She's Ready to Pop! -and a Super Secret Popcorn Recipe

Recently, I had the opportunity to host a baby shower for a dear sweet friend of mine, Michelle. I decided on a "She's Ready to Pop!" theme in aqua and red. Now, I know this theme has probably been a little overdone on pinterest, but I wanted my shot at it before I ran out of friends who have babies. I can't forget to mention the help of a couple other friends, Kassidy, Alena, and Tyler, in the invitations and childcare departments. Alright. Onto the deets!  

Friends, I did this party on the cheap. I think I should just make that clear before we proceed to photos. Speaking of which, I had a dear friend, Amanda McKie of Amanda McKie Photography take a few pics of the party because our guest of honor actually had the baby the night before and couldn't come. Bummer. There aren't a ton, but since the photographer was also a guest at the party, I'm cool with it. I'm just glad she was willing to take some time out and get some shots in. Thanks, Amanda!

Alright. Here's a peek at most of the decorations:

 

You can kind of see that above the food table (where I parked my fat butt for most of the party), I wrote each letter of "SHE'S READY TO POP" on a separate aqua colored paper plate, and stuck them up with double sided tape. I did the same thing with the word "GIFTS" on red plates for the loot depository. Since our theme was "Pop" related, I wanted to stick with balloons, and round stuff. I hung balloons from doorways, and along our spiral staircase, and in bunches here and there. I decorated with the paper plates for the wording, and to make "dots" that I hung from the food table, and just around. I did add a little crepe paper to one of the doorways just for fun. I like the pattern the twisted crepe paper makes when it's close together in a sheet kind of formation.  

Let's talk about food. 

I did snack foods that had to do with the word "pop." We had soda pop, cake pops, and four kinds of popcorn. We didn't get any pics of the cake pops, but everyone knows what those look like, right? Ours were just red and chocolate. 

Okay guys. Confession time. What's labeled here as "Savory Corn" is our very favorite super secret popcorn recipe. And I've decided I'm going to share it. I usually don't tell people what's in it because it sounds weird and people don't give it a fair shot. Case in point: when I visited my brother's family in Alaska last fall, I made this for a movie night, and my nephew ate, I kid you not, half of the bowl of popcorn, when I finally told him what was in it. He didn't take another bite. Weirdo. It's not even something gross. It's just a little unusual. I was, however, buoyed by the fact that this was the first popcorn to run out at the party, over white cheddar, salt & butter, AND kettle corn. My popcorn beat KETTLE CORN! I just wanted that on record. With no further ado...

Kristin and Jaren's Super Secret Popcorn Recipe

1 air popperful of popped corn

3-4 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2-2/3 of a packet of a Maruchan brand Beef Ramen flavoring packet

Pop the popcorn, drizzle the butter, and sprinkle the flavoring. Stir. It's good guys, I promise. Side note: One time, a friend and I were discussing how everyone seems to have their own way of making top ramen, and I mentioned that I like to use the flavoring packets for popcorn, and he balked. But you know what? His was waaaay weirder. He makes top ramen with apple juice instead of water. I know, right? The nerve. 

Lastly, we come to games. We played two games at our shower. One involved writing a baby related question on a card, passing the card, then answering your question on the back of another person's card. The resulting Q&As are hilarious. My favorite combo:

Q: What is the best tasting baby food?

A: Nipple cream. Lansinoh and Modela are best.

For the other game, we divided up into teams, and decorated onesies with fabric markers.  

The winner:

Just look at that wood grain detail! And if you didn't guess already, the baby's name is Samuel. 

And because I know you're just dying to see it, here's the other side of the "Food In" onesie:

That arrow's pointing to the butt, btw (Thanks for the idea, Alli).

That about wraps up our "She's Ready to Pop" party! Thanks to everyone who helped, and to everyone who came! I had fun, and to Michelle, I wish you could have been there, we definitely missed you!

Loch-Man, To The Rescue!!!

 This is what Lochlan looked like when he got up from his nap: awesome.

 I don't know if you can tell, but there are three separate pairs of underoos over those cars pjs.Triple awesome.

Plus one rad bandanna...

and a super fly super pose...

Let's do some math, shall we?

Let's see...

10 points for underwear over the pants

x3 (3 pairs) =30

+

20 points for unexpected, yet super awesome headwear that compliments his crazy cool hair so perfectly

+

30 points for his sweet bow staff/nunchuck/posing skills

+

10 points for sticking with a theme (cars pjs and underoos, and a matching blue bandanna--pretty good for a 2 year old if you ask me)

= 90 points total

I give the Loch-Man an A- in super hero attire (he would have gotten an A+ if he had a cape. I'm just saying).

The Guest Bathroom

I have recently embarked on the journey that is redoing one of our guest bathrooms. Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures (sad, I know) but for those of you who have seen it before, it was really bad. Picture in your mind's eye an art deco mish mash wallpaper of black and white zig zags and gray and red lilies, not unwholly like this:

Pretty bad, right?

Add to this a bright red counter top with black (dirty) sinks:

Now throw in gray floor tiles, glass bricks, and a black toilet and bathtub and you get one hot mess of an ugly bathroom.
The first step to rehabilitation was to remove the wallpaper, which wasn't too hard considering the 20+ years the shower has been steaming it off. Next, texture and paint: we watered down joint compound and slathered it on the wall, then made circular motions with a texture brush (<$15 at Home Depot).

The big job though, was the counter tops. I played around with a few ideas and finally came up with my solution. First, remove any caulking and sand the counter to give it some tooth. Next, I painted mine black with a craft acrylic because I didn't want any chance of red showing through (I taped off around the counter first, but not around the sinks because I wanted to get right up next to them with the black). 

Here it is after two coats.

Much better, but not quite done yet!

Next, I taped off the sinks and sprayed on a textured, stone-like spray paint.

Here's the counter after one coat.

One more coat takes care of most of the splotchy-ness. 

A couple of touch ups and 3 coats of  Spar-Urethane later, and this is what we got:

The whole counter project cost about $20. What do you think?