To The Theatre!

My husband and I are about to embark on a theatrical experience like nothing we have seen before.

Not the classic style and tradition of The Nutcracker ballet ...

Not the energy and excitement of Radio City's Rockettes ...

and no, not the epic long Lord of the Rings .

Nope, the genre of live entertainment I am referring to needs its very own category, complete with energy levels through the roof, multiple bathroom breaks, volume adjustments and toddler hysteria. We are headed for  (drum roll please):

The Backyardigans  

Live at the Sony Centre in Toronto

Oh yeah baby! My boys and I are headed down for their first live show. Pretty exciting. Fingers crossed for my two year old. When we saw that they were coming to Toronto and factored in the slight Backyardigans craze that hums in our house thanks to Netflix's constant viewing, we took the leap and decided to go.

Anyone else been to a live show with their kids? Suggestions or advice?

Wish me luck.

Two Cakes in Two Weeks

We just passed birthday season in my house where both of my boys have birthdays within eight days of each other. It's a bit crazy with multiple cakes, presents, get togethers and phonecalls, but throw in the start of JK and nursery school and it elevates to insanity.

We are through it now, thus it is time to share with you my cake creations. To date, I have just done some homemade cakes with a knife and some candy from the bulk barn being my only tools to decorate with. This year I borrowed all the fancy icing tips from my sister-in -law and I was really happy with the results.

My youngest really likes Winnie the Pooh, so naturally the cake had to sport his favourite honey-lovin' bear:

My now four-year-old requested an anklyosaurus (that's the dinosaur with the club on its tail for those of you wondering) cake leading up to the big event, but then made a last minute change to Batman. "Not just his face Mommy, I want the whole body on the cake ..." Great! That's not hard at all! ... I settled for waist and up.

I thought the designs turned out pretty well, especially Batman's abdominal region :) But I still haven't mastered how to get the plain white background/base icing on the cake smooth so you can't see all of my knife strokes. Oh well, that can be next year's goal.

This week's goal is reintroducing exercise into my life in order to fight the consequences of ingesting so much cake and butter icing.

 

Have You Ever Fainted?

Have you ever fainted  ... at a wedding?

Let's make this more specific ... have you every fainted during a wedding ceremony?

Yeah, didn't think so.

Well, there is a first for everything and this past weekend I got to check that one off the ol' list.

Yup, passed right out.

Fortunately I felt it coming on and was able to find a seat (it was an outdoor wedding and we were standing while they exchanged vows), thus making it a lot less obvious, embarassing and distracting as I passed out while sitting into my husband's chest. (Sorry, I know, a little less dramatic then what you had originally imagined, but there was a doctor that helped, ice cubes wrapped in a napkin and having to lie down at the table on chairs.)

Of course my husband and I had been looking forward to this wedding all summer - friends, gorgeous venue, bride with impeccable taste resulting in amazing details (everyone signed a picnic table for them, family dog with video camera tied to collar, blanket favours with their initials, and well that is all I got to), romantic outdoor setting, and within walking distance of our home.  It was sooo beautiful and the weather was perfect (well I guess too perfect if I got hot enough to pass out).

Got driven home at 7 p.m. and well, that was my Saturday night.

And what did you all get up to?

Hunger Games: I Miss You

For those of you who have not read the Hunger Games, please go out and read them ... NOW!

Don't feel stupid that they are in the Young Adult section of the store/library, just get over it and read them.

For those of you who have read the trilogy, here's my question to you:

GALE or PEETA?

I honestly miss the characters. I have been entrenched in the books for the past couple of weeks, devouring every page, getting way less sleep than I should with two young boys who still wake up for some reason or another most nights.  I finally finished the last page of the third book last night during Arthur... ("yes, honey you can watch one last show while mommy finishes this last page"). 

Immediately upon closing the book, I was sad. Happy at the final ending, but sad that I didn't get to read more about the characters and hear more about what happens next. I guess that is the sign of a good story/series.  The only consolation is the movies are coming soon - in less than a year - and I really hope they don't screw them up (cough ... Twilight).

Anyways, still time to go out and grab them if you have some holidays you're squeezing in during August.

P.S. I am Peeta all the way!!

So Funny, I Cried

 I haven't seen a movie this funny in so long.

I started laughing at the beginning, kept on laughing right on through to the end.

I needed kleenex for tears within the first five minutes (sure, the one time I decide to wear mascara!) and wept over the humour and even over some touching moments.

My aunt was visiting from out-of-town and we went and it was so much fun.

Totally recommend. 10/10.  What a great night. Not to mention, so nice to see a hilarious movie with a virtually all-female cast!

Fairy Cakes for End-Of-School Festivities ... and Giveaway Reminder

It's the time of year when school is ending, summer is beginning and there are lots of celebrations - class parties, Canada Day, birthdays, bachelorettes, baby showers, 4th of July - and there is no better way to celebrate, in my opinion, than with a cupcake.  And we all know, nothing beats a really awesome cupcake Mmmmmmmmm ... (and nothing is worse than a really bad, dried out cupcake with gross icing).

So here it is, an awesome cupcake recipe for all those occasions, by Nigella Lawson.

(I used this same recipe to make cupcakes for my son's first birthday. You can search Nigella's site for icing or use your own.)

Animal-themed cupcakes for son's
1st Birthday

Nigella's Ultimate Fairy Cakes

Ingredients

• 130g softened butter
• 130g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 130g self raising flour
• 4 tbsp milk (any)

Method

Serves: 12

1. Preheat the oven to 190C, 375F, gas mark 5.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until creamy and pale. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the vanilla. Whisk into the butter and sugar mix.
3. Sift half the flour in, and fold. Then add the milk and mix in well. Fold in the other half of the sifted flour.
4. Spoon into the paper cases and put into the oven for about 25 - 30 mins until golden and crisp on top

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GIVEAWAY REMINDER: Helen from Meringue Inc. has generously agreed to provide C&CS readers with a 15 % off discount (use Coupon Code cc15 at checkout) as well as giveaway a $50 gift certificate to one lucky reader.

To qualify for the giveaway, you must:
-be a follower or email subscriber of this blog AND
-visit Meringue Inc. and then come back to C&CS and leave a comment here letting us know what your favourite print is

 *Contest closes Sunday at noon. Good Luck and Happy Month of June!

Date Night With Ward?

Do you think June and Ward Cleaver scheduled date nights?

My husband and I try to book one every few weeks, usually an evening during the week - dinner, Chapters, movie, a sport. If not, it seems it is just so easy to get caught up in the go go go and every conversation has to do with the to-do list, upcoming dates and events or, of course, the kids. And it is just so easy to plop down on the couch because we're both so exhausted. Not that there is anything wrong with doing that from time to time, but it doesn't exactly score big in the bonding department.

Last week, Friday's Fabulous Mom Erin Wahba mentioned that she and her husband schedule date nights at home after the kids go to bed and make dinner for just the two of them. I like that idea. In fact, we have talked about it, but have just never gotten around to it. (Note: add to to-do list)

This week, I cooked (in my opinion) a really delicious meal - Grilled Vegetable Quinoa Salad. I think I am the last person on the planet to taste Quinoa (seems to be a super popular food these days) and because I am so in the dark, I was the one in the grocery store asking for "Kwin-oh-ah," not "Keen-Wa" as it is actually pronounced. Oops.

Anyways, back to the salad - it's delicious, a bit spicy, pretty easy to do and perfect for an at-home date night.

Gathering the ingredients*

*note the truck that appears in this picture was on my counter because it had recently been banned as the noise it made while being zoomed around the house was driving me CRAZY!

Voila

 If you are planning an at-home date night with hubby this week, try this recipe out - thanks Canadian Living!
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GIVEAWAY REMINDER:  Only one more day to enter to win a $40 gift certificate to Buy Green Skin Care (deadline is Friday at noon).  All you have to do is be a follower/email subscriber of this blog AND

 

1) send your favourite C&CS post to a friend (and copy me on it) OR 

2) post http://www.cashmereandcarrotsticks.blogspot.com/ to your facebook or twitter and tell me about it OR

3) visit http://www.buygreenskincare.com/ and leave a comment back here telling us what you would use the gift certificate for

Thank you to Brenda at Buy Green Skin Care!

Reese is 0/2 at the Movies

I am by no means a movie critic, but, at the same time, am not afraid to share my opinion (in case you didn't already know this).

Happened to watch two Reese Witherspoon movies this week, and, if I am completely honest, they both were not good.  One of them was one of the worst I've seen in a long time.

Now before you think I have the hate on for Reese, let me tell you that I am normally a fan, quite enjoy her and don't have anything against her and her cute smile, bright blue eyes and friendly southern girl thing she's got going on.

Last Wednesday husband and I were lucky to sneak out for a date night. We love going to the movies, but it's an activity that we don't get to do very often anymore because the times never seem to correspond to when the babysitter is here i.e. they start too early or end too late (for a week night).  Well on Wednesday we made it work, and Water For Elephants starring our girl Reese and Robert Pattinson (Twilight) was the lucky winner whose time lined up with our babysitter. Not totally unbearable, but moments of boredom and awkwardness. Definitely not a theater, maybe a rental if there's nothing else topping your list, but definitely not one I am recommending. No tears were shed, no laughter heard and no swooning over our boy Rob.

Next up was Saturday night and it was my choice for rental. There was nothing that was standing out so I went with How Do You Know, starring Reese, Jack Nicholson, Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd. Pretty big cast right? I knew we were getting into cheesy Romantic Comedy territory but I like a good RomCom, but this was NOT it. A lot of time during these types of movies I know that deep down I may be enjoying the flick but know that the material is not to my husband's liking ... nope, not to either of our liking. So disjointed, not believable, overdone humour and no attachment to the characters.

Sorry Reese. Here's hoping the next one is a bit better.  I guess I can always fall back on Sweet Home Alabama next weekend :)

P.S. On some other more exciting news ... I have some really fun stuff planned for next month which is coming really quick. You like giveaways?  Then stay tuned and get ready for June.

Backyardigan Mania

Yesterday I posted about successful shoe purchases, today it's the Backyardigans ... welcome to the polar opposites of my life (note that these swings happen on a minute to minute basis).

My eldest is into the Backyardigans in a big way right now.  Fortunately? we have Netflix so we can just pull them up whenever we are watching television. This is very handy given the fact that on Treehouse's last programming switch they are only viewable occasionally quite late in the evening and at 4:30 in the morning. Much as I love my son and the singing quintet, there ain't no way we're getting up at that hour for some imagination and singing, especially when my household just began to sleep (relatively) through the night!

I must say, out of all of the kids shows out there, the Backyardigans are one of my favorites.  there's music, imagination, friendship, all different types of adventure and of course snack time.  My son's favorite character is Tyrone, but he insists it is pronounced "Kyrone" and will argue with you until you give up.  His second favorite is Tasha who he insists is his "wifey" and "princess."  He lights up when he talks about her, it is quite funny and cute.

Another favorite for months was Max & Ruby and Zoboomafoo. If you haven't checked out Zoboomafoo, I highly recommend it, even for older kids - very educational, non-cartoon, fun and one that adults can easily watch as well.

 So what shows are on high demand in your household?

Which ones are your least favorite?

Any that are totally off-limits?

FNL vs. Mad Men - Pllllease!

When I tell my friends about Friday Night Lights and ask if they have ever seen it because:

• it is awesome
• they would love it
• your husband would love it
• it is awesome
• Riggins
• Coach and Tami
• Saranson & Julie
• the stories and characters are soooo good
• it is awesome

I often here a "no, I haven't, but you know what else is really good ... have you seen Mad Men?"

So until recently, I had not. I was intrigued ... what was this Mad Men that people were talking about?

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I started watching and all I have to say is:

Pllllleeeease!!!! Mad Men can sit down right now.

I can see why people like it. Interesting characters, catchy idea, but no way. FNL = WAY better!
(If you missed my review of FNL back in September, click here.)


Friday Night Lights I enjoy so much more, not to mention the upside that after watching it I don't feel dirty and like throwing something at Don (the philanderer) Draper or any of the other "gentleman" on the show.

FNL has heart, gorgessity, actual plot lines, hunks, drama, football and adrenaline for the hubby, heart break, morals, real marriages (you know the ones where two people are together and actually like being together) ... you get the idea.

I have no idea why this show has not hit the "big time" as so many people I know that have started watching it become totally enthralled and obsessed (Go Panthers Go!). But hey, if you prefer those dancing stars or kardashians live than perhaps we have different viewing habits :)

It's Friday. Do yourselves a favour - Rent/Buy/Google/Download Friday Night Lights Season One.

Source

You can thank me on Monday.

Cheers!

P.S. Keep in mind I am not a huge TV person so for me to go on like this means something.

The Little White Plate

**Repost

When hosting a party, it's the little things that count and go a long way - fresh cut flowers, candles, special "welcome" drinks, coordinated linens, and of course, the Little White Plate.

As women, we are always told that it is essential to have a Little Black Dress stowed away in our closets that is perfect for just about any occasion. It looks great, but more importantly, with a few touches here and there, it shows off the person wearing it (not the other way around).

 I have discovered it is much the same with the Little White Plate.  Over the past few years my husband and I have started collecting various plain, white serving dishes and plates.  I'm usually more of a colour kind of gal and pick things that make me feel happy, but for serving, I have learned, the Little White Plate shows off the food and looks the best.

Plates that are coloured or patterned, may be beautiful, but people tend to stare at the plate itself, rather than admiring all of your hard work and effort that went into the food. They can also make a serving area look a little hodge podgy.

Crate & Barrel's Square White Plate

I encourage you to invest in some Little White Plates and serving dishes - so easy to coordinate with, available at every price point and will end up looking very stylish ... plus this way you can have a crazy tablecloth or other accessories and you don't have to worry about matching!

Happy White Plating!

P.S. Happy Birthday Higgy!