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Thirteen years ago on July 29th I was pretty darn frightened as I climbed up onto an operating room table to give birth to McIntosh O'Kane Jordan.
Mac is an official teenager today and I have a similar level of trepidation...
But this time it's of his rapidly evolving fashion prowess :)
I guess I've been feeling thankful lately since it's the theme of my last two scrapbook pages and the reason I made over a dozen cards today...
A page for Mac thanking him for listening to us...
Love this mess of a page...like the title not really fitting in the frame but leaving it anyway...the random ones are always my favorite...
Super simple thank you notes for Mac to write...and magically today he was happy to do it...he sat in here writing as I cranked them out...we have just a couple to finish tomorrow...
And I ended up with a couple extra yellow polka-dotted cards so I made a couple thank you's of my own...
Over the years I have thrown Mac a candy themed party, a dog theme, hawaiian themed, artist, jungle, pirate, carnival, camp-out and now a movie themed birthday party. Carnival will probably be my all-time favorite, but movie is a close second because it was just so easy (and involved the whole house smelling like hot buttered popcorn). Here are the details...
The "red carpet" (roll of plastic tablecloth) entrance...
Decorations...
My favorite was wrapping a big roll of tickets around the banisters...
The concessions...we rented a popcorn machine and filled jars with various movie candy...
Pretty much one of the reasons I wanted to throw this party was for the candy...
When everyone arrived we served pizza (Mac's request) and a big salad...sang happy birthday and then started the movie (Goonies)...
And I had little boxes ready for the kids to scoop more candy after the movie to take home as favors...
Hopefully everyone had fun because I sure did.
I boxed up all the decorations and leftover party supplies so if anyone is interested in a head start for your own movie party please e-mail me and we can figure out the details.
Oh and I arranged a way to answer any questions about a post in the comment section from now on so cupcake and frosting details are here.
I actually have a little scrapbooking to share tomorrow...
Granted that's an overly dramatic statement, but something inanely momentous did occur around here as we have been preparing for Mac's movie birthday party that starts tonight at 6:30pm...otherwise known as 2 hours and 26 minutes from now.
So back to my life changing event.
After a trip to a cake decorating supply warehouse with my sister earlier in the week we used our new supplies...most notably the decorating bags and metal tips...
And the silver colored sugar...
And the movie themed cupcake toppers...
Oh and I almost forgot about the red houndstooth printed cupcake liners.
So now I not only have the ability to make cupcakes taste delicious (I'm a pompous cook) but we have the new found ability to make them look pretty darn cute too.
This is pretty exciting stuff.
Back to last minute party plans...I'll share more details tomorrow...
Each and every summer day I am going to get everything done...the whole list (even though I don't really have any lists right now).
Over and over there is an endless possibility of accomplishment...but then the hours quickly tick by, it's time for bed, and only a few things were completed... and sadly enough a "few" things makes for a reasonably impressive day because I am far from productive right about now.
So today's few things included teaching myself how to make a an image sidebar link to my recipe blog (I also shared the panzanella salad recipe) and I made one for my Etsy shop...which really means I spent a shameful amount of time on Photoshop today
And I made a layout from last Thursday's trip the fair...
But tomorrow I'm going to get everything done...
I think this may become my very favorite summer recipe...here are my changes to the recipe (since it seems that I always manage to make some) Instead of tomatoes I used some sweet corn boiled for a few minutes and then cut off the cob and included some shredded chicken breast...and I added sugar to the dressing.
Panzanella Salad
Serving Size: 8
For the croutons:
½ loaf ciabatta bread, cut into ¾” cubes
1 tablespoon crushed Italian seasoning
2 – 3 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Vinagrette:
¼ cup vinegar, best with a Zinfandel or Port Wine Vinegar but red wine or balsamic
also works nicely
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ large shallot, chopped
½ tablespoon crushed Italian seasoning
½ cup olive oil, or to taste
Sea salt and pepper to taste
For the salad:
4 large tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, sliced ¼” thick
1 jar hearts of palm sliced
1 small red onion, cut in half and sliced thinly
½ cup basil leaves
Croutons:
Make the croutons in advance (up to 3 days or can store in fridge up to 3 weeks)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheet with foil and set aside. Toss bread cubes with seasoning, salt, pepper and just enough oil to coat. Place onto baking sheet and toast, stirring occasionally, until all sides are lightly browned, approximately 10 minutes. After cooling, store in a tightly closed container until ready for use.
Italian Vinaigrette:
The dressing can be made several days in advance; let come to room temperature before using.
Mix together vinegar, mustard, shallots and seasonings; whisk olive oil in slowly. Stop and taste vinaigrette before adding all the oil and adjust to taste. Refrigerate if not using right away.
Salad:
Toss bread cubes with enough dressing to coat the cubes well but not dripping. Add tomatoes, cucumber, hearts of palm and onion to the bowl and mix gently. Tear the basil leaves into small pieces and add to the bowl. Toss lightly and add more dressing if needed, season with salt and pepper, to taste.
We went to the Orange County Fair late this afternoon and before I go to bed I'm enjoying going through all the photos...but here's what I did before we left for all the fair fun...
I ate my new favorite food...panzanella salad...
I also finished the layout that's been sitting on my desk all week...it took me awhile to figure out what to do with the huge 8"x12" photo I could resist printing in my Costco order last weekend...
Okay back to fair photos...
I don't really have anything to show for today but here's what happened the past three days...
Saturday...we went to the Renegade Craft Fair...
Which was fun (and I liked this...these and these among other things) but relentless Los Angeles traffic made the day pretty frustrating.
Friday...we had some family fun by going to Ski and Boat Day like last year...
Thursday... I got together with a good friend for a belated celebration of our May birthdays...I think we have now officially created a tradition of going to the Ritz, having lunch and then pretending we're living the high life as we sit in adirondack chairs on a cliff over looking the ocean...
Since it was her 30th birthday the card turned into a little book...
It's pretty shameful that I've been on summer vacation for about six weeks and I've barely scrapbooked...trying to change that now...
Hopefully there will be more pages soon...but for now a picnic is packed and we're off to another concert in the park.
Today has been a nice quiet day at home as we cleaned up the house and rested a little after all of yesterday's fun and excitement...
Now on with the week ahead...
In between some errands yesterday Sean and I had an aimless half an hour and I got that twinkle in my eye...Sean put his arms around me and said he was thinking the same thing I was thinking...
So I double checked that he wanted to clean out the fridge in the garage too because that's what I had in mind. :)
Armed with Simple Green, a dozen rags, and my neighbor's shop-vac we got to work...I scrubbed the outside of the fridge as Sean categorized it's contents...and when he was done it was quite a sight.
We always love throwing parties and it's been a long running joke that we collect up alcohol for them that we never drink...in fact at a party this past fall I emptied our wine cabinet sending bottles home with whoever wanted them.
Here are the contents of our garage fridge...
From the picture it seems it's merely butter, bacon, and alcohol...and truth be told it's not that far off.
My mother is probably reading this shaking her head in disapproval.
Party at my house tomorrow. :)
We love you...we love schooldays done at noon...and the fact that four days weeks mean Thursdays are our Fridays...and we especially love that we can make lots of fun plans like last night's concert in the park...
