Are you Freakin' kidding me?!

I'm in luhhhhh-ve. This years Deluxe mascot was a freakin' adorable sock monkey handcrafted by Fried Okra. He was black and white and cute all over. So...naturally...upon arriving at Deluxe, my son gravitated to one of these little sock-simians. The Blue/Green/Tan on on the right is Vince, Ethan's new little buddy.

(I'm sorry, but, how cute are their hiney's? And those tails...the tail just kills me).

And since I loved them so much and couldn't figure out how to explain to my husband why I had the urge to buy one for myself and sleep with it every night....

I bought the little argyle cutie for my little niece (also a cutie). Her name is Paige (the monkey, not the niece). The niece's name is Hazel. Hazel Eveline...how purty is that?!

And, no...I could not resist the opportunity for a cuteness-infused photoshoot.

Seriously...go buy one. Like, now. You can get them here.

Where did it go?!

Looking for, pining for, desperate to know the latest styles and specials offered by Feather by Feather? Visit our new home here.

My Life in Sweatpants will be for family/fun updates now...any Feather by Feather features will be featured on the Feather by Feather blog. And follow Feather by Feather on Twitter (featherxfeather).

Thanks so much!

I think I have a problem...

Hello...my name is Julia. I have a problem. It is two-fold.

One: I have a thing for birds.

Two: I have a thing for Pier 1. Really, cheapness in general...but especially chic cheapness.

Are you freakin' kidding me with these?

New Stuff!

Cleopatra, bleached peacock feathers

Thisbe. Love the dark mahogany of this one.

Mustard Seed. Fun addition to the clips I already have.

Starveling. My new favorite. Stunning.

Mass Hysteria

Oh my gosh. Oh...my...gosh. That above, my dears, is my Feather by Feather headbands featured on The Pioneer Woman's website today.

I'm beyond words at this point. So...

Feather by Feather on Pioneer Woman

Stinkin' Cute

Allright, so...I have a little teeny tiny obsession with birds right now. Maybe it's because I spend my days up to my elbows in feathers. But...get me something with a bird on it and I'll be happy as a clam. If clams are, in fact, happy. Where do we get these ridiculous sayings, anyway? Someone research the background on that one and get right back to me.

I digress.

Look at these adorable bird salt and pepper shakers I found at Pier 1. I went in in search of two extra wine glasses for the upcoming book club dinner I'm hosting in a week, and came out with these. Note: please devote more than 10 minutes on a trip to Pier 1. You WILL get sidetracked, and you WON'T have enough time to find said wine glasses. Because, you know, they have a ka-gillion different wine glasses that are of equal beauty. And are cheap.

All was not lost however, seeing as these two little lovebirds came home with me.

I'm so happy right now.

And now a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this...

*swoon*

Randomography

Hannah's first day of Kindergarten. I'm only, like, 4 months late posting these. You should know by now that one guideline for reading my blog is lowered expectations. Come on down here with the rest of us...it's lonely at the top.

What's your story, Pretzelman?

This is how he rolls.

Vegas, Baby!

Oh, what a summer it was! Complete with a fun-filled trip to Las Vegas for our Bi-Annual Piggies & Paws Retreat.

Now, let me get to the most important part...I had one goal, and one goal only, when it came to taking this Vegas trip. In-N-Out Burger. It was my hearts ambition. And I must say, I shall never be the same again. Like, ever.

I tear up a little looking at this picture, knowing the closest one of these suckers is a minimum of 12 hours away. Oh the humanity!

My dear, sweet friend Raylea and I manned up and DROVE the 17 hours to Vegas. Like...in a car. On the road. For 17 hours. And part of the hilarity is that though Raylea and I were friends before, we really hadn't been around each other for more than about an hour a month at our monthly meetings.

Lemme tell you...we are bonded for life now. She's one heckuva gal...and we easily fell into conversation (when we weren't on our sleeping rotation). Got a little lost in Amarillo, spent almost an hour in traffic behind a motor-billboard of a naked woman on the Strip...oh yeah. We experienced. She's my girl now.
Above is your dam picture. Please hold any dam questions 'till the comments portion of this post. Those are some dam tourists, some with dam cameras. Lots of them had dam giftbags with dam brochures inside. All-in-all it was a dam fine day.
On our way to the big "V" we stopped at this meteor crater in Arizona. It was around 8 am, with 50 mph winds (hence the "windblown" look). This is also the crater from the movie "Starman."
It was pretty spectacular. Here's a funny little tidbit that Raylea and I had a chuckle about. They sell season passes to this place. Anyone else think that's a little odd? I mean...it's not like they get new attractions at the big hole in the ground. Maybe they dress it up for Christmas?
There she is...my road buddy. Good times.

All-in-all Vegas was a bit of a disappointment for us. The lack of free time didn't give us enough time to discover the Strip during the daylight hours. But...we did have In-N-Out...TWICE! The second time was a huge surprise...we'd been out of Vegas for about an hour headed home...and were preparing to stop at McDonald's when we saw the beautiful In-N-Out sign on the horizon. "McDonald's be damned!" we both said joyfully!

It just goes to show...God is good, all the time. Especially when burgers are involved.

Hello Luvah

Holy Crow, it's been a while since I've updated.  Have you been pining for an update?  Is this blog your sustenance for the day?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  

I'll get into what's been going on here in the next few posts...today I want to focus on the newest addition to our family...

The Mini.  I love it.   Hello there pretty little pet, I love you. And then I stroke it, and I pet it, and I massage it. Hehe I love it, I love my little naughty pet, you're naughty.  (major points to the person who can name that movie quote).

She's wonderful, so sleek and fast.  Oh SNAP, is she ever fast!  

So, maybe it'll motivate me to update quicker.  Maybe.

DustBowl Arts Market---Coming Soon

http://dustbowlartsmarket.blogspot.com

Feather by Feather will be at this event...it's about the only thing that will get me onto OU campus!  :)

Fine Piece of Man-Candy

Umm...yeah.  

Everyone needs a peacock headband

I actually had a reason to dress up a few weekends ago when my husbands former co-worker got married in Broken Arrow.  

I love to get dressed up...hence I love weddings.  

I took my new dress, and new hairstyle for a drive.  

Man...my calves look weird.  I think I need a lesson in camera angles. 

Flingin' Flangin' fun with Fondant!

For my next cake-related entry...FONDANT!  Now, fondant is notoriously bad-tasting, though lovely, so I don't use it as much as buttercream.  Just can't beat the buttercream, baby.  

This one was my first foray into fondant...for the Superbowl party we host every year.  I actually made Marshmallow Fondant, which was SIGNIFICANTLY more tasty than the boxed stuff.  And not too hard to make.  The little guys are gumpaste. 

Here's a close-up of one of the little players.  I thought they were cute, although looking at them now they look like their arms were amputated at the wrist.  How are they supposed to catch a football like that?

I made this cake for the annual Texas Independence Day party that my brother and his wife host every year.  Easily the COOLEST party I've ever attended...I'm always bummed when I miss a year.  This is my biggest fondant undertaking to date.  Each layer is a different flavor, Red Velvet on top, Yellow in the middle, and Devil's Food on bottom.  I cut the Texas topper out of gumpaste.  I had FITS with the blue fondant on the bottom layer...it kept drying out on me while I was coloring it, and breaking into unattractive crumbles.  I still have nightmares about it. 

It's killing me a little each day

I almost feel like crying when I look at this picture.  My beautiful, wonderful Hannah.  She'll be a striking woman when she grows into adulthood...poised with grace and confidence in the person Christ has molded and shaped her into.  I can see it beginning now. 

She's just about lost the "little girl" roundness to her cheeks.  

And it's killing me.

Freakin' Amazing

This is...no lie...one of the most amazing things i've ever seen.  Ever.  It's blows my mind.

Anthology of Cakes, Buttercream Baby

Let me preface this post by saying that I LOVE baking cakes.  I love baking in general, but cakes really take the cake.  Ha!  Any excuse I can get to make one, I jump on it.  I've even offered to make cakes for friends free of charge, though no one has jumped on that bandwagon yet.  

Now...even though Fondant covered cakes are some of the more beautiful confectionary creations known to man, you just can't beat buttercream, baby. So...these are some of buttercream cakes i've made.

This one was a devil's food cake with chocolate buttercream icing.  It was our First Annual Colburn Super Bowl Bash.  Lots of fun! I took the Wilton Football pan and doubled it.  My hand was cramping to HECK from piping all of those stars.  But so worth it.

I love this cake.  Hannah's 2nd birthday party was Lady Bug themed, and I just can't help but smile when I look at this one.  The cake is a from-scratch white cake out of the Southern Living cookbook.  Divine.  The little ladybug on the top of the cake is a cupcake.  This was the first cake I'd ever made and decorated.  Good memories there.

This monstrosity was Hannah's 4th Birthday cake from last year.  She had a Princess party, so I thought Cinderella's castle was fitting.  Thank GOODNESS for Wilton's cake set...It would not have been fun to make all of those steeples out of rice krispie treats and cover in fondant.  The cake was the same white cake recipe from the Southern Living cookbook (yeah...it's that good), but this time I put raspberry jam in between each layer.  SO GOOD! 

Everything is buttercream, except for the little fondant flowers.  Those were a real joy.  :)

This bad boy was so much fun to make.  Ethan's first birthday was a cookout (as has each subsequent birthday).  We're so original.  The top bun and bottom bun are pound cake, baked in a pyrex bowl to get them to curve.  The actual Patty is  one layer Devil's Food cake covered in chocolate icing.  The lettuce, pickles, onions, and tomatoes are fondant.  The mustard and Ketchup are icing.  

And the side of fries are sugar cookies with red icing ketchup. 

This one is the cake I made for my husbands grandmother Helen for her 75th birthday last year.  We had about 75 of her friends come to her house and surprise her!  It was a blast.  

She is a fan of pink, so I ran with it.  This is the tallest buttercream cake I'd made, and we had some SERIOUS leaning issues.  But, like Duff himself even says on Ace of Cakes, every cake has a back.  The "75" cake topper is gumpaste. 

I saw pink for about a week after that.

I'm always looking for my next chance to make a cake.  I've got some ideas floating around in my cake-crazed head!

Coming up next...FONDANT. 

MQ Answer!

I love this movie...one of my very favorite performances from both Ah-nuld and Jamie Lee Curtis.  

Movie Quote!

I'll be impressed if you get this one...knock yourself out!

"They call him the Sand Spider"

"Why?"

"Probably because it sounds scary."

Answer posted tomorrow!

Ethan's Birthday Bash

Ethan turned 3 last Friday, and we rocked out at his party on Saturday.  The poor kid doesn't have any friends...so it was a family affair.  

Hannah was delighted to take control and "help" him open his gifts.  It should be interesting to see how many presents she'll let him "help" with at her party in a few weeks.  

I have to say, though...she's the most wonderful, considerate little girl I've ever met.  She was genuinely trying to help the little guy out.  And, as you can see, he didn't mind one bit.  

I quelched my need to express myself through baked goods by making these cupcakes, complete with gumpaste guitars.  It wasn't my first foray into the world of gumpaste, but it was my most detailed.  They were yummy!

MQ Answer

This movie makes me want a British accent.  And it makes me laugh.  In a British accent.

Snippets

Movie Quote!

Have at it...

"This is an occasion for genuinely tiny knickers"

It's official: He is a boy

For those of you who are a friend to me on Facebook (add me, i'll love you back), or who follow me on Twitter (hartnhevn), you'll know that we had an eventful Sunday.  

While swinging in the neighborhood, Ethan forgot that you must hold on to the swing at all times.  He then proceeded to fly through the air and land face down on one of the wood beams that segregates the play area.  Ouch.

I was at Target with my Mother-in-law buying birthday presents for the little man (he'll be 3 on Friday), when Marty called me and told me what happened.  When we couldn't get the bleeding to stop, we decided to make a break for the ER behind our house.  

Now, I didn't even think it was a possibility to stitch the inside of the lip, so it never would have occurred to me to take him to the ER...but Marty, being a boy at one point in his life, proceeded to tell me "Yeah...they can stitch a lip."  Apparently most men know this.  

So, about 3 hours later we left the ER with 4 stitches on the inside of his lip, 4 on the outside of his lip, and a loose front tooth.  He even ripped that tiny piece of skin that connects the top lip to the top of the gums.  But even through all of the IV placement, and stitches...the only thing he's complained about at all is that darned cut on his shin.  Figures. 

Don't you feel just a little sorry for him?  (the boy knows how to work an audience.)