Prom Dress Prints

Cooking Dinner

2009-02-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

I had planned on cooking a fabulous Valentine's dinner for my sweetie this year. Sadly, my sweetie's mom passed away on Friday, February 13 at 5:09am. Instead of my fabulous dinner, I was treated to L&L Bar-B-Q. Hopefully, I will get to cook a fabulous dinner for my sweetie's gradmother this upcoming weekend, so wish me some luck!

Moving

2008-11-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I am moving again. While the apartment has been lovely, Tahoe and I have outgrown it. On Dec. 1, we will be moving into a house that is closer to work and has a backyard for Tahoe to run around in. I am looking forward to decorating the house for Christmas and then throwing a party, which is one thing I could not do in the apartment. This move should not take very long since I will have a 7 day overlap in the two places, and I can bring things over one day at a time.d I even have a volunteer to help me move. How sweet!

Found

2008-10-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

There is a website out there, www.foundmagazine.com, where folks send letters, drawings, photos, etc. that they find. They can be found inside, outside, on cars, in bushes, in the trash and anywhere else one might find something. I have become addicted to it. Some of the objects make me wonder what the writers life must be like. I really like the notes that are being written by two people, probably in a class or in a meeting because it reminds me of some of the strange notes I have written to people in those situations. While there are not too many of those, there are some rather hilarious finds such as these two:

Then there are the terribly depressing ones in which I hope the writers found some sort of peace in the end. One of the most poignant ones for me was found at an elementary school and was probably written by one of the students. Some child is wise beyond their years. I leave you with their note.

Personality Test

2008-10-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

This is rather spot on. The two things I disagree with are that I tend to delegate rather well and I will fight back when confronted.

Your result for The LONG Scientific Personality Test...

ISFJ-The Protector

You scored 45% I to E, 53% N to S, 38% F to T, and 16% J to P!

The protector type is called such because you feel your life is best used to protect those you love from the pitfalls of life, to see to their safety and security. You belong to the larger group called guardians. You find great satisfaction in assisting the downtrodden. You are not talkative with strangers, but you can chat tirelessly with those you trust. You have a good solid work ethic. You are thorough and very likely frugal. You do not like to be in a place of authority, and will delegate poorly if forced into a lead position. You share your type with 10% of the population.

As a romantic partner, you are generous and gentle. Occasionally you may be taken for granted because of this fact. You are tireless in providing acts of service for your loved ones. You run the risk of always being exhausted because you won't say no to your partner. You are sensitive to criticism and will withdraw rather than fight back. You wish to be appreciated for your loyalty and whole hearted nuturing. Your values must be respected and you thrive on consideration and kindness.

Your group summary: Guardians (SJ)

Your Type Summary: ISFJ

Take The LONG Scientific Personality Test at HelloQuizzy

Premium Desserts

2008-09-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

I know I am a chocolate snob. I admit it freely. When you let fine chocolate melt in your mouth, it is creamy, velvety, smooth and a whole host of other things all at once. There are different complex flavors and aromas. It's a beautiful thing. When out at a restaurant, I know that they will not use premium ingredients, and that is not a great issue for me until you are going to charge me premium prices. Don't try to sell me a $12 slice of cake that has the complexity of a Costco cake. Telling me the baker slaved away between the lunch and dinner shift to make these cakes does nothing for me aside from making me think of what a rush job it might have been.

I had a cake tonight that was described as this wonderful confection full of intense flavors and textures. The fact that it was chocolate made it even more exciting. The slice of cake I was given was presented beautifully, but that was its only high point. First, the baker needs to figure out the difference between whipped cream, ganache and mousse because whatever the heck the two layers of white filling were on top of the cake was none of these, unless it was a mixture of the three. I am assuming there was a dark chocolate layer of cake, and on top of that was a milk chocolate layer of cake, both of which had no flavor. Here's a hint: Dutch Processed Cocoa has much more flavor than the Hershey's cocoa that was being used. Yeah, I can pick out the cocoa they used. There was alcohol somewhere in the layers, but as always, it was used as a way to moisten a dry cake, so you really get that alcohol flavor. Then there was the white stuff that was taller than the two layers of chocolate cake on top of each other. The chocolate shavings were off a Hershey's bar or something because there was only a sugary flavor to them, and the tissue paper thin shavings did not melt between my fingers. That's not normal. Somehow, they screwed up cream cheese frosting because the stuff that had been piped on top of the cake and the sides was grainy. Here's the kicker: The chocolate syrup drizzled over the cake was Hershey's Syrup from the bottle! While this does fool many people, it does not fool me.

To sum this tirade up, if you want sub-par confections, use sub-par products. If you want premium confections, use premium products. It's as simple as that.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some chocolate chips to go suck on. At least they are Ghiladelli.

Pho sho!

2008-09-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

I got a couple of big hoorays to give out:

Hoory to my sister! It's her birthday today. She's my favorite sister.

Hooray to Michele and Ken! They should be welcoming a new baby boy into there arms and hearts today.

Hoory for pho... Yeah, I know it is no where near as big of a deal as births and birthdays, but some days it really makes it for me. Today was the kind of day I did not want to get up for. I rolled around in bed until I only had 20 minutes to get ready. This has been happening a lot lately, and it is not a good sign. As the day wore on, I was about to go out to my car and nap, but I got a message that Michele was in labor. That perked me up, then the boys in the office wanted to go grab lunch, so I got some pho.

So now I am munching on pho and waiting to find out what how our newest CM baby is doing.

Cutest Cards Ever Week!

2008-08-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

"Such cute cards, such cute cards." (sing-songy voice) That is me tooting my own horn. I am working on what my horn sounds like because "toot, toot" does not really bring images of cuteness to mind. Tonight I made a baby shower card for my original babysitter. She's the person who taught me that ranch dressing on pasta was one of the best foods. I taught her to never let a 4 year old pour their own juice. She watched me bring the juice over my head to pour, and then watched me tip backwards because it was much heavier than my 4 year old self could handle. My mother has explained that apple juice does not really ever come out of carpeting. Yeah, she will never live that one down. This one's for you, and your old Billy Idol poster. It was rawsome!

Rainy Days and LOTR Marathons!

2008-08-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes me want to be crafty more than rainy weather. I love the rain, and when there is a Lord of the Rings marathon on, I can really get my craftiness on. My only issue with movies like this are that so many animals are killed in the battles. Why we feel the need to drag animals into battle, I will never know. They did not ask for it, and it is not their battle. I digress. Hopefully my former boss does not read this blog because this is his card, and I don't want the surprise to be ruined. I used a photo of him as a child for the inspiration behind the card.

Now I have 2 baby cards to make in the next couple of days, and the ideas I have for them are amazing! Good thing this rainy weather is going to hang around for a few more days!

Here It Is!

2008-08-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

**Warning** **Spoilers Ahead**
If you don't want to see what the invites look like to a certain wedding, turn back now!

Prom Dress Prints has officially given its first customer their customized order! At first, I had spread it out over many weeks, a few cuts here and a hole punch there, but the closer the deadline got, the more I feared I would not get the product out. In the final week, I would come home from work, fix dinner and get to the invites. I did not go to bed before 1am that entire week. I had miscalculated some numbers, so that required doing another mini-assembly line to get those put together. I went through 4-5 different adhesives before I settled on one, which happens to be the same adhesive I started scrapbooking with 9 years ago. Good old Pioneer double stick tape! The only time I used another type of adhesive was for the cover letters because double stick tape takes way too long to work with. A few nights too late, a coworker did offer his help, but it had gotten to the more intricate of tasks, and I feared he would not do well. My mother on the other hand, was helping me until 2am on the very last night, putting everything together as I printed out the last items. Thanks mom! I promise that when this company takes off, you will be my head creative consultant and eyeballer. To make a long story short (too late!) I pulled together 200+ invites. Here they are:

Did you really think I was going to let you see all the invite information? Haha!

Working Photo

2008-08-18T09:24:00.001-07:00

Here is the first photo from the wedding invitaion creation.

The white things in the bag are 144 letters for the covers. The four bags with red rectangles are 138 invitations, there is a bag with black stuff in it, which would be 138 black ribbons and 33 more invitations. The big metal rectangle on the table would be my super fabulous paper cutter which saved my life. I packed it in my luggage, so I was rather sure that security would go through it. If they did, I could not tell.

More to come tonight now that my life has settled.

I lied.

2008-08-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

No photos today. Too darn busy.

Down to the Wire

2008-08-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here I am. So close to the finish line of the wedding invites. One more night, and I am done. One more trip to the Michael's, and I am done. One more of those "lift you up and triumph over all" movie marathon.

Tomorrow, I hope to post photos. Today, I hope to change the course of my life and put out the first profitable order from Prom Dress Prints!

Dehydrated Broccoli

2008-08-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

I found something very interesting out today while attempting to make my lunch. I am eating a healthy diet currently to try and lose some weight and feel better. This means that I am not eating as much food as I am used to, and thus I treasure every little bit of my meals. Today's lunch: 6oz baked potato, 2 oz low-fat cheese, and 1 cup of broccoli. Due to the fact that our new office has that itty bitty problem where you cannot run two microwaves at once, along with the fact that I am way to energy conscious to use two, I stuck the broccoli and potato in the microwave together. After 3 minutes on high, I got all excited to eat my steamed broccoli only to find that my 1 cup of broccoli was now 1/3 of a cup of broccoli tops. It was a sad moment when I realized that broccoli was full of water and could be dehydrated to this point. It was one of the most pathetic things I have ever witnessed, and I am sure that anyone walking by the lunch room thought my body language was the most pathetic thing they had ever seen. For some reason, food that is bad for you stays moist and fresh in the microwave while the healthy stuff disappears.

Note to self, 3 minutes on high in the microwave is too much for broccoli.

I Have Issues

2008-07-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

1. Cannot read or see movies about scary, supernatural things
2. Must wash hands numerous times in the day because they feel dirty
3. Must wear nylons with heels because I cannot stand the feeling of my feet in the shoes
4. I will not eat at potlucks because I do not know how clean their house is or how often they wash their hands. I will eat your food if I have been to your home and watched you prepare food or have seen your cube day in and out, and there is a cleanliness factor to it

I mean, they stretch on and on. There are some that stem from me wanting perfection and that is what this current blog is about. Prom Dress Prints (I have got to register that name), is working on its first big account. By big, I mean more than 100 wedding invitations. The bride and I collaborated on the design, colour scheme, font and overall look of the cards. When most people start their first designs, they are crafty, but not overly intricate. Not so with me. I cannot give away the look, but they have a booklet form, fancy lettering, some cute little humorous touches and what I hope represents the bride and groom very well.

It has been overly warm in Salem as of late, which means I am all sorts of sweaty. I don't like being sweaty to start with, but it makes it even more difficult to make cards. I want the invites to be so perfect, that one little mark would tip me over the edge. I have been waiting ever so patiently, and my time has finally come. The weather has turned to overcast and cold, and blankets are a required evening item when I work. If the weather keeps up, I will have them done before the week is out.

This first project has taught me a number of things, but the most important one is that I cannot have a card making shop unless I can keep an internal temperature of 68 degrees at all times in the place. I was not made for warm weather.

Back to the Food

2008-07-03T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well, the most depressing food related thing has happened to me. I have been having issues with produce going bad rather quickly up here, but never stopped to think about it. Then last week when I was at the store with Carl, I asked him to get a bag of spinach but to make sure that it would not expire in a day like the last bag I got. He was able to dig through and find one that expired in two days! Oh boy, what a deal. For the amount of money we now pay for produce, I would hope that we could get it to the grocery store in a timely fashion. When I bought strawberries two weeks ago, they were rotten in 4 days, which just made me mad. This week, a few days after I bought the strawberries, I was already looking at rotten berries. It was really making me mad, and then I discovered the issue. I am used to living in CA where everything is grown and you can buy fresh fruit along every highway. Looking at the strawberry package I realized that these berries travel all the way from Monterey County, California all the way up to Salem, Oregon. There are at least 3 days of travel time in there on top of what ever amount of packaging and truck loading and off loading time. You don't want me to even start on the lettuce.

I will be checking out the Farmer's Market this Saturday, and I am hoping to have a healthier selection of produce.

Hello Lady.

2008-06-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

This one is short and sweet. This is my new ride:

The Trip to Salem

2008-06-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I feel as though I finally have time to write about the trip up here because I did take photos for the purpose of posting them. Tahoe and I started the drive at about 1pm that Monday. We drove straight through to Redding where I stopped for gas before we headed over the mountains. It was as though the gas station were reading my mind when I came upon this dispenser in the bathroom:
I have always wanted to buy a "Love Kit" in the bathroom of a gas station, but alas I did not have the money. Actually I did have the money, but I am sure there is a little bell inside the store that goes off when someone purchases one of the items so that the store clerks can look at you as you exit.

After being pulled over for exceeding the speed limit by 14 mph, I decided to take the Trailblazer and do just that: blaze the trails! Tahoe also needed a water break and since she is the dog she is, she would only drink Kelley and James approved water for the entire trip.

From there, we had a lovely view of Mount Shasta:

After that, I was so hell bent on getting to Salem because at Oregon speeds, that would be 55 mph on I-5 when you are in the middle of nowhere, I was not going to pull in until midnight. We stopped at a few rest stops, and Oregon has some of the most beautiful rest stops, but Tahoe prefered to get out on the side of the highway. Whatever.

The next morning, Tahoe and I settled in with the two suitcases, convection oven and TV. Tahoe got very excited that she has a place with so much carpet, and felt the need to rub herself all over it. After that, she settled down and took her place in front of the window, which is where she stayed for the next two days.

A few days later, the sun came out and I have been enjoying afternoons that look like this:

Salem Living!

2008-06-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

The first week in Salem has not been too tough. Tahoe and I pulled into Salem at 11pm on Monday night after 11 hours in the car. Tuesday, we woke to some misty weather, but it did not stop us from unpacking the car and breaking open the boxes of clothes. I went to Target to fill my kitchen cabinets, stopped at a furniture store and walked out of there with a sofa, loveseat, oversized chair and ottoman. We headded up to Portland to hang out with the family up there and came back to Salem that night. Wednesday was ho-hum, but the cable and internet were hooked up that morning, so at least we were not left to watch Toy Story and Emma for the third time each. Back to Portland that night and back to Salem after that. My moving truck arrived early on Thursday, along with all the boxes and the usual headaches. I was never told by the company that they did not take American Express, so my coporate account was a no go. James and Tony were so nice about everything and they even waived the stair surcharge I was never informed about. Thursday, Friday and most of Saturday were spent going through boxes. My furniture arrived on Saturday and the family came over and enjoyed a quick game of Mario Party 4. So far today, Tahoe and I have set up my room and she has napped the day away while I watch the boats go by on the river.

These are some lazy days. That's why I have to go to work tomorrow.

And, I'm Off!

2008-06-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

In about two hours, I will be off to Salem. I had originally wanted to make the trip over 2 days, but this weekend was kind of wild and I just want to get some rest at my own place tonight. Tahoe is going to have so much fun!

Saturday was Shirts Designed by Lisa Day!

2008-06-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

Somehow, both of the events I designed shirts for over the last few months happened to fall on the same day. There were two sets of people at the events, so only Kelley had both shirts on that day. I should have had both as well, but there was a mix-up for Doggy Dash and I was left without a shirt.

Doggy Dash Shirts
Our team name was Mutts and Some Humans, or M*A*S*H*. This was the theme we wanted to work from, so I picked out Army Green shirts and a stencil font to make the whole thing really come together. The SSPCA had them printed up, but I was the designer. I hired a male model for the picture. Don't you wish your boyfriend was buff like mine?

Bachelorette Party Shirts
I designed these using a website called http://www.takeouttees.com/. This style shirt was made for all the girls except the bride, and it had their last name across the back in a team like fashion. The bride wore a matching pink tank that said "Sexy bride to be" on the front, and "Last night of freedom" on the back.

Could it Have Been Any More Upsetting?

2008-06-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I said goodbye to the office I have spent the last 1.75 years hanging out in. It is the first job that I left not because I could not stand it anymore, but because I am needed elsewhere. It was hard to pack up my cube, I shed a lot of tears in there on Friday and went through many tissues. We had a great blueberry, lemon, almond, oatty dish for breakfast and sandwiches from Ike's for lunch. If you have ever had an Ike's sandwich, let me know and I will take you the next time I am in town. My biggest tears came out when I was presented with my going away gift, it's bringing tears to my eyes now, and the kind words that everyone said to me. The team went through my shopping list of kitchen gear at Target and gave me a bunch of things to start my new kitchen out. Whenever I cook, I will think of my team!

Since it was my last day, I thought it would be the perfect day to try to make the Summer Berry Shortcake from Martha Stewart again. The last time, following the recipe in the magazine, it was messy and weak. The whipping cream just oozed everywhere, the biscuit on top broke and I forgot the raw sugar on top which made it bland. This time around, I scaled back on the berries, used half the cream and had a food processor this time so the biscuits came out pretty close to perfect. I think next time, I will whip the butter into either firm peaks, or close to butter because it would help hold the berries and the top on better without all the oozing. It has to be assembled right before you eat it, so there I was in the "kitchen" whipping up cream and macerating cherries. Photos of course.

It was delicious!

What to do When it is 102 Out!

2008-05-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

I don't do hot weather. Most of the folks I know are not about to turn their air conditioner on, so I am subjected to going out into the world to find a cool spot. Carl and I came home on Friday night after a wonderful tapas inspired dinner with friends, to find the house was about 90 degrees. To make matters worse, this was at midnight and our poor dog Tahoe was overheating. Our first order of business was to open the entire house up, move some pads from the back of the el Camino onto the back porch and sleep outside. I have the bites all over to prove it. At 5am, I woke Carl up and we headed inside to close the house up and turn the AC on in hopes of cooling the house for the day. As the heat started penetrating the AC, we headed out to meet Mr. Blake Walter Hurst. He's terribly cute and a conversation with his parents always leaves my face hurting from all the smiling and laughing. This kid is truely blessed. Knowing that we had a lot of furniture shopping to do (outfitting an apartment kind of sucks), we said our so longs and headed out on the road. I am rather sure I will not be purchasing a couch in the near future. They're kind of expensive.

After the fruitless furniture expedition, we went to the new Cycle Gear (good stuff for motorcycles) to hook Heather and Charles up with helmets for when they ride on Charles' new Vespa. When you are in Cycle Gear, there is nothing more fun than trying on lots of helmets and posing in touristy photos.

I had not had enough of Blake's family, so on Sunday I went and hung out with them for another 5 hours and Carl joined me at some point in there. He and Andrew watched the Le Mans race while Shannon and I met Fiona down the street. She's a cute little rescue dog and once she becomes comfortable with people, she's going to be a little bundle of fun.

This blog wasn't about crafts, but I thought I should throw in something to make me seem normal.

Meeting Marc Acito

2008-05-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

Last night, I forced Carl to drive me out to San Francisco to meet Marc Acito. I shall reference my last blog because he would be the person who wrote "Attack of the Theater People", so for those of you that have not read the blog, he is one of my favorites writers. Carl drove like a bat-outta-heck (this is a family blog, so the language has to be nice), and we managed to make it from Sac to SF in under 1.5 hours. I really wanted to make it to this reading. Kana met up with us, since she was the first person I had ever recommend Marc's first novel to. Marc was hilarious, personable and very sweet. The reading was great, and it included two musical pieces sung acapella (not sure if that is spelled right) by him with some commentary and jokes thrown in. We found out that his copy editor was a bitch and changed some of his wording around, which really tripped him up as he was reading. In case you read this Marc, I agree with you and not the copy editor. After the reading, he took questions and spoke about why he was not writing screenplays instead of novels. We had a lovely person walk in off the street and give us a charming rendition of Johnny Cash's "Boy Named Sue". Downtown SF, I do love you! I explained to Marc that I would be moving to Salem and he gave me a list of things I have to check out in Portland so that I can find my people once I get there. He does have a play debuting in Portland titled "Holidazed" which I cannot wait to drag Carl, Jesse and Melissa to. He was fabulous to meet and I cannot wait to check him out again when he is in Portland. Here is a photo of us from the evening. There was a better photo of me, but Carl and Kana had their eyes closed, so just ignore me.

Carl, Kana and I grabbed some dinner at Lori's Diner afterward and had a great time. I just love a good Thursday night in The City!

Summer Reading, Why Do I Love You So?

2008-04-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

I still live in that childhood idea that summer is my time and no one can take that away from me. It does not belong to my teachers, coaches or my homework. There was a time when I was not a slave to the clock, but I had to grow up at some point and get a job. One of these days I will find out that I am an heiress, and will not have to worry but until then, my summer vacation will take place after 5pm on weeknights and all day Saturday and Sunday. Summer is when I do all of my reading. I will read about a book a month through the rest of the year, but summer is when I knock out 8-10 books. Nothing too serious because that is better left to the winter months in my mind, but nothing so light as to feel stupid. The very first book for my summer reading will be Marc Acito's, Attack of the Theater People, the follow up to How I Paid For College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater. Attack has been on the shelf for 3 days, magically it came out on Earth Day, and I have yet to get a copy into my hot little hands. I am dragging Carl and Kana to a book reading and meet and greet next Thursday in SF, but that has very little to do with the book. His first book was easily one of the funniest books I have read, and it was very affordable at $9.95. If anyone would like to borrow said book, please let me know. I buy them in bulk because I give them as gifts and they tend to not come back if I loan them out. Strange, yes, upsetting, no.

Next on my list would be David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames. My mother used to tell me about this book she was reading titled Me Talk Pretty One Day and it made no sense to me. Why did she think this guy that was referred to as "The Rooster" was so funny when all he did was swear? We were not allowed to swear, so I could not believe that my mother would think this was a funny trait in anyone else. I never gave the book or author another thought until the first semester of my sophomore year in college, when the teacher assigned us Naked and very cheesily I say this: it changed my life. I immediately collected every single book he had ever contributed to. I download all the NPR segments he had done, my favorite being the first short story he ever read on NPR about his days as a Macy's Christmas Elf. I have since recommend his books to anyone that would listen to me ramble on about how creative, witty, funny and touching his work is. I wrote a paper on a short story about the death of his mother, which happened to be one of the best papers I ever wrote. The only time I wrote better was my Anthropology papers, but those are numbers and scientific evidence, not interpret what the author was meaning when they gave you the formula to find out the approximate age of a set of bones based on the length of a femur. His next book will be out on shelves June 3, so I will be making a trip out to the bookstore that day because I will have two weeks off before I start my next project for work and I am going to cram as much reading into those days as possible. See you in the stacks!

Indulgence Stopped in its Tracks.

2008-04-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last night a little after midnight, I crawled into bed with a little box that I hoped would hold big delights. In one hand was the box and in the other was a small fork. The box contained something I have never had, but had heard about often. It was a Princess Cake from Ettore's, which is a three layer vanilla sponge cake filled with raspberry preserves and pastry cream. Then it is covered with whipped cream and covered with smooth marzipan. It was a slice from a cake that looked just like this: The cake was moist and the crumb was amazing. The smooth layer of raspberry melded with the whip cream (my favorite) and delivered the perfect hint of flavor over the vanilla cake. It was heavenly. It was deadly. It was almost sinful. I had saved the best part for last. Marzipan is one of my favorite confections because it is not only tasty, but pliable and easy to make into many different shapes. It's also very smooth when made right. There I was in bed having finished the cake off and ready to delve into the marzipan. One bite of the marzipan ruined the experience. It was gritty and tasted like someone had dropped some lime flavor in it. I have never had marzipan taste or feel like that, and I have had some inexpensive marzipan before. It got me to wondering how hard it would be to make a princes cake that included all the wonderful elements of their cake and a fabulous marzipan that would not make a person gag. This is going to be my next big project as I know it will not be easy at all. I have worked with marzipan before, but never on a grand scale or rolled out. Once I complete my trials, I will need some tasters.

One More Reason to Think I'm a Dork.

2008-04-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

I make cards. Not the kind you print on a computer or just throw some stickers on. I make full fledged cut-the-paper-out-to-create-the-scene or combine as many different elements as I can to make the most perfect invitation. This would be an example of the one that I cut: Aside from the ship, which is a sticker, everything on there was hand cut. The sun, the clouds, the waves and the borders were all my own finger cramps. The card is plain white, but I cut paper to make sure the back ground matched perfectly. This was the card for Boss's Day. I am sure you can figure all the symbolism out. Slightly stormy waters with clouds, but the sun is peaking out just as a reminder that although the storm may get rough, our boss would help us until the sun came out again. There is a really great commercial out right now for HP. Gwen Stefani stars in it and talks about how you cannot turn creativity on and off, and when it calls to you there is this overwhelming feeling to create. I completely agree with her on this. I will stare at a blank card for 2 hours, do house work, watch a lot of movies, and the moment the inspiration hits, I am at my craft table crafting away. I don't remember how long it took me to think up the next card, but when it came to me I was over the wall about it. This card was also cut by hand, but those elephants were from a stamp I purchased for these cards in particular and embossed with black embossing powder. A little distressed ink on a stamp gave me the decoration on the orange paper. This was an invitation to a Bollywood Meets Africa party my boss threw for our team. Inside, there was a belly dancer which brought all the components together. It was fabulous. Each card has my logo on the back, a black embossed dress with an eyelet through the flower, and my company name "Prom Dress Prints". I need to take photos of that as well. I have made a lot more cards, but I never take photos of them. Silly me. My current project is wedding invitations, and I am excited about the path they are taking. The bride and I will be getting together tonight and hammering out some of the last details. It's an amazing opportunity, and I am so glad I got the chance to do it. I will post photos of those later.

Why am I so Excited?

2008-04-12T13:23:00.000-07:00

I got a package this week that I was really excited to see when it arrived. I have not had the time to open it all week, so here I was on a Saturday morning just bursting at the seams to open it. I grabbed my butterfly knife and took to the packing tape as though it were my worst nightmare. In that box was a lot of packing materials, but one I dug into the box there was a mini icing spreader, a paring knife with a cutting board, a scraper and the two things that I was most excited for: mini fluted cake pans! I had ordered these from the outlet section of Pampered Chef and I feel like I won the lotto at the price they were selling those items at. If you have been wondering what the new additions to my baking supplies look like, here is the photo of them. All I can envision is 12 mini white chocolate pound cakes being given as gifts to my coworkers. Or perhaps, they will decorate the table at another party I throw or attend. I just don't know becuase the possibilities are endless! The directions were probably the funniest part. You have to season them by baking really fatty foods in them the first couple of times. Their idea is to bake some crossiants or cresent rolls from the store, you know they are talking about Pillsbury which makes those things even less desirable now, as the first items. Hmmm. I guess I am going to tear the things apart to get them to fit right in the pans so that even seasoning can take place. Next time, they should just tell you to throw a stick of butter in each pan because that would melt, evenly fill the cups and probably be a bit healthier for all those involved.

The other exciting addition to my life would be these little ladies: The one in blue is the E! Barbie wearing a Badgley Mischka design and super fake eyelashes. The one in black would be the Stolen Magic Barbie. I don't even know how many Barbies I have now colected, but I do know that when I get a house, I will have to have a room to display them in because they are taking over and I don't have enough cases for them. Before anyone thinks I am some crazy Barbie collector, just know that I only collect certain dolls for very specific reasons and you should never try to buy me one unless you have seen my list. I am very picky about them.

Monkey Cupcakes!

2008-04-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

For my first blog, I thought I would show everyone my fabulous cupcake making skills. A friend at work had a recipe for monkey cupcakes and she was dying to try it, but never had the chance to. When it came time for her baby shower, the baby's room is monkey themed, I jumped at the chance to make these for her. For my first try I followed the directions. I did white cake from the box (I was following directions), regular chocolate frosting, plain M&M's for the eyes, Nilla wafers and Nutter Butters that were cut in half and then sperated. White cake from the box is always bland, so I was not very impressed with them. The next time I made them, I made Devil's Food Cake cupcakes from scratch, peanut butter M&M's for the eyes, dark chocolate frosting, and after cutting the Nutter Butters in thirds, I used the ends and kept them together. The peanut butter M&M's were everyone's favorite upgrade. Since I was traveling to the location of the party, I did not assemble them completely before I got there. I put the ears on when I got to the destination because they can be rather heavy and can fall off the head. The next time I make them, I will try something like black bottom cupakes.