paige's milk & cookies party

to help catch up on posts i missed i knew i should mention my lovely niece Paige's 6th birthday party. during the initial planning stages we were hoping to have a dual party with my other niece fiona but, unfortunately there was quite the delay in her visa paperwork and it took several months longer to get her home than originally planned. i'll tell you more on that later but for those that don't already know, she's home and fitting in quite nicely!

lisa, my sister, and i had been planning a milk & cookies themed birthday for several months and during the initial stages the only thing i knew was that we were going to have it in the fellowship hall at our church and that i wanted a smaller version of this oreo cake to be the centerpiece. i'd seen it on an episode of martha and fallen in love (how could you not!)

we also knew that we wanted several kinds of cookies and most of them would be homemade since we are ridiculously obsessed bakers when it comes to holidays, birthdays, because-you-need-baked-goods-days. then i stumbled upon this post from V and Co. (love the blog!) with these lovely cakemix cookies.

i instantly knew i had a theme and would have to work the oreos back in somehow. our fellowship hall was already decorated in lots of fun colors so all we had to do was set up some tables, balloons, trays of cookies, some smaller pre-bottled milks and call it a day.... easy as pie, er, um, cookies! easy that is, until my sister realized that a milk and cookies birthday with a stacked oreo cake meant that there wouldn't be any actual cake at the party. i had known this all along but apparently she had not processed the thought. we then brainstormed and debated (fancy word for argued) and brainstormed and came up with:

oreo cupcakes! chocolate mini cupcakes for the kiddos, one giant cupcake with her birthday candle (thanks to a large starbucks sized muffin pan my mom uses to make homemade giant muffins) and no worries about a cake-less birthday. we stuck mini oreos in the oreo buttercream and voila! the other centerpieces we discussed were cookie bouquets coming out of glass milk bottles. unfortunately at the moment i don't have the full photos to show you (i'm really bad at remembering to put a memory card in my camera so i hijacked my sister's but then forgot to download the pics before giving the card back, oops) but here you can see the cookies on a stick post-decorating.

i didn't search around a lot for a method to do these although i probably should have, i used my favorite sugar cookie recipe, laid the cookie sticks onto a baking sheet and laid the cookies on top of them as i cut them out. i barely squished the cookie around the stick because i wanted the cookies to stay fairly flat for decorating and only had a couple fall off but they fell off straight out of the oven so i re-used the stick to make more, super easy. I made royal icing according the recipe that came with my wilton meringue powder and went to town. it really was that easy. we found glass milk bottles, filled them most of the way with rice and stuck the sticks in.

the only decorations we purchased were balloons and colorful tableware. i'll probably update this more later with the photos of how everything turned out and the custom game we made for less than $10 but for now that's all i have. it was a really good day even though we couldn't share it with fiona and we're really glad we planned it inside because half way through the party it downpoured!

pinterest

can i just tell you how obsessed i've become with pinterest and how it's taking up all of my time. it started a few weeks ago after one of my mangers mentioned how cool it was and that she was totally addicted and then, within a day or two i was reading my new favorite blog, Young House Love (i'll probably have a post all about their brilliance later) Sherry was posting about mother's day and how her brilliant husband checked out her pinterest board to see what to get her for mother's day... i told you he was brilliant! i figured that if two people who's style i admire that much were totally in love with this new thing called 'pinning' that i had better try it out.

long story short, my sister and i have been co-contributing to some of her boards so that we don't continuously re-pin each other's pins, and i'm really upset that there's no pinterest app for android at least there isn't one yet... my addiction to pinning and re-pinning is, well, it's almost getting out of hand... but i just can't stop myself, it's a beautiful thing! want to see my boards or my sisters? i think you should... then join pinterest and start pinning things... then i can see your pins and share them

but seriously, check out Young House Love and Pinterest i hope you'll love them as much as i do!

its been too long..

i spend so much time reading blogs that sometimes i forget that i'm neglecting my own blog. here i am, almost 6 months past my last post and there is so much i feel the need to say. over the next several days i'll be posting quite a few things (at least, that's the plan), lots of updates, lots of project photos and i'll be revealing a few changes along the way! i'm sure you'll notice the new layout but it feels a lot more like the direction my style has been changing over the last few months. i've changed positions at work and have begun to realize that, while i generally like having the things i use near me where i think i'll use them, it's really difficult to find things when people have put them where they think they'll use them the best and often results in a lot of clutter on the small surfaces we have available to use. did you follow me on that one? it basically boils down to me cleaning up after people all day long while trying to do my job. this is quickly translating to my home life because, as much as i once loved having multiples of things so that i could have just the right size and shape ready at hand, i'm realizing that i keep using the same things over and over again and the multiples are getting lost in the backs of really cluttered cabinets. i've begun to notice that all of the surfaces in my house are getting overly cluttered because i'm saving lots and lots of things 'just in case'. it's tiring to clean everything up because i keep putting things where i think i'll need them, my husband puts things where he thinks he'll need them and my dog puts things where she wants them and the cat moves things because they're not where he wants them... ugh! don't get me wrong, it's not like my house belongs on hoarders or anything, it's just that i'm realizing that it's too cluttered and i really feel accomplished when i've cleaned off the surfaces and everything looks more open. i'm on a mission to improve the clutter situation and, in the process, finish making my house into the home we've been wanting.

the first step was to pair down and get rid of all of the duplicates or excesses that we're not using. the hubs was great at cleaning out all of his excess computer equipment, electronics and miscellaneous cables and cords and even went as far as to sell the dvd collection he'd been building over the years because we don't watch dvds, we netflix! we also decided to pair down our bills and expenses (the main reason we netflix) so we ditched the premium cable and only kept the basic cable because it was only about $7 more than no cable when paired with internet so we know that we'll have HD local channels and we get a few other miscellaneous channels just in case there's nothing else to watch. now it's my turn to pair things down and, instead of taking things to the pawn shop like the hubs did, i'll end up having a yard sale later in the summer. i can only hope that i'll make some decent money for all the work it'll be... especially since the hubs made about $1,000 and didn't have to sort and price things and then sit in the sun waiting for people to paw through lots and lots of our belongings!

the next step was to finish the projects we've been working on around the house. you'll have to wait until later to see those projects but i promise they're worth coming back for! goodnight ya'll!

apparantly i'm a dynamic architect...

Dynamic Architect

according to an online profile i'm a dynamic architect, what does that mean?

You are an Architect

Your preference for concrete, visually pleasing things, combined with your confidence and your respect for order make you an ARCHITECT.

You are logical and detail-oriented, which allows you to get things done efficiently.

You are quite sure of yourself, so that you tend to know the best ways of doing things.

Your eye for aesthetic beauty and style indicates that you know a lot about design.

Having a routine and sticking to it is important to you; you find comfort in tradition and familiarity.

Self-reliance is something in which you take great pride—you are confident and down to earth.

You have a basic faith in yourself in many areas of your life, allowing you to be self-assured when facing challenges.

You have a strong sense of style and value your personal presentation - friends may even seek your style advice from time to time.

Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.

You are Dynamic

As someone who is DYNAMIC, you do not have a hard time meeting new people, and you have a bunch of close friends.

You are not overly concerned with what others may think about you, which leaves you free to be thoroughly involved in the world around you.

There are those who find being around people exhausting—but not you! Interacting with others, whether at a party or in conversation, gives you energy.

You have a strong sense of what the world is like and how it should be.

You have enormous respect for those who have earned their success, and have little patience for those who try to bend the rules or ride on the coattails of others' hard work.

Believing in the importance of integrity and hard work doesn't stop you from believing that people will do the right thing—you know that people are good at heart.

You sometimes have trouble understanding why others feel the way they do, but it doesn't stop you from having faith and trust in those around you.

Part of what makes engaging with people so interesting for you is that you occasionally learn something new about yourself or about a problem you're having when discussing things with others.

Your strong worldview leads you to believe that people shouldn't rely on their emotions so much when making decisions.

well, there you have it in a very large nutshell... basically i'm stubborn and bossy and i already knew all that. but it is fun, feel free to click on the link and find out more about yourself!

organizing for a new year...

this project was done a few months ago but i apparantly failed to post it so here's the current pic (minus several necklaces and bracelets)
i've recently received some vintage coat hooks so i'll be hanging one of those to put rings on shortly with updated pics :) there are a couple of other organizing projects going on today but i'll wait to tell you about those until later!

as i recap i turn my thoughts to next year...

after looking back at our wonderful christmas and thinking about christmases past, i'm thinking i should make next year the year i make all (or almost all) of our gifts to other people, homemade. my seester and i are great bakers and pretty crafty so this year we made some monogrammed bags for her team and my managers and a few family members and they were very well received. maybe they were well received because they had homemade cookies, kiflis, cereal snack and chocolates in them and maybe it was just because we put time and love into them. either way they weren't that complicated (except the 21 dozen kiflis but its not like you can only make one or two dozen anyway). i know i said i'd blog a combined list of what we made, maybe more for us to have a bit of a memory of these things but if you want some ideas of what works for us in the mean time, here it is:

21 dozen kiflis (the only thing we bother to count)
macaroons
oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
cutouts
oreo truffles
buckeyes
white trash (white chocolate and peanut butter covered pretzels and cheerios)
peppermint bark
spritz cookies
peanut butter blossoms
thumbprints
brownies
chocolate crackle tops
cereal snack (modified chex mix)

the only thing i haven't made yet is the round pretzel with either a kiss or rolo smushed down by an m&m and chocolate covered peanut butter cracker sandwiches but those will get made for my new year's cocoa party. i've also made home made marshmallos for the cocoa party but i'll blog about that next week.

as for a handcrafted christmas next year i'm not thinking that i'll just bake, i'm thinking that in the coming months i should plan a craft project or two to give as gifts. since i generally shop for everyone all year long anyway, maybe crafting all year long is the way to go. i've seen a few projects that might be just right so hopefully i can keep you posted as i handcraft my christmas :)

an amazing christmas...

first we had lunch and presents with my husband's family but i didn't take pictures so you'll get the pics from dinner at my grandma's. i got a really good picture of the girls with grandma, perfect for her calendar next year

and the hubs and i looked adorable, hopefully next year he won't be in this old navy fleece, it's made an apperance two years in a row in photos and that's a big no no for methe girls looked adorable in their sweater dressesand grandma's tree (decorated by me) looked great with all of our presents underneath, i'm pretty sure everyone got most of what they wanted and, best of all, we got to spend a great day with each other, and we didn't have to fight the snow because the streets are clear clear clearrockne even got what she wanted, something to chew on that she wasn't going to get in trouble for eating merry christmas everyone, i'll be posting a post-holiday baking list and some photos just to show ya'll what fun we've been having but for now, i'm going to relax with the hubs and watch some tv - we've become highly addicted to 'white collar' and can't get enough, looks like a white collar marathon will be happening every evening until we're caught up!