Getting ready for my best friends Bridal Shower

Today is my best friends bridal shower and seeing someone you love so happy is such a beautiful thing. She has been with her fiance since we were in 8th grade. They have such a great story to tell. I along with our other bff are having a candy themed shower in which our inspiration came from Saucy's Blog and Loopy's 13th bday party.

Putting together 20 candy filled vases, jars, and fish bowls was hard work. I made chocolate covered pretzel rods dipped in sprinkles, graham crackers, or drizzled with white chocolate. I did the same with marshmellow pops. We also made cupcakes with pink and green icings. The star of the show is definetly the cupcake pops we are giving away as favors. They are the cat's meow. We found the idea on Bakerella .

So pretty much this is just a BIG BIG thank you to Saucy and Bakerella for wielding their SLR cameras and sharing their holy kitchen talents. I heart your blogs!

I'll upload pictures when I get home! Look what I did with the "loppy" cupcakes and my new Wilton's cupcake tree.

When I get married, I so want a giant cupcake tower. Yummo!

Under Appreciated: Hot Nerdy Funny Boys

You other ladies can have Brad Pitt. I lurve me some nerdy, really funny, but also hot guys. You know they were the class clowns or nerds in high school but they have grown up to be so delicious! To these men, I say "Hello Lovah!".

Dear Jimmy Fallon,

You had a lot of expectations to live up to replacing Conan O'Brien and I think you have done a fantastic job. You brought that pretty boy Justin Timberlake on your show trying to gain the ladies viewership but I tuned in for you sugar. Thank you for bringing Barry out to play. Your wife is business partners with Drew Barrymore. I like to day dream about shopping with my bff Kate Winslet and then going to Drew's for margarita's. Too much? I don't care, I think you are a cutie.

Dear Jason Segel,

I just read your Rolling Stone interview. How does it feel that Brad Pitt saw your nethers? I'm currently watching Freaks and Geeks to please the Apatow fan in me. I can't wait to see your new movie! I love "How I met your Mother". You are married to Allyson Hannigan on that show. I bet that's fun. I played the flute in high school too and I'll let you sing vampire musicals to me. Please.

Dear Seth Rogen,

You have the greatest laugh ever and I want to play with your curly hair. You lost a lot of weight for The Green Hornet movie. I make really good cupcakes so we can fatten you back up before your new found skinniness goes to your head. I have a great NC accent like Danny McBride. We would have the nerdiest little Jew-Baptist babies. I'll make some baked goods for our kids bat mitzvahs. Okay pumpkin?

Dear Michael Phelps,

Let's face it, from your neck down you are golden (8 times) but you have a nerdy lil face. I don't mind if you hit that bong, I know you're sorry. I'll let all that slide. I see in the tabloids you like Asian girls but I'll take you out to the Hibachi lunch buffet. It's only $6.45 before 5 pm.

Dear Emile Hirsch,

I know your name is pronounced "A meal" and that makes sense. You look tasty enough to put on a plate. You played the nerdy guy in The Girl Next Door and had to rock a fro and glasses in Milk but that's okay. You are so gorgeous and I'd cut up my credit cards to go Into the Wild with you anytime sweet pea.

UNC vs. Duke Basketball. In Person. I can die happy.

I love my Tarheels. No, I'm kind of obsessed. I let Red Man convince me to incorporate UNC themed things into my living room decor. Yes Michael Jordan and my husband* Tyler Hansbrough have places on my living room walls. Matted and framed pretty of course.

Enough with decor. Let's talk UNC vs. Duke. The biggest rivalry in college basketball! Last fall Red Man and I made the decision to buy season tickets on eBay since it was my husband Tyler Hansbrough's final season and Danny, Ty, and Wayne decided to return for another year as well. We purchased the season tickets so we could go to any home game we wanted and if we couldn't, we just threw those babies on Stub Hub. Our section usually sat a few whine and cheese snoozers but for this game, bring on hundreds of students. They were so loud and started chants and never shut up and I lurved it. I sat down and stood up to cheer so much I got a better work out than lunges. I took in just how slam packed the beautiful Dean Dome was during the National Anthem and I started tearing up. Our boys played so well and we won 79-71. Duke didn't stand a chance with Lawson's fabulous 3 point plays. Even Coach K knew it.

It was one of the best days of my life and I cryed like a blubbering idiot during the senior speeches. I respect every one of those guys right down to the delicious biscuit crew. I try to add them all on facebook and tag them like they know who the heck I am. Here are a few pics:

On the way to Chapel Hill in the car

Almost there! They are so close they share the same exit.

I got the tickets honey!

Ewww the Dukies were the first thing we walked in on. I'm still not over that elbow Mr. Henderson.

I was ready for the game, Soulja Roy shades and all. Sorry the pic turned out dark.

I had to get a shot of the final score. I wished I could storm the court but you only do that if you didn't expect to win ;)

Yay! We beat Duke AND we won the ACC Regular Season Title!

Coach Roy Williams cutting down the net! I love Roy's Boys!

Tyler Hansbrough during his Senior Speech. It was very sweet. I can't imagine how proud his parents must be of him. He's a record breaking machine.

*Tyler Hansbrough is not in fact my husband but I can day dream dadgum it! Anytime Red Man hears about it he makes a very Jon Scheyer-esque face. Google image search that but for heavens sake, not with children in the room.

Call the cops, I just found a steal

Okay I'll be the first to admit, when skinny jeans started showing up on my favorite celebs, I thought "omg non flared jeans, gasp!". but I absolutely loved that you could wear these style of jeans and still see your high heels because that's one thing I always hated about boot cut and flared jeans. You can't see completely how fabulous my shoes were. But I still wasn't ready to commit. I remember getting my first pair of LEI flared jeans in 7th grade. I lurved them so much. They were LEI and before LEI was sold in Walmart, they were in department stores.

Thirteen years later, I wasn't ready to let my lurve for a great pair of dark denim flared jeans go. So I have given it a year and skinny jeans are still in so what they hay, let's go try some on. Uh oh...did I mention I'm 5'2" in flip flops and most skinny jeans come in 31 or 32" inseams. They accordian up my leg and I couldn't throw them back on top of the nicely folded shelf faster. Sulk.

Well I was browsing Forever 21 the other day online because we don't have one close by and -blah dow- in their Fabulous Finds section (read dirtty dirt cheap) they have a pair of skinny jeans with a 29" inseam for freakin $12.50. I hope those bad boys live up to my expectations. Jeans that don't cover my shoes. Lovely.

They have tons of cheap basics in the Fab Finds section too like racer back tanks for $3.50 and short sleeve cardigans for $15.50.

By the way, hello to my first follower, Gail! Yay!

My Unbutton your Pants It's So Good Spaghetti and Meatballs

The first recipe I had to conquer was Spaghetti and Meatballs. It was always one of my favorite dinners growing up and mine will never beat my Mom's. It took a few years of trial and error with different seasonings. I try to cook as healthy as possible whenever I can. I very rarely buy ground hamburger except when I intend on making hamburgers. You can use that or ground turkey for this recipe. I also use Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles. Why not get some fiber if you are going to "carb it up"? I use normal sized spaghetti noodles...I hate angel hair pasta.

The Meatballs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup diced yellow onion (one small one)
1 Tbsp. Parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese Topping
1 egg
1 lb. ground beef/turkey/sausage
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 cup Olive Oil

Put the ground meat of your choice into a big bowl. Add the onion, garlic, parmesan cheese topping, parsley, breadcrumbs, the egg, and salt and pepper to your liking to the bowl as well. Prepare to get your hands dirty. Use both of your hands to fold all the ingredients together until it is well mixed. Form the mixture into a big ball and put back into bowl, cover it with saran wrap and put it back into the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Now go wash your hands! In the meantime, get out the biggest frying pan you have and add the 1/2 cup olive oil and heat to Medium High. Take the meatball mixture out of your fridge and roll them into 1 to 1.5 inch balls and add them to the pan. Let them cook until the bottoms touching the pan are a nice golden brown color and then flip them over one by one. Once they are cooked through, add them to your simmering sauce for around 10-15 minutes to absorb the flavor.

The Sauce:
1/2 of a yellow onion, diced (I lurve my Vidalia Chop Wizard)
2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced (again...the wizard is money)
1 Tbsp. fresh basil chopped (dry is fine too)
1 Tbsp. thyme (dry seasoning is fine)
4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The "big can" of whole tomatoes, I like Hunt's flash steamed.
Salt and Pepper to taste

Whole tomatoes are important because they have more flavor in them than the already crushed or diced. To start, you really don't have to be exact with the olive oil...I take the bottle for about 4 spins around the bottom of the pan. Put your saucepan on Medium heat and throw in the onions, let them start to cook while you chop the garlic gloves and then add them in with the onions. Add the basil and thyme and stir. Open the can of tomatoes slightly, just enough to pour the juice from the can into the saucepan. Finish opening the can and pour the whole tomatoes into a bowl and crush yourself with a potato masher or big wooden spoon. or you could even give them a few pulses in a food processor if you have one. Add the crushed tomatoes to the sauce pan and bring the heat to Medium-High until it starts to bubble slightly but not enough where you get those red sauce spots on your stove. Reduce heat to low and simmer at least 10 minutes or longer and cover it. Just take it off the heat when your noodles are done.

If you are making the sauce with the meatballs, cook the meatballs first and add to the saucepan before you simmer it so they absorbs the flavor too!

When you are done...let me know when your "food baby" is due. I'd go ahead and throw on some sweatpants when you eat this!

Just when I thought I knew...

Now I consider myself pretty educated in the writing of basic html, but blogging templates blow my mind. I need to study up. I learned html in high school so I could make a sweet geocities/angelfire kind of website. I used to use it write my daily ramblings long before the age of Myspace and Blogging. I wrote a code for a Myspace template before customizing your Myspace was cool. Does anyone even remember what your default Myspace looks like? Pretty Boring. Okay enough about my nerdy pride in html writing. I have never had a blog before unless those fill in the blank blog posts on Myspace count. I just intend to write what I'm thinking I guess? When I'm at home and not on my computer, I am usually in my kitchen. I lurve me some cooking and baking. All people are happy when they are eating something yummy. Have you ever cried at the same time you were eating a cupcake? I doubt it.