Macarons for my man.

Eric commented the other night that I never bake for him. And he's mostly right. I'm always baking for a party or a birthday or a surprise of some kind. So I decided to make some macarons, JUST for Eric. 

I intended them to be red, white and blue (you know, for the 4th of July and all...) But they turned out more maroon, white and topaz. Darn food coloring. Not very patriotic. But still yummy. And super-cute on top of this old ice cream scale I rescued from the Rainbow Drive-In demolition years ago in my hometown. (Colby, KS) 

Freak of nature.

The freak I'm referring to isn't Eric, it's our holly bush. We gave it a much needed shave & haircut today.

Fifteen (or so) years ago, we planted this pyramidal holly in the front of our house. And for 15 (or so) years, it's grown and grown and grown. I'd estimate it's probably 16 feet tall by now. Eric claims "coffee sludge" is the miracle fertilizer. Every day, when he gets home from work, he dumps the remains of his morning coffee cup on the bush. (No wonder it's always smelled like Starbucks in our front yard!)

Whatever the reason, we get people asking us all the time what kind of tree that is in our front yard. It's not a tree folks, just a really, really, really, freakishly big holly bush. 

Why so blue?

So, I went to Walmart the other night to buy milk and lightbulbs... and I came home with two bags of blue play sand. Why, you ask? Helloooooo?!?!? Because it's BLUE! How fun is that? (I'm such a sucker for new products. As my husband knows all too well.)

We put it in the rocketship sandbox, and Bea squealed with delight. Although, she got a little panicked when she thought her hands and feet were turning kinda Smurf-like. No worries, it rinses right off with the garden hose.

P.S. 

Our backyard rocketship was featured on Ohdeedoh this week in their "My Great Outdoors" projects. Woot! Once again, Eric's mad-dad-woodworker skills received lots of cool compliments.

AbraCAKEdabra!

No magic-themed party would be complete without a rabbit being pulled from a hat!

My creative project this week was making 24 magician's hat cake cups with chocolate rabbits for a 7-year-old girl's birthday party. My husband and my mom (who was visiting this week) would probably agree, I became mildly obsessed with figuring out how to make a magician's hat that could be easily transported by little, messy kids and still be edible.

The hats are made of foam can coozies (that I painted black). And the hat rims are cut out of black foam sheets from Hobby Lobby. I put a paper cup inside the foam coozies and filled them with layers of mini-cupcakes, frosting, regular-sized cupcakes, more frosting, and then topped them all with crushed Oreos. The rabbit suckers are made from white chocolate candy melts and a plastic chocolate mold I found on Amazon. (Thank goodness for 2-day delivery!)

At the last minute, I decided to make some magic wand forks. I went to Freddy's Frozen Custard and they sold me some of their jumbo pink straws. I taped off the tops and painted the bottoms black. Then, I wedged the black forks inside the straws. Worked like a charm. Magical, one might even say!

Paris, 1993.

Can you believe this is me & Eric in Paris, 18+ years ago? Look at that crazy, looooong hair of mine. And look at that baby face of Eric's. He's always looked so young. Even now. And my God, why are our jackets so large? We could smuggle 15 baguettes under those tents.

Why am I posting a photo of us in Paris? Because I'd like to go back. Someday. And one of my favorite blogs - Oh Happy Day - is giving away a trip for two to Paris! Not that I want you to go online and register to win too, because that would make my odds for winning even worse. But if I post their contest on my blog, then I'm entered to win. Oh, OK... go ahead and register, but if you win, I don't want to hear about it.

Je tiens à aller à Paris. (Translation: I want to go to Paris.)

S'il vous plait? (Please?)

I also remember how to order a ham & cheese sandwich: Je voudrais une sandwich jambon et de fromage.

Four years of French class. I've still got it. Sorta.

By the way, you should seriously check out Oh Happy Day. It's full of all kinds of fun ideas and inspiration.  

 Me in front of Pei's Pyramid at the Louvre.

 

Eric in front of Sacre Coeur.

You are the sweet to my salty.

One of my good friends got married yesterday, and I had the privilege & pleasure of creating a GIANT dessert table for the reception. (I did everything except the cake!)

Rachel likes sweet things. But Mark, is more of a salty guy. So I had a mixed ensemble of all things sweet & salty - in various shades of greens and yellows.

For months now, I've been playing Willy Wonka - ordering chocolates, candies and lollipops. And for the past week, my oven hasn't had a moment's rest - cranking out sugar cookies, whoopie pies, cupcakes and french macarons.

It was a sweet feat, to say the least. I hope it makes for a delicious start to married life. Congratulations, Rachel & Mark!

 

I didn't make the cake, but oh my goodness it was so pretty too! 

A special "thanks" to my sweety for putting up with all the baking and dessert table mania at our house for the last few months. I can get a little crazy with a project like this, as you can imagine.