Weekend Recap

This past weekend, I had a cupcake order for a luau party!

I spent Saturday preparing, baking, and decorating, and delivered the cupcakes to the party that night. It was such a fun project, and I had a great time adding that aloha flair to everything.

These are pineapple cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting. I topped them with toasted coconut and put luau cupcake toppers on them.


The chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting had hula girl toppers and cupcake liners from this kit. They turned out really cute.

As a side note, Paper Style (the company I ordered the kit from) offers free ground shipping, and it is so fast. I ordered on a Friday, and received it on Monday. From GA. To CA. That's fast!


These key lime cupcakes were rolled in crushed graham crackers and I stuck drink umbrellas in them to make it look like a beach! I think these were my favorite decorations!


The party set up was a big deal! They had a bartender station, the catered food section, a Hawaiian band set up, and a place for my cupcakes. In addition to the regular size cupcakes, I also made each of the flavors in miniatures. Here is the final look of my table! C is to thank for making it look so awesome!



Needless to say, Saturday was a busy day. After we delivered the cupcakes, C and I went to a local brewery to watch the final quarter of the Jets/Colts game. I can't stand the Jets! But, hopefully next weekend the Patriots wipe that smirk right off Rex Ryan's face!

On Sunday, C and I watched the rest of Wild Card Weekend, and I made a yummy chili with turkey!


Other than that, it was a very lazy day and the perfect way to end a busy weekend.

Thursday's Thoughts...on a Friday :)

*Thanks for all the great comments and encouragement on my last post! I'm so glad that I have all of you to hold me accountable in my fitness goals. It makes me not want to let you down!!*

*I also have to thank those of you that suggested I read The Hunger Games trilogy...I am ADDICTED! I've finished the first two and am halfway through the last book. I keep telling myself to slow down, but I am so into the story that I can't stop. Leslie Ann recommended these first, and I can't thank her enough (I tried to e-mail you Leslie, but you don't have an e-mail attached to your blog)!!*

*I've been seeing advertisements for McDonald's new Fruit & Maple Oatmeal so I thought I'd give it a try...big mistake! It is not very good. I'm very particular about my oatmeal, I like it on the drier side, and this was like mushy soup.*

*I have a big cupcake order for Saturday. It's a luau-themed birthday party and I'm really excited about what I'm doing with the cupcakes. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures and hopefully get them posted on the next weekend recap.*

*I can't believe that Hugh Hefner proposed to his girlfriend! What about poor Holly? I admit that I loved Girls Next Door when it was Holly, Bridget, and Kendra...they were the best! I did watch a few episodes with Crystal and thought she seemed really sweet and much better than those twins he was dating.*


Happy Weekend, Lovelies!

Jumping on the Fit Train

It's no surprise that the start of a new year is the perfect time to re-evaluate my eating habits, commit to getting my butt in the gym, and vow to be bikini ready by spring.

One of the easiest ways for me to get motivated is to watch Biggest Loser! Are any of you watching the new season? It started last night, and it's already had quite a shake up! I won't say in case any of you still have to watch, but I think it will be an exciting season.

I've decided as a way to keep me accountable, I will post every Wednesday about where I am in my "get healthy and exercise" journey as well as tie it in with the Biggest Loser episodes that aired the night before.

This will probably be mostly for me, but I hope some of you find it interesting and useful. I'd love to hear any feedback about what you find effective in the gym, how you snack smartly, what motivates you, etc., etc.

Biggest Loser

In last night's premiere episode, a couple of contestants really stuck out in my mind, but I'm going to talk about Courtney. She is 22 years old, and in the last year has lost 112 lbs on her own! She is so motivated and while the other contestants were whining on the treadmill, she was pushing herself as hard as she could. Courtney is determined to "prove that it's never too late to be what you might have been, even if you are over 400 pounds like I was just one year ago." I'm very impressed by her and she definitely has that spark inside of her to really make a huge change. I'm excited to watch her journey!


Angela
I know it sounds like an excuse, but I have been under the weather since Sunday. I hoped to make it to the gym last night, but didn't have it in me after work. Today is a new day, and I plan to be in the gym tonight before heading home.

Dinner tonight is lean chicken breast with a side of brussel sprouts! I love brussel sprouts. I get the ones from Trader Joe's that you can microwave in the bag, but I also like to roast them with a little olive oil and Mrs. Dash's no-salt seasoning...yum!

And lastly, I've been doing menu planning for next week. Gina's Skinny Recipes is a great resource for healthy meals. I'm very excited about trying to make my own chicken broth on Sunday and using the chicken in a lightened-up enchilada recipe!

That's it for today. Feel free to share with me any tips or tricks you have when it comes to losing weight!! :)

Weekend Recap

As part of my "blog more" goal for 2011, I'm really going to try to stick with the theme posts and there's no better place to start than with the Weekend Recaps. This one is a little late because my weekend just ended today.

This weekend was all about movies!

Tron was a really fun movie with great special effects and action sequences. We saw it in 3-D and I loved it! I know a lot of people hated it because of the lack of an actual plot, but that didn't bother me because the effects were so awesome. I felt the story carried itself, and it was just an all-around fun movie that didn't have me thinking too much.


True Grit...I was definitely not expecting to like this movie. I was very pleasantly surprised though! The acting was absolutely amazing, and the main character, played by young Hailee Steinfeld, was so well done. The story was intriguing, there were funny and scary moments, and it was nothing like the typical Western movie I was expecting. Definitely see this one!


I'm not even sure what to say about Black Swan. It was disturbing. It was beautiful. It was very hard to watch without covering my eyes. It was emotionally draining. This movie truly had me scratching my head and asking what just happened...overall, I think I liked it. I'd definitely recommend watching it as I think it's going to be a big contender come award season.


The worst movie of the weekend? That would have to be Unstoppable. After reading super high reviews about this movie, we were excited to see it. Umm...not sure what those reviewers were watching, but it couldn't have been the same movie.

Dull, boring, lame, waste of my time...


And C finally wore me down and I agreed to watch his favorite movie of all time (please don't let this reflect poorly on him, he is actually very schooled in film), Into the Blue. I like treasure hunting, I like hotness (aka PW) , I like the ocean so I guess I liked this movie. It was entertaining and didn't require me to think one bit...except about how unfair it is that some people can be soooooo hot :)


Movies I Still Want to See:

The Tourist
Country Strong
The King's Speech


I hope 2011 is off to a great start for all of you! I mentioned this in my previous post, but I just had my 400th post. I'm starting to put together a fun giveaway so look for that soon!

Check Out this Giveaway!

I have a friend at work (yes, I have friends!) that is an amazing graphic designer/artist! He has a blog where he posts about his most recent designs and projects that he is working on.

This week, he's hosting a giveaway for a CSN gift card and I thought I'd share about it here in case any of you were interested in checking out his art and entering a giveaway for free money!

The blog is It Started in 82 and the link for the giveaway is here.

I will leave you with just one example of a design he did for my final graduate class. Our project was to create a business and we chose to do a gourmet dessert food truck featuring Southern classics.

This logo is something he created in about 2.5 seconds, he's that amazing!

So go make a new friend!

PS - This is also my 400th post (go me!) and if you enter Tim's giveaway, I will make sure to give you an extra entry to my own fabulous giveaway coming up this month!