Baby Shower goodies

Yesterday, I hosted a baby shower in my home for a good friend of mine. I thought I'd post some pictures of food I made for the event.

So I did try the tissue paper carnations a few days ago. While I chose colors in which carnations most likely do not naturally occur, they matched the colors of the baby shower for which I created them. Here's a pic.





Definitely not perfect, but I liked them anyways. Great tutorial here.

I also made these fruit skewers which not only looked awesome, but tasted the same as well. They were all gone by the end of the shower. I loved the way they looked. Gorgeous!





I've had lots of forgettable fruit punches before but the fruit punch I made yesterday was certainly unforgettable. It was the biggest hit of the baby shower. Folks kept asking for the recipe and for more punch when it was finished. Good till the last drop. I gave it 5 stars!




(recipe)


Here are some more pics of the food I made for the baby shower. Egg rolls, Scotch eggs, and meatballs.













All pictures were taken by me.

Goodies

Hope to try these this weekend

this and this

via this blog

L O S T

So the series finale of LOST happened yesterday and while the show simply couldn't last forever, I'm pretty bummed about it. I'll miss you guys. My constant Tuesday night companions for six years (Wednesday nights for many of the six). I'll miss you so.

Say whaaaa

Heh heh heh! I just found a former twin, a mini me, me in a past life, no, I'm not crazy, haven't been hitting the sauce even though it's friday, I just re-discovered a pretty old blog of mine!

WOW! Six years ago, for about four months, I had a xanga blog. I honestly thought xanga had deleted the blog for lack of activity but wow, turns out I just forgot login info. For some wierd reason, the username just came back to me a few minutes ago and I logged in to that blog and wow, all my old drama from that period was on there. I only had 4 blog friends but it was awesome while it lasted.

I loved re-reading those old posts, re-visiting the highs and lows of my life circa 2004. it was real, short lived, but fun.

Oh the days gone by...

This made me smile - Status generator

You simply must check this out. It's awesome. Ever wasted time trying to come up with something original/witty/smart as your FB or Twitter status? This here's fer ya

- (source)

While you're at it, check this out as well! Oh these time wasters...

Marshalls Find

Didn't get it though...

Father's day Card

This takes the cake when it comes to Father's day cards. I love the sauciness.


(source)


And from the same company, this mother's day card. From a guy to his wife of course.



(source)

Finances

I'm pretty good with saving. My 401(k), IRA, 12 months emergency savings (more than the recommended 3-6 months) are all in good shape. Yet I always feel as though I could be saving more. Periodically, I assess my bills, my expenses, and look for fat to trim. I'm the one constantly on the phone with customer service (cable, phone, you name it) asking what deals or discounts they currently offer.

This week, I re-assessed my spending habits and decided I've been too relaxed. My spending's gotten outta control


(source)
Honestly, It's not that bad. About a third of my take home pay goes directly to savings but my goal is to get that to fifty percent.

That's a lofty goal so for now, I've decided to start by restricting my spending. Starting this week, I'm giving myself a spending limit of $100 a week. This will include eating out, home decor (which is the main culprit of my out of control spending), gifts, and the like. I haven't decided if gas for my car will also be included but I think not. That would be taking things too far. My more immediate goal is to increase my monthly savings by about $400-500.

I'll blog about my progress hopefully each week.

Here goes...

Time...

'That's how it was 20 years ago!'...I just heard someone say this and my initial reaction was one of doubt that I was old enough to recall anything that was or occurred that long ago. And then I remembered, 30 years ago, I was 10 years old. I certainly remember things from that time. I was old enough, my body mature enough that barely a year later, I would join the ranks of womanhood and welcome the first of many monthly visitors. Now, now I'm 3 decades old. 3. A lot has happened, not all bad, not all good. I've had mind-blowing ups and mind-numbing downs. I'm grateful for the privilege of life, family, love, laughter, my nephews, my nieces.

Happy birthday to me.

Ain't that a...

http://www.wired.com/magazine/wp-content/images/18-05/foundb_f.jpg

I believe in you and me

What do I NOT love about this?? The beautiful song, Denzel Washington, the movie, whitney, did I mention Denzel? This was the best video I found on YouTube - sans the ad which plays before the music starts.

I've got Toni B. on my mind

via Il Divo.

Hold me in...

This may be Toni braxton's most sensual song of all time. Spanish guitar...

Aperture

Well, I learned something new today - aperture opening!

Here are my pedestrian notes:

The Aperture is inversely proportional to the f-stop and also inversely proportional to the depth of field

ie, A wide aperture opening lets more light in to the shot, it means a low f-stop number, and a shallow depth of field(background blurry). (so, I guess this is good for macro shots eh?)

A small aperture opening means less light in the shot, a higher f-stop number, and a large depth of field (everything in focus).

and here are the pics I took as practice to better understand the concept

This pic was taken with f-5.6 (see the blurry carpet??)



This pic was taken with f-36

Photoshop actions

I've been playing around in photoshop again thanks to some FREE actions I found on this awesome website.

Here is a pic I took last summer

Here is the same pic after running the 'Boost' and 'Warmer' actions on it. Not too shabby eh?

Dear God

Made me smile

Here's how I feel today...