great children or kids birthday party idea in the Baltimore area — Cupcake Decorating Party!

 

 

 

I have had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Sandra Long, the owner of Charm City Cupcakes in Baltimore.  We were talking and she told me about all that her store offers and children’s birthday parties was one of them!  Most places will charge you an arm and a leg for their own pizzas, drinks and snacks.  At Charm City Cupcakes you can bring your own party with you — just show up with the children!  Look at there adorable cupcakes:

I cannot wait to take my kids to the Mommy and Me Cupcake Decorating Class!
“Here is what her website says about her cupcakes:

Whether we are baking from our Charm City Classics or from our Gourmet Specialty Menu–the result is simply extraordinary. Forever passionate, we like to say we are simply about cupcakes–most say we are simply the best!

Led by the top pastry chefs in the Eastern region, Charm City Cupcakes believes in first things first–our cupcakes must always taste amazing. Baked daily with the freshest ingredients the real bonus is they are the most breathtaking pieces of dessert–most of us just stare in amazement before the first bite.

Offering over 65 tempting cupcakes for special days and everyday, the celebrated and award-winning chefs of Charm City Cupcakes presents you with endless possibilities!

Join us as we celebrate the launch of Charm City Cupcakes’ Cupcake Decorating 101 and Mommy/Daddy & Me classes!! Classes are held at 3215 N. Charles Street in Baltimore, Maryland. Call (410) 889-8080 to talk with Sara our class coordinator! ”

Dollar Store Decorating — Fake flowers

My house could be filthy, but if I have some flowers in a few vases, some cute pillows, music playing and a candle burning — I can remain clear headed.  Right now, my floors need to be desperately washed.  There is about 3 lbs of hair on the floor of my master bathroom from my husband cutting his hair, his beard,and our boys’ hair.  I think it’s been there for 5 days or something.  I’ve created a natural tint to my storm door with the dog’s slobber and the kids hand prints.  The area rug in our living room had to be pulled up because the dog vomited 10 times over the weekend  with much of it landing on my rug.  My furniture just looks like it’s kind of floating in my living room.  Let’s not talk about the state of my dishes and the rest of the house.  But right now?  I’m looking at my pink flowers and all is well with my soul.  I’m also listening to music and sipping coffee.  Go ahead and add that to the top of my list with the filthy house happenings.

Fresh flowers are expensive.  The only reason I’m currently looking at live hot pink roses is because yesterday was Valentine’s Day and my husband loves me.  Usually I’m looking at my dollar store flowers WHICH I LOVE.  

How many of you knew that your local dollar store has fake flowers for $1 a bunch?  Let me show you what I do around the house with these cheap flowers thrown into mason jars that bring me such happiness:

$2 Dollar Store flowers in a mason jar.

$3 worth of Pink fake roses from the Dollar Store on my Dining Room table in a Mason.

 

I bought this pretty pale pink flower at Target.  Not $1 but not much more.

Flowers purchased by my Valentine on my desk

Notice a trend?  Pink flowers make me happy.  And it doesn’t have to cost much to make your house pretty, either.

DIY sugar scrub. Or “mud scrub”

my picture of the scrub I just made:

 

I’m so glad there are smart people on-line who make up stuff so that I can enjoy my life more.  Thanks to this cool chic, I just made a delightful coffee scrub for the shower.  She says here about the benefits of caffeine on your body:

“What is Mud Scrub you ask.
Well, basically it’s a sugar and coffee scrub.

I love it!
Especially because the coffee has such great benefits for your skin.
Coffee and Caffeine are showing up all over in beauty products due to their tightening and antioxidant effects on the skin.

Caffeine, works on skin in the three primary ways:
as a vasoconstrictor, an antioxidant, and a diuretic.

Applied topically caffeine helps to redistribute fat cells and decrease the formation of cellulite. It also acts as a vasorestrictor, tightening and shrinking blood vessels thereby helping eliminate varicose veins.

Guess what! It can make you feel more alert too,
because you associate the smell with the invigorating effects of drinking coffee.
(It’s a learned response.)”

A simple, easy and awesome Play-doh recipe

I got this here and from Pinterest. This recipe is perfect.  I added neon blue food coloring and a few drops of peppermint essential oil.  My little guy is going to be in heaven when he wakes up.  I made this in 10 minutes while on a conference call.

New Reads for 2012 and some past from 2011.

 

Right now I am reading such a great, inspiring and challenging book:  7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.  It’s phenomenal and funny.  I highly recommend it.

Chad and I, with our small group at church are reading:  The Meaning of Marriage:  Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God.  It’s chapters are lengthy, but it’s really good and gets right to the tough questions and issues that real marriages face.

I just finished the book Seriously, I’m Kidding by Ellen Degeneres.  It wasn’t good.  I love Ellen.  This book was written almost like a joke but a not very funny joke.  She had a chapter title like “my political views” and the chapter was one paragraph long and went something like this:  ”I have some political views and let’s just say that.  What kind of weather are you having today?  I love black beans.  I especially love black beans on tacos.  I’ve got to go to work now!”  Really.  I’m usually really easy on Ellen but this book was HORRIBLE.  A 6 year old could have gotten through it in 3 days.

I also recently finished A Place of Yes by Bethenny Frankel.  I don’t know if anyone is familiar with Bethenny, but she is a natural foods chef and has her own reality show.  She’s funnier than funny.  She also sells products on the “Skinny Girl” line.  I love her Skinny Girl White Cosmo’s and the daily vitamins and detox all natural cleansers.  This was one of my favorite reads of the year.  She gives excellent business and life advice from a worldly perspective and it was very good.

Now, this next read is truly one of the funniest although inappropriate at a lot of times book of mine for 2011.  Tina Fey’s Bossypants.  Read it, but don’t tell too many people that I told you to  She has hilarious stories from her childhood up through later adulthood and they are funny.  FUNNY.  

I’m also currently Kindling with Give Them Grace:  Dazzling You Kids with the Love of Jesus,  Loving the Little Years and The Hunger Games.

Books that are on my shelf to read are:  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Organized Simplicity (always and again), Pride and Prejudice, The Joy of Less and Unstuff Your Life.

I’m currently going through an on-line club with other ladies called “Good Morning Girls” as we go through the book of Ephesians.  I’m also memorizing Psalms 1.  

Don’t Yell at Your Kids — Be a “Scary Whisperer”

Why everyone needs their own little home office.

I work from home.  But there have been plenty of times that I haven’t and I still needed my “space”.  Some people these days are calling them “mom caves”.  Well, I like my little cave

This place should or could be your space to be creative, to pay bills, a place to surf the internet, plan your date night, write to your friends, organize online pictures, eat a snack and surf Pinterest…..you follow me.

My office space is forever changing.  I’m going back to the idea of an “Inspiration Board”.  I love my Pinterest account so much I’d like to have some of that hanging in front of me.

I don’t have a separate room of the house, not even a place that’s extra pretty or quiet.  My space is the back of my dining area next to my dog’s crate.  Ha.  I have a big printer on the floor that I always accidentally kick and send into printing mode.  It’s very fun.  It’s also nothing magical, but I make it mine.

Here is my little unperfect forever changing and not-yet-finished-being-painted “home office”….

aren’t the unpainted parts and the cords extra lovely?  I’ll figure something out for that soon.

And I needed something to hold extra papers and such so I took a cheap black tray table and put a pretty white serving platter on top to make it more “me”.  This works for now.

 

Is anyone else with me on feeling like they need something like this, even if they aren’t technically “working”?

New Month, New Year, New Loves!

I’m with many people in that I love setting goals and I love the idea of forming new habits.  I don’t often follow through with them, but it is fun to buy the new notebooks and record them all nonetheless  

Chad and I looked back on our last year and we recounted the good times we’ve had as a family and a couple.  We made notes of new things we wanted to do for this year.  They are mostly the same.  Our list for the New Year looks like this:

• pay of debts, I charged a ‘lil close to Christmas.  And why does AMEX make me pay everything back all at once?  Don’t they know I need gradual entrances into things?
• write more to our sponsored child, Opungo and not just send money.
• read more, together and separately.
• take a vacation this year just the two of us and just our little family of 5.
• get plugged in to our new church.  And keep our friendships with our wonderful friends at the church we left behind which we very much still love.
• memorize scripture.
• organize and delete photos
• take the extra 15 lbs off.
• walk 30 minutes a day.
• finally get this book proposal out to literary agents.

That’s a big list but I can do it!  Forming new habits and making changes can’t come from within my own strengths, that’s partly why I’m leaning on the scripture memorization.  

Oh and one more thing:  take deep breaths, relax and enjoy my blessings.  Because they are all blessings, each and every one of them.  The trials, the sicknesses, the moments of weaknesses AND all of the joys.  Every moment I’m left crying out to the Lord for strength, healing, help and thanks, I’m communing with him and I’m in His presence.  He loves me.  There is nothing — no to-do list, no cancer, no bad day and no disobedient child (or adult for that matter) that has not first come from Him.  I want to praise Him in all.  I will not fear for tomorrow!

 

 

Really good and soft sugar cookies

*Taken from www.allrecipes.com

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the recipe for these sugar cookies.  They are the best sugar cookies I’ve tasted to date.

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in sugar. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

Oh ma word.

So my friends know that I take Lexapro.  There aren’t terrible side affects so I’m all good with the peace it brings me and my family.  I could be bi-polar honestly, but I haven’t been diagnosed.  I realize this is nothing to laugh about but it is kind of funny.  At least it’s not boring over here!

So, my meds cost about $90 to fill every 90 days.  It’s Christmas, ya’ll, meds need to wait.  Well, I cold turkey cut my meds off 2 weeks ago and have been a bit emotional but not too bad.   Until….

Yesterday Chad handed me the Kohl’s magazine thingy and asked if there was anything I wanted in there for Christmas.  I saw some kitchen items and one other thing so I told him to please hand me a pen so that I could mark it.  He just sat there and played his zombie game on his iPhone.  I asked him 2 more times and he ignored me.  So, I yelled at him and threw the magazine.  He handed me a pen and I threw the pen at him.

People.  PEOPLE.

So Camryn looks at me like I’m a freak (accept) and walks upstairs to get something.  I hear her on the baby monitor say this “Gabe, Mom’s acting like a baby down there throwing things around!”.  Gabe says “No she isn’t, sis, quit lying!”  And she says “REALLY, GABE ASK DAD!”

So after I twittered to my friends that I was crying and laughing and more crying and laughing — I decided that it was time to fill up the meds.  Merry Christmas to me!!!!!  Don’t forget to fill your medications.  Do it at least for the children.