How to throw a Cars birthday party!

Recently I got to attend a very special birthday party! My godson loves Disney Pixar's Cars, so of course he had a Cars-themed party. My BFF and her husband are super creative and I love how they incorporate their unique styles into their everyday lives.




The decorations...

Cars happy birthday banner and streamers from the store.

The cake...

My BFF made a racetrack cake. First she scrapped the filling out of some Oreos and crushed them up. I got to eat the Oreos cream and leftover cake frosting, so I definitely was on a sugar high the rest of the day. Haha.

Lots of Oreo cream filling....mmmm!

Next she made a cake and divided the batter into 2 round cake pans. After they were cool she put each cake right beside each other and covered them with green frosting (we used white frosting with green food coloring mixed in). She centered 2 small bowls on each cake, then made a racetrack with the crushed cookies, followed by green sprinkles for the grass in the middle of each cake.

On the right cake there are cars and trophies she got at the store. On the left cake she made 2 racing flags out of white duct tape and toothpicks (she colored them with markers). The finishing touches were my godson's toy Cars racing around the track! :)

Ta da! The finished Cars cake! :)

The fun...

We drew characters from the movies onto white paper and attached it to the table. The party guests got to paint their favorite cars! Everyone had a blast and got super hyper, which led to a super awesome late night dance party...who wants to Cha Cha Slide?

Someone's engaged!

One of my very good friends who've I've known since high school is getting married soon! We had an engagement party for him and his fiancee this past weekend. That means lots of food and fun!

A cute banner in our chosen party colors - gray and yellow - was made from scrapbook paper.

Ham and cheese sliders (we also had turkey and pesto sliders) and one of our tissue paper pom poms.

This spicy sausage dip from Annie's Eats was delicious! It only requires 4 ingredients - sausage, tomatos, cream cheese and hot sauce. We also used the leftover scrapbook paper for food labels.

Our friend Alex made an amazing butterfly almond cake!

We set up some index cards for guests to write well wishes and advice to the happy couple.

The Menu: (shopped for food at Costco)

1. Ham and Turkey Sliders

2. Spicy Sausage Dip

3. Almond Cake

4. Fruit, Marshmallows, Pretzels and Chocolate Fountain

5. Veggies and Ranch Dressing

6. Chips and Salsa

7. Spinach stuffed pastries

8. Little eclairs
9. Candy

Decorations (in gray and yellow):

1. Tissue paper pom poms

2. Scrapbook bunting banner

3. Scrapbook paper food label cards

4. Well wishes cards

5. Gray and yellow paper plates and napkins from Target

The weekend.

Hello! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

I was able to make some sweet onion dip the other night. It was delicious. I used agave nectar since we were out of honey. I also didn't make the zucchini. We ate it with Bugles instead, which was delicious because of the salty/sweet contrasting flavors.

I spent my weekend with some of my favorite people....swinging (and falling) on the porch swing, playing Pictionary, listening to a lot of Vanilla Ice and Beastie Boys on Pandora, and watching Soul Surfer, the story of Bethany Hamilton, which is a great movie! :)

Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right (Revisited)

What did you do this weekend?

Something to wear and something to eat.

(Image from Molly on the Rocks on Etsy)

Isn't this dress lovely? It's called The Hannah Dress from Molly on the Rocks based out of Nashville, TN.

(Image from King Arthur Flour)

Last week I saw a recipe for Baked Zucchini Sticks and Sweet Onion Dip on Pinterest and really want to try it this weekend. I mostly want the dip, so I might just use raw zucchini sticks instead of baking them. We'll see.

Read electronically in style!

Here are some of my favorite ereader covers I've found online...

1. M-Edge - Lots of covers! You can search by device.

Sleeves from M-Edge for a variety of ereaders for $34.99 (on sale right now for $19.99!).

2. Etsy - Just search for Nook, Kindle, ereader, iPad, etc. to find a ton of beautiful covers ranging from book style, sleeves, bags, skins, and more.

Isn't this bookshelf fabric cover cute? I love it! See more handmade book

style ereader covers (the one above is $57.00) from dixie's window

Book case for iPad from Pad & Quill for $69.99

Distressed leather Kindle sleeve from Joe V. Leather for $55.oo

Honey bee case from Seaside Sew on sale for $25.00

Guitar sleeve cover from bertie's closet for $22.99

LOVE this corduroy bag from Jenny N. Design ($88.00)

with a front pocket to fit your Nook! So cute!

3. GelaSkins - Lots of amazing skins for phones, laptops and ereaders. Pick your favorite design from the gallery or create your own!

Some rad artwork from the GelaSkins gallery.

Fried Pickles

(Photo from ehfisher on Flickr)

In honor of fried pickles trending on Twitter, I would like to now take the opportunity to declare my love for both pickles and the genius of whoever thought to fry them. Whenever I see fried pickles on the menu at a restaurant I don't hesitate to try them, but I have found that not all fried pickles are created equal.

I've never actually made them myself, mostly out of fear. I blame this on an incident several years ago when I tried making fried green beans and almost burned the house down. It was a lesson in not heating oil too high in the pan to say the least.

Some of my favorite recipe sites are Tastespotting and Foodgawker. Both of them have some recipes for fried pickles as well as several I found on Food Network.

I've had both fried pickle chips (the best) and spears. Don't forget the ranch or bleu cheese dressing for dipping!

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

Hello! This past weekend I got the opportunity to see one of my all-time favorite bands, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, in concert at the Bele Chere Festival in Asheville, NC. I really felt like I was going to visit a longtime friend I hadn't seen in forever. It's been way too long since I've seen them live, so I definitely was really excited. Because the concert was at the festival, it wasn't like going to see them at their own show, but they rocked it out nonetheless. I LOVE THEM! :)

What's even more exciting is they will release their new album Gift Horse on October 11th and be going on tour again this fall. Check out their new single "Gravity." They will also be going on The Rock Boat in March! :)

I also saw this article about T-Bone Burnett (of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Cold Mountain, and Crazy Heart fame) and The Hunger Games soundtrack. Yay! I think I'm almost as equally excited about the soundtrack as I am about the movie (I LOVE soundtracks...but I'll share my affection further in a future post..haha)! I did see something a few weeks ago about Jennifer Lawrence (who will play Katniss) recording in a studio in Asheville with T-Bone Burnett for a track in the movie. Katniss is supposed to be a good singer (just like her father) in the book.

I have a southern accent...

(Photo by Christine found on flickr)

Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway

...but many people don't...or don't have any clue how to have one! There are many different types of southern accents, none of which show how intelligent a person is (just believe me on this one). I can literally drive a few hours from where I grew up and hear a southern accent that is completely different than mine. It's pretty incredible actually!

I saw this article last week about a new movie called Main Street set in the American south (Durham, North Carolina). I love southern films. But a lot of times I have a problem with them because of the accents, or rather the portrayal of the southern accent in a very overdone fashion. Sometimes even southern actors overdo their accents. I'm guessing it's because they have tried to 'get rid' of their southern accents during their careers to be convincing in other roles, so when they try to go back to the southern accent, it doesn't sound right. However, I won't be too hard on them because you never know what they sounded like when they were younger. Like I said, I've heard all kinds of southern accents throughout my life.

Actually, some of the best southern accents I've heard in films (whether there are southern actors cast in the movie or not) have been from British actors. I love Jessica Tandy in both Driving Miss Daisy and Fried Green Tomatoes. In The Secret Life of Bees, both Sophie Okonedo and Paul Bettany are English actors with fantastic southern accents. Dame Maggie Smith plays a convincing southern lady in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Some southern actors I love are Celia Weston (she's known for playing in southern roles), Dolly Parton (okay, I cheated a bit because she's not traditionally an actress, but I love her!) in Steel Magnolias, and Sandra Bullock in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and The Blind Side. There are definitely others I can't think of right now!

Some of my favorite southern films (besides the ones above) are Forrest Gump, Radio, Cold Mountain, O Brother Where Art Thou?, and To Kill A Mockingbird.

Here's a list of lots of southern films! :) I haven't seen a lot of them, or even remember the caliber of southern accents in the ones that I have (usually I only remember if it's really, really bad or really, really good).

Happy movie watchin', y'all! :)