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.

 

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


 

Of Phantom of the Opera Music/Guest Rooms, Birthdays, and Valentine Pretties....

Hello there!

How is everyone surviving this weather? We got about a foot of snow overnight. Yeah. I'm thrilled! (that comment was just dripping with sarcasm) More shoveling. More wind. Bleh.

On the bright side, the weather is so nasty that I get today off! YAY! 

I've had so many blog post ideas floating around in my head, but every time I've tried to sit down and write about them something else needed to be done instead. Oh, the joys of life.

So here I am. And I have a boat load of pictures to share with you!

Here is what went on in January:

            The celebration of my 19th and Robert's 22nd Birthday. Yes, we have the same birthday :) I made Robert a chocolate cake with snowflake sprinkles and I attempted to make petite fours. Neither turned out as planned, but they tasted good.

              Yeah, we're getting old. One candle for each of us. Don't judge us, we wanted to eat cake!

Mom gave me this :) It was yummy!

This is me after I had my wisdom removed...oops...I mean wisdom teeth removed :D All four of 'em and all were impacted. I look horrible in this pic :P I'm glad it's over. Cross that off my list of "The fun things you get to do once you're an adult".

Most of January was spent recovering from this, and being cooped up in the house and at work due to the lovely weekend winter storms we've been having lately.

"The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway" Ha! Rub it in, Elsa. Want to use your magical powers to remove the snow off my driveway? Oh wait, I already did that.

And here is what I've been up to so far this month:

This is a project I began in September: Our Phantom of the Opera themed Music/Guest room! I'm so happy with how it turned out! Despite how long it took to paint :P

Before........

 Prepping and Painting.........

  Don't mess with this woman. I was tired of painting at this point.

 After..........I made the felt wall hanging in the pic above.

  I love how the red turned out!

              Robert and I painted the mirror black and silver, and the candle stand was also spray painted black. I painted a black design on the candles too, just to add some artwork. They looked a little bland by themselves.

I got the idea to cover light switch covers with scrap book paper from Shealynn at Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe. Here's the link to the tutorial: DIY Switchplate Covers.

 I love barbies....so obviously there was going to be a Christine/Erik combo in this room! I need to make a mask for Erik.

 I printed off some sheet music from the Phantom and modge-podged it to this magazine organizer.

 My Egyptian shelf. I love Ancient Egyptian history. I wanted to be an Egyptologist when I was little, after watching the Mummy movies.

 Two wedding gifts from two different people that go together perfectly!

     I had the idea of using my guardian angel picture with the idea of "The Angel of Music" in mind.

 I even decorated the trash can. I cut out a mask shape with scrapbook paper and stuck it on using double sided tape.

    My caged "lark". If you've seen Sweeney Todd, you'll understand.

   My brother found this music box for me. It plays "The Music of the Night".

 My Christine costume I made for Halloween.

                  And here we are as The Phantom and Christine during our Halloween party!

This room was an awesome project and it took about a month to complete. Some of the decor I already had, and some things I repainted or made from scratch. I love designing rooms :) There are so many themes to choose from! This one was no-brainer though :D Music room? Definitely POTO.

    Here is what I'll be working on today...Valentine decorating! It won't be a mess for long............

Here are some pretties I've found lately: FROZEN valentines! I love the one with Olaf on it :D The two mailboxes are for my niece and nephew. They like hello kitty and star wars at the moment. These were too cute to pass up! The girl outfit is for my other niece. I love the leggings. Babies in leggings are adorable. The skull and crossbones outfit is for my future son, whenever he comes along. I'm not pregnant, yet. But hopefully sooner than later! I tend to buy baby clothes every once in a great while. If I see something I like and will probably never find again, I'm going for it! I dislike a lot of boy clothes out there right now, so when I saw that this was the last one on the rack, I grabbed it and ran :D

So that's what I've been up to lately. Besides shoveling :P

Hope you're staying warm. If you live in a tropical climate....PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!

Cheers!

~Mary