Vegas, Not Just a City

My 4.5 year old sees me packing for the weekend and the following conversation ensues....

A: Where are you going?
Me: Las Vegas.
A: You lost Vegas? {looks under the bed}
M: No Las Vegas.
A: Lost Vegas?
M: Laaaasss Vegas, it's a city in Nevada.
A {very concerned look}: Vegas is going to Nebada?
M: No, mommy is. The cat is going to stay home.
A: Huh?
M: This conversation is getting us nowhere. Want some grapes?
A: Yeah!

Vegas
vs.
Vegas

Case of the Moondays

Having survived last Friday with 100 cupcakes out the door, I set in to survive Part Dos of the cupcake chaos Saturday morning...

These little guys were my arch nemesis. 18 of them were looking good when we left the house, but had completely melted by the time we arrived to the birthday party... in Deer Valley. DEER VALLEY! If you don't live in Arizona, driving to DV is kind of like driving to Egypt from your house. I hadn't realized that my home state went so far west without turning into California somewhere along the way. Crazy.

The rest of the cupcakes, however, made it beautifully; two dozen each of vanilla vanilla, red velvet, and lemon blueberry. I was most excited for the lemon blueberry because after dabbling with it for an afternoon, I perfected the most beautiful blueberry curd; to accompany, a light lemon frosting made with real lemon juice and zest. It was perfection!

I want one right now.

Dear Mr. Monday,
You are now just a day.
A day without lemon blueberry cake
and that, my friend, is not awesome at all.
xo

This week, in the life of GAD, I'm baking up some sweet treats and shipping them to Las Vegas via the BACK SEAT! This week, in the life of Missi, I'm going to Las Vegas for the FIRST TIME! I can't wait! I have an agenda, the suitcase is ready, the GPS in place, and we've confirmed our reservations at The Paris. I'm so afraid I'm going to forget my concert tickets for Saturday night. House of Blues, anyone? Guess who's playing....

Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers!

There has never been a better time for me to visit Las Vegas ~ my friend, Miss A, just moved there, my friend Mrs. B, who moved to LV not too long ago, is celebrating a birthday very soon, RCPM is playing, and it's a holiday weekend. Time to put the '30 year old Vegas Virgin' bit to rest. If you've been to Vegas, answer this: What's the ONE thing I should NOT miss while in Sin City?

Until Thursday, my little cupcakes, cheers to a beautiful week full of anticipation and rock n' roll!

TGIF

I big pink puffy sparkly heart LOVE Friday this week for a two reasons:
1. I'm exhausted. I stayed up way to late playing Music Challenge with VIP on Facebook last night.
2. Having made over 100 cupcakes yesterday, I'm actually running ahead of schedule with weekend orders, which means Friday night is BACK! Not that I had anything exciting planned, but it's nice to know that I can go out and have a good time, should I choose.

Not much excitement this week, in either the life of Miss Green or Miss Green Apple. I worked, I played, I cupcaked. Not much excitement planned for the weekend either. Just happy days, partly cloudy skies, and scattered thunderstorms until Monday. It's a good kind of week's end.

The second Sweet Sampler was a huge success and I've been commissioned to sweeten up two parties over the weekend. THANK YOU to everyone who ordered cupcakes this week! Hopefully, you enjoy them as much as I enjoy baking them.

L to R: Apple Spice Donut, Jelly Donut, Boston Cream Pie Donut, Glazed Donut
Donuts & cupcakes, the perfect marriage of sweet sin

Cheers to Monsoon, cheers to YOU!

Extended P.S.
I was looking at the calendar yesterday and can you believe it's almost September?! My how time flies when you're having fun! I have OWNED 2010 and while I'm kind of sad that the year is rapidly coming to a close, I'm really excited to write my end of year post and reflect on all the good that has come my way. As predicted, 2010 has been awesome, but I never would have thought it would have ROCKED. For the first time in all my 30 years, February has lasted ALL YEAR! Do you have any idea how happy that makes me!? Words have not yet been invented {Backstory: I love February}.

Case of the Moondays

Over the weekend VIP and I escaped to his cabin up North where we stayed in, ordered out, and watched the rain. In between all that laziness, we managed to watch a bagillion movies and make it back home in time to pick up the kids for dinner.

Our movie selections were:

(500) Days of Summer
American President
Anchorman
El Orfanato
Father of the Bride
Hangover
Into the Wild
Love Actually
Slumdog Millionaire
Some Like it Hot
West Side Story

Goodbye Pinetop, Hello Phoenix

If you know me, even in the slightest, you should be shocked! Fact is, I don't sit down long enough to tie my shoes, let alone watch an entire film, so sitting on the couch for 12+ hours watching film after film with a blanket, a fire, a boyfriend, and a pot of coffee was quite the accomplishment for me. It felt dirty and I liked it. Of course, coming home I was a maniacal train wreck thinking of all the things I should have been doing WHILE watching those movies: making lists, returning phone calls, emailing, networking, baking, laundry, saving the world, cleaning, making a menu, grocery shopping, etc. It all came down hard and fast while driving back and ended with an abrupt halt when we entered the house.

When we got home, it was a scorching {and humid} 104 degrees outside and a gross 98 degrees inside. For the third time this summer, the A/C was out and there's not much you can do about broken appliances at 9:30p on a Sunday night. Talk about a welcoming! It is entirely possible that the Universe was punishing me for sitting on my caboose for two days. Thankfully, I know a brilliant dude with A/C repair on his resume who came over this morning and we were cooling down by 9:45a. On the scale of crappy things to happen while on vacation, having the A/C out for 12 hours is pretty trivial.

Back to Moonday and looking forward to a Bake-a-licious week at Green Apple with the sale of Sweet Samplers and a ton of birthday orders. My oven cringes, but I'm stoked ~ cheers to a cuppycake kind of week!

Cupcake Winner

It's kinda hard to think when you're sitting in the heat. With the A/C back on and running, I present to you vlog #2: Cupcake Winner...



Congratulations Eric B. on winning the a Sweet Sampler Dozen: Donut Collection.

TGIF

Yay Friday!

Monday night was the first highlight of my week. The sixth season of Weeds premiered ~ WHOA! If you've been eating fondant from under a rock, I suggest you get out, get a Netflix account and watch the first season online now, Now, NOW!

I have a love/hate relationship with the supermarket. I love making our weekly menus, I love making lists, and I love shopping. I hate running errands {essentially the supermarket is an errand} and I hate toting my kids around in the heat. Because we ran out of time to get our weekly shopping done in person, I had my groceries delivered on Tuesday from Safeway.com. When the delivery came, I had completely forgotten that I had even ordered groceries in the first place! AWESOME. My only challenge is getting over the feeling that I forgot to do something this week.

Our first date. Sadly, there was no coffee involved.

My Friday Eve {aka Thursday} started out with a surprise in-home Starbucks date with VIP. Any man who drives 45 minutes to show up at my door at 6:45 am on Thursday morning with a Starbucks and a smile wins the Missi Lotto. Who has the best boyfriend ever? ME! My Friday Eve {aka Thursday} ended with a pedi and much needed dishing ~ sans the sink. Love me some Mrs. T! And in case she forgot, I'm talking about you, H!

And now we can party like it's Friday at Green Apple Design! In 24 hours, I've baked a two layer red velvet cake and a small cupcake order ~ both for birthday parties this weekend and both will have photos posted AFTER the celebrating has ended. Happy 30th Birthday, JL and Happy 6th Birthday, AP ~ may you have your cake and eat it too!

This weekend, I have planned two days of reclaiming my former Potato Queen title from my former teenage years spent on the couch. Before next week's big storm o'cake, I'm in for an entire weekend of cabin, movies, and VIP, who was already informed that anything beyond getting up off the couch to shower was a stretch. Here's hoping the coffee fairy visits Pinetop!

May you all have a beautiful weekend with something to celebrate!

Case of the Moondays

Monday always comes around too soon...

I spent a lovely Sunday Funday with VIP lounging around all morning and later taking the kids to visit his family for a bite to eat and a swim. Before all the fun started, I had a very productive meeting with adorable pair, J & P, in regards to their October wedding. Like always, I'm excited to see the final result of the planning process and their smiling faces at the beginning of their new journey together. Before October arrives though, I must survive the rest of this month!

There was a calm before the storm this past weekend and with nothing to bake or prep, I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I'm pretty sure the oven felt neglected as well. This week, I have two parties to sweeten up; a prelude to next week when I will be baking up a storm to fulfill eight cake orders on time. I knew someday I'd be able to explain the cupcake n' crossbones tattoo very clearly: I'm a Bonny with batter. Watch it, Sailor....


Nothing exciting this week that I know of. So, may your week be filled with all the things that make you happy. Cheers!

TGIF

If there's one thing you can count on in this world, it's smiles on Friday. It's been a fairly quiet week for Green Apple, but a pretty busy week for me {which would explain the smiles on Friday}.

On Monday morning, I taught my son a very important life skill, which he picked up rather quickly and now every five minutes, he's tying and untying and retying his sneakers. I'm such a proud mama! Later that day, my babies, VIP and I enjoyed an evening of Meet the Teacher and pizza...

On Tuesday, I filled a Red Velvet order and did a little shopping. E decided she wanted Converse like mom & VIP for the first day of school because they matched her "first day outfit better", so we picked up some black ones that she is currently working off by doing chores.

Random note: Did you know Costco has the best swirl froyo in all the land?! It's better than Ikea. File that away for future reference.

Wednesday brought the first day of school for my big kids and a day at the zoo for my youngest, who insisted she needed a new lunchbox too...


On Thursday, I had migraine number five since activating my Droid Incredible two weeks ago. I have since put myself back on my preventative migraine vitamin regimen as prescribed by the neuro doc and have an eye appointment this month to make sure that's not the problem. If you have Droidaches, I highly suggest downloading the Headache Journal app to keep track. My neuro doc always suggests keeping track of headaches now for a better evaluation later and I love this app!

All of this brings us to today. Oh Friday, how I missed you. I keep feeling like there's something I need to be baking, but I don't have any orders written down for this week. Next week, I do. The week after that, I do. The week after that, I do and so on and so forth. I guess this is just the calm before the storm, eh? I'm looking forward to tomorrow's Missi & VIP's Day of Fun, after I get home from a massage and facial at the spa {I knew Day 16 of 30 Before 30 was going to spoil me!}...

Cheers to a beautiful weekend!

Project Update

For those of you that have been following me, you know I was going to attempt a little project with Martha Stewart. I gave in to the idea of cooking and tasting meat, I compiled, I scheduled, I researched, I made lists, I double checked them, I remade them, I exhausted myself reading the Martha Stewart Collection of Everyday Recipes and I concluded this project was Mission Impossible. Seriously, Martha, who considers five tier wedding cakes or hor d'eourves for 200 as everyday recipes?! Bitch is crazy. I hereby forfeit the Missi n' Martha Project and welcome...

NEW PROJECT!

Back story {aka Why I Love This Project}: Eight years ago, my daughter E was born a little early and enjoyed an extended stay in the NICU. When we finally brought her home, she came with her own home hospital set up and was on a strict schedule of biliruben lights, temperature gauging, and feedings. This routine ultimately turned me into the "Queen of the Clock" and we lived on Post-It Notes, calendars, white boards, alarms, and charts. My heart was worried, my OCD was completely satisfied. It was during this time that I discovered the convenience of the crock pot and I started making dinner at a time that was convenient for me, but a year of crock pot eating {YEAR!} will eventually drive your taste buds insane. That, my friends, is a lot of chicken and dumplin's. So, when we moved to a cable ready house, I spent a lot of down time watching the Food Network and falling in love with Rachael Ray's conception: the 30 minute meal. You can make an entire, healthy meal in 30 minutes?! I have 30 minutes!

Before I had a family to feed, I had never really cooked before {tossing in a pot and turning it on low for 8 hours is NOT my idea of cooking} and the first time I tried a RR recipe, it exceeded my slotted 30 minutes and E missed her bath time. Disgruntled and way off schedule, I began to rethink this genius idea and I ended up convinced that RR recipes were for the experienced home chef or just the product of wishful thinking and a staff of food prep elves.

Seven years later, with a little more experience in my apron pockets, I think I have a pretty good handle on cooking. I've answered some of my own questions, made up some of my own recipes, and taught E a few kitchen basics to survival. However, since that fateful day of disaster in which I turned a 30 minute meal into a 130 minute meal, my success with RR recipes have been hit and miss and I've always wondered which ones really only took 30 minutes. Here's my chance...

In 2009, RR published Book of 10: More than 300 Recipes to Cook Everyday and I'm taking it on in my new project, Racing Rachael: Testing The 30 Minute Theory and it's coming soon! Anyone want to place bets?

Case of the Moondays

Oh Monday, why do you always have to ruin a perfectly good weekend? Although, with the start of another week, I'm one week closer to living out my kind of paradise.... More on that later.

Over the weekend eGAD cupcakeried a baby shower in Mesa. It was my first order from a stranger {stranger danger, kids} and in exchange for actual dollars. I think Mrs. McE was as excited as I was. I hope they were as delicious as they looked....

State Fair cake on top {apple cake, cream cheese filling and frosting with a caramel drizzle}, and 2 dozen each of Life's Lemons {lemon cake, raspberry frost}, GS Cookie Samoa {chocolate cake, caramel center, with a coconut, chocolate, and caramel topping}, and Vanilla Raspberry {vanilla cake, seedless raspberry curd, and light whipped vanilla frost with fresh raspberry}. A huge thank you is extended to Mrs. McE for supporting Green Apple Design!

This was my only cupcakery event over the weekend, but I did some networking, some eating, some shopping, some catching up with friends, and some wedding planing. I'm also working on a mock bridal shoot for A Thousand Words Photography. I can't wait!

New kicks. Green Apple Style.

J, Me, H, and N at Postino's

In other news, there are big things a'brewin' in the Howard-Green Chateau, for which I suppose you'll have to stay tuned for an announcement at a later date. You want clues? I'm not getting married, I'm not having a baby, and I didn't win the lottery. Do your own deductions.

Also, big hugs {sympathetic and congratulatory simultaneously} to my kids who are supposedly anxiously awaiting the arrival of yet another sibling {if you read the above, you already know it's not mine}. YAHOO! *This news has yet to be confirmed by the parents-to-be, but my kids have yet to make something big up. Although, it would be nice to hear it straight from the donkey's mouth.

Cheers to a fabulous, sparkly week!

So You Think You Can Survive Cupcake Idol

"You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." Buzzz! Thanks for playin', Abe, but I believe you can please all of the people all of the time ~ it just takes research! That being said, I'm doing mine...

If you ordered The Fancy Sweet Sampler box, I'm asking that you vote for your favorite. The favorites will eventually be featured in an uber special way ~ perhaps just in time for the holidays. If you shared your sweet little treasures, have your friends vote too or vote as many times as you like. This is my cupcake version of reality contest television ~ the winner will be put into special limelight, possibly signed a million dollar recording deal and the losers could be voted off the show....

Weekend Update

Case of the Moondays has lapsed over into Toosday. Please forgive the late weekend update posting.

Green Apple styled and catered a birthday dinner party this past Friday night to the theme of Dr. Seuss' Thing 1 & Thing 2 for best friends {since 1963} Dee and Colleen...

Flower arrangement

Place setting

Menu:

Hors D'eouvres
Pink Ink for the Yink {Cosmos}
Deviled Green Eggs & Ham

Entree:
Muddle Puddle Poodle Noodles {Penne Pasta with Vodka Cream Sauce}
Hunches of Green Bunches {Hearts of Romaine Salad}
Bread & Butter Battle

Dessert:
Thing 1 & Thing 2 Tiramisu

Matching tiramisu cupcakes by Green Apple Bakery

Full table setting, complete with Cat in the Hat hat

The hostess, the birthday girl, and I were all pleased with the outcome of the event. Thank you both for allowing Green Apple Design to turn your dining room into Whoville and for sharing the fun with us!

On Saturday, after putting stellar organizational skills to good use, Green Apple Design teamed up with Krista Campbell Photography for a mock bridal shoot. First of all, Krista is so much fun and so easy to work with. She has such a creative eye and is willing work with whatever you can throw her way {trust me on this... I climbed in a tree, jumped in a fountain, and sat in a giant letter E all in a wedding dress with bridal bouquet!}. You'd be incredibly lucky if she were available for your event ~ contact her to reserve your photo session today!

Secondly, we had SO MUCH FUN! Below are just a few photos from the whole day. You can view the whole shoot on her website and find her on Facebook.

A huge thank you to our models who willingly climbed mountains and trees, danced through fountains, and got their heels muddy for the sake of art. Much appreciation and love for you all!

I was so exhausted by the time I got home, I pretty much slept all day on Sunday. Thankfully, I had nothing else better to do....

Cheers to a super successful week!