Stars and Stripes

I spent Independence day in Myrtle Beach. It's great being at the beach for the 4th because as far as the eye can see - up and down the beach - people are blowing up fireworks. And South Carolina has the GOOD stuff - none of this sparkler amateur hour. Their fireworks shoot high in the air, EXPLODE, and rain down in a glorious shower of color.

My mom asked me to make some desserts, so before I left for the wedding in California, I baked some star cookies. I waited to ice them until the actual 4th of July because I knew if they were iced beforehand my piggy family would eat them and there'd be none left for the actual festivities.

For the cookies I had 4 different designs: USA cookies, stars within stars, tie-dye, and just plain sprinkles (I let my brother decorate those.) To get the star-burst/tie-dye effect I flooded the cookies with white royal icing, then drew on red and blue lines. 

Taking a toothpick I drew lines from the middle out.

And wah-lah! Starburst!

I went on a patriotic decoration buying spree a few years ago so I have a bunch of fun cupcake toppers.

I still maintain that the red, white, and blue star sprinkles are one of the best purchases I've ever made. It'll be a very sad day when I run out of those.

I hope you all enjoyed your Fourth of July!! 

Street Meat!

The LMFAO concert was everything I wanted and more. Neon and animal print were everywhere making me wish that everyday could be an LMFAO concert.

We were pretty much as far up as we could get (right behind those VIP jerks). There were beach balls and inflatable zebras being tossed around. 

The group of teenage boys next to us got so excited when the zebra came to them - you would have thought they just won an Olympic medal for their country. They kept jumping up and down in a jubilant jig and wouldn't let go of the blow-up Zebra which meant I kept getting hit in the head with one of its legs. Only at an LMFAO concert.

I think one of my favorite new songs is Hot Dog (just YouTube it) - it is so ridiculous, my brother, sister, and I can't stop sporadically yelling "Street Meat!" at one another. Makes me giggle every time. By some miracle, spaced cleared around me when Party Rock came on so there was ample room to get my shuffle on. And there is nothing better than tons of confetti raining down while everyone is shufflin'.