Can’t talk right now.

I’m busy making  2 dozen Nightmare before Christmas cupcakes, a Ouija board wedding cake, and a Sorting Hat birthday cake.

I LOVE HALLOWEEN.

Bonus points to those of you who noticed that, in my sleep-deprived stupor, I posted a Random Wednesday post last night.

And thanks very much to the ladies over at We Are Not Martha for bringing this recipe into my life. Now I have to go hunt for a fall-ish cocktail shaker and some martini glasses…

Random Wednesday, pre-Halloween edition

Hi! I know, I wrote two posts in 24 hours. Try to contain your excitement. In the words of my brother, it’s unseemly.

A few randoms to keep you entertained until I finish the post about Chuck’s birthday:

1. Chef and I are working on videos on basic kitchen how-to’s. He likes to teach people, and I like to have blog fodder. (and also maybe pretend I’m a director of major films.) So far, we have a short movie on basic knife handling, and one on how to chop an onion. Do you have anything kitcheny you’d like to see him teach? Nothing is off limits. Want to know how to make popcorn that doesn’t go in the microwave? Want to know how to shell peas? Let me know and I’ll add it to his filming schedule.
2. I have decided that I need more aprons. I currently have a really cute cupcake one (of course) a Boudin sourdough bread one, a half apron that I believe came from Chef’s work, and one I jacked from Lush Cosmetics when I used to work there. Seeing as how they are a major part of my wardrobe most days, I would like a wider variety. Do you have any suggestions on awesomesauce aprons and where I can get them?
3. I think I want an apron-themed bridal shower. Just saying.
4. I have a Halloween wedding to go to on Sunday. I’m making the wedding cake. I’m supposed to dress up in a costume. I haven’t worn a Halloween costume in YEARS. Thanks to Twitter, I’m going to go as Batty Cracker, Betty Crocker’s twisted sister. It may involve blood, but I’m not sure.
5. I’m completely obsessed with special effects makeup. I have a huge collection of latex wound pieces. I hardly ever use them. I should probably get on that.
6. I got to skate tonight at practice. It’s only the second time I’ve been on skates since resigning as a derby girl on November 6th 2008. It was AWESOME. I need to do that more often.
7. I find it disturbing I recall the exact date I quit being a derby girl, but I cannot recall the date Chef & I met, nor the day he proposed.  My priorities seem to be a bit skewed.
8. Interesting how I am blogging about everything under the sun except the fact that we had a pretty shocking death in Chef’s family this week. (Ditka, our hammie, died too.) I think I’m still trying to come to grips with this major change. May not ever blog about it. That’s how I roll.
9. I think I need to stop watching Snapped. (And Oxygen network altogether, really.) Every time I see a dude out in public or on TV behaving badly, I figure I may eventually see his other half on that show, and I wouldn’t really blame her for it.
10. I love Chuck Norris.  I have no idea where this obsession came from, but I am totally enamored with just about everything he does. I can’t sit through an entire episode of Walker Texas Ranger, but I will watch 5 minutes of it every time it’s on. I have issues.
11. I HAVE DISCOVERED THE GREATEST TELEVISION SHOW OF ALL TIME. It is on my favorite network ever, BBC America, and it is LAW AND ORDER UK. I think it has only been on for 4 or 5 episodes, but it’s AMAZING and FANTASTIC and half the time I have no clue what they’re talking about, but I love it.
12. I have a very odd affection for the British. I love the slang (even though I totally don’t get it) and I love the accents and the way they drive on the left and everything. I do not, however, like their food. Bangers and mash? Bubble and squeak? Yeah, no thanks.
13. If you’re not reading Hyperbole and a Half, I am disappointed in you. GO. GO NOW. Don’t even bother reading the rest of this post, just GO.

I need to stop while I’m ahead. I also need to go to sleep before I become delusional and start blogging about my new whisk or the fact that I don’t understand what cake pops are made of or how you make them.

Related Articles

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• Anatomical Aprons – These Skeleton Aprons are a Macabre Way to Cook (GALLERY) (trendhunter.com)
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• DIY Kids’ Halloween Costumes: Inappropriate TV Character Edition (tvsquad.com)

Man.

Image via Wikipedia

This cold just won’t stop.

It all started (the day before Chuck’s birthday. HOORAY!) with a soul-sucking cough that sounded like I was in the end stages of some disease involving leeches and possibly moths eating away at my lung tissue until I just ceased to exist.

Then it moved into a splinter-cell phlegm attack on my sinuses the morning of Chuck’s party followed by a massive movement into my throat, which was not unlike taking a Dremel tool to my tonsils until they resembled hamburger meat.

Then, in the middle of Chuck’s party came the sneezes. Like a tiny troll camping in my nostrils and alternating sticking pins into the soft insides of my nose with pulling out the nose hairs.

After the party (and after I had 2 shots of Jameson to deal with the coughing, the sneezing and the close proximity of my mother) came the fatigue. I was in the middle of a conversation with my family when Dexter apparently snuck up behind me and shot me in the neck with the sleepy needle.

I should probably be glad I didn’t wake up in the scary plastic-covered room….but next thing I remember, I wake up sitting up, alone, in a dark room, with a blanket over me.

The next day was sort of a blur as the onslaught of attacks on my lungs, sinuses, throat and nose were constant. I developed a fever at some point, which I only know because Chef  says he found me in a sweating shivering huddle on the floor with two thermometers in my hand, mumbling that I didn’t want to use Chuck’s thermometer in my mouth but I couldn’t remember which one was which.

Awesome.

I’m feeling eons better today. But I still have a super phlegmy cough and a runny nose.

I guess it’s not feverish-passing-out-in-the-middle-of-the-conversation.

Oh, and I quit smoking. Yay me! 6 days and totally without a cigarette. Being deathly ill may have helped.

 

PS – the picture for today is the flag of Curacao. Not even CLOSE to knowing what prompted that being a suggested media item.

Wishful Thinking Wednesday

Image via Wikipedia

Things I would like to get done this week (in the next 7 days, just to be clear. Not by Sunday. Because that would just be ridiculous.):

1. Write a blog post with some sort of substance and possibly a giveaway and the product reviews that I HAVE WRITTEN, but have not POSTED. BAH.
2. Finish the rest of the 30 Days of Mia Cupcake posts that I seem to have completely stopped writing.
3. Find the camera cord and upload the 6 zillion pictures and the video of Chuck eating her birthday cake.
4. Spend some sort of Quality Time with Chef before he forgets who I am.
5. Finish 2 epic cakes in 2 days. (This one might make me cry. ETA: cry because it’s the only one I’ll get done, and it will be so very full of awesomesauce that one won’t be able to look directly at it.)

What do you have on your list for this week?

And yes, that puppy picture is to totally distract you from this puff of a blog post. 🙂

Lord.

It’s been a long few weeks. Didja miss me?

I kind of missed me.

It’s been so crazy-go-nuts busy, I can’t even remember most of what we did, but here are some highlights:

• A lovely visit with the “scary doctor” at SCCA, who said I may or may not need surgery. (But more on that later.)
• launching the new logo for Mia Cupcake’s. Working on teeshirts and track jackets.
• test-baking and shipping cupcakes-in-a-jar. So far, all testers love them 🙂
• Chuck’s first birthday. That one will get a post all by itself.
• SICK. I GOT SICK. Got Chuck her flu shot, completely spaced on getting mine. So I got sick and Chuck was her normal happy speedy self. That sucked.
• Chef was on vacation for 2 weeks. Which meant I was entertaining him 90% of the time. UGH.
• Short Stack came to visit. Again. Entertaining.

I’m sure there’s much much more that’s escaping my poor cold-medicined brain, but for now, this will have to do. It’s past my bedtime.

Hope you all have a lovely Wednesday!

So……

 

Image by s myers via Flickr

 

I’ve been busy. Way busy. Too busy to even tweet all that much, and for those of you who are Twitter followers of mine, you know that’s crazy for me.

What have I been up to?

• wedding planning. Yes, we’re finally moving towards setting a date. We’ve been engaged for a year, it’s about damned time.
• baking. Working is hard, yo! I’ve been test baking, trying out cupcakes in a jar, all sorts of crazy concoctions.
• kids. I have 2 of them. They eat up a lot of time.
• party planning. Chuck will be ONE at the end of the month (crazy, right?) and Chef is turning 25 this weekend. I’m trying to get Chef nailed down on a theme for his cake, but he keeps saying “chocolate” and leaving it at that. SO NOT HELPFUL.
• business planning. I’ve got a SUPER awesome logo that I’ll be launching on the Mia Cupcake’s Facebook page tomorrow, and writing a business plan for both my business and the home business Chef has been planning. Lots of plans. Need some action. 😉
• naps. After all that working and planning and kid-wrangling, momma needs a nap.

What have you been up to?