What The Flock - Audrey's Three!

This week Audrey celebrated her 3rd birthday and it's been a full week of festivities. 

It was a really fun one this year. I've been looking forward to the year that Audrey picks the theme for her party and she didn't disappoint when she picked a FLAMINGO PARTY!

I got her to decide about 3 months ago so I could get started on planning and prepping everything. Which has meant that for the last 3 months she's told us that 'tomorrow is her birthday' and we've had to explain that she was wrong.

It's been a full on year with the shop and i've been single parenting it a lot because of BJ's hours and i've been feeling really guilty about Aude having to spend a lot of time at home while i'm working my two jobs so I wanted to throw her a really fun party. I needed as much time as possible to make this party happen.

Audrey made a list of who she wanted to invite and I did the rest. I designed the invitations, made the decorations, the snacks and the cake of course. 

I design all of our invitations and I had a lot of fun with this one. Really happy with how it turned out. 

Once the invitation was out of the way I planned out all the other decorations and started bringing them to life. The thing I actually slacked on this year was the cake. I usually have a very detailed plan of what i'm going to make with drawings and even test cakes but this year I just had a vague idea of what I wanted to do. I whipped together the topper the week before her party and the rest of the cake I threw together the day before. 

I also managed to find a few minutes to chuck together some cute cookies. 

I was really proud of the paper garland I made for the wall. I honestly wasn't sure how it was going to turn out but I spent ages with my silhouette curio cutting out all the leaves and flowers and am really happy with the final result. It's been hanging up for 2 weeks now because I didn't want to have to do EVERYTHING on the day of the party. And it may be up for another 3 hahaha.

On top of the decorations we had a couple of games. Flamingo ring toss and Pass the parcel. Wasn't sure how Pass the parcel was going to go with a bunch of 3 year olds but it was a total success. And lastly, I couldn't resist in getting a giant inflatable flamingo for the kids to go nuts on. Surprisingly, it didn't pop and it was a huge hit.
Best $20 ever spent!

xx

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Audrey's 2nd Birthday!

How the hell is she two already?!

We had a fun afternoon on Sunday celebrating Audrey's birthday with friends and family (and Uncle Slick Bone). Audrey is obsessed with rainbows and believes in marriage equality, so we thought a colourful party would be perfect.

I love a good party theme and enjoy any opportunity to get creative.

I almost gave up on making the rainbow balloon for the wall because it was absolute hell to put assemble and used up all my tape to keep it together but I'm so glad it was a success in the end as it was perfect for photos.

This was the first rainbow layer cake that I've attempted and I'm soo happy with how it turned out in the end. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty damn good... and tasted delicious!!

As well as the cake I made some really cute hand piped gingerbread cookies, rainbow jelly, meringues, super cute fairy bread and lots of other tasty, sugary treats.

I also made the adorable little scalloped popcorn boxes, the flamingos party hats AND a giant lollipop piñata. Because what two year old doesn't want a piñata?!

In those two hours Audrey had more sugar then she's had in her two years of life and she handled the sugar crash really well.

I can't wait till next year when I ask her what kind of birthday party she wants to have and she tells me a theme.

#Voteyes

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Welcome to Twin Peaks

This is what BJ posted yesterday before we started watching the revived new season of Twin Peaks.

In 2001, I was thirteen and had gone on the weekly trip to the video shop with Dad to hire out that weekends movies, Dad usually got a couple of new releases and I'd hire about seven weeklies.

On the shelf, I saw a shitload of VHS spines staring out at me, a forest, a girls head and the words TWIN PEAKS. I read the label and learned it was a TV series, I had nothing else to do, so I hired five tapes. That weekend, much to my fathers annoyance, we made several trips to the video shop as I chewed through tape after tape. Devouring the entire series (and an R rated movie, still not sure why dad allowed that) in a weekend.
When we had a kid, we decided to name her Audrey, an ode to our favourite character.
This obsession runs weirdly deep.
Nothing has had such an impact on me before or since.
See you in the trees.

In 2008, Megan and I plotted an entire six month trip around attending the Twin Peaks festival in Snoqualmie. I'd shared my love of Twin Peaks and we'd both become fanatics.

We returned home and bought a chihuahua, we named him Special Agent Dale Cooper. A few years later we bought another chihuahua and named him FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole.

There is nothing like the world of Twin Peaks, from the absurdist humour, the bizarre characters, the stark imagery, all the while maintaining a menacing, seething, ululating terror that frightens the shit out of me.

I haven't waited 25 years as a lot of people have, but I've been waiting for 16 years for tonight. I can't wait to see where this goes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have such a love for this show. It was so exciting to see it return to the screen last night and it did not disappoint. 

We celebrated the way we do for any show we love that has a revival or series finale... with a viewing party that includes lots of themed decorations, treats and often outfits. 

For Twin Peaks we had lots of pictures of Bob lurking around the house, delicious pies, coffee as black as midnight on a moonless night, a donut display that would impress Lucy & of course, a damn fine looking log cake. 

P.S: If you don't understand that last photo or the log cake, then you aren't fans of the show and are missing out... seriously! Go watch it already!!

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How I Met Your Mother Finale Party

At the start of April it was time to suit up and say goodbye to How I Met Your Mother.

We have always enjoyed the series even though we feel it started to drag a fair bit, and this last season being completely focused around Robin and Barney's wedding was getting old... But the finale was almost perfect.

I don't want to post any spoilers incase people haven't seen it but the last episode really wrapped everything up beautifully... I just wished it had of ended about 2 minutes earlier. Then i would have been completed satisfied.

BJ and I love finale parties but we had been a bit preoccupied and even though we had plenty of ideas, we hadn't implemented any of them.

Sadly, in the end everything we had for our finale party was made the day of, during my lunch break.

Pictured: BJ and I suiting up, The all important graphs, an intervention sign, and a blue french horn above the TV.

Unfortunately i didn't get photos of everything. We did have some sumbitches to enjoy and i decorated a bottle of pineapple soft drink to look like a real pineapple.

The next finale party we have will be for Californication, which i feel is going to be a bit of a challenge but i will do my best.

xx
Smorgy

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Breaking Sad

This week we said goodbye to an amazing show. BJ and I love TV and Breaking Bad has been such an awesome show from start to finish.

And when every great show comes to an end we like to have a finale party. I like to go all out and make decorations and edibles that reference the show. This has become a bit of a tradition for us since the LOST Finale, and recently we had a party for the returning season of Arrested Development.

So the big Breaking Bad finale was coming up and we had a massive list of ideas. We only had a couple of weeks after getting back from the honeymoon (will blog that about that soon) to prepare for the big night.

Here are some photos from the glorious evening..... and of course we also did a Fork This episode for you

xx

Smorgy

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Busy! Busy! Busy!

I can not begin to tell you how busy i have been this year.

On top of working full time running an office, i have also been trying to plan a DIY wedding... It's not as easy as it sounds.

I have had more then a few occasions where the tears have just started and could not be stopped because I've been soo overwhelmed with what's going on.

With exactly 5 weeks to the wedding I've come to realise that I cannot do it all myself. As much as I want to.

I have started to give jobs to others who are willing to help (as much as i don't want to) but still i have soo much to do.

This next month is going to be ridiculously busy.

This probably sounds horrible but I'm very much looking forward to the whole thing being over. I'll be happy to be rid of all this extra stress and be heading on our honeymoon to celebrate with friends overseas.

Today i had what i call my non hens party with family and close friends. I called it 'Goodbye Newman'. It is the only way i could force myself to take an afternoon off and just get excited about what the next month will bring.

My sisters went with the Seinfeld theme and we all had a lovely afternoon full of good food and laughter.

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with me.

Oh and here is this week's Fork This

xx

Smorgy

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Fork This 64 - Happy 1000 Dawn & Drew

This weekend our friends Dawn and Drew of The Dawn & Drew Show are celebrating their 1000th episode with Dawn-A-Pa-Drew-Za 5.0. We weekend filled with camping, drinking, minions and fun in a barn in Wisconsin.

Dawn and Drew have been doing their fantastic podcast since 2004 and are one of the longest running podcasts out there. BJ and I have been big DnD fans for years and are lucky enough to call them our friends.

We were also lucky to go to Dawn-A-Pa-Drew-Za-3za in 2008, when we were traveling the States. We got to spend a week on the Dawn and Drew Farm, help setup for the festivities AND i got to celebrate in my 22nd birthday with a group of amazing people from all over the USA.

We decided this week's episode was to be in flashback to that grand week on the farm - Making new friends, getting dressed up, being drunk as and having a ball.


xx
Smorgy

PS: Yes that is me at the beginning chugging from a GIANT Tequila bottle on stage... Happy Birthday to ME!!!

PPS: How fantastically horrid were our costumes... Those mullet wigs are still hanging up in the DnD Barn today (Which makes me smile whenever i see a photo)

PPPS: The lovely song on our episode is called 'Girls On Girls' by Smitten Bayou.

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Decorations

For Kaia's 6th Birthday I made some decorations for the celebration. Some cute tissue paper pom poms and an adorable flag bunting for the cake. (I also baked the cake). Kaia was most excited when I told her she could take the pom poms home and hang them in her room.

xx
Smorgy

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Finally Being Creative - Bridal Shower Gift

This weekend I attended my work colleague Megan's bridal shower/kitchen tea. Traditionally for events like these you are ment to give the bride 'to be' a gift for her kitchen... These days most people already live out of home and have collect there household items and i didn't want to be the person who gave her ANOTHER set of tea towels.

I wanted to do something a bit different and creative. (FINALLY I've made something this year!!!)

So i made up a 'Hen's Night Kit'.

I made a set of badges for her and her friends to wear out to there night of girly fun. The set included a bunch of badges for all her friends to wear with informed everyone that they are apart of 'Megan's Buckette Party' and then Megan herself received three badges... A 'Bride To Be', 'Megan & Matt Forever' and '5th May 2012' (There wedding date) badge. The 'Bride To Be' badge was made a little more fancy with a cute ruffled ribbon around it AND i also made and extra 'Bride To Be' badge into a ring.

All the badges were designed to match the theme on her hen's party invitation and I think the whole kit came out looking pretty awesome.

I oragamied (I dont know if thats a real word) up some gift boxes and made a cute little card too. The ruffled badge was the decoration for the card and the rest of the goodies were tucked away inside.

It was something nice and different which i think showed the amount of time and thoughts i put into her gift. Plus i think she really liked it.

xx
Smorgy

I was wearing this hat which i created... It was bloody cold and BJ put on my head to warm me up. :)

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Fork This - Episode 28

This week Cooper turned 3 and BJ and i got out the Party Hat to celebrate with him!!


Fork This 28 - Special Agent Birthday Cooper from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


xx
Smorgy Pin It

25 in a month

So I looked at my calendar and realised that in one month i will be 25. Meaning my birthday will have gone and i'll just be 25.

I've never been big on celebrating my birthday. I don't have a lot of great birthday memories because things always seem to go wrong on that day.

Some amazing birthday i've had have been thanks to my beautiful partner BJ who always tries to make the day as amazing for me as possible.

The BEST birthday that comes to mind is when i turned 22 in 2008. BJ and I were travelling for 5 months and my birthday was celebrated on the Dawn and Drew farm in West Bend Wisconsin for 3 days with people from near and far who we'd never physically met, coming to party in the barn.

Drew Domkus, Dawn Meceli, Megan Newman and BJ Carter

I can remember the countdown to midnight. Everyone decided to climb up to the loft and i have this great group photo taken just after they all screamed

'5... 4... 3... 2... 1.......Happy Birthday!!!!'

It was an amazing experience and truely is my most favourite birthday memory ever.

Generally i prefer to spend my birthday with BJ and Cooper and just forget about the rest of the world for the day. Forget about how much junk food I've eaten or that i'm still in my PJ's at 3pm... Just be happy with the two most important people in my life.

Cooper and I 2009

But people keep asking me what i'm doing for this birthday. 25 seems to be a big thing in everyone elses mind so now i'm trying to decide if i can be bothered organising something for it.

I don't have a great success rate with birthday parties and I don't know that people would actually want to come if i did organise something. I don't want to set myself up for failure, planning something, getting excited about it and then being let down because people have their own lives to live and couldn't come to my little party. The last thing i want is to put in all that effort and only have 3 people turn up (And that includes BJ and I in the 3).

So what should i do?!

Should i organise a small gathering at my house?

A dinner out with some friends?

An evening at a bar for drinks?

Or just plan nothing and do what i normally do on my birthday?

I think the main issue i have is, I'm the organiser... I organise everything, and this is the one thing i really don't want to have to organise. It's not that i don't want to do anything, more that i'd just prefer someone else felt it important enough that they decide to plan something special for my birthday.

Any suggestions, ideas or comments? I'm be happy to hear them.

xx

Smorgy

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