Coffee and Silhouettes

I'm still sick but feeling better.  I just wish I could breathe out of my nose.  JT and Addison have been more than helpful.  And since this is the last week of school I have nothing due so that's a relief.

So while I surfed the web today in my sickly bed I found the funniest link from Pioneer Woman.  Best Week Ever did a post of 50 Photos of Basset Hounds and it's hilarious!  I needed this laugh.  I was laughing so hard I was snorting and crying  (because of my stuffed up nose).    You can check it out here.  Trust me you are going to want to send this link to everyone.  I posted it on my Facebook because I had to share it with everyone.

Here are some other things great things I have found on the web today.

I found these coffee mugs on Photojojo.com.

They are coffee mugs that look like a camera lens.  And the Nikon one even zoooms!!!



You can find The Camera Lens Mug at the Photojojo Store!


This is interesting, Silhouette rings.

You can send them a picture of your or anyones silhouette and they create a ring for you.  They also make bangles.  What a neat idea?  You can buy them here.

I love asubtlerevelry.com.  It's one of my new favorite DIY blogs and now they have started an online magazine.  So my favorite online magazine is Styled Mag.  It shows great ideas that anyone can create and how to throw a fabulous party.  You can find it here.


I am still trying to mess around with Photoshop.  It's been difficult since I have been sick.  My laptop doesn't have enough power to run Photoshop well, it makes it very slow.  So I use Addison's iMac in his room and I'm trying really hard not to get him sick.  Here's a new picture I worked on.  I just cropped it, lightened up, and tweaked a couple of things.  I'm really enjoying Photoshop so far.

BEFORE

AFTER

And another one of Dolce.  I took about 100 pictures of her Easter Sunday.  She loves taking pictures and I was so happy since Addison hates taking pictures.   She looks like Betty Bop to me sometimes so I wanted her to have I kind of Pop Art old look.  I love it that her eyes and hair are so dark.  She could be a Movie Star. 

BEFORE

AFTER

As you can tell the Adcock family has some beautiful girls.  Well, time to take some medicine and get some rest.  Oh look what Grandma gave Addison today so he wouldn't get sick.  

So not funny!!!

Sick of Allergies

So yesterday I woke up and couldn't breathe.  I took every allergy medicine I could find and went to school.  I had to leave early because I just couldn't take the congestion and pressure anymore.  JT called in my Flonase prescription and I lied in bed for the rest of the night.  I should have know better to stay outside all day Easter Sunday.  I'm allergic to everything.

The bad thing is Kimerie was at the girl's easter dying party and she put on Facebook that she is sick and she thought it was allergies but it's not going away.  So now I think we are both sick and it's not allergies. So I took some Theru-Flu so I could pass out last night.  I feel a little better today but still have the congestion.  Ugh!  I hate being sick.  So this is that last week of classes and have to deal with being sick.  I guess it could be worse I could be sick of a week of tests.

So I'm just warning you all I'm the worse sick person.  I guess all just have to post things that make me happy all week to cheer me up.  So I guess I'll do a my Favorite Things I find on the Web sick week!!!!

I know the first thing to post about is Sweetapolita.com.  Look what she made for her daughter's birthday cake.

Rainbow cakes are big in the baking blogging world right now.  But this was has a little twist, she covered it in white fondant so her daughter the draw on her own birthday cake.  What an awesome idea! You can check out her blog entry here.  

And of course cupcakes for the Royal Wedding:

These are perfect if you are having a Royal Wedding viewing party.  I found these here. 

And now to paper.  I'm in love with this technique Lasercutting:

I saw want a Laser Cutting machine.  I have a Cricut but this takes it to a whole different level.  I got all these images form ohsobeautifulpaper.com.

And now to a DIY craft project.  DIY Fringe Monogram I found here.

What a great thing to make for a party!

Well, time to take some medicine, go to school, and take Addison to diving.  See you tomorrow!

Happy Easter!

This one will be short because I'm exhausted.  We had a great weekend and a wonderful Easter with family.  Saturday, I had the boys paper mache easter eggs.  They turned out pretty good for the first time.  They look nothing like the pictures from the notmartha.com blog.  Hey, just to get two 11 years old boys to paper mache is pretty good.  They had a blast and made a big mess.  I also baked the Lemon Blueberry cake Saturday but waited to assemble it Sunday.

Easter Sunday, we assembled and iced the cake with the lemon curd in the middle and it started leaning.  Then we left for Lake Jackson for Easter with the family and by the time we got there the cake was looking really crazy.  I did get some pictures of it before it became a hot mess.  We had a great time Aunt Marsha's and Uncle Stan's, the food was good and my husband family is so funny.  My in-laws rock, I feel sorry for other people.  :)  Well, the cake turned out delicious and all the other baked goods were yummy as well.  I took about 1,000 pictures of all the kids running around and hunting for eggs.  I will have to post them later after I sort through them.

When we got home we realized we didn't dye eggs since Addison passed out after we the paper mache so of course we had to dye eggs.  The boys once again had a blast and made a mess.  Their fingers will be crazy colors all week.  Now, JT and Addison are making a water bottle rocket for school tomorrow.  Whew, just typing all that made me tired.

Oh before I go I purchased Photoshop.  I realized that if I was going to have a nice camera I needed to learn how to use Photoshop too.  I will be trying to master it this summer.  Since I don't have classes this summer I have time to do things I have wanted to do like take a Photography class, take a cake decorating class, take a fondant class, learn how to use photoshop.  There's probably other stuff that I can't remember right now.

Well here's some of the pictures from this weekend:

Just out of the oven.  Look at those blueberries.

Putting on the frosting dam so the lemon curd will stay put.

Finish product but the lemon curd is escaping.

Paper mache eggs drying in the laundry room.

The finish product.  

And here's a picture of Dolce that I photoshopped:

BEFORE

AFTER

I brightened the picture and her eyes.  I also smoothed her skin.  I also took out some of the yellow and red tones.  For my first time I think it's pretty good.  Well, Goodnight talk to you soon.

Egg Party for just the Girls

So last night Melissa had us girls over to decorate eggs.  We had a blast!  We had some wine, munchies, and cherry pie.   Melissa had everything for us dye, glitter, glue, stickers.  She even read Martha Stewart's website before the party for ideas.  Oh and she even made gift bags for all of us.  She went all out.  Martha would be proud.  We were also going to craft but we didn't have time.  So that's just another excuse for a crafting party.

Here's some pics from the party:

We made some pretty eggs.  I took home the golden glitter one and Addison has been asking to eat it.  I'm worried when he peels it he might just be eating all glitter.  He definitely needs to wash it first.  :)

Well, I have been at school all day and I am finally home.  JT has picked up all the supplies to do paper mache eggs and dye eggs. And we have picked up Addison's best friend, Kevin.  So it's another night of dying eggs and crafting.   I also have to make a cake for easter tomorrow.  We are going to JT's Aunt's house on Lake Jackson.  We always have the best Easters there.  I will be making a Triple-Lemon Blueberry cake.  I got the recipe from Sweetopolita.com of course.  You can find the recipe here.

Here are two of her pictures of her cake:

I hope my cake turns out like those pics.  I will keep you all posted.  Talk to you soon.

  

Black Belt Time

So the test went well and I have almost completed 30 Easter cards.  Yes, everyone will get their Easter cards late.  :)  This weekend I need to finish a final report on the compressor I made for Audio and have to finish a take home test.  But, next week is the last week of the semester and then finals.  I have two finals but one his take home so finals week will not be that bad.  After finals I will have the whole summer off!!  I 'm so excited!  I have been taking classes during the summer for the past 5 years.   I will have a break from school but not from being a mom.  Addison still has swim team and dive team this summer.  So that's practices every morning and meets every week.  And he still has Taekwondo and Tennis, so that's Taekwondo practice 3 times a week, black belt prep once a week, and tennis practice and meets once a week.   If everything goes right Addison will have his black belt by June, we are very excited for him.    So I guess I do not have the summer off.  :)

Addison's Black Belt hanging on the wall.  

Here's another Etsy story I love, La Raffinerie  you can find it here. The are actually based in Montreal Canada, this gives me an excuse to go to Montreal.  But, until then I have Etsy.  

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Happy Easter!

My favorite website: ETSY!!! -from yesterday

I have a test in 30 minutes so this won't be long.  It's Wednesday so it's my favorite things.  So my new shopping obsession is Etsy.  It's like going to all the festivals and looking at handmade goods but handmade goods all over the world.  Here's my favorite right now:

 White Owl -  they make the most beautiful handmade necklaces.

Check it out if you get a chance.  I will mention more Etsy shops when I have the time.

It's almost Easter

So I realized yesterday that Easter is Sunday.  This is bad because I haven't started Easter cards that should have been sent out yesterday.  I have a test Wednesday.  I only got 3 hours of sleep last night from studying.  I will be exhausted by Thursday.  I still haven't decided what I want to bake for Easter.  I have not bought egg dye so Addison can dye eggs.  And I haven't bought anything for his Eater basket.  But, with some miracle everything will turn out just fine.  Sorry for everyone that doesn't live in Georgia, you will get your Easter card a week late and for those of you who live in Georgia your Easter card might make it before Easter and might not.  :)

So I after I thought about everything I need to get done before Sunday, I found some great Easter crafts online that I thought I would share.

I found these at deliciousdays.com.  The baked little cakes inside the eggs.  What a neat idea?  You can find the directions here.   I so want to try this if I have the time.

I also found this craft project at notsomartha.com.  They are paper mache Easter eggs.  I thought this would be a fun project to do with Addison instead of dying eggs, maybe Friday night.  You can find the instructions here.

And of course a Martha Stewart Easter:

I get the Martha Stewart Living Magazine (of course on our iPad) and this month was all about Easter.  Oh only if I had time to create all these lovely things.  

Well, I hope this gives you all inspiration to create something for Easter.  I must sleep.  I have to study some more tomorrow.  

April Showers

Well, Spring is here in Atlanta but so are the storms. We have been having really bad storms almost every week. Last Friday, we had tornado warnings, sleet, rain, and strong winds. They have been some fallen trees but nothing that bad in my neighborhood. Our dog Emmy Lou is scared of thunder, she hides in the bath tub when she hears it. So she has been a wreck this month. Addison got a little scared Friday, so we hid in my bed and watched Tangled. I'm so glad Addison is not too big to watch a Disney movie with his mom. He giggled all they way through but also groaned at the lovey stuff.

Saturday, I was suppose to study but Vieng kidnapped me and took me to the Sweetwater Festival.  I'm not mad because we had a lot of fun.  There's something about drinking beer outside on a beautiful Spring day.  And having a girls day out with just Vieng and I was totally needed.  I forget sometime I need to hangout with just the girls.  I'm surrounded by males at home and at school.  Sunday, Vieng came over again and we made cards and baked cupcakes.  All my girlfriends always say they want to come over and make cards and bake but they never do.  She was the first one that has actually done it.  We made Maple cupcakes with Maple cream cheese frosting and they were delicious. I have saved some to bring to my class tonight.   I love to spoil the guys in my Audio class.  There's only 12 students in this class including me and I'm the only female.  They love it when I bring them baked goods.  Men are so easy to please.  :)   Well, I didn't get any studying done this weekend but my test is Wednesday so I think I have some time.

Oh I have to mention, Vieng also cleaned out our refrigerator and cleaned our pantry.  We have a joke in our house about this. This is the second or third time Vieng has cleaned out our pantry.  When our pantry starts getting crazy, JT says, "Honey, you need to call Vieng and ask her to come over to clean out the pantry."  It's a joke but it's funny because she actually does it.  She throws stuff away, reorganizes things, she's a great friend.   I joke with her that she needs to be my sister wife.  :)

After my wonderful Sunday with Vieng, JT and I watched the new series on HBO called "Game of Thrones" and so far so good.  I'm so glad we have something to watch together on Sunday nights again. I watch Brothers and Sisters but JT is not interested in it.  It's a TV adaptation from the books "The Song of Ice and Fire."   I haven't read the books but now I want to.  I will probably wait until after the series is over.  Every time I read  the book before the movie I am sadly disappointed but reviewers that have read the books are saying they did well with this adaptation.  So, if you have HBO check it out.

Speaking of HBO, Mildred Pierce is over.  Did you watch it?  It was soooo good.  I could not believe the ending.  I'm not going to say anything to ruin it but all I have to say is it make me debate on having a little girl.  She will probably grow up to be a Diva and I'm not going through what Mildred went through.  Her daughter was awful!

Well, today is Addison's last day of testing with the CRCT, he has been taken it for the last 5 days starting last Tuesday.   This test is important this year because he has to pass it to get into the 6th grade.  We are not worried because he's smart and is making straight A's but it's just added pressure on him.  To celebrate, I made I'm Peanut Butter Crispy Bars.  The funny thing is I don't like peanut butter so I got paranoid he wouldn't like them.  He loves peanut butter but I didn't think they tasted that great because I don't like peanut butter.  So I also made a batch of just Crispy Bars just in case the Peanut Butter ones were a flop.  I know I'm crazy.  I'll let you know which ones he liked the best.

Well, I need to get ready for class.  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and have a wonderful week.  Talk to you soon.

Purple and Paris

So I have  a new favorite thing, it is a site called Pinterest.  It's a virtual pinboard, where I can search and pin inspirations I find on the web.  I love it because it has everything from photography to baking to fashion.  I can just type in a word and see what people have uploaded.  I can also upload pictures that I love.  Pinterest is a great way to inspire me when I just feel stuck.

So my favorite color is purple and this is what I came up with in Pinterest:

Aren't these pictures beautiful?  I especially love the purple door.  I have seen a red door but never a purple one.  And yes I have a purple bedroom but it's not this beautiful.  

And this is what I came up with when I typed in Paris:

I always think about Paris when it becomes Spring.  These's just something about Spring in Paris.  I wish I could be there right now.

You have also noticed I have started using Posterino to make a collage of all my photos.  I thought it was a neat way to post everything instead of just showing a picture at a time.  I think it looks nicer.  What do you think?

Well, off to school.  I only have 3 week left and then I'm free for this summer.  I hope you all are having a great Wednesday.

Celebrations!!!

How was your weekend?  We had a great one.  It was nice and sunny this weekend and the pollen is not so bad.  I am trying to really enjoy the Atlanta weather before it gets too hot to step outside.  I remember last summer it was too hot to even swim in the pool.  The pool water felt like bath water.  Ugh!

Friday we had Charles and Michael over to celebrate Charles's birthday.  I made crab cakes and mussels for the appetizer.  And then made steak and spinach risotto for the main course.  We were so full from the appetizers, we decided to take a break from eating and left  to go see the movie Hannah.  Oh the movie Hannah is really good by the way.   After the movie we came back for the main course.  For dessert I made sweet and salty brownies and homemade salty caramel ice cream.  Everything turned out delicious and we had a really fun night.  Charles and Michael are hilarious!!!  

Here's some pictures from Friday night:

Sweet and Salty brownies

Crab Cakes

Mussels

Michael

Charles

Steak

Charles being silly

JT relaxing

Addison and Charles being crazy

My favorite picture, so silly

Love it!!! So cute!!

Even the dogs joining the party

Emmy is looking at Charles like he's crazy

Addison eating

As you can tell we had a good time.  The dinner party didn't end until 4 AM.  We had too much fun.

Saturday, we went to JT's mom's house to celebrate her birthday.  JT and Addison did some yard work for her and cleaned out her gutters.  Then we went to the AT&T store and bought her an iPhone.  She was so excited.  We ended up ordering Chinese take out because no one wanted to cook but I did bake her a birthday cake at her house.  I made the Burnt Sugar Bundt Cake with Caramel Sauce and she loved it.  

Here's some pics of Nana's party:

Addison on the roof cleaning the gutters.

Nana and Addison making the icing.

I told you he's crazy.

Can't believe Chewbaca is this big.

Little Luna

Sweet Freddie

Silly Grandma

Aunt Rea was too tired for pictures

Sunday was the day to relax.  Addison and I  got addicted to watching Hoarders.  It freaked him out so much that he started cleaning.  Then we watched Extreme Couponing and started clipping coupons.  I ended up saving $18 today when I went grocery shopping.  It's not extreme but I think it's pretty good.  I also made 3 Easter cards to sell.   Check out my Etsy site to see what I have created.  

Well, that was my long but fun weekend.  Now back to school.