Thursday, February 25, 2010

Frogs and Snails...

and Puppy Dog Tails!

Why puppy dog tails!!! Even as a child I thought this was a little gruesome sounding. Just the tails? Not the WHOLE PUPPY? Seriously boys are made of Frogs and Snails and bloody hacked off puppy dog tails? SICK!

So I had an over active imagination. Still do I guess.

So on a less horrific note, I have several very close friends and one SIL who are expecting little boys in the near future. I was helping one of them out and researching little boy nursery designs to give a little inspiration. She has great style so I can't wait to see what they end up doing.

I thought I would post my findings for the rest of my friends to see. I was all over the web so I apologize in advance for not giving credit to each photographer or designer and also for not getting links. I really wasn't being very Blog-minded when I was searching.

This is a beautiful design. The Alphabet wall is gorgeous although not easily achievable without the help of a talented professional painter. Even with a more simple pattern on that wall this nursery would be sweet.

What I love about this, besides the totally adorable "laundry line", is the colors! I love the pop of the orange against that perfect shade of aquay blue. I also love the modern flare of the rocker.

Another sweet boy room. The accent wall is great and probably pretty doable by most DIYers who aren't afraid of straight lines. I love the dark wood floor in contrast with all of the white furniture and especially that lambskin rug on it. My cousin had one of those as a child and he adored it. So cuddlely!

I don't usually think baby room = dark, bold colors. However these next few rooms pull of using deep saturated colors quite beautifully. I think this is my favorite. With the tall white wainscot the rich blue is exquisite. This room could easily be a sports or car theme instead of nautical. Love it!

Okay how freaking cute are the bird cages? I mean really, I love it. And the zebra rug is also super awesome.

I am not crazy about the color combo in this room but I like the idea of the striped wainscot with a picture ledge. Tons of possibilities with this idea.

The tone on tone of this beautiful tree mural is just divine. I found it over at SimpliedBee in this post about boy nurseries (thanks for letting me borrow this great image)! Of course I adore it because of the sweet bird and especially the little nest in the branches. This nursery design is perfect if you don't know the gender of the baby. Simply add the pops of color after the baby arrives! Very simple and pretty.

Another nice neutral palette. I love the vintage car theme for little boys. So cute.

This shot shows that the stripes are actually the same color paint in different sheens. The matte and glossy paints reflect the light differently making the glossy bands seem darker. Very polished and pretty. I would love to see it in a lighter color also. A nice cream perhaps.

I love babies and nurseries! It is such an exciting time, preparing for the arrival of your little bundle. I can't wait until it is my turn. My problem will be deciding on one design. I think it will have a bird in it though! What do you think?

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Funny Florida Forecasts

It is funny that one of the things that I was worried about when we made the decision to move to Florida is that I would lose my "seasons". Cold winters, warm springs, hot summers, leaves changing in the fall. I was under the illusion that it the weather would range from 70-100 degrees every day and it would split time between sunny and rainy all year long.

Well half of that statement is true. It has basically split time between rainy and sunny (actually more sunny than rainy) but it is frickin COLD. It is 30-sumtin right now and it will barely reach 60 today.

It makes it seem appropriate that I am watching the WINTER Olympics in Vancouver. I love the Olympics. From the opening ceremony to tracking how many gold medals the US can rack up! I am super pissed that I fell asleep last night before Shaun White won gold. I tried, tried, tried to stay awake but I fell asleep on the sofa. (Eastern time zone television broadcasts are also all new to me. Everything is on sooooo late!) Apparently he landed his McTwist thingy trick that he invented. I guess that is what you can accomplish when you have a private half-pipe in Colorado to practice on. (He gets there by helicopter!) But whatever I love him!!!

I did get to see Lindsey Vonn win gold in downhill skiing. She is amazing. And that event is super scary! I was nervous the whole time. I asked my husband to change the channel actually because it was making me all tense. There were ridiculously scary crashes almost every run. These women are going over 70mph and then they hit a bad edge or, the worst, there was a really huge jump at the very end that they would fly over and they just lose it in the air and crash and burn on rock hard icy snow. They would flail down the mountain looking like little rag dolls and then just slide and slide because the mountain is soooooo steep that even laying flat on their back they wouldn't stop.

And tonight is the men's figure skating long program. I just love that Johnny Weir! So...so...how does he put it EFFEMINATE. My description has more to do with the Olympic torch but whatever. He just puts everything out there and isn't afraid to piss some people off! But so fun to watch. I just can't wait to see what he is wearing. I will be routing for the other American skater also who is in second place right now behind Plancenko (no idea how to spell that and don't care to look it up right now) the reigning champ from Russia.

So GO TEAM USA! I love my country!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

TOUCHDOWN!

Success!

Peyton Manning may not be happy about the turn out of Super Bowl XLIV but I sure am!



The decorations turned out fabulous! There was soooo much food and lots of friends. The best thing about it is all of the decorations can be recycled to use for future football parties (which we are sure to have)!

Hope you had fun as well at your Super Bowl celebrations!


Friday, February 5, 2010

Update: the Big Game plans

For future parties...things that you think will be easy to find like whistles, striped paper, little football characters etc. are not always that easy to find.

These are exactly the kinds of things that you can find when you are not looking but when you need them are NO WHERE TO BE FOUND.

That being said I did find some whistles at Party City but they are not the classic style that I would have liked. I also found black and white striped paper but the stripes are much larger than I would have liked also. I think the cupcakes will still be cute but not like I thought. I think they will look like the early 90s version of what I orignally posted.

Little football guys are my fault. I saw some at a classic toy store recently and I should have bought them. I might trek the 45 minutes over to said toy store tomorrow and see if they still have them. I MIGHT. I might just deal with my football field table cloth and forego the football men. We will see how I feel about that tomorrow.

It just makes me appreciate Oriental Trading Co that much more, as well as proper advanced planning.

I do think the party will be great!

Just thought I would share some party planning insight and lessons learned.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

the Big Game ideas

So I am not sure if I am hosting a Super Bowl party at my house as of yet or helping host at a friend's house. However, there will be football and there will be a party, somewhere, and it will be great! So I thought I would share what I was planning for menu and decorating ideas in hopes of inspiring stylish Super Bowl parties everywhere!

I myself am an avid football fan but I realize that a good deal of women are not. So if you aren't really all that interested in the game, at least you can make the party fun and interesting!

So my menu reads like this... starting with dessert!

Ref Cupcakes


I love this little cupcake! It is so cute! And simple! I am on a mission this afternoon to find some primary color whistles. Find out how to make your own here

Rotel Dip
                                      

No football party is complete without some good 'ol Rotel Dip. Some call it Queso, which is also acceptable, some call it cheese dip, which although on-the-nose just doesn't sound as appetizing to me. I call mine Rotel Dip, and I also call it delicious! It is super easy - 1 block of Velveeta cheese, 2 cans of Rotel brand tomatoes(there are varying levels of spice available to meet whatever your taste) - cut up cheese into smaller chucks, dump in rotel - either microwave in 3 minute increments, stirring in between until melted  or  put in crock pot on high until melted and then reduce to "keep warm" or lowest setting. Serve with your favorite chips! Yum! Sure to be a hit.

Mini Hotdogs

                                           

I am totally a sucker for mini food items. And I especially like to dip things. So these are perfect Super Bowl fare in my opinion. You can find the recipe at Rachel Ray 's website as well as some other really great recipe items that might float your boat.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

                                           

My husband and I have had a couple of football get togethers recently where we have attempted to make wings, and I am not really up for it again. I say attempted because for some reason the oil on the fryer has not been getting as hot as it should (350degrees) and the wings have turned out, well let's just say, not great. The first time we had a broken thermometer so my husband ended up just boiling the wings in the oil until they fell off the bone. Yummm mushy chicken that was boiled in oil, so healthy. We did still eat them but not my idea of a good eats. The second time I bought a new thermometer but the oil still didn't get above 310degrees so although the wings were able to be fried and not boiled they still weren't the super crispy delicious wings that I love and have come to expect. I mean if I am going to chow down on some chicken wings it better be worth the calorie count.

So that brings me to buffalo chicken pizza. This is a semi-homemade recipe so that you start with already made chicken tenders. (check one - no frying) It also satisfies the pizza craving (check two). And it is easy but unexpected (check three). Check it out at the Publix Aprons section of their website. If you live in FL you might have gotten this recipe in the mail along with a $5 off coupon!

The Decorations

                                    

I am planning on recreating something like this table top that I found over at hostesswiththemostess my FAVORITE event planning website. I always go to her site first when I am in need of inspiration. You can find some of the ideas and recipes that I have mentioned here on her website also. 

                                             

Yellow napkins tied with ribbon will be reminiscent of the often thrown penalty flag. I will display my penalty flags dispersed around the table as well as in a central location near the plates and flatware. I am sure at least a few will be thrown as actual penalty flags, but that is okay, as long as the thrower uses the napkin after throwing it.

So I hope that the party, wherever it may be, will be a huge success! I will share pictures after the event to let you know how it turns out!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Not Me Monday



Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama.

This week I did not shirk many a responsibility to read the Twilight saga with reckless abandon. I did not stay up so late on Sunday night reading that I needed to sleep in on Monday only to wake up and continue reading. I did not justify my incessant reading by "in the mean time" also doing laundry. I would never abuse the 85 minutes that it takes for the washer to cycle through the whites to get that much closer to the Cullens! I would never claim that this was productive. I also did not just put a pee pad down so that I didn't have to take my dog out in the rain instead of continuing to read. This did not have more to do with the rain than the actually reading however. I am not almost finished with the last book even though I purchased it on Friday. Not me.