Thursday, August 23, 2012

Lisa's Cat in the Hat Baby Shower

My lovely little Big Sister Lisa is having a baby boy sometime between now and the middle of September. I personally have bets on the following dates: Sept 6, 7, 8 and 9. Us Littles are always early so I'm pretty certain the prize money is mine. I've already spent it, so I sure hope so.

Last weekend we threw Lisa (and La Babe) a Cat in the Hat themed baby shower. I designed and printed Dr Seuss themed shower invites with the help of my mommy. We went party supply hunting and hit the jackpot at Michael's with some Cat in the Hat paraphernalia such as a 6 foot tall Cat in the Hat poster and party hats (which nobody ended up wearing - boo).

The girls and I spent too many hours the day before baking up a storm. Brownies, chocolate cupcakes with vanilla butter cream frosting dyed blue to resemble Thing 1 and Thing 2, and sugar cookies iced in red white and blue. That's three batches of baking and three sets of frosting, which is a whole lot of dirty bowls and counter tops. Don't worry, Amanda made sure it was all clean long before we were done :) such a good housewife that girl is!

Lisa's best friend made 3 super amazing banners in Cat in the Hat style which we strung up around the living room - I can't even describe how pretty they were. Amanda ordered a Cat in the Hat themed cake which was mind bogglingly awesome. I peed my pants a little when i saw it. The cake sported a quote that said "A person's a person no matter how small.". cute, right?

I came out in costume when we were playing games and we all had a good laugh. The kids were mostly just scared of me. Hmmm... perhaps I will wear that costume all the time as a child-deterrent. uhmm just kidding, I'm not that evil.

I'd like to say I met some cool new people, but I spent most of my time in front of the oven watching things bake and then taste testing them. I then had to sneak out early to drive Jwolfs to the ferry, which means I missed the embarrassing party hat made of of bows and ribbons. It also means I missed the cleaning up- darn, my favorite part!

Overall great party. Super excited for the baby to come. Super excited to see him in all his new outfits and to NOT change diapers. Here's some photos. Get ready to be jealous:

Cat in the Hat Babyshower Invite CoverCat in the Hat Babyshower Invite Inside

Cat in the Hat Babyshower Diaper Cake


Cat in the Hat Babyshower Desert Table - Cake, Cupcakes, Fruit, Brownies

Cat in the Hat Babyshower Cupcakes

Cat in the Hat Costume Michelle BabyshowerBaby Shower Gift Bath Themed

Cat in the Hat Baby Shower Presents

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Backwards Day

Every once in a while, I like to throw myself a curve ball. Now, I don't play baseball so I really don't know how to throw a curve ball in real life, nor do I know if it's even possible to throw yourself one. I imagine not. Luckily it's just a saying and I need not throw any balls at all. So, this proverbial curve ball I'm speaking of today is......wait for it...... Backwards Day!

I woke up feeling a little strange (stranger than usual) and decided that was a sign that today was a good day for some self-made entertainment. I'm not 12 so I'm not wearing my clothes backwards or walking backwards all day, I'm much more sophisticated than that *blows bubbles in her milk*.

My enjoyment for shaking these things up stems back from high school when my basketball coach challenged us to do things with our left hand instead of our right. Have you ever tried opening the fridge with your left hand? It's mind boggling and easily results in injury. All the same, it's a really great challenge and I learned how to open the fridge with my left hand. It made me realize how many things we do subconsciously with little or no active thinking involved.

So I started Backward Day'ing with breakfast. Oatmeal is my daily fare, I don't even consider any other breakfast foods Monday-Friday. This morning, I added all the ingredients in the opposite order I normally do. Banana FIRST, followed by milk, cinnamon, Splenda, walnuts and oats. I was really nervous this was going to ruin breakfast, but lo and behold- same deliciousness as per usual. In the shower I shaved my legs AND THEN washed my hair. I did my makeup BEFORE brushing my teeth. No holds barred! When I got to work (I drove here in reverse of course) I made a pot of coffee without putting any coffee in the filter. Zing! How backwards is that?! OK OK... I'm just an idiot and forgot to put the coffee in. Sometimes I need a cup of coffee to get my brain working enough to figure out how to make a cup of coffee. Today was one of those days.

It's early yet, but I can tell you that I am going to do some crazy backwards things today and here's an idea - you should too! Perhaps throw some left handed tasks out there !sdrawkcab epyt ebyaM. Going grocery shopping? Do the store in the opposite order you normally do- meat aisle first, produce last! Have breakfast food for dinner, but make sure you have desert first. Check your email Top to Bottom. Get crazy, people! Happy Backwards Wednesday.

Oh and I flipped this picture horizontally so this is Backwards Shelly. A sight to behold.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

UPIs

Unidentified Party Injuries: Many years ago I picked up this saying from a bloke in Australia. Yep, boys are blokes in the land of Oz. It's not my favorite word, but I like to stretch my vocab and if I have to go international to make it happen, so be it. SO BE IT, i say!

Unidentified Party Injury, or UPIs as I affectionately like to call them, are the war wounds from a good night out. Mine are most always in the form of bruises- I often look like the victim of a bad car accident. Broken nails, scratches and cuts all make the list of accepted UPIs. Most often, there is no recollection of how these injuries came to be. Hold on Carly Rae's Call Me Maybe is on.. must dance.

And I'm back.

I would like to add a sub category of UPIs. I think I can do that as I pretty much own the rights to the word. Pretty sure it's not even a valid addition, but again, it's my blog and I can do as I like. *please note that I said that in a snotty British accent.

With the power vested in me (by no one) I proclaim Lost Items to officially fall under UPIs. The only reason I even am broaching this is essentially so I could segue into telling you about my really terrible streak of losing things lately. A confession perhaps it could be considered.

Two weekends ago I got slightly boozy and lost my clutch. No wallet, no cell phone, no lip gloss for TWO DAYS! I was super duper lucky and it was found and I got it couriered back to me. Everything intact, pretty amazing. Total happy ending on that one, which means that I totally didn't learn any kind of lesson. Clearly - considering last night I somehow managed to lose my wallet AGAIN (that makes 2 out of 3 weekends). We went on a boat cruise Saturday and ended up at a friends house and the bar afterwards. A full 12 hours of drinking, it would be fair to say that I had a few- like thirty - drinks too many. So many bad choices. I ended up with a mad (or perhaps disappointed, which is way worse) boyfriend; no idea where my wallet had gone to; and a missing bathroom bag. PS i AM super sorry, Nick.

Man oh man. Waking up with a pile of regrets, still dressed in last night's clothes and remembering the idiot face I proved myself to be the previous evening sure makes for a less than sunshiney Sunday morning. I took stock of my UPIs and found some pretty impressive bruises, a cut on my finger from a shotgunning stint gone wrong, and a lump on the back of my head from unknown origin. Unfortunately it's impractical to spend the entire day in *face palm* position, so I had to live with myself and continue on.

After checking around for my wallet (to no avail), we watched the musical portion of the Olympic Closing Ceremonies - super enjoyable -and then I moseyed on home and proceeded to berate myself and then went to bed early.

The next morning I awoke to a message from Johnny saying he had my wallet and bathroom bag. I flew out of bed and did a little jig. ... what? never seen me jig before? It's a sight to behold- lemme tell ya! Another lesson gone unlearned. Although I AM actively trying to figure out a way to not lose my stuff when I go out drinking. So far I have no solutions. Someone suggested I try drinking LESS. I filed that under Nahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Coinkydinks

Coincidences, or co-inky-dinks as my grandma likes to call them, really freak me out. My initial reaction is usually Wow - that's neat! But after thinking and eventually dissecting the coincidence, I get slightly uneasy. I think this is one of the reasons I should probably get Cable TV, as I would have a lot less time to freak myself out with nonsensical thinking. At the same time, I would have a lot less time for baking, which would probably lead to less blogging, and a noticeable drop in my likability factor. Don't worry friends, family and co-workers, I'm too addicted to recipe collecting and chocolate to quit baking.

Back to the topic at hand- coincidences, which for those of you who don't know, is defined as: A chance occurrence of events remarkable either for being simultaneous or for apparently being connected.
At work yesterday, a client asked after a retired employee of ours (Paul) and said to pass along their hello. I hadn't thought of Paul in ages, so thought it would be nice to send a catch-up email. He responds back saying all is well, blah blah blah. When I got home from work, I went on facebook and lo and behold, Paul's face is on my Recommended Friends List. Now, I thought this could be some kind of sneaky facebook thing, but I was using a different computer, so I can't imagine how that would work (suspicious by nature, I am). The next day at work, out of the blue, my boss mentions Paul to me, saying he had been talking about him recently. Weird!

AND THEN I had another coincidence happen yesterday. I texted Jess to see what she was up to and she told me she was baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. At that exact moment I had just finished making oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough. And no, I hadn't mentioned to her that I was planning on making cookies, nor she to me. SUPER WEIRD.

REVISED: I totally forgot to add in the main reason I started writing this post. I found out the other day that Katie In India (yes that's what I call her these days) is reading the same book as I am. A book I had never heard about until I borrowed it from Nick's roommate on his reccomendation. This book is amazing and I was planning on passing it along to KTII when she returned, and then I discovered via Facebook that she is reading it right now too. Coincidence? I think so. Spoooky? Not really. maybe if the book was about a ghost or something. Or if my house suddenly became haunted. Uhm. ya...moving along....
Since, I'm pretty sure you expect it. I did some research and found The 20 Most Amazing Coincidences and picked my favorite two, although there were lots of WTF ones in there. Here they are:

A falling baby, saved twice by the same man
In Detroit sometime in the 1930s, a young (if incredibly careless) mother must have been eternally grateful to a man named Joseph Figlock. As Figlock was walking down the street, the mother's baby fell from a high window onto Figlock. The baby's fall was broken and both man and baby were unharmed. A stroke of luck on its own, but a year later, the very same baby fell from the very same window onto poor, unsuspecting Joseph Figlock as he was again passing beneath. And again, they both survived the event. (Source: Mysteries of the Unexplained)

A writer, found the book of her childhood
While American novelist Anne Parrish was browsing bookstores in Paris in the 1920s, she came upon a book that was one of her childhood favorites - Jack Frost and Other Stories. She picked up the old book and showed it to her husband, telling him of the book she fondly remembered as a child. Her husband took the book, opened it, and on the flyleaf found the inscription: "Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs." It was Anne's very own book. (Source: While Rome Burns, Alexander Wollcott)

Super side note- the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies I baked yesterday are delicious and the recipe can be found here. I had a super baking extravaganza and also made Banana Carrot Walnut muffins which are a huge hit with my taste buds and definitely have my endorsement. Recipe here if you'd like it. Pictures below, if you care. That is all. XO shelly.





nom nom nom.