Bookcase Decorating and The In Between

Yesterday evening I was in the kitchen starting dinner when my boyfriend got home from work. Out of no where I decided it was time to rearrange our apartment and started throwing ideas around. Within 5 minutes I had started stuffing the mushrooms and my boyfriend was clearing shelves and arranging furniture. It was very exciting! 
Now our apartment looks a lot more spacious. And it could be mainly due to the fact that we got rid of our huge, gaudy computer desk and downgraded to a mere table to hold everything. It was his suggestion and I was very skeptical-I liked having a lot of room for everything. However, the extreme downsize has now given me the opportunity to start looking for dining room tables and planning what to do with all of the extra space! 

 

Don't mind the Christmas decor in the 'Before'-it was obviously Christmas time!

Its definitely a smaller work zone...but I must admit, I like the challenge of getting ideas for the ample space we have now!

But the most exciting (and time consuming on my part) new arrangement of all was the bookshelf. Before it held our hamster's cage-but our beloved Cokey Smurf passed away earlier in the week. 

**We love and miss you Cokey Smurf**

Each shelf held its own chaos and I almost wish I had taken a before picture of it-however-I don't feel like embarrassing myself today!

Now, our shelf is not PERFECT and I am fervently searching for accessories/books and whatever else to keep getting it to where I want. But I must say I do love the way it looks as of now. Its by no means David Bromstad approved and won't be featured on HGTV anytime soon-but for a decorating-inept 24 year old designing on a whim I think its coming along nicely! 

Here is the shelf as a whole (strange angle and terrible Samsung Epic 4G pictures-apologies!)

The 'Twilight Shelf' is my favorite. I am a little biased considering I'm a huge fan and Team Edward, but I also like the red and black look. Here are our 'black spined' books. You'll notice the attempted color coordinating theme in each shelf.

Here is the maroons/browns/orange and the gray/white on the right. The brown box in the center holds my Twlight movie film reel snippets that I was given (told you I was a fan!) The photo on top is of my boyfriend's grandmother's first house. The picture is very nostalgic to him so I'm glad it fits nicely with the more 'rustic' theme on this shelf!

This is definitely more me. I like the transcending colors from greens and blue to purple and pinks. I was glad I could use my Rose Quartz candle holders as book ends. My feng shui game and crystals box adds to the sort of metaphysical feel of it all. Yep, definitely me!

As you can see at the bottom of the photo the last shelf is still chaotic and not as put together. It holds photo albums, binders and notebooks. (I'm sort of a notebook hoarder! But I prefer the term collector!) 

Which is why I'm still coming up with ideas and ways to put the bookcase together so it flows a bit better. But for now I'm quite satisfied! 

This has been my newest project. I'm thinking of which wall decals to create and put by the computer 'desk' or perhaps a cork board. Limitless options. But fun! 

Do you have any bookcase ideas or suggestions?! I always love hearing new DIY and decorating tips!

Cake Pops

Here is my mini tutorial on making Cake Pops. They're really quite easy to make once you get the hang of it and you can make do any shape/decoration that you want!! 


Cake Pop Ingredients:
Cake 
Frosting
Candy Melts 
Edible Decorations 
Sucker Sticks (found in the baking or craft aisle)
Cake Pop Holder (some people buy holders. I've yet to get my hands on one. I have used 8 oz glasses to hold my pops while they dry and more frequently buy the Styrofoam blocks used for arranging flowers)


Start out by baking a cake (homemade or from a box) as directed. Once it's done baking let it cool completely. In a large bowl and start separating into pieces. I've heard that you can put the cake in a blender or food processor to shred up, but I prefer to use my hands. Start to crumble the cake until its in tiny pieces, the smaller the better! The picture is from a cake that had been sitting out for a couple of days (covered) and I found that the extra days really helped with the crumbling. I have made many cake balls a couple of hours after pulling it out of the oven and it works just the same, but there may be a few bigger pieces left after crumbling. Either way works. 

I'm partial to funfetti cake so I used it in these cake pops

Next bring out your frosting. Any flavor you want, homemade, store bought. What ever your heart desires. Put a couple of hearty spoonfuls into the crumbs. Now its time to get dirty. Shove your hands in and start mixing the cake crumbs in with the frosting. Remember that you can always add more frosting if needed but you can't take any out!!

You can see in my picture that mine became like a dough. I had also put my frosting in the fridge so it was cold and while mixing it took over the crumbs!

This was an accident. I completely spaced that I hadn't let it sit out and become room temperature...but by that time it was too late to go back! Now, I wouldn't necessarily suggest this-however it made for VERY easily molded balls! The consistency on the inside is very mushy then. When I gave these cake pops to my coworkers they actually loved the texture-said it was more like cheesecake. Its FULLY cooked but to me seemed a bit too mushy. So when mixing the frosting and crumbs do so to your desired texture-but remember to make it moist enough to mold!!!

Pull out enough of the mixture to roll into balls. Remember you don't want them TOO big because they will be overly top heavy and fall or slide down the stick. I eyeballed the amount and size I needed for each. 

This next part is important not to skip! The cake balls NEED to cool to harden up a bit. You can put them in the fridge for a few hours-or if you're anxious like I am you can put them in the freezer for about a half hour. If the balls don't harden up a bit they will slide down the stick and it'll end up being a disaster! 

This does, however, give you time to get everything ready for decorating!! 

I used sprinkles and coconut shreds. I grabbed any thing I had in the kitchen for these cake pops since they I was making them for fun and to bring to work. 

Grab your bag of candy melts and a deep bowl. The deeper the easier it will be to dip the cake pops into. Spooning the melts over the pop has proved tedious so make sure you can get most of the ball in the melt and then you'll be able to spoon just a little over the bottom or roll the stick to get the bottom covered. Make sure to follow the directions on the candy melt package. You'll want to put your microwave on the defrost setting to melt these, otherwise the melts cook and become unusable. ALSO DO NOT mix liquid food coloring into the candy melts. It hardens it and will not remelt. That's how I ended up making green pops instead of yellow chicks for Easter!!! 

Get everything ready to put together. Pull out your hardened balls, decorations and sticks. Once the candy melt is melted down you'll want to move quickly so you have plenty of 'dip time' before it hardens and has to be remelted!

Place the tip of a candy stick into the candy melt and push into a cake ball. Then put the cake ball in the candy melt and cover the entire ball. Then very lightly tap off the excess candy melt. Spin slowly so it falls off evenly but not so hard that the entire ball falls off. If you're covering your cake pop in decorations now is the time to get them onto your cake pop. Put over your bowl filled with sprinkles (or whatever you have) and grab a handful. Rotate your stick while sprinkling over top of the pop. Then put in your cake pop holder and allow to dry! They dry relatively quick but be sure the pops don't touch any thing until they do. 

And there you have it! Cake Pops! Look online for fun ideas on how to decorate or new techniques! 

These are so much fun to make and people LOVE them! Here are some of the other cake pops I have done:

These two are my very first attempts! 

These were my favorite to make! I'm such a huge football fan that I had to try molding and making little footballs!

I had a blast making these! 

5 Months is FAR too long.

Ok...I won't go into detail about how TERRIBLE it is that it's been 5 months since I blogged last! SO much has happened. So, read the title of this blog and we'll leave it at that!!!!

So instead of writing a 20 page long blog with updates of everything I'm going to throw together a 'small' update blog with pictures and short descriptions! *insert gruff football coach voice here* Ok...BREAK!

Lest we forget...I will start this off with the BEST THING that has happened all year.
The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, Won...the championship. They are AH-mazing!
I decorated the entire apartment in Green & Yellow, Made a ton of snack food for everyone to enjoy (like mini burgers called Roethlis-BURGERS! -get it, the QB for the other team! Genius!) and my favorite part was I got to spend it with ALL my best friends. My mom, sister, Bre, Tanner & PAUL surprised me by coming down!!!!!!!!
Here are some pictures of the greatest day of my life:

 Notice the adorable football brownies and green/yellow cupcakes!

Tons of delicious food...

My adorably festive cutlery! 

Paul & I covered in green and yellow yarn, streamers, t-shirts...and Super Celebratory-ly drunk!

So that was amazing. I still get excited thinking about it!!!

Ok! Next up...

I started a mini porch garden in February after the Super Bowl. It has been happy, sad, easy, hard and all the in between. My basil THRIVES but my tomato plant is sad looking. Here is how it started out:

My seedlings began to sprout. It was such a happy day!!! These are my sunflowers...

And look at them now! The biggest one is about 3 feet already!!!

 This picture isn't TOO recent...My parsley is growing quickly and my Basil keeps getting better and bigger! Its getting harder with the warm weather but It is definitely a lot of fun to garden...when the plants don't die!!

At the end of April Paul, Tanner, Ben and I went to the Nascar race. It was a fun weekend...Paul and I had a blast partying throughout the weekend and the race wasn't too bad either! We gorged on strawberries on a stick, turkey legs, nachos...It was VERY cold though. Having Paul there to walk around aimlessly with was fun since he and I both went just to do something different. 

Here's Jimmie Johnson:

And Paul fitting in the with the crowd by double fisting food and holding onto his beer! If only he was in red plaid or a cowboy hat or something...he'd fit right in! 

In March Ben, Tanner and I went to a Spring Training Game. We sat in the grass which proved to be very entertaining for me! (Phoenician grass is hard to come by now a days so it's been a long time since I played in grass!) I don't remember who won or anything but I had a delicious margarita and hot dog...followed by Hooters with the guys post-game! 

The guys...posing.

Me and Grass! Yay

Yummy!

Bre insisted we FINALLY go to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. I've been so scared but she said I'd love it. And you know what...she was absolutley right! I'm craving it right now even! I LOVE Greek food! 

We shared the lunch platter that was filled with AMAZING-ness! 

The fries were so good. Hell, EVERYthing was so good! I loved the tzatziki sauce so much that I even tried making it at home a week later. It turned out fine-not as good as MBFGreek...but I was starting a diet right then and couldn't finish it off-yogurt being off limits! 

But I did find my favorite diet ever....Atkins. Its relatively easy and I DON'T have to give up ranch...which is usually 1, maybe 2, carbs! Eating out on it is easy. And my favorite to eat at home is Tacos! 

My new craft fetish is wall vinyls! I made 2 for our apartment so far and 3 others for other people...including Paul for his birthday present.

This is my favorite one so far....Made for our kitchen obviously. Isn't it SO cute? And pretty easy, just a little time consuming!  

At the end of March Tanner and I went to the Renaissance Festival. It was a lot of fun! I haven't been in so long! We rode an elephant!!! It was scary and fun!

This is my view of the elephant...all big and scary! What a huge head!

This is us watching the jousting

On April 14th this beautiful creature was born: Abrielle-Tanner's Sister's baby

I held her when she was 3 hours old. It has been so amazing seeing a tiny human being! She'll be a month old tomorrow. It was definitely scary holding her and feeding/burping etc and all the baby stuff! It was hard getting used to it all but I am now and love taking care of her....for short periods of time! She was SO small...she's between premie and newborn clothes right now but we got her a lot of fun things to wear so I can't wait till she can fit in them! 

Here she is holding my finger and crashing out! How adorable and tiny is she?!?!

Also in April I got to surprise Paul by telling him I was going to his birthday party..and got to be there all weekend! And OH MAN did we have a great time!!!!! Such a good time that we only took a few pictures from the weekend...and that's so unlike us! 

This is one of our only pictures...from Sunday morning at 7am, hadn't been to bed yet, after we had invited the entire bar back to his house and had an after party, for the second time that weekend. Oh the good times!

                                    

Also...I'm not sure why it comes up sideways but...you get the idea. Drunk, tired and bored!

Tanner and I turned 24 this year. His birthday was a lot of fun and fell on easter, so I made him a Easter basket full of candies and some presents, Baseball cake pops and bacon roses! Yes, bacon roses. Insanely easy to make and really cute, for a guy that is. 

I also made green cake pops for his dad's family to take over on Easter. Then we BBQed at his sister's new apartment with her bf, baby and mom. Which was a lot of fun also. 

We went to the zoo for my lil' birthday getaway.

We pet stingrays.... Which was Tanner's favorite part:

And fed Giraffes! It was SO awesome to be close to these giant beautiful animals, but we couldn't pet them....and I really wanted to! Haha!

We were really close!!!

There are, of course, a lot more animal pictures but I'll just stick to the ones that we actually interacted with!!

Turns out I find the zoo extremely scary! We went into the reptile part and saw about 5 different kinds of rattlesnakes. Then we continued onto the 'Arizona Trail' which was AZ terrain. EVERY sound I heard made me jump. I was scared to death we were going to run into a non-caged rattlesnake!!! AND THEN as we neared the Oryx corrals (look them up...they're big and have scary horns!) we turned down the trail and hiding behind a brick wall was a lifesized Oryx statue that looked like an actual one and I got the crap scared out of me! So bad that I like flew backwards jumping away and gasping. Tanner laughed and I was SO ready to be done with that trail! Turns out all the crazy sounds from squirrels, chipmunks and birds are very frightening when you're looking at wild animals! We even had a squirrel chase us (adorable but scary) thinking that we would share some food! 

So that is the gist of my last 5 months. At least things that I can remember because I have photos of it all! The best of all being the Super Bowl! I need to have a Green Bay party, especially since I still have some supplies from the SB party! Maybe once its nearly football season! Anyway. And of course there's been a lot of this:

Paul may not be in every picture...but he was there for every drink! Haha! Us and our good times!

There's my 5 month update! Just doing random things and having fun. I'm glad we've already had some new adventures and fun highlights of they year!

• Packer's win the Super Bowl
• Went to the Renaissance Fair
• Went to the zoo
• Went to Nascar
• Went to a Spring Training game
• Rode an elephant
• Pet sting rays
• Fed giraffes
• Had a lil' niece born

Hopefully we'll be doing cool things and I'll remember to take pictures AND blog instead of just post them on Facebook! Tanner's been talking all day about going to a Dwight Yoakam concert (ick really, he's insisting I go. Gag) and a Diamondbacks game on the 21st! So hopefully I'll be back on here SOOOOON!

-xoxoxo-

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

It seems that I forget all too often to blog.


And I have the free time to do so...I just forget. 
19 year old Sammi blogged practically daily. 
Why can't I remember to chronicle my life?!


Anyway. 


Christmas is 5 days away! 
Its really exciting. Last year Tanner and I weren't financially prepared for it. 
This year we've got this on point!
Not only do we already have an adequate amount of presents for each other, 
we've been able to buy everyone else gifts as well. 
Our bosses, Charlie and Mardy, My family, His family and friends!
Which amounts to 14 people. And we got some really good gifts!
I'm most excited to give my gift to Bre and her son Oliver. I'm pretty sure I got them each something they'll love. Tomorrow they're coming over and I can't wait for them to open them up! I'm really excited for some of Tanners gifts as well. They're not the most amazing presents but I did do pretty good! I'd love to go into more detail but I'll have to wait until he opens them!


In other news....
Sookie is growing up fast! I remember when she was a tiny kitten...she's practically adult size now. Ornery as hell. And yet still mommy's little princess! 
Cokey Smurf is doing fine...she's busy being a hamster and just hanging out in her cage. Nothing much new with her!


Tanner and I went to the Cardinals vs 49ers game not too long ago. It was 
cold! And we were surrounded by 49ers fans. The Cardinals are such a sorry excuse for a team this year that I started cheering for the other team. And then decided to cheer for both cuz it meant twice as much cheering! I'm sad that the Packers didn't play the Cardinals this year. But I'm definitely going to get tickets next year! 


Theres not much else to ramble on about so I'll keep this short and sweet and blog again later on Christmas day!!! 
XOXO

Things As Of Late...

Everything has been going great, as usual! 


Lets see...things other than the norm of work and hanging out at home....
Last Saturday Oct 23rd Bre and I went to a hockey game. It was a lot of fun and a new experience! Before we even walked up to turn in the tickets Bre and I got uber hit on...it was insane and funny. We rule. But luckily her dad was right there to try and put the kabosh on it....though it didnt work! Haha! We got free Camo Coyotes hats and had a blast taking pictures, watching the game and being rednecks with our hats and Coors Light tall boys!!! 
After the game we went to a little cantina and had some nachos and fruity martinis. Then we decided since it was still early (10:30 haha) that we want to go to Graham Central Station and get our jive turkey on ...
And we did!
Sober!
It was a blast and really it was hilarious watching everyone else be drunk for once. We then decided to try our damnedest to go to Grahams for Halloween. 


Speaking of its only a couple of days away! So far we have a good little group going. It should be a blast...if we could ever figure out DEFINITE plans! My halloween costume has, amazingly, come together pretty nicely! I bought a corset online and I was so scared that it 
A) Wouldnt get here in time
B) Would be cheap & Chinese made
but instead it was 
C) On time and sturdy! Thank goodness!
So it should be a blast. 
Bre and I had lunch with a new friend today who is very awesome. She's funny, cute and kept up with our random conversation which was perfect and what we're looking for in a new friend!
Can't wait till we all get to hang out for more than 90 mins on Saturday! 
Which my boss was definitely not thrilled about me taking that long of a lunch....but it was all for good reason! Hahaha!


Hmmm what else is new?


Tanner bought a new TV. We've needed one for so long (two actually cuz ours were both going out and it was annoying). He took off work 90 mins early one day and when I got home there was a new 42' Plasma flat screen in our living room! Hahaha but its really neat! 


Other than that nothing new. Sookie has been crazy and cuddly, all at the same time.
Cokey Smurf was sick (well she had what looked like a tumor or something growing in her poor little ear) but now she's all better! Im so glad cuz I called vets to get an estimate for her to be seen....$40. For a hamster that we paid $14 for! Ridiculous...but I also got some good info on prices and places to get Sookie all her kitty shots as well as getting her fixed! So when she hits 6 months we'll get on that! 


But I suppose thats all for now! Just hanging out...having fun...lunches and shopping with friends...working and spending time with my love. Loving life as usual :)

Queens-Birthdays-Shots And All The In Between

Last weekend of September was long! Long but a blast...from what I remember.

My best friend Paul came down for the weekend (friday-monday) and it was AWESOME!

We spent half of the day Friday going to stores... getting birthday presents for our friend's birthday which was saturday and getting alcoholic beverages for the weekend.

After we finally got home and settled we started to get ready for the night-which was going to be filled with lots of drinking at gay bars! We began with Paul-made mix drinks [a la Bacardi, Sprite and OJ] while getting ready. We then meandered over to the pool hall for our 'pre-party' of screwdrivers and rum&cokes. We then light railed to Charlies-which is in the middle of Phoenix and very far away. So we went fully equipped with 2 small bottles of the cheap Club Mix Long Island Iced Tea. We got on giddy and loud-as usual...but the more people stared the more it dawned on us that we probably smell like a bar already! The LIITs are so potent! And STRONG! We got to Charlies but since Paul needed some eye drops we went to Fry's first-

Potty Break....Check.

Eye Drops.....Check.

Picture Of Paul Kissing The McDonald's Drive Thru Menu....CHECK!

We then ventured to Charlie's - Our most beloved and cursed gay bar!

We enveloped ourselves in the 'Wet Friday' theme out back and downed a couple of Jello shots and sat down with our drink. We blink. And then Paul is already insisting that we need to suck down our mix drink and be on our way to Ice Pics (The bar Paul used to work at. He was a celebrity there. If you ask me, its just cuz he ran around in his undies! Ha!)

So we drank, hailed a cab and met up with 3 of the friends he had there. Which 2 I knew. It was fun...up until I pissed off one of the gay boys being overly insistent on the fact that we would NOT be driving with them since they had been drinking. [Hey I learn my lessons in life! I don't need repeats!] So, to quote a fellow blogger, "in a fury of glitter and make up along with tampons on the floor"  the queens were getting angry. Luckily it was nothing a few shots and hug-it-out session couldn't fix. We by that point decided to head back to Charlie's. However by this point I was drunk, needless to say I'm sure Paul was too. This is when everything becomes a blur with the exception of our grand exit which went a little something like this:

'Bye guys! We're trying to catch the light rail home' 

'NO! WAIT! I just bought these shots for all of us'

Insert Shots Into Hands

'CHEERS!' *gulp* 

'See You Later!!!!'

Scamper drunkenly off!

Following morning was with out a massive hang over. Which on a weekend where you're hellbent for drinking-that is a gift from the gods!

We began our day trying to remember what happened - the biggest question of the weekend for Friday night was:

HOW THE HELL DID WE GET HOME?

(After days worth of contemplation we deducted that it was not on said light rail and we must've shelled out money for a cab-which we were trying to avoid considering a cab bill from 7th Ave to Dobson was the same price as one of our first borns!)

We then continued our day with French Toast, Fruit and Mimosas, something we had been eagerly awaiting!

Saturday night we had a friend's birthday party to go to (which is why Paul came down in the first place) so around 6pm, when I was finally not feeling the effects of the night prior, we began to make cupcakes and get ready. Finally 4 hours later we were headed off to the party. Arrived and began drinking immediately. Of course! Thats what you do at house parties! They had a keg out back but Paul and I passed for a mix drink! We did the sort of sober-pass-some-time mingling you do with everyone and finally started having shots in the 'shot room' in the back of the house. Which really was quite humorous. 5 Girls and a gay go into the back room bearing a bottle of Dr. Pepper and Rum...pouring shots and screaming the 'Shots Song' (aka Shots by LMFAO), Laughing, and then remembering that there are about 20 people on the other side of that door so we should not be advertising that we're trying to get drunk with out them! It turned into a huge giggly-girl-endorphine-releasing fun time with everyone and at that point we were all best friends. My favorite part of house parties...You go in with one friend and leave with 600! The whole rest of the night was pretty much Paul and I being told we're awesome (thank you, we know) and just having a good drunken time with everyone. Lacking in the music department but everything else was a blast. Until the VERY end of the night which we wont get into but we made it home (same was as we arrived - via cab-we remember this time!!!!)


Sunday we decided we needed to go to IHop and eat some food. Tanners friend who I hadn't met before came over to visit and so after IHop Paul and I went to Groggys and met up with the guys. Football and Beer. I love it. 
The boys got a little drunk so we decided to pick up some beer and head home. The guys got a 30 pack and then Paul went to Safeway and came back bearing Bicardi lemon-jager- and Xrated. Oh my! So we drank and drank and drank. We played Kings Cup and had a jolly good time. Id love to go into more detail but Im so worn out from even typing about my weekend that I can't go on! Ha! It was fun and then Monday rolled around and Paul and I did what we do best after a weekend of drinking:
Laid around on the couch, criticized TV and laughed at our own dumb jokes.
It was a great weekend!


---------------Now-----------------It has completely dawned on me that I haven't mentioned our newest addition-Sookie the kitten. This precious and viscous little sack of fur is so pretty and cute! 

This is her and I on October 3rd watching the Packers game. It was adorable!

Well...even though I have plenty more I could ramble on about I figure this is plenty long and I'll save another update (a real update) for later in the week! Until then...thanks for embarking on memory lane with me and pretending to care about how much of a more fun time Paul and I have than you! Haha just kidding! That was bitchy. Talk to you ..... later!