Post Halloween Post

So it's been a few days and I just didn't get a chance to get on here to give my post-Halloween update.  We ended up having 212 kids who trick-or-treated, just a few shy of last year.  We have some candy left over which means I have a stomach-ache.  LOL. 

We didn't dress up in costumes to pass out candy, but we did put some festive ears on. 

 Every year I give my husband a little Halloween treat.  Think he liked it?

I decorate our front porch - this year hubby tore apart some pallets we got for free and made a fence which he painted black for me to decorate on the porch.  My favorite decor of course are the jack-o-jars which are SUPER easy to make!

And I finally finished my fun wreath that I made!

Thanks for looking and I hope you all had a fabulous holiday!

Happy Halloween!

I wanted to wish all of my lovely readers a very Happy Halloween! Our family tradition is to have my parents over, eat some delicious taco soup (an amazing recipe from my best friend's mother, Lori, who unexpectedly passed away a few years ago), and hand out candy to the throngs of children that flock to our neighborhood.  Last year we had well over 200 kids! Isn't that nuts!? On a side note, candy is EXPENSIVE!!!

We don't dress up to hand out the candy, but we did go to a costume party over the weekend at my amazing friend Christy's house.  It's their annual party and she is crazy creative with all of her themed food and decorations.  The hubby and I went as bikers from the movie Super Troopers (if you haven't seen this awesome comedy, DO IT NOW).

My friend Christy's husband Chad is crazy creative too and decided this year to unleash Battleshots! A play on the classic Battleship game where instead of pegs you have shot glasses (which we filled with beer, not hard alcohol).  It was crazy fun! Here is a picture of Christy (who was a princess) and I kicking the boys butts at it!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween this evening! I'll post some more pics tomorrow of my exterior design.  I'll also give a final tally of the kiddo count for tonight (yes we are super lame awesome and tally the kids as they come)! What are you doing tonight? Leave a comment and tell me!

Halloween/Fall/Thanksgiving Decor Part 2

I am so pleased with how my holiday tree turned out! I got this lovely tree courtesy of the Junior League of Riverside.  I was actually a part of the construction of the tree which we used for centerpieces for our ball 2 years ago.  It's simply Manzanita branches secured in a pot using Plaster of Paris and then spray painting the entire thing silver.  Quite easy.  At the end of the ball we had an option of a donation for the centerpiece.  You may recall I used these for my friend Caitlin's Bridal Shower which I hosted.

Anywho, I decided I will revamp the tree for each holiday (as I post them I will tag them all with the "Holiday Tree" label which you can access on the left).  This is my Halloween version! It features beads from Michael's, flower balls (you can view my past tutorial here), black paper bats made on the Cricut, spider webs from the dollar tree, black paper spiders made on the Cricut, white raffia to cover the base, pumpkin ornaments that my mother passed down to me, and some cool skeletons that were actually on a garland I got at the dollar tree.  I just cut the garland apart to make them individual ornaments.  Oh and the cool raven at the top, also from the dollar tree.  I love it so much and couldn't wait to share it with you all! Thanks for looking!! I love to read your comments, so please let me know what you think by commenting below!

You can now subscribe to my blog by email!

I know I haven't been the best at keeping up with my blog, and as a result have lost a lot of followers who were (I am sure) sick of checking back and never seeing a new post.  Well, I have 2 tidbits of good news for you! First, I am working at blogging more, so I am hopeful that there will be new material more often to keep my followers coming back.  Secondly, you can now subscribe to my blog by email (sign up by adding your email on the left) so that you can be notified when I do post something new.  This way, you won't have to keep checking back and you'll never miss a post!

I do appreciate those of you who have stuck with me.  I read each and every comment I receive and I just love getting comments.  It keeps me motivated to post more, so a big thank you to everyone reading this!

XOX
Elizabeth

Halloween/Fall/Thanksgiving Decor Part 1

My living room is all ready for the upcoming holidays and I just couldn't wait any longer to share some pics!

My mantle is all ready for Fall/Thanksgiving.  I finally finished the 3D paper pumpkins that are on top of the finials.  

And finally, the shelves over my couch have received a spooktacular makeover for Halloween! Funny story about the purple tilted candles.... those were normal purple candlesticks that I packed away in my Fall bins and put in the attic after taking them down after last year's season.  I put them in the Frankenstein vase (which you can also see in the photo).  Well, silly me didn't even consider that because it gets hotter than Hades here in Southern California, that they would melt.  So when I unpacked them the vase was on its side with the candles melted to the side of the vase and leaned over the top of the vase.  I thought it was quite perfect for the Halloween holiday.  However, I am quite worried that it won't be nearly as awesome for my Christmas candles which have also been in the attic for nearly a year.  Sigh.  LOL.

The shelves over my TV have been revamped for Fall/Thanksgiving.  Here is a before and after shot.

Most of my decor were garage sale finds, some of it was handed down to me by my mother, and very few of the items were actually purchased by me at a store or handmade.  Thanks again for looking and check back soon for more Holiday decor!

Bootinis with Friends

My husband and I are so lucky to have our dear friends Justin and Caitlin moving in just 5 houses up the street from us.  I have known Caitlin since I was born (literally) as our moms were (and still are) best friends.  We can't wait for them to be so close and are looking forward to some fabulous get togethers in the very near future!

We decided to celebrate them getting the go-ahead on renting the place with an impromptu cocktail party at our place.  Tim made some scrumptious pumpkin muffins and Justin and Caitlin were in charge of the cocktail.

Justin, a former bartender, decided upon the gourmet Bootini! It included vanilla vodka, Bailey's, Pumpkin creamer (which was a substitute for Pumpkin Liquour which couldn't be located) and some Oreo's and Gummy Worms to add a lil' pizazz! They were amazing, a must try for your next spooktacular Halloween get-together!

Yummy pumpkin cupcakes courtesy of my amazing hubby!

 Bootini!!!

All of our Bootinis ready for consumption! Thanks Justin!!

Me and Caitlin enjoying our midweek cocktails!

PS: I really just love any excuse to use my adorable Lolita martini glasses :)

Halloween Crafts

Been working on decorating the house and some fun Halloween/Fall crafts of late.  Hoping to finish them up this week and get some photos up ASAP.  Here is a sneak peek - hoping to turn this into some sort of wreath. 

I can't believe it's October already! What kinds of crafts are you guys working on for the upcoming fall holidays?

Dr. Seuss Diaper Cake

Here is a fun Dr. Seuss themed diaper cake that I made for my dear friend Amy.  Amy and her husband Nathan welcomed baby Joaquin in August and I am just thrilled for them both!

Cake includes: baby bath wash, baby shampoo, diapers, pants, Dr. Seuss onesies, Horton softie, Dr. Seuss books, socks, receiving blankets, gift card, and much more!

Thanks for looking!

Okie Dokie

Yep, once again I have gone MIA.  Well here is a brief update on me.  I left my job of 5 years back in late January.  It's been an adjustment and a sad time for me, but overall I believe it is a blessing in the long run.  It has allowed my husband and I to spend more time together and grow closer together.  It has allowed me more time to spend on my hobbies and to work towards being a domestic goddess (not even close to that yet though).  I have a lot less stress on my plate, but something that has added a bit more stress comes with the new budget of having just a single income. 

My husband and I had been talking about having children for some time now.  Since I left my job we thought it would be the perfect opportunity.  We were pleased to get pregnant during our first month of active trying (May).  Unfortunately we lost the baby at about 9.5 weeks and I had to undergo a D&C procedure on July 18th.  It has been a very trying time for us and I'm just now getting back in to the swing of things.  Although I'm still sad every day, I realize I can't hide out at home forever.  I can't ignore everyone forever.  I know that God has a plan and that it happened for a reason.  I am hopeful that we will be successful the next time we try.  I still have a break down every once in a while.  I will post more about this in another post a little later with some tips as I know that 20% of pregnancies have this result so I am sure I am not the only one going through such a tragedy. 

Without a job, I am now starting to craft a little bit more.  I will hopefully have some projects completed soon that I can share.  I will also probably share some of my new budgeting tips that I have acquired. 

Thanks for bearing with me the past few months and I again apologize.  Thanks to everyone who has stuck around and is reading this and to any new followers who have happened upon my site.  I hope you enjoy my past posts and look forward to my future posts coming soon!

Football themed diaper cake

One of my bestest friends is a huge football fan and is due any day now.  She and her husband decided not to find out the sex of their soon to be bundle-of-joy, making coming up with a theme for a diaper cake more difficult.  I decided to do football because regardless of the sex, I know they will be a huge football fan like their mama and papa - if it's a girl we'll just add a few bows :)

Her shower was a few weeks ago and this is what I came up with. 

The details - included on this cake are the following: 
69 diapers
Burts' Bees baby wash
Glass bottle
1 Chargers jersey
2 Chargers pacies
2 Chargers bibs
2 pairs white socks
Pacie clip (football)
4 Chargers pennants
2 wood football decor pieces
Knit football toy
Knit football cap
Plush football toy
Brown and white striped football onesie
3 football burp clothes
football leg warmers
$25 gift card to Babies R Us

Thanks for looking!

Diaper Wreaths

I apologize for being MIA - I am trying to get back into the swing of things after a very busy holiday season.  I will be posting a few posts as catch up for what's happened in my absence. 

First, the day after my dear friend Caitlin's wedding I went to another dear friend, Amy's, baby shower.  Due to the fact that I was crunched on time I put together a wreath rather than a cake using diapers.  I had seen this idea somewhere on the internet a long time ago, but basically just created this using supplies I had on hand. 

I had a straw wreath, ribbon and diapers, which I used to create the base of the wreath.  I then added a stuffed pooh softie (the baby's room is pooh themed) and some other baby doo-dads (games, books and hair clips).  I think for my first attempt it turned out pretty well.  I am looking forward to expanding on this idea.  It's a little different then the ever increasing cakes, and I'm thinking it would be easier to ship and therefore may be a better possibility for etsy sales.  I recently purchased some goodies on Zulily - if you've never checked it out you MUST! It's a site that features daily deals for babies and women - up to 90% off! Check it out here.  Anywho, I recently purchased a bunch of clearance items that I hope to use on future wreaths - I'm thinking a Dr. Suess themed wreath would be an adorable gender neutral gift, don't you?

Amy has since had her beautiful baby girl - so congrats are in order to Amy!

Thanks as always for looking, and for staying with my in my absence!

Happy Thanksgiving - Better Late Than Never!

I hope everyone had a marvelous holiday with family and friends.  Please leave a comment telling me how you celebrated. 

We have a tradition of going to my Aunt's house (about 40 minutes away) the day after Thanksgiving for our celebration.  Thanksgiving Friday we call it :) This allows everyone to go to their in-laws to celebrate on Thursday, BUT mine are in Michigan, boo!

Soooo.... Thursday we watch football and lounge around in our sweats.  Timmy went out for Black Friday that night (to a store that opened at midnight) but he won't tell me where he went as it was to get a gift for me I believe.  I went to sleep. haha.

Friday we drove down to my Aunt's for our celebration - 26 people total, our largest yet.  I was in charge of all of the appetizers.  I made sausage and cheese balls with BBQ dipping sauce, cream cheese truffles with crackers, and smoked salmon bites. 

Here is a pic of my spread (minus the sausage balls which were at the other end of the table and I forgot to take a photo of). 

Hope every one's day was great! Tell me about it and whether or not you braved "Black Friday"!

Food
Sausage Cheese balls - double the meat, seriously. 
Cream Cheese Truffles - I would only make the green onion kind rolled in parsley when I do these again
Salmon Bites - these were amazing and gone in like 10 minutes - I JUST realized I forgot the cucumber haha, a tip, cut a hole in the corner of a ziploc bag to apply the sour cream, it just makes it prettier :)

Caitlin's Bridal Shower

Myself and the other bridesmaids hosted my dear friend Caitlin's Bridal Shower at my house on December 12, 2011.  I wanted to share with you some photos of the event.

A side note - I think I will stick to diaper cakes as my "wedding cake" made from bath towels did not turn out how I had in mind.  Overall I think it was a hit.  I sure hope Caitlin enjoyed it :)

A shout out to the FABULOUS Laura for taking all of the photos.  You can check out her blog here.

As well as another fabulous shout out to Lauren from Delicious Dish Events in Riverside, CA for the magnificent food - quiches, sandwiches, and salads - all to die for!

EXCITING NEWS!!!

I posted my first item for sale on my new Etsy store! Check it out here: www.etsy.com/shop/ErraticallyElizabeth

The lovely ladies at MissImagination.com are also hosting a challenge for each member to recruit at least one new member.  So PLEASE check out MissImagination.com.  It is a free online forum for women that I am a co-owner of.  We do have a craft section for those of us who love to craft to chit chat about our hobbies (and for some business).  It's a great place to "meet" other women with similar interests and a great creative and social outlet. 

Hope everyone had a lovely 3-day weekend.  Thank you to my hubby and all other veterans this Veteran's Day Weekend!

PaperCrafter's Makeover Monday Challenge # 1 - Wine Bottle Tag

I have completed Week 1's Makeover Monday Challenge hosted by Paper Crafter's Library.  Each Monday they plan to post a challenge which you can create using your supplies on hand.  I loved the idea of this wine bottle tag - a perfect way to dress up a wine bottle for a birthday or hostess gift, something I regularly give.

Here is my version of the wine tag - I used my scraps from September's Button Farm kit to create this tag - I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  The tag is 3x7 and is scored at the 2" mark with a hole punched in the top to easily slide over the wine bottle's neck.

Thanks for looking at my attempt, and thanks to Paper Crafter's Library for a FABULOUS challenge - I had fun and it's definitely an item I look forward to making again - fast, easy, and cute, what's not to like!?

here is the link to the original challenge

Wednesday's What's Up With That!? - Halloween Edition

Oh Halloween.  Apparently I live in the "go to" neighborhood.  Parents are literally dropping their children off in our neighborhood - I'm not sure why - I live in an average neighborhood, nothing fancy.  Shrug. 

Last year we had two hundred and twenty-something trick or treaters - this year 177.  It take A LOT of candy to feed these people. 

With that said, here are a few things that really grind my gears.

1) Parents with infants with bags for candy - who is that candy really for?
2) Teens who are way to old to be trick or treating anyways.
3) Kids/teens/etc. who are trick or treating and don't even put the effort into dressing up - like NO costume at all.
4) kids who come to my house multiple times.
5) people who step into your house or start asking questions about your house while peering into your house. 

Our front room is STILL empty - you don't know how many people were like, "why don't you have any furniture?" We just ignored the questions, but I wanted to respond with one of the following:
a) Why are you looking in my house?
b) We had to sell it all to buy all of you candy!

I had heard some lovely suggestions for next year.
- you know those signs at Disneyland that say "you must be this tall to ride this ride" - how about reverse that? you cannot be taller than this sign to trick or treat here.
- have two buckets - 1 bucket for the appropriate trick or treaters filled with the good stuff.  the other bucket for the parents, teens, or people who do not even try to dress up filled with used gum and erasers. haha. 

Okay, I won't really do any of that, but c'mon! What's Up With That!?

Halloween Fun

I hope everyone had a delightful Halloween!! Here is a pic of me and the hubs - can you guess who we are? :)

My parents came over to share in some good food and to help give out candy.  This year we had 177 kids - that's down from two hundred and twenty-something that we had last year. 

I made some delicious chili, cornbread, and pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  My girlfriend Jessica also stopped by to get in on the food action. 

We had a lovely time - although I must say that I am disappointed with the lack of effort that some kids put into Halloween these days. 

A few irritations I have are:
a) parents who carry around a bucket for candy with their newborn/infant child - c'mon, we all know who that candy is really for
b) teens who don't even attempt to dress up - I asked one girl what she was (as she was clearly not dressed up) and she smiled and said "a student" then her mom, also not dressed up, came up with her bag for candy.  My dad only gave these people one of the smallest pieces of candy he could find in our gigantic bucket.  A lot of the teenage boys wear their regular clothing and then a scary mask - is that really the best you could do?
c) slutty teens - it makes everyone uncomfortable when you show up in an outfit that leaves NOTHING to the imagination and you're like 12-17.  It's awkward.  Where are your parents!? sigh.

Okay, enough of the irritations, we did see plenty of adorable children, so that made all of the slight irritations worthwhile. 

What did you all do for Halloween?

Tutorial Tuesday - Chinese Chicken Morsels

The hubs and I tried out a new recipe last night and it was too delicious not to share. 

History: the hubs and I are on a budget trying to pay down our debt to secure our future, soooo.... we are trying to figure out ways to save in areas such as groceries.  We found a book at a yard sale called "Once a Month Cooking" which basically is a plan for you to cook one day a month (and shop one day a month), make various foods out of one set of supplies/groceries, and then freeze the food to cook later that month.  I don't want to make large amounts of any recipe we have never tried, so we are trying out a few of the recipes to see if we like them first.

The first recipe we tried was this one, called Chinese Chicken Morsels.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (we use La Choy which is gluten free)
- 1/4 cup dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
- 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1 cup of regular uncooked rice

Steps:
1) Combine all ingredients except chicken and rice, mix thoroughly. 
2) Cut chicken into one inch cubes
3) a: If you are eating this the same night or the following day, put chicken into marinade bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes.  b: if you are freezing, put chicken and marinade in a one gallon ziplock and freeze

Cooking/to Serve:
1) If frozen, thaw out marinade.
2) Remove chicken from marinade and place evenly on a broiler pan.  Broil for 7 minutes placed about 4-5 inches from the flame. Remove from oven, turn each piece over and brush with marinade.  Broil for additional 4 minutes.
3) Meanwhile, put marinade into small saucer and heat up (note - this is do at your own risk as it did contain uncooked chicken - I did this step at simply brought to a boil and then simmered for a bit to ensure that it would be safe to eat). 
4) Cook rice according to packaging.
5) Spoon rice onto plate, cover with chicken and pour marinade onto dish for extra flavor. 

This was easy and delicious.  The hubs made me promise that I will make it again.  Here is a pic (courtesy of my super spectacular image quality cell phone - ha!).  Enjoy!

If you try out this recipe, be sure to post a comment and let me know what you thought!

Planning my best friend's bridal shower - photo of invitations

As matron of honor (wow that makes me sound old), part of my task is to throw the bride, one of my best friends by the name of Caitlin, a bridal shower.  Together with the other 5 bridesmaids, we will be throwing a hopefully elegant event at my house next month. 

The first step of course is sending out invitations.  I saw this adorable idea from my dear friend Heather.  As soon as I saw it - back in July when she originally posted it - I instantly knew that this was going to be the bridal shower invitation.  I wanted to add my own flair by creating the bouquet with rosettes rather than punched flowers. 

The rosettes are created by punching a circle (I used a 1" circle punch), then cutting the circle in a spiral from the outside.  You then start on the outside and roll the paper all the way, and voila, a rosette!

Here is the final product (again I apologize for my horrific photography skills). 

I had the pleasure of personally giving this to the bride on Wednesday night and I was pleased that she seemed to like it.  I look forward to posting more about the shower as we continue to plan and create. 

On a fun note - you should have seen the bridesmaids responses (most of whom are not crafters) when I sent them a photo of Heather's card and said "this is what we're making".  haha.  Priceless.  A big thank you to Kim, Kamila, my mother and the mother of the bride for coming over on a Saturday night and helping put together 30 of these bad boys. 

TGIF everyone - we're off to Vegas!

Wednesday's What's Up With That!? - I'm too sexy for this chicken....?

Okay... I get why people are vegetarian - I have seen those horrific films about food and meat, etc etc.  However, it's just not something I could do - I love my meat.

I also understand PETA - animals should be treated ethically.  HOWEVER, sometimes, okay a lot of the times, PETA comes off as just batshit crazy!

This article for example. They're mad because they think the chicken is too sexy? Seriously? And they are accusing the new york times of necrophilia? WHAT!?

I'm sure not everyone shares the same viewpoint as me on this issue, but I just thought this article was absurd.  I'm not trying to pick a fight because everyone is entitled to their own opinions - one of my favorite phrases, although crude, is opinions are like a**holes, everyone has got one.  And frankly, you're allowed to have your own opinions, etc. etc.  That doesn't mean that sometimes I question the sanity of a persons' opinion (lol).

I saw this article last week and just HAD to share.  What do you think - valid complaint by PETA or not? Is this chicken too sexy?

P.S.: PETA may "take offense" to a sexily posed chicken - but if it's a human woman - that's a-okay. In fact, that's part of their campaign! Check it out here.