Cupcake Anyone?

Before getting our 4th of July celebration underway, Zac and I thought that the holiday would be a great opportunity for us to get familiar with our neighbors. We've lived in our house for a year and a half but unfortunately have not gotten to know our neighbors well. This is something that we would definitley like to change but not something that we have really put any effort into yet.

Zac and I decided that we would say 'Happy 4th of July' through cupcakes! Seriously, who doesn't like cupcakes?! We certainly do and we thought for sure that our neighbors would enjoy a sweet treat on a hot summer day. Our plan was to bake a bunch of cupcakes, package them, and then deliver them from door to door.

Not knowing what the neighbors' tastes would be regarding cake we decided to make a few different flavors. We settled on vanilla (you can't go wrong with a classic) and red velvet (one of our favorites). Not only were both flavors delicious but together the red and white cakes were perfect for celebrating the 4th of July.

We opted to make mini cupcakes instead of full size ones. I usually make mini cupcakes for parties and game nights and they always seem to be a big hit. Making smaller cupcakes instead of the larger ones allowed us to get more cupcakes from our cake mixes which meant that we could make more packages, go to more houses, and have enough cupcakes left over to take some to Zac's work as well as Scott and Amy's house that evening for the holiday celebration.

The yummy red velvet cupcakes were topped with cream cheese frosting....

....and the vanilla cupcakes were topped with a traditional vanilla frosting.

Zac pulled out the pastry bag and frosted all of the cupcakes. In the end they all looked as cute as this little one.

It was a little intimidating to look at our counter and see all of these beautiful cupcakes. With about a hundred cupcakes covering our kitchen countertop, it seemed as if we had our work cut out for us.

I gathered up all of our supplies that we needed to put together our cupcake treats and Zac and I started assembling our packages.

Here's what we used:

- Three sheets of patterned scrapbook paper

- Four packages of Wilton brand treat boxes

- One roll of red gift wrap curling ribbon

- Scissors

- Tape

- Pen

Since we were baking mini cupcakes and not the average size cupcakes we chose to use treat boxes instead of cupcake boxes. These Wilton boxes (measuring 1.5 X 4.5 X 4.5) perfectly accomodated 4 mini cupcakes.

After opening the treat boxes we taped each of the inside flaps to make sure that the treat boxes maintained their shape and didn't collapse in on themselves.

Next we cut the scrapbook paper into 4" squares and used the pieces to line the inside of each box. We thought the blue was a nice touch to add to the red and white cupcakes we were putting inside the boxes.

Zac and I realized that delivering our treats on 4th of July might be risky since some of our neighbors might have already left their homes to start their summer celebration. In case we rang doorbells and weren't greeted by anyone on the other side we figured that we should leave notes on our cupcake boxes so that the neighbors knew they were safe to consume. Since we hadn't yet been introduced to some of our neighbors we also thought that the note would probably be a nice touch to add onto the treat boxes even if the recipient was home to accept. In addition to holiday well wishes, Zac and I wrote our names and address on the note so that our neighbors would know who we are.

(No I didn't mess up and scribble all over our notes for our neighbors. As much as I love sharing with everyone, our address is one thing that gets to be a secret.)

After prepping the treat boxes and writing our notes, we started loading up our cupcakes and putting together our packages.

In the end, these are what each of the boxes looked like:

Zac and I were very happy with the final product. We loaded up all of the boxes onto a large tray, dressed Jim in a cute outfit and set out to deliver our treats to our unsuspecting neighbors.

We delivered one box of cupcakes to twelve different houses on our block. As we had anticipated, many of the houses were empty or at least the people inside weren't answering their doors. For these houses, we left our box of cupcakes on the doorstep and went on our way to the next house on our list. We did have success with four houses in which our neighbors answered their doors and listened to us explain to them who we were and accepted our small gift. At two of these houses the person who answered the door looked at us crazy/suspicious as I'm sure they expected us to be salespeople or something of that nature, there to disrupt their day. At both of these homes once they realized why we were there, their state of confusion turned to happy faces and big smiles. 

Zac and I had a lot of fun going from house and house and really enjoyed meeting the few neighbors that we were able to speak with. Over the last few days we have been pleasantly surprised to recieve three thank you notes from our neighbors, two of which were not home when we delivered our treats. One of the neighbors who answered the door on the 4th of July hand delivered a thank you note the next day. It was great hearing that our neighbors loved their sweet treats and even more wonderful knowing that we've made some connections with the people in our neighborhood.  

A Sisterly Tradition

I consider myself to be a pretty lucky girl. As much as I have fallen in love with Zac, I have also fallen in love with his family. His sister Sarah and I have become quite the pair. The relationship that Sarah and I have built has become something more than friendship; we're sisters. Sarah happily accepted when I asked her to be my maid of honor back in January. I can't imagine life without her.

Sarah and I singing a duet and rocking out to KC and Jojo!

Sadly, this is the first summer in a few years that Sarah and I are not getting together for a girls weekend. Back in 2008 Sarah and I began the tradition of having bi annual sister's weekends. We would get together at the beginning of the year (usually in January) and again in summer. Sarah had moved to Vegas so I went to visit her at the beginning of the year and our summer trip usually involved a trip to the beach.

Our trip to San Diego in the summer of 2008 was the beginning of the fun. Sarah and I had a blast visiting Seaport Village, enjoying some shows at Seaworld, spending the day on the beach, and as you can see in the picture below...getting sunburned. Well we didn't enjoy the sunburn part too much but the vacation was a lot of fun.

 

My oldest brother Albert lives in San Diego with his girlfriend Deanna. They invited us out one night to celebrate their friend Eva's birthday at a nightclub called Club Sin.

Though I won't reveal the whole story about what happened that evening I will say that we had an amazing time, laughed more than I think I had laughed in my life (up until then), Sarah and Albert bonded, and I was able to get to know Deanna (who will no doubt be my future sister in law) a little better.....oh yeah, and there might have made a post club trip to get the most amazing tacos/burritos ever! :)

In January of 2009, after Sarah had moved to Las Vegas, I decided to take a trip out to visit her for a few days. It was our first experience together in Vegas so Sarah did some digging and found out some great places to go and some fun things to do while I was in town. Here we are with our lovely server, Alexis, at Lucky Chang's drag show and dinner.

Sarah and I were seated at a table right in front of the stage for the big drag show which was definitely a bonus but also came with an interesting twist. Our server Alexis asked us if we were celebrating anything that evening and before I got the chance to say that we were just having a sister's weekend, Sarah reached across the table and lovingly took my hand. "It's our one year anniversary", she told Alexis! Without missing a beat I smiled at Sarah, then back at Alexis who excitedly told us, "Congratulations!" Alexis left the table and I busted up laughing!

When the show began, the main drag queen came out in her glory and made a few announcements. Just when we thought she was done with her intro a spotlight hit out table and she proudly announced, "And last but not least, I hear we have an anniversary in the house! Stand up young ladies!" I think I might have turned an unbelievable shade of red.

Sarah and I stood up in front of the room full of paying viewers as the drag queen congratulated us on our anniversary. She said that she had never seen two such cute lesbians, that usually there is at least one butch girl when it comes to lesbian couples and she wanted to know who the dominating one was. I took credit for that role before the crowd applauded for us and Sarah and I sat back down at our seat to enjoy the show. It's moments like this that make me love Sarah even more!

We had a fantastic time together in those few days. In addition to the drag show we also went to see Thunder from Down Under. Also, upon my arrival, Sarah surprised me with tickets to see one of my idols....The Divine Miss Bette Midler! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to see Bette Midler perform!

In the summer of 2009 Sarah and I returned to San Diego to celebrate 4th of July weekend on the beach. This time we brought along Amy (Sarah and Zac's cousin's wife). The three of us have gotten pretty close since Amy and Scott have gotten together so it was nice to take a trip together, just the three of us. We decided that the best place to spend 4th of July was on the beach. Here we are in our hotel room getting our drinks all prepared before heading out to grab a spot on the sand.

We loaded up our beach chairs, ice chest, towels, and purses and my brother Albert picked us up and dropped us off at Mission Beach. We spent the day laying out, having cocktails, catching up on our celebrity gossip via trashy tabloid magazines, and taking dips in the ocean.

At the end of the night when the firework show had ended, we packed up our stuff and headed off the beach to catch a cab back to our hotel. Unfortunately, everyone who was on the beach who didn't have a car with them, had the same idea. Every cab that came by had people in it and we lost the empty cabs to other people who ran faster than we could to catch them. After about twenty minutes of lacking success in catching a cab the girls and I decided to start walking towards our hotel. We figured that the further we walked away from the beach the easier it would be to find an empty cab to take us back to our hotel. Unfortunately, we still had all of our beach items with us so the walk wasn't the easiest of walks. As we passed Sea World we headed over the freeway overpass and continued our walk right on the shoulder of the freeway. We weren't the only people who had this plan; there were many other people walking along the freeway with us.

The girls and I never did find a cab but we did find a nice young gentleman who carried our ice chest for a little while and helped us on our way back to our hotel. Along our walk we found an abandoned shopping cart which we put our ice chest in and took with us on the remainder of our trip. The young man (who was in the military and was stationed in San Diego) made sure that our 3 mile trip from the beach to the hotel was a safe one. Here he is with Sarah and our shopping cart:

Last summer Amy and I spent 4th of July weekend at Sarah's house in Las Vegas. Upon picking us up from the airport, Sarah announced to us that she was pregnant! It was such an exciting trip. We couldn't believe that Sarah and Donnie were going to be parents!

The trip to Vegas last summer was one fantastic trip. We hung out by Sarah's pool all day listening to music and enjoying some delicious frozen cocktails. (Don't worry, Sarah had virgin drinks the whole time.) The first night we went out we decided to keep it a casual night. We got dressed and headed out to a country bar/club that was off the strip called Stoney's.

It was a Friday night which meant free beers and throughout the night there were also $1 tequila shots. Needless to say Amy and I were glad to have Sarah as a sober driver at the end of the night. Since Stoney's is a country bar you can bet that there was a lot of line dancing going on in between hip hop songs. Amy wasn't sure that she wanted to go out on the dance floor during the country songs because she wasn't familiar with line dancing. Here I am showing her the nice dance moves that I knew. (These moves didn't help either of us when we went on the dance floor and realized that eveyone was doing an entirely different dance.)

That weekend we went to a Chippendale's show, spent a little time at a club called Crown, and got our tan on by the pool. Amy and I flew back home on the evening of the 4th and landed before sunset just in time for fireworks. Before Sarah took us to the airport we enjoyed a last little afternoon by the pool....

...and watching DeathProof in the living room. (If you've seen the movie I'm sure you understand why we're making these silly faces!)

This year Sarah came into town for her baby shower in January...

....and again at the end of May for the engagement dinner and graduation.



Although we don't have a trip together planned this year, we will be heading back to San Diego next spring for my bachelorette party. Maybe next summer I will be able to fly out and see her in Vegas again. Since Zac and I will be going on our honeymoon in late May or early June, I guess it will all depend on the amount of time I am able to get off in the summer.

I miss my sister Sarah and can't wait to spend some quality time together again. Hopefully we can work something out soon. :)

Ahwahnee Films

A while back, Zac and I started discussing the idea of hiring a videographer to capture our wedding. (Read all about that here.) On our search for the right videographer we've seen a lot of good work. There are some really talented people out there who make some fantastic wedding videos.

Unfortunately, the cost of most of the videographers we have looked at is more than we are willing to pay and certainly more than our budget will allow. It makes sense that high quality videos would have a higher price tag, but some of these videographers have left us with a little bit of sticker shock. As much as we would love to have video of our ceremony and reception we don't want to go broke in the process. Taking such a huge chunk out of our budget to pay for a videographer would mean that we would have to give up some of the more fun guest related projects as well as decorations and that just doesn't make sense. So we've been on the hunt for a less expensive option.

Recently we've come across Ahwahnee Films, a production company based in Orange County. We learned about this company after an old friend and ex coworker of ours was in a wedding in which the bride and groom hired Ahwahnee Films to capture their big day on film. This is the sneak peek highlights clip from Brooke and John's wedding:

Brooke+John Highlights from Aaron Mendez (Ahwahnee Films) on Vimeo.

We loved the quality of the video and were definitely interested in learning more about Ahwahnee Films. After looking through their website and coming across a price listing, Zac and I were surprised to see that the listed cost of filming a wedding was about $2000 less than a few of the other companys we've looked at. We've emailed the company to get some more information. In the meantime we're continuing to look around and compare prices. It's good to know that there is at least one less expensive option out there.

Here are a few more wedding highlight videos done by Ahwahnee Films:

Christy+Michael Wedding Highlights from Aaron Mendez (Ahwahnee Films) on Vimeo.

Sarah+Chris Wedding Highlights from Aaron Mendez (Ahwahnee Films) on Vimeo.

Erica+Jason Highlights from Aaron Mendez (Ahwahnee Films) on Vimeo.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Hope that everyone is enjoying this holiday!

I am lucky enough to have this holiday off again this year. The last few years I have requested the time off but this year I got the patriotic holiday off of work by sheer luck. My current availability states that I am not available to work on Monday or Friday. Thankfully 4th of July has landed on a Monday this year which means that I have the day off. Zac and I will be enjoying some celebratory fireworks this evening.

In the meantime, this afternoon I will be helping my good friend Kim redecorate her mother's room while she is on vacation! On Friday we painted the room a rich shade of gray with a twelve inch white border on top. Kim has picked out a beautiful duvet, some amazing pillows and a few other fantastic accessories. I can't wait to see the final product!

Have a great holiday!!!!

It's A Bird....It's A Plane..

..No! It's a hot air balloon!

Zac and I awoke early this morning. We opened the back door to let Jim out and let the cool morning air in and to our surprise saw a hot air balloon sailing away in the distance.

We have no idea where the balloon came from or where it was going but we were so pleasantly surprised to see it that we didn't care about the details. As we moved outside to get a closer look we saw another appear close by.

Zac grabbed the ladder (which was still hanging out in the backyard after we used it for our tree light project) and we climbed up to the patio roof to catch a better view of these balloons. It was up on the roof that we saw there were actually five balloons floating above Fresno this morning. These were the last two we were able to catch a glimpse of before they all drifted away.

This is certainly not something we see everyday and it was a great way to start our morning!

Project Wonderland; Operation Firefly

Yesterday I revealed Project Wonderland, the plan Zac and I have to turn our backyard into a wonderful place for family and friends. I mentioned in this post that on our anniversary, we started working on this project.

The first thing that we wanted to check off of our list of backyard projects was putting up some whimsical/romantic candle lights in one of our trees. This picture served as our inspiration:

We figured that with a little crafty-ness we could achieve this look pretty easily. We looked at some oher photographs and decided that the supplies we would need to complete this project included:

- glass jars

- fishing line (something with at least a 20lb test to hold the glass securely)

- candles

- something to weigh down the glass jars and hold them in place (we were thinking sand or glass beads)

So before we headed out to celebrate Matt, Josh and their big news, we looked around for the appropriate tools to create our magical looking tree light fixtures.

Our first thought was to use mason jars as our lanterns. Walmart had a 12 pack of Kerr mason jars for only $8.

Although the mason jars would look pretty cool hanging from our tree, they were going to look more country and less whimsical. It wasn't really the look that we were going for. So we moved on and found some clear jars that went along much better with our plan. Zac and I were lucky to have found some small fish bowls with a frilly looking rim. I didn't capture a picture of our find while we were in the store but you'll see plenty of pictures of these fish bowl like dishes because Zac and I bought everything they had. We loved them so much that we bought all 12 jars that were on the shelf. At only $0.97 each it was hardly a bank breaker. We also got all of the other goodies we needed to work on our project.

Here's an up close look at our fishbowls that would soon become floating orbs.

We also picked up a roll of 30lb test fishing wire to secure the fishbowls and hang them from the branches. The fishing line is not only a cheap option to hang the bowls (the 250 yard roll was only $2.50) but we also hoped that the fishing line would diasappear and create the illusion that the jars were really hovering in mid air.

To make sure that our little fishbowls lit up at night we got a 12 pack of votive candles.

We opted for votive candles rather than tea lights because the larger votive candles will have a bigger flame that lasts for longer. From our experience, tea lights only last for a few hours. It would be inconvenient to have the candles burn out after only a few hours in the yard. Since the votive candles last longer, we won't have to replace them as frequently as we would have to with the tea lights. We opted to get votive candles that came in a glass candle holder so that the melted wax wouldn't get all over the inside of the fishbowls. This will make it much easier for us to replace the candles later and not worry about cleaning up a wax-y mess.

To anchor our little fishbowls and make sure that the candles don't move around we got this 3lb bag of clear glass beads for only $4.00. (You'll see in the picture of all of our supplies on the table that we bought 4 bags of beads but in the end just one of these bags was enough for our whole project.)  We chose the glass beads over sand because we thought that the beads would pick up the light of the candles and be a lot more interesting than the sand.

I will warn anyone who is planning on doing their own version of this project, to be careful while putting the beads into the glass jars. We had one casualty. Pouring the beads in let the beads bang against the glass and cracked one of the jars.

After we had all of our supplies together Zac started wrapping the fishing wire around the rim of each fishbowl and tied a loop above the rim to create a handle. We filled each of the fishbowls with beads and votive candle. The end result was this:

Our next step was to hang each of the fishbowls in the tree. Zac took the roll of fishing wire outside, grabbed a ladder and started tying the line on random tree branches. He made sure to choose branches that looked strong enough to hold the jars that were weighted down with the candles and beads.

One by one they all went up...

...until it looked like this:

Zac and I were so excited with the outcome. We just loved the way they looked, and this was in the daylight before they wer all lit up.

Later when the sun started to go down a little more, we lit all of the candles in the fishbowl just to see what they looked like all lit up. For us, the look was definitely coming together.

We re-lit the candles much later in the evening before we went to bed, just to see what they looked like when there was no other light.

My camera does not do our little project justice. It was truly something magical. Sitting on our patio furniture looking out into the yard, Zac and I were very happy with the way it all turned out. Just as we had hoped the fishing wire seemed to disappear and the fishbowls looked like they were hovering in the sky like little fireflies. The glass beads picked up the light and created a really cool extra glow.

In person the lights are much more intense.

So here is a little budget breakdown for our little tree light project:

- Glass jars (12) - $12.45

- Fishing wire (250 yards of 30lb test) - $2.67

- Glass beads (1 3lb bag) - $4.28

- 12 votive candles in glass candle holders - $5.33

Grand Total ...........................................- $24.73

We are very happy with the first completed task on the list for Project Wonderland. Getting this mini project done and loving the outcome is definitely motivating us to accomplish as many of the smaller, less expensive tasks as we can before the summer is up.

Stay tuned!

Project Wonderland

One of the many things that Zac and I love about our house is the amount of space that we have in our backyard. After living together in our first apartment for 3 years we were so excited when we got our home and discovered the endless possibilities of projects and fun having a backyard would bring.

Zac and I have lived in our home for nearly two years now. We've had plenty of time to sort through our ideas about what to do with our backyard space and now we are putting together an official plan which we are calling "Project Wonderland".

We really love to host parties, have people over, and entertain. It makes us so happy to fill our home with the people we love and enjoy ourselves, laugh, celebrate and create memories. Our plan is to make our backyard an extension of our home in the sense that it will be another place to make our guests comfortable and allow us to entertain a large number of people

Before we were able to put our plan into action, Zac and I first had to finalize a plan. This involved looking for inspiration...everywhere. One source of inspiration came from the fireplace in our living room.

Zac and I love our fireplace and think that it would be so great to have one outside in our backyard. It would definitely create a focal point for our space plus sitting out by the fireplace with our friends and family sounds like a great way to spend our evening. Zac plans to pour cement, build the fireplace, and add stone to the outside of the fireplace later.

Browsing through Pinterest.com I found this little picture for some inspiration:

The fireplace will be going in the back corner of our backyard. We will be adding some stone pavers to create a little path from the existing patio to the back corner. Zac has big plans for creating a deck and building some custom furniture to give the area an outdoor living room space feel. His furniture plans involve building a few chairs and a sectional style sofa for lounging. This picture from Pinterest.com is kind of what we had in mind with the furniture:

Surrounding the deck, Zac has already begun to dig a trench where he will create a fish pond.

The dirt from this trench went straight into the compost pile Zac created last summer. I am super excited about this pond. I love watching fish swim around. Before we got our little pup Jim, the only pets that I had ever had were fish. Currently Zac and I have about 20 very small fish in a 10 gallon tank. It will be so nice to sit on the deck by the fireplace and watch the fish swim in the pond.

Our backyard currently has only one source of lighting; a small light bulb just outside the patio door. So, needless to say, when the sun goes down we usually head inside since the backyard gets so dark. To brighten up our backyard and encourage some post sunset hang out time in our space Zac and I definitely need to add some lighting. Our plan is to add some spot lights to highlight our trees as well as extend our power out to the fireplace and add some lighting to the deck. Also our backyard has a long covered patio:

To give us some overhead lighting and allow us to hang out on the patio and play games without having to strain our eyes to read our cards, our plan is to add 4 overhead lights. Zac is going to extend the power from the house to the overhead lights which will allow us to use the light switch for the current patio light to turn on the additional lighting. (Thank goodness Zac is so handy right?!) We plan to add a dimmer switch so that we can control the amount of light at any given time. This will allow us to have enough light to see our game boards and cards on game nights as well as turn down the lights and create a romantic feel for a date night dinner outside.

To add a more whimsical feel to our backyard space, Zac and I want to add some light that will hang from the trees. These lights will not be powered by electricity or solar power. Instead we want to add some candlelight. Looking online at different lighting options I found this picture during my browsing session on Pinterst.com :

It pretty much represents perfectly the look that we are going for. It looks kind of magical right? The string seems to disappear and the lights look as though they are hovering in space, almost like little fireflies. Using candles makes this whimsical idea look soft and romantic as well. We love this idea and think that we can accomplish it pretty easily.

To make the backyard a little more whimsical and wonderland-ish, we'll also be adding a lot of flowers and plants to our space. The majority of these flowers will go along our back fence. Zac wants a variety of flowers so that the look is less uniform and more playful. The idea is to have flowers that come in a bunch of different heighths and vary in color. Another picture from Pinterest.com serves as inspiration:

In addition to the flowers along the fence, Zac really wants to add some latice. His big plan is to plant green vines along that latice that will eventually fill out and create a wall of green. It will definitely be something more pretty to look at than a plain wooden fence. We are thinking about planting honeysuckle since it has some really pretty white blooms, but we don't know how it will hold up in our Fresno climate. We'll definitely be looking into what vine-like plants will work out the best. The best thing about working on our garden is that we have an amazing nursery just two blocks away. Not only do they have some incredible plants, but they also have a big fish pond. We will definitely be picking their brains about our backyard garden/fish related projects.

Once all of this is complete and we are happy with the way things have turned out we hope to add a few more fun projects to our list. Check out this outdoor movie screen and lounge area that I found on (you guessed it) Pinterest.com:

Isn't that uh-may-zing?! I can totally picture us hanging out in our backyard during the summer with a few of our favorite people, munching on snacks, drinking some wine, and watching a movie. So perfect!

So here is the check list of our plans for our future backyard wonderland:

- Clean off patio space and find proper places for everything.

- Set up sitting area on patio space.

- Add flowers and plants to the back wall.

- Build latice wall on the back fence.

- Grow vines on the back fence latice wall.

- Hang votive lights from tree .

- Create overhead lighting for the patio space.

- Place solar power spot lights in front of trees.

- Finish digging out trench to add fish pond.

- Lay cement foundation for brick wall against back fence.

- Lay cement foundation for additional patio entertaining space.

- Add electrical power from the house to additional patio entertaining space.

- Lay down paver path from patio space to additional patio entertaining space.

- Put in lines for water pump for fish pond and propane for outdoor fireplace.

- Build outdoor fireplace.

- Lay down pavers on floor of additional patio entertaining space.

- Build furniture for additional patio entertaining space.

- Add stone to outside of outdoor fireplace.

Needless to say we have quite a few projects ahead of us and a lot of work to get done to turn our backyard into another space to hang out and entertain. We're looking forward to the challenge though. We love working on projects and anything that makes our home a more beautiful and comfortable space is definitely worth the work that goes into it. We'll be getting as many of the smaller projects done as we can first before diving into the big projects that require more man power and money. The fireplace may have to wait until after the wedding simply for cost reasons, but hopefully by this time next year our little wonderland will be a reality.