That's right folks we threw a BACON PARTY! And not just any party but a surprise birthday bacon themed party. We are that cool. But seriously it was a good time. This happened a couple weeks ago and I just wanted to share it because I made some SUPER cute crafty things to take this party to the next level. But first some background. Our dear friend Sabrina was about to turn 25 and we were trying to come up with fun things to do for her birthday. She wanted to hang out Saturday night and then go to Valley Fair on Sunday. This sounded like a good plan. Between us girls we decided that a showing of 'Bridesmaids' (it was it the opening weekend) would be a great idea since we were all in TWO weddings last year. We also decided it would be epic if we wore our watermelon-pink bridesmaid dresses to the movie. So that was our plan to go to a movie decked out in bridesmaid dresses and then to meet up with the boys for food and drinks. Without the birthday girl's knowledge we arranged for the boys to be setting up the surprise bacon bday party. This girl LOVES her bacon and it just seemed like a good theme to run with. Everyone was to bring something bacon-y to eat and I made all the decorations. She was surprised and it was a great time!
Homemade pig pinata
Bacon-wrapped beer koozies for the boys
Hand painted bacon garland for decoration
Bacon headbands for the girls. Part Lady Gaga meat dress/ Part royal wedding
Notice the nice tv in the background? Note to self: No pinatas inside!
Girls with their bacon headbands and "Bridesmaids" pose
Bday girl with her head band and chocolate covered bacon in hand. Oh and she is married to that creeper in the background :)
So there you have it. Proof that with a few simple supplies and waaayyyy to much ambition you can create a creative themed party around anything! Cheers!
I have FINALLY been to Soundset! This is the hip-hop festival to go to if you are from the Midwest or anywhere really. Held outside rain or shine every year in Shakopee, MN it is a day of great hip hop and FUN. Now I will say that my friend and I should have done things differently. Either you want to get your tickets early and be a VIP or you want to buy a physical ticket because Will Call was F*ING STUPID! Doors opened at 11am. We got there at 11:20ish and we stood in line for OVER AN HOUR. That was super frustrating. You would think after 3 years of this they would have a better system of getting people in the door. Because of that we missed a few of the opening acts that I sort of wanted to see. But for anyone who is even slightly a Hip Hop enthusiast there is plenty to do. Food and drink are expensive and you are not allowed to bring any in so bring plenty of cash but they have a fairly good variety and it is all part of the festival experience right? There are two stages, a DJ/B-boy tent, car show, merch tents, meet and greets with artists, skateboarding, and graffiti artists. People watching might be one of the best parts though. Special note to future goers with asthma- bring your inhaler- even though it was outside the amount of smoke (cigarette and otherwise...) was super thick and irritating.
DJ Espada
B-Boy
Pint sized B-Boy! So cute
Doomtree on the main stage
Sims and P.O.S of Doomtree
Doomtree
Brother Ali
Atmosphere
Slug of Atmosphere
End of the night. Atmosphere closed the show
Top 5 things at Soundset 2011: (Besides the amazing music and in no particular order)
-Guy in Ghostbusters jumpsuit
-Guy dancing in crowd saying "I think I am in Narnia"
-Pint-sized B-Boy
-Random guy grabbing my arm to pull me through the crowd before his girl friend started shouting "WRONG GIRL!!" Guy was embarrassed but sweet.
-Stupid girls being annoying and SHOVING their way through the crowd getting their little bikini top strings pulled as they pushed through (by a girl who was sick of their shit. Haha. )
Cute video telling who is going to be at Sounset. I think the little cartoon characters would make great plushies!
Video from the day. You can see more on the Rhymesayers youtube chanel
Via the social networking systems I found this video of Newt Gingrich being 'Glittered' by a young man at a book signing. I have been so focused on myself lately that I sometimes forget to look out into the world. Props to Nick Espinosa for having the guts to do something for what you believe in. It doesn't seem like much but even though we seem to have a broader view of the world it also seems that our focus becomes narrower and narrower and frankly it is starting to scare me. I think as citizens of the world and especially of the United States we need to be careful not to let things slip away from us do to ignorance or neglect. If you can keep yourself informed on the issues and defend them in an in intelligent manner then you are being a good citizen. I used to think that I had to show respect to everyone's opinions but I finally found out that I only have to respect those who show others respect. Now you can argue that this act of civil disobedience was not showing respect to Gingrich but how much respect does he show to people? There were no injuries and no permanent damage to people or property (nothing a good vacuum couldn't clear up). I hope glitter sales go through the roof.
Here is a write up of the incident from the Huffington Post.
Did I mention that this happened in MN? And that I went to school with Nick? I am really proud right now.
Hi there. Well I guess you can guess what I did this mother's day weekend. Yep. I went to THOR!!!! And I would just like to take this opportunity to welcome in what is to perhaps be one of the greatest summers in Geekdom history!
For those of you who do not read comic books, never fear! I don't and yet I am going slightly gaga over the plethora of comic-book related movies this summer because, well, they make good movies! (In theory, I know many of these films fall far short of wildly high expectations but that does not mean we should lose hope.)
This weekend viewing of Thor was highly anticipated for mostly one reason, or shall I say six- Chris Hemsworth's abs. Thor may be god of thunder but I was goddess of giggles throughout this movie. I giggled every time we saw him shirtless, every time he smiled, even every time he attempted a joke. Heck sometimes I was giggling just when he LOOKED at Natalie Portman a certain way. (Just for the record I also giggled during the preview for Captain America, I just can't suppress laughter when I see the creepy CGI Chris Evans emerge from his capsule as the shining beautiful man he actually is. Giggle.)
As far as movies go I wasn't that impressed. Visually pretty stunning but the whole movie just felt rushed like it was leading up to something grander. Thor's time on Earth was way too short to have the emotional impact needed and the entire cosmos-coming-to-an-end bit seemed a bit hasty. But seriously worth watching if you are gearing up for super-hero season. I will probably also consent to being dragged to Green Lantern but the trailers have yet to impress me. I put a lot of stock in trailers. A good trailer can really sell a movie to me. An amazing trailer can oversell it and I can actually enjoy the trailer MORE THAN THE MOVIE. X-Men First Class is going to be the movie I line up to see at midnight. Finally the world has come to understand what I have always known- Michael Fassbender is going to be a huge star. Plus it just looks like a good movie, we won't even talk about Wolverine.
Plus there are some non-superhero movies that make it into the top geek spots as well. Pirates: On Stranger Tides is trying to reboot a franchise that should have stopped after the first one but I will be on deck with this film as well, mostly for Johnny but also I have a deep seated love for Ian McShane who will be playing Blackbeard. I also hear there is this little film coming out about a boy named Harry Potter. Probably one of the most significant film franchises made in my lifetime is coming to a close this summer. And whether you love em or hate em everyone has watched them. Even my silly little sister who refuses to read the books (big mistake) loves the movies. But yeah, overall it looks like it is going to be a good summer for blockbusters!
I am going to admit right now that I give into retail therapy. I am usually so thrifty that when I finally say heck with it and spend a little it makes me happy. Does this make me an awful person? Does this mean that I have succumbed to consumer culture? Probably yes to both of those but I don't even CARE!
The Splurge: Hot pink eyeliner, hot pink blush, and an octopus ring. All of them were on clearance. Total was less than $10. Woo crazy, I know!
I am pretty much in love withe the ring. I have it on right now and it just makes me happy. I haven't bought a new ring in a long time. I usually wear the same two or three. This has definitely made it onto the regular rotation since I am hoping to get my next tattoo this summer (that involves a rather large octopus!!!!).
As far as the makeup goes I am the girl who loves makeup but doesn't wear that much on a day to day basis. When I saw these I had to have them though! Especially since my bff has finally decided what she wants to do for her birthday coming up... four of us were all bridesmaids in our friend's wedding last summer and we had these hot pink dresses that we wore. So naturally we are going to dress up in these dresses and go see the movie Bridesmaids! It comes out the weekend of her birthday. Who doubted that those dresses would come in handy? I am so excited for this. We will probably also go out to dinner before the movie and then the bars after. I don't even like going out that much anymore but it will be fun to see how obnoxiously pink I can be and this makeup is going to help. I also think it is going to show off my new red hair rather well. Oh did I not mention that I dyed my hair bright red? Well that's another thing I do. Big life change? (Losing job.) Big hair change, this time bright red!
Living life people. That is what I am trying to do.
Cheers!
Yes this is the title of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins song but it also describes today's post. These are some of the last few bowls that I painted at work. We had been having problems with these little heart bowls so I was allowed to paint these one day on the clock. Best day ever. I just used our little 'funwriters' to decorate them in hopes that they would turn out at least a little bit. These bowl were to be donated to our local 'Empty Bowls' fundraiser to raise money for the local food shelf. The program is really cool, basically you buy your ticket, get a bowl of soup and some bread made by local restaurants and then you get to pick out a handmade/hand painted bowl to take home! Last year I had just started my job so I submitted a couple of really sad looking bowls. This year I was really excited to make a whole bunch of bowls. Our store donated 400 bowls last year. Too bad we closed... I was told that these few would still be donated. I hope that actually happens.
This is my Wizard of Oz bowl and it might be my favorite. I made an itsy bitsy Emerald city complete with rainbow, yellow brick road, and poppy fields! Around the edge it says "Somewhere over the rainbow." Since I cannot stand to have the outside completely plain I added a yellow brick road to that as well.
My obsession with octopi continues (I just bought a ring with one on it!) and so this was my easy/whimsical/fun bowl. The tentacles continue all the way around the bowl as well.
Also all things vintage circus are always in my mind so this little guy came to be. On the outside of the bow I just added some skinny red stripes over the plain white.
And here is my craft bow. I heart it lots. The stitches around the edge and outside turned out well and it didn't take me nearly as long as it looks.
I hope they find a happy home! I wish I could have put my name on them or a tag or something so I could maybe find out where they end up. At least with things like giveaways, swaps, or etsy you have some idea of where your piece is going. Mine will probably stay local but I would just love to know who picks them up! Good luck little bowls : )
What a week. What a month. I have recently been on an emotional and physical roller coaster over the past month. Feeling like a slacker with my part time job I jumped at the opportunity to start a new nannying gig in the mornings. Apparently I did not really think things through and I quickly went from working 30 some hours a week to well over 50. I had no time for anything besides work. I stopped going to the Y, I stopped crafting, I didn't even READ the blogs I loved, and obviously I did not keep up with my own little blog world. Sleep and work, that was it. Then last week it all sort of fell apart. My 'main' job had been sold to a new owner so my position there was already up in the air as I know many people would rather start with a fresh staff then work through any sort of retraining/loyalty issues. Then I found out that the baby I nanny might have something wrong with her heart. It has been only a few short weeks but I am already super attached to the little baby and her sweet older (almost 2 yrs old) sister. Every time I held the baby and no one was in the room I cried. Sick kids are my kryptonite. The day after that I found out the deal at my job had fallen through and that we would be out of a job come Friday.
I wasn't insanely attached to this job and I knew it was not something that I would do forever but this kind of suddenness really did piss me off. But I am now looking at this as a sign. For a while now I have been sketching and making lists of new things I would like to make for the shop. Some are just new jewelry designs but others involve upcylced kids items and maybe some more holiday themed things. So with my afternoons now free again I am going to be working hard to breath some new life into RubyMarilyn. Not only am I working on new designs but I am also revamping my packaging and other areas of business. With more time now I can take care of myself better with more sleep and exercise and hopefully plenty of quality time working on my etsy shop I hope to head towards a more positive place. I have this nannying job for awhile so I do not have run out the door right away and freak out about finding a job which I am thankful for. Here is to a new start and a clean slate. I hope to be sharing some exciting updates with you soon!
