Ladies Night

When Hunt and I picked our house location, I had no idea that we would get so lucky to be surrounded by such fun and friendly neighbors.  It is definitely an assortment of women from varying backgrounds and with different views on parenting, working, etc but it has served to be a fantastic social outlet for me which I am very thankful for.  There are some 40th birthdays this spring- the first of which was Bo's this month, so plans were concocted to do a surprise ladies night out for her.  It happened to coincide with Sue being able to babysit while she was here and a nice lighthearted night out amidst a long stretch with Hunt gone.  We almost always seem to do stuff with all the families together and lots of kids to keep up with, so it was really fun for everyone to have the night off, eat some sushi, and stay up waaay past what should be my bedtime.

We're the Care Bears

Harper Grace, my sweet toddler girl, you have officially found your first obsession.. The Care Bears.  It all started with handing down of an old DVD from a friend, and it has morphed into a lifestyle.  We now own three stuffed care bears, several DVDs, a care bear blanket, lovie, backpack, cups and plates, and a bow all themed with those little loveable bears.  Thank goodness they are pretty tolerable to have as background noise because you would watch them 24 hours a day if allowed.  Daddy knows all of their names and their belly badges and mommy has spent some quality time hunting down all of these accessories online- they are definitely a niche market.  It is very cute to see how excited you get over them too!

Tres Girly

While I usually save the blog for family events, outings, etc and with a few cupcake posts here and there, today I feel like sharing my recent foray into updating and beautifying my closet space.  Obviously I would looove to have a professional closet space, but in lieu of such luxuries I am very excited to have at least upgraded from the white tupperware type bins that I was have been using for storage for some time now.  I used some pictures from various bloggers for inspiration and my end result came together really cute, girly and not too expensive.  The open shelves have bright teal fabric bins and do a nice job of hiding my undies, socks, etc that invariably just get thrown into a pile anyway.  I had been using this hook type hanger for my necklaces for some time (in fact the wall not shown still has all of the original black ones with probably 40 other necklaces hanging), but my original hooks were getting super crowded and unorganized and actually kind of irritating for me to look at it and it just became time to freshen things up a bit.  Certainly with this beyond crappy winter weather, it has been fun to have a project to get excited about, and as I have been accumulating a lot of bright accessories over the past year or so, I love having them displayed like little art pieces.  It is so great to have sites like Etsy and Pinterest to pull a vision together and incorporate a bunch of individual items into a montage.. I can absolutely see why designers have such fun doing it!

These are simple acrylic trays from Target that I added monogram decals to from Etsy.. It was such an easy way to make them look like custom pieces.  Unfortunately, they are the perfect height for Harper to reach in and play with soo I am going to have to keep an eye out for the little one helping herself.

These are some of my favorite brightly colored and large statement pieces.. I need it to be spring again so that I can wear them!

Obsessed with this fuchsia piece

Carson said this should be called my "Etsy tray".. With the exception of a few pieces, this is a very accurate statement!

Toddler Time

So, I've been dreading this day for some time, but I think the era of naps is somewhat coming to an end at our house.. This is a serious sad face in our world as the marathon nap sessions mid-afternoon on the weekends have allowed for me to go to the gym, shop etc on my own while Hunt stayed at home anyways to do work.  Squeaks will still tolerate hanging out for some time in her crib, but I worry that may be limited too.  In lieu of sleeping, she has proven that a toddler left to her own devices will find a way to entertain herself somehow or another!

Ta Daaa!  This is actually kind of impressive because it required her to unzip the footed sleeping bag she was in, then disrobe and remove the diaper.. That will teach me to not keep her in some pants!

Super proud of her accomplishment.. Not only did she remove the diaper, but successfully ended the dreaded "nap" time.

Creative Creations

It's been awhile since I have posted anything!  Time for some of my recent cupcake creation selfies..

These first ones were for a bake sale at work and spurred me to break down and buy a second icing gun in order to do some color layers.. I love the convenience of icing with the gun, but they go through a ton quickly and are a bit tedious to reload so it was only a matter of time before I needed a second.  Adding the chocolate chips was a last minute decision, but actually looked cuter than the candy hearts which sort of sank down into the icing.  And the Peep hearts ended up just being for pics, as it occurred to me that the Peeps get super firm and stiff when sitting open for any period of time.  These were super easy and fun to do, though!

This next set was for a super bowl party that we went to for a Lilly function.  They ended up being easy to do (I had been fretful about the whole icing laces thing), and with the last minute addition of some leftover Easter grass made for a cute presentation.  I was feeling quite impressed with myself until we showed up and the hostess had every imaginable mini dessert, cupcakes, cookie decorating station etc.. it literally looked like a professionally catered event.  Suffice to say, when they said they didn't need us to bring anything they were not kidding, but I was still excited to have done them!

 

Bye Bye Baby Mullet

Over the past few weeks, the baby mullet has officially returned.. I knew that it was back in full force when I was able to put it in a "back pony" at HG's request, leaving her looking like a true quintessential redneck as the front would look the exact same and then from the back there was a small tail coming straight out. Suffice to say, not a good look.  The last time I trimmed the back, I committed to it being my last solo foray into cutting anything on her- she is entirely too squirmy and I am completely crappy with anything related to straight lines or scissors. I mentioned to her that I got my hair cut this week, and that seemed to generate some discussion on her part ala "I get my hair cut too" and so, I sort of decided that this was the weekend to tackle the first real haircut. Now knowing my little HG and how she gets pretty freaked in new situations, I basically spent several days talking up how fun it was going to be, what was going to happen, etc and then proceeded to load up the bag with the ipad, stickers and her new care bear in hopes of distractions. Fortunately, Hunt was able to come with us which definitely helped keep us on track.  She was good until they sprayed the water on the back of her hair to wet it down, and then there were some serious tears. Pulling out the ipad and polar bear videos (one of her recent obsessions is the polar bear videos posted by the Toronto Zoo on utube) saved the experience, and we left with an adorable new bob and an excited toddler pronouncing "I got my hair cut!!".  Now onto surviving the dentist appointment later this week!

Hot Fudge Sundae Cupcakes

I needed to make some birthday cupcakes to bring into work this weekend, and decided it was time to try out a new idea that was cute and not too cumbersome to put together.  These turned out perfect for what I had in mind!  

For the cake, I did my usual GF boxed recipe with the almond syrup substitution, and I have started cooking them at 325 which seems to keep them a little more moist.  I cheated and used store bought icing to save some aggravation and time, and then topped with rest.  A few modifications for next time.. I was trying to find a chocolate that wouldn't be runny, so I got Magic Shell.. As Hunt pointed out, the magic shell stays hard on the frozen ice cream so while I put these in the freezer to harden the shell- once at room temp, no longer hard.  Fortunately, the chocolate didn't get massively runny.  I will also get a thing of Ready Whip next time to save steps in piping on cool whip.  All in all, super cute and very sweet!

Cautiously  making her first approach

Contrary to the face, she did like them!