Friday, October 28, 2011

Spooktacular Wildtree Tasting Party

Food and nutrition is very important to me.  I tried to be very conscious with Emily of what I was eating when I was pregnant and that it had as little preservatives and additives as possible (I was more lax with Lindsay and maybe that's why I gained 40 pounds!).  Since I work in the chiropractic field, I see the importance and hear lectures on nutrition all the time.  When my neighbor became a rep for Wildtree Herbs, I knew I would be hosting a party!  Usually I avoid parties like the plague.  I always feel obligated to buy something and then feel obligated to go to other peoples parties when they come to mine and its just a vicious cycle.  Wildtree is different though.  I felt good to make them obligated to buy as I hope that maybe instead of stopping in the McDonald's drive-thru, they will head back home and make a Wildtree product.  All items are natural and additives and preservative free.  Since Halloween is right around the corner, I decided to do a Spooktacular Tasting Party! 



Below is one of those party ideas that I had seen on Pinterest and was dying to try.  Gummy worms frozen into ice cubes.  I added these to a picture of water for a little Halloween "flair".  I think these would be a great addition to Koolaid or individual water glasses but the ice cubes melted way too quickly in the pitcher and then we were left with a gummy worms sticking to the bottom and giving the water a weird taste. 

Super easy Halloween wine glasses made with Duck tape. 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Drive-In Movie Night

I have to go away this weekend for a work conference.  I don't really mind the work even though I am exhausted come Monday, but I hate being away from my family.  Don't get me wrong, since Emily has been waking up about three times a night (Why?!?!), I am looking forward to an uninterrupted night's sleep!  I try to do something special whenever I leave so tonight was movie night.  To spice things up I decided to tell Emily about drive-in movies.  Even though she had no clue what I was talking about, she did love the idea of watching a new movie in her "car".  We even had popcorn.  How cute are my babies?!


Saturday, October 15, 2011

Think Pink & Save the Ta-Tas

Fall is my favorite time of year.  I love the cooler weather.  I love the colors.  I love the start of holiday season (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas).  I also love my ta-tas and October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Retail chains of restaurants and department stores always have cute pink items where a portion of the sales goes to a breast cancer organization like Susan G. Komen.  I absolutely LOVE Panera Bread's Pink Ribbon Bagel.


Like so many others, breast cancer has touched my life.  My paternal grandmother had breast cancer in the late stages of her life.  My neighbor tested positive for the breast cancer gene and had a double mastectomy.  My mother-in-law is currently battling a very aggressive form of breast cancer.  She was diagnosed in the spring of this year, had the lump removed and has now undergone chemotherapy and radiation.  I am happy to say though she is WINNING the battle!!  In honor of her and so many other women across the country, I wanted to do something for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I'm not real thrilled with the way the wreath turned out but it gets the point (and color) across.  Cake pops were a big hit!    


Monday, October 10, 2011

No Kids Surprise!

My husband, Matt, turned 30 at the end of last month.  I had always planned to do some big party for him when he turned 30.  We were dating when he turned 21 and I can't remember everything but I vaguely recall getting mad at him for some stupid college nonsense and ruining his birthday.  Therefore I definitely wanted his next big birthday to be special.  Well of course with my luck, his birthday would fall on a Monday and I had a work thing in Canada the weekend before AND we are broke!

It's amazing how my priorities have changed since our college days.  Back then, all you needed for a great birthday was a keg, maybe a band or at least a drunk guy with a guitar and a bunch of people.  Since Matt had the girls all weekend the weekend before, I figured a perfect party for him would be NO kids.  Kids are a package deal with some moms so I decided to just do a guy's night.  I decided to keep it a surprise and conspired with his friend to ask a bunch of his guys friends over for a night of football (ECU vs. UNC), bourbon, beer, and bar food.  Since I was trying to keep everything under wraps I wasn't able to make as much of the cool decorations that I normally do.  Also, we are talking about guys here and I figured if I went too overboard on the cute napkins or straws, they may think I was a little crazy, or worse, not NOTICE!  So I focused my little time on sweets and his beloved UNC.





Everything went off without a hitch and Matt was very surprised.  He had a great night and I am so thankful for those who came out and left their families at home to show him some 30 love.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Booze It Up & Then Make a Stamp

Okay, I don't drink that much wine.  Don't get me wrong, I love a great big glass of light chardonnay after a hard day and red wine and sushi were the two things I craved the most while pregnant.  (No hate mail please as I didn't eat any sushi while pregnant and just a little bit of red wine!)  I do have to say I was very tempted to try the sushi though.  I mean, pregnant ladies in Japan eat it all the time and their babies are just fine!

I digress.  I worked at Zest Cafe and Home Art part-time for years.  This is a cute-as-can-be little restaurant with a gift shop filled with unique items that you can't find elsewhere.  I spent way more at the store than I earned in salary.  I started collecting the wine corks after the night shift as I figured there should be tons of things I could do with them.  Ideas of cork boards, trivets, and foot mats filled my head.  Thank goodness this was before Pinterest or my entire house would be cork!  Anyways, most of them just accumulated in a bag.

Three years and two kids later I finally figured out something else to do with those corks - stamps!  Champagne corks are the perfect shape for little hands as they have the easy to hold knob on top.  I then used a utility knife to carefully cut out a shape.  I'm usually too cheap to buy the good champagne that has an actual cork instead of a screw top so in the future I am going to apply the same premise to wine corks.  These were left over from my relatively rich pre-kid days.

  


Old pencils with erasers make great small stamps too.


Moral of the story - next time you are at the grocery store, you can splurge on good champagne knowing that you and your kids will get some use out of it!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Favorite Quotes

I spend way too much time on Pinterest! Its a great place for ideas though and for things that make me think. I wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes gathered from the site. The first one is what started me looking. I almost felt vindicated when I read this quote by Albert Einstein. I sometimes worry that Emily is too involved in Disney princesses and shows little interest in other books or learning (even when pushed). It was nice to get the thumbs on my literature choices from a genius!

Source
Source

Source
Source
Source

Source
Ha!  Ha!!!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

I'm playing blog catch up.  I have SO much stuff to write about but just haven't had time.  First the funk has circulated through the entire house.  Lindsay is absolutely pitiful when she is sick.  She only wants to be held and I just can't tell a snotty baby no.  Right when the kids got sick, I had to leave for a work trip in Vancouver.  That is the first time that I have ever left them sick.  I think I was more of a wreck than they were!  Matt did a great job though and of course NiNi came to the rescue.

Vancouver was a work trip but I tried to make the most of it.  I kept hearing that it was a beautiful city and it was.  I just wish I had the time/opportunity to see the natural areas around the city.  Our hotel was in the heart of downtown so I woke up early and went for a walk.  I was trying to save money and packed very light (which I was very proud of myself for!) but the tennis shoes got the cut from the suitcase list.  I was thinking that I always bring exercise clothes on work trips and never use them so.... I left them at home.  Of course this is the one trip where I walked at least two miles each day.  My feet were totally black and blue as I wore Jack Rogers the entire time!

On one of my afternoon walks, I discovered a little piece of sugar heaven, the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  After visiting their website when I got back home, I found out there are two stores very close to me!  My tailor is going to be very happy as I am going to put on at least 15 pounds this winter!!   I am slightly obsessed with candy apples during the fall and I loved all their variations! 



 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...