Summer Beer Recipe

When I was down in Kentucky this past weekend for my cousin Shonda's bridal shower she introduced me to a new drink that I have to admit was pretty darn tasty!  Now the ingredients would never be thought of by me to mix together but they magically mix rather well to create a refreshing drink with a heck of a kick. 

Summer Beer

2 12oz beers of your choice (we used Miller Light)

1 can of strawberry lemonade concentrate (defrosted)

2 12oz cans of ginger ale

Vodka

In a pitcher pour in the lemonade concentrate, using the can from the concentrate fill it with vodka and add it to the pitcher.  Mix in the 2 cans of beer and 2 cans of ginger ale.

Mix together and pour over ice.

ENJOY!

Mickey Mouse Topiaries

We are having a birthday party for my littlest man Reid on Sunday so preparations are in full swing.  He is obsessed with anything Mickey Mouse so a Mickey birthday was an obvious choice.  Here he is today in head to toe Mickey.

 

Last night I decided to start some of the spray paint related projects. And here is how is went! 

I bought the following:

2 ceramic flower pots for the bases red and black spray paint.

 2 large foam balls for the head

4 small phone balls for the ears

Red and black spray paint

Two size of dowl rods and 2 green floral inserts for inside the pots to hold the rods in place.

I first cut the thicker dowl rod in half (18 inches long) and the thinner dowl rod into 4 smaller pieces (5 inches each).

Insert the thicker rod into your large ball you are using for the head.

Then insert the thinner rods into each of the smaller balls you are using for the ears.

I set the balls aside and decided to spray the pots red now so they would be dry when I needed to use them.

Then I sprayed each of the small balls black.  My drying rack for the large ones is wonderful isn't it!  Use whatever you have on hand!

While those were dryin my red pots were dry enough to begin painting the buttons on.  I had some yellow paint already so I decided to use that.  You would also glue real yellow buttons, paper buttons, or felt buttons.  Whatever you have will work!

I inserted the small ball into the top of the large one and then stuck the entire thing into the pot containing th green floral insert.  I topped it with some red basket filler and tied a few ribbons to the top and presto!  You have your very own Mickey Mouse Topiaries!  I did sprinkle some glitter on them so they would sparkle a bit.  I still may go and buy black glittler to douse them in so they really sparkle but we will see after I look at them for a few days.

I made 2 of them and am going to have them on my kichen island for my sons birthday party on Sunday.  I will definatly put up pictures of them when they are combined with all the other decor!  I am sure my some will flip over them becaue the sight of Mickey makes him jump up and down with excitement!

Does anyone else have any good party decor ideas?  Any Mickey Mouse party ideas for me, I have until Sunday!

Parade of Homes 2012

My husband and I made our yearly trek to the BIA Parade of Homes.  This year it was located in Lewis Center in a new development called The Meadows at Lewis Center.  With the kids dropped off safely at their grandparents, head out to see what new fangled building materials we would find in the 12 houses they were parading to us this year!

I have to say it was fun to look through the houses but I was a little underwhelmed.  I think they all had the same idea of how to build and decorate a house even though 12 different builders built the homes! 

What parade is complete without beer so my hubby and I decided to get one and share it halfway through.  Well it was the highlight of my day because I discovered that my favorite beer is now Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.

Here I am looking like a tourist with my new fav beer!  What responsible blogger wouldn't bring their giant camera!

All in all it was a wondeful evening.  The weather was perfect and it is always nice to go out with the hubs without the kiddos!  So in the end, we came, we saw, and we drank a beer!

CHEERS!

Zoofari 2012

I hope everyone had a exciting and relaxing weekend.  Mine was a little bit of both.  I promised to update everyone on the wonderful event I went to at the Columbus Zoo on Saturday night so here it goes.

Zoofari is by far the best time an adult can have at the zoo, hands down!  There were over 100 different restaurants/distributors set up giving free samples of their favorite dishes.  Given I am a vegetarian it is a little harder for me to find things to eat but of course the drinks do not have meat in them so I was fine!  Our friends Jeff and Nicole joined us for the festivities this year.

Here is the crew partaking in some wings, I sat out on this one.

Ran into friends and had a nice time catching up.

The Little Black Dress vodka girl! Their new flavored vodka's are now some of my favorites. Their drinks were delicious and I have to admit I had more then one!

 

The drink line near the aquarium was starting to get long and the cups they were giving out seemed to have shrunk by this time :(

 

Nicole and my hubby posing as the night went on. Billy gave Nicole his empty beer bottle and she mixed all her drinks together in it and proclaimed it her "Beerodka".  I think our newest summer trend in drinks has officially been born with that statement.  Notice our small cup pyramid!  So Proud! 

By the end I found a step and repeat and I just couldn't help myself!

Nicole was tired and required assistance so we found her a wheelchair!

All in all we had a great time!

Did anyone else hit up Zoofari this year?

Zoofari logo from www.colszoo.org



Friday Housewives Recap!

Happy Friday!  I hope everyone has wonderful plans fore the weekend.  It is going to be a hot one!  The hubby and I will be hitting up the Columbus Zoo's annual fundraising event Zoofari on Saturday night.  I look forward to it every year.  I will give the full run down with pictures and all on Monday. 

Okay lets get down to the extremely important conversations.  What did everyone think of all the Housewives episodes this week?

Lets start with Jersey.  Not quite as eventful as it normally is.  Everyone just seemed to get along.  Except the awesomely snide remarks that Caroline always makes during her interviews that gave every smile she made to Teresa even funnier because we all know what she us thinking!  Love me some Caroline Manzo! Teresa is so delusional it is hard to watch and even harder to listen.  Caroline's brothers wedding was beautiful and over the top which in reality TV world I expected nothing less.  I can't write about this wedding without bringing up the fashion of the day, how about those fascinators!  I love a hat myself when Derby time rolls around but as dress code for a wedding, brilliant! I think I smell my next theme party!
What did you think if the episode?  Who do you think was sporting the best and worst hats at the wedding?

RHNYC is attempting a revitalization with the addition 3 new cast members.  I like them but am just waiting for their cattiness to come out.  They are pretty tame so far but they were put on the show for a reason and I will just wait it out.  Who is your favorite RHNYC?  Do you think Ramona is trying to hard this year for screen time?

Last but certainly not least are the OG's of the OC.  RHOC is always good for an entertaining hour.  Where do I stay with them!  In this episode they  spotlighted the relationships of Vicky and Brooks (puke), Tamara and Eddie (growing on me), and Gretchen and Slade (hate to say it but live then together).  Wow do they each have an extremely different dynamic!  Brooks makes me want to throw up every time he speaks bit Vicky does to so they must be perfect together.  I have to say the teeth fixing was brilliant in Vicky's part.  He doesn't look nearly as much like a gold digger now that he had all his teeth!  Everyone will accept him now!  Hurray for Vicky the genius!  Sorry I have been tired if Vicky for 2 seasons now.  I was hoping they would clean house like they did NYC!

Gretchen needs to figure out what she wants because frankly Slade does everything for her with no complaints.  I just here complaints from get now.  She just didn't get that he wanted to show her how much he lives her by proposing.  They could be engaged forever for all I care.  Enough about them, lets move on to the actual happy couple.  I can't believe how awesome Eddie's proposal was!  I am glad to see Tamara happy and nice for once.  Mean didn't suit her.  And how beautiful was Bora Bora!  That is now on my list of must go on vacas.  I am glad she is happy, smaller boobs and all!  (they do suit her so much better anyway!)

Who is your favorite housewife and who is your least favorite?  It can be from any city!

Photos from www.bravotv.com

A Launch and a Deal all in one day!

Hello everyone out there in blog world!  I have been thinking of starting a blog for a while now but until today have not had the nerve to actually write my own.  I read many different blogs on a daily basis and have decided I am ready to take the plunge, so her I go!

I popped into to Ann Taylor Loft after work today to try and find something fabulous to wear to the Columbus Zoo fundraising event Zoofari, which I will fill you in on later.  I always like to drop by and check out the sale racks because they have current season things on sale all the time.  It just so happens that all sale items are an additional 50%!!!  I mozied up to the "Final Sale" rack and dove right in.  At first I didn't see much but upon digging deeper I found some major gems!

This Lime skirt.  Dare I say to pair it with a black top and I will have myself a color block outfit made by yours truly!

I also picked up this cute little blue and white dress.

Might I add that these black and white patterned shorts are to die for.  Especially with the orange top I scored off of their same sale rack a few weeks ago for $11!

 

I also picked up some items that were not on the sale racks but I believe will add a lot to my wardrobe.  The first was this beautiful yellow swingy sleeveless polo.  I think it will go perfectly with any of my black pants or skirts.  The second "non sale" item was this beautiful palm leaf print bubble hem tee.  I think this will look killer with my black shorts and high heels for a night out!

Last but certainly not least are these black modern straight Marissa pants off the final sale rack! 

I asked the sales associate if the final sale items also received the additional 50% off and she said they did not but when she rung it all up to my surprise they actually did!  Holy Crap i got each item for $7.44! 

I have to say I had a bit of a skip in my step as I left the store today.  I love a sale but this was insanity!  I am still excited about it!

Does anyone else have any recent purchases that were out of this world deals?

Photos care of www.loft.com and ME!