around 6 months. I'm a size 12 or occasionally a 10 now, which means all my clothes look a little dumpy and ill fitting. I also wore a lot of them while I was pregnant, so I feel like everything I own looks like maternity, even if it wasn't. SO - this is why I've been complaining, and now am finally taking some action on my closet!

Thanks hubs :)

Day #18: Melons

2011-08-10T20:00:00.005-05:00

Tonight was beautiful once again, and it was also pay day, which is generally take-out night (celebration!), so we ate Chinese on the patio. The Cupcake didn't get to partake, but she chomped on a frozen teething ring and was riveted the entire time by the neighbor's barking dog (as nutty as Norm is, he actually doesn't bark much, and he's almost completely deaf right now, so the kid hasn't heard much noise out of him). I've never been one to appreciate the great outdoors, but we ate and talked and enjoyed the evening so much we ran out of time for hubby to take TC on her nightly walk. She got her dinner late which somehow revved her all up, so she's in the Jumperoo bouncing and watching the Twins game (kid loves baseball, sports shows, and semi-naughty cartoons like South Park and Family Guy. I blame the bright colors. And find the cartoons to be the least objectionable of the set), and hopefully she's tiring herself out.

So let's recap briefly - good weather, payday, happy baby, good food, relaxing evening...but none of that is what really made me the happiest today. Doesn't even come close. Because today, after 9 months of pregnancy, 6 months (and one week) of pumping, and three weeks of weaning...

THIS IS THE FIRST DAY MY BOOBS DON'T HURT!

Yeah, I said it. And I meant it.

And it is GLORIOUS.

#17 - progress!

2011-08-09T21:26:00.002-05:00

I won't claim that I enjoy cleaning, but I have to say that the end result of just an hour or so organizing like mad up in my craft room did bring me joy. It had gotten almost un-navigable, since nothing had been put back in its proper place since Christmas or possibly Halloween...well I now have a path! And after I had just about given up hope, I found the box of placecard holders I had gone up there to look for in the first place...several weeks ago...

I didn't get it cleaned up by any means, it's still pretty embarassing and not very functional, but I did make enough headway in the small amount of time I had to devote to the task to feel like there may be hope for the future!

Weekend Catch Up

2011-08-08T10:04:00.007-05:00

I'm Baaaaack! My sense of time is so confused right now, I actually had to sit down for about 20 minutes to remember what we did this weekend, I knew we had a good time, but my short term memory has yet to right itself. In fact, TC was up about a million and a half times last night, so it's a wonder I even remember my name or how to turn on a computer, but somehow I'm up and at work. And after much thought, I've been able to recall some great moments from the weekend, three more days of fun which gets us slightly over halfway to the goal of 30! :)

#14 - GRAMMY IS BACK! Grammycupcakes, AKA my mother/nanny extraordinaire was on a 2 week vacation, but now she's back and we had a DELIGHTFUL reunion on Friday afternoon, with much oohing and aahing over The Cupcake's new tricks (sitting up, rolling over, technicolor vomit...). I never thought I'd say it, but I kinda enjoy the "relaxing" nature of going to my boring job every other day and not having to do anything all that important (like keeping someone from taking a walker down the stairs). Ahh, sweet relief :) Welcome back GC!

#15 - Saturday dinner fun. I have to admit, I love the OCB. I love having a little bite of 100 different foods, I love the bland midwestern cafeteria palate, and I even love the Jerry Springer feel of the place with all the sweatpants and family angst. I absolutely cannot stand screaming kids in restaurants, so I'm a bit of a wimp about taking TC out places (I will not subject others to what I detest so much) but I never really worry about bothering people at OCB. In general, she's been a peach at most restaurants so far, and Saturday night was no exception. She sat in her first restaurant high chair (gross!) and got to try her first mashed potatoes (she warmed up to them eventually), a little more vanilla ice cream (slightly more interested this time around), and a few spoons of cherry ICEE.

The ICEE bowled her over. It was hilarious. She kept demanding more, and I'm pretty sure this created her first sugar high, as she started laughing and smiling at herself like a drunk, got all excited, and had to bounce in her Jumperoo an extra hour past bedtime to "come down" enough to consider sleep. Hmmm. There is probably an important lesson in there somewhere. And a lot of red dye.

#16 - Sunday night malaise + lack of groceries + GORGEOUS night = pizza on the patio! We hauled TC's new high chair outside and she happily sat for almost 3 hours watching the trees and chewing on Sophie's feet as we enjoyed the first non-humid evening in a long time. It was beautiful and relaxing, and a nice way to wind down before jumping back into a big week.

Speaking of big week...got a lot of irons in the fire, including a bridal shower on Sunday! Wish me luck!

Full day = fun day, #13

2011-08-04T21:30:00.005-05:00

Though I couldn't for the life of me keep track of which day of the week it was (Grammy Cupcakes is on vacation and this full time stay at home mom thing is completely throwing me off, even beyond the brain mush we discussed yesterday), today was an extremely productive day. I'm still working on the bridal shower for my soon to be sister-in-law, so I can't share what I've been working on, but suffice it to say what brought me joy today (even more than the crafting) was crossing big chunks off my to-do list.

The menu is set and printed, and my order for the caterer is ready to put in once I track down the remaining RSVPs (get them in people!). My shopping list and prep schedule is made. My packing list is detailed, and I've begun gathering my serving pieces, tablecloths, table settings, etc. All of the activities are ready to go, with the exception of the prizes which I'll be getting this week now that their special packaging has arrived (Etsy = Love!). I spent a lot of time working on decor today with my Cricut - I still don't understand it 100%, so I've wasted some time and paper, but once I figure out my settings I can crank out a lot of work in a short amount of time, like the shaped banner (and half of a 2nd one), wall decor, and favor tags I made today.

Most of this was accomplished whilst The Cupcake whirled around the living room in her walker:

She is a maniac in that thing, and it is completely hilarious. Of course, it's also a whole new level of access for her, and a huge learning curve for us as we realize everything she can suddenly get into. She already tried to take it down the stairs (luckily we had a babygate up just to keep Normy upstairs, which served to keep her from a very bumpy ride), and has no trouble maneuvering it through doorways and down the halls. My attempts at crafting are a constant game of moving piles higher and higher, and she is OBSESSED with paper. And I may have given in and just let her chew on some, but I'm reasonable sure I got most of it back. Also, at one point today I turned around and she had rolled up to the chair Norm was sleeping on and was attempting to put his foot in her mouth. Ahhh, babies - now who is acting like a drunken amnesiac?

"Turns the Brain to Mush" - a very encouraging statement...

2011-08-03T21:18:00.004-05:00

I know I had fun yesterday, and was even mentally putting together a "brought me joy" post, but I never got around to getting it out and now...I can't remember what I was going to talk about.

I actually can't really remember what I did yesterday.

There are a LOT of things I can't remember. It's frankly starting to freak me out.

My short term memory has gotten progressively worse since The Cupcake's arrival, and I'm assuming (hoping) that it's just hormones or lack of sleep. That sounds probable, and much less expensive than any of the alternatives, especially since we have pretty crappy insurance right now. Did I already talk about the study that found mice who are woken up a lot during the night act like drunken amnesiacs?

(Note: I had to check. I really thought I had written about this. Guess not. Searching "Drunken Amnesiac Mice" returned zero results on my blog - BUT NOT ANYMORE!)

Anyways, Good Morning America or something similar did a tiny little segment recently on a "new study" that found mice who were woken up repeatedly during the night acted all crazy and could not keep their shiz together.

Huh, who knew? Maybe...EVERY MOM EVER? Or maybe it's just me...totally possible...

So this is a very long and rambling way to say TC still wakes up 2-25 times a night, and even when she IS sleeping, I wake up and stare at her, or think about the other 500 things I need to do.

But I keep hearing it all gets better...right?

Also, do you love that I can't remember what day of the week it is, but the phrase "drunken amnesiacs" stuck in my brain clearly? I kind of do too.

As I was trying to remember the point of this post, I googled "sleep study mice drunken amnesiac" and found an article about the study in question. The good news is IT'S NOT JUST ME! At least one Portland mom and a bunch of lab rats have the same problem. However, the article cites no remedies, solutions, or is hazy about whether or not I should hope for sleep ever again.

What were we talking about?

Day 12 - delightfully dirty words from across the pond

2011-08-01T21:14:00.004-05:00

I stumbled across this show on Hulu, and I'm hooked. Fun twist on the superhero genre, and excellent British cursing. Misfits:

NSFW! Or kids! Or wankers of any sort! This is actually the 2nd episode of the 2nd season (which I'm just starting to watch as I type this, so it's possible this episode could be awful, who knows), you should really start from the beginning, but I'm too lazy to find that code for you. The theme song is really fun - starts at about 3 minutes in

:)

Eleven - it's a supersized #1...

2011-08-01T06:44:00.002-05:00

Go big or go home, that's what I always say!

I don't think I've ever said that, actually.

At least not in the context of planning one excursion after the next and running all weekend long. I'm not even sure how we accomplished it, really, but in the end it was a great weekend.

After our mini vacation Thursday - Saturday, I had planned to use Sunday to catch up on laundry, dishes, sleep (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha)...instead, we decided to do one more family day together, and trekked out to the Mall of America. We did a lot of window shopping, I bought an overpriced but excellent and unique photo display that I promised to use for a million different things (you will definitely see it here as part of the shower I'm throwing in 2 weeks!). The Cupcake fell asleep just long enough for us to have a quick lunch at the Wolfgang Puck Express, followed by a "celebration brownie" at the Tollhouse Cookie/Edy's Ice Cream stand. We browsed all 3 levels of shops, and somehow still had some energy left as the stores were starting to close up, so we headed across the street to IKEA for a little more unintentional shopping.

Oops.

We did a LOT more damage than intended there, but it should be all good choices in the long run. Our current high chair just isn't working out (why do first time moms even try to make registries? WTF did I know about what would be good baby-raising items?), and although she won't be in it for long, feeding takes up such a big chunk of my day now that I'm willing to try something new. Hoping this works a little better:

We got it in red :)

Also, I'd been meaning to pick up a nightlight for TC's room, and I've been smitten with this fixture for a while, so I finally decided to go for it. Turns out it's a little bright, and I might end up going for the smaller one instead, but it sure is FUN! We picked up a few things we've been meaning to get but never seem to get around to - a pizza cutter (ours disappeared about a year ago, no idea where) and a new silverware organizer (it might be the only organizational tool hubby has EVER requested). Then there were a few serving pieces for the shower (TBA!) and of course 3 boxes of swedish cookies...by the time we got home all 3 of us were ready for bed :)

8 is GREAT! 9 is FINE! 10 is...

2011-07-31T09:25:00.008-05:00

...the only thing I can come up with is "b!@#$-en" if you exaggerate the ending. Not my finest work, but I guess we'll go with that. Rhyming must be in the part of my brain that is comatose from lack of sleep, along with most words of 3 syllables or greater, the location of my tax paperwork, and the majority of my short term memory.

We took a mini vacation this weekend to see TC's grandpa "Up North" and though it was a LOT of work (we definitely need a mini van. Or a tank.), we had a really nice time. And a lot of FUN, so I'm getting back on track there! :) I'm giving myself credit for fun on all 3 days, accomplished in the form of:

I read a book!

I appreciate most of Tina Fey's humor (though I do gag at the lengths of some of the self deprication, come on lady, you can geek it up all you want but you are also BEAUTIFUL and we've all seen it), and the book was a quick read. My favorite part is the prayer for her daughter towards the end, you've probably seen it floating around on facebook - it's funny and smart and true, and I particularly cry every time I read this part, which hits home so strongly right now:

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

”My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

...I also cried tears of joy and appreciation as hubby entertained TC (and they both fell asleep in a pile on the recliner) so I could take some time to read said book, which was one of the most indulgent treats I've had in a while.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL and we walked all over town and went through every tacky little gift shop in the street (I love sparkly crap, I can't help it). TC is sitting up in the "real" stroller now (as opposed to the infant carrier snapped on top) and loved her new vantage point, she was quiet as a mouse taking in all the new sights. She was mesmerized by the water lapping against the rocks at the public dock:

We also had lots of fun introducing The Cupcake around town to hubby's childhood friends and former co-workers, grandpa's co-workers, and various wandering dogs and seagulls. Since it was vacation, we also let her try her first bite of ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, (we withheld the deep fried ice cream topping - but just thinking about it makes me salivate. DEFINITELY brought me joy! Also getting credit: Peach daquari! Pollo wrap! Chips & salsa!), and she also licked on a lemon and a lime. In general, she disliked everything. If this keeps up, I may demand DNA testing at some point to verify she is my child.

She definitely enjoyed the beach though -

It was cold at first, but so warm in the sun that we quickly acclimated. She splashed with abandon, jumped in the waves, and marveled at her first touch of sand between her toes. Family, food, firsts - it was a lovely little weekend for all.

Cupcakes & Corpses - the 7th day of fun

2011-07-27T10:51:00.004-05:00

Remember my "book club?" At one point we actually read books and discussed them, and it was sorta like work even though it was fun to socialize and eat treats at everyone's houses, but then we got an even better idea and just started watching TV. Attendance is at an all time high, and I'd say our discussions are actually much deeper and more analytical now. Particularly since we're watching our "main" interest, TRUE BLOOD.

*swoon*

Season 4 is definitely not disappointing thus far, other than those damn Mickens (yay for dead Mickens!). So I always know that Tuesday nights will bring me joy.

And yesterday was double fun, as I brought some treats to celebrate Al's Bday:

Mmmm...Happiness accomplished!

Because I'm the mom, that's why...

2011-07-24T20:45:00.004-05:00

Like everything else in my life right now, it is clearly going to take me longer to accomplish 30 days of fun. While it would be nice to say I have some element of fun every day, I seem to have hit a patch to the contrary...so I'm declaring a do over.

30 Days of Fun: XI (take II)

Went to see the final Harry Potter tonight! I didn't get it (he had to die, but then he's alive?), but it was still fun to go out. And to have a dear friend volunteer to babysit, so I didn't worry about The Cupcake at all. And I drank a big old Coke, and didn't worry about the caffeine, seeing as I'm done pumping.

Lack of worry = fun...hmmm, sensing a pattern here...

6lbs of coleslaw...forgot to pack the fun...

2011-07-20T14:54:00.006-05:00

30 days of fun: #6

I am having a difficult time finding fun today. It's hot as Hades outside and the AC in my car isn't working right. My job is rarely amusing, and since I worked today, so that usurped a large chunk of my time with unfun activities. I'm trying to quit pumping, which is painful and makes me anxious, and has resulted this desperate evening in me lining my bra with lettuce. Well, cabbage really, but it looks the same. It's crunchy and smells. And I'm just not in to vegetables. And I really can't tell if it's doing anything. Oh, and then I stuck my hand in poop. Because, you know, that's my life these days. And The Cupcake always poops right AFTER I put her to bed.

So yeah, 30 days of fun is hard sometimes. Were I slightly less practical or slightly less poor, I'd solve this problem by buying myself something. Or going out on some crazy late night adventure. But I'm old, and kinda boring, and very much exhausted, so right now I'm just praying TC crashes before 9 so I can follow soon after...

Screw you day #6. Everyone likes 7 better anyways...

Five Golden Rings

2011-07-19T12:00:00.003-05:00

30 Days of Fun, #5:

Watching Big Love on HBOGO.com

I'm loving HBOGO.com right now - if you have an HBO subscription you log in with info from your provider (Comcast, Dish, Direct TV, etc.) and you can watch a whole host of amazing shows. Of course, there's my favorite - True Blood - episodes from season 4 are posted the day after they air, and episode 2 was posted even BEFORE it aired! There are a lot of movies and HBO original programming (I strongly recommend Hot Coffee, a documentary about the so-called "frivolous lawsuit" movement), and today in particular I'm enjoying:

The ENTIRE SERIES of Big Love is available! Now I'm finally piecing together the seasons I missed and making sense of it all. Well, in between cleaning up carrot puke and rice cereal :)

4 Me? Why yes...

2011-07-18T13:41:00.003-05:00

Day 4 of "THERE WILL BE FUN, DAMMIT!"

Today's happy moment: DQ Peanut Buster Parfait

It's freakishly hot and humid across the midwest today, so I was doubtful in my abilities to haul my saggy self over to DQ, but then I would have had nothing to post. So I did it for you, Internets. And you're welcome.

Burp.

30 Days of Fun - 3...It's the magic number...

2011-07-17T16:18:00.004-05:00

I am 6 months behind on photo albums (guess why?)but I do try to upload and crop my pics pretty regularly, if only so I back them up and protect them. After a HUGE weekend road trip for a beautiful family wedding we just arrived home and somehow The Cupcake was convinced to take just the perfect little cat nap to allow me to get through the pictures from our adventure. Along with a lot of fuzzy dance shots, dark church photos, and unattractive snapshots of people eating, I found a gem:

The expressions on each of their faces are priceless to me. TC was a trooper, through the heat, the travel, and all the noise she really kept it all together (perhaps more than us adults did) and we could not have asked for much more. Clearly, she had a little fun too.

Finding this photo brought me joy today :)

Fun Frock

2011-07-16T11:18:00.001-05:00

30 Days of Fun - take II

Today I'm going to my sweet cousin's wedding (she of the State Fair Bridal Shower fame) and while there are sure to be all kinds of fun abounding, I'm really looking forward to wearing my new dress:

(Edit: Photo added - this is after I melted in 100 degree heat index all afternoon, but the dress still looks fun)

It is all kinds of win - a size smaller than I wore pre-pregnancy and a slimming sillhouette, clearance bargain of $25 (@ Dress Barn, who knew?), vintagey feel with the full twirly skirt, and it even has POCKETS!!! WHOO HOOO!

I'm pretty sure it will be puked on immediately, but it still makes me happy. And I can wear it with some simple brown sandals and still navigate the outdoor reception and juggling The Cupcake.

30 Days of Joy

2011-07-15T11:02:00.007-05:00

For a while I made some posts with the "brought me joy" tag, intending to do it regularly. Then I got uber busy and all mom-ed out, and sort of sucktastic about blogging in general. I'm working on it. And thus, I'm picking up Maggie's gauntlet and going to try and do something FUN every day for 30 days. Actually, I'm sure I do something fun every day, so the key will just be recognizing and remembering it in the haze of poop/puke/flying prunes that is my daily life. And then making it online to post about it.

So here we go Internets, FUN day 1:
Guilt free "gear up for a crazy day" power breakfast:

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

and as I imbibed the aforementioned high calorie goodness, I giggled over some websites I'd gotten behind on:
Damn You Auto Correct
Failbook
Passive Aggressive Notes

I also used sucktastic above, which my spell check violently opposes, but I'm letting it ride. How fun is that?

I made The Cupcake, and The Cupcake makes messes...

2011-07-07T13:24:00.005-05:00

Six months, holy crap. Life is on fast forward lately and every time I blink The Cupcake grows another inch. We don't have her 6 month appointment till next week, but I'm dying to hear her stats - she was smack in the middle at her 3 month appointment, and now at 6 months she's wearing 12 month clothes...She doesn't seem "husky" but who am I to judge :) So we've wasted a few more outfits (did she EVER fit in 9 month clothes? or just go straight from 6 to 12?)

One thing we're spending a lot of time on at the moment is FOOD - she just started purees, which is a bit of a craft project. At least, she seems to think it is. And there are colorful smears of various vegetables all over my house, so it's fair to call it decorative. Feeding The Cupcake went from a few seconds to pop a bottle in her mouth (which she is just starting to hold by herself too!) to a HUGE time sucking ordeal involving set up, wrestling, her ninja moves swiping the food off the spoon while I blink, and the necessary bath time clean up immediately following.

Will I ever not be tired again?!?!?

But speaking of tired, she is clearly NOT:

Something came together in her little mind recently and she is suddenly a wiggly wormy dancing fool. She just cannot stay still. She has completely bonded with her Jumperoo, and will thrash around like a wild animal for at least half an hour now. When I hold her, she tries to jump the same way. I sing the Jumperoo songs in my sleep. She rolls over in her sleep now, and then gets upset to realize she is on her stomach and immediately starts to scream until I come and right her. Apparently this is so that she can do it again. Silly babies.

She's getting a bit more generous with the laughs, though she still makes us work pretty hard. Smiles are doled out freely though. Naps are a roll of the dice - a real fight over the weekend, but as I type she's been snoozing for over 2 hours in her swing.

This means I've been able to do a few crafts in preparation for the wedding shower I'm giving mid August. I can't share photos or give anything away yet, but the invitations are in the mail, and I have pink paint in my hair (which clashes with my red shirt, but didn't seem pressing enough to actually address). I spent a lot of time last night working with my Cricut, and hauled TC to Joann's this morning only to find they didn't carry the "watermelon" Krylon spraypaint I needed (gotta head back to Michael's I guess). Photos to come, eventually :)

Stampin' Up

2011-06-29T08:19:00.005-05:00

I love invitations. I don't care if it's not "green". I do occasionally waiver on how expensive they can be, as with postage, but I have always loved getting mai. I cannot give up sending "real" paper invitations to the parties I throw. An Evite just isn't the same, and while a Facebook invite is certainly convenient, nothing sets the tone for a party like a clever invitation.

For the bridal shower I am throwing in August, I've finished the invites, addressed the envelopes, and even found the PERFECT stamps! I don't always worry too much about stamps, especially now that I don't get to the post office as often, but when I saw these "CELEBRATE" stamps I knew I had to get them to coordinate with my upcoming invitations:

I won't give too much away, but the colors (and sentiment) were just toooooo perfect! Of course, they only had ONE sheet, and I needed two, but I was able to supplement with these:

which also worked nicely, and are very pretty. They're both forever stamps, so you could stock up without worry of a price increase (supplemental stamps are such a pain - I always just end up putting on a 2nd full price stamp to save the hassle - I'm wasteful like that).

Pics to come!

Riding the bus was the scariest part...

2011-06-26T15:49:00.003-05:00

I volunteered with the [MN]Love booth at Twin Cities Pride today, and got to play with some chalk:

Not a terrible rendition of the logo, right? I was pretty impressed with myself considering I did it on the fly/outside/stooped over an awkward table.

I didn't stay too long at the festival (had to get home to pump before my boobs exploded)but I did have a lovely visit with the folks from Visit Decorah and found out in addition to Minnesota and New York, I am also a legal wedding officiant in the great state of Iowa (and Wisconsin if I get a note)! So if anyone is getting married and would like to send me to either NY or Iowa, I would love to cross #161 off my bucket list!

If you haven't gotten your "Marriage is..." photo taken yet, look for the [MN]Love booth at Rochester or Duluth-Superior Pride festivals, and remember to vote NO on the ammendment in November 2012...

Pumping Moms

2011-06-22T10:51:00.005-05:00

I'm contributing to a new blog called Pumping Moms and my post is up today. You can read it here, it might eventually be a good resource for EP (exclusively pumping) moms. But if you are scared of boobs or breast milk, or if you'd rather not learn about my sore nipples (I completely understand) you should instead distract yourself with this HILARIOUS post from The Bloggess that Al sent me this morning.

Bucket List #100: Get my car detailed

2011-06-20T06:17:00.000-05:00

I really should have taken some before photos, but it would have been too embarassing to post them. Most people's cars get gross after they have kids, but mine was almost too gross to subject a gooey projectile vomiting kid to, and that's not exaggerating. There were no floor mats, though you probably couldn't tell. There was more dog fur than Norm is currently wearing. And at some point an entire package of silver thumb tacks spilled everywhere and I continued to find them for years. So it was definitely time. And I was scared that whatever was probably growing under the seats could be hazardous to my daughter's health.

So the car went in, with the plan being have the trunk fixed (it stopped locking...which made it a guessing game whenever you put something in there - would it fly open and spill all over the highway? Would someone come along and realize they could just lift the lid and help themselves to my belongings? Not good) and splurge on a detailing.

And of course, it all went wrong from there.

The trunk problem was more than the latch, it was also the struts. And then the wrong struts came. And then only one of the right ones came, so they had to wait again. And my brakes were gone. And when they took apart the brakes to replace them, the knuckles were stripped so that had to be fixed or the car couldn't go back together.

This is why I avoid regular timely car maitenance, it always spirals into a giant disaster and I am traumatized. Which only means I save up even more problems for the next time. Viscious cycle.

Eventually they got it all put together, and I had to give back the cushy courtesy car we'd been tooling around in for over a week, along with a nice big chunk of $$$ that was certainly NOT in the budget at this time...

But the car is clean. And The Cupcake is safe from mutant french fries, thumb tacks, and whatever else was making a cozy home in the rubble.

P.S.
If you google image search "car detailing," you get a ton of half naked ladies washing cars. Guess I had no idea what was going on when I dropped off my little family car.

Disappointment

2011-06-18T14:15:00.002-05:00

My cake was dry :( So sad.

5 Little Piggies

2011-06-17T22:29:00.002-05:00

Not only is June here, but it's already flying by - where is time going? The Cupcake is racing through her 5th month, and we have some exciting events coming up this summer. Right now her main source of intrigue is her toes - which have finally emerged from the winter of swaddling/footie sleepers/baby socks and appear to be the best pacifier around. Who knew?

I, on the other hand, am funnelling my spare energies into planning a bridal shower for my soon-to-be sister in law, and would really like to catch up on my photo books eventually, but that may be a bit of a pipe dream. In all, things are pretty good. Definitely getting better. TC is still waking up 1-2 times a night, but she goes down pretty consistently between 9-10pm and is often still asleep when I leave on mornings I work, which makes showering and getting ready a lot easier. Between her swing, jolly jumper, and jumperoo she has all sorts of play areas that can occupy her time and allow me a few minutes to load the dishwasher, put away milk, or occasionally a small craft project.

Which means I will eventually have a few more things to post! I can't share too many of the bridal shower projects before the big day, but hopefully I'll get to work on a few other mini crafts soon as well, and I DEFINITELY need to organize my craft room before someone wanders up there and is trapped forever in the rubble.

Also, tonight I made a cake. Because I needed one. Mmmmm. I can hardly settle myself down for bed knowing I have a whole chocolate cake with vanilla frosting waiting in the refrigerator. Breakfast of Champions, to be sure. But TC is down for the count, so I'd better take advantage and catch some sleep myself. G'night!

Romp in the Swamp Party Links - Halloween 2010

2011-06-09T07:05:00.003-05:00

If you are looking for info, pics, tutorials, and inspiration for a Louisiana-themed party, here are all of the posts on my 2010 Halloween Extravaganza, "Romp in the Swamp." I've had the links in my sidebar as I worked on writing everything up, but now that we've moved on you can either click on the NOLA label, or one of the posts below:

Voo Doo Doll Invitations

Decorations:
Gator Farm (bathroom)
Talbot Strawberry Topping
Fangtasia (basement/bar)
Mardi Gras (living/dining room)
VooDoo Shop (nursery)
Using a "Scene Setter" (tutorial)

Recipes - Confetti Rice, Creole Mustard Dip, Swamp Juice Punch, & Crockpot Bananas Foster

Entertainment: Palmistry, Tarot, & Psychic Readings

Real Costumes:
Me & the Hubby (Mardi Gras Queen & Hillbilly)
Mardi Gras Themed Guest Costumes
Other Louisiana Themed Guest Costumes
Sharktopus

Costume Idea Posts
General/Preliminary Ideas
Vampire Hunters (Female)
Ideas Using Black Contacts
NOLA Celebrities
BP Oil Spill
New Orleans Saints
Mardi Gras Ball
True Blood's Sookie Stackhouse
True Blood - Supporting Characters
HBO True Blood Costume Giveaway
Shifters, Weres, and Wolves
Fortune Tellers, VooDoo Priests/Priestesses, & VooDoo Dolls
Re-Purposing Graduation/Choir Robes
Hillbillies, Bayou Folk, and Swamp Creatures

Pre-Party Info Posts
Theme Announcement
Entertainment Announcement

Menu Previews:
Food
Sweets

[MN]Love and Marriage

2011-06-08T08:48:00.005-05:00

The [MN]Love campaign was started to encourage marriage equity in our state. It grew in reaction to the legislative initiative to put a proposed amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution on the 2012 ballot. The amendment would define marriage as between one man and one woman, writing the discrimination against homosexual couples directly into the state's governing document. While our state legislators could not seem to find time to pass a budget (thus resulting in the impending government shut down, with its significant economic toll and many paychecks lost for state employees who actually DO their jobs...), they somehow decided it was a priority to ban gay marriages. Constitutionally.

In every other state where a similar vote has been brought to the people, gay marriage has been banned.

In support of the amendment, groups like NOM (National Organization for Marriage - yeah, right) have launched high-buck public relations campaigns ranging from disingenuous to down right offensive. I'm choosing not to quote or link to any of them.

Instead, I joined the [MN]Love campaign and had a family photo taken by Simon Scott Stromberg.

The "Marriage is..." Campaign asks Minnesotans to define what marriage means to them, and to share the photos "as a sign of your support for equality in our great and LOVING state!" I chose to get involved because I think these photos are a beautiful, personal, and truthful refutation of NOM's lies.

Anyone can have a wedding, but the legal ramifications of marriage are what truly define it for me and many other Minnesotans. As a married couple, we are officially a family unit for tax purposes, insurance benefits, Medicare, and social security. We have protections as far as custody of our daughter, survivorship, and next-of-kin decisions regarding medical care and end of life situations. If our relationship ends poorly, we have protections in the form of a process to follow dividing our assets, debts, custody, etc. In addition to the personal vows we took, we signed a legal document to become a married unit which reaffirms that marriage is a serious decision you cannot simply walk away from or reverse without consequence.

Fewer and fewer young people are choosing marriage these days. Marriage might be in danger, but it is in no way because of GLBT couples seeking these same protections. Allowing gay marriage would strengthen my, and every other marriage in the state by showing it is an important legal transaction. Legal marriage encourages a culture of monogamy, commitment, and stability. All of these things are good for families, for public health, and for the economy.

Weddings, the celebration of a marriage pump millions of dollars into the state economy each year, and we are way behind on extending marriage to this 10%+ of the population - in these hard economic times, why on earth would we not welcome these celebrations?

This is not a "gay issue." Please do not think it doesn't affect you if you are already married or allowed to marry - an act of bigotry written into our state constitution harms us all. It devalues not only our marriages, but every other law and foundation of our government when we allow corrupt ideals to find legal footing. Be sure to vote NO on the amendment in 2012 - I want The Cupcake to grow up in a state where she aspires to be married and have a family (if Grandkids are anywhere as amazing as GrammyCupcakes seems to think they are), where that decision is hers to make (with a little input from mom, of course), and where we support healthy, loving relationships of all forms.

The most important part of marriage is likely not the legal transaction, it is the promises. When two people enter a union, they set the parameters of their relationship in terms of what they value - be it religious, social, familial, etc. It is what makes every relationship unique and why we choose the partner we do - because we wish to build a life together under shared ideals. This part of marriage is not legislated, but without the legal aspect of marriage it is only recognized by and significant to the couple involved. We need the legal aspect of marriage to make it more than a fading tradition, and to give value to ALL marriages, including those based on different belief systems than our own. It is why I believe that

"Marriage is OUR choice, not our neighbors'."

This isn't American Idol. This shouldn't be up for a vote. Our politicians should be ashamed of themselves for making it into one - we certainly didn't vote on any of their marriages, nor should we. Now that they have taken this action, it is important to act. Vote NO on the constitutional amendment in 2012, don't write discrimination into the constitution.

Get involved:
[MN]Love
Minnesotans United for All Families

State Fair Bridal Shower - MORE FOOD!

2011-06-06T06:43:00.000-05:00

I may have saved the best for last when it comes to the State Fair food we served, and all the credit here goes to GrammyCupcakes and her support team who spent days peeling potatoes and assembling kebabs. Everything was SO YUMMY! Here's the "rest" of the menu:

Lunch on a stick! Everything that can be is on a stick at the MN State Fair, so beef and chicken kebabs were a wonderful choice. They were marinated in seasoning and grilled to perfection.

Next up was a mashed potato bar with all the fixin's:

"Champion Croissants", lightly toasted:

And my mother's famous turkey salad, clearly "Best in Show":

As usual, there was WAY too much food, so I got to take home a LOT of leftovers :) I forgot the signs for the beverages, but we stuck with the State Fair theme there too - "fresh squeezed lemonade" (not really) and "All the milk you can drink" (and you didn't even have to pay the $0.50!):

And there's some coffee in between there for good measure too :) The beverage dispensers were a great deal at Costco, but the real stars of the beverage station were the cups! Those are official MN State Fair cups, which the staff ever so kindly allowed me to purchase (for a GREAT deal even) when I called and explained the party. Thanks MN State Fair, you are definitely the epitome of Minnesota Nice!

And that brings me to the end of my State Fair Bridal Shower projects - by all accounts it was a rousing success and the bride was quite smitten with her unique and special day. If you missed any of my recaps, you can click on the "StateFair" label to see all of the posts related to this party, and please if you find any of this inspiring, drop me a line

State Fair Bridal Shower - FAIR Bingo!

2011-06-04T06:17:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling a little full after all of the recent food posts, so before I get to the main food table I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the bingo game I created for the party. Since we were having a lot of people and didn't want to take up all of the time (and because I couldn't think of a 5 letter word with the categories I wanted) I scaled the board down to 4 X 4 instead of 5 x 5. Each letter in the word F-A-I-R stood for a category, Food, Agriculture, Interests, and Rides.

I created a bingo template on PowerPoint and printed boards with empty squares. Then I scoured Google images for all of my pictures. To ensure all of the boards were different I decided on 16 different choices for each category, which was easy for some (food) but harder for others (rides). Case in point, there was a SkyRide, Sky Glider, and Sky Wheel, all of which look totally different but could be confusing because of the names. I alternated between photos and cartoons and just basically chose images I liked. For the "interest" category I included all of the different things to see and do at the fair that weren't food, rides, or agriculture - everything from Butterheads to the Butterfly House, from FairDo Hair styles to Creative Activities contests, concerts, politics, you name it.

I printed out a bunch of each photo on white cardstock, cut into squares, and then used a glue stick to randomly paste pictures into the squares on my empty bingo cards. It went pretty quickly even though I made over 40 bingo cards.

Each guest received a sheet of colored dot stickers to use as markers, and the caller drew cards from a basket. It was a hit! Guests had fun reliving their fair memories while looking at all of the photos and discussing their favorite fair fun, and winners got a cute little prize from GrammyCupcake:

Canning jars full of candies or nuts and dressed in little gingham frocks. It was very country chic to choose from the giant basket of options:

If I ever learn how to post PDF documents I might come back and add my templates here - but sadly I haven't acquired those skills yet :( In the meantime, I might be willing to share if you email me at Heather@HeathersCreativeLife.com and promise to share a photo of your party! I'd love to hear/see if anyone is using any of these tips for their own State Fair themed event.

Stay tuned for a few more projects and click on the "StateFair" label to see all posts about this bridal shower.

State Fair Bridal Shower - Sweet Treats!

2011-06-03T06:10:00.000-05:00

Any State Fair go-er knows the main attraction at the Great Minnesota Get Together is THE FOOD! Best way to experience the fair is to taste it, so we had a lot of fun defining the menu for this State Fair themed bridal shower. My favorite was the dessert table:

First of all, the signs were just laid out in PowerPoint - the rainbow is an option under "format background" and the font for both the large "FAIR FOOD" and the individual food signs is Coffee Tin from 1001FreeFonts (look under western). We kept the serving pieces simple in white and glass so that the food really stood out, such as:

Kettle Corn! This is one of my favorite fair (and ballpark) foods. My mom makes really good homemade kettle corn, but due to time constraints we "outsourced" with Amy's Organic Kettle Corn and holy cow is that good too. And a LOT easier. The large popcorn bowl we've had forever, and the smaller boxes are leftover from thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Hollywood Halloween Party I held a few years back. We also set up a secondary kettle corn station downstairs to make for easy snacking:

The above popcorn box was actually packaging for the zebra popcorn I was forced to buy on sample day at Costco when I fell for it head over heels :)

There's an entire booth at the MN State Fair that sells only cereal bars in every flavor imaginable - Rice Kristie Bars - so we made rice krispie bars on a stick (just the traditional recipe cut into long strips and speared on grilling kebabs). Cotton candy was another must-have fair food, and while you can rent or even buy machines to make your own, we weren't quite ready for that mess, and mini bites would be more suited to the occasion. So instead I bought bagged cotton candy from Target (just $1 for two flavors!)I cut it into strips and carefully wrapped it around lollipop sticks (in the cake and candy making aisle of Michael's or JoAnn's). We displayed both treats by poking their sticks into a block of styrofoam wrapped in tissue paper and taped to the table for support.

Those aren't really Sweet Martha's Cookies, but I swear I've seen the dough in the freezer case - we just couldn't find it when we were shopping for supplies. So we faked it. Costco cream puffs were a bite-sized reference to the giant State Fair cream puffs, and the eclairs just seemed to compliment the cream puffs :)

And rounding out the smorgasboard were a selection of "blue ribbon pies", a fun alternative to cake, and a nod to the folksy baking competitions in the Creative Activities building. We cut the slices small so you could freely sample more than one :)

Mmmm, I'm hungry again just looking at it all!

Click on the "StateFair" label to see more posts related to this bridal shower, and stay tuned for more pics and projects from the event!

State Fair Bridal Shower - Fair Food "Appetizers"

2011-06-02T06:01:00.000-05:00

"Appetizers" was GrammyCupcake's description of this table when she was planning her menu, and most of the cute cred here is all hers - namely this fantastic veggie display:

That's "Farm Fresh Veggies" and "Down Home Dill Dip," representin' the agriculture showcased at that thar State Fair.

"Make Your Own" Pickles on a stick - it's like a snack AND a game :) And the chafing dishes on either side held mini corn dogs and battered cheese curds, perhaps THE most iconic fair foods in convenient bite sized servings :)

YUM! And just like the State Fair, there's plenty more to eat...Keep watching for the "main courses".

To view all the posts to date related to this State Fair themed bridal shower, click on the "StateFair" label.

State Fair Bridal Shower - SkyRide Garland

2011-05-30T06:34:00.001-05:00

Does this look like a party? WHOOO HOOO!

For decorations at our State Fair Bridal Shower we chose do do a few fun items that would have a lot of impact for our theme and fill the space with the fun fairtime atmosphere - and what evokes the State Fair better than the SkyRide:

We translated the iconic ride into a bright fun garland that zig zagged the party space:

Framed the windows:

And hung from the chandelier:

Sadly, there is no Cricut cartridge that cuts SkyRides :) So instead, I created my own template by blowing up a picture of the skyride, tracing the major lines of the silhouette, and cutting the shape with an Xacto knife:

I used that template to cut SkyRide gondolas out of red, yellow, green, and blue cardstock:

My mom used wire Christmas ornament hangers to suspend the gondolas along an old telephone cord so they still had some movement but hung securely over our heads. Midway style tickets purchased from the local party store made up the rest of our hanging decor:

The stage was set! Next up, check back to see the FOOD!
Click on the "StateFair" label to see other pics and projects from this State Fair themed Bridal Shower,

State Fair Bridal Shower - Name Tags

2011-05-28T07:59:00.002-05:00

I think when you have a big bridal shower with several different "branches" of your family tree, it's always nice to have name tags. This shower involved the Bride's family from both her mother and father's sides, as well as friends from college and childhood, and there were so many guests it would have taken an hour to introduce everyone, so name tags were perfect. In keeping with the State Fair theme, I echoed the invitations with smaller rosette ribbons:

But THIS TIME instead of piecing them together, I cut them all out using my Cricut! I got one from my mother in law over a year ago, but haven't had much of a chance to use it until now, so I am having fun exploring the options. I have a hard time judging what each cartridge will do just from the pictures on the back of the boxes, but I just discovered if you go to the Cricut site you can click on each cartridge and many view the handbook in a PDF document, so you can see ALL the capabilities! Whoo hoo!

It was in searching like this that I came across the "Plantin Schoolbook" cartridge, and it's many award ribbon patterns. PERFECT!!!! Of course, this cartridge is not available for purchase and was only distributed as part of a bundle with the machine (and I wasn't buying another machine!). Ashttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif luck would have it, someone on my local Craigslist had one for sale, and I picked it up immediately!

I used a rainbow of papers from my existing stash and the Roly Poly setting, and cut 6 from each 12" x 12" sheet of paper. I used the same paper punch to cut the centers from white cardstock as I did for the invitations, and a glue stick to attach.

We laid them on a table in the entry way with markers and pins, and guests could choose their own color. We left one as an example so people would know to write their name AND relation to the bride, which really helps people to mingle and socialize. We even marked the back of two name tags with a star, and those guests won a door prize (pie!).

The Cupcake had so much fun she knocked herself out:

Click on the "StateFair" label to see more pics & posts about this party, and stay tuned for additional pics & projects!

State Fair Bridal Shower - Butter Bride

2011-05-27T07:41:00.000-05:00

When you think of the Minnesota State Fair, there are a few main images that spring to mind. Corn Dogs/Pronto Pups:

Cheese curds, and the insane line for them that stretches around the booth several times:

And, of course, butter heads:

Butter PRINCESS heads to be exact, AKA the "Dairy Queens". Every year, each of the candidates for Princess Kay of the Milky Way are sculpted out of a giant brick of butter at larger than life size scale. They're displayed in a rotating cooler and each day of the fair one of the princesses gets sculpted live while sitting in the center of the cooler (with mittens and earmuffs and a parka - it has to be cold to keep butter firm!)

So we simply HAD to have a butter carving at the State Fair Bridal Shower. While we didn't have 40lb blocks of butter at the ready, I was able to make due with a 1 lb brick:

Butter Bride! Armed with a paring knife and a butter knife (which actually didn't work as well as the paring knife) I whittled myself a crude little wedding dress, a hint of a bouquet, and the stub of a neck. I knew that I couldn't do the bride's lovely face justice, and besides, this was a lot more fun! I cut her smiling face out of an existing photo, taped it to a toothpick, and embellished with a marabou poof that had fallen off of a boa. Voila! Butter Bride! She was the belle of the ball:

It was a really fun touch and so easy to do - imperfections and crude renderings actually make it even more fun than a really professional sculpture would have been. Or maybe I just mean funnier :) Make sure to keep her in the refrigerator until party time so she doesn't melt away, and use an actual photo on photo paper for the head as it's slightly more grease resistant than regular paper. Our butter bride made an excellent topper to our dessert table, which gives you a sneak preview of the rest of the goodies:

See also: Blue Ribbon Invitations

More State Fair Party pics to come, keep watching!

Heads Up: Bucket List #86, Join a Protest

2011-05-26T07:25:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of things I wish I could change about our government, and I should act and speak out on such issues more than I do, but I know I cannot sit idly by and let our state write bigotry INTO THE CONSTITUTION. How embarrassing and shameful for all of us. This is not the example I want to set for The Cupcake, nor the environment I want her raised in.

So over the next year my family will be joining the movement to defeat Chapter 88, SF 1308, an act proposing an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution recognizing marriage as "only a union between one man and one woman" - AKA the gay marriage ban. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Me, hubs, & the Cupcake are planning to counter this (As Expected, Anti-Gay Groups Preparing Propaganda Blitz In Minnesota) by participating in this:

(click to zoom)

Spaghetti dinner + [MN]Love photo shoot (similar to the NOH8 campaign)+ setting an example of tolerance and civic participation for our daughter = time well spent. This will be a very special family photo in her scrapbook.

“Minnesota is better than this. Minnesotans are better than this. I urge Minnesotans to reject this amendment.” ~Gov. Mark Dayton

P.S. I finally had a chance to spend some time on my blog, and have actually started to do a little crafting again, so if I lost you in the post-baby lethargy, please come back - I'll have new posts going up almost daily for the next couple weeks at least!

State Fair Themed Bridal Shower - Blue ribbon invitations

2011-05-25T10:53:00.002-05:00

So stinkin' cute! That's how everything turned out for my dear cousin Carley's bridal shower. And now that the festivities have come to an end, I can share some of the crafty creations I contributed to the fete!

My mother/Carley's aunt hosted the party, but I'd say I acted as something of a "creative consultant" after proposing the State Fair idea. You see, Carley LOVES the Minnesota State Fair. LOVES IT. She makes it more than an event, it's a verb. She DOES the State Fair, from Machinery Hill to the Haunted House, Cheese Curds to Deep Fried Hot Dish, I'm pretty sure she even has special pants. And after a few years out of the state, (and more to come after the wedding) a Great Minnesota Get-Together was the PERFECT idea!

Starting at the beginning: Invitations! This was not my first inclination, I originally was running with sort of a corn dog bouquet theme, but it just wasn't working out, and in the end these blue ribbons turned out ADORABLE, so I'm glad I experimented a bit.

This was the first creative project I'd undertaken since The Cupcake's nursery, and the first time I've tried to accomplish anything of the sort since she came along - and it all went surprisingly well! I credit her swing with all of the success :) One day she conked out while swaying, and I sat down to cut out all of the pieces assuming someone else would need to assemble them...and when I finished, she was still sawing logs, so I started to put a few together...then, before I knew it, I was done! 43 of these pretty little rosettes I believe, in all different colors and patterns:

I used paper punches for all of the circles (the "ruffles" around the medallion are just a bunch of overlapping circles), and once I found the sizes that looked right together I created the "ribbons" to fit. I cut all of the "blue" parts out of various patterned paper from a 12" x 12" stack.

For the invitation wording, I started by downloading a pretty font from 1001freefonts.com (Calamity Jane) and laying out the text - this was the first time I'd ever printed on vellum and it worked GREAT, I'm definitely using that technique again. I like to use powerpoint to lay out my pages, I just measured my available space and set text boxes, then crammed as many on a page as I could to conserve paper when I printed. I cut them apart, and affixed everything with glue dots. For the back I cut another blank large circle from cardstock (same as the center front) and used it to cover up all of the double sided tape and glue dots holding the smaller circles to the larger one, and I ended up pasting a label with registry details on that circle as well.

We mailed the invites in large 6" x 9" envelopes, which are nearly the largest that can still go with one stamp. A few times I had splayed the ribbons too widely and had to bend a corner, but for the most part they traveled pretty well, and I was assured that everyone could tell what they were right away and start looking forward to the State Fair themed party.

More State Fair party pics to come, I promise!

2011-05-09T19:26:00.004-05:00

I did another creative project today, but I can't share it till next week, once the bride-to-be has been showered with all of our State Fair themed fun (I can't wait for this shower!). I'm not actually hosting the event, but I've contributed a few fun projects that I hope add to the celebration - at least three crafts that I'm hoping to share. Right now The Cupcake is on her 3rd long walk in a row with her dear dad, who just texted me this photo:

(our phone cameras suck, but you get the idea - she's sawing logs)

She is definitely enjoying the fresh air, and I'm making the most of my "alone time" racing around the house finishing up tasks I never seem to get to otherwise. Up next: find, and perhaps even pay, our property taxes! :-P

Snugabunny

2011-05-03T09:24:00.000-05:00

I mentioned this swing in my last post - it is a lifesaver. Or at least a sanity saver. When The Cupcake was born, she liked to be held. A lot. And she was the only child, the first grandchild, the newest kid on the block, so we liked to hold her to.

But she liked to be held ALL.THE.TIME. She wouldn't sleep otherwise, and when you are home all day with an infant there comes a time when you have to put them down so you can accomplish a few things (i.e. empty your bladder, hose off the puke, eat something more substantial than a granola bar). By the time she was about six weeks, I was getting pretty desperate. Then I ordered this:

It was a LOT of money for me, somewhere around $170 I think, but I put all of my faith (probably more than was healthy) into this swing. The swing just HAD to work. It was sold out at Target so I ordered it from Toys R Us (where it was slightly higher, but we had a small gift card to put towards it) and counted down the moments until it arrived. I immediately dumped out the package...and in my sleep deprived haze, there were 2 pieces I simply could NOT fit together.

And I cried.

At some point I pulled myself back together and called my dad, who came over to help the next day. About 4 seconds later, the swing was assembled and I popped TC right in.

She was immediately captured by the mirrored underside of the mobile. Yes, our little Cupcake is a bit vain, she adores looking at herself in the mirror. Score 1 for the Snugabunny. She also likes to hear how pretty she is, so I'm sure we're building a monster, but we'll address that another time.

Part of the reason I chose this swing was that it could be plugged into the wall instead of burning through batteries, so we plugged it in, held our breath, and within moments:

and then I cried again, but they were happy tears. Relieved tears. Hope for a future when I could possibly take a pee break tears.

She doesn't ALWAYS fall asleep in there, but she still does pretty often. This is just last week:

And Easter morning:

The music is actually not at all annoying, possibly even soothing, and there are several settings and a volume control. The mirrored underside of the mobile is genius. Now that she's starting to bend and twist on her own we've had to start buckling her in so she doesn't heave herself out, but she still manages to fall asleep in there a fair amount of time. I only wish we had sprung for it sooner, it was worth every penny.

Honestly, just that first nap NOT in my arms was probably worth a lot more than $170 :)

When your feet are the size of the Easter bunny's...

2011-05-02T14:59:00.006-05:00

We eventually plan to celebrate the bunnies & candy side of Easter, but at this point The Cupcake has no use for an Easter basket and neither of her parents needed another excuse to down a pound of chocolate, so we basically just skipped it. Luckily my mother (GrammyCupcake) put on a lovely Easter dinner and invited me and TC over to share in the feast (the hubby had baseball tix).

I'm still not great at getting out of the house with my little one, I tend to agonize over getting everything packed and ready so that I'm exhausted before I even leave, but the sleep situation has been getting better and better, and I found myself awake on Easter morning while The Cupcake was doing this:

(My Little Snugabunny Swing by Fisher Price, I <3 You!)

So I walked into my kitchen and whipped up these:

jumbo chocolate dipped strawberries, and two of these:

Vanilla cakes that I smushed the frosting of, but they still tasted okay. Neither of these creations was very exciting on their own, but when you realize that they signify MY FIRST BAKING WHATSOEVER since the baby bomb dropped on our lives, I'm pretty darned impressed! I think this may have been the first time the oven has been on in 4 months. It was exciting.

And then I somehow even managed to clean myself up a tiny bit, and wrestle TC into a pretty little dress so we looked presentable for about 10 minutes:

And then the puking started, so we were right back to the dirty stinky mess our lives usually are. And then I broke my toe on GrammyCupcake's beautiful but deadly antique sofa, so that kinda sucked too. But at least we had HAM! :)

Pardon me, do you have the time?

2011-04-22T12:40:00.001-05:00

Part time, that is.

Two posts in a row. Well, in a week anyways.

Hello again, blogosphere. I'm back.

You've missed out on so much this year, but I'm finally catching up to 2011, and one of the reasons I'm starting to get my sea legs is that I made a large and life changing decision: I'm working part time! It is glorious and I am thrilled.

You'll remember I was pretty bummed out about my maternity leave coming to an end. Part of it was that I didn't want to leave The Cupcake, but truth be told the main reason was I just could not imagine how I would add 40 hours a week of work and a few more of commuting on top of my already exhausted list of burdens and not somehow short circuit. It didn't help that I had marked the WRONG DATE on my calendar and realized somewhere around then that I actually had to return to work a full week earlier than I had expected (sleep deprivation messes with your math skills apparently). I was devastated.

But what could I do? If I hadn't returned to work my benefits could have been retroactively ended on the last day I attended work - meaning I'd owe some big $$ for the small paid part of my leave, the sick time that was paid out, and all of the insurance coverage over those three months. That was simply not an option. Luckily we had the BEST POSSIBLE childcare arrangement, GrammyCupcake (my mother) would come and tend to the kid right here in her own home, where she would receive more attention and love and kisses than even I could bestow on her in a day. She'd carpool with GrandaddyCupcake who happens to work close to my home, and that way I'd know she'd be on time and everything :)

So when my last days of leave were crossed off the calendar I dried my eyes, bought a couple pairs of new pants (yay for breastfeeding weight loss), and jumped back in to showering and getting dressed in the mornings. Whoa.

Actually, the mornings went pretty well, we had already been waking around 6am for pumping/feeding time, and TC had just started being able to entertain herself long enough for me to go to the bathroom or brush my teeth without her screaming bloody murder. She even enjoyed chillin' in her Boppy in the bathroom while I showered, she just loves herself some warm steamy time.

So GrammyCupcake came and loved up the little one. And I headed back to see what had happened in my 12 weeks off. I expected a giant pile of work to catch up on.

And that lasted about 12 minutes. And then I was bored again.

This is a problem that some people just can't related to. I know, I know, I should be happy to have a great non-taxing job, lots of people would love to be paid for being bored all day.

I'm not one of them.

I try. But it's not very compatible with my personality. I keep thinking about all of the "important" things I'm missing and the anxiety builds. It was peaceful to be back, that was for sure, almost eerily calm. I almost felt like the sad lone survivors in zombie or outbreak movies who walk out their front door expecting the hustle and bustle of the world and find it is suddenly still and silent.

It was definitely silent. And I could eat. With both hands. And go to the bathroom, whenever I wanted. And did I mention eat? Because eventually that will come around to bite me in my once-shrinking @$$ for sure. And the silence? Yeah, I had to physically assault myself to keep from falling asleep. Because, in case you remember, I was exhausted. And despite all the craziness of having an infant at home, at least when I was home all day (in my pajamas)there was likely some point at which The Cupcake would fall asleep for a short period, and because the only place she would do so was pretty much in my arms, it meant that I was used to conking out for that short time as well. And suddenly that option was off the table. And it was very difficult.

And I made it about a week before I cracked and asked my bosses if it was possible to cut down to part time. I was pretty uncertain about the option being accepted for a long and myriad list of reasons, but somehow everything went through perfectly, and a couple weeks later I was back to PJs 2 days a week. Two glorious wonderful days, and that means I only ever really work 1 day at a shot. Even if it's the longest day in the history of time (most of them feel that way), I already know that once I'm done, I have the whole next day "off" to recover.

And being at home has gotten SO much more livable now as well. TC sometimes naps, during which time I accomplish all matter of other things like house work and even a few craft projects. The other day I actually cleaned the bathroom and washed a wall in the entryway, things I never could have gotten to if I had been working full time. Everything feels much more manageable now.

Maybe even blogging :)

To sleep, perchance to dream...

2011-04-20T13:17:00.009-05:00

I was a sleepy baby, or so I'm told. While I can't vouch for the accuracy of the legends, I've been told that my mother went as far as to wake me up as an infant for visitors who swore that all I did was sleep. I've always enjoyed sleeping, and it was not uncommon for me to get 10 hours of sleep a night before I got pregnant.

Lord how the world changes.

I went into labor in the evening and despite the best efforts of my nurse, I didn't sleep a wink that night. Despite sending the kid to the nursery during our hospital stay, I never got more than 15 minutes of sleep in a row, and our first night home was completely awful, especially since we had to be back at the pediatrician the net morning. I don't believe I slept a wink. That meant from Monday - Friday I was operating on less than 5 hours of sleep, TOTAL. On the way home from the doctor, while sitting in the back seat next to the carseat, I had a conversation that didn't exist, and not just talking to a baby who couldn't talk back, I was hallucinating.

I completely understand how sleep deprivation is an effective torture technique.

The Cupcake is 3 1/2 months old, and this is a delightful age. It's a hopeful age. For me, I feel hopeful. I feel so much better than I did in those first two months, when everything was hard and frustrating and potentially impossible, when I was so entirely exhausted that I wondered each and every day if the lack of sleep would just erode my sanity completely like water carving canyons and valleys out of rock.

When The Cupcake sleeps, everything seems possible again. The night before last, she slept from 5:30pm until 8 the next morning with just a few sleepy bottles in between. At first I held her and watched TV, checked my email. Then as the hours added up I started to poke her and study her, feel her temperature, contemplate what was surely wrong...but she was just very peaceful. At 11 the hubby and I woke her up completely to re dress and swaddle her for the night, and she cooed and sang and smiled like never before. She was utterly delightful, and then went right back to sleep. And I did the same. And it was wonderful.

And it made all the difference in the world.

Yesterday all things seemed achievable. I must have slept for 7-8 hours, not straight through the night but with short enough breaks that I felt almost rested in the morning. And the idea of feeling rested was energizing in itself. I awoke re-calibrated to my life, and somehow, the kid was STILL in a great mood. She lounged in her swing while I loaded the dishwasher, watched and cooed as I cleaned the bathroom, listened to the dishwasher swish while I folded laundry...

It may have been a very isolated incident, and indeed last night TC was much more fitful, fighting sleep until she melted down in tears and frustration sometime after 10, and she woke up three times between midnight and 4am, but just the idea...the experience...the light up ahead...

It's the same feeling I had when I attempted my first post-partum craft project. Cupcake was snoozing in her swing, and I attempted to cut out pieces for some paper crafted invitations. When I had finished, she was still asleep, so I started to assemble one...two...forty-three...and then I jumped for joy because for a while there I thought I might never get to finish another project again, heck, I might never clean off the dining room table again, and here I had sat down and done crafts. Awesome ones that I can't wait to share next month after the bridal shower, so I don't ruin any surprises.

So much has happened in the past 3 1/2 months. Every time I bend over I get excited at how easy it is to squat and reach my feet now, compared with the chore of late pregnancy. I can put away groceries and not have to be helped back up from the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. That's not the only thing that has gotten easier. Not only did I lose all of the limited baby weight I gained, but I'm down nearly 20lbs more (thank you breastpumping) and all of my clothes are falling off, including my wedding ring. What a delightful problem to have, one to be solved with a shopping spree eventually. Speaking of pumping (long story short: Cupcake wouldn't play along with breastfeeding, and after listening to everyone and their mother tell me what I "HAD" to do in order to raise a happy healthy daughter, I did what MY mom told me - "whatever works for you." So Cupcake is getting breastmilk, just not from the tap), operations at the dairy are almost old hat. I'm only chained to THE MACHINE 5 times a day now, and at work it's even a nice break - I look forward to sitting down in solitude with my Kindle for those two 20 minute stretches. My emotions are still slightly wacky, and I may have teared up this week while reading cards at Walgreens AND Tina Fey excerpts on Facebook, and let's not even discuss how I react to diaper commercials like the Pampers one about new moms...but I'm starting to get it.

Or at least believe that I will, eventually.

We even packed up our bags and went out to LUNCH yesterday with Dad/Grandpa, and babies + restaurants = MAJOR ANXIETY for me, so that was a HUGE step, my first time taking her to a restaurant all by myself and on purpose, and she was a perfect peach the entire time.

I have stories to share. I've probably forgotten more of them than I'll remember already, but I'll get back to it.

Someday she'll sleep through the night for real. Someday she'll even do it in her crib, and maybe I'll go back to sleeping in my own bed. And she will continue to smile and coo and laugh, and one day she'll talk and tell me what a great job I'm doing and thank you so much for all of the effort...

Or maybe not.

But she will sleep. And I will sleep. And that will heal so many things.

The end is near...

2011-03-14T21:11:00.007-05:00

As we close in on 10 weeks I alternate between terror and denial that I have to return to work soon. This is compounded by the fact that up until recently I had been counting wrong and have to go back even a week earlier than I thought. Boo.

It's not so much that I'm overly attached - I know she'll be in good hands with her doting grandmother. It's much more selfish than that.

I'm not ready to be part of the world again yet.

I'm just starting to get the hang of this. I'm just starting to feel like the pump isn't ruling my life (or ruining my life).

I'm not all that bothered by not bathing or getting dressed each day, and I definitely don't miss laboring over my hair or makeup. I spend my days like this:

And that thing, that creature, that little parasite on my lap - I think she's just starting to get the hang of it too:

She's sorta kinda sometimes sleeping for six hours at night. She's still unbelievably pukey, but she usually follows each eruption with a big smile. She has a great smile:

It's still really hard. I get frustrated when I can't just make something to eat whenever I'm hungry or run to the store easily, heck, it's hard to even fit in a bathroom break. I am still exhausted, and don't foresee catching up anytime soon. I'm not sure how I'll force myself to stay awake at my less than thrilling desk job. I'm not sure how to keep myself from gaining a million pounds when I have that uninterrupted time to eat again. I don't know what I'll do when I can't catch a little cat nap with this booger on my chest:

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." ~Carl Sandburg

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - VooDoo Shop

2011-03-07T09:10:00.001-06:00

Yeah, yeah, it's been 4 months, but there are a few last details from Halloween I wanted to write up before I'm on to next year, one being the nursery decor. You see, it went through quite a metamorphosis this past year. It started as a seldom used guest bedroom with ugly tulip print wallpaper. When we bought the house, it was staged as a little girl's room, but not exactly my style:

When we found out about the cupcake, I knew that wallpaper had to go. I was really worried about scraping it all off, but one day I started picking at it and the whole thing just peeled off in huge sheets:

Underneath it was baby pink, but that wasn't appealing either, so with the help of my BFF we covered it in "tantalizing teal:"

And then we took a big 'ol detour from traditional nursery decor in the month leading up to Halloween, turning the nursery into a N'awlins VooDoo Shop!

This was where the psychic readings took place, I wanted to create an eerie backdrop packed with details so that everywhere you looked, you noticed something new, sort of how Disney has made even the ride queues and long lines part of the attraction by setting the mood. And I wanted to do it on a budget, so I focused on repurposing free stuff, using what I had, and finding great bargains for the rest.

To start with, I arranged the bed as a couch so people could sit and listen to other fortunes being told (and, it turns out, wait in "line" because it was so popular!). I covered it with a $6 black duvet from Goodwill and all the throw pillows from the living room. I used shelves and hutches I already had around the house as the "store shelves". Since the walls were so bright, I draped long panels of fabric around to dull the happy tone and create a more intimate setting. I used fabrics I already had and a few picked up dirt cheap at goodwill (I got real good at shopping on $1.49 days!). I used 3M strips and hooks to hang everything - no way was I re-painting again :)

I gathered all the skulls, crows, and skeletons I had in my Halloween stash, and re-used the bloody rose garland from last year's Queen of Hearts scene. I also pulled a bunch of creepy religious relics I had acquired over the years, a lot of angel Xmas ornaments I had inherited, and some spooky nun dolls I found at the goodwill a few years ago and could NOT pass up.

I filled some bigger spaces with cheap art from Goodwill - remember the distressed painting in the broken down frame and the puzzle in the ornate gold I found back here? Rustic candlesticks and old wine decanters fit in well too. Old photos in antique gold frames also fit the mood, and I picked up a couple sets of battery powered candles at Costco that I mixed in everywhere:

I kept the lights really low, it was dark other than all the battery powered candles and a single lamp (shrouded in white gauzy fabric) on the psychic's table, so that helped to blend the scene together and draw your eye to the details (and away from the empty spaces). More items "from the vault" stocked the shelves - an original Ouija board, a fake heart, plastic bugs and snakes. I saved all the unsold glassware from the summer's garage sale (candle holders, dishes, vases) and filled them with foam eyeballs or water and "grow animals" from the $1 store (make sure you do this a few days ahead, they take a while to reach their full size!).

My favorite was the snakes - I had saved them from the bathroom decor in 2009. I had asked people to save clear jars and containers a few months leading up to Halloween, and my mom came up with this great pretzel jar - don't they look fantastic?

I did a few quick and cheap crafts for this room too. My husband was on a Pelligrino kick so we managed to save a ton of bottles. Rather than going to the trouble of soaking off the labels, I just printed new ones using shipping labels and creepy fonts (yay for 1001 Free Fonts!) and slapped them over the existing labels. I used a black permanent marker to color in some of the words, used fabric paint to simulate contents "dripping" out of the bottles, and voila - creepy "ingredients" for sale at the voodoo shop:

I used the same process for other shapes and sizes of containers too - tea tins held "werewolf fur." A clear jar full of tiny pieces of string became "mummy stitches."

This was actually a pretty cheap & green craft. The bottles were all free & bound for the recycling bin - I just kept them a while longer and decorated them a bit before kicking them to the curb. I didn't even bother cleaning most of them out first - a pickle jar easily becomes slug slime or swamp water with little effort. The paint and labels I had on hand, and these really made up a big part of my "display."

The only other craft project I did was some crudely painted signs advertising various voodoo shop sales and policies - "We Have Wart Remover!" and "Deadly Nightshade - $9.99!"

This room took weeks to actually put together, mainly because I arranged and rearranged everything so often. Turning on and off all of the candles took another chunk of time (and a few fingernails) but it really worked out well. Of course, the main decorative element was the table in the center of the room where the psychic held court:

Luckily The Cupcake didn't try any funny business like showing up a couple months early, or she would have had a voodoo themed nursery that I'm guessing might have garnered some sideways glances (and possible calls to child services). But she cooperated, so I was able to get everything taken down and turned over to a more child friendly look.

This room took time, but saved money. In fact, I think I might have actually come in UNDER budget on this room (don't worry, I blew it + much more on the food). I wish I would have gotten a better pic of how the lighting levels looked, but I'm still a rookie with my camera, so you'll have to take my word for it - the darkness helped, and the final effect was spooky and excellent!

A dirty schizophrenic hermit

2011-03-06T04:57:00.005-06:00

The Cupcake hit 2 months old yesterday, by which time a lot of kids are in daycare and their moms back to reality, going about their daily lives as a part of society.

Reality? Huh? I think our paths diverged somewhere and you are nowhere in sight.

If I were a good little mommyblogger I would have shared a million funny stories with you by now, we would have bonded over the trauma and truth of birth (and afterbirth), or at the least bored you with endless photos of my child doing cute things. Like this one:

(Olivia Wagner Photography)

But I haven't made it there yet.

It's 4:30am and she's fast asleep (miracle).

But I'm not (d'oh).

(so peaceful when she is sleeping)

I woke up with a rock hard chest. Like an elephant was sitting on me, or I was buried under rocks. I tried to ignore it, flip over, burrow back in - to no avail. So I'm pumping and praying that she's still asleep when I finish, and that we both get a few more hours of rest. Especially since today is my first adventure out with the girls (the ADULT girls), like a real grown up and not a dirty schizophrenic hermit.

Yeah, that's right, I'll admit it - I'm sort of a dirty schizophrenic hermit these days. It's the new reality I guess. I shower...sometimes. When I have a reason. Otherwise it just doesn't rise far enough up the priority list. Other "necessities" I don't have/find/make time to do anymore:
-anything with my hair beyond a messy pony tail
-cleaning my glasses till they are completely opaque
-cleaning the house
-going to the bathroom
-eating anything requiring more prep than Girl Scout Cookies and Goldfish Crackers
-leaving the house unless absolutely necessary
...and so much more. Priority #1 is keeping the kid alive & content (the latter is a pretty distant 2nd, and only done if possible). After that it's sleeping, AKA keeping myself alive. Luckily you can totally live on cookies & crackers, and if you are breastfeeding/pumping you can even lose 30+ lbs that way. Who knew?

(jewelry? clearly this was a planned photo op. My usual accessories are burp rags. They're cute and multi-colored, but not exactly red-carpet).

The "dirty" part is also furthered by my vomit volcano of a baby who keeps me covered in partially digested breastmilk most days. Mmmm, nutritious. We're generally both damp and sticky, it's become our natural state of being. This is admittedly gross, and should probably elevate the quest for a shower a little higher up the priority list, but why take the time to hose it all off when you'll just add another coat moments later? Better to use that time for a nap, or a sandwich, or more likely it just gets used up between holding and changing and pumping and feeding and otherwise surviving day by day. It's the same attitude I've always had towards shaving my legs. Shaving is annoying and cumbersome and a lot of times I just don't do it if my legs won't be showing. Especially from, say, November - April. I don't particularly like having fur or looking like a yeti, and it's not some feminist statement, but seriously, who likes to shave? And I figure it's only gross if someone sees it. Since we don't leave the house much, nobody does :)

She's awake now by the way. And just spit milk out her nose.

Being a hermit is also a matter of choice/priorities, and one of my best coping mechanisms. And I really don't mind it much at all. I've heard a lot of stories of moms dying to get out of the house with their little ones...it all seems like way too much work for me. When we leave, there's the juggling of schedule for eating and pumping. There's the luggage - diaper bag, baby carrier, bottles, stroller... My pump if we could be gone longer than 4 hours and all the parts I need with it. Extra clothes for her AND me, since she likes to "share" her food after the first time down her gullet... Trips out of the house really do seem to sack her out (LOVE that carseat), but they also sack ME out, so the benefit is negated a bit. It's so much easier to exist within the walls of my house. I like my house. I have cable, DVDs, radio, and now FINALLY fast Internet. I have her magic swing and laundry available without hauling it around. I've never really been an "outside girl" anyways :)

And as for schizophrenic...happens to the best of us. I engage in conversation with the baby, of course. Most people can understand that. I also engage in conversation with the swing, the lamps, the radio... I swear the rhythmic sound of my pump is a secret language and I hear mechanical words when it's running. I forget things, mostly due to the sleep deprivation, and can rarely tell you what day it is because they're all somewhat the same. When the house is actually quiet and I try to run to the bathroom, or even when someone is watching her and I take a shower, I always think I hear her crying even when she's not. Voices in my head I guess :)

It took me another day to finish this post, because it takes me twice (or 10 times) as long to finish anything these days. In between, I went out with my friends. It went way too fast, and I had to ditch out early to race home and pump, but I made it. And honestly, I didn't even have time to sit and worry about The Cupcake, it all went by to fast. I splurged on two cherry cokes (which I coveted way more than alcohol after almost a year), caught up with some great friends, sat down to eat a meal with both hands at a table, and was completely distracted oogling the sparkly drag queens on stage. I still appreciate sparkles, and I even managed to wear some of my own. I even showered. Maybe I'll only be a part time dirty schizophrenic hermit.

Reflections: 2010 Resolutions

2011-01-28T08:13:00.004-06:00

I had this post half written and with plans to post on 1-4-11, but I got a little sidetracked with the whole labor/motherhood/survival with a newborn phase of life I entered. But now that I'm sorta sometimes finding a few minutes to myself (hands free pumping bra = NECESSITY! How did I not have one for 3 weeks?!?!) I'm hoping to actually get back to the blog, and this is a decent place to start - looking back, and planning ahead.

So, how did you do in 2010? Was it everything you wanted it to be and more? Did you find your true calling and move mountains and sing about lollipops and rainbows?

Mine wasn't quite that grand (definitely fades in comparison to 2011 already), but I give myself a solid C+ when it comes to my resolutions for this past year. In case you forget:

Original resolution posting
Mid year resolution check

I managed to hit a home run on a few of these:

- Cross at least 6 items off of my Bucket List (that's 1 every 2 months)
BIG WIN! In 2010 I: attended a roller derby bout, flew on a trapeze, won at bingo, helped throw a surprise party, officiated a wedding, and had my fortune told. I definitely get a gold star on that resolution!

- Take more photos, learn to take better ones
Though I've been pretty terrible lately about uploading & blogging them, I have definitely taken more photos this year, and I *think* I can say I'm getting a little better. The most important thing I've learned is to force people to stop and smile for me, which I generally do by threatening to post everything on facebook whether or not they smile - and clearly, they're going to look better if they cooperate :) Though my favorite photo of the year doesn't involve ANYONE smiling, I'm in love with this image from Halloween:

- Keep up with photo albums - within 1 month of events
This is another one I feel AWESOME about accomplishing! Other than being behind on the weddings of 2009 (we had 6...and I only have photos of 3...but I'm getting bolder about harassing people into handing over a few pics, i.e. Jen/Jess/Pat :) I'm coming for you!) I'm really doing excellent on my digital scrapbooking! I am still technically a representative for Heritage Makers, and I have LOVED using their system to keep everything organized, I try to upload pics there within a week of the event, and get to the journaling ASAP before I forget everything. I've gotten quicker and more efficient on the embellishments, and I really love what I've been creating lately.

- Take a real vacation with my husband. Actually go somewhere, just the two of us. We've been together 10 years (in January 2010), and never had a big solo vacation!

We almost scrapped this one when we found out I was pregnant with The Cupcake, but after much waffling (and since we already had expensive airline tickets) we decided to push forward with a trip to New York. It was a little difficult being 10 weeks or so along(I was really sick & pretty exhausted), but who knows now when we'd get the opportunity again, so I'm glad we went for it. Highlights were seeing friends and eating some AMAZING meals, seeing the Broadway production of American Idiot and visiting the Bronx Zoo.

- Bring my lunch to work more often. Like at least sometimes :) I'm so bad at this.

Getting pregnant actually helped significantly with this! The further along I got, the worse my heartburn was, so I had a fairly limited diet towards the end. I was drinking 1/2 gallon of milk per day, lots of jell-o, oatmeal, and other bland foods. It was easier to bring in a huge stash and eat throughout the day than exert the energy (and money) to go out for a full meal.

And then we reach the less successful resolutions...

- Organize my craft room again, and keep it that way for the whole year

Massive fail. It's a deathtrap up there. Probably not likely to be cleared up for quite a while. Yay for closing the door and letting it sit till I can catch up :)

- Stick to a realistic budget this Halloween, while still having the best party ever

Hmmm...how to judge. I massively blew my budget. But I enjoyed the party :)

- Develop a career plan. Decide what I want to be...now that I AM grown up!
No idea. For the time being, I'm going to try and survive my new post as mom :)

- File my receipts and bills at least monthly...and catch up with the ones thrown in a box from the past many years.
Fail. Though I have started to sort through some of it now that I'm on maternity leave, mostly because I have no idea where all my tax documents are (that I'll need soon).

- Create and pursue happiness actively

Work in progress. But I'm getting better at it. I'm finding joy in small things, and making time for what makes me happy, not just what I feel I should do.

- Start writing letters. Real letters on paper.

Fell off the priority list. Refile for a few years in the future :)

- Pay down debt. Significantly. Maybe even start saving.

Progress made. 2011 is starting off good in this area, which makes everything else more attainable.

I'm not making resolutions for 2011. I don't need to. I have so many changes and adventures ahead of me, I just hope to survive, keep an open mind, and enjoy as much of it as I can. Happy New Year to me:

Hello, Cupcake!

2011-01-21T10:52:00.004-06:00

Big news in my life...the Cupcake has arrived!

I'm WAYYYY behind now on posting (and laundry, and sleep, and everything else :) but I'm working my way back to the land of the living and hope to catch up soon. In the meantime, I'm spending my days with this little princess:

Bucketlist #126 Have my fortune told or cards read

2011-01-03T09:49:00.009-06:00

I've been meaning to get this posted for a few months now, but as I review my resolutions and accomplishments for 2010 I wanted to make sure I "credit" myself for this one :)

Each year for Halloween I've tried to add some sort of entertainment to our annual party, something for guests to "do" besides socialize and imbibe (not that those activities aren't fully endorsed as well). This year I tried extra hard to actually match the entertainment to the theme, and decided to hire a psychic. New Orleans is (apparently - I've never been there) full of psychic shops and storefronts, and with the soon to be nursery decked out as a voodoo shop, it would be a perfect venue.

With the help of Google, I settled on Penny of RavenHawke LLC. She had all sorts of credentials that I don't fully understand, instead my reasons for choosing her were 1. she was available and 2. she appeared to be a live human being, in addition to having a legible website. We signed a contract MONTHS before the actual party, and then continued to check in periodically to make sure everything was still on. It was, and she showed up all professional and on time, ready for an evening of psychic readings, palmistry, and tarot.

People really got excited about it! There was a line most of the night, and she ended up staying even later than I had paid her for to get through everyone who wanted a reading. (Thanks, Penny!) From what I heard there weren't too many startling discoveries - a lot of people were told they needed more rest, they had found their soul mate, and other fairly simple things, a few people got reassurance that situations would work out or that their path was correct.

(Random semi-mean thought: If I were a psychic I'd totally tell people they DID NOT find their soul mates. Wouldn't that make for much more interesting parties? Especially since I paid her up front, it wasn't like she had to keep people happy :) But oh well, maybe all my friends really do have amazing wonderful love lives, and everyone found their destiny. Who knows...)

When I finally got a chance to sneak into line, I was planning on tarot but opted for the palmistry at the last minute, because for some reason I had the sudden idea it would be more "scientific" and therefore somehow valid. Who knows, I was tired and pregnant and hopped up on strawberry compote and vanilla ice cream :) Here's what I remember of my fortune:

She said I have 6 guardian angels, a "teacher's square", and my normally strong communication skills are being drown out by my extreme exhaustion. She suggested I get more rest. I also have some psychic markings, suggesting I rely on my intuition, and I am logically driven but use emotion to make decisions in the end.

Some fairly general ideas, but some details that could be seen as pretty relevant, and nothing that seemed way off base. It was a pretty fun experience, and having a psychic as party entertainment worked twofold - it was of course fun and exciting to have your own fortunes revealed, but it was just as fun if not more so to listen in on the readings of other guests. Do I sorta wish she had been a cheesy over the top Madame Cleo type psychic? Yeah, probably. But I suppose "authentic" has it's purpose too :)

Anyways, check another item off my bucket list, because in addition to providing party entertainment, Madame Penny also fulfilled #126 - have my fortune told or cards read = DONE!

Carin's Casa of Creative Crafting: Gingerbread House Party!

2010-12-20T12:05:00.011-06:00

Carin is the crafty kind of person you love to have around for inspiration, but also secretly hate to try and live up to :) She is AMAZING! She's always crocheting (or knitting? I don't even know the difference), offering around GORGEOUS/NUMMY frosted sugar cookies, and building the most fantastical costumes. It's enough to make a moderate hobby crafter feel mopey and inadequate, but then she goes and wins you back over again by hosting a GINGERBREAD HOUSE DECORATING PARTY! Yeah, she's pretty cool. She made snacks:

And she actually BAKED A GINGERBREAD HOUSE for everyone who came! (Are you kidding me? I'd totally have bought kits :) But these smelled sooooo much better!) So I arrived and got this:

Which I then set about assembling:

And decorating:

I took a few cookie breaks - pretty sure I ate all the Xmas trees. The hedgehogs were too darned cute to destroy:

More decorating:

The snow is much prettier with sprinkles, don't you think? I wouldn't mind shovelling half as much if it were really this cute all winter:

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I haven't done a gingerbread house since Daisy Girl Scouts, and I've always meant to, so I can't thank Carin enough for having this event (not to mention doing all the baking, mixing, and CLEANING! I'm pretty sure there was candy EVERYWHERE by the end, so sorry!). Everyone had a good time, and I think our whole "village" was pretty fun:

Having creative friends rocks:

Thanks Carin & everyone, what a great way to get in the holiday spirit!

Frightful Weather = Delightful Nesting Time

2010-12-13T16:49:00.008-06:00

You may have heard about the "Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse/Tsnownami" that hit Minnesota this weekend, dumping 17+" of snow on my house, then blowing it into stiff meringue like peaks well over 3' high. I'm not all that bothered that the Metrodome collapsed, but the video is pretty cool, and major gold star to my poor hubby who had to dig us out all alone this year, as my "fragile condition" doesn't allow for much shovelling.

Instead, I found other ways to support our family unit, like working on the nursery and online shopping.

I didn't upload my "real" pictures yet, but I managed to get a whole gob of work done when everything else was cancelled (thank goodness) and that included pretty much finishing up the decor in Cupcake's room. Here are some not great camera phone photos:

The black frames with gold accents are holding these mermaid alphabet cards, they frame the top of the room on 2 sides. The gold frames underneath hold two Paulina Stuckey Cassidy prints of mermaids that I've been saving for YEARS and never hung, and I decided to order this print for the third.

I also nabbed up this reading mermaid I've been eyeing on Etsy for months, I'm hoping I can put it in the gold frame I picked up for the voodoo room at Halloween (it had a creepy puzzle in it then). Hubby is stuck in a book most of the day, we're both English majors so reading is quite important to us and we hope it is to the Cupcake as well. Reading mermaids set a good example :)

Blackbeard there (orange beard?) is guarding a pile of newborn diapers. The curtain rods are hung, and the valances that are part of the bedding set we picked out for the twin bed, and I did decide to pair them with purple blackout curtains (not shown) but Target only had 2 panels in stock, so I need to find another set before that project is finished. I also broke down and bought a mattress pad and sheet for the crib, despite trying to wait and use my registry coupons I just HAD to get that part checked off my list, it was driving me insane :)

My final art purchase, also on Etsy, was a set of prints from this seller - she also made the thank you notes I sent out for shower gifts:

They're going in simple gold dollar store frames, with a big gold pirate ship medallion from Goodwill, and that should fill the wall above the twin bed. I hope to have everything hung and finished in the next two weeks. Fingers crossed! Maybe I should move on to Christmas shopping now...

Cupcakes & Christmas Trees

2010-12-10T09:55:00.006-06:00

Last year I had a total of 5 Christmas trees decorated for the holiday season. One was huge, three were very small, and the medium one is the only one I decided to deal with this year. I love decorating for the holidays, and feeling the glow of Christmas lights in our living room has seemed magical ever since I was a kid, but I just know with Cupcake's impending arrival (4 weeks?!?!) that I can't count on any time/energy to pack everything up later on, so I'm scaling back now. I'm also not hosting a cookie exchange this year, which I'm kind of sad about but not sad enough to deal with all the baking and dishes, so I'm glad I was realistic about that months ago and begged off. That said, I had to put up at least ONE tree:

I need to pull out the tree skirt to finish it off, but I finally found all of the "sweets" ornaments I bought after last season! I love them. And there are a few more picked up along the way, but not too many. I've had a hard time resisting buying more, especially since everything is going on sale now, but I'm trying to keep my priorities in line :) Maybe after Christmas clearance though, if I can still waddle...

I did let myself splurge on ONE special ornament for this year though:

(Cupcake's real name masked)

I cannot believe that Christmas is just 2 weeks away...I'm WAY behind on my shopping, though I'm definitely looking forward to a few days off work. Cupcake has been STRONGLY cautioned to stay put until her due date, mostly due to my hangups about holiday birthdays (I only want the best for her!), and though I'm slow and waddly and still suffering with heartburn, I'm excited to finish creating her room and catch up on some other projects before she crashes into our lives. Won't be long now...

Nursery, Ahoy!

2010-12-06T12:36:00.010-06:00

I got a couple of HUGE items checked off my list this weekend, including assembling my Boppy pillow (with protective cover and decorative slipcover), Diaper Genie (hopefully to keep Norm out of the mess, let alone the smell out of the room), and hanging up all of the Cupcake's clothes for her first 6 months (the rest are in drawers, since they won't fit in the closet). I started packing my hospital suitcase, and I also got up the courage to try my vinyl wall decal! Remember, I recently bought this on Etsy:

I was kind of terrified to start it, since I haven't ever done one before and I know I did NOT want to have to repaint if I really fudged up the walls, but I LOVED this image and decided to be brave. I cut around the design loosely and figured out where I wanted it before peeling the backing paper off and smoothing it on the wall:

Then I started the long process of rubbing the transfer, careful to really focus on all the edges and around the cutouts. At first I used a clothespin, because it was sitting there, but eventually moved to the side of the scissor handle for more ergonomic support. The only downside of this was that I somehow cut my nose by flipping the scissors around carelessly with the handle pointed at the wall...meaning the blades were pointed at my face. Whoops. Once I thought I had it all rubbed on enough to transfer, I started slooooooooooowly peeling off the clear transfer film:

Every few inches or so I'd find a scale or tendril of hair that hadn't transferred, so I eased the film back down and rubbed some more. A few places took 2-3 tries, but as long as you go really slow when peeling the film off, you can see it happening and avoid ripping the decal. I probably spent 30 mins on this part, I REALLY wanted it to work!

And it did! I absolutely LOVE how it turned out, the contrast with the bright blue walls is excellent, and though there are a few bumps and bubbles, you really can't tell unless you are looking for them. I decided not to add the water swirls or bubbles - I didn't want to ruin the clean look I had managed to capture :) While the directions had "strongly recommended using 2 sets of hands," I didn't find that necessary - and it came out looking GREAT. I was so inspired, that I decided to put the new pirate bedding on the twin bed next to the crib:

So cute! We picked this out before we knew if Cupcake would be a he or a she, and I love it. It seemed silly to spend a bunch of $$ on crib bedding, when you shouldn't use bumpers or blankets in the crib anyways, so this was where I chose to get cute bedding instead - where it would actually SHOW:

I have matching window valances which I hope to get up this week after I pick up some curtains, crib sheets, changing pad and all the other stuff on my "final necessities" list. That is going to be one fun Target trek :)

Tomorrow marks pregnancy week 35, just 5 weeks until my due date and the pages are absolutely tumbling off of the calendar now. Less than 3 weeks until Christmas?!?! I can hardly believe it. I'm frantically training my temporary replacement at work, and we're down to under 3 weeks before our holiday closure to get her all "learned up." I'm still suffering at the hands of late night heartburn & hip pain, and though my hands don't LOOK swollen to me, I think I may have to ditch the wedding ring for a while now. And I'm totally craving Peanut Butter Kisses:

I got a few at an event this past weekend, and by the time I had convinced myself I was okay shoving the rest of the plate into my purse, they were gone. But not forgotten. I may have to do some baking this week, despite my exhaustion and lack of will to clean up afterwards :) Better yet, can you just BUY these anywhere??? Since I'm down to eating about 3 things and drinking 3/4 of a gallon of milk a day, I've decided I'm fine putting away about a dozen of these a day :)

Happy Holidays!

34 1/2 weeks

2010-12-03T08:38:00.007-06:00

We're going to have a baby.

If the hourly acid reflux wake up calls, nickel sized bladder, and pronounced waddle in my gait weren't enough to give it away, I got the official news at my doctor appointment this week that "if your labor were to start now, we wouldn't do much to stop it."

Whoa.

Though I am feeling less and less EMOTIONALLY prepared for this every day (I'm having dreams about living in the dorms again, easy & carefree...or my childhood bedroom...think that's related?), at least we are reasonably close to being prepared in a physical sense. The kid has a wardrobe that dwarfs mine and her fathers (at least for the first 6 months). She has a bright cheerful room that is actually mostly clean. And she even has a place to sleep - did I show you this GIANT gift at the baby shower? :

It was sort of the "grand finale" of the gift opening...

What could it be?

It's a mattress! And a crib! Thank you Mom & Dad (soon to be first time Grandma & Grandpa :)

They even delivered it to our house and helped the hubby and I put it together last weekend:

Norm "helped" too:

And without too much trouble, we got it done:

Shortly after, we arranged all the furniture, cleared off the dresser/changing table, and hung all of the tiny little clothes on baby hangers. It actually looks pretty good - at least it's clean :) Next steps (hopefully this weekend) are to put up this mermaid decal on the wall (ordered from Etsy - not sure exactly why they staged the photo with a bride & groom kissing behind it?!?!):

Then I need to get moving on curtains (I had a dream about curtain rods last night too...guess I'm feeling anxious about getting this done!), replace a switch plate cover, and mount our mermaid alphabet cards & a few other prints I've picked up along the years, and possibly add a few little shelves/hooks over the changing table. Oh, and probably pack my hospital bag, since somehow 8 1/2 months have passed me by already...

Cheers to a safe and productive weekend, Cupcake staying in the oven until after the holidays, and planning an epic Target shopping trip to pick up the rest of our essentials. TGIF!

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Other NOLA Folk (Guest Costumes)

2010-12-02T07:05:00.001-06:00

I've mentioned before how awesome my guests are each year with their costume creativity, and this year was no exception. I especially love it when people coordinate their costumes to the party theme (suggested, but not required - as long as they have SOME sort of costume I'm happy) and each of these folks all found a great way to play on the Louisiana idea:

Ignatius J. Reilly:

As an English major I probably lose major points for this, but I'll admit I didn't get it at first. Luckily Grant is a good sport and gave us the background - he's a character from this book, set in 1960's NOLA:

Bekah & Ben as a voodoo priestess & voodoo doll (he looks just like the little ones I made for the invites!):

Brian & Leslie - she's also created a voodoo doll costume, but totally different! How creepy is her stitched mouth? And Brian is a character from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu story, also set in NOLA:

Brett Favre (AKA Rob) clearly has nothing to do with NOLA, but he showed up with one of Louisiana's most famous (infamous?) celebrities, Britney Spears:

I didn't see Brooke smoking, drinking, driving with her baby on her lap, or chomping gum during the party (she is a fellow mom-to-be like me though!), but she did get Britney's tank top & hair right on:

Amy was my sole True Blood character, can you believe it?!?! She made a spectacular Merlotte's waitress though :) And doesn't Sean just tear at your heart strings as a poor sea turtle caught up in the BP oil spill?

This handsome group blows me away every year as well, they totally rocked the theme. Molly & Travis are straight out of the swamp, she even had her own little (homemade!) voodoo doll in a basket, and Rachel & Pierre make gorgeous classic vampires:

Molly even upcycled their wigs into amazing dreads (but not as gross) - I kept wanting to touch them, it was like art!

And finally, we can't overlook SECOND TIME "Most Creative" costume winner Krista as "Simi Parthenopaeus", goth shopaholic demon (seriously - with wings & horns) daughter of Archeron in the trashy Dark Hunter paranormal romance series by Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Don't read the books? Totally missing out :) Besides, it's my party, so I'm the only one you have to impress to win costume prizes, and I was sure impressed with Krista's HANDMADE coffin backpack, and toddling around in those boots alone deserves a reward! She even drank out of a BBQ sauce container all night (The Simi likes to eat the bad guys...dipped in BBQ sauce).

Thanks again to all of my amazing guests, I LOVE seeing what you come up with each year!

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Mardi Gras Scene Setter

2010-12-01T07:06:00.000-06:00

I was REALLY pleased with my "Scene Setter" purchase, it worked perfectly for our space and completely brought it to life. It also made a GREAT background for photos. I started by taking down all our framed art (though I left the tiny nails & hangars - not worth messing with them) and moving the couch so I had a big blank canvas:

The scene setter comes in 2 main rolls, each 4' high. The top roll is here, the bottom roll is here. When I say "rolls", I'm being a little generous - it would be better if they were actually on rolls like the gossamer, but they're really sort of folded. This means they have some creases, which is annoying, but for the price, it's still a great deal.

For ease of keeping things straight, I decided to line the top up with the coved ridge of our wall/ceiling, so I knew I wouldn't use the full 8' height, but that was fine. I used blue painters' tape to form a line of tape curls all across the top of the room .

I tried to alternate directions with the tape, though I have no scientific reason for this, I just feel like it holds better.

Then I carefully hung the top section of the print across the whole length of the room, smoothing it along the tape curls so it didn't pucker or pull. It's helpful to have 2 people do do this, but I did it solo & 7 months pregnant, so it's not a huge deal since everything is light and I wasn't up that high.

Next it was time to add the 2nd roll. The bottom panel has the archways on it, so you don't want to let the top hang over too far and cover all that up or it will look awkward. To get the right vertical alignment, I temporarily folded the top panel upwards and secured it to itself with a little painters' tape so it didn't get in the way. I ran another row of tape curls in a straight line about 1-2" above where the top panel would end, and then hung the bottom panel, careful to line up the arches/posts horizontally as well.

I let down the top panel to hang over the bottom slightly, and used double-stick tape to secure the bottom edge of the top panel to the top of the bottom panel where they overlapped. I had a little excess length at the bottom of the lower panel that I just cut off, and ran more blue tape curls along the bottom edge of the wall to secure it fully. I cut around our vents and electrical outlets too.

I even turned a little bit of the corner with the scene setters, and then cut around the archway as needed.

Once the main pieces were up, it was time to embellish! I bought a the add on sets of revelers, lamp posts & decor, and parade floats. I didn't realize it when I ordered, but these are also on big sheets of vinyl:

So it does take a fair amount of time to cut them all out. You don't have to be exact, because the background is clear, but you want to remove most of the extra weight. I used clear double sided tape to adhere the embellishments to the backdrops:

They were SO CUTE! You really get a lot for $3.99, I had enough for every veranda on the long wall to have some revelers, and a few more over the fireplace. There were several designs that were alternated. I love these frat boys:

I repeated the same process with the lamp posts, Mardi Gras floats, and stilt walkers, being conscious of layering & perspective when necessary (i.e., should the floats be going in front of or behind the lamp posts?). The clear double sided tape was perfect because it didn't really show, and it held tight. I didn't use all the embellishments - other than the lampposts, I didn't use anything in that set, but it was still worth it for the lamps. I used some of the stilt walkers and clowns on the walls elsewhere in the house too. The final effect:

Voila! Let the wild rumpus begin!

It took me a LONG time to put this up, I pretty much spent 9 solid hours between this and all of the hanging decor in the living room, but it was totally worth it. Everything came down really easily too - the vinyl peeled right off of the painters' tape and I was able to roll everything up to use again if I want. I would definitely recommend these scene setters, and will probably keep using them in the future when they fit my themes. The total cost for decorating this whole wall + the additional patch over the fire place (and some more left over - each scene setter is 30' long):

Top roll: $10.99
Bottom roll: 10.99
3 embellishment packs @ $3.99 each (and I probably used about 60-75% of the embellishments only)

That's less than $26 + a couple rolls of tape! AWESOME value for such a big impact on a room.

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Mardi Gras Decor

2010-11-30T07:14:00.000-06:00

When you first enter our house you look into the living room and dining room, this is the biggest room of the house and usually the center of the party (possibly because that's where the food usually is too!) Here's the view moments before the party:

Mardi Gras! I thought the bright colors and hectic, festive atmosphere of Fat Tuesday would be perfect for this room, and though it was time intensive to put together (and take down!) I didn't have to do too many craft projects to bring it to life.

I hit up Party America and www.GiantPartyStore.com for some large packages of hanging foil Mardi Gras decorations and hung it all with my old standby, 3M hooks. They don't always work perfect, especially in my 1940's house I've had a few take off loose paint/plaster, but in general they're better than pins, nails, or other adhesives. To hang flat things, I use blue painter's tape, which also comes off pretty easily for things like these vinyl cut outs:

The interior wall is a long uninterrupted canvas once all of our everyday artwork was taken down and the couch moved out of the way, so it was the perfect place for a scene setter. Scene Setters are large backdrops printed on rolls of vinyl carried by many party stores, and I'll have a step by step tutorial about how I put it together tomorrow.

I continued the scene setter above the fireplace, and draped the mantle in TONS of Mardi Gras Beads. I also created a garland out of Mardi Gras feather boas wrapped around purple Xmas lights to frame the fireplace. We never actually burn fires in there, but I do like to have a brownie pan full of candles going during parties for a similar feel without the heat and smoke.

I used two green hurricane lamps I already had on the mantle, tucked a venetian mask into one, and also used it as a perch for the costume awards - more voo doo dolls! they were too cute not to display :)

These giant masks were less than $7 at Party City! That's a great deal for such a big focal point, I used 3 in my decorating. The smaller masks were also from the party store, I think around $7 for a dozen in Mardi Gras colors. Even the little lamp on the coffee table is draped in as many Mardi Gras beads as it would hold :)
The beads continued into the dining area, I wasn't sure what to do with my china hutch this year until I just started draping everything in beads - perfect!

I can't take credit for the fleur de lis pumpkins, I traded with an internet friend for those (and most of the beads, and a bunch of other things) with someone who was having a Wonderland party this year and did the NOLA theme last year. Green + Economical = WIN!

Did I mention I had a LOT of beads? They came in really handy :) Also in the Mardi Gras area was the food - my new dining table won't fit through the doors without disassembling it, so I used that for the dessert table:

Even after cutting down on sweets, I could BARELY fit everything on the table. Same with the "real" food, I had a big L-shaped table, and there was NO room to spare!

More about the food later as well - including a couple more recipes!

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Fangtasia Vampire Bar

2010-11-29T13:17:00.011-06:00

I'm still working on these, but I haven't forgotten! I wish I had gotten better photos of our basement on Halloween, but so it goes. We already had a built in wet bar with a goofy sort of gothic archway, so it seemed a perfect fit to create my version of "Fangtasia," the vampire bar from the True Blood series.

My main tool was a TON of red gossamer that I ordered from www.giantpartystore.com. I cut it into sheets the height of our walls, folded over the top 2-3" and stapled it to form a little channel. I strung each panel on red curling ribbon stretched across the walls between 3M hooks and bunched it together to achieve my desired fullness.

I pretty much covered all the walls and bookcases that I could with 50 yards of this stuff (that was all my budget allowed!).

I also changed all of the light bulbs out in favor of red party bulbs, and used a couple strings of red Xmas lights and red coil lights (the latter were on sale for $4.99 at Menards!) which helped to create a creepy red glow. Don't you love the random rock wall in our basement too? I blame the 60's.

For my "Fangtasia" signs I did an image search for the logo and blew it up on 11" x 17" paper for a pattern. I used an x-acto knife to trace around the letters on black tagboard, and mounted it over red foil tissue paper to give the effect of glowing like neon. I glued the whole thing to some re-purposed foam core, and used some red mardi gras beads as additional trim. I cut cleanly enough that I was able to use the black "Fangtasia" letters that I had cut out as a second sign, which I mounted over the "entrance" to the bar area.

I also did a google image search for hi-resolution pics of the main characters who work in the bar, and printed them on 11" x 17" paper to make posters for the proprietor:

*swoon!*

Also the Manager on Duty and Employee of the Month:

As part of their marketing campaign, HBO had created a bunch of faux advertisements for the TruBlood drink that the show gets its name from - I figured those would be right at home in a vampire bar, so I printed a bunch in color and scooped up frames at the Dollar Tree to post them in:

I scattered them around on the bar (we just had all the booze and mixers set out, no bartender).

Of course you can buy a TruBlood officially licensed drink from HBO, but $4 each + shipping is a bit out of my price range, so I made my own "v-shots" from tiny glass vials:

In the show, vampire blood (v-juice) is a potent drug, and seems to be trafficked in tiny vials - I got mine from AxMan surplus store and ran them through the dishwasher a few times. They were filled with a mix of sparkling pomegranate juice and strawberry or raspberry pucker. I didn't get to try any, but they were all gone before the night finished, so I'm guessing they were okay.

Of course there were a million other little details I had hoped to add, but regardless I think I got the point across, and fans of the show at least appreciated it :) The clean up was also pretty easy as I just untied the ribbons holding up the gossamer and switched the lightbulbs back.

Sugar & Spice and EVERYTHING Nice!

2010-11-24T07:54:00.002-06:00

I don't have to think that hard to find things I'm thankful for this year - especially after the mega outpouring of love that was my baby shower last weekend! What a WONDERFUL day, I couldn't have felt more special. My BFF Alison outdid herself (as she often does). You already saw the impossibly cute invitations she made here, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. There were SO MANY adorable little details, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking:

I entered to bunches of brightly colored balloons floating all about the house:

Looped over the end of the banister are little die-cut cupcakes on ribbon necklaces for the icebreaker game - guess the famous mother! You asked yes or no questions, and when you got someone's "identity" right, you captured their cupcake :) So cute!

More die cut cupcakes made a huge swag banner, and the "guest book" was a gorgeous collection of fairy tales that I can't WAIT to read to our little one! Everyone signed dear messages on the cover page, it is definitely a keepsake.

The mantle was trimmed with custom made cupcake onesies Al ordered from Etsy! Did you know our little Cupcake would be decked out in such couture finery? :) My favorite is the one with the face :)

Pink favor boxes tied with ribbon waited on the table - filled with jellybeans that matched the balloons, and foil wrapped Hershey Kisses.

And then there was the food! I started drooling as soon as I walked in, and I HAD to claim one of these strawberry shortcakes...they were AMAZING! (Also, I loved my dress...that was the one I ordered to wear for Halloween but then changed my mind about my costume, but I'm so glad I got the dress :) It's about the only non-jeans maternity wear I've purchased!)

Mmmm, are you drooling yet? Tiny morsels of deliciousness...

My lil' sis flew in from Utah for the occasion, and even made these pretty cupcakes - YUM!

There were two full tables of desserts, including this "Milk & Cookies Bar" that is too cute for words.

Onesie cookies!

Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla milk - is this not the best menu ever for a pregnant woman?!?!? With my heartburn, dessert is pretty much the only pleasant food group these days, and I'm drinking 1/2 gallon of milk a DAY. Not to mention it looks so very Martha all displayed in the carafes :)

Cake Balls! My cousin Holly has been making Bakerella-style cake pops and cake balls, I can't wait for her to teach me!

And of COURSE, you need some classic cookies - my soon to be sister-in-law (AKA, the OTHER HEATHER) made these little chocolate chip and chocolate mint goodies, perfect for dipping in milk.

I am not a glamorous gift opener, so I'll spare you the whole litany of my strange facial expressions, this is one of the most "normal" looking snapshots :) In the future, I'll have to be a little more conscious and try for much more photogenic posing. But I definitely appreciated EVERYTHING, and it was so fun to see what everyone picked out! We got a few of the essentials, and a LOT of little girl outfigs - the Cupcake definitely has a full and fancy wardrobe now, including this hand-crocheted frock from her Great Grandma (above).

We played a second little game during the gift opening as well - after each gift, Alison asked me a question about my childhood or my husband's, and if my answer matched the information that my mom or his mom had given about our early years, then the gift GIVER won a prize! I'm sorry to say I was oddly TERRIBLE at this game, at least when it came to my own childhood :) But I got some of hubby's questions right, and it was pretty cute to hear the stories!

The "big finish" was pretty literal - this huge present was Cupcake's crib & mattress, from her Grandparents (my mom & dad)! Can't wait to get it assembled in her room, I think it will really make it feel like a nursery.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Alison & everyone who came to share in this "sweet" occasion :)

You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round...

2010-11-23T09:09:00.005-06:00

I seem to be spinning in a few circles right now with all the different directions I'm trying to go, and I can't be sure I'm actually moving anywhere...but regardless, time keeps marching on! Today marks just SEVEN WEEKS till the Cupcake's due date!?!?! I can't quite believe it.

So here's what's going on:

- still planning on finishing up the Halloween party recaps & tutorials, it hasn't quite been a month since the party so I don't feel too bad...yet :)

- had an EPIC and AMAZING baby shower this past weekend, thrown by my dear sweet BFF Alison, and I can't wait to share all of her adorable little touches, as well as show off Cupcake's giant new wardrobe.

- now I probably should get a move on with all the "other stuff" we need to start buying up, mainly the super glamorous stuff like "rectal thermometers" and "diaper bags", and lots of sheets and mattress pads.

- finally took down all of the voodoo decorations from the nursery, so I can get back to the mermaids & pirates theme we had intended :) I have a few ideas in mind, and a lot of Etsy listings bookmarked, so hopefully this weekend will bring a lot of progress.

- decided that I had to put up at least a few holiday decorations this year, and started to assemble the medium sized Christmas tree. Remember when I bought all of these "sweets" ornaments last year? I'm dying to break them out...but I can't seem to FIND them! I spent a few hours going through the Xmas boxes last week, but I did such a "tetris"-like job fitting everything in, I was scared to take it all apart and really look for what I needed. Maybe I'll have some time this weekend to track them down.

- I have yet to address the blue screen of death on my laptop. Probably should get on that. I really miss it already :( I think I'm in the avoidance stage of grieving...

- and according to "the books," I'm supposed to have my hospital bag packed and my birth plan printed out by this time...so...uh...yeah, maybe I'll start thinking about that sometime...STAY, Cupcake, STAY PUT! At least until I can catch up at little! Though I can understand if you are in a hurry to see all your cute things, such as this little romper which might be my favorite:

Happy Thanksgiving, happy long holiday weekend, and happy short work week to you all!

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Talbot Topping

2010-11-17T07:26:00.000-06:00

True Blood was one of my main reasons for choosing the Louisiana theme, though in the end I didn't end up doing a ton of TB specific projects. I did transform the basement into Eric's vampire bar, Fangtasia, but that's still to come. Today I just wanted to post a quick little True Blood touch from my dessert table - here's Talbot:

Look familiar? How about if I show you this:

For those of you who do not follow the show, the glass jar above contains the remains of a staked vampire. The vampire's name was Talbot, and he was the lover of the very evil little vampire dude holding the jar, Russell. Russell couldn't bear that Talbot was gone, so he hauled that glass urn all over creation with him, talking to it and being generally creepy, till Sookie Stackhouse dumped it down the garbage disposal laughing maniacally. I really wanted to do that after the party, but I don't have a garbage disposal. And I wanted to save the rest of the strawberry compote anyways :)

The glass apothecary jar was from Homegoods - my only caution is to get one wide enough to allow a ladle down in, mine was just barely big enough for a small scoop, and they're not very long generally. It's filled with strawberry compote - just the frozen "sliced strawberries in sugar" you get in the grocery store, and we served it with mini cheesecakes, pound cake, and vanilla ice cream. I had 3 servings of Talbot that night :)

The nametag was a very quick project - I found the "Hello, My Name Is" tag in a google image search (this might not be the exact one, but you get the idea), slapped it into Powerpoint, and used the "Chiller" font to put in the name. I printed it on tagboard and cut it out, attached it to the lid with a small curl of tape and it was done.

This was easy and really fun - I'd definitely recommend it for True Blood parties. You could also use chunky red salsa and eat "Talbot" with chips!

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Recipes!

2010-11-16T11:25:00.007-06:00

I'm falling behind. I just finally sucked up all the feathers and pulled the last of the 3M strips off the living room ceiling yesterday. But I promised recipes and rundowns of all the Halloween 2010 highlights, and I intend to deliver, so today here are the recipes I tried out for NOLA themed food. Keep in mind, I'm the pickiest eater on the face of the planet, and add pregnancy on top of that. I don't eat anything spicy, seafood, white sauces, vegetables, sour cream, or a million other things that most people do. So...I didn't actually try most of these. Yeah, that's right. I have no idea how they taste other than the reviews my guests gave and how much was left over at the end. But I can comment on the process of making them, from the eyes of someone with zero experience.

First Up, Confetti Rice:

I knew I needed some vegetarian dishes to balance out the meaty main courses I was bringing in, and I wanted something that still had relevance to the theme. I started googling "Cajun recipes" and wandered onto Zatarain's site, where I found "confetti rice." I decided to try it because it fit the theme & was vegetarian friendly, and also since it was served cold I could make it ahead and didn't have to find another chafing dish or crock pot to keep it hot.

Confession: I have never cooked rice. Seriously. I'm scared of it. I assumed it was hard. On Hell's Kitchen, people always get yelled at for bad rice. But guess what? I followed the directions on the box, and it worked just fine. I couldn't find Zatarain's Long Grain & Wild Rice in the 3-4 stores I looked in, so I ended up grabbing another brand (Rice a Roni maybe? It was right next to the Zatarains stuff). The boxes were remarkably similar, so I convinced myself it would be fine. I quibble a little with the "preparation time" being listed as 5 minutes...maybe if you are used to chopping onions and peppers, but I surely am not. I'm also terrible at estimating how many peppers and onions I needed to get a cup or half cup (this was a recurring theme in everything I cooked). I made a double batch of this recipe, and I used less than one onion, and less than two really small peppers (I got a 4-pack of small but pretty colored sweet peppers. I figured something called "confetti" needed a few more pops of color). It did look pretty, and at least one person told me they liked it, so I consider it a success. There was a lot left over, but in general I make too much food, so it's hard to say if that meant anything.

Next Up - something I did actually try, and it was WAY BETTER than I had thought! SWAMP JUICE punch:

We asked guests to bring a bottle for the bar (for the first time ever, usually we've provided everything) but with myself + a bunch of other pregnant ladies in attendance, I knew I wanted a few NA beverage options too. In addition to all the mixers, a punch seemed like a good idea. I went with this "Green Punch Recipe" from allrecipes.com. I think I may have added too much ginger ale, and my husband added way too much ice...but I'm glad he did. I had planned to float chunks of rainbow sherbet on top, but I didn't...which was also good. This is actually a REALLY sweet punch, and cutting it just a bit with more ice and not adding more sweet sherbet wasn't a bad decision. You might even consider leaving out some of the sugar or adding more water to taste. The color is a very vivid green (perfect for the name "SWAMP JUICE"), and the taste was more citrus than limey, which I prefer. It was quick - I dissolved the jello early in the day, let it cool, and then mixed in everything else except the ginger ale and refrigerated it till party time. I'd definitely make this again, would be perfect for St. Patty's day.

Another themed attempt - also from the Zatarains site, I made "Creole Mustard Dip" for veggies. Since I don't eat either veggies or dip, I have no idea how this tasted. I do know I made WAY too much (a double batch), even the "normal" batch seems big for veggie dip.

This was really easy to make as well, my only difficulties were finding the creole mustard (finally tracked it down at Byerly's) and again, estimating how much of an ingredient I really needed. I failed on the latter situation at EVERY possible turn -I bought 3 of the tiny jars of mustard, and used 1. And again, that was for a double batch. I bought at least double the sour cream I used. Oops. I clearly need to learn my conversions before shopping for ingredients :) I also saved time by pairing this with a store-bought veggie tray from Target - I'm not fast at washing & chopping fruits & veggies, and it's not stuff that can be done very far in advance, so it was worth it to me to pay a little more and save the time for more pressing needs.

A final recipe I used, that I don't have a photo to share of, was a Bananas Foster recipe cooked in a crock pot. This got rave reviews! I used AllRecipes.com again, and on their site you can scale recipes to the number of servings you want - I used 10. I wouldn't go much more than this in a standard size crock pot, but 10 servings fit okay. I also used a crock pot liner, since I knew I was going to end up with sticky caramelized sugar and I did NOT want to scrape that all off! For rum I used Malibu, because we had it on hand, and because there was coconut being added anyways I figured the flavors would mesh just fine. We offered pound cake and vanilla ice cream to serve it over, and it was nearly gone by the end of the night. I meant to try this, and somehow was too busy till it was about wiped out. Heard great things though, and I'll probably try it again on a smaller scale.

None of these were showstoppers on the scale of last year's "Peppered Pigs in a Blanket," but they were all easy enough to make and fit the theme, so I'd recommend them for a Mardi Gras/New Orleans themed event.

This is the sound of my will being broken...

2010-11-12T09:22:00.004-06:00

The computers have us in their evil grasps now, and just when we've become utterly complicit, they are clearly going to rise up and put a massive dent in our easy way of life.

I'm having somewhat of a bad tech time lately.

In addition to my laptop laying down and dying, yesterday my work was without Internet from 1pm on...WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITHOUT INTERNET??? I'm not just talking about all the blog updating/random site reading/emails I had planned to send personally, but even were I to want to throw in some work, I couldn't access our department files, my networked printer, our financial system, or anything else necessary to get something accomplished. I couldn't even make phone calls because my directory of numbers is solely online. And yet, I stuck it out for a very long 4 hours...

Today things are looking a LITTLE better, though my work computer still will not print. It's been sort of an ongoing problem for the past couple weeks, something got scrambled (just on my computer, the rest of the office is fine) and we have no computer support to fix it. This means I'm emailing everything I need to print from one computer to another (one which still DOES print) and let's just say it's not super convenient or productive. And I'm ornery from lack of sleep and general "doneness" with this week.

(Deep breath. Acknowledge it is Friday.)

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Mardi Gras Costumes

2010-11-10T08:31:00.011-06:00

My Halloween entourage is pretty great. They generally RSVP. They show up on time, so I don't have that angsty "what if nobody comes?" moment of terror. Other than a drink ring on the mantle (boo!) nobody wrecked my house this year. And above all else, they always acquiesce to my costume mandate, and generally impress the heck out of me. This year was no exception. Not only were the costumes fun and creative, but nearly all of them even played into the theme! That's some serious party dedication.

Let's start with my favorite photo of the whole evening - this is lil' brother and his girlfriend, also known as "The Other Heather" (I'm surrounded!).

They did a great twist on vampire and victim, starting with formal Mardi Gras reveler outfits, paired with some fangs and a bloody "bite" mark. It's creepy but also kind of pretty!

For their efforts, they took home the "Best Couple or Group" Costume award this year. They celebrated with a bite:

(do you just love the vein popping out in his temple? so authentic!)

Another set of Mardi Gras Celebrants - my cousin Holly & her husband in some excellent masks. Holly made hers almost from scratch! She's so crafty.

I love Kelly's Venetian-style "beak" mask, it was pretty cool - it broke into 2 pieces so he could keep the top half on and still eat and drink by taking the bottom part off. Smart & stylish!

Beth and Dan had actual gator heads around their necks, along with the Mardi Gras beads:

And speaking of gators...

Attack! Dan sorta looks like he fell in our bathtub, eh? :)

I'm going to throw Jen's costume into the category of Mardi Gras revelers as well, because there's something Venetian about her bird costume that just screams Mardi Gras to me. It was dark and a little spooky, but also really elegant and pretty:

She made the skirt herself out of feather boas (sort of like Bjork!)and her beak is paper! I love simple solutions that look so chic :)Her long talons didn't last the evening, but they were on long enough to attack an errant lumberjack.

Ahh, newlyweds :)

Many more costumes, decor vignettes, and recipes to come, despite my dead laptop I am THANKING MY LUCKY STARS that lil' sis got me a passport backup drive a few years ago, and all my important files (aka, photos!) are safe and sound. Whew!

Cupcakes with "The Cupcake"

2010-11-09T15:13:00.005-06:00

Today marks 31 weeks in the oven for my little Cupcake! Whoa, where has time gone? I'm a little scared to acknowledge that I'm feeling pretty good (knock on wood), and definitely still better than during my elongated 1st trimester. I'm only up about 10 lbs over my "normal" weight, which is baffling, since my belly is all I see when I look in the mirror. I've acquired a new unpleasant symptom - morning leg cramps - which actually drove me to the doctor today for a quick unplanned check up (not a blood clot, it was just such a bad cramp that I'm still limping 4 days later). The heartburn is taking a toll, I don't have much energy... but guess what is right around the corner? My BFF is throwing us a shower!

(edited for privacy - sorry, stalkers)

She made each invitation a little different, and in a rainbow of colors, this is mine. She even mailed it to me like a "real" guest. I love getting mail. And aren't they ADORABLE?!?!? Martha would totally approve. Onesies and baby t-shirts + cupcakes = complete cute overload. The shower will be a dessert buffet (hooray! and yay again for passing the glucose test!)...and that's all I know! She's keeping me totally in the dark. Last time I asked her a question about it, she said I was officially cut off, and had to show up and be surprised :)

I am so excited to be a guest at a party! I even have a cute dress to wear, and lil' sis is coming into town, so it should be an exciting weekend. I'm definitely looking forward to it. Al, you are the greatest.

Might as well steal my soul...

2010-11-05T07:44:00.000-05:00

My laptop may be toasted. It has the "blue screen of death." Not a good sign.

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Invitations

2010-11-04T07:23:00.000-05:00

It may be costly, and it may not be "green," but I still cling to invitations as an integral part of most parties. The invite is the first hint of the masterpiece to come, sets the tone for your event, and plants an image in your guests' minds that may convince them whether or not to make room on their busy social agendas for your party. With all of the other "competing" Halloween events out there, I want to capture my guests' imaginations early, inspiring them to create elaborate costumes and exciting them about the event.

But I also have to live within the confines of my budget & schedule...

So with those goals in mind, here are the invitations I created for our 2010 "Romp in the Swamp" Louisiana-themed Halloween Extravaganza:

For the party details, I used credits I already had to create a deck of cards through Heritage Makers (normally around $19.99, cheaper if you catch them on sale or host a workshop.) Just because they're called playing cards does NOT mean you have to put hearts and spades on them, like all of Heritage Makers' products they are fully customizable. I plucked an image of a spooky swamp off of Google images (I believe it's from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?), centered it in an antiqued looking frame because it wasn't quite hi-resolution enough to resize it over the whole card, and added the party title as a caption. This image was the "back" of the playing card, so it was printed on the entire deck.

For the other side, which would normally have each separate number & suit (2 of hearts, 3 of clubs) I typed out the important factors my guests needed to know - theme, date, costumes REQUIRED, RSVP email, BYOB request, and NO KIDS decree (unless you could keep them in your womb all night). I worded everything slightly more creatively (in my humble opinion), but you get the idea. I split the deck into 2 halves, and spread the info over 2 "pages" to be readable.

When the cards arrived, I used clear tape to seal each of the pages together like a little book - the swamp scene on the outside, party details inside. Because I already had the credits to make the cards & the tape, this part cost me: $0.

And for the "big wow" factor I knew I wanted to play up on the voodoo aspect with some mini voodoo dolls. I looked around briefly at purchasing (too expensive), and though I found some tutorials for string or stick versions, in my head a voodoo doll was plushier, so you could stick pins in strategic places. So I set about creating them myself.

I used a gingerbread cookie cutter as my pattern (Wilton, I believe, from my stash of them) and cut them from 2 layers of black felt ($2 after my 40% off coupon at Michael's, it was enough to cut at least 35 sets).

For the hair and hearts I got some smaller sheets of colored felt ($0.29 each - I used most of one white sheet, and barely made a dent in the red, blue, green, purple, and pink ones - less than $2 for all). The "faces" were made by tracing around a shot glass, the eyes are tiny buttons from the quilting section of Michael's (about $4 for 2 packages). I secured all of the embellishments with fabric glue to save time - it was way easier to use, but made it almost impossible to sew through, so keep that in mind when you are applying and keep it away from the seams. The fabric glue was about $7 with a 40% off coupon at Joanns, and I still have most of it left.

I had a bunch of tiny spools of colored thread from an old sewing kit (no idea where that came from) so I used that to messily whip stitch around the edges of each doll, and stuffed them with fiberfill from an old pillow that had torn, but I kept around for just such an occasion.

To underscore that these were VOODOO dolls (in case people just thought they were strange gingerbread men or something) I knew I wanted to include some pins. I printed off lists of words one might cast spells around - wealth, love, passion, luck, pain, health, hatred - each in a different font, and in a different color. I cut them into strips so that the word was on each side of a tiny flag, and secured them to pins with double stick tape.

I had already printed the words when I went looking for the pins, but I found these awesome "wheels" of colorful bead-topped pins that matched PERFECTLY! I bought them during "coupon commotion" week, so I was able to use 40% off coupons on all 3 wheels, for a total of just $14 for all of the pins.

I punched the cards with a tiny hole punch, strung through some gold ribbon I had lying around, and looped it around each doll. Then I stabbed 3 pins in each, positioning them carefully as not to let them come through the envelope and stab anyone, wrapped them in 1/4 sheet strip of tissue paper, and stuffed them in envelopes.

I had a box of 1/2 sheet envelopes lying around from a previous project, so again, that didn't cost me anything, and I used printable labels for addressing. I downloaded a creepy typewriter font from 1001 free fonts (google it - excellent, free, and fun, except there is no "1" character, so you have to use a lower case "l" and really watch what you are doing, or you'll have "0" where you typed a "1"). I paired it with a clip art voodoo doll from google images, and voila!

To save money, I did hand deliver about half of the invitations to people I was seeing for various things the week I sent them out, and the rest got mailed at a cost of $1.22 each.

Total cost for invites was about $55 for 30 invites.

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Gator Farm

2010-11-03T07:31:00.001-05:00

This was the last room I decorated, and possibly the most frustrating due to a few mishaps, but in the end I think it came out really cute! It took me a while to come up with the idea, but once I did it all came together pretty quickly. I present the main bathroom: Georgie's Gator Shack!

I replaced the vanity lights with green halogen party bulbs, and wrapped a string of green rope lights around the medicine chest. It was fun to leave the door open and see green light pouring out.

I picked up the burlap at Menards in the garden department - a role was $10 and I used it all, just cut big chunks and draped the walls with it. I primarily used 3M hooks to hold it up, but when the temperature took a nosedive they stopped holding. It was mad frustrating, and I ended up just using green thumb tacks - which worked just fine and only left a few tiny holes.

The vines are from a dollar store, I just poked them through the burlap, and the inflatable gators were tied on with fishing line. The signs were just slapped together in power point - I downloaded a scribbled font from 1001 Free Fonts, and printed them on 11" x 17" paper - had to add a little humor :)

Baby Gators grew in the tub - literally :) These were those tiny animals that grow in water, I found them at Michael's for $1 each. I learned a lesson from my snakes last year and started these guys in a bucket of water a few days before, so they had time to grow much bigger by party day.

Our shower curtain already had green bamboo designs on it, sort of a swampy/bayou effect, especially with the green lights. I've had the gator heads for a few years - they're masks, or really hats, that I found at the Dollar Tree a while back and knew I'd use someday. I had one more sign I forgot to snap a photo of - it said "They think you taste like chicken too." :)

Other than wasting about $40 in 3M strips that didn't hold, the green halogen bulb I broke (immediately after hubby finished cleaning the bathroom top to bottom), and the fact that I'm hormonal and emotional so these two frustrations resulted in tears and moping, this was a pretty simple and effective room!

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Our Costumes

2010-11-02T09:03:00.011-05:00

Subtitle: The FOURTH time's the charm :)

Costumes were a bit of a struggle for me this year. Way back when I picked this theme, I had intended to be a vampire hunter (or a Dark Hunter, for those who share my secret shame - Sherrilyn Kenyon novels). It was part of how I justified my leather corset for Krista's Goth Housewarming party:

I had ordered black leather pants from Ebay to wear with it, which I was just starting to fit into (thanks to my new rigorous rollerskating routine) when the cupcake came into our lives. Forget leather pants and corsets, that clearly wasn't going to happen anymore :) Plus it's hard to look badass and threatening in between the nausea and heartburn.

Idea #2 - when I was in NYC for the mermaid parade, Ryan and I spent some time exploring the Halloween store in Union Square and came up with the idea of being a bowl of Crawfish Gumbo. I got a crawfish hat like this one:

I thought I'd make a bowl to wear that said "gumbo" and make some sausage and rice and veggies poking out the top. That was a great idea, until the party kept getting closer and closer....eventually I knew I didn't have time to bust out my sewing machine or do a lot of crafting, so that idea fell by the wayside.

Idea #3: Crab - at the same time I got the crawfish hat, I also got a crab hat like this one:

and a set of matching "claws," just because they were so cute. I had ordered a red maternity dress on Ebay, which I loved...but it didn't really match the same red as the crab pieces. And I felt frumpy. I needed more sparkle. Plus the same day I tried this on, I had hubby try on his costume:

...it was adorable...but it didn't fit. The hubs is average height, but this "one size fits all" was extremely misleading. It was way too short for him, and I didn't have the time/energy to look into cutting it apart and adding any length. So the gator is hanging in the closet, and I ran off to the Goodwill in a panic the week before the party...

...And I struck GOLD! I immediately seized a purple bridesmaid gown with a velvet top and satin skirt, found that I could tuck it up under the belt (with no actual sewing) to become an empire waist gown that then fit over my bump perfectly! It was clearly meant to be. Since purple, gold, & green are the official Mardi Gras colors, I decided to make a traditional Mardi Gras Ball costume - that would give me the bling I had been craving, and required almost NO more crafting time. I hit Party City for a feather & sequin mask and a long purple wig, and I used my 40% off weekly coupon at Joanns for a silver foil iron on of a fleur de lis.

I was a little worried about the iron on, having had some trouble with them in the pat and never having used a foil one, but it went on perfect, and added just the perfect little "moment" of shine where I needed it :) For the headpiece I took an existing crown and some glittery picks from Michael's holiday floral section, wired them together, and poof - huge dramatic sparkly feather headpiece. All systems were go!

Hubby defaulted hillbilly, though it was actually kinda hard to find some overalls. After 3 Goodwills, Target, and a suburban WalMart, I finally found them in the urban Walmart (Midway - it was exciting, as usual!), paired it with a cheesy wolf t-shirt (also Walmart) and a mullet wig.

Though there was a little scrambling, I'm happy with what we ended up wearing - most of all, it was all COMFORTABLE. I actually wore the mask all night, since taking if off over the headpiece was too difficult, but it didn't bother me one bit. I could see just fine, eat, etc. Having a mask & wig meant I didn't have to worry about doing my hair or makeup, which was VERY important as I was running around like a madwoman preparing for the party.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

What come after Fat Tuesday? Sleepy Wednesday? Catatonic Thursday?

2010-11-01T11:40:00.006-05:00

Where to even start?!?!? It was a crazy weekend. From the moment I left work on Thursday till five minutes before guests walked in Saturday night I was running around like an angry chicken trying to get things ready. And mostly, they worked out just fine. Other than a cheesy-biscuit burn on my knuckle and a split fingernail from turning off 200 battery powered candles, I am still alive, whole, and remarkably relaxed now :)

"Romp in the Swamp 2010: A Louisiana-Style Halloween Party" is ready for the scrapbook, and I'll be doing a series of posts on all the little details in the upcoming weeks, but today my mind is pretty mushy, so I'll just leave you with one pic - my friend "Rude Barb" of the North Star Roller Girls (Banger Sister # 3.14) had her first bout on the same night as the party, but somehow after all the brawling and burning rubber she still managed to stop by! It was late and people were drifting off, so her costume didn't get nearly the attention it deserved by that point. In case you missed it, here's her being eaten by a "sharktopus" (that's a shark with 8 tentacles. Duh).

My guests are the best :) Thanks to all of you who made the evening so much fun, there will be much more to come in recaps!

The Final Countdown...

2010-10-28T08:29:00.005-05:00

Today I'm wearing my Halloween socks, a Halloween T-shirt:

(it does cover my bump better than that, I didn't realize it was on wonky until AFTER the photo...remember I can't see what's on the underside of it! Including my shoes!)

and a big ol' jack-o-lantern smile, because it's "my Friday!" Tomorrow I'm taking off work to go wild on party preparations (I have a very detailed 4-page "to do" list), and I'm actually in pretty good shape.

Last night I finished everything that was on my list for Monday - Wednesday, so I'm right on track (taking into consideration the things I had to cut for time/budget/weather reasons - such as if had I put outside decorations up, they'd have been blown into Kansas this week, so that all got scrapped). I'm feeling pretty okay as of today, despite spending the night listening to things fall off the wall in the bathroom (Gator Shack needs some repair).

On the list tonight is the final shopping trip for the perishables - bananas and the like - and then I hope to get a start on stashing all the unused props & decorations back up in the witches' tower (BTW - having an attic craft room is awesome when you are sitting up there working...not quite as awesome when you are hauling stuff up and down a full steep set of stairs 300 times. But I still love it).

Tomorrow will be a full day of cleaning & baking, and Saturday will be a blur of boarding the dog, picking up the prepared food, plugging in lights, a few (hopefully easy) cooking projects, and turning on about 2000 battery operated candles. Wish me luck!

I plan to post a lot of photos and tutorials after the event, so check back if you are interested. So far I've had a lot of fun with the N'awlins theme, and I am DYING to see what my creative guests put together for costumes this time around. I'm even pretty happy with mine, despite its last-minute creation. I'm excited to try some new foods (beignets, pralines, bananas foster - not sure if I'll be daring enough to try the gumbo or jambalaya), and just enjoy the evening with friends. We have far too few parties these days.

Hope your Halloween is a howling success...

H.

Sugar & Spice...DESSERT Preview

2010-10-27T07:08:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned before, I've cut down somewhat on my offering of high-sugar snacks in favor of a little more "real food" at the Halloween shindig this year - each previous year I've noticed that the savory dishes go fastest. But I can't cut the sweets down too far :) I'm really focused on theme, and tried to pick a mix of classic favorites and some special N'awlins desserts this year. As always, this sneak peek is subject to any and all whims that strike me in the next few days, but as of now here is what I'm planning on serving on the "sweet side" of the buffet table:

Bananas Foster - served over pound cake and/or vanilla ice cream

Mini cheesecakes with strawberry compote

Cupcakes (of course)

Pralines

Beignets

Sweet Potato Pie (Thanks to the Lovely Pie Afficinado, Alison)

Fruit Platter

Are you ready?!?!?