On top of spaghetti.........

Happy April Fool's Day! would you like some spaghetti and meatballs? muhahaha jk. it's cupcakes and chocolate dipped in jelly. siiiiick. that's about as good as i'm going to get for AFD this year sorry.

i spent the day yesterday cooking and baking for a few families who have just had babies and i got to take some pics of baby Ember. here are a few but there are more on my photo blog.

sweet sisters

i love her flower, it's almost as big as her head!

p.s. emily i hope that bread pudding turned out...i'm probably going to owe you guys another dessert! haha

p.p.s. painting all day today. yippy be jealous.

edit:

in honor of April Fool's day, here is a text conversation i had with one michelle chapin tonight. sometimes i don't know when to stop haha:

me: oh my gosh like michelle i'm like pregnant! like totally

michelle:oh my gosh! that's crazy! i'm engaged!

me: whoa! awesome. i'm also moving to mumbai and becoming a British monk with all the world's top skydivers. how cool is that?

michelle: way cool! i just won the lottery and won the Nobel peace prize! crazy huh?

me: congrats! i just discovered the fountain of youth...it's in istanbul and it's guarded by 12, 3 headed dogs. i used my amazing kung fu skillz to show them whats up.

...i'm like 4 now.

michelle: wow dang. i found this magic plant and lost 75 pounds in 1 day!

me: way to go!!! i signed a recording contract with justin timberlake and shaved my name in my hair. i made plans to visit mars with gloria estafan

michelle: dang! that's amazing! Pres Obama just named me world's smartest cosmetologist!

me: sweeeeet. me and shell obama are taking a diving class next week so we can discover the titanic then harry connick jr. and i are going to make a guest appearance on dancing with the stars. i heard there will be a shirly temple impersonator there too

michelle: oh wow. you totally win! dancing with the starts! say hi to kate for me.

me: we are BFF's. ok i'll be done. APRIL FOOLS i got you gooood. best prank ever. i had you believing every word. i'm awesome (and humble)

michelle: man you got me so good....

the end.

sorry to anyone who actually read through that. we're special.

Craft time!

i bought this book yesterday. prettttty excited for it. i've always wanted to be a sewer and there was a time when i made little dresses, aprons and other random things but i haven't done any sewing for probably almost 2 years!
once this remodel is done, i will be downstairs sewing! i'm so excited. i need to find some real cute fabric on some good sales and start planning what i want to make.

today i think i will be making some of these little guys with shelley. i love them. i bought balloons yesterday and we all know i have a plethora of yarn. and it's almost april fools day i need to come up with some good ideas. i might break out the Hello Cupcake book and make some spaghetti cupcakes or TV dinner cupcakes :). we'll see.

that's all i have for today. too much stuff going on, have several friends in the hospital (having babies, having brain issues?) and lots of stuff i'm trying to do for girls camp. welp have a goooooood day!

The Most Satisfying thing you will EVER do!

is decorate a cake. this is the cake i made at the RS b-day dinner thing. i'm like a young martha stewart or something.




bahahahahaha JUST KIDDING.


THIS is the most satisfying thing EVER!



at least he got to eat it after ;). there was seriously 4 lbs. of frosting on that thing.

i encourage you to make a cake, decorate it, find a victim (willing...or not) and shove it in their face when they don't expect it.
sam kind of expected it but i did it when he wasn't looking. my dad taped it and my mom took pics...we are awesome.
werido didn't shut his eyes hahaha. it's very therapeutic for some odd reason. i wanted to do it again.

welp off to get ready to take some fashion photos for a 5 yr. old's b-day party!

edit:
thought you might like to see it in action, words don't do it justice.

Plateau

this is what i feel like. or something. i've been thinking i've hit a plateau in this dieting thing. i still don't eat sugar or white flour but i'm defiantly eating over 1000 calories a day. this has got to STOP ahhhh. also my water intake has decreased drastically. this too needs to change. i'm just sick of eating this way and not seeing results like before. i might just go back to phase one where i cut out ALL flour, all sugar, all potatoes etc...and just eat fruits, veggies and protein. probably a good idea. 35 pounds is good but i want more! muhahahaha.

anyways i've been having this headaches the last couple weeks and haven't been sleeping good so i think if i start eating right again i'll be good to go. also i just found this stuff yesterday, almond milk. D E L I C I O U S. i hate milk hate hate hate hate hate it. makes me gag and makes me sick but i got the vanilla flavor of this yesterday and i gotta say i don't hate it. it's made out of almonds, imagine that. the kind i got has some natural sugar in it and a little added but i need the calcium so i'll let it sliiiide.

ok off to work. days like today i'm glad i can wear jeans and a sweatshirt!

food for thought: why is it that chub rolls on a baby are so cute but as adults it's harder to pull off? i say we start a movement, then i won't have to worry about all this!

Dust-ay

dust. i. am. sick. of. you. everywhere you turn more DUST. dust dust dust. bleh. oh well that means we are getting closer to the end of this "adventure" hopefully. here are some updated pictures.

these are a couple different tile options for the back splash. the one above is slate that would be laid like brick. (please continue to ignore the mismatched paint, it will be resolved soon i promise.)

this one is tumbled stone that would be laid in a diamond pattern. we can't decide which one we like better. so many choices. we seriously spent like 3 hours in the tile section at Home Depot the other day. awesome.

he's almost done with the bar area the counter is down all that's left i think is a little sanding, putting the rest of the sides on and building the support post you can see in the next picture.

and of course the back splash isn't done yet either.

now let's take pause and talk about colors. i. love. colors. i could (and have) spend(t) 4 hours looking at all the different paint chips at all the different stores. PS sherwin williams has the best selection. you don't need to get the paint made there but if you chose one of their colors, Home Depot or wherever else can mix their colors for you so it's cheaper. I'm sure they appreciate me saying that :). But honestly, out of all the colors I've looked at, they are the richest most pure colors (does that make sense?). I bought the big paint swatch thing from SW for ten bucks, chose the colors I liked and went to see if I could find close matches at HD and Lowes. I could not. Sherwin Williams just has way better colors. So I gave HD my chip and they made it for me. Cheater!

ANYWAYS sorry for that tangent. Umm where was i going with this?! Oh ya. I've had a few colors picked out for the walls that need to be painted and they bought a can of paint for the entry way so I painted today!

obviously it needs to be touched up and such but you get the general idea. it's called Warm Stone. It's kind of grey kind of brown kind of amazing. We are going to repaint all the white to make it look really nice. It is way darker than it was before but i love it.

the kitchen will be a green color...this is pending on back splash/counter tops...not a bright or deep green just a subtle green.

the living room/hallway will be a goldish color (i'm trying to match the color of my purse {I'll have to do a purse post at a later date :)})

the wall that used to be the fireplace will have the TV hanging on it and it will be RED. and deep awesome red.

the office will remain the greenish color...maybe. if it goes with what we chose for the kitchen. since it's basically one big room they all have to flow good together. i'm ready for this to be done so we don't have to be cramped downstairs anymore!!!!!

p.s. sorry for all the update posts i have people telling me i have to update all the time. it shall be over soon enough.

Welcome Back...

...cupcakes! http://www.elanaspantry.com/
pretty excited for this remodel to get done so i can make some delicious, sugar/white flower free goodness. just thought i'd put that out there. trader joes, i'm coming to you next week. watch out.

the Great Debate

BlendTec VS. VitaMix????

which will win in Amanda's blender race?! who knows. oh my gooooodness. WHY do i feel the need to buy a $400 blender? please, someone, anyone tell me! i've done some research and i'm leaning towards one. although just last week I would have said no way would I ever get anything other than a VITAmix...I feel I've changed my mind. This BlendTec is looking pretty awesome too. Costco, why do you play with my emotions like you do? One week VitaMix is on that little stage making cabbage ice cream look delicious then the next week BlendTec is up on that same stage making the same thing but with 1 more horsepower than VitaMix. is anyone still reading this? haha probably not. I'll end my rant now. I'm still not 100% sure I'm even going to buy one, it's like 2 car payments. decisions decisions. does anyone have either of these? what do you think?


well on to less stressful matters. I'm thinking of ordering some of these little beauties. from this:
the Poster List, website. i guess i really like to spend money or something. i'm thinking 3 of these hanging over my bed would be pretty neat-o now i just need to decide which ones to get! i have way too many choices to make in my life gosh.


i bring it all on myself i tell you.

well i've been blogging a lot lately....weird. i haven't been blogging about anything important (have i ever?!) it's getting boring around these parts with this remodel going on and such. good news, i think he'll be done in 2-ish weeks! the hardwood flooring is almost all done, just half the kitchen and the stairs left. the new wall covering the brick is up and the counter tops got in the other day so things are moving along. i'll spare you the photos since i kind of over do it sometimes.



ok i'm going to be done now. i'm sure nobody even made it through this weird random post anyways ;).

Battery Exhausted

that's what my camera just told me...that my battery is exhausted, why is it that i have 4 batteries for that thing and they are always dead? so please excuse the poor photos i had to take them fast before the camera turned off.

i feel like once my life is back on track this is my next project. it's a frame that michelle bought me for christmas made out of rolled up magazines. it can't be that hard to make right? i just think it looks really cool. i'm collecting fun, mismatched frames to decorate one wall. i have 4...
also that barnes and noble gift card in front of the frame...i FOUND IT FINALLY! i got it for christmas from one of the residents parents and i lost it but i just found it on saturday!! phew

i also don't think i ever blogged about this beauty. this was the last photo i could take before my camera pooped out on me so it's terrible but whatever. it's a BIG HUGE BLACK LOVELY FRAME! i plan on punching out that UNG Drill cardboard and using it as a photography prop. excellent! only at Ikea people. i could literally live there. (p.s. the camera used in these photos is NOT i repeat, NOT my "real" camera, it's just a dumb point and shoot...)

and last but not least MORE remodel pics. you're probably tired of them but it's my life right now what can i say?

we did the bar cabinets a dark brown and i love them.

these are the rest of the cabinets (no counters yet boo)...i didn't choose that color...just saying. i like it though. i wish we could PAINT sooon i'm sick of that splotchy yellow wall. i have some amazing colors picked out. hopefully they translate well :\

he started on the floor today! that's pretty exciting. last week he got the fireplace outta there and started framing the wall he's going to put in front of the brick for the flat screen :). can't wait until it's done. i'm so over living downstairs and not having any way of cooking anything except by microwave. although yesterday i did break out the electric skillet to make some indian curry. yum.

alright i have to go figure out how to make puppets...if anyone has any hints on how to make some please let me know. i have no idea!

also please excuse this dumb stuff at the bottom of all my posts i can't get rid of it. that dang HTML class i took last year obviously stuck with me. NOT. i hate HTML just saying.

Let's get Physical

this losing weight stuff is getting expensive geeze louise! i've decided that just dieting isn't going to cut it anymore so i'm introducing working out! yahooo! i'm actually liking it, although it's only been two days so we'll see how long that lasts. here are a few purchases i made today to work on my fitness.

rocket dog tennis shoes. they are orange inside...might be one reason i got them and i had a coupon ;)

i bought some capri workout pants, basket ball shorts, bike shorts, no slip headbands and those lovely shoes again.

also bought this biggest loser wii game from amazon last week and got it a few days ago. that lady kicks my butttt. she's intense.
sam and i made it a goal to go (fast) walking 4 times a week for at least 30 minutes then do this little game 3-4 times a week. sundays will be a rest day so that means i'll be doing both on a few days.

last but not least some updated remodel pics for those who are interested.

Quick Cards

i was very productive this weekend, card making wise that is. i pretty much stayed in my PJ's and made lots and lots of cards (about 45ish). here are a few of my favorites might post more later but i always say that and never do so there ya go.

i'm going to post what movie i was watching while making each card b/c when i look at them i think of the movie i was watching at the time haha

sweet home alabama

walk to remember

cutting edge (LAME not my choice)

defiantly maybe....i think? i made several of these so i can't remember too well, maybe this one was during the olympics.

walk to remember

mean girls ;)

cutting edge (i did a lot during that movie i'm not a fan)

cutting edge again

and last but not least a walk to remember.

that was strange haha sorry about that.

p.s. i just found a new background site so i'll be having background ADD again for awhile :) go here if you want to see them.

p.p.s. still trying to figure out how to get rid of these dumb icons at the bottom of my posts so just ignore them. dumb things.