Dad's party

If I can sum this party up with one word it would be..... success!  Seriously, everything went smoothly and perfectly and I couldn't ask for anything more.  Here are some of the details leading up to the day as well as the day of.

So, Thursday after work I met my mom at Sams to get chips, salsa, 7 layer dip, you know the last minute stuff.  We also had to go to Walmart to get some other items too...I think I got home around 7:30ish that night.  This was such a long day....Jes had ordered a pizza for us to eat, thank goodness!  I ate some dinner and started baking cakes.  I had decided that I could do this myself instead of paying someone to do it.  Here is a picture of my inspiration, you could say.

I found this picture on cakecentral.com

Back to Thursday night.  At the time I thought I only had 4 cakes to do.  Well I have one 13x9 inch pan and my mom let me borrow hers.  Her pan has to be 20 something years old...I NOW know what to get her for Christmas!!  So anyway, I mix up 2 batches of cake in my nifty Kitchen Aid (my baby) and put those cakes in the oven...30 minutes later, I take them out let them cool some (later to be my demise), and then flipped them.  Both cakes cracked in half upon flippage...and the one that was in my mother's pan looked like this.

Jesse called this the ramp cake!  You can somewhat see the crack there in the middle and as time went on it was a full fledged 2 piece cake!  He then compared it to the San Andres Fault!  Thanks Jes!  lol!!  So at this point I'm kinda panicky but not terribly much because I figured well tomorrow I will do will these 2 over.  No biggie...So I bake one more cake, let it cool COMPLETELY and then go to bed.  I would have 3 cakes to do Friday.

Friday my friend Marie (she helped me with this cake) and I were talking at lunch about all of this and she tells me "You know Ash, we should probably do 6 total layers of cake".  Great!!  Uggh!!  So I'm freakin out at this point, because I wasn't going to leave work until 4 and she was supposed to be come over around 7.  Baking 3 more cakes was doable...baking 5 more cakes made me sooo nervous!   So I call Jesse and asked him to run to the store to pick up 4 more boxes of cake mix, more eggs and 2 aluminum pans.  After lunch my boss and I were talking and I was able to leave at 2. Whew, what a life saver this was!

My mom came over to help me finish the stuff that had to be done while I did the cakes.  I finished all 6 of them, cleaned my kitchen and just waited for Marie to get to my house. She came over and we did the cake.  Didn't have any major problems, other than running out of fondant at 11:30pm, which Jesse came to the rescue and willingly went to Walmart to get more.  This cake took a lot of time and after 6 batches of icing we finished it at 2:30am!!!  Here is a picture minutes after completion.

Saturday morning I was able to sleep in and I took my time getting ready.  My brother came over around 1:30 to help us load up the cars and I needed him to drive me so I could hold on to the cake.  We get to the place and my friends Steven,  Anna, and Brandi helped us set up.  I am so thankful for their help, there would be no way I could have done this without them.  Here a few pictures of the set up once we were finished.

 I had found wrapping paper while at Academy one day and thought it would make perfect (sorta) runners

My dad actually said this when the oil spill occurred. HA!  Ain't no oil gonna stop me!

I swear it was this big!

Gone Fishin' Be Back at Dark-Thirty!

I decorated a walker with denture cleaner, a denture brush, some glasses, a diaper, some fake teeth and suspenders...lol!

Every party needs a fancy wreath!  :)

 He was very surprised and it was a great party!  Again, a big thank you my friends for helping me make this party a SUCCESS!  :)

10.10.10---"They Say It's Your Birthday!"

*Warning, this is a very "AW" post!  :-P

Today is my birthday!  I've always thought my birth date was so cool with the 10.10 thing but today, I think it is the absolute coolest!  haha!  I turned 24 today.  I don't feel that old, I really don't!  It seems the years are going by a little too fast!  It was a beautiful day today...a little warmer than what I had hoped but overall a very nice day.  Jesse and I and a few of my friends went to my parents house for lunch.  Before we left to head over there Jesse wanted me to open the gifts that he had for me.  He got me a few pajama sets from Victoria Secret that I have been wanting, some comfy Pink pants, a dress from Target and another Kitchen Aid bowl that I have been wanting for a while now.
Here is a pic of me with it  :)  We went to my parents house and we had hamburgers, BBQ chicken, and my

mom made some potato salad, yummy!  I had a really nice time with my family and my buddies :) 

My brother actually got me a gift this year!  Now anyone who knows this kid knows he is so oblivious to birthdays and holidays, so this was truly a SHOCKER!  Haha!  He is getting better with age, I guess.  Lol!

I had asked my mom for some fashion jewelry this year.  She got me some really nice stuff...my favorite set is this one.  It's like ice blue and aqua colored beads with matching earrings.  So pretty.  She also got me that chip and dip bowl you see there...which I really needed! 

Our good friend Steven got me a cool Saints shirt and a beignet and coffee shirt that I've been wanting to get!  Here is a pic of the Saints shirt.

It's sooo cute!  I love it!

Something else I want to "AW" about!  Here is a picture of me last year, about 10 possibly 15 pounds heavier than what I am now. 

 

This was taken today....can you see the difference? I sure can!  

Walking and attempting to jog (ha) in the evenings is definitely paying off!

Here are a few more pictures from today.

My dad

My mom

Steven and I, love Jesse's face back there!  haha!

My good friend Monica, LOVE this picture of us!

Thank you guys for making my day special, I had such a great time, too bad the Saints lost but overall it was fun!  Can you believe next Saturday is my dad's surprise party!?  Oh my goodness!  This week is gonna be nuts and crazy!  Until then, later!!  :)

Not Meant to Be

Don't you hate it when things just don't work out the way you want or intend them to?  Do you find this happens in almost every area of your life?  Because I sure do!  And the worst part is, it can be about absolutely anything and everything, so darn frustrating.  I think we are designed that we THINK our ways are right, and everyone else is wrong and darn gone it, I want it my way or it's the highway!!  *Is this only me, I sure hope not!?  In this case, it's about an "attempted" purchase.  I know when purchasing an item, I want it to work and work well, you know "to get my moneys worth" and if it doesn't, there are only so many times I'm going to return it before saying the hell with it!  I'm done!  I'll be honest, I'm getting there with this situation I'm about to tell you about.

So I've been wanting a few of those drink dispenser things.  I follow a lot, and I mean a lot of party blogs that use them.  They are so neat and fancy.  Now I'm sure these people use way more expensive ones than what my pennies can afford, but that's besides the point.  I found a set of 2 online at boscovs.com.  2 for 30, I believe that is what my price was.  They looked like this.

So I was beyond excited about these.  The nightmare I am about to tell you all started in July or August when we started planning my dad's party.  I had the idea of floating some fishing bobbers in the iced tea.  So, once I purchased them online the website said 7-10 days I would have them here, in my hands, ready to use!  Ahh!  Well on the 8th or 9th day I had remembered that they were supposed to be delivered.  So I get online to retrieve the shipping information and tracking number.  The Fed Ex website said it was delivered to my door (yesterday) morning at 9:50am!  I say out loud, oh no!  Oh my God, oh no!  So Jesse says to me oh no what!?  I then tell him what happened and immediately he gets on the phone with Fed Ex.  Well they were really of no help, whatsoever!  Apparently, there is a home delivery department that you have to go through.  So the next day I give these knuckleheads a call.  They ask a zillion questions and we conclude after about 5 or 7 convos that the package was stolen.  After about a month, to a month and a half of fighting and calling and becoming frustrated and annoyed with Fed Ex and the company, the amount was FINALLY refunded back to me!  Whew...somewhere along the way Fed Ex refunded the company and the company refunded me.  I'm not so sure if it truly was stolen, because why would Fed Ex refund?  Strange, I think....so that will forever be a mystery!

Fast forwarded to this past Sunday.  I was finally ready to face up to the challenge of finding these darn things.  A few weeks ago I had went onto Bed Bath and Beyond's website and saw these for 20 bucks a piece.  Fancy smancy, huh!?

Well as everyone knows you can use mulitple coupons for bbb.  I had 2 $5.00 off coupons so I could get these for $15 a piece! Whoo hoo, same price as last ones and they look so much better with the stand and all!  Get them home, all cleaned out and ready to go.  Then it dawned on me, you know Ash, you should make sure they don't leak.  Make sure the dispenser works and all.  So I fill one up and twist the little dispenser.  It didn't leak, oh no, the dispenser turned on and off just fine, however the liquid trickled out!  Like you would have thought I added some thick syrup in this thing!  So I'm beyond annoyed at this point!  I box them up and Jesse brought them back for me the very next day which was yesterday.  Fail yet again!  Uggh!

Well my story isn't quite finished yet.  Today my buddy Monica and I did some shopping.  We stopped at Marshalls, she wanted to find some jeans and I wanted to browse the shoes!  Well my dear friend knows about this nightmare with these darn things and understands how much I really would like some.  We were passing through the home department and what do you think I find?!  Hmmm....?  The dispensers, and not only did they have 2 but they had 3, which is eventually how many I would like to have total.  So we look at each other, she grabs the box and sees the price and guess what, they were $15 a piece!!  Yahhh hooo!  Monica tells me, you must get them, Ash!!  I say to her, how perfect is this!?  So I purchase them, all three of them!  Get them home, and I only clean one (I learned) we fill it and turn the dispenser and the dispenser snapped off!  Like broke, broken off!  I say, son of a (you know what)....I was so angry and the anger came over me!  I was so, so, so, mad!  Well, in the mist of all of this anger I was able to turn the broken dispenser to see if the darn thing would flow the water out, cuz who cares about the broken handle, that's not the issue at this point!  Needless to say it didn't work, it just trickled, trickled like the last one!  What a surprise!  So I grabbed the super glue, fixed it, if you wanna call it that, and am returning these pieces of junk back....broken and all!  I don't really care anymore!  Here is a picture of one of these pathetic items. I really

don't know what to think?  Do these people honestly make this stuff?  They have to know good and well that no one in their right mind would stand at a dispenser and wait for like an hour to fill a cup.  I've concluded, it's just not meant to be.  :(  The bobbers will not be floating in the (murky water) iced tea.  Oh well.

Fall Decorating and Pumpkin Cookies

Our home (apartment) is officially fall-ey decorated.  I love decorating for the holidays, it just makes everything look so festive.  Here are some pictures of our decor. 

This is part of the living room, by the bar counter next to the kitchen

Opposite wall of previous pic (Thanks mom for the plaque)

Stupid electric stove..wish I had gas in here.

See my Wicked shoe!?  I just had to have it!

Bathroom

  Also, today I made some pumpkin cookies.  My nestie friend Vikki over at Vikki's Blog introduced me to this recipe Pumpkin Pie Cookie Recipe.  When you click the link it says Sweet Potato Pie Cookies with Orange Glaze but Vikki used pumpkin puree and she didn't glaze them at all and said they were great!  I used organic pumpkin puree from a can found at Whole Foods.  I used half of the can, because let's get real who has time to measure out a cup, right!?  :)  Here are a few pictures once I was finished.

Prior to dusting, thanks for the taking the pic Jesse 

Pretty, huh?

October 1st

Is it seriously October 1st?  Does that really mean we are only 2 short months from my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving!?  Yahooo!!  This also makes me quite nervous though, because that means we are only 3 short months away from Christmas, the money spending holiday!  HA  I am only joking, sort of.  :) 

October is my favorite month out of the year.  It's the month when we start to get some lovely cooler weather, people start decorating their homes with fall decor, and the aroma of homemade pumpkin pie (or candles) are so very evident!  It also is my birthday month, which anyone who knows me, knows my birthday is a week long affair!  The next 2 weeks are going to be quite busy for me though.  My dad's 50th birthday is in November and we are throwing him a SURPRISE party on the 16th of this month, this is our attempt to really, really, really surprise him!.  Here is a picture of the invitation.  I had googled fishing invitation and saw one very similar to this and thought it was perfect.  With the help of Microsoft Publisher I give you this:

Cute Huh??  I love the part at the bottom that says, If you like to be "hooked" please RSVP...how fabulous is that!?  You know it's all about the little things and little details!  I'll show you one more thing that I am working on, for the rest of the details, you will just have to come back after the party!  ;-)

So I'm a huge fan of wrapping individual forks and I'll tell you why.  When forks are placed in a basket or a bowl, if the pokey part of the fork is facing up, do you have any idea how many people could be touching the tip of of your fork before you even get to grab it!?  Oh the horror!  HA!  When I throw a party I always wrap them.  Below is what I did for this party.

Black Napkins, printer paper cut to size, glue gun, and the little decorative tags also made with publisher

Place fork on desired napkin

Roll napkin and wrap with cut paper.  Add a dot of glue

Add another dot of glue on top of cut paper and glue on tag

Viola...Adorable, right!?  Each one says Michael's 50th Birthday Party and the bottom lists the date.