At holiday time, we think about those we have lost

Mom's pics from Wisconsin, originally uploaded by prideofazchick.

Miss you, Grandpa.

No babies were harmed in the writing of this post

Anyone else intrigued yet mostly freaked out by baby hand soap from A+R?

Yes, it's quite creepy.

100th post: business as usual

So, I'm an awful blogger. I know!! 10 days is a long time for me to go without blogging. Here's the problem: this my 100th blog post, which is a very intimidating thing. I have been feeling pressured to come up with something absolutely amazing to post about on this milestone. It was a serious block to my creativity. So, I decided to NOT do an extra special 100th post and just go on with business as usual.

Whew.

So, that being said, I have a couple of goals for blogging in general:

1) More regularity in posting - this will be accomplished with weekend posts. My google reader statistics show that people read and write blog posts less frequently on the weekends but it is actually the best time for me to write them. It doesn't matter if people don't read them until monday!

2) More writing - Though I love to share little mini posts about items I have discovered, I think my creative writing muscles could be flexed more. I'm going to work on that. Also, I want to put more even of myself into the blog. Working on that too.

3) More commenting on other's blogs - I must appreciate and support my fellow bloggers! They are working so hard and are incredibly creative.

That's all for now. Tell me what you think!

And, just in case you were completely bored by this post, here is an adorable etsy item that I found today.

These custom napkin rings just might be the perfect thing to motivate us to eat at the table with cloth napkins everyday - not just special occasions!! We are horrible users of paper napkins, a problem that goes unnoticed for some reason even though we try to be as green as possible in so many other areas of our lives.

A bit of travel

This is a busy traveling month for me (3 out-of-state trainings and a mini vacation) so I thought a travel post was in order.

I was thinking about what to post about. There are tons of travel-savvy sites that have wonderful packing tips like onebag and sites where you can find pretty and practical travel accesories like flight001 (shouldn't have gone there, I just found a few things to add to my Christmas list!)

You can check out those links about but I really want to share my "never travel without" list. A lot of things can be easily replaced on a trip. These things are slightly more difficult.

Never Travel Without...

1) A book - I personally don't really go anywhere without a book. If your flight is delayed, you can usually grab a paperback from a convenience store at the airport but there have been times where I was stuck on the plane for several hours, not taking off. I would have hated to be without a book then.

2) A camera - this one should be self-explanatory. I can't believe that I used to go on trips without a camera. Since one of my goals became to chronicle our life more effectively, I never travel without it.

3) A swimsuit - this doesn't really apply to the business trips I've been going on but it works for basically any other trip. You might need to drop by the hot tub after a long day of wandering around an amusement park, exploring an art museum, or skiiing. Plus, we all know how painful these things are to shop for. Do you really want to try and go find one if an opportunity to swim presents itself?

4) Sneakers - lots of hotels have workout rooms that you might want to take the opportunity to use and they are a great backup when you can barely walk after the unsupportive "cute flats" you wore all day at Disneyland destroy your soul (pun intended).

5) Extras of your "unique items" - for me this is an extra pair of contacts and my glasses as well as any meds and chargers for my blackberry and ipod. These are things you definitely do not want to be without far away from home.

And there you have it, my random travel wisdom. Aren't you so lucky to have it bestowed upon you? ;)

Eco-friendly items made to look disposable

Is it just me or are these totally great? Whimsy + Thinking Green = Fabulous. 

A ceramic "disposable" noodle bowl from SuckUK

Glass "plastic water bottles" from UO. 
A ceramic "disposable to go cup" from UO. 

Ceramic "deli coffee cup" from UO. 

I'll take one of each. Also, these could be fabulous Christmas gifts. I am determined to get my Christmas shopping done early this year - hence the posts about Christmas before I've even taken down my halloween banner. 

My Christmas Shopping goals for this year are as follows:

1) Buy from independent sellers whenever possible

2) Buy early - no last minutes this year!

3) Eco-friendly gifts are preferable

4) Green wrapping practices are a must!

5) If I can make a gift, I will, though I'm not extremely handy with the crafts

Please share any goals you may have - I love input.  

Etsy find: onegarnetgirl

I don't wear much jewelry and I don't take the time to accessorize in the morning so I like to have basics that I wear every day - my wedding and e-rings, my watch, a favorite necklace, etc. I have loved the idea of adding stacking rings to this repertoire since I first discovered Paloma Picasso's Sugar Stacks collection from Tiffany (which now come in sterling silver!). These are far a bit out of my price range. 

So, I did what any sensible, aspiring indie shopper would do, I etsy-surfed for stacking rings and I came across these gems (no pun intended) from onegarnetgirl. 

They are absolutely beautiful! You can buy the rings separately or one of her many sets. I just had to share them! The stones are beautiful and I love the rough-hewn quality of the metalwork. I think they would be a great Christmas or birthday gift, especially if you could work a set around someone's birthstone or do a family stack for a new mom - her birthstone, dad's birthstone and new baby's birthstone. Or, just treat yourself!

Halloween polaroid fun

Halloween flickr collage, originally uploaded by prideofazchick.

1. nice hair, evan, 2. boys, 3. no press, 4. trading costumes, 5. josh ghost hunting, 6. remnants of our childhood, 7. hang on to your hamburgers, 8. dork, 9. waldo and carmen, 10. party mascot, 11. Velma and Shaggy, 12. Hamburgler, 13. the passed out CPA, 14. velma investigating the cave, 15. jeff the "cpa", 16. fry husband

Here are some great polaroids of our friends from our halloween party. The Carmen Sandiego, Waldo, and Velma costumes were the most fun to photograph as they were the most colorful. Man, I love polaroids.

Enjoy.

Just a reminder!

Please, make sure you..., originally uploaded by mayalu.

Please go out there and make a difference today!

Arizonans, please remember to vote NO on Prop 102!!! Californians, please remember to vote NO on Prop 8!

Halloween Party of Doom - the Decor

Halloween Party Decor, originally uploaded by prideofazchick.

~ Click on the mosaic for links to the individual pictures.

The decor for our party was really fun, though very time-consuming! We had our usual over-the-top outside decor with jack-o-lanterns, spiderwebs, pumpkin-shaped lights, screaming skulls, thunder and lightning machine, fog machine, gravestones, hanging ghost, and haunted mirror.

Final count: 40+ trick-or-treaters, 4 kids cried, 2 wouldn't walk up the front steps, 1 girl ran screaming down the street. Yeah, we're those people. Also, this is all from our decor alone, we don't dress spookily.

Inside, we had many decorations as well. A few I haven't photographed yet, I'll get to it! We had glowing portraits and pumpkins along the stairs. We painted frames with fluorescent paint and spookified portraits of friends and family and printed them and cut out fangs and fake blood. We then backed the portraits with fluorescent paper so they glowed. Pumpkins were also painted with fluorescent paint and set on the stairs. (all Martha Stewart's idea from the halloween issue of MSL)

(I am planning a feature blog post in a bit on the wine labels so I can give full credit to the person who created them!)

Centerpiece was a glittered skull and pumpkin on a black-painted doily on a cake plate.

This was surrounded by "blood" martinis with 1 green "olive" floating candle. These were just made using giant martini glasses from Michaels (left over from our wedding candy buffet) filled with water and food coloring (and dry ice when the boys got silly).

We used dollar store martini glasses and wine goblets and added warning stickers (also martha) and glittery bug stamps to individualize them. We also had a bowl full of tonic water ice cubes (tonic water glows under a blacklight). The only ice cube trays I have are the fancy ones I bought at ikea on a whim and had never used. As a result, our "spooky" ice was in the shapes of triangles, hearts, and puzzle pieces. A tip for those attempting this at home - use flat tonic water. Bubbles only cause problems. I tried to make floating glowy hands with rubber gloves and all the fingers fell off because of the bubbles leaving cavities in the ice!

In the bottom right corner, you see "Velma" in a spooky bat cave. This was just created by using Martha's silhouette kit from Michaels and then adding branches in vases on either side.

More elements of our spooky party to come. I am posting all of this after halloween so I wouldn't give anything away to my guests! I'll hopefully re-post next October so you can steal anything you want!

super mario cupcakes

super mario cupcakes 085_2, originally uploaded by hello naomi.

Look how cute these mario cupcakes are (by hello naomi)! These would be great for a party or wedding.

hmmm.... they kinda remind me of someone's groom's cake... ;)

Anyone else having Halloween withdrawls?

Please share awesome halloween stories about how much fun you had and what you dressed up as. Also, please enjoy this unflattering and badly lit picture of me in my costume. Are you "cool" enough to know who I'm supposed to be?

Hope your Halloween was a blast! I'll have pics of our party decorations up later!