My husband turned 40! {or} Life is HARD sometimes. But always GOOD.

{In as few complain-y words as possible, an update as to where I have been, for those that wonder: The mysterious sickness is still affecting my 12 year old son {he was attending school in a wheelchair up until 2 weeks ago- now he is on homebound. Ugh.}; Threw husband a surprise 40th Birthday party, complete with secret out-of-town guest - my mother in law!; Took trip number 9 {in less than 2 years} to Chicago for 8 yr old's JDM check-up; My oldest son broke his arm at football practice; .... And then? Life in general. Plus, I have been cheating on this blog with my other lover: sheknows.com. Although I don't know that many more people read my drivel over there than over here? The pay is MUCH better :) Check out the most recent articles here,here,here and here.}

Now. Onto the fun!

Because I am COMPLETELY INSANE, in the midst of all of my chaos, I decided to throw my dear husband a surprise 40th birthday party. Thank GOD I had TONS of help from my great friend, the SHARYNATOR {and her entire family} and MY MOM!!!! and too many other people to name. I DO get by with the help of my friends{and family}, there is NO DOUBT.. I am lucky because Michael does not pay attention to ANYTHING that is happening around him. Plus? He pretty much doesn't much pay attention to ANYTHING I say. Pulling off a surprise party for someone as easy going as him? ALMOST easy as pie. {I did end up spilling the beans the morning of the party that I had something planned because Piper was super sick with asthma and needed to go to the doctor and Michael was nearly HORRIFIED I was planning on stepping out for a bit to take care of some more pressing matters and when I requested he take care of things? Yeah. Our marriage may not have survived that. Oh well.

  

There was a FREAKING DUST STORM at the beginning of the party. I nearly DIED. So much work could have just blown away. Luckily it blew just a little and was dusty for only a bit. And then there was a rainbow.

Crisis averted. 

{this is me asking if I should move the stereo inside.}

{or? making a fool of myself on the mic. Probably the latter.}
{if we are ever at a party, even if I am not drinking? PLEASE don't ever let me have the microphone.}

{a lot of times my husband looks like a Chester. It's a shame, but he knows.}
{admitting is the first step fo real fo real.}

I am going to TRY to keep the pictures light, but PLEASE feel free to pop on over to flickr to check out all the tomfoolery :)

One of my favorite projects was the mustache straws. They were super hilarious!
I just love that the 'stache is so popular right now. 

{inspiration here}

Equally enjoyable was the drink tags. I stamped random 4 letter words {some 5 when I ran out of kid-friendly words}on metal rimmed key tags and just hole-punch and tied them to the plastic glasses {for kids}and around the rim of the mason jars {for the adults}Like glass charms or name tags, only MORE HILARITY ENSUED.

The photo booth was AWESOME. Seriously. I am going to set one up at EVERY PARTY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. It was super simple. SUPER SIMPLE. I will dedicate a post to how I set mine up soon. For now? My fav pics:

{is this perfectly timed confetti throwing or WHAT?! love it :)}

{my niece, katelynne.}

{c, dressed for Homecoming - it was a masquerade theme}

{the birthday boy and his momma, who flew all the way in from Michigan to surprise him!}

I kept the food simple and crowd-friendly. My mom made most of the food and prepared just about everything for dinner.
{I know I am lucky. My mom rocks.}

{the cupcake table- chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. gluten free for our family.}

inspiration for the lollipop jar

Can we all just agree that the cupcake toppers are some of my MOST HILARIOUS work? I still LOL when I see them!!!!

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the drink table once it was completely set up. Sad. So, so sad. You'll just have to trust me, it was CUTE. And the pomegranate margaritas from Costco? SUPER DELICIOUS and why my face is red in most of the later night pictures. I don't know what it is, but I may be allergic to tequila. Bummer.

Wow. I totally lied when I said I was going to keep the pictures light. Don't hold it against me, ok? I hope we can still be friends, but I totally understand if you never want to speak to me again, especially if you are on dial-up. Until next time, friend.

{gluten free} pumpkin muffins with maple cream cheese frosting - make this now.

My great friend, The Sharynator {as in - a fun combo of her name and The Terminator? Get it? Yep. I am a great friend.} bought me a can of pumpkin a few weeks ago, after we had just heard about the great pumpkin shortage of 2010 and started to kind of PANIC and FREAK THE FRACK OUT because we noticed our local grocer was not stocking the pumpkin like they used to but then she spotted it on the shelves of another market. {Food Ciiiiiiii-Tay! - if you've ever shopped there, you know what I mean. I LOVE shopping there. Especially FRIDAYS!} and picked us each up a big ol' can. {oh holy run on sentence} And I have been staring at it ever since, because my trusty pumpkin bread recipe just isn't going to work this year {since we've been gluten-free since January} and I hate to waste time making things that are going to end up tasting like sadness. BUT I have tried to start to give myself credit for finally getting a handle on what gf flours work for what and so I decided {after a successful foray into making pancakes with what I had on hand vs an actual recipe}to try to modify my bread recipe into gf muffins. They turned out SO DELICIOUS I am going to share them with you:

Ingredients needed to make 24 regular sized muffins + 24 mini muffins:

{Halve the recipe to make about 18 regular sized muffins}

• 1 c unsalted butter {2 sticks}, softened
• 1/2 c brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tsp gf vanilla extract
• 2 c canned pumpkin
• 1 1/2  c gluntinous rice flour {widely available at asian or int'l supermarkets for VERY inexpensive- I can get it in AZ for about 99 cents a pound}
• 1 c sorghum flour
• 1 c tapioca starch
• 1/2 c almond flour
• 2 tsp guar gum
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup buttermilk {you can substitute powdered buttermilk + water}

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin tins with paper liners OR grease and flour the cavities. In a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients: the flours, guar gum, soda, powder and spices. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugars and honey until well combined, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add vanilla and pumpkin and beat until well mixed. Add the buttermilk and flour, alternating between the two, until everything is mixed together. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

To make the delicious frosting, whip together 1/2 c softened butter, 1 block softened cream cheese, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp maple flavoring and 2 tbsp half and half. {start by adding 1 tbsp and add 1 tsp at a time until you reach your desired frosting consistency. Add more half and half as needed} Frost your muffins once they are completely cooled. ENJOY!

Gluten free baking does not need to be scary :)

{make this!} The yo-yo headband that you ALMOST forgot about :)

Hi friends!  When I became a total star ... started on my quest for craft world domination ... made my television debut last week, this headband was one of the two YO-yo-yo projects I intended to talk about making. And then we took so long talking about the tank top and, well, actually just MAKING a yo-yo, I never actually got to this one. I am quite certain there might be one person out there that is interested in this, so One Person? This is just for YOU :)

The headband is pretty simple, just a collection of yo-yos on a felt base. 

To make one of these little suckers, you'll need:

-A plastic headband - I bought a pack of 5 at the dollar store, for, well, A DOLLAR :)

 

-square fabric scraps or a charm pack - stack them up in rainbow color, because that's just really more pretty to look at :)

-yo-yo makers in various shaped and sizes {or an old trashed cd to trace if you don't have a yo-yo maker} 

-a handful of buttons or flowers or stacked felt flowers {I will show you at the end how to make a simple one} and at least 8 finished yo-yo's.

A piece of white {or any coordinating color} craft felt, cut into a bean shape, approximately 4 inches long.

To start, make your yo-yos. Don't have a yo-yo maker? Go here. Now, glue the felt piece to the underside of the headband, starting where ever you'd like your patch of yo-yos to be. I did these off to one side {and since there is no front or back? It can be worn to either side}.

Start building your patch by first covering your headband with three large yo-yos. Securely glue the yo-yos to the felt as well as the headband. Then just glue the rest, overlapping, over the rest of the white felt, covering the felt as much as possible. Trim away any edges that aren't covered.

To make a quick beaded and stacked felt flower:

1.  Cut a small, bigger and biggest circle out of felt. {smallest is about the size of a penny}
2. Glue and stack together. Once all glued together, put a generous ball of hot glue on the top in the center
3. Carefully push the glue spot into a pile of small seed beads {while the glue is still HOT}
4.  Let the glue dry and then flick off any loose beads