Snowcones, Barbie, and DIY

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June has just been flying by. Nothing truly BIG has happened. There’s just a lot of small things all stacked together making the calendar wooosh by.

For instance I had the pleasure of attending a Barbie themed birthday party that was lots of fun. Everyone was supposed to come dressed up as either Barbie or Ken. Many Barbies and Kens attended including Sleepover Barbie, Rockstar Barbie, 50s Barbie, Business Casual Ken, Tourguide Barbie, Baywatch Barbie and Ken, Jazzercise Barbie, and Army Kens (or G.I. Joes, haha). I love costume parties where everyone gets into it; it’s always good inspiration for future parties. I was Western Barbie.

They even had a "Barbie Box" for everyone to take pictures in.

They even had a “Barbie Box” for everyone to take pictures in.

Note: This party really made me want to watch Lifesize. It’s been way too long.

This is the shoe picture I took on purpose of Katie (Sleepover Barbie), Me (Western Barbie), and Karen (Classy 50s Barbie).

This is the shoe picture I took on purpose of Katie (Sleepover Barbie), Me (Western Barbie), and Karen (Classy 50s Barbie).

This is the not-so-on-purpose shoe picture I randomly ended up taking while playing with my camera. However I felt it was really fun with all the different color shoes and party dresses going on, so I kept it :)

This is the not-so-on-purpose shoe picture I randomly ended up taking while playing with my camera. However I felt it was really fun with all the different color shoes and party dresses going on, so I kept it :)

I helped my sister move back to Texas. We did a lot of packing boxes and creative car tetris to get all of her stuff in my Toyota. But it wasn’t all work and no play. We took a little break in the middle to get some delicious snowcones. We also discovered my car’s cupholders are just the right size for Ben & Jerry ice cream containers, making it easy to attempt to eat the last content of your freezer while on the go, haha.

I was sad to see Gabby go (at least I’ll get to see her in August!), but I was excited to see another family member move to Utah. My cousin Amy started at BYU for summer semester so I got to see her and her family. We had a lot of fun catching up.

snowcone

Mmmm, lemon lime and cherry! This was a “small.” I can’t imagine how you’d handle anything bigger. They also let you get ice cream in the middle or a snow cap, but I just like pure snow cone :)

I also finished Sarah’s Key. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it if you need a good book (Warning: It is very sad, so I wouldn’t exactly call it a light beach read or anything like that). Now I just need to go see the movie!

I also went to Emily’s brother’s wedding with Courtney and Emily.  We took advantage of the photobooth while we were there:

We got surprised by the first photo, haha.

We got surprised by the first photo, haha.

Oh, also did I mention there was cake at this wedding? Over 20 different types of cake (Don’t worry I didn’t try all of them)?

Yum.

Yum.

I also saw the movie The Lucky One (Starring Zac Efron and his handsome smolder) in the dollar theater last week. Let me tell you the dollar theater always comes through for entertainment, one way or the other. We got super giggly over the overly dramatic romantic-ness at all, making for a very fun time (Don’t worry, I don’t think we made any enemies. We managed to keep it under control for most of the “serious” moments.). You can check out Emily’s opinion here. Warning: She pulls no punches when it comes to Nicholas Sparks.

My final June task I wanted to share is a little DIY project I’ve been working on. I’m in the middle of making a new duvet cover based off of some knotted quilt Anthropologie bedding I’d been eying. I was a little intimidated by this at first, but my Aunt Mary had done it before and assured me it could be done. I’ve been meaning to work on it for I don’t know how long, and now I’m finally getting close to the finish line. I’ll post some pictures (and links to the tutorial) as soon as I’m done.

Here’s a sneak peek:

purple quilt

Knotting the squares is the most time consuming part. I’m a rather inexperienced seamstress so hopefully it all comes together well. I’m pleased with how it’s going so far (not perfect, but not embarrassing either, haha).

Well that’s it. I hope you are having a wonderful June and a great summer!

Currently: have Francoise Hardy songs stuck in my head thanks to Courtney’s blog :)

Picnic your way through Summer: Antelope Island and Willard Bay

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I know technically we have not hit the first day of summer yet, but I prefer to get started on these things as soon as possible. I just love summer and summertime activities. Like picnics and day trips. Which I’ve also decided to get a head start on.

My friend Emily has been dying to see the Spiral Jetty so we decided to go but we could only go one day after Courtney got off work. Long story short we realized we didn’t have as much time as we wanted, so we decided to change our plans to Antelope Island instead.

antelope island

On the road to Antelope Island

It was a very nice change of plans.

Although we will definitely be going to the Spiral Jetty sometime soon! Antelope Island was an addition to our summer wishlist not a replacement :) Antelope Island is a state park in the Great Salt Lake. We went on a weekday, in the evening, so things were relatively empty so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. It’s north of Salt Lake; if you’d like to visit you can see the info on it here.

antelope island

See? We had the place to ourselves.

great salt lake

Great Salt Lake

Emily made us a lovely picnic dinner to enjoy while we were there.

There were many wonderful things to eat, but my favorite part of the picnic was the homemade pita chips and the amazing cheese dip that went with it.

There were many wonderful things to eat, but my favorite part of the picnic was the homemade pita chips and the amazing cheese dip that went with it.

We explored a bit then headed through the sand to wade into the lake. After we’d gotten all the Great Salt Lake time we wanted we washed off the sand and salt as best we could and headed home.

Showing off their flexibility, lol

Showing off their flexibility, lol

Wouldn't it be nice if the view outside your window was always this beautiful?

The drive home. Wouldn’t it be nice if the view outside your window was always this beautiful?

A little view from our ride home.

A more lively view of our ride home.

For Memorial Day we wanted to go somewhere fun that wasn’t too far and decided to try out Willard Bay.

The water was a tad cold, but the weather overall was gorgeous.

The water was a tad cold, but the weather overall was gorgeous. We set out a blanket and enjoyed all the sunshine.

We packed another picnic. This time a group effort. I made some pressed sandwiches from this blog post (Thanks Sarah!), Emily made some amazing maple bars, Katie brought fruit, and Ben brought all the drinks and sides we could ask for. It was dee-lish. Seriously. Everything was beautiful and sunny (as you will notice since I am squinting in every picture). The water was cold, but that didn’t stop me from jumping in.

Who wouldn't want to spend the day here?

Who wouldn’t want to spend the day here? This is later in the afternoon/evening. What you don’t see in this picture is this way too open with their pda couple who ended up having a blanket right next to our picnic table. They made it… memorable…to say the least, haha.

We also took advantage of the rentals they had there and took out a canoe for an hour. It was really fun, but I seemed to be cursed when it came to getting the boat to go in the direction we wanted, lol. I kept not coordinating with my cousin who was also rowing, so we ended up taking a very curvy and zig zag-y path across the water.

We're off!

We’re off!

I took the lead and then was quickly demoted when it immediately became clear I was no good at navigating the canoe, haha. I was pretty much happy to go in whatever direction the bay wanted to propel us.

I took the lead and then was quickly demoted when it immediately became clear I was no good at navigating the canoe, haha. I was pretty much happy to go in whatever direction the bay wanted to propel us. My cousin Ben ended up being our “Captain.”

All of us canoe adventurers. It was very bright and sunny :)

All of us canoe adventurers. It was very bright and sunny :) Thanks to Emily for these pictures; I was afraid to bring my phone/camera on the canoe.

Possibly the only canoe picture where I don't look in pain from trying to smile while looking at the sun, haha.

Me and Emily. Ben was supposed to be in it, but have you ever tried to take a MySpace style pic (Arm outstretched…) of three people while staying balanced on a canoe? Also this is possibly the only canoe picture where I don’t look in pain from trying to smile while looking at the sun, haha.

After we were done playing in the water, we just relaxed, played some games, and then ended the evening with some hot dogs and s’mores.

Me and Katie.

Me and Katie.

Grilling up some hotdogs.

Cooking up some hotdogs.

I introduced everyone to Egyptian Slapjack/ Ratscrew (which got slightly competitive!) and then we played some Apples to Apples.

I introduced everyone to Egyptian Slapjack/ Ratscrew (which got slightly competitive!) and then we played some Apples to Apples.

We made s'mores with a variety of fillings. One of my favs was the Reese's cup s'more! So good!

We made s’mores with a variety of fillings. One of my favs was the Reese’s cup s’more! So good!

Ben and me.

Me and Cousin.

Sunset at Willard Bay.

Sunset at Willard Bay.

The only thing we forgot? Water!! In our efforts to pack a fun picnic lunch we only packed soda. Oops. We ended up sucking on ice cubes and then everyone had a huge glass as soon as we got home. We won’t be making that mistake again anytime soon.

The sunset left the water looking so colorful and glow-y.

The sunset left the water looking so colorful and glow-y.

Everyone who went. It was a great group :)

Everyone who went. It was a great group :)

Of course, local parks are always lovely spots for picnics too. Just two weeks ago my friend Courtney and I had a wonderful picnic lunch in Sugarhouse Park (See? I told you I was on top of this summer thing.). She even brought her mini grill so we could make hamburgers.

I hope there will be plenty more fun picnics, day trips, and good weather in store this summer!

Currently: relaxing after some much needed sister time in Provo. oh and OBSESSED with cinegram. That’s how I made the little Antelope Island gif (I had taken a video of the window view with the music playing in the background).

Let’s Love the 90s Please: 90s Party!!

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So to celebrate turning 24, I had a 90s party. A few people have asked me how exactly one has a 90s party so I decided to do a post with everything we did. It wasn’t anything too crazy, but everyone seemed to have fun.

Costumes

I told everyone that dressing up was in no way required, but they came through anyways :) Here are a few of the costume ideas:

Grunge. By this I mainly mean flannel shirts and baggy/torn jeans. It also doesn’t hurt to tie your jacket around your waist.

Preppy 90s. Not very many people went this route, but you could do a “Clueless” look. Platform shoes, cardigans, crop tops, and the like.

Scrunchies. You may associate these with 80s but they also made appearances during the 90s. My friend Emily brought a bunch and they were a nice way to accessorize outfits.

Overalls. No one at my party went this route, but let’s be honest, we all remember these making an appearance in our lives, whether we’ll admit or not. Overalls done properly can be very 90s.

Floral dress with Doc Marten-esque shoes. This idea was from me. I went to my local thrift store (D.I.) and found a floral dress which I cut off at the knees. I then went to the shoe section and pulled out anything black and chunky. There was a lot to choose from! To finish off the look I tied a denim shirt around my waist.

Photobooth

I know these are the “thing” right now, but it really was fun to have one (especially since everyone dressed up). I left my digital and polaroid camera out; Everyone had a polaroid photo take home and I also kept some for me as a memento of the party. My friend Courtney showed me a great tutorial for photobooth. Basically you layer three pieces of butcher paper (I found this at a local school supply store in SugarHouse) and provide a few props. I found all my props (Giant sunglasses, beads, and fake mustaches) at the dollar store. The mustaches were definitely the favorite prop.

Photobooth fun

Photobooth fun

You can see more of our pictures in this post.

Music

What is a 90s party without a 90s playlist? I put together a mix on Spotify and since this is a free service I was able to let party guests add their favorite songs as the night went on. If you have a Spotify account you can use this link to access my playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/124558735/playlist/07mTk25wMoFdCbIpUn8rpk Keep in mind even with 55 songs on the playlist there are still so many more you can add ( I know this particular playlist was very light on boy bands and pop teen singers). If I left out any of your favorites I’d love to hear ’em!

If you don’t have Spotify here’s an example of some bands and songs you could include.

  • Natalie Merchant; Carnival, Wonder
  • Fiona Apple
  • Alanis Morissete
  • Jewel
  • Ace of Base; The Sign, Don’t Turn Around, All that She Wants
  • Matchbox Twenty; The Real World
  • Weezer
  • Garbage; Stupid Girl, I think I’m Paranoid
  • The Cranberries; Linger
  • The Cardigans; Lovefool
  • Smashing Pumpkins
  • Pearl Jam
  • Niravana
  • Oasis; Wonderwall. Many of my friends know I have a theory about this song. Love it or hate it, this is the song that will never die. A nuclear bomb will go off, ending humanity as we know it, and Wonderwall will still be playing somewhere in the background.
  • Backstreet Boys
  • New Kids on the Block
  • 98 Degrees
  • Britney Spears
  • Christina Aguilera
  • Brandy
  • TLC; Waterfalls
  • Vanilla Ice

Games

Ok I know some people are just not game people, but I felt these games really made things “90s.” Give it a shot! Plus my first activity is technically not a game.

I also made sure I had prizes for the games. I used mostly candy and chocolate, but when I was at the dollar store I found some Lisa Frank toys (Appropriate, right?), so I threw those in as well.

90s TV Personality Quizzes

To start things off I gave everyone two personality quizzes: What 90s TV character are you? and What 90s TV Sidekick are you?

I made these quizzes myself and a lot was based on my own memory, so feel free to modify them to reflect your own memories or do a little more research. I also didn’t want to have an elaborate grading key that forced me to evaluate each person’s quiz. Instead I had people tell me if they got mostly 1s, 2s, etc. I didn’t tell them this before the quiz and most people didn’t seem to think about it or try to guess what each number represented. I also prepared a tie breaker question.

For my quizzes I used characters from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Nanny, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell, Captain Planet, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Power Rangers, Home Improvement, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Full House. A fun variation of this would be to narrow it down to even more specific genres like 90s family sitcoms, teen dramas, or 90s Nickelodeon shows.

Click here to see my 90s TV Character Quiz

Click here to see my 90s TV Sidekick Quiz

90s Music Jeopardy

This was quite fun, although you had an unfair advantage if you knew me too well, haha. It was really more of a trivia game and I didn’t care if people answered with a question, but I used a Jeopardy style board. However I did include “Bonus Round” info that you could use to create some daily double  questions. I split the group up into two teams and appointed a score keeper who kept track of things on a Furbie “scoreboard” aka a piece of paper with a  Furbie on it, lol (Come on, I had to incorporate those in somewhere!). I let the first person who could sing a 90s tv theme song pick the first question.

I made the first two questions of every category fill in the blank questions. Most people, even if they weren’t that into music, had heard these songs on the radio and could get these. Plus it was fun to hear everyone singing lyrics in order to try and get to the verse in question, lol. I also prepared hints or answer options for the harder questions so that no team would get stuck on a question too long.

You’ll probably want to change the categories and questions to reflect your audience and what they know best. For my categories I choose R&B/ Pop, Angsty female singer/songwriter, Grunge Rock/Rock/Rap, Boy Bands & Pop Princesses, and Miscellaneous.

Click here to see my 90s Music Jeopardy questions/answers..

Saved by the Bell Bingo

I wanted to do some sort of game which would give us an excuse to watch Saved by the Bell, but all the games I found were drinking games which wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. So instead I took those games, watched some Saved by the Bell for inspiration, and came up with Saved by the Bell Bingo. You could basically adapt this for any 90s sitcom you loved, but the nice thing about Saved by the Bell (beside it’s general 90s awesomeness of course) is all the episodes are on Netflix instant, which makes them easy to get a hold of. I made four sample boards and then created blank ones for people to fill in themselves. For my party I used Season 2 Episode 1, Dance to the Max, but you could use almost any episode.

Here is a word doc of some of the bingo boards I made: Saved By the Bell Bingo

Food

I didn’t try to do “90s” food, instead I went with easy party food. However, when I was researching online some people suggested incorporating candy like nerds, ring pops, and fun dip, so I threw some ring pops in my game prize bag.

Note: If you have guests with aversion to diary (My sister is vegan and I also have lactose intolerant friends) a nice alternative to traditional birthday ice cream is  Haagen-Dazs fruit sorbet. I inhale this stuff; it’s amazing.

More Entertainment

We didn’t end up needing it, but I also had a few 90s movies on hand in case we wanted to   watch something at the end of the night. I also toyed with the idea of doing charades using only 90s movies titles, but we had plenty of games to keep us occupied. Here are some fun 90s movies if you need a little help in this department ( I’m partial to cheesy teen comedies, myself.):

  • She’s all That (1999)
  • Clueless (1995)
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996)
  • 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
  • Drive Me Crazy (1999)
  • Never Been Kissed (1999)
  • While You Were Sleeping (1995)
  • My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
  • Groundhog Day (1993)
  • Speed (1994)
  • Independence Day (1996)
  • The Matrix (1999)
  • The Sixth Sense (1999)
  • Jerry Maguire (1996)
  • Forrest Gump (1994)
  • Titanic (1997)
  • Happy Gilmore (1996)
  • Sister Act (1992)
  • Free Willy (1993)
  • Jurassic Park (1993)
  • The Sandlot (1993)
  • Toy Story (1995)
  • The Lion King (1994)

Well that’s it! I hope if you are planning a 90s party this inspires you! I know we had a lot of fun and there is so much material to work with (Hello, we didn’t even get into all the 90s teen crushes everyone had; whatever happened to Jonathon Taylor Thomas anyways?)!

Currently: Enjoying a boy band playlist my friend made me in celebration of my 90s birthday!