A Sprinkling of Fairy Dust

Oh how I have looked forward to this!  This is the second year I was invited to attend Merry's Fairy Party.  Last year I was large with baby and put together an outfit last minute and I even surprised myself at how it came together.  I loved it!  Now I look forward to all the different fairies I can be.  

This year I thought I had more time to prepare than I did.  Luckily it still worked out.  Sam, my sis-in-law, lent me her butterfly wings...she also has a ton of Asian stuff so she brought stuff over for me to peruse through.  I decided to go with this robey thing.  It was totally awesome.  However, the wings didn't jive with it and someone suggested a great place to find some wings.  I lucked out and found the perfect pair that was cheap (the most important factor!)

So here I am this year as an Asian-type fairy.  (My fairy wings were called Nymph wings...mabey I am an Asian Nymph??? ha ha ha):

It helped to not be 8 months pregnant as well. Here's a view from the back: 

My hair and make-up: 

I was thrilled to be getting quite a few votes throughout the evening for Best Costume.  It came down to Me and Mindy as tied but I gave it to Mindy because she made her wings and they were awesome :)  Next year though....Ima gonna fight for it!!! ha ha :)

My contribution for the evening...my raw dip was super yummy! 

Our wonderful host and her homemade fairy outfit.  I loved that she created wings from flowers: 

This year a few men were in attendance and their outfits were pretty cool!  This guy made his own wings, belt, clothes AND shoes - yes shoes (out of leather)!!! 

Some other creative fairies from the evening: 

Is it weird to dress up, eat dinner with fairies and prance around outside for all to see??  Nay, I tell you.  It is quite wonderful, indeed.

Beauteeeful Fairies

I think my ward has some creative people in it! I love the parties I get invited to - this last one being a Fairy Party!! A real nice lady I know LOVES fairies and dragons...which, coincidence!!!, so do I!! When she found out I wanted to do a girl's nursery in fairies, and then my baby boy's nursery in dragons, she told me about her fairy party and I got a cute little invitation not too long after!





A lot of work goes into a little party like this, there are so many fantastic details, such as her table and all the flowers, fairy quotes, china and party boxes.






It was so much fun watching all the different fairies arrive. Our hostess had pretty dragon fly wings and a homemade costume to match. As you can see from the fairies below, there is a Japanese fairy in her kimono, a punk ballerina fairy, a flower fairy (who won the Best Costume prize! - if you look super close you can see all the flowers in her hair and on her wings) and a stylish fairy in turquoise:



The only wings I could think of that I had access to were my sisters black fairy wings from a Halloween costume several years ago. So I borrowed them and dressed my eyes and hair up rock n' roller style, grabbed my studded heels, 'leather' leggings, a skull n cross bones tee, my long black feather earrings and some hardware on my wrist and I went as.....something. I dunno. Naughty fairy, Punk fairy, Evil fairy...whatever works. But I had a lot fun with it. It's been a long time since I have been able to get dressed up - and I love dressing up!!!





My wings are kind of hard to see but the curl up at the tops and also down below. I like them:

When the party got started we all had to sign into a guest book and then pick up the 'program'. Inside was some trivia games, a fairy search game, insturctions to awarding the best costume and making fairy crowns. The fairy search was really hard!! She had figurines like this places all over in her garden and flowers and we had to try to find them. Not. Easy!! I don't know how some people found so many!!! The most obvious ones weren't even on the list to find!!! LIke this knight:


And some were very camouflaged or very VERY tiny and very well hidden!:

After a fine feast of a delicious spread of food, our hostess read a fairy tale.

And when the sun finally went down, it was the perfect setting for chatting and laughing with good friends! I had so much fun sitting with the girls at my table. Jill and I played with some camera apps and we came up with some silly pictures:

You will never see a sexier lady than me:


And me and Teresa (who went as a shimmery little elf with awesome purple eyelashes) looking a little twisted:

See!!! Told you I get to go to some fun stuff 'round these parts. I love it!!

Mmmmmm....Fonduuuuuuuue

It's that time of year again!!! Every February, Paul and I stuff our faces at The Melting Pot - our #1 favorite place to blow our money. We celebrate both of our birthdays and Valentines. We used to love to go all out for each other on Valentines...when we were dating. But now we see Valentines day for the retail-driven, retarded 'holiday' that it is and we don't like to spend money on stupid little gifts, especially with our birthdays so close. Besides, we can, and do, do cute romantic things for each other all year long and feel that that's the way it supposed to be :) Anyhooselbees, we go out to dinner AFTER the Valentine feeding frenzy is over!

This year we invited B.J. and Hilary to join us:

We enjoyed the Big Night Out flavors of France! However, we had to substitute a very tasty looking French cheese fondue for the Wisconsin (which is still AMAZING!) because Beej is cheese picky - Beej and Paul have some weird food ticks...jus' sayin'. Our entree meat were fab and our White Chocolate Creme Brulee was freaking awe.some.

The waiter brought out our dessert tray with a candle in our cheesecake, again!! I love it :) I love our tradition and I love that Paul and I are exactly 3 weeks apart. It's so fun AND 3 is my lucky number! We were simply meant to be....

PS - did anybody catch that I said do-do up at the top? ha ha ha.

The Bachelorette Party

My summer craziness has officially begun. Starting with this past weekend, I don't have a single Saturday free until after my anniversary in August. It's gonna be one crazy ride. Anyhooslebees, Saturday was a bit crazy. Besides Paul's football games and regular Saturday shiz, my sister's bridal shower and a good friend's wedding reception took place.

The bridal shower was up at The Lodge at Snowbird. Between Amanda and Kenny, these two already have everything they could need and she didn't need a typical shower. So what her Maid-of-Honor did was book two room at The Lodge, had each person pay a certain amount of money (instead of gifts) and then we all just enjoyed each other's company and had a swell time getting pampered. Sheri booked a massage therapist, a master esthetician, and a psychic and tarot card reader. Quite excellent!

It was amazingly beautiful up there, especially after all the rain. So green and so refreshing, I can't even tell you. I loved it. We had an amazing view:

We could walk out the sliding doors onto the back patio and go next door to the other room that held all the pampering. Later at night, it poured like crazy and the effect it had on the mountains was pretty amazing. Amazing seems to be my special word for this post. Sorry about that.

Okay so I arrived and hun out for about two hours and then I had to change and drive all the way back down to attend the wedding reception of a really good friend of mine. Paul met me there and we were in and out and then I was headed back up to the mountains. It was a lot of driving time and my head and butt both protested the whole way. Whattyado?

We had facials and pedicures. This one is my mom:

We had massages (that felt soooooooo good):

We had our Tarot cards read. This one is my sister, Amber:

Me shuffling the cards to have my reading done:


And my mom even had her reading done (not expected!):


We stuffed ourselves on super yummy food all night long (who needs diets?):


I wanted to hit that up super bad but didn't have the time before it closed. I was bummed. I thought I would try again in the morning when it opened up at 10:00 but that didn't work out, either. All I wanted was to sit in a hot tub against the mountains and relax!! For crying out loud!

Not everyone could stay the night but it was fun. We didn't hit the sack until 2 a.m. and I was dog tired fo' sho. My sister tried to work her magic and get the guys downstairs to open the hot tub for us, but it was not meant to be. Pretty funny stuff, though.

This is Sheri, Amanda's best friend, one of two Maid-of-Honors, the brains behind this brilliant party, and a friend of mine as well:

Mother and daughter:

Me with my sister - the Honoree of this shindig:

The Madsen women (How hot are we? Answer: Dangerously!):

It's a Surprise, Duh.

Question. May I be in charge of the party planning festivities?

Not necessary, the party planning committee is all over it. They've been working 24/7 all day yesterday.

It's a lot of hard work to throw a surprise party for your husband...especially when your husband is a nosy, interagating kind of guy. But with the help of some close friends, a lot of fake evidence, and some Oscar-worthy acting, I pulled it off....for the most part.


Paul was under the impression I was throwing a baby shower for a friend of mine that I went to college with (perfect really since I know her really well but Paul doesn't). I was on a lot of fake phone calls with this roommate 'planning' her baby shower and bought baby decorations and even wrapped his gift in Baby wrapping paper! I had to think everything baby shower while trying to plan and keep secret his birthday party!

I couldn't have pulled it off without the help of Amanda and Spencer. Since Amanda and all my other college roommates would be in attendance to this 'shower', that left Spencer without anything to do that night so he called Paul and made plans to have Paul do their taxes (perfect!). Spencer and Amanda came over to the house about six and Amanda stayed with me and they took off. As soon as they were out the driveway, we were running around like crazy. All the decorations had to be put up, food arranged and put out, drinks and ice ready, the cheesecakes pulled out and decorated, and furniture moved to make room for close to 30 guests!! It was chaos when people started to arrive (for me anyway) and I am so glad for the help! After running around getting everything put in place, I finally went upstairs to change. There was no relaxing for me, though, as I felt anxious the whole time we waited for Spencer to bring Paul back to the house (under the impression that Amanda forgot her present for the baby!).


Here we are right before Paul walked in:


Paul walked in to hand Amanda the 'forgotten' baby present and was blasted with silly string, confetti and noise makers!! (I just love the super slow-mo pic of the silly string hitting Paul!):

Paul and I after the hit:


Our Super Awesome Party Guests!!:

Paul's younger brother B.J. and his girlfriend Hilary...

...and Paul's youngest brother Matt (left) with his friend Brandon ...

...my brother Morgan and my sister Amanda (I have one sister not pictured who came)...

...Amanda and Spencer (my partners in crime!)...

...Becky and Judd...

...Ashley and Alan...

...our friends Monica (left) and Rachelle (right)...

Me and my favorite girls!!

Some of the food that was so awesome:

Paul's favorite dessert is cheesecake! My mom helped me make them the night before out of Paul's sight!:

And after he blew out the candles and we dished up some nummy cheesecake, he opened presents from a few of our friends! He received the beauuuuuutiful ocean puzzle from Becky and Judd (thank you so much for being corny - I love it!) and he received a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory from Amanda and Spencer!:

And I granted him lots of playing time with NCAA '09!:

Thanks, Amanda, for helping me set up, decorate, and take pictures! Thanks to Becky for being my awesome videographer, to my family for their help in making food and thanks, thanks, thanks to everyone that showed up and especially to my close friends who hung around all night, even though I was all over the place! It makes me super happy to have friends like I do who would show me support while I threw a party for my husband (and thereby showing support for my hubby!!) I love you all!!