Monster Cookies

Remember when I said I wouldn't make you wait two months for my next blog post? Look at me! Following through on that promise only a couple of days after Halloween.

So is the suspense of knowing our costume killing you? 

I thought so!

This year we tried our very best to pull off Kramer and Elaine from Seinfeld. We were pretty happy with how it came out, and even though we were asked all night if Sam was Ace Ventura and if I was trying (unsuccessfully) to be a character from Beetlejuice - some people got who we were, so I'll say it was a success! After a couple of adult beverages, I busted out some of Elaine's horrible dance moves (or maybe just my regular dance moves) and Sam threw out lines like, "These pretzels are makin' me THIRSTY!" Lots of fun was had by all, except for the guinea pigs. They weren't a fan of costumes. 

I also baked a scary treat for this party (with LOTS of help from my mom and Sam, as I was trying to perfect my Elaine wig at the same time).  This was a Pinterest recipe (which you can find here) that I didn't think would come out anything like the photos and thought maybe instead of blogging it I could submit it to "Pinterest Fails" or "Pintrosity."  We were all pleasantly surprised at how well they came out, visually. The key is to find neon food coloring. Flavor-wise... they were kind of bland. They tasted like a sugar cookie or shortbread, so if I made them again I might try to add something to spruce it up a bit. Perhaps almond extract instead of vanilla. We also had to make two batches, which was an unexpected surprise.

I originally bought two packets of the little candy eyeballs, but my mom made an emergency trip to the store to get a pack of the large ones.  We still ended up running out of eyes - so if you were looking to make more than one batch, I would probably get two packs of small eyes and two packs of big eyes. You can find them in craft stores or in the cake-decorating aisle in Walmart (that's where I got mine.) We were afraid that the eyes would be hard little rocks that would be unpleasant to bite into, but they were actually very soft and easy to chew. No broken teeth for us! 

Here are some photos Sam took of the process:

Here is the recipe again, in case you missed it above!  

How about you, friends? Did you do anything fun over the Halloween weekend? How did your costume go over and what did you dress up as? Let me know in the comments section!

-- Alison --

BOO!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, FRIENDS!!!!!!!

Sorry that I've been sort of M.I.A. on the blog the past several weeks (okay, let's be real, it's been two months.) Not only have I been denying you, my dear readers, of my sweet and hilarious writing (ha), but also I've left you all on the edge of your seats about a very important issue! 

THE BANGS!

The fact is...I did it. I went with my fun and carefree side and went for the bangs. And....drumroll.......... I hated it. Actually, I ended up hating my haircut so much that I went back in to ask her to "tweak" it. Have you ever done this? I have not. I was incredibly nervous about this and felt like a total idiot for not saying anything the first time around about how much I didn't like it. It's just awkward - plus, I'm awkward. If you put an awkward person in an awkward situation, it's just no good.

Fortunately, my hairdresser is as sweet as pie and did her best to "tweak" it. However, I just don't think that bangs are my thing. So, can I just blame my lack of blog posts on the fact that I have been in serious denial over my bangs? No? I didn't think so. Good news is, it's been two months and they have started to grow out.

Let's see... what else is new. OH YEAH today is Halloween! I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

This year, Sam and I are heading over to Dave, my brother's, house to pass out candy with my mom, Diana. OH and my adorable dog niece, Maggie, will also be there. Dave lives in a prime trick-or-treating neighborhood and averages 100-150 kids, depending on the weather, which is... a lot of kids. Remember how I said how awkward I am? Well, I'm exceptionally awkward around kids. I just don't know what to say to them. If they aren't old enough to understand sarcasm, my default is usually to shake my keys at them. So, I'm not sure why I enjoy handing out 100-150 bags of candy to them. I guess I just love to see their little costumes and I know that our interaction is limited to "trick-or-treat" and maybe I'll compliment their costume, then they are gone.

Tomorrow night, our friends Mike and Caitlin are hosting a Halloween party at their house. Sam and I have been running around all week to get our costumes together for this party. Last minute, like always. If we can pull it off, I think it'll be one of my favorites yet. Stay tuned! I'm also planning to make a scary little treat to bring as our dish to pass. I plan to blog about this treat. Hopefully I don't totally screw it up so I can share it with you all!

Mike and Caitlin LOVE critters. They have dogs, cats, fish, turtles, guinea pigs, and ferrets, and maybe even more things. They asked me to make them an invitation for this party that incorporates all of their furry, and not so furry, friends. In order to keep their privacy, I have changed some information on this invitation, so that I could share it with all of you. (I also added it to the shop if you are in need of a very last minute invitation.  You can find it here.)

I just love how it came out! Caitlin also told me that some of the critters would have costumes in real life, too, which I'm just jazzed about. The only one I know about is one of the guinea pigs will be wearing a bikini. Now you want to come to this party, don't you?



Okay, I think I have rambled long enough. Stay tuned for more blog posts to find out what scary treat I'm going to make and what our costume is this year! I promise it will be sooner than two months from now.

Have a fun and safe Halloween, friends!!!

-- Alison --

Kraft paper on ALL the things!

In my last post, I showed off a fun rehearsal dinner invitation that I had recently made - complete with a bluegrass dinosaur!  Okay, yes.  I admit, I'm kind of obsessed with him.  Turns out I'm also obsessed with two other things lately.

First - bangs.  Once a year, I go through the ultimate struggle of deciding if I want to say "yes" or "no" to bangs - like pretty much every other female, except maybe Zooey Deschanel, who can rock a bang like nobody else. Part of me wants to say, "YOLO" and "Do it!  Hey, they could be fun!  You need a change!" While, the other (much more realistic) side says, "Bangs are probably not a good idea for someone who wakes up and leaves JUST enough time to shower and grab a banana before scurrying out the door for work.  Dry your hair before leaving? HA!  How about dry your hair with your heat vent in your car while driving and eating the banana you grabbed on your way out.  Also, girl - you are a sweaty beast.  Your bangs will get sweaty and curl up into unflattering little frizz monsters, dangling on your forehead." Regardless, I have scheduled my appointment for next Wednesday and my fun, irrational side is winning. We'll see what happens when Wednesday comes.  The struggle is real.

Second - kraft paper.  I used this look with the dinosaur invite to give it a more earthy and Jurassic feel.  This look is super rustic and perfect for fall, too!  Since making this invite, I have used this look for a bridal shower invitation, which you can find here.  Then today, I thought, hey! that look would translate really well to the current chalkboard designs that are in the shop, too!  So, I swapped out the chalkboard background on the Oh Deer! invite and really loved the result.  So, guess what that means!  It's now available in the shop.  I also did the same thing with the other chalkboard invite in the shop.  You can find them here and here!

Here are both invites with the chalkboard and kraft paper looks for you to enjoy.

-- Alison --

Coolest Rehearsal Dinner. Ever.

Lately, I've received some requests for custom invitations that have completely and utterly confirmed that opening this shop is the best decision I've made in a long time.  It's just so exciting to get to work with so many people that have such great, clever, and quirky ideas.  This job is a blasty blast.  I seriously love it.

One of my favorite requests has been from a bride that I had worked with previously with her wedding invites.  She is awesome, to say the least.  For her wedding invites, she ordered the floral mason jar invite, which you can find here.

When she contacted me asking if I would be able to create an invitation for her rehearsal dinner in a similar style, I was not only flattered, but super excited.  She then went on to say that the party will be at a fossil site and asked if there was any way to incorporate a dinosaur into the design. When I saw this, I got the HUGEST smile and ideas started buzzing around in my head.  There may have even been a small dance in my chair.  Seriously, how awesome is this?  If that's not cool enough, she mentioned there would also be bluegrass and BBQ.  At this point, I asked her if I could come because who wouldn't want to go to this party?

After much deliberation of how to incorporate a dinosaur into the rustic vibe of the original invite, with the feel of bluegrass and BBQ, it finally came to me.  The dinosaur had to be playing a banjo.  There was nothing else that made sense for this.

We could not be happier with the final result.  In fact, the bride informed me that this dinosaur has been deemed their wedding mascot.

Have I built up the suspense enough for you yet?
















No?



















Yes?
















Okay, here it is!

--Alison--

A Nutty New Listing

I've seen a lot of wedding invitations that have quirky portraits of the bride and groom (or bride/bride groom/groom, we don't judge here) on them. This idea is great and I love it, but I decided to take this idea and bring it to the next level of quirkiness. Maybe it's the fact that I spend too much time with Sam, my husband, that gave me this idea. One of his favorite things is animals doing human things. It could also be that our backyard is overrun with squirrels. Huge, giant, mutant squirrels that eat through our garbage cans because they just can't ever stop eating. If you combine those two things, you end up with things like this:

This little gem is something Sam created a few years ago, using a photo he took of one of the 2348972 squirrels in our yard.

Whatever the reason, the idea to draw the portraits, but replace the people with squirrels is just something I had to do. I'm pretty in love with the result and hope you are too!

Here are a few images of my process:

If you love this invite set, I have good news for you! It's now available in the shop (check it out here). All four variations of the squirrel are included in the listing. So, have fun, and pick the two that best suit you and your sweetie!


--Alison--

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

For those of you who don't know, I love to bake.  Part of the reason why I love it is due to my sweet tooth. I love me some cookies.  However, the biggest reason is to share the final product with others.

Cookies = Happiness

I can thank my mom for my love of baking.  She has taught me a lot of valuable lessons in life, but the most important is how to bake.  I know I'll never be as good as she is, but I will certainly try my best!

Every year at Christmas time, I do a baking marathon, where I spend a whole week baking as many cookies as I can.  There are the staple cookies that I like to include every year in my offering, but sometimes I like to switch it up and toss a new recipe into the mix.  I don't want to brag, but people love these cookies so much that when I walk in the door on Christmas Eve holding my GIANT platter of cookies, instead of "ALISON IS HERE!" I'm usually greeted with "ALISON'S COOKIES ARE HERE!"

My husband, Sam, and I were craving a little sweet treat the other day.  After searching Pinterest for a while, making sure to pin lots of things that would be handy when I renovate my bathroom in the house I don't own and a bunch of hair dos that I will spend several minutes at before giving up and throwing my hair up in a knot, I found a winner!  The recipe can be found here and it. is. DELICIOUS!  I am a HUGE fan of Little Debbie's Oatmeal Cream Pies, but they don't compare to these bad boys.  The recipe was pretty easy and I followed it exactly until the frosting.  I added a bunch of extra powered sugar, like..a bunch more.  I ended up using 12 tablespoons so that it didn't just taste like cream cheese.

These guys have made the cut for the Christmas platter this year.

If you are a fan of oatmeal cream pies, I strongly suggest you try these!  Let me know what you think in the comments.  I look forward to hearing from you! :)

Here are some photos of that time I made the most delicious cookies, ever.

Here is the link to the recipe again, just in case you missed it above:  YUM!


--Alison--