Curiouser and Curiouser

Well hello!

These past two months have been crazy and exhausting, which is why you haven't heard much from my little corner of the world :P
It seems that at least one part of every year (if not more) I let myself get overwhelmed with life, which leads to me neglecting things I like to do. Blogging being near the top of the list. *sigh*

In my last post I believe I mentioned being in an Alice in Wonderland mood at the beginning of April. Well, you finally get to find out why!

I have been wanting to host an Alice themed tea party for like, EVER and I finally told my family that I would be hosting our Easter. With a twist :D

So naturally, I went all out.

Here we have the 'Drink Me' bottle which made Alice shrink, the 'Eat Me' cake which made her grow, and the key that magically appeared only AFTER she drank from the shrinking potion. Ironic, huh?

I read the 'Splintered' series during my party planning. I have to say I had high expectations for these and I was rather disappointed. There were a lot of things I liked about them, being Alice in Wonderland inspired and all, but the sexual innuendos and behavior of some of the characters made me not want to finish them. But I did, and I was very happy with the ending. By the way, I liked Morpheus better than Jeb in the end :) (I knew you'd be dying to know, Cait!) It was actually pretty tough to decide between the two, which I can't say the same for in other love triangles.

My collection of Alice books and decks of cards I found at a thrift store that reminded me of Wonderland.

THE FOOD! I made too much as usual, but it was gooooood. Lots of little tea sandwiches that Mom helped me make :)



I just made them up with ingredients I had. Here are the recipes if anyone is interested:

Cucumber Goat Cheese Sandwiches

1 loaf Gluten free or Regular Bread ,cut into fourths
8 oz. Garlic and Herb Goat Cheese (add a bit of water or milk to make it spread easier)
1 Cucumber, cut into thin rounds
1 bunch of Chives, cut into thirds
1 bunch of Dill, broken off into 1 in. sprigs

Take one of the bread pieces and spread on the goat cheese. Place the chive sprig first, then the cucumber, and top with the dill sprig.

Turkey Bruschetta Sandwiches

1 loaf Gluten free or Regular Bread, cut into fourths
1 pack of Turkey or another kind of lunch meat, also cut into fourths
1 jar of Bruschetta Spread
1 bunch of Parsley, broken off into 1 in. sprigs

Spread the bruschetta on the bread. Put the lunch meat on and then top with the parsley sprig,

Enjoy!

This was my second attempt at making petite fours and I was so happy with how they turned out!!!!!! They tasted AMAZING. I was quite sad when the last one was eaten. Definitely making more soon. Here is the recipe I used. I added vanilla extract instead of orange.

 

I found these plates, brand new and still shrink wrapped, at a thrift store a few years ago. I was saving them specifically for this occasion :)

         

I had a heck of a time finding these :P I looked everywhere EXCEPT the sugar aisle. I know. I figured they would be in the tea and coffee section but nooooo, they had to be in a logical place.



That's right, you aren't seeing things. Those are mushroom cookies, baby. A fellow blogger made a TON of Alice in Wonderland delicacies for a friend's party and she found this mushroom cookie recipe.

 

The dining room table. I made quite a mess! Also, my 'talking' flowers.



I had fun throwing them on the table :D

 

The 'Mad' Tea Party. I was so happy the weather cooperated with me! It wouldn't have been the same had I had to have inside. It was so warm being in the sun during the afternoon, that my brother actually fell asleep. At the table. I thought it was quite fitting for a mad tea party, and now I have blackmail pictures :D

 

 

My sister's contributed some of their dust collectors to complete the look :)

 

 

One of them even had this little dormouse-y fellow!

 

 

I made name place cards for everybody and I used my sister's collection of old keys to make it look cool. Did I mention some of my family dressed up for the occasion? *sigh* A dream come true!

 

 

I was Alice, of course. My sister, brother-in-law, and brother were 'cards' made from poster board. My Dad was the Mad Hatter. Mom was the Red Queen. My aunt and her friend dressed up as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. My nephew and nieces had bunny and mouse ears on. Everyone looked awesome and I'm so happy they agreed to dress up!!!! It's more fun that way.

 

 

My sweet husband consented without (much) complaint to be the Cheshire Cat, his favorite character! He even climbed a tree so I could take pictures :) I told him to give me his biggest, toothiest smile.

 

 

"I'm afraid so.You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."

 

 

I had a mirror and a clock leaning against a tree. The roses are actually from Picmonkey since some of my siblings were in the reflection who have requested to not have their pictures shared on my blog.

 

 

I found this awesome contraption at a local boutique. It was a tea cup attached to a distressed bed post. Adorbs.

 

My red and white 'rose' bushes. I just stuck some fake ones in for the party.

Me and Chessie :D

 

 

I love these socks!

 

We ate delicious food, played croquet, set up an Easter egg hunt, had fun being crazy at the mad tea party, and basically had a smashing good time :) It was a blast.

 

Tag You're It!

Hiya pals :) How ya doing?

Soooo. I've got a surprise for you!

I vlogged.

Yeah, you read that right.

I VLOGGED, BABY! BOO-YAH.

So, reason for vlogging (pfft, as if I need a reason.). Amy kindly tagged me for the Liebster Blog Award and this is my first time ever actually being tagged for it, so I thought it was a momentous occasion and therefore, I vlogged. Mmm-hmm.

The rules:

1. Acknowledge the blogger who nominated you. (already did)

2. Answer the 11 questions that they give you. (did that in my vlog)

3. Give 11 random facts about yourself. ( Hmmmm, not this time)

4. Nominate eleven bloggers and let them know. (I don't think eleven other bloggers even know about me :P )

5. Make eleven questions for them to answer. (Sure! And please comment on this post if you do end up doing it, I wanna see!)

SO. *deep breath* Here it is:

Well, I hoped you liked it! It was super awkward for me, filming and watching. There was a lot of wincing while watching it. I'm also totally not used to filming myself :P BUT, it was an experience and I will probably do it again now that the first one is over and done with.
This is also my first experience with youtube and it's been interesting. I'm not sure I like it yet.....I guess I just have to get used to it. If you have any interest in subscribing to my channel, here is my link. Let me know if you have any issues!

NOW YOU KNOW WHAT I SOUND LIKE. Eeeeep!

Ahem.

Now for the questions I want you to answer:

1. Who is your favorite Once Upon A Time character and why?
2. What is your opinion of video games and have you ever played them?
3. When you play the game Clue and you get to pick a character first, who do you pick?
4. What is the worst thing about having a cold?
5. Mermaid or Fairy? Why?
6. Have you ever played Pool/Billiards before and did you like it?
7. Did you ever wish you had a twin?
8. Would you touch a snake?
9. Are letters still awesome to get or do you prefer faster technology?
10. What color of door would you have on your hobbit hole?
11. What is your favorite kind of tree?

I shall not tag anybody, because all of the people I probably would have tagged have already been tagged so I won't be an imp and tag them again. See? I'm nice.
However, if any of you lovely people reading this want to participate, please, please do so! Let me know about it in a comment on this post so that I can see it!

Love to all <3

~Mary

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday

HI!

Did you all have a smashing holiday season? Mine was lovely and very, very crazy :) I have a lot of catching up to do, don't I? Well, first of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2015 is already speeding by, but this must be how adult years go by so I guess I must get used to it.

I have no good reasons for my lack of posts :P Just busyness mixed with laziness and the fact that I've had a new job for about two months now! I'm the cleaning lady at a place that sells tons of different lights, stoves, refrigerators, and cabinetry among other things. It's a big place and I always have something to do, which is very nice because I hate having to find things to do at a job. It's a good job and I like it and I'm extremely thankful that they hired me out of 41 other applicants! Crazy, huh? I'm still adjusting to my new schedule, which seems busier than any of my previous work schedules. It's just a matter of doing things at different times than I'm used to in order to get everything done at home.

So we brought in the new year by watching The Lego Movie for the first time and changing our calendar right when the clock struck midnight (which is something I've always wanted to do!). We were like *BAM!* New calendar. It was awesomeness.

We also drank some of this during the first minute of 2015.

I started a food diary this year. I have a suspicion that I may be allergic to certain dairy products so I started this diary so that I can pin point what my body is disagreeing with. So far I have faithfully written down everything I've eaten in it....we'll see how long that lasts!

This was my New Year's Day Mass outfit.

Us at a cousin's wedding a few days after new year's.

This was a casual wedding, so I wore my newish aqua tennis shoes.

This is the first wedding photo booth we've ever done! (It was a beach themed reception, hence the hula skirt and leis.) Robert is on a pool raft if you can't tell :D

A few days later (Jan. 6) we celebrated our 23rd and 20th birthdays! Robert and I share the same birthday, if you remember my post last year. I made GF pretzels for the very first time (top left). Not quite what I wanted them to look like, but they tasted good!

Robert's Mom brought over some GF brownies and cake for us! They were goooood.

Presents!

These were my gifts from Robert: A book from one of my favorite series, Robin Hood BBC season 2 (GAH!), and my very first book light! He spoils me :)

My gifts to Robert: Books by Lemony Snicket, and the ship and asian castle sets above the books.

These we both picked out because Barnes and Noble was having a sale. They are BEAUTIFUL books and we can't wait to read them :)

Hard to believe we've celebrated 6 birthdays together already!

Robert's new glass tea pot! We tried out one of our flowering teas and it was so cool watching it bloom!

So yeah, I'M 20 NOW! I told my sister I'm entering the decade in which I will start forgetting how old I am. I'll just start telling people I'm in my twenties :D

I didn't really make any new year's resolutions this year...I just want to keep on trying to keep my life simple and get into the habit of doing things (like blogging) and other useful things I want to do at this point in my life. I also want to become closer to God and maybe actually read the Bible the entire way through (we hear a lot of it in Church but it's still not the same as reading it for yourself, y'know?).

I also promised Goodreads that I would read 100 books this year...I'm starting to think that was a bad idea because I haven't even completed one book this year! Yipes. I need to add up my grand total of last years books as well as Robert's to see how we did on our bet. I'm pretty sure I won...:D

Goodnight! You'll hear from me soon :)

Halloween...Scooby Style.

HI there!

Happy Halloween!

I thought I would share our Halloween pictures ON the day this year instead of after. Unlike last year. *ahem*

Dad's little Jack O' Lantern.

Monster Eye Cookies! Found the recipe for these on Pinterest here.

My table set up for my Halloween party! There are a couple of clues that might help you guess who we dressed up as :D

If you ever watched Scooby Doo growing up, you'll know who we are! Daphne and Shaggy, equipped with Scooby Snax and a Mystery Machine lunch pack :D I'm also quite pleased that I found most of our costume pieces at Goodwill. I love being thrifty!

"Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?"

My bear even decided to get into the spirit of Halloween :)

My ghostie in my cocoa.

I found this idea on Pinterest too. Find it here.

Unfortunately, heating crayons with a hair dryer takes FOREVER. I'm a third of the way done, but I think I'm going to borrow my Dad's heat gun to finish the job! I'll post a pic when it's finished.

This guy is all done! I may put a spider above his mouth....idk.

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween! I can believe it has come and gone already O_O

P.S. I am currently reading 'Dracula' and am ignoring 'The Two Towers'. I just can't get into it! I keep thinking "I could be watching the movie. Why am I not watching the movie? The movie was a whole lot more interesting!" *sobs* I completely understand Cait's phobia towards thick books. I'm feeling it right now with that huge thing staring at me all the time :P


 

A Month of Minions

Hey there, peoples!

This is going to be a catch up post since I've been horrible at posting this summer. So, you saw what happened at the beginning of June (my super awesome India party), but I neglected to share the rest of the month with you. I know. I'm smacking myself for you right now. *SMACK*

Here's the story guys:

I have tons of beautiful flowers this year! They were the prettiest in June, I think.

There was a rainbow.

We acquired stones to make a campfire ring in our backyard from my sister and brother-in-law. Now we have something fun in our backyard! It's basically been empty until this summer. None of our trees can hold swings so we've been trying to think up other fun things to add back there. We now have a place for a campfire AND a badminton/volleyball net. I love badminton.

I did a project for my craft room! *dances* I didn't like my bland cork board. So I raided my fabric stash.

All I did was measure the cork board (the cork part, not the frame) and add 1/2 inch to all sides before cutting. You will be tucking the edges of the fabric underneath the frame of the cork board, so you'll want the extra 1/2 inch for that. I had to trim mine a bit more to get an exact fit.

After tucking in the edges, space out thumb tacks evenly across the edge. This will keep the fabric secure. And that's it!

One of my Sunday outfits that month.

Showing off my shoes :D

A little minion helped me draw these minions. Can you tell?

We drew a purple minion too!

We had a minion themed birthday for my brother-in-law!  A number 1 for another year older :D
And cheesecake. Yummy cheesecake.

We wore our minion shirts. You can't see mine but you can kinda see Robert's. Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Nana :D

June was just a totally minion month! We went to one of our local-ish amusement parks and won a minion!!!!!! The bear was from our first attempt to get a minion, but he's cute so not a total loss. We usually never play games at fairs or other similar amusement places, but they usually don't have minions. I love my minion. The games at this park were surprisingly fair compared to the ones at our small town's crappy fair.

Rainbow sugar.

*giggles*

I read this lovely book while on a camping trip. It is my favorite of the trilogy. It also made the camping trip bearable. I'm not overly fond of camping. Especially when one's tent gets rained on while one is trying to sleep. Yeah. Not doing that again!

That pretty much sums up what happened in June....India party, improving the yard, amusement park with the fam, MINION PARTY, lots of reading, and damp camping. A good month, I think :) I hope it was good for you too!

Ta-ta for now,

~Mary