gleeful

i went to glee live!

this was the first glee event i'd ever been to without the teen.  i was sad, but she was okay with it.  the only stops on this year's tour were timed during her weekend with her dad, and she knew he wouldn't let her go.  and she was really sweet about it - "go, mom.  you'll have fun!"

so i did.

the next best thing to gleeking out with the teen is going with my friends lilcee & mr. lilcee, who are huge fans like we are.  we picked up another of their buddies along the way, and made sure we had time to grab something to eat before the show started.  this year's concert was at the ginormous staples center, so we had lots of fun choices for food. 

our first choice, trader vic's, was pretty crowded.  in fact, the dude at the front told us that the wait was currently an hour and a half.  i was bummed, and told him so.  we turned away dejectedly and mulled over our options - and as we got about ten paces away, he came scurrying up to let us know that a table had just opened up at the bar.  i gave him the biggest grin ever, and he said "well, i sure didn't want to disappoint you!"  heh.

i hadn't even had a drink yet, and i was already snorting at the menu.  "you want to put beef in my what??" i giggled.

the cocktail menu was pretty extensive.  but i wanted something that was familiar - and so i ordered a lava flow.  it always brings me back to hawaii, i love the flavors of the piña colada and strawberry puree together, and it's just a happy drink.  it wasn't on the menu, but our server said it wasn't a problem.  yay!

the others' drinks were served in cool vessels.  mr. lilcee's had the rum in the lime half, and it was on fire!  so awesome.

we ordered a plethora of appetizers, which was fun.  look, the beef cho cho - it was partially cooked, and you finished it off over the pretty pretty pink sterno:

pu pu platter!  and the dipping sauces were served in this butterfly plate - which seemed a little odd considering the theme of the joint, but whatever.

the duck tacos were delish.

the sweet potato fries were served in this cute little mini fry basket.  i was really tempted to scoop it up and hide it in my bag.  yes, i'm totally serious.

bbq pork sliders were delish, and served with freshly cut taro chips.

by now, i'd blazed through my lava flow and had already ordered another.  and because i'd walked in hungry, it went straight to my head and i was having a goooooooood time.  heh.  i couldn't stop looking at this.

as i sucked up the last bit of my second drink, our dessert sampler arrived.

if you follow my tweets and happened to be checking your feed that evening, i may have provided some mild entertainment.  i read over them the next morning and cracked myself up, and the teen totally made fun of me for it too.  hilarious.  and so this explains the majorly fuzzy and unfocused photos i'm about to share with you (never mind that my photos often suck anyway).

 

yes, i bought a t-shirt.  i would've even if i were sober, despite the $35 price tag.

unlike last year at the smaller, more intimate gibson ampitheater, our pricey tickets didn't get us a fantastic view of the stage.  well, we were in the center, which was good - but stupid far away.

no matter.  we were still really excited for the show! 

it opened with the same song as last time - "don't stop believin'."

warblers!  my second husband, darren criss!  we were stoked to see them pop up on this smaller stage, about halfway between us and the main stage.

chris colfer and lea michele.

"kurt," "tina," "brittany," and backups for "single ladies."  so fun!

the whole cast was there, including ashley fink and chord overstreet.  it was so much fun, and a few of the guys came out for "glee unplugged" - and gifted us with their [much better] rendition of "friday."  and dang it, now that annoying song is back in my head.  partyin', partyin', YEAH!  the rest of the gang came out for a final encore, which was capped off with a blast from the cheerios' confetti cannons.

ah, so much fun.  i still love glee a lot, despite other people's sour outlook on their sophomore season.  whatever.  remember, i'm really easily entertained.

iPhone dump: cupcakes

i had over a thousand photos on my old iPhone.  yikes.  and as i went through them, i found a whole bunch of stuff i'd meant to blog but forgot about.  and so i present to you iPhone dump '11 - the cupcake version.

my friend AMP and i met up at a local cupcakery a couple of months ago.  it's known for a couple of signature flavors - the breakfast cake, a buttermilk-based cake with bacon and a maple frosting, topped with more bacon. and there's a "late night" cupcake.  chicken & waffles.  that's all i gotta say.

the shop is located in a good-sized strip mall-ish kinda place, with lots of parking.  we pulled up and found a spot right in front.

i was happy to see that there wasn't a line, and we headed inside to find AMP and baby j.  the bean was immediately drawn to the baby, as she always is.

we chatted for a few minutes while we perused the cupcake selections.

i ended up picking out...oh, a few.

they pack their individual mini cupcakes in this cute little upside-down cup.

it was nice to chat with AMP and meet baby j, and finally sample some of the cupcakes i'd heard so much about.  except that when we were done and the bean and i headed out to the car, we found this:

mothereff.  AMP kindly volunteered to stick around and wait for AAA with us, but i didn't want her to have to kick it with newborn j.  we sent them home while we waited - and luckily, the dude came in less than half an hour.

 

yay for non-flat tire!  the bean thought it was a "funny looking little tire."

i was so glad we'd gone when we did, because by the time we left, there was a crazy line out the door.

i've been back once since then - to try that chicken & waffles concoction.

the verdict?  well, it was a'ight.  i wouldn't make the drive out for it again.  and that shit was pricey!  dang.

oh, well.  it was worth a try, and now i won't wonder.  because, of course, i couldn't stop thinking about it until i got one.  i'm obsessive like that.

dressapalooza!

it has been so freaking awesome to sit at the sewing machine and crank out some fun projects.  this weekend alone i tackled the bean's summer wardrobe and managed to finish three separate dresses for her.

the first one was a total revamp of that disastrous puffy-sleeved mess from last week.  yi-hi-kes.  i decided to chop off the entire bodice and work with what i had left, and dug out the tutorial for that spring ruffle top i made for myself last year.  after a little backtracking, a bit of seam ripping, and not too long at the machine, we had this:

she looks much happier in her refashioned frock, yes?  and oh, how i love the hand-on-hip pose.  and then she thought of something. 

"mommy, can you make my ni-hao kailan dress now, please please please?" 

we'd picked up some fun fabric at joann's featuring one of her favorite nick jr. shows, and i'd promised to make her something to wear with it.  i hadn't yet made one of those simple "pillowcase" dresses, and i thought it would be a pretty simple style to throw together.  using this tutorial, she was wearing this in less than an hour:

please excuse the messy hair and sullen expression.  it also cracks me up to no end that every time i ask her to model an outfit for me, she runs right into the table-less breakfast nook and wedges her little body into the corner to pose.  i swear, i don't ask her to do this - i ain't puttin' baby in a corner.  and hey, at least the lighting's decent.

anyway, i decided that i didn't really love that yellow ribbon tie, so i went back to the machine and sewed together a little non-bias tape strap out of a scrap of the fabric.  much better - both hair and dress:

in the tutorial, the blogger adds a lovely contrasting sash to make it less potato sack-like.  but i think i'm going to change it up a little and add a drawstring waist to it.  that yellow ribbon will look nice in there after all, i think.  we'll see what i come up with.

and last but not least - i think this is my most favoritest dress i've ever made for the bean (so far, anyway).  i totally fell in love with this adorable "mod sailor dress" and was stoked to see a tutorial for it.  i've come to really like making my own patterns using current measurements, and just happened to have some pretty, summery pink striped seersucker in my fabric stash.  it was amazingly easy to cut out and sew together.

i made a couple of adjustments for this one - i did a french seam for the sides of the dress.  i also inserted the little button loop as i sewed the top instead of having to rip out a few stitches and do it last.  plus, rather than use a piece of elastic or twill tape, i made my own out of a bit of seersucker:

yeah, it's not too easy to see in that picture.  but trust me - it's totally cute and adds a little customized touch.

this sewing thing is super addicting.  i seriously can't stop - i already have two more projects all cut out and ready to go.  woohoo!

is your muffin buttered?

...or would you like me to assign someone to butter your muffin for you?

heh.

so the hub mentioned last week that it would be nice to have some muffins or scones in the house for a quick breakfast in the mornings.  and you know me - i'm always down for something like that.  so i started looking at recipes and settled on a mocha chip flavor to make first.

the texture of these was different - good, but not really muffin-y.  it wasn't crumbly, more chewy than anything.  i liked it, as did the teen, and the hub seemed to as well.  the recipe made so many i ended up putting half of them in the freezer to save for another time.

and then the hub brought in a few oranges from the tree in our back yard.  so i came to the natural conclusion - and found this recipe for orange vanilla poppy seed muffins.

the whole recipe only had half a cup of sugar in it, so i decided to give it a little something extra and sprinkled some white sanding sugar on top.  they came out really well, and the poppy seeds and sanding sugar gave it a fun little crunch.  the hub really dug these, so i'm thinking i'll be making them again sometime.

i'd love to bust out some yummy scones, too.  he wasn't a fan of those fantastic maple bacon ones i made a few weeks ago, boo.  and now i'm on the hunt for more delicious muffin recipes.  got any to share?

oh, and hey!  happy birthday to my dear MIL today!