Words to live by

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud." - Coco Chanel

A Mama Shower

My all-time best friend, Stephanie, is quite pregnant and the time on her pregnancy is ticking down. She is due on November 18 and due to some unfortunate circumstances, the man that was involved with the creation of this beautiful baby is not involved. Which means that in addition to being her best friend and supportive during all of this, I am also her birth partner, child's godmother, and baby shower planner. Keep in mind I've never had a child, let alone thrown a baby shower. I have been to a few baby showers and I know what people hate (most of the traditional things such as games) and what people enjoy. To be honest, I'm excited for the birthing classes and the number of hours we will be spending in the hospital when she goes into labor. And I'm so thankful to my husband for being not only my support during all of this but for being part of Steph's support system as well. I really did marry the greatest man on Earth. The birthing classes have been booked, the tour with the hospital scheduled, and the books regarding everything I should need to know have been purchased. (I'm considering taking a doolah class as well!) The only thing I don't have ready is the baby shower, or as I like to call it the Mama Shower.

In my experience these events have been uncomfortable, especially for the people who don't have children. No one likes going to them. Ever. So, for Steph's Mama Shower I'm making sure we're celebrating her and her baby. Our games, which Steph's mother came up with are adorable. And they're not embarassing! We're having two tables. The first table will be where party-goers can decorate onesies with fabric paint. The second table will have a list of letters and each person can take a letter, draw on a piece of paper the letter and an object to go with it and Steph's mother will later make it into a book to teach the baby her first words. Adorable, am I right? The food is going to be a barbeque. Everyone loves a barbeque. But the decorations, now that's my department. We already created the invitations! The colors on the invitations (A bright pink and purple) are the general color scheme I'm going with.

The invitations went out a few weeks ago. So now the decorating planning has begun. My lovely husband has been helping me with some ideas and execution of decorations. Below are some of my inspirations for the decorations at the party...

These little pom-poms are so cute for this party!

Minus the wire thing

I looooove this

And finally, my favorite part, the cupcakes. While cake would be just fine, cupcakes are generally slightly more labor intensive but leave less room for error (I have completely murdered my fair share of cakes that could not be saved with just some frosting). Being from the Seattle area, I know that the place to get cupcakes is Cupckake Royale. Unfortunately, I'm doing a lot of this planning in the most inexpensive way I can. James and I are saving to eventually move out his parents house (Way to suck, economy). So, I happened upon a website that had a recipe that Cupcake Royale uses. Here it is below.

Vanilla Buttercake Recipe
makes 1 dozen
2 3/4 c. Cake flour
2 3/4 c. Sugar
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 c. Local egg whites
1/2 c. Warm water
1/3 c. Sour cream
5 ounces Butter
3 tbs Expeller-pressed canola oil
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Pasted
Line a cupcake tin with your favorite cupcake wrappers, and set your oven to bake at 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a mixer and mix on low speed. In a separate bowl, combine water and sour cream. Add vanilla paste and egg whites to this mixture and stir until combined. Add the butter, oil, and 1/4 of liquid mixture to your dry ingredients, and mix on low speed until moistened. Increase to medium speed and mix for one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and gradually add the remainder of the liquid mixture in three doses, beating for 20 seconds after each dose. Scoop batter into wrappers. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden. Set cupcakes aside until they are cool to the touch, then frost ‘em up with real buttercream.

I also found a video on how they get their signature frosting look!

If you've never had a cupcake from Cupcake Royale, you are missing out. They are beautiful, yummy, and just to die for. Truly. Here is an example from their website.

 Now that I have a bit of my plan laid out, it looks like it should be easy enough. And fun for everyone involved. Once the party planning starts to go into full swing, I'll be sure to take pictures (with my camera I'm ordering next week!) and post them on here!

Now it's time to relax in a bathtub! Have a lovely Sunday evening, my friends!



Words to live by

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." -Audrey Hepburn

Ahhh, recovery...

Oh, how I love coffee...

This week has been one for the books. At work I've been catching up on things that have been pushed back due to me being, well, ill. (Truth be told, I actually set up this blog when I was sick. There is only so much work from home that can be done!) In addition to my, well, pretty busy work this week I also happened to have a company meeting that was on a boat on Tuesday. That I might have drank at. And then might have had to deal with some family issues. To top it off, Thursday was my hubby's big interview. We should hear back from the company next week. Fingers crossed! In addition to all this hectic insanity, I finally received word this week that I do not have cancer. Which is beyond a relief. Like I said, a crazy week. But my favorite part of any week is the weekend. Or what I want to call, my recovery days.

Time for a nap!

For me, the weekend is vital for my survival. But this weekend arrived just in time, it feels like. Today consisted of laying around in bed and waiting for the desire to get out of bed. It didn't arrive until about 11:00 when James, my husband, and I finally rolled out of bed. We headed to one of my favorite restaurants, Torreros, and contemplated the day. On recovery days it is vital to do exactly what one wants and nothing more. So we stopped by Best Buy, which I haven't been in for at least three years, wandering around and then went home. Then it was nap time. Glorious, wonderful nap time.

I think heaven looks like this.

I don't know if it's just me, but naps are something that I love to do. I don't think my husband loves them as much as I do, but during weekends, I love curling up in bed and just drifting off to sleep. When I wake up, I feel amazing. Probably due to the fourteen plus hours I've slept in the last 24. But I just love naps.

After we eat dinner with our family, I think I may even give my self a spa evening. According to my husband, it's a time where I lock myself in the bathroom and come out smelling pretty...I can live with that.

The most important thing I've learned from these weekends, though, is that taking time to relax and really just take a moment out for yourself is so important for your sanity. Or what sanity you may have left.

How do you get where you're going?

Everyday I wonder how I can best accomplish what I'm doing quickly, efficiently and most of all...without making a giant impact on our world. One of the tasks that I'm attempting to manage is transportation. How can I get where I need to go and where I want to go without spewing extra pollution?

The Trusty Neon

My husband and I are like most Americans, we own two cars. I have a 03 Dodge Neon and he has a Saturn, no idea on year or model. For the most part, our cars get pretty awesome gas mileage (32mpg and 34 mpg). We currently don't use both, in fact the Saturn is currently sitting under a tree just chilling. We drive it every other week, I'd say. Our main car is the Neon. It's a little nicer. A little newer. Always dependable. (That's saying a lot for a Dodge!) Our cars are the equivalent of the most eco-friendly cars you can purchase that run completely on gasoline. The Neon has been a pretty stupendous car, but something I've noticed is that I don't use it that much. Actually, I haven't driven a car for at least a month, maybe longer.

Isn't it pretty?

I live in a beautiful city called Kirkland, a suburb of the Emerald City, or Seattle if you're not being fancy. While I live in Kirkland, I work in Pioneer Square, which gets a pretty bad reputation due to a large amount of, well, homeless people. They're nice! They're just...sometimes for sure on some strong drugs. Pioneer Square happens to be the oldest part of Seattle. As in part of the original Seattle. For those of you who had your Washington State history classes, you know this, but for those who haven't, prepare to be enlightened. In the 1800s (you can Wikipedia to find out when exactly, I'm a busy lady) a large fire happened in Seattle that burned most of Seattle down. It was rebuilt, as all great things are, and the actual land was raised. If you're ever in the Seattle area, check out the awesome Underground Tour. It rocks. In addition to being a beautiful area of town (The buildings are just insanely gorgeous) as well as the old part of town, it is also the most annoying for parking. Unless you're paying $13.00 a day or somewhere between $200.00 and $300.00 a month, you are not going to be parking in the Pioneer Square area. Thankfully my employer gets the King County Metro bus passes also known as the ORCA!

Busing right along...
My bus is in this picture!

Now, taking the bus. Taking the bus is always an interesting experience. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. But always interesting. I hadn't been on a bus since my sophomore year of high school. And it was not good. It may have had something to do with that kid assaulting me at a bus stop, but I avoided the bus at all costs. With my job in Seattle, I couldn't do that. So I have learned two things from my experiences. First, the bus is a great way to get around in Seattle. At any time of day. The drivers are, for the most part, nice. And they will help you find your way around. They can be a little crazy when they drive, though. Second, the non-busing folks of the Greater Seattle area do not like the buses. Currently, Metro is in a bit of a financial crunch. They asked the King County area to raise car tabs by $20.00, temporarily, to make it so there are no cuts in service. Naturally, because goodness forbid we ask people to pay for anything that helps them, the non-busing population are outraged. Let me just make a few comments on this. If the routes that are cut do end up being cut that means thousands, and I'm thinking double digits thousands, are going to be on the road again. And that would be...just awesome. Don't you think? On my bus alone, we get anywhere between 50 and 75 people on our bus at any time. Probably more. And if you ride the 255 to Kirkland, that number is closer to 100. Again, taking the 255 as an example It comes about every seven minutes. That's almost a 1,000 people an hour during rush hour. You get the idea. We're talking a lot of people. So not only is riding the bus awesome because you're reducing your carbon footprint, you also assure that roads and freeways can stay open by having less people on them.

Oooooo...Shiny!

While I enjoy taking the bus, as it gives me time to daydream and read a book, I know that my husband and I are going to need to trade in our trusty Neon soon. We're going to do something that is almost unspeakable in this country, only have one car! We're planning on using both the Neon and the Saturn as part of a trade-in for a new(er?) car. The car has already been chosen. We've agreed on the Ford Fusion. Since when did Ford start making such awesome cars?! And while it is a hybrid, and batteries are not so eco-friendly currently, I have hope that it will get better soon. I mean, this car has way more get-up-and-go then my Neon. It's going to be nice when we buy it.

So now that I've discussed my transportation and how I get around, how do you, my dear reader(s?) get around day to day?

It has to start somewhere...

And I suppose this is where it all begins.

You should see more from me soon. Still setting things up.