Wine and Cheese....

are really awesome....
and we had a lot of both at our wine and cheese party the other night.

Veggies and dips (my mom made me the dips cause she's cool like that)....

The artistic fruit platter (the berries are "wine" and the pineapple and melon are "cheese", get it?)...

Cheese (and nuts, honey, mustard, jelly, etc)...

Meat and Cheese....

Wine (well wine charms)...

In conclusion, I recommend that you all have a wine (or beer, or Shirley Temple) and cheese party.  Have your friends bring over some cheese and wine of their choosing and then get someone to make something chocolate (like the awesome chocolate fondue we had which I don't have a picture of).  Then add in fruit, veggies, bread, crackers, etc.  Good stuff.  In all we had about 6 types of cheese, a goat cheese ball with basil oil, goat cheese corn cakes, a fruit platter, veggie platter, fondue with strawberries and pound cake, cheese straws, salami, and a ton of crackers and bread.  Luckily we had those veggies and fruit to balance out all the other stuff.  But as always, the best part was the friendships (which I forgot to capture with my camera).

Have you ever hosted a wine and cheese party?

The Usual Suspects aka Best Movie Night Ever!

One time, several months ago, some of my friends and I were at our weekly trivia meet up when a question came up about the movie, The Usual Suspects.  Approximately 5 of us said "I really need to watch that movie, I heard it was good."  And the other 2-3 people were all, "You have never seen that movie?  What is wrong with you people?"  And that is the night we all decided we'd get together and watch The Usual Suspects. 

Then we forgot about it. 

Then one day Curly T was like, "yeah my apartment complex has this movie theater that I can rent out.  Wasn't there some movie you guys wanted to watch?"  And thus began our quest to find a night that we could all watch the movie and that the movie theater was actually available for rent.  A mere 2 months later we finally nailed down our date.

We decided to all bring food but to not tell anyone what we were bringing.  We ended up with an amazing assortment which included, chicken nuggets, taquitos, lettuce wraps, raspberries, guacamole, spinach dip, bread...

Then there was the candy.  Apparently we all thought we should bring candy.  I brought my personal movie watching favorite, Twizzler Bites (I like them because they are cherry flavored instead of strawberry).  There were also Mini Reeces Cups, Junior Mints, Whoppers, Sour Patch Kids, etc.  Plus of course popcorn in a variety of flavors and styles.

Here is my personal candy bowl and beer.  B decided to bring the 'usual suspects' of beer aka all the beers we normally order when we go to bars.  So there was a nice mix of Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Wildflower (a Greensboro Natty Greene's specialty), some Stouts, etc.

Here is the lovely group picture I forced everyone to take before the movie started.  See it's a real theater!

And here is when the movie screen stopped working for no reason.  Luckily we fixed it (well after awhile).

"Dude, quit posing for pictures and fix it.  I want to know
who Keyser Soze is"

And here's my homemade contribution to the food table....Guacamole with Chipotle Peppers.  Good stuff if I do say so my self.  (Recipe-2 avocados, 2 peppers from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce chopped and a spoon full of the sauce, the juice of 1 lime, sea salt, pepper, a quarter of a red onion chopped, a sprinkle of garlic salt-Mash it all together...Adapted from this recipe).

Reasons this movie night was the best movie night ever....
-I got to bring my own blanket and sit where I wanted to
-The movie screen thing broke in the middle so we had an impromptu dance party while we were waiting for it to cool down (or something).  Well it was more just B demonstrating some commercial for some dancing video game for x-box.
-There was lots of candy and beer that was easily accessible to me (mostly because I sat beside the cooler)
-Some dudes came to the attached cafe area in the middle of the movie and when we went out to use the bathroom we saw 5 dudes with no shoes on, sitting on a blanket together eating figs (or something like that).  Not sure what was going on there.

What movie should we watch next time?  Fortunately Curly T and I both hate horror movies so that's out.  And I'm pretty sure no one is going for my suggestion of Gigli (when you hear that something is the worst movie ever, don't you want to see why?  Plus I heart Ben Affleck).  We need something that is awesome (perhaps classic) and that will be good for a group of people with a variety of interests.  Any ideas?

Baby Shower Cookies

I was going to use my fancy cookie press to make cookies for my college roomie's baby shower.  But instead I was perusing my local Sur La Table and found these cookie cutters in the shape of bottles and baby carriages.  So I decided to get those instead.

My first round of cookies came out looking a little like blobs instead of baby bottles or carriages.  But once I used my fast drying cookie icing they started to look a little more like bottles.  The carriages never really looked like carriages so I just decided to focus on the bottles.  Obviously I'm not the best at cookie decoration but they came out pretty good.  I mean, people could at least tell what they were.

There was also a tasty cake and a bunch of other food that we made.  Overall it was a good time.  I'm not good at baby games though.  We had to smell baby foods and write down what we thought it was.  I wrote down pears when it was actually green beans.  And I put down apricots when it was actually carrots.  Oh well.  I'm excited to meet Baby Wunka!

I participated in the group gift (see above) which was something called a Pack n' Play.  But I also bought her a book, Goodnight Moon.  I remember it from when I was a kid.  My other top choices were The Little Engine that Could, The Giving Tree and Are You My Mother.

Can you tell that those cookies are supposed to be bottles?
Do you know what a Pack N' Play is?
Do you know what baby green beans smell like?
What's your favorite children's book?

Bridesmaid Jewelry

So I finally got my big break as a jewelry designer when my friend Ms. Acorn asked me to make bridesmaid jewelry for her wedding this weekend.  I sent her several photos via email and she decided she wanted something pretty simple. 

So I present to you....photos of me modeling the bridesmaid jewelry...

What?  He wanted to be in the picture.

I am also practicing my breathing.  The dress in my size came with normal sized stomach area and giant size boobage area.  So I had to get this taken in.  The alteration lady told me if I was not going to wear straps then she would have to make it tight.  Apparently that meant tight in the area where oxygen flows to my lungs cause I'm having a bit of trouble breathing normally.  I'll work on in though.  I'm also practicing walking around in my new silver heels.

Ok so here's some close ups of the jewelry.  I used some crystal beads, silver beads, and sterling silver ear wires and chains to make these.

So I hope the other Bridesmaids like them or at least pretend to. 

Also in Hair news, I have purchased a new gadget and am practicing with it this week to see if I can make a low loose bun for the wedding.  My backup plan is a hot ponytail.  Has anyone ever used the Goody Simply Style Spin Pin?  I kept seeing commercials on TV so I decided to go ahead and pick one up.

I'm super exciting about the wedding this weekend!  Go Team A-Corn.

Do you think my bridesmaid jewelry is acceptable?

Or do you think the jewelry will ruin the wedding?

Should I take Hobie as my date because we look so good together or should I let B come with me?

Do you like weddings?

Mo Young's Guide to Planning "Special" Bridal Shower Games.....

Um, why are MoYoung and I holding up a giant face photo of our friend's fiance?  Well I'm going to go ahead and let MoYoung tell you about that.  Take it away Mo.......

With the help of JMJE I think A-Corn’s shower had the most original if not the best games ever! Here’s what we did …

The first, and technically last, game we played at the A-Corn shower was called “Don’t Cross Your Legs.” Here is how you play: Each guest takes and wears FOUR necklaces. Then, the guests are told to NOT cross their legs throughout the shower. If they are caught crossing their legs, then they lose their necklace to the person who caught them. At the end of the shower the person who has the most necklaces is the winner. There was a tie for winning this game – $hanzie and cousin of the bride to be. I had predicted that Beezus5 would win the game, but she actually forfeited early on. Oh Beezus5. I chose this game because it was played at Dorothy’s bridal shower on the Golden Girls. Due to Mrs. Acorn’s appreciation of the Golden Girls, I thought it was only fitting that we play this game. And in case you missed this episode, Blanche won the game by a landslide. (ps-from JMJE, do not google Golden Girl Shower Games, you will get inappropriate results, trust me)

We also played a game entitled “How Well Does Future Mrs. Acorn Know Mr. Acorn.” I chose this game because it’s always interesting to see how in tune couples are – plus it ranked well on all the bridal shower websites. Mrs. Acorn later told me that her Grandma really enjoyed the game too. I had previously e-mailed Mr. Acorn some questions, which he was good enough to answer. Then, I typed up the questions and answers on slips of paper and handed out the questions to the guests to read to Mrs. Acorn. Mrs. Acorn was read each question and then she had to answer what she thought Mr. Acorn said. She did pretty well – probably getting 75% of the questions right.  (PS from JMJE-apparently there was some ambiguity about what actually constituted their first date) I was impressed, and I agree that XXLarge night shirts aren’t the sexiest PJ’s around. A key thing to remember with this game is recognizing your audience and filtering out any embarrassing answers. One of the best, and definitely the longest, questions was inspired by the show 90210 – NOT that new cast but the original, with Dylan. JMJE did a stellar job reciting Donna and David’s wedding vows, and I was impressed that Mrs. Acorn recognized the vows! She gets an A++ for 90210 wedding trivia.

The grand finale of games was “Feed Mr. Acorn.” JMJE and I had long since decided that we would like to have a giant picture of Mr. Acorn at the shower. We thought it would be funny – and a great gift for the A-Corn's. I expect the picture to be mounted above their mantle! So, in order to incorporate our love for Poster Mr. Acorn, I decided that we would play a game called “Feed Mr. Acorn.” Since the theme of the shower was “kitchen stuff,” this game completely fit! It’s like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, only you try to stick a spoon in Mr. Acorn’s mouth. First we printed off a 30x20 picture of Mr. Acorn – with a hint of Mrs. Acorn in a low cut blue dress on the side. Then we mounted the picture on hard poster board. It was a beautiful sight. Everyone was a good sport and donned the eye mask, spun around, and then tried to stick a plastic spoon in Mr. Acorn’s mouth. The winner was Mama Robin! I recommend this game for any shower, as life size photos of people are not only fun conversation pieces but super classy!

Thanks Mo and if you are interested in finding out more information about Mo you can read her answers below to my very important guest blog survey.

Why do you think JMJE refers to you as MoYoung in her blog?

MoYoung = Morgan Young. Since I comment on MSIF via “Anonymous,” I decided to shorten my name to MoYoung in signing my comments. So exciting! (JMJE says, I like to spell it MoJung sometimes)

What is something you like about JMJE?

Her craftiness – MSIF is quite entertaining! Plus, she can drink with me into the late hours of the night. This is not always a good thing the next day, but it definitely makes for some good times.  (JMJE says, at this point it has become baking into the late hours of the night while slowly nursing one glass of wine.  Mr. and Mrs. MoYoung were, however, the last people up with us at our wedding after party.)  Plus, I admire her patience and loyalty, as she let my now husband live with us for six months while we were roommates at NCState.  (JMJE says, I never did the dishes, it evened out somehow, well maybe) We all love JMJE!

Name a character you relate to and why from one of the following tv shows? The Office, Lost, Saved by the Bell, How I Met Your Mother, or Friends?

Since I am not as much of a TV aficionado as JMJE is, I’m just going to defer to my favorite show from above, Lost. Overall I identify with the central themes – escapism, redemption, survival, and love! But, I remember years ago I was talking with JMJE and she asked me which character was my favorite. I said, “Sun.” I suppose I can relate to Sun as she is very guarded with her personal matters and more capable than many initially believe possible. However, I can be quite indecisive – so I do not like this question JMJE! – as I relate to many of the characters. This may be why I adore the show. (JMJE says, looks-wise she reminds me of a lighter haired Kate)

What is your favorite color?

Blue. So I am excited about prancing about in cornflower blue on 6/19/2010.

If you could have any job in the world what would it be?

If I could answer this question then I probably would have had a focus in college! Perhaps a writer for a travel magazine … or a professional volunteer. Yet I’ve always been scared of making something I truly adore a job as I would hate to one day wake up and view a passion as “eh, just work.”

So what do you think of our Bridal Shower games?
Is feeding the groom a little too weird or totally worth it just to have a life size photo to give your friend?
Mrs. Acorn was a pretty good sport as I'm pretty sure I banned shower games from my bridal shower.

PS-THE OFFICE IS NEW TONIGHT!  Office Thursday got cancelled for MoYoung Thursday but you should still watch The Office tonight.

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes with a Hint of Bridal Shower

One time I lived with this girl.  We will call her Mrs. A-Corn.  She really enjoyed eating Entenmann's Raspberry Danish Twists.  She loved them sooo much that she knew the date and time the truck would deliver the fresh ones to the Harris Teeter across the street from our house.  Gradually with the help of 2 other friends I weaned her off this addiction.  So when we started planning her bridal shower, I thought maybe we should buy these Raspberry Danish Twists and cut them up in to bite sized pieces and serve them at her shower.  But then I remembered how far she's come since her addiction and decided to go another route.

I remembered that she likes red velvet cupcakes.  So I confirmed with her fiance and began looking for recipes.  Everyone said for me to just use a box but I decided to go all out.  Go big or go home.  I found this recipe (you have to scroll down a little) and thought it seemed manageable.  MoYoung and I decided that mini cupcakes would be better for a shower.  That way the ladies could eat 5 or 10 without feeling bad because eating 5 mini desserts is always way healthier than eating one regular sized dessert.  I followed the recipe pretty much but used a mini muffin tin and cooked them for about 10-12 minutes each or when the tooth pick came out clean.  Also the frosting made about 3 times as much as I actually needed for the mini cupcakes.

So what was my biggest mistake?  Well I purchased ONE mini muffin tin, which makes 12 mini cupcakes at a time.  We ended up with about 70 mini cupcakes which was a lot of batches.  So MoYoung and I were up til 1 AM baking these puppies.  With a special appearance by Beezus5, B and some wine, it didn't really seem like it took that long.

The next day we focused on icing.  I taught Mo to use my special icing tool and she managed to really excel at it.  We added some blue and yellow sprinkles (the wedding colors) and we were done.  I think they turned out pretty awesome.  We only ended up taking about half of them to the shower but by last night most of them were gone from my kitchen.  Also I may or may not be mildly allergic to red food coloring.  I sprouted a couple hives during the cooking and tasting process but that's not really that strange (for me).  And there was a full bottle of food coloring in this.  Oh well.  They are called red velvet for a reason.

PS-I had weird dreams about cupcakes last night.
PPS-And I know my face does not look super attractive in the photo above but I  needed a good action photo.

How to Make Your Home into a Roaring Twenties Style Juice Joint...

As I have mentioned, I participated in a 20's themed Murder Mystery Party this weekend. My friend $hanzie hosted it at her house. While she was not in charge of the actual murder mystery story line and game, she was in charge of transforming her house into a Juice Joint, which is apparently a Twenties Style Bar. Now while she did not get the Live Jazz band or Fog Machine (as was suggested), I think she did a great job.

From $hanzie herself...
A How To Guide for Turning your House into a Jumpin’ Speakeasy from 1920. Things to Purchase: Everyone needs to know that as hard as it may be to believe, the Dollar Store is an excellent resource for parties. Here is a list of things I purchased at the local Dollar Store...
Plates,napkins, plastic utensils
Black tablecloths
Candles and candle holders for both my mantle and as centerpieces for the tables

Party trays for food

Then of course there were a few items purchased at Party City...

Gold fringe outlining my stairs to give the feeling of a stage

Plastic martini glasses and plastic cups (I know I used a lot of plastic and that is not super environmentally friendly but I had enough dishes to clean from cooking as it is)

Hobby Lobby...

Feathers- feathers are key but are a little pricey- I just bought a few and featured them on the mantle in a vase that I filled with wine corks. I usually have a vase filled with wine corks sans feathers anyway.
And from ebay, I purchased The Greatest Hits of the 20s for $4.95. it was great background music when the boys turned down the basketball game.

As well as, candy cigarettes to place around the party. (JMJE say-I think shanzie got these from the Internet as apparently stores don't sale them b/c it makes smoking seem "cool")

Ok, the rest of the things used to decorate were just found on the Internet, in other parts of my house, or at Tiffany’s place. I used the tablecloths to cover my end tables and put those in the middle of the room with dining room chairs around them to give it a lounge/restaurant feel instead of living room feel. We took a few pictures down and replaced them with simple black and white pics of Chicago and various speakeasies from the 20s. I didn’t print anything out on photo paper, just normal white paper and we taped them up to the walls. I found pics of labels under google images of Bath Tub Gin (popular thing in the 20s since gin and most other drinks were kept cold in bathtubs) and printed them out and taped them to wine bottles around my house. And I found an awesome “this thread is closed due to Prohibition” picture of a sign on the Internet and printed that out for my front door. Everything else was sort of just found- some old ash trays courtesy of B’s granny (JMJE says-those were Gammy's not Granny's), poker chips, decks of cards, etc.

Then Curly T or Tiffy as she is called by $hanzie made this awesome sign......

As far as the sign goes...It was actually an old sign from my tutoring place (academic development services). I just attached (with ghetto push pins) some fabric to cover up that writing. "The Juice Joint" was hand drawn onto some poster board and again attached by push pins. Doesn't really seem all that exciting/impressive when the process is described.

That is wrong T. I thought the sign looked awesome. The party would have failed with out it and the 20 food dishes $hanzie made. Overall they did a great work on the decor and it really completed the party. I especially liked when the police sirens started blaring right after the "murder" happened. $hanzie says it was just an amazing coincidence but I'm not so sure.

Rosie Marie, Owner of the Juice Joint takes one giant final drink as the party comes to an end!

Miss Cindy Butt-Cigarette Girl Extraordinaire

Well the Murder Mystery Party happened last night and it was awesome. I'm going to do a couple posts about how we made it happen but first I'd like to talk about my proudest achievement... my costume. I was assigned the character of Cindy Butt-Cigarette Girl Extraordinaire. I found these costumes online. But you know I like making stuff. So I thought I'd give it a shot. First off I went shopping at Target where I found a ruffly skirt in the teen department. I decided that I'd make shirt to go with it so I bought some ribbon, fabric and fringe and just sort of started sewing stuff together with no real plan. I ended up with a fairly simple idea. Here is my diagram of what I did.

The top is a long rectangle of silky fabric that goes all the way around my body (plus extra). I sewed two pieces of ribbon to the top to make halter straps that tie around my neck and two other pieces of ribbon to the sides that would tie in the back. The second picture is how it would look tied. I sewed fringe (the gray stuff) all across the top of the shirt to the bottom. But only on the front.

I wore the shirt and skirt together and added a blazer I had from the Gap. Since I was a cigarette sales rep at the Juice Joint, I thought I should look a little professional. I added black hose and some high heels and then the thing that I think really finished off the costume....The black wig. I ordered this wig online last week and it ended up being perfect. I added some bright red lipstick and black eyeliner. Then of course I had to have a cigarette box. I bought a basket on sale from Michael's and added candy cigarettes and some cigars my husband coerced me in to buying and then tied a ribbon on both sides so I could put it around my neck. Then I added some left over fringe from my shirt to some earrings for a finishing touch. The glue was still drying as we drove to the party.

And ladies and gentleman here it is...the finished product. Miss. Cindy Butt...who as it turned out is actually not that nice of a person or such a great saleswoman.

Uh, and yeah, guess who tied for the best costume prize? Thats right Miss Cindy Butt (who tied with Curly T's amazing rendition of a female Chief of Police). This is perhaps one of my greatest achievements in crafting thus far. I'd like to thank my husband for his unwavering support and Hobie for only running across the fabric like 7 times while I was sewing it.

But honestly everyone did an amazing job with their costumes. I had no idea that people would go all out for this but they did and it was awesome. Special shout outs to Beezus5 who cross-dressed for us as Mayor Biggs due to our lack of dude participation, B for his organizational, leadership and printing skills, and $hanzie for power hostessing.

Cindy and Private Investigator Pinkerton. I think they may actually end up together after everyone gets over the whole Murder situation.

Do you like my costume? Should I dye my hair black and get a bob cut? Do you think the PI and the Cigarette girl will end up together in the end?
Tomorrow I'll get with $hanzie and Curly T on how you turn a regular home in to a Juice Joint!