daddies day

Hey Everybody, don't forget! 

It's Fathers Day!!!

Happy Fathers Day Daddio!!!

I Love you a whole bunch!!

paper lantern

Remember back when I showed you that to-do list? Yeah, you know, back in January.

Well take a look at what I finally finished!!!

A while back (a.k.a. over a year ago) I saw this bad boy on Design Sponge. I loved it and wanted to make one, but procrastination got the best of me.  Then, a few months later, I saw these puppies on Style me Pretty, and it really got me ready . . . to start thinking about it even harder.

So a few months ago I finally told myself it was time.  I got a paper lantern, cut tons of triangles, and started the long process of gluing them one by one onto the lantern, it took forever but it was totally worth it because look how cool this thing is!!!!

I'm pretty sure the ones from Design Sponge and Style Me Pretty were made with wider strips, which probably made it both faster to put together and a brighter light.  The strips I cut were 1" wide at the top and 8 1/2" long (cut from old stationary we were going to throw out at the office). There are so many layers that the light barely shines through the paper lantern I bought.  It also doesn't help that I decided to buy one of the battery-operated LED lanterns, which don't put out much light at all, and the light that does come through has a weird green hue to it (I didn't check if the LED worked until after I was half done . . .oops).  I think I might put a light bulb in it afterall, especially since there is a socket in the ceiling right where I want to hang it In Our New Apartment!!!! I'll show you once everything is put together. I'm super excited to move, if you can't tell already.

I think I'll try another one with different sized strips, or maybe different colored strips!! This project was pretty time consuming but the end result was so gratifying, I'm happy I stuck to it.

If you want to give it a whirl just make sure to buy the lanterns with the continuing/parallel metal coil, as opposed to the ones with the crazy asymmetrical/criss-cross coil.  The parallel lines are your guide lines as you paste your strips and circle up the lantern.

And when you're done send me a picture! I'd love to see it!

alypalooza!! . . . continued

Don't think just because the day is over the celebration is over, cuz that's not how we do it in this family.
We draw the party out, over days and weeks,
so AlyPalooza is still in full effect!!!

I had such a blast this weekend, so I want to tell you all about it!

First off I painted my nails for the big day.

Then I spent most of Saturday baking this amazingly delicious cake.

 I've never made something chocolatey from scratch before (other than frosting)
I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, an amazingly great recipe blog, that you have to check out, I have a never-ending list of her recipes I want to try out!

There were tons of ingredients I had to get, but in the end it was %100 worth it.  This is hands down the best cake I've ever made. So moist, so flavorful, so good in fact . . .

that I couldn't even get a picture of it before it was attacked!

It's the Double Chocolate Layer cake, with Chocolate Ganache and a Raspberry/Strawberry filling.  I strayed from the filling recipe just a bit, I don't have a food processor or any sort of blending device so I chopped up the berries added some sugar and let them sit to macerate in their own juices, then cooked them down (so I could eat them without going to the hospital). I also added strawberries to the raspberries, because they're delicious, and it's my birthday so I can do whatever I want.

 We had a couple friends over Saturday night and it was wonderful 

(thank you for coming over, you made my day!).

After a night of alcohol and cake (don't worry mom and dad, we stayed classy), I thought Sunday was going to be a wash. Just a sleep in and watch t.v. day.

But then The Man surprised me!

We went to the Davis Movie Theater to see The Avengers!!!

It was so great!

We haven't been out to see a movie since Alice in Wonderland (yeah, like March 2010, that long). So it was quite a surprise when The Man told me what we were doing.

The Davis is a great theater, no bells and whistles, and just $5.75 to see a movie before 6pm (around $8 after). When the movie got out we took a stroll through Lincoln Square to check it out, becaaauuuse . . . 

We're moving!!!!

To Lincoln Square!!!

YAY!

(but I'll tell you more about that later)

alypalooza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy AlyPalooza Everybody!!!!

Guess How old I am?

      I'll give you a clue . . .

That's right, I'm a whole Quarter Century now!!

It's my Birthday and I can paint my nails all crazy if I want to!!