Rule #32: Enjoy The Little Things

We had a Zombie movie night a few weeks ago and watched Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. I saw these cupcakes somewhere online about a year ago and have been waiting to for an excuse to make them ever since! Our Zombie-fest was pretty last minute so I went the expensive route and bought pre-made cupcakes at Harris Teeter.

I chucked the frosting they came with and then re-frosted them with store-bought butter cream I dyed green. The good thing about store-bought is you get vanilla AND chocolate! These are fun cupcakes to make because the work lies in the papers, not the actual cupcake. 

I found this template online and then decorated them with a sharpie to look like zombies. I cut out little arms and since I was short on time (I literally assembled them at the house of the person hosting the zombie night) just taped everything together. Given more time, I would have used a glue stick. I drew the shotgun on white paper and then cut it out for our little hero to defend himself.

He was still standing the next day - so looks like he made it out ok!

Who is Your Favorite?

The Disney Princess line has exponentially grown over the past few years. The original 3 being created over 50 years ago in a span of 22 years. (Snow White in 1937, Cinderella in 1950, and Sleeping Beauty in 1959). The world had to wait another thirty years before little girls everywhere could splash around a pool pretending to be Ariel. Then Disney really got the steam engine going and started cranking out a new Princess movie almost every other year for a decade: Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan all coming out in the 90's. We suffered another lull of about 11 years before getting our first African American and computer animated princesses. (Holla Tiana and Rapunzel!) The newest, Princess Merida, keeps the every-other-year trend going (and doubles the number of gingers!)

So why the run down on Disney Princesses? Well, I just signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon and obviously need to choose which one to dress up as! Running in a wig sounds miserable so that narrows the candidates to Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. Right now I'm leaning towards Rapunzel, but I do love pink so maybe Sleeping Beauty. I guess we'll just have to see which costume ends up being easier to put together!!

Friday Musings #21

I can't believe I guessed the right number last week! Way to go memory!!

Tonight I'm heading down to Williamsburg for the opening weekend of Howl-O-Scream. One of my ALL TIME FAVORITE THINGS TO DO IN THE FALL. What's that? Fall doesn't start till next weekend? Haters!! Once the weather decided to be in the 70's during the day I went into full on fall mode. Scarves and boots are coming out!! I'm going to have to go dig around in the attic and try to find my Halloween shirt. We sure do love matching in my family!

Fun with Fruit!

We had a baby shower for a coworker last month. I'd been waiting for a chance to make a baby carriage fruit salad that my friend told me about. However there were a few things I was not prepared for...

1.) How do I choose a good melon? I've never bought cantaloupe before so I had to call my mom while I was at Harris Teeter to ask how to pick a melon. She told me to smell them and if it smells like a melon then it's good to go. Awesome. If you know anything about the Teeter where I live, its always full of attractive bachelors - so of course I wanted to be seen standing there smelling melons. I'm pretty sure I just went with the first one I picked up.

2.) Watermelon is really... well, watery. I've cut watermelon before, but I'd never scooped it out. I was splashing watermelon juice all over my kitchen. By the time I had a carriage assembled, I was covered in it.

3.) Fruit is heavy. I cut everything up separately and brought it in big bowls to work to assemble it there. I could just see me carrying the finished product to work and dropping it in the parking garage. 

I cut out a small hole for the pacifier and used toothpicks in the grapes for the eyes. I found the easiest way is to toothpick they grapes first and then put it in the melon, otherwise the toothpick falls into the melon and there is zero chance for retrieval once all that fruit is in the basket.

I was really happy with the final product - so cute you could eat it up! 

Wednesday Review: Afternoon Tea Parties

The Wednesday review this week is inspired by my future cousin-in-law's bridal shower this past weekend. She had a bridal shower tea. Of course I love any reason to wear a hat!

Afternoon Tea Parties by Susannah Blake highlights 20 different types of tea parties you can throw and appropriate sweets and savories for each.

What I like:

·         There is a wide variety of tea parties highlighted in the book. Themes from different countries -English, Japanese, and Russian teas; different occasions - Mother's day, Bridal shower, and Christmas;  even tea parties you'd never think of - sweet sixteen, and teddy bear/circus themes for little kids.

·         The book has fantastic pictures. Not only does it make all the food look scrumptious, it has great ideas on how to display the food and drinks at your tea party.

·         The book begins with a history of tea parties and for each particular theme it includes more background information and little tips specific to that tea.

·         There are fun twists on ordinary things like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. PBJs are one of my favorite sandwiches ever, but I thought them an odd choice for a tea party. However if you cut the crusts off and cut out a heart on the top slice of bread - wallah! FANCY.  

·         The book includes a list of useful websites where you can find bake/tableware, ingredients, and tea merchants.

·         Can't forget the conversion chart! American, Metric, AND Imperial!?!

I'm not going to do a "What I don't like" section for this book because I couldn't really find anything I didn't like. I really need to start having more tea parties. Time for some hat shopping!!