Just To Add Humor To Your Life...

I have a new favorite blog to read, and shockingly enough it has NOTHING to do with Twilight. Well ok, so that's a little lie - I was directed to the site because of a an entry about Twilight cakes. BUT as I read it and looked it over I couldn't help but laugh my butt off!

The blog is called Cake Wrecks and is a site dedicated to the horribly hilarious mishaps of professional cakes! I honestly can't tell you if the photos are funnier, or the dialog that accompanies it.

Here's a little snip it from one of their blogs:

The Problem With Phone Orders
[answering phone] "Cakey Cake Bakery, Jill speaking! How can I help you?"

"Hi, I need to order a cake for my boss. We have a photo of him playing golf that we'd like to put on it, though - can you do that?"

"Of course! Just bring the photo in on a USB drive and we'll print it out here."

"Great, I'll bring it by this afternoon."

Later... "Hey, Jill, what am I putting on this cake?"

"Oh, check the counter; I left the jump drive out for you there." [calling from the back room]

"Really? This is what they want on the cake?"

"Yeah, the customer just brought it in." "Okey dokey!"

Believe it or not, this is a TRUE story: Elisabeth R. worked at the office in question. Besides, how could I ever make up something this good?

Oh wait it gets better - here's a look at a Halloween cookie they found:

What do colorful sperm have to do with Halloween?
(Granted, "Happy" I could see...)

Now I warn you, this site it horribly addicting, after you see one cake you have to go to the next and read the story behind it or laugh your butt at the simply stupid decoration that has wond up on a cake and you have to wonder, are people blind AND stupid....

Check it out you will not be disappointed! I'm told the baby cakes are the best but have not gotten to them yet - it's on my list of things to do today!!!

(photos and story from http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com - I claim no right to either)

The Epic Twilight Birthday Party (Part Three)

I know, I know. Bad Blogger, shame on me for leaving you hanging....right - who reads this anyway? LOL - no seriously, does anyone really read this?

Okay enough with the pitty party and onto the Twilight party photos!

So we've gone over the set up and all the details, the fantastic Forks sign, and now here's some action shots of the fun and mayhem that ensued!

Me as Bella, with "the truck"

Okay so it's not the right truck, I know - fortunately for me, my truck did arrive shortly after this photo was taken....check out Marta who one the Best Costume prize, for being dressed as Bella's Truck:

The Back of the truck, complete with license plate and bumper stickers!
And don't forget the "headlights"
As you can see bu the above photo, "Alice Cullen" also made her debut in her New Moon outfit!
And "Robsten" even showed up.....
And so did some Volturi - no that's not red eye from the camera - it's contacts! Mary Jo (on my left) was Renata - Aro's shield, and Felicity (right) was just...well creepy! LOL As you can see I'm a little scared...


Here we have Volturi, Bellas Truck, Dr. Cullen, Victoria and Rosealie

Here's the other Rosalie
It was a great night filled with fun and WINE! I snapped a few shots of the gifts that I got from all my most wonderful friends and family. I'm starting with the gifts from a friend, Melissa, who coulnd't be at the party :0(

We all saw my Happy Birthday Wish from N*Sync, right? well - here's my Happy Birthday from The Hillywood Cast - this is a photo of Melissa dressed as Victoria, with the cast, she had them all sign for my birthday!
I can now hang this next to the one they sent me for my 1 year anniversary!
As if that wasn't enough - I also got an autographed copy of Bran Hambric by Kaleb Natire (the Original Twi-Guy) sent to me from Melissa as well! (not to mention the 3 shirts for me and onsie for Ellie all Twi-related!)
And here's everything...it's insaine! Now I actually own Twilight stuff other then the movies! I have the greatest friends ever!


And that concludes the party posts! Hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed my party!

The Epic Twilight Birthday Party (Part Two)

As promised, birthday photos and party info is back.

I'm going to start off with the crown jewel of my party - the Forks sign. My husband built it, my sister painted the circle and it was quite possibly the coolest thing.

He used fence panels, cut out each individual letter and painted them, he wanted it to look authentic. While it's much small then the real sign, it is a damn good copy! (BTW, this sign is for sale if you are interested!)

Here's the real sign:
And here is my sign:
I'm being attacked my Rosalie and Renata (Aro's shield, for those of you unaware of who she is)
)

The Process for building this was a long one, it went little by little. With 2 kids and work it was hard for my husband to find time. And the circle on the sign didn't even get painted until the night before the party!

Moving on, my Jepordy board. I sadly don't think I got a good photo of this I need to put it back together and take one, until then here's me with it in the background, never mind my funny face...LOL, this was about a bottle of wine in for me.

I made 2 games, 6 categories each. On the other side of every number was a question, and I had the answers printed off in hand. We played 3 teams of 2 for each game so more people could play. The only issue we had was figuring out who got their hand up first to answer...LOL

The board is 2 pieces of black foam board with the question held on with thumb tacks. I printed the questions and numbers on regular printer paper then backed them on red cardstock for sturdiness and a better look.

To keep track of who won what, I made "Twilight Money". I downloaded ths template in the $100 note, then filled in the circle with random photos from Twilight and cast memebers.

CLICK HERE FOR PLAY MONEY TEMPLATES

I made a total of $1300 to have enough. I loved them and so did the guests!
Thoughout the night I had random games, like "do you have in your purse" for small door prizes and what not. A few things I gave away were glass red apples, Twilight Buttons, warm fuzzy socks labled "To keep you warm on cold Forks nights" and so on.

The big prizes were for the costume contest, and the 2 winning teams of Jeopardy

The 3 main gifts were themed, one Alice, one Bella and one Rosalie. Each with items those chrachters would use/like.

Bella - travel bag with all the things she would need for her "human moments", toothpaste, deodrant, shampoo ect. I also included none themed stuff like Twilight buttons and socks.

Alice - a travel bag with pedicure items in it labled "for all the hostange pedicures", also a Magic Eight Ball so they too could see the future like her, body spray and socks

Rosalie - jewelry, a mirror to look at her self in, a travel bag with body spryas, tide wipes and mini Febreeze labled "For that pesky werewolf smell" and lipstick.

Now onto the food. Of course we had Mushroom Raviolli! But as I do not like mushrooms, we also served spaghetti and meatballs! All the food was lovenly hand made by my fantastic mother in law! There was no canned sauce here!

We also had a MASSIVE veggie tray with the "Edible Art Bella?" sing near it and dog bone shaped cookies in dog bowls labled FIDO:

Tomorrow I will do Part Three, the final installment with party photos and the costumes and winners! Stay tuned!

Cousins

Don't worry, those of you looking to see part 2 of my party planning and set up, it will be back tomorrow. I just took these photos last night of Paige and Ellie with their cousin Katia and had to share them!

I don't know what we will do when all three girls are up and running, because Katia and Paige flying around last night, hopped up on frosting from my birthday cupcakes was more then I expected!

After hanging out with her cousin and little sister last night, Paige this morning asked me when I was going to have a baby boy. I told her that I wasn't sure, it's not something that I can pick, having a boy or a girl. Paige thought on it a second and then told me if I concentrated enough, next time I could have a boy!

The Epic Twilight Birthday Party (Part One)

I had more fun at my 30th birthday party then I could even begin to explain! SO it seems fitting I begin my posts about the party on my actual 30th birthday - TODAY!

I was itching to set up hours before we were even set to arrive at my MIL's to begin. Once there I went crazy, directing my husband and my sister boyfriend, Ben around having them move tables and couches so that this vision I have had for months could finally come true!

I did my research and I did find a great blog with ideas on it, where I got my printable framed signs and wine bottle labels (Thank you Hostess with the Mostess Blog)

In the end the living room became my "restaurant" and the dining room became my Jeopardy area.

Each table had a slightly different candle centerpiece, and were set with alternating black and white square plates bought at Target for $2 a 4 pack. Of course the linens were key, satin red table cloths and black satin table runners, and of course the linen napkins tied with red satin ribbon which also alternated white and black to give that "Checkerboard" feel.


The wine glasses I made were each persons favor. I printed their name in the Twilight font and taped it to the inside of the $1 wine glasses I picked up at the local dollar store, to trace.

On the other side was either a paw print, an umbrella or the words "Be Safe" in Edwards handwriting. Also printed off and taped inside to trace. I used paint markers for this, as glass paint was too difficult to be exact with and this was much faster.


I only wrapped 6 wine bottles, of the 24 we bought. All red wine, as the labels looked better on them then they did on the white wine bottles. Not to mention I was a bit worried how the label would hold up being refrigerated and what not. I printed them on a high gloss paper at KinkosFedex.

The wine was Charles Shaw (a.k.a "3 Buck Chuck", so named for it's price) from Trader Joes

On the side board I had my cupcakes and books, and my guest book along with various decorations. The guest book was a spiral bound photo album, scrapbook might be a better way to describe it. Each guest had their own page to write on. The key decoration to this was candles - everything I coudl find I lit!

The cupcakes were made by the ever fabulous Miss Sara of Miss Sara's Cakery
In the bathroom was a bottle of hand soap in the shape of an Apple, which I picked up from the dollar store. Along with that was a tin box were band aids with this note:

Along the mirror were feather boa's with this note. We wanted to make it look like it was coming out of a small pillow, but never found one in time we didn't mind ripping apart.

More to come tomorrow, including photos of the awesome Forks sign and the guests all dressed up!!!

PART TWO
PART THREE

Who Got The Coolest Birthday Gift This Year...

Okay so back in the day I was quite taken by N*Sync - who wasn't...I mean really...hello Justin! Anyway, as my birthday party was this past weekend (don't worry, photos to come) I was sad to find out one of my besties couldn't attend - but given her reason I was ok with it. She was going to work a charity golf event in Vegas with the member of N*Sync, among others.

Jokingly I told her to carry around a wrapped gift box and find Justin, and have him do the "Dick in the Box" thing for my birthday and get it on tape. Well, she couldn't get to him in time for him to do it so instead I got the ext best thing - take a peek at what Chris Kirkpartrick of N*Sync had to say to me:

How I love To Shop!

What I love more, is a great deal coupled with amazing product and even better customer service - and that is where Budget Banners Flags & Signs comes into play!

So you're thinking, "Amber, what do you need a sign of flag for?" , well what the title of her eBay store doesn't tell you is that she also makes car decals! Which is how I came across her. While searching for fun, inexpensive items for the 3 prize bags for my birthday party, I found her!

I bid on a "Twilight Girl" decal and won it for $1.75! When I received it and saw the amazing quality, I contacted her to see if she would send me some more, which she happily did! I bought 3 more from her, and she even e-mailed me back to say she was tossing in some extras for my Twi-Friends.

She has 100% positive feedback on eBay and can make you just about anything for a car decal or sign and banner for that matter! Shoot over and give her a look, if you're looking for a Twilight car decal, she's the way to go!

Ellison is 4 months old!

Ellison had her 4 month appointment yesterday with the ever amazing Dr C. She is happy and healthy and growing like a weed.

She's 13.6 lbs and 22 inches long, she still has a peanut sized head, in the 8th percentile but nothing to worry about there the doc says.

He's amazed how much she loved to sit up and be on her tummy. While I hope she won't walk as early as her big sister, at 10 months, the doc says that with the advanced way she prefers to sit and lay for her age, it's a good possibility she will be an early walker...no rest for the mommy here!

We also were given the green light to have rice cereal. She loved it. No funny faces or other issues, in fact she looked at us like "Where has this been all my life!"

Here's a few shots of her chowing down!

After the excitement of dinner, we thought we'd try on one of her Halloween costumes and see how it worked. It was a little big, but cute - and she only liked it for about 4 minutes before she became one crabby Care Bear...

It's (Almost) Time!

I know I have totally flaked out on the whole blogging thing, I'm sorry. Paige has been sick and home all last week!

To make it up here's some more details of my birthday party that is coming up on SATURDAY! I can barely contain myself I am so excited!

Let's start with the main decoration of the party, I have to say that these red satin table cloths were the main focal point of the party and everything revolves around it! I picked them out from a site called Linen Table Cloth.

They are the Rectangle 60x102 in size and were $8.99 each. I bought 3 as I plan to have 3 tables set up in the main portion of the house, and have it look a bit like a restaurant. Well and because the 20 some odd people coming certainly would not fit around one table! That's for sure!
I also picked up 3 black satin table runners to go down the middle of each table. They are14x102 in size but could be trimmed if that's too long for what you need. They don't come in any other size. I should note I also picked up a red one for the cake table.

These were priced at $2.89 and while it's not the highest quality of satin, it's a great product none the less!
As well as the satin pieces for the tables I also got the napkins from Linen Table Cloth as well, the are good quality and come 12 to a pack. I bought 2 packs, one black and one white. Each pack was $6.99 I tied them up with a piece of red ribbon (a nod to the cover of Eclipse, of course) and they look like this.

The napkins will be placed on the plate, which are also black or white...A black napkin on a white plate and so on, to give the "checkerboard" feel. The fork will be slid into the ribbon, a nod to Forks WA, of course.

NOTE: I did have quite the issue with Linen Table Cloth, when they initially sent me the wrong tablecloths, they were red, but not satin. Please know that their return policy is that they will not send you the correct items until they receive the incorrect ones back. Being that I didn't have the time to wait for all this, I went around and around with them until the agreed to ship my correct items when I provided them with a tracking number showing I shipped the wrong ones back. They are covering the shipping cost of that, by refunding it to me when they get the box. But still - I don't find their customer service to be very helpful, but for the product and the cost of them...it's ok.

In my effort to cover all the covers of the books through the party decorations I picked up on clearance at Wal Mart 2 bundles of Tulips, and a bottle of red craft paint, andything cheap will do for this project. Because of the material the flowers are made of, they dry really fast but I still needed a way to hold them up, even for their short drying time.

• I pulled the tulipd heads off, and paited along the edges and lightly in the middle of them.

• Then I took an old box, jammed toothpicks in it and set the wet tulip head on top of the tooth pick to dry (my husbands idea - he's a genious!)

When finished they look like this, I plan to use them in centerpieces and what not:
And of course the party favors...I'm doing a few things. I have glass coaster that say "Love" on them left over from my wedding last year, I'm tying them up with ribbon in sets of 2 and hanging a little card on them that says "So the Lion fell in love with the Lamb"

And of course the hand painted wine glasses: Here's a sneak peak and instructions on how to do it.

• Wine Glasses bought at a local Dollar Store for $1 each
• Print off names, or what not you want on glass and cut it out. Tape inside the glass.
• Use a DecoColor Paint Marker (pick them up at any craft store) and trace then fill in.

I found that to be the best way to do it, the paint I was going to do was not covering well and these pens work great.

Also, though you can not see it on this glass, on the pooosite side it either has a paw print, The words "Be Safe" in Edwards handwriting or an umbrella.

This is shaping up to be one heck of a 30th birthday party! Thanks to everyone helping me put it together!

Proof Woman Are Just Born This Way

Gone Too Soon.

My post today will not be filled with sarcasm or humor like they normally are. No jokes, no Twilight references, nothing perky or upbeat. I wish, with everything I have that it could be, that I'm not having to remember yet another friend, taken too soon from this life. Eerily in the same way I lost another friend 6 years ago.

Eric Yanka, husband to Gina Yanka., a wonderful long time friend of Alex's, passed away early Sunday morning the 26th of September, in a one car accident in Brained Minnesota. What makes this even sadder then it already is, is that Gina and Eric were married only 14 days prior, They had just returned home from their honeymoon days earlier.

The similarities to a car accident that killed my friend Chad Week 6 years ago are uncanny. Both men got into cars with people who they knew had been drinking, both accidents occurred in a rather rural area. Eric was on his way back to the cabin, Chad was on his way home from a cabin. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene and both, sadly were ejected from the car via the windshield. Both accidents included only the one car.

The driver in both accidents suffered injuries but survived, and in the case of my friend Chad the driver was not charged by request of his parents. In the case of Eric this will not be the case. The driver will be going away for 5-10 years, or so we have have heard.

When things like this happen it's hard to know what to say. How do you comfort a friend that just lost her husband? How do you help her know it will be alright when she will be sending out funeral notices before her thank you cards are even finished being written, when wedding presents are probably still arriving?

My heart goes out to Gina and her family. All my love!

3 Months!

It's a little behind but here's Ellison's 3 month update.

We're having a great time, laughing, squeeling, and her newest thing is trying to eat her hands! She rolls up onto her side and still hates to be laying down, so the rolling over has not been a big success yet, since we can't keep her on her back long with out her telling us about how much she dislikes it!. She just Little Miss Independent!

The sleeping through the night has stopped and we're getting up once between 3-5 each morning, but we're making it through! She goes right back to bed after her bottle and I crash out on the couch while she swings.

Here she is! Growing so very fast!

Good News/ Bad News

The Bad News is, I'm no longer going to Chicago for Twi-Tour. No meet and greets no hanging with Hillywood....nuttin'. My car decided it would be a really good time to crap out on me and all the Chicago money, went to the car....*sniff*

The Good News is my internet bestie is getting me an autographed Bran Hambric book wirtten by Kaleb Nation and a new Hillywood Autograph! Yay!

I gotta try to find the good in everything otherwise I will get all deperessed and mope about the weekend everyone is down there with out me. Chances are I will still be a little bummed during that weekend but I will make it through!

I'm also putting even more effor into planning my birthday party, details are coming together, so many fun ideas that I can do by making things myself! Prom Gazebo, Centerpieces, Place Card Holders - I can't wait!!!

On top of all that a few things I have been waiting for, forever it seems like will being happening on the 1st of October. The first is Nordstrom is releasing their New Moon clothing line, with some AWESOME t-shirts! AND Twilight Scene It comes out! Squeeee!

I know that I am a huge Twilight Dork, and I will make NO apologies for it. I love it, I love my friends who love it and the people I've gotten to meet because of it.

I'm hoping to get myself a part time job, save some $$ and take a trip to Forks with some friends next year and hit up the Con in Minneapolis next June full force!

Happy Stephanie Meyer's Day!

OME! I had a great Stephanie Meyer day, even if I wasn't in Forks to celebrate. It was also Bella's birthday (for those of you counting she would be 22 in human years having been born on Sept, 13, 1987)

What do you do on Stephanie Meyer day when you live 1842 miles away from that tiny town covered by a near constant cover of rain and clouds? You attend an awesome party is what you do!

Great friends Maggie and Liz, invited everyone over to the Twi-partment to celebrate. One Twi-mate was missing in action; Trina, something about being in New York and near the red carpet for the 2009 VMA's seemed more fun then hanging with us....*insert jealous look here*. We had her there in spirit, her photo was on the wall!!!

Highlights of the night: (in no particular order, of course)

• Maddie jumping out from behind Edward and scaring the piss out of Maggie
• Stories from Italy, particularly the ones including what a metal chair sounds like being drug across a metal patio! And learing about the places "Rob would totally eat at" (seriously I don't think I have laughed so hard in my life!
  
• "Charlie Swan" wine, "Mike Newtons", Grizzly Grahms, and dirt balls!
• Winning 1 of the 2 costume contests prizes dressed as Jessica Stanley
• The prom gazebo set up in the living room!
• The butt dance
• Bathroom Notes
• Maggie's British accent
• Peter's Table cloth (see photo)
  

I will be shamelessly stealing several of their ideas for my party coming up in October! LOL.

Here's a few shots from the night. I was working with a dying camera battery, bercause I'm an idiot and didn't charge it....I know, total fail on my part...but I got a little bit of everything!

I totally meant to snag one of these awesome cookie Maddie brought! Damn it. The cake was awesome!
Check the Gazebo.....(*cue Iron & Wine)
Broken Glass! Candles! Flowers!
Mike Newtons, Vampire Chocolate in Fido dishes!
Charlie Swan Wine in what I like to call "Maggies Wine Rack" haha!

Liz's costume malfunction - damn human...bleeding all over the place!

All The Ladies and Mr. Sparkles himself!
I would love to show you what I looked like before I was sweaty and gross and when my hair actually didn't need a bump it....but the only photo I have of me looks like total ass, so reserve the right not to post it! But as an added bonus here's Peter Facinelli's table cloth he gave to Maggie....yes he actually wrote on it with marker...I love the vampire doodle!