Hair New Era

Look what Maggie found in Target:
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Photo by Maggie from Mighty Girl

Beer pong for babies? Say huuuuuhhh?

Well, sorta. Cuponk is a game from Hasbro that comes with a ping pong ball (two, actually - guess they were feeling generous) and a decorated cup. When you sink the ball in the cup, the cup lights up and plays a "victory sound" to let you know you've got your shot in. That's kinda cool, actually.

Hmm, actually, I'm kinda into the El Campeon lucha libra version (above, far left).

But do you think it smacks a bit too much of the binge-drinking beer pong? Don't get me wrong - I do enjoy some pong - but for children ages nine and up?? Yiiiikes.

Is anyone else disturbed that Hasbro is now selling beer pong to kids? "Get 'em started young!" I guess, eh? Also hilarious: Bam Margera is the spokesman. Yeah, 'cuz this is age appropriate.

Oops, guess I'm a little late on another holiday. Ah well, you can't win 'em all. (In 2011, I'll shoot to not be 0/2, eh?)

Anyway, let's cheers to the arrival of 2011. A toast:






Looking forward to hangin' wicha, 2011. Hope you're a good egg.

Images via: 1- SHELTER, 2- Sparkles and Pretending, 3- Martha Stewart Weddings, 4- everything LEB, 5- Black*Eiffel, 6- hand lettering by Alan Ariail, via {this is glamorous}

Image via Mary Ruffle

I absolutely adore this image. The top half is all ladylike elegance and proper with panache. Scroll down a bit further and you'll see that this girl's not just pretty and prim - she can down some spaghetti and drink some wine with the best of 'em. So maybe she's more Sophia Loren than Grace Kelley after all. Love it. (We could hang.)

Here's my last post having to do with our fading summer season and the just-passed holiday weekend, I swear. After this, it's officially fall in my book - though the stuff in this post could work at any time of year I suppose...

Have you all heard about all these new "adult beverage" options for whipped cream? I have no idea where this new trend came from, but all of a sudden I'm seeing whipped cream and alcohol paired together everywhere.

Enter example number one: Pinnacle whipped cream vodka.

We bought it. We tried it. It's delicious.

Pair it with ginger ale and it tastes like a cream soda; pair it with orange juice and a splash of ginger and it's a spot-on creamsicle. Mmmm.

Best part? The big bottle is only $12.99 and I hear that Pinnacle is made by the same people who make Grey Goose. Ooh la la - could it be true? All I know (and care about, really) is that it's yummy... and slightly dangerous, so consider this your warning!

And, as if whipped cream vodka wasn't good enough on its own, I recently saw (on roblahblog) another bevy option, this time in topper form. Cream is an alcohol-infused whipped cream. Say what? It comes in a can and needs no refrigeration, even after it's opened (slightly scary). Cream comes in several different flavors like vanilla, caramel, chocolate, orange and a few other flavors, with more coming.

Oy.

I think I'm developing a hangover just writing about all these options....

Do you ever feel like this after a long holiday weekend?

Photo via quite cheeky.

I do. We had a great holiday weekend, filled with gorgeous weather, lots of time out on the water, a festive 4th of July fireworks show (both downtown and an unsolicited show in our parking lot), tons of food, friends and some downtime for B (I had to work while everyone else was off - boohoo). And even though the weekend was great - and I loved having everyone around for the additional day off - I'm still moving kind of slowly this morning. If only there was one. more. day. off.... ;)

Nonetheless, I'm getting back into the swing of things and will be back in a bit. Check back!

I'm hard at work trying to wrap things up before the holiday weekend (which, I will unfortunately be working during as well...), but I hope you're already out there enjoying this gorgeous day. B and I have some great plans coming up this weekend, including lots of eating outside on the water, boating, hosting a friend (the very guy that introduced us, in fact), and some good-old fashioned fireworks watching. I hope you have some awesome plans too and happy 4th of July!

Photos from Martha, via Ritzy Bee

Be back after the 5th!

We've got a watermelon sitting in our kitchen and it needs a purpose. We originally bought it for B's baseball game on Sunday, but ran out of time and didn't cut it open. But, thanks to Logan, I think I've found just the thing for it:

Photo from Food Network (follow the link for a Watermelon Sour recipe too!)

Brills, right? Cut a hole in the top of the watermelon, scoop out most of the pulp, insert keg tap and fill with a tasty bev. This is such an awesome summer drink vessel - perfect for a hot day, party or any lazy afternoon - and just in time for the 4th of July weekend. Love it!

Goooood morning! It's Wednesday and it's rainy. I'm dragging. I'm not normally a caffeine drinker, but I think a cuppa might do me some good this morning. I'd love to stumble into a coffee shop and find this amazing branding suite:



All three concepted, designed and created by Rachel Dangerfield of Quail Creative, who just graduated from Columbus College of Art & Design - hello, talented.

Love this. And now I'm off to find some sustenance... Hope you have a great hump day! Be back later!

xo, r.

I don't have kids and I've been out of school for quite some time now, but I do have a mom who is a teacher, so I've seen a bad teacher gift or two (or 20) in my day. With schools ending for the summer in a few weeks here, I know a lot of ladies in town have been looking for good and unique (not another smelly candle!) teacher gifts (this is what you get when you hang out at Paper Source a lot).

I will tell you that my mom always loves Starbucks or Barnes & Noble gift cards, but if you're looking to make something handmade, here are two amazing ideas made by some creative chicks (not me) that will put you safely in the good-gift category.

Numero uno - the cutest customized hand soaps ever:

With all the random strains of cold/flues/diseases floating around kids and classrooms, teachers are always washing their hands (at least I hope they are!), so Jill Means of Legacy Digital Design capitalized on a practical idea and made something super-pretty out of it.

Basically, she took boring (and not cute) Softsoap - which she actually got on sale at Target for 1 dollar a bottle - took off the label, and added in a custom one with her kids' silhouettes (mwaahahaha, I snuck them in again!) and a thank you. Click here for the full instructions and a free downloadable template if you want to do this yourself.

Originally spotted on Design Mom.

Numero dos - a fun soda and snack pack:

Simply Seleta took on a similar idea - finding something a teacher will actually use and making it really pretty - and came up with these great "goody packs" (as she called them) in varying colors based on the kids and/or teacher.

These packs included color-coordinated vintage-y soda, straws, sugar-free gum, chocolates, microwave popcorn (great quick teacher snack), and of course the pretty label. If you're interested in doing this yourself, here's the full how-to and downloadable template for the label.

Originally spotted on Party Perfect.

I hope these two great ideas by two cool ladies sparked your inspiration and hopefully spared you from giving another picture frame/smelly candle teacher-gift combo. :)

Photo via Mary Ruffle.

Ohmygoodness, I can't believe I almost forgot - today is Cinco de Mayo! ¡Ay ay ay!

In honor of this holiday, here is some gorgeous fiesta eye candy from Design*Sponge:



Photos by Jesse Chamberlin of Our Labor of Love. Event design and styling by Ashley Meaders of The Flashdance.

Check out even more photos of this event over at Design*Sponge, and happy Cinco de Mayo! Drink a margarita and eat some chips and salsa for me! (I'll be doing the same...)

Photo 1- via Fairy Tale Diaries; photos 2&3- by Paul Costello

I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge today, Earth Day 2010 - which also happens to be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Appropriately, it's beautiful here in Annapolis today: sunny, warm and pretty. But if the insane volcano in Iceland has one thing to teach us (other than the fact that international air travel is less reliable than we think), it's that Mother Nature really is boss.

I don't like to use this blog as a platform to preach, but I do want to say quickly that I hope you're all doing your part to keep our planet healthy. Please, please, please, if you don't already recycle, start now - there's absolutely no reason other than laziness or ignorance why anyone shouldn't be recycling at this point. Switch out lightbulbs, unplug appliances, buy locally and organic, stop buying bottled water (I love these, these and these options), plant trees and so on.

B and I are doing our best to do better little by little (we're certainly not perfect but we're trying) and I hope everyone else will join us in doing what we can for our beautiful planet.

And if you have a spare moment, check out The Official Earth Day 2010 Campaign to see what you can do to help.

Okay, stepping off the soap box....now. Thanks for listening (er, reading). Happy Earth Day, all! :)

Why didn't someone think of this sooner? It's brilliant! (And it would have saved me a lot of time while hand-washing wine glasses. Especially after our Annapolis Wino Club parties...)

These sponges fit perfectly into fluted glasses or wine glasses, plus there's a tiny slot in the sponges to get the glass rims (and get rid of gross lipstick marks). So smart!

Available here. Spotted here.

Mr. T pities the fool...

...who falls for this joke at Starbucks:

Today Starbucks is introducing two new drink sizes: the Plenta and the Micra.

Ha. Pretty good, Starbucks, pretty good.

I said I wasn't pulling any April Fool's Day pranks, but that doesn't mean that Starbucks and Mr. T couldn't join in the fun, right? ;)

Spotted on Lovely Happenings.

Photo by George Barris

I'm generally not a huge Marilyn Monroe fan (not that I dislike her, I've just never been that into her), but more and more after reading some of her quotes, I think she seems like she'd have been really fun.

Just check out this hilarious thank-you note from her to a Mr. von Fuehlsdorff:

These letterpress wine gift tags from Papermash are hilarious! Very appropriate for someone whose wine knowledge is intermediate at best (though we're really trying with our Annapolis Wino Club!). These would be perfect to attach to a bottle of wine before bringing it as a hostess gift or to a dinner party, or just for a little thank-you gift.


Psst: Joanna, of the fantastic blog A Cup of Jo, is hosting a giveaway for two sets of these wine tags and a £30 gift certificate (for any of the goodies in the Papermash shop). The drawing ends tomorrow, so hurry over to Jo's site now!

Spotted on Twig & Thistle

These coasters from Dimmalimm Home are genius: No more wine charms needed to identify your glass at a party, plus they act as a coaster to protect your furniture (so you don't have to feel like Type-A-Annie asking your guests to use coasters). I love the colors offered, and the two different patterns, Citrus or Hibiscus, are really pretty without being too frilly. Best of all, they're handmade with recycled fabrics and eco-friendly, so you can be not only clean, but green. I only wish I'd known about these before our first Wino Club party!

Looking for hors d'oeuvre plates to accompany your wine glasses? Check out these fun options.

St. Patty's Day festivities for us last night included meeting up at a friend's house (where some of the crew ate homemade corned beef...ick), heading downtown to the bars, seeing a couch set on fire in the middle of Main Street (no idea where it came from or why it was there...), 16 of us heading to another bar, and then a few of us heading back to a friend's house. On the walk back to his house, we were discussing the strange fact that I've never eaten anything from Taco Bell. After years of watching friends eat "the Bell" and immediately being sick, I never felt the need to jump in.

But what better night than St. Patrick's to give it a go for the first time, right? You know, because the Irish and Mexicans are so tight. Why not...

Emily and Jessica kindly agreed to make the trek with me while the boys walked back to our friend's place.

Our first viewing...


That's me, peeking out from the back, as we eagerly awaited our order:


Alex, our "dining concierge" for the evening, endorsed our order:


The goods:

I think we ordered about eight combos.

My first taste of Fourthmeal. I chose a chalupa. Wise decision?


Jess receives a call from the boys to pick up some food for them too:


Our second time through the drive-thru. Alex was not as enthusiastic this time:


Finally on our way back home:


This is what an amazing opera singer gets at Taco Bell (pintos and cheese):


Don't pinch me, I was wearing green under all those layers.

All in all, a delicious experience. I'm not going to try and replicate it again anytime soon (my stomach is still making weird sounds), but I'm glad I knocked that one off my to-do list. :)Happy St. Pat's Day, y'all!