Friday Musings #29

The frequency of posts is going to slow down... or rather, stay the same (as I have been seriously slacking.) When I originally created this blog, I planned to post every day - but my craft back-up log has been pretty much depleted and life is busy so I can't get to all the crafting I want. (*sad trombone*)

I've decided to retire the Wednesday Review. I may replace it with something else... (Fantastic Gif Wednesday??) we'll see. Anyways - hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! (Unless of course you're the Dowager Countess - I hear she doesn't have those.)

How Many Did You Eat?

Last weekend I hosted our second annual Lord of the Rings marathon. All 3 extended versions of the movies = 13 hours of awesomeness! I had a lot of fun planning out the menu though we did have to combine a few of the meals for time's sake.

First Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevensies
- Sausage
- Bacon
- Hard-boiled Eggs
- Grape tomatoes
- Cheese Cubes

Lunch, Tea
- Finger Sandwiches
- Cherry Scones with clotted cream and jam
- Chicken Curry Balls
- Strawberries & Cream

Dinner, Supper
- Stew
- Croissant rolls
- Cake
- Cream Puffs

And then of course for snack there was Lembas bread! If you don't know what that is, let Legolas here explain it to you:

Lembas bread is typically wrapped in Mallorn leaves. I found a pattern for the leaves and a delicious recipe here. The website suggests making the leaves with craft foam, but I used cardstock.

I bought a pack of different shades of green and I think they turned out really nice. I drew the spines on the leaves with a green highlighter (on both sides so it looked more like an actual leaf.) Then I wrapped the bread up and tied it with some twine. It was a great snack in between meals. And the leftovers made a nice addition to my breakfast the next morning. More pictures of the party and a link to the drinking game we played after the jump!

Put a Ring on It

For these cookies I bought silver AmeriColor Amerimist Airbrush Color. I was a little apprehensive because I hadn't used the edible paint on royal icing before. I've used the gold before (on fondant for the Hunger Games Cake) and it worked out pretty well, so I was hoping for similar results on icing.

When I rolled out the dough, I used a bottle cap to indent a circle in the middle. I have a pretty steady hand, but not one that can draw a perfect circle. After they were baked and cooled, I outlined in royal icing, then went back and filled them all in. (Is it just me, or when the ring is upside down, does it look an awful lot like Kenny from South Park?)

Once the icing hardened, I painted the ring silver. The paint softened the royal icing, so you have to make sure to let it harden again after painting. I was a little worried that the paint would taste funny (I didn't eat the painted fondant because ewww fondant is gross) but you couldn't taste it at all!

I also put disco dust on the diamond for that extra SPARKLE.

When they were all done I boxed them up and they were ready to go!

Time to Get Creative

There are so many fun things coming up! This weekend I'm hosting our annual Lord of the Rings Marathon. You may remember the Hobbit cake I made for it last year. The Legolas die-cutout is ready and waiting at my house and I just have to finalize the menu for a full day of eats. I think I'm going to try to make the Eye of Sauron cupcakes. I also found a recipe for Lembas bread that I'm pretty excited about!

The palace has announced that Kate is due in July! That means I can start planning a royal baby shower! I'm going to do some sort of tea party. Luckily I have a while to figure out the menu for that!

The Princes Half is approaching way faster than I am prepared for. Since I don't like to dwell on how out of shape I am, I'm just going to focus on what really matters: my costume! I have a purple skirt procured from Team Sparkle. Now I just need to figure out a top and my hair! SO MUCH TO PLAN.

Friday Musings #28

I saw this picture in an article I read today. As an avid reader and movie-goer this is the case 95% of the time. There are a few movies coming out in 2013 that are book adaptations and I am SUPER excited about.

I LOVED this book. I realize it's Stephanie Meyer so go ahead and judge me all you want. I am a big fan of Saoirse Ronan. She was great in Hannah. Also I downloaded the Imagine Dragons song Radioactive and CANNOT stop listening to it.

I haven't read this book yet but my coworker has it on "tape" so the plan is to borrow it and make my morning commute productive. Who doesn't love a good zombie flick?

Another book series I'm obsessed with. I read all of the books that are out so far (5 of the intended 6 in the series). Though the story includes vampires and werewolves (like it seems pretty much every teenage novel does these days), the main focus is on Shadowhunters (half human/half angel) which is a refreshing change. And if they're half angel you know they have to be good-looking. 

There are of course others I am geeking out over - but their trailers haven't been released yet:

Much Ado About Nothing (yay Joss!)

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (probably going to be horrible like the first one, but I'll still watch it)

Ender's Game (Still have to read this book)

The Hunger Games (refer to previous post)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (hellllllo Benedict Cumberbatch!) 

 I realize all of my posts this week have been about the entertainment world... (side note - did you HEAR about JT making a new album b/c OMG) but this is where my head is at right now. Next week I'll go back to more crafty things. Happy Friday!

Catching Fire

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

So Much TV, So Little Time

Yayyyy! Downton is finally back! I wanted to try and find some fun gifs to post as well, but am having trouble finding any without additional spoilers. I've been watching a TON of BBC recently. Last week I watched season 3 of Doctor Who in 3 days and I'm half way through season 4 right now.

I have to say that I do LOVE Catherine Tate as the Doctor's Companion. The first thing I saw her in was the American Office. (I know - WAY behind.) She's hilarious and it's nice seeing a plutonic relationship with the Doctor.

Then of course there was the season premiere of Downton. FANTASTIC. The Dowager had some great zingers per usual. I'm excited to see where this season is going to go.

And because I didn't want to seem too highbrow, I rounded out the week with The Bachelor. Nothing says class like 26 girls crying, fighting, and staggering drunk over one "hunky" man. (Really want a gif of the girl who back flips onto her face... so if anybody finds one, please contact me immediately.) It was fun to watch all the ridiculousness of a semi staged reality show and thankfully, there were plenty of shots of Sean without his shirt on.

Friday Musings #27

I spent some time on IMDb today looking at all the movies coming out in 2013 so I could make a list of the ones I want to see. I also took a look back at the movies I saw in 2012. Two of my favorites didn't do too well at the box office but were truly amazing films. And I weirdly got to see advanced screenings of both. Hit & Run was one of the (if not THE) funniest movies I saw in 2012. Dax Shepard wrote and directed the film. He basically got all of his friends to be in it for free and I think he said from start to finish it took them 14 weeks to make. Crazy! Cabin in the Woods is a Joss Whedon movie so obviously I loved it. Fran Kranz was amazing and the movie was equal parts scary, hilarious, and twisty. If you have a free night and are looking for a movie to rent, I highly recommend both of these. DOUBLE FEATURE!

Part of Your Complete Breakfast

After Christmas 2011 I bought a lot of clearance items from Williams Sonoma. One of which was this awesome set of pancake molds! I don't really like making pancakes because I always burn them and make the batter too thick. True to form, the first 2 rounds of these were pretty crispy. But once I got the hang of it, they were easy to make and beautifully golden-brown!

I cooked them on a griddle because it was the only flat pan my parents had.

This is one of the early pancakes where I took the mold off too soon. Nothing like a melty stocking!

Now I can say I am an expert pancake mold maker!

Happy New Year!

Well, 2012 went came and went in the blink of an eye. I ran my first half marathon, saw my second year at Comic-Con, Third at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween, and fourth at Camp in Maine. I was in 3 weddings, joined a Bocce team, made some great friends, and spent a lot of good times with old friends. I even started a blog!! I'm really excited to see what 2013 has to bring. Maybe this is the year I finally dust off the sewing machine and learn how to use it! One can only hope. Anyways - I hope you all had a happy holiday season and wish you the best in the new year!