Easy Peasy: Chili Cheeseburgers

One of my favorite things about summer is grilling. Oh, and burgers. I should really admit that I don’t grill. I leave that to cp-bf. Oh, and we grill year-round here in Upstate. Just shovel yourself a path out to the flames in January. Side points. A few weeks ago I made these delicious chili cheese burgers. Of course, there is beer involved in the chili. Duh, it’s me we’re talking about here. I use Rachael Ray’s turkey chili recipe. Don’t judge. Once you have the chili ready to go, you need some good bread and cheese. A nice ciabatta and NYS reserve cheddar? Don’t mind if I do. Seriously? Try it. It’s that good.

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Book Review: Rebecca Forster’s Witness Series

So I have a soft spot in my heart for all things Law & Order, so it should be no surprise that I love me some James Patterson/Alex Cross. But as I’m currently out of Alex Cross books (and no, I don’t see either Morgan Freeman OR Tyler Perry as a believable Alex Cross), I need some new summer beach reading.

Enter Rebecca Forster. I chance downloaded the first book in her “Witness” series to my iPad on my last work trip. #FreakingVictory.

I literally could not stop reading Hostile Witness. 

It has a bit of everything that I like, but mainly I liked that it was an entertaining read. And I didn’t have to think too hard. I flew through the novel, and couldn’t wait to download the next one.

The series centers on a lawyer in California and the crazy/complicated cases she takes on. It’s like, L&O had a baby with The Practice, and these books were what came about.

These books may not change your life, but its good summer reading if you like mysteries or thrillers.

Friday Find: The Camp Gyno

It’s that time of the month. It’s time once again time to talk tampons.

First off, this whole “let’s romanticize having your period and make some sexy yet modern tampon delivery service” nonsense must stop.

There’s nothing sexy about having your period, unless you’re turned on by bloating, cramps, and cystic acne.

And did I mention there was already tampon delivery service? It’s called Amazon Subscribe and Save.

But I digress.

The latest in the tampon delivery service proliferation is HelloFlo.

Which is aimed at tween and teen girls. As if being 12 years old wasn’t bad enough, now your mother can send you boxes of tampons.

(And let’s be reasonable, a slogan of “tampon delivery. period.” just isn’t passing as good creative these days.)

(And neither is the Wendy look-alike cartoon character they are using on the website.)

Will you be choosing light, heavy, or medium flow? Excuse me, “flo” as they put it. Dropping the “w” does not a sexy period make.

But I do have to say they have a pretty bitching commercial.

Because having a 12 year old make it rain with tampons is pretty freaking hysterical.

CP and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Ever had a bad day?

I mean, like a reallllly bad day.

The kind that is so epically bad you have surpassed Bridget Jones turkey-curry buffet status and just gone straight to “are you sh*tting me life?”

Well, this was me a few weeks ago. It was such an epically bad day that its taken me this long to write about it.

First, my office was under construction, so I had been getting shuffled from random cube spot to random cube for about a week. I was a box/bag lady, just carrying loads of file folders from one locale to the next. But this was the least of my worries.

Given that it was nearly 100+ degrees out, I found it odd that my AC wasn’t cooling the house off. OH WAIT. That’s because it was broken. And not like “oh you just need a new hose” broken, we are talking busted-broken. As in, not fixable.

Goodbye shoe budget…

Luckily, the bright side was that it was Friday. And I only had 60-something hours on my time sheet. It’s the little things, right?

Then, I had a crafting fail.

As I was carefully trying kitchen twine around lovingly constructed invites to a summer bbq (post to follow), my sister rolls up and goes “I’m pretty sure you have the RSVP phone number wrong.”

#FML.

Did I mention the final owner of the invites proofread them?

To make matters even more miserable, I proceeded to drive home. Where I forgot to put the prius in park. And rolled into my garage door. Making a dent. #FMLx2.

Needless to say, I ended the night by drinking wine.

Straight from the bottle.

But hey, at least parking in my driveway is free.

Monochromatic Stamped DIY Stationary

I might be on an inkadinkado kick.

Just a small one.

In addition to the bridal shower stationary, I made some monochromatic stamped notecards too.

Red cards with red ink – the stamp is fairly subtle, which I like. A lot of my stuff (neon anyone?) can be a bit loud, and I really like the quietness of these stamps.

And we all know know how I feel about fancy envelopes.

With liners.

I would seriously recommend an inkadinkado to anyone who likes stamping, or wants an easy way to spice up cards and stationary.

Let’s be real here, how cute are these?

This time, I stamped a 12 x 12 sheet of red card stock, and then used my paper cutter to make six cards (4 x 5.5). Stamping the paper first was definitely easier, but it was a bit harder to predict how the pattern would end up on the finished card.

Overall I was really happy with how these came out. I doubt most people receiving them will notice the liners or the finishing touches and minute details, but I like knowing they are there.

Friday Find: imPRESS

So in addition to my mix tapes, I’ve always had a special spot in my heart for press-on nails. They’re circa 1980, just like schrunchies, which makes me smile.

Luckily, I graduated from press-ons to real nail polish and then I made a brief (two-year, #shamerattle) foray into acrylics. Complete with air brush designs and gems.

I followed up with the whole gel manicure trend, but it just wasn’t for me.

Enter imPRESS. The latest innovation in press-on nails. But these aren’t the press-ons that I remember from the 80s.

Looks like real fake acrylic nails, right? Nope, just my press ons.

These are pretty easy to apply – match up the falsies to your real nails, then peel off the backs and press onto your real nails to activate the glue.

They stayed really shiny, which I like. This is day two.

What do you think? This is about day 5, while I was still learning how to type with nails at work. I wasn’t sure when I put them on that they would even last this long.

I left my nails on for about a week, and they didn’t get loose or fall off. Maybe a little loose around the edges towards the end, but never too the point where I was worried they would fall off.

I tried a different pattern a few weeks later. These were pretty sweet, except the pattern started to wear off the tips after a few days.

If you want to try your own pair – imPRESS nails cost about $7 – are sold at quality locales like Walmart and CVS, and are repped by various C-listers like Cheryl Burke and Alli Simpson.

Custom Stamped Stationary with the Inkadinkado

So I’ve been getting back into crafting lately. I know, I always say that.

But seriously. I had an epic weekend of crafting.

One of my best friends is getting married this fall – and nothing is better to give at a wedding shower than stationary customized to the bride’s new last name. Sweet, right?

(Not to mention it helped me clean up at bridal shower bingo, I rocked the “homemade” category…competitive? me? never…)

So instead of my normal celery-stamps that I am known for, I decided to bust out the inkadinkado again. While the name is epically laughable, it does create some pretty sweet stuff.

I used 12 x 12 paper and sliced it into 4 x 5.5 notecards. These fit easily into 4.375 x 5.75 (A3) envelopes. I couldn’t decide whether to cut the paper first or stamp first, so I went with slicing the paper. This also gives you a bit more control over how the stamp is placed on the card.

And I stamped the envelopes too, because who doesn’t want to get a fancy envelope in the mail?

My favorite crafts are always the ones I make for people I love – and this was no exception. Can’t wait to toast the new Mr. and Mrs. S in the fall!

Love is a Mix Tape: Book Review

So it’s been a while. Between work and summer and life, it’s been a bit hectic. Since June – I’ve been to Philly, Colorado, and Vegas for work. Which has its ups and downs…the downs being that I’m a bit busy.

Upside is that airplanes do give me quite a bit of time to read – and I just finished reading Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield.

Anyone that knows me knows I am obsessed with mix tapes. I remember recording songs off the radio on the old school boom box that my sister and I shared…being very, very quiet so you don’t make noise that records onto the tape. Epic, right? Then it was mix cds, which I still refer to as mix tapes. Same goes for mp3 playlists. It’s always a mix tape.

Which is one of the reasons I first wanted to read this book. The subhead is “life and loss, one song at a time.” Chapter by chapter, each with its own cassette of songs in the intro, tells the story of Rob and his wife, who sadly passed away early in their marriage.

Reading the track listings is one of the best parts – the music goes from the late 80s to the early 90s. The story is told through Nirvana, the death of Kurt Cobain, Tupac and Biggie, R.E.M., Hanson, and plenty of other obscure bands that sound slightly familiar but in reality I’ve never heard of.

What I liked about this book was that it was funny and sweet, meaningful without being too sappy. And it wasn’t so sad that I couldn’t read it, but made me tear up just enough.

And Rob’s descriptions of the different kinds of mix tapes? Epically awesome. But I won’t ruin it. I’ll let you discover these on your own.

My next mix tape? Not sure what will be on it. But I keep a running list on my phone of songs I like and ones I need to put on a mix.

But the best mixes aren’t the ones I make. They are the ones I receive.

Happy listening.

Friday Find: CakeryPapery in the wild!

So I had a fairly life-changing moment the other day when I was seriously stalking casually perusing the Pinterest wedding category board.

(And no, I do not approve of your judgement on the fact that I was on the wedding board and am no where close to married. A girl’s got to day dream about something!)

Back to my life-changing moment.

I saw my glitter mason jars! Pinned by a random pinner that I don’t even know! My photo and my mason jars – randomly on pinterest!

#mademyday

Follow that up with the fact that one of Home Depot’s official pinners (yes, the Home Depot) commented on my glitter jar post and then pinned it to the official Home Depot DIY Wedding Pinterest board!

#ahhhhhh

And then cp-bf reminded me that back in March, OXO (yes, the makers of all things good in kitchen utensil-dom) had created a facebook collage of my lemon chiffon cake recipe! Freaking 1,326 likes and 105 shares!

#nowicandie

Let’s just say it was a pretty cool moment. It’s been just over a year since I started this blog as an outlet for my creative life, my mess of a dating life, and just a way to share the daily hilarity that is cakerypapery – and never did I think I would still be at it a year later. So thanks to all of you who follow this blog, pin my posts, read my random musings, and make me enjoy this whole cakerypapery alter-ego thing.

TGI-freaking-F.

It could always be worse.

Alternate title?

I’m not the only one who has been dumped via text message.

Although, I’m not so sure I’m in good company, given that it’s also happened to K-Fed, Charlie Sheen, and Simon Cowell. Full details here.

In other news…HuffPo is all up in my grill and posted their own story on wedding photo fails, which you can check out and then determine that mine is clearly better. And was posted first.

Lastly, can we all just agree that Hillary’s Twitter description is simply the tits? Because regardless if you love her or hate her, it’s pretty awesome that even as Sec of State, she’s not afraid to take life too seriously. Her profile photo is the epic “why so serious on your blackberry Hils” image and the description? Wife, mom, lawyer, women & kids advocate, FLOAR, FLOTUS, US Senator, SecState, author, dog owner, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker, TBD..

Love it. Because really, life is just too short to take that seriously.