Murder Mystery #3

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to posting some of the stuff I've done lately. I just feel like everything is happening all the time and I'm sitting there wondering where all the time has gone. But, Em and I had our last Murder Mystery Dinner. I must say that it was a hit!! Everyone looked amazing and had so much fun. I should totally do this for a living. I think we chose really good people too. I have never seen 8 people work so hard to figure out a game before. But hey, we put our wits together and figured out the murderer in the end. Aren't we so smart? Anyway, these are the invitations that I made. Now I know if it were Anna, it would be a million times better, but hey, I only have Word.

The Players:

Duke Schwazhe B.U. Klare--played by Tad

Khover T. Ageante--played by Alex

Malcolm R. Conntint--played by Bryan

RAF Group Captain Weyland W. Awfcorce--played by Spencer

Belinda Screete--played by Annika

Mary K. Trairie--played by Jenny

Princess Idelle Chattre--played by Emily

Barbra Z. Enhussie--played by me

This is everyone in our typical "angry at the world" faces. So the setting was WWII Paris. We are on the last military train leaving Paris before the Germans invade. Of course we are all ridiculously wealthy and have nothing better to do than try and kill someone. So this next picture is what you see right next to the front door. We bought old looking suitcases, because we are all on a train, what else would you see.

This picture is of the bookcase. Em and I had to move off all the food and junk that was on it and move it into the living room. (It was originally in the kitchen.) We tried to light the candles and instead made some terrible black burns. Oh well. Still, it totally fit the 'rich' atmosphere we were going for.

You know Em and me, we have to change everything around and drape curtains on the walls to hide all the ugly stuff, but it looked so good. This picture really does not do it justice. But still, you also see the silk sheets we used to cover the plaid couches and the pillows. It's all about the maroon, hunter greens and golds!

Here you see the make-shift rug and the other covered couch. We pulled the couches in closer to the fireplace to give it a more cozy feel. It was funny, I measured the dimensions of the room and the furniture and drew it out like I do for my Interior classes and it came out just as I thought it would. It worked out great! So much so the roomies wanted to keep it this way.

This was my made-up chandelier. Considering I thought it was pretty ingeneous, especially since I had to make it up 10 minutes before everyone was supposed to be coming over.

And of course, our classic drinks. We had champagne flukes, wine glasses, and brandy glasses. I think the drinks are my favorite part of this whole thing, other than everyone dressing up. Still, doesn't it look so cool!

And lastly dinner. We had fondu, chicken cordon bleu, croissants, salad and ice cream for dessert. Not counting the Milano cookies and Pirouettes for appetizers. Thankfully, Em and I use plastic plates and silverware, we didn't want to clean up more than we had to.

So we had a great time and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. I will totally have to do more when I'm back home. I expect all my family to want to join in and go all out just like I do. Anyway, I have more to post about Festival of Colors and a Michael Buble concert, but that will just have to wait a little bit. Love you all!

Salt Lake City

Well, after returning from all the holidays and spending time with family, I am once again on the educational choo-choo train on my way to graduation. I must admit, I can't wait to have it all over with, although Larissa says not to wish it gone too soon because "one day I'll miss it." You know what, that's probably true, but I think I'd rather have the fond memories than the work load right about now. This semester actually seems like it will be pretty good. Most of my classes are, once again, history classes which I happen to do well in. I'm taking the other half of History of Architecture and Interior Design, History of Apparel and Family History---and that's most of my credits. That's a lot of facts to fit into my little brain. Other than that, I'm taking Residental Landscaping where I hope to transform Larissa's yard into a getaway (if she'll let me) and Polynesian dance and clogging. Who knew those two would be such a workout? Seriously, I squat most of the time in the Polynesian and the clogging is bend-straight-bend-straight all the time!! But I really do enjoy it all. So everyone wish me luck this semester!! (I'm gonna need it.)

But to relax before the school work really gets hard and too time consuming, Em and I went to Salt Lake to just "look." We took a city guide that Anna had email me about and went to all the really cool little shops around town. We first went to a place called Slowtrain---a little record shop with all this stuff we had never heard of. But at the back were all these boxes of $1 CDs so we decided to randomly pick two and see if they were any good. Mine was by Ryan Bingham called Roadhouse Sun. I will probably never listen to it again. It is some kind of old style country but his voice is kind of scratchy, in a bad way. Em got one by The Classic Crime called Albatross. It is suprisingly good! Anyway, it was pretty fun in a Breakfast At Tiffany's-dime-store-scene type of way.

Then we went by all these antique stores and retro stores and just looked and laughed. I found these really old Valentine's cards and now I want some. They are WAY cooler than the stupid ones they make now. We went into some old bookstores too with postcards from 1900 and book that were too old to touch. I always look for Pride and Prejudice, but I have to admit, right now, I'm not willing to pay $300. Maybe one day. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and since we were up there we decided to have dinner. On this guide there was this little restaurant called Em's. I said we had to go because it was the same as Emily's name. It was very cutesy-chic. Apparently you need to make reservations, but we were early enough that they sat us anyway. It was so funny, Em felt uncomfortable because it was a little higher end and she didn't know how to act. Me---I just thought, "this is the way I was meant to live." It was a little pricey, but the food was AMAZING and I felt like I actually received a complete meal. Like, it was healthy and had vegetables and stuff. I had this salad with spinach leaves, pecans, bleu cheese and pears. It was really good. The pears were the best part and they were soft and juicy and just delectable!!! Then I had Ribeye steak with carmelized onions and more bleu cheese I think (it could have been goat cheese) with roasted potatoes and veggies, which were just the right favor. Totally worth it. And Em got some Free range chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies. She said it was the best chicken she ever had. So yeah, we felt really cool. And grown-up.

After that we had some cupcakes that I got from The SweetTooth Fairy. It's this little shop in Provo and they are delicious!!! Yum. Yum.

So yep. I do somewhat have a life.

For older news, this is the Bollywood cake Em made me for my birthday. Isn't it fun!!

The Last Halloween Update

Okay everyone, it is the moment you have been waiting for!! The reveal of my costume for Halloween!!!!!!

First I had to showcase the shoes!! They are amazing, and I don't need anyone else's opinion on that. I made the little fluffs myself with a boa-thing and the shoes are a lucky find at Ross. Seriously, so comfortable and cute!!

Then my eyes. I worked really hard on them and they looked amazing. I could never get the camera to really capture how cool they were. Let's just say lots of green, gold and glitter.

(Plus how do you like the amazingly cool green contacts.)

LOOK AT THAT HAIR!! Yes my friends, that hair is puffed up to about 6 inches. It's it fun!!

Finally the whole thing. Do I look anything like Tinkerbell? I don't really care, it was so much fun just to dress up and go dancing.

Em and me. She was obviously a Harlequin Clown. I love the holidays!

So there you have it folks!! The most amazing costume in the world!!!! Wah-ha-ha!! Now what did everyone else dress up as?

Happy Halloween!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!
I absolutely love this time of year! It's just beginning to get cold with all the leaves changing color and falling to the ground. It is so beautiful. I also love the holidays! It starts with Halloween, goes to my birthday, then Thanksgiving and before you know it, it's Christmas!! I actually had to stop myself from buying Christmas decorations today. How sad. But just to you know what's going on, here are some pictures. Last Friday, Em and I woke up and both had the idea to have a movie night. We thought that we knew enough people and so we did it. I went and got Wait Until Dark, which isn't overly scary because it is surprising how many people don't like scary movies, and there are some guys in the category too. So I thought it was Halloweeny enough and just enough suspense to be good. I decorated the apartment and tried to make some toffee, which didn't come out, but everyone loved it anyway. It was soft instead of hard. I really hate making candy, it's so temperamental. So we got it all ready and quite a few people actually showed up (surprising how many people don't have something to do on Friday nights) and we had a blast. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. We are like the cool, new people with the amazing apartment. I love it!!

So this is the apartment.

I think my crowning achievement was the chair. Notice the line of spiders going out the porch.

These are the mirrors. I think I'm pretty good with that stupid web stuff.

And these were our snacks. You just can't have a party without them. It was a good combo of sweet and salty. And it's all so festive!!!

Every detail was taken into consideration.

Basically it was really cool and everyone enjoyed themselves. It was the talk of the weekend and I feel if we have another one, everyone will want to come.

The next day we got invited to Thanksgiving Points Cornmaze. I really wanted to go through the scary one, but once again, apparently a lot of people get scared around here. Still we had a lot of fun going through all the little activities they had.

They had these things all over the place. And these are some of my new friends! Aren't we funny.

I thought these were actual go-carts. They are actually pedalled manually. They were actually really hard to work.

These were some tire swings in the shapes of horses, dragons, motorcycles and other things. Really cool!

Apparently there is actually a Pumpkin Princess every year. I had no idea, but we were allowed in the carriage. My friend is trying to be funny as the driver.

This was pretty funny too. I have no idea why it was there, but still, I was locked away.

It was a fun night. And the maze wasn't really that hard, but still, an experience is what you make it. They also had a hay ride, 100 carved pumpkins (which were amazing), and a mini maze where you had to crawl through bundles of hay. Overall, a very funny, very Halloween weekend.

And then there was tonight. Em and I started with the game, but after the 3rd quarter we stopped. Definitely fair weather fans. So we decided to carve pumpkins and watch Hocus Pocus instead. Much more fun and happy. So I did the first pumpkin. I saw it in a magazine and really liked it. Then I saw the white pumpkins and decided I had to do it. When you light it, it looks like a starry night around an old tree. I think it's cute.
And this one, Em cut out. I found the picture online and enlarged it and brought it home. Too bad I kind of hate carving pumpkins (at least hard ones) and so she said she would. It is Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the trick-or-treaters from Nightmare Before Christmas. It's cool because now we have done Mr. Oogy-Boogy, Jack Skeleton and the Trick-or-Treaters. Now all we need is Sally and Zero and we'll basically have the whole gang.

Anyway, I'm having a blast, especially with the holiday season, and I hope everyone else is too!! I love you all! Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Cruise

So I do have something of a life nowadays. Some friends and me got together this weekend and went on a Halloween "Cruise." It's only Provo River and it's more of a small ferry, but still. They have over a hundred jack-o-lanterns carved and lit along the river. And the captain tells stories and pirates come and raid the boat! It's actually more of the Sleepy Hallow story and his sons jumping on, but still it's really cute and family friendly. Plus it's just really relaxing and apparently they do it for Christmas too. Overall, I think the best part was hanging out with people from my ward and getting to know them better. We all really had a blast and later went back to one of the girl's apartment and carved pumpkins and ate caramel apple slices. We just talked all night and had so much fun!!

The Enterance

(I tried to make it look more scary looking.)

Our funny picture.

(It's in sepia because everyone's red eyes looked too scary normally.)
My new friends. It's pretty exciting.

Dinner Group!

I just had to blog about my Dinner Group. It is Monday through Thursday with eight of us that consider ourselves 'gourmet.' Well, on Tuesday it was my turn, and of course, being me I had to make an impression. So, I made Chicken Cordon Bleu, Spinach Salad (spinach, craisin, pecan, apple, mozzarella cheese salad with poppy seed dressing), Orange Glazed Carrots, rolls and a fruit punch drink. Oh, and my amazing brownies for dessert. Everyone enjoyed it to say the least. So, maybe one day I will be able to feed a husband and kids, huh?

I'm BACK!!!

Yes, folks, I have finally done it. I have sat down at my computer to once again blog about my life. And what better way than with Parent's Weekend! I was so lucky to have Mom and Grandma come out to stay with me. Any chance to spend time with them is a blessing and we had so much fun. (At least I think we did.) They got in on Thursday afternoon right after I got out of class, which means I didn't really have to time clean up and make a good impression. :( Still we got in Grandma's new car (nice ride, by the way) and Mom actually took me to Bombay House. I had been craving that for the past two weeks and even though it's probably neither of their favorites, they let me have my way. I love Bombay House, so no matter what I enjoyed it. We picked up a few things after that but mostly headed off to bed since it was an hour later for them and I had to be to class at 7:25 in the morning. Still after school and work we got back together and started out for the Blue-au (the Cougar luau) where Mom insisted we be there an hour early for good seats. We were second in line. So we chatted and took pictures with our spare time.

(Aren't we darling in our matching shirts!)

We did happen to sit at the center front along with my boss's boss, David Hunt, who has passed me many times and still doesn't remember me. Funny, huh? Anyway, we had good food and conversation and got ready for the show of Living Legends. Too bad that our good seats went to waste as this year they allowed everyone to pull up chairs close to the stage, leaving us in the back once again. Still I think it was fun with the band and the dancing, and they even taught us some, so if you're in need of knowing a Hawaiian dance or the Huka, just let me know.

And after all that you though we would be finished, but nope. We went to go play some free bowling where Mom actually kicked my trash. Okay, it was only 80 to 73 (terrible, we know) but still, I'll let her have her glory.

The next day was Game Day. We had to get ourselves psyched up for the game so we went to the tail-gate party where we ate food, played games, won prizes and listened to Mom's favorite music group on campus, Vocal Point. I have to admit, they are good. It's truly amazing what they can do. And then we went to game in the sweltering heat (I realize now why this place is called a desert) and we watched as the Cougars trampled Colorad0. (Those are the Daily Universe's words, not mine.)

The loyal Cougar fans!!

We did end up going home a little early because of the heat and our tiredness. It had already been a long weekend. And poor Mom probably hasn't walked that far in a long time--especially once you add in the hills. Still, we had a marvelous time including having Laura and her family along with Lisa come visit at 6 in the morning, taking Mom to an Urgent Care place just to make sure she didn't have pneumonia (and I'm sure that's probably spelled wrong but I don't want to take the time to find out the correct spelling, although usually I would), and Mom breaking my blinkers and having to get them fixed. Fun stuff really!! Mom even went to church with me the next day and we had dinner with everyone at Aunt Colleen's. Overall I had a great weekend! I love you Mom and Grandma!! Thanks so much for everything!!!!