Pink Pirate Birthday party

For my daughter Zola's 5th birthday this year we did an oh so girly pink pirate theme. This was one of my favorite parties I've planned! I'm a sucker for pink...and skulls. The colors were shades of baby pink, candy pink, black, silver, and gold. I was sad when I finally seen the pictures on the memory card that my husband took. I was busy finishing the cake so he was given the job of photographer. There isn't that many of the party or decorations. There isn't any that show the details well. There was non at all of all the decorating above and on the dessert table :( I actually took on too much and saved it all till the last minute to put it all together. I don't usually do the cake. For this party I did and it took soooo long. I didn't start decorating until the day before...by myself with the baby so there was a whole bunch that didn't even go up.The party time was 1:30-4:30 pm so we just have finger foods and snacks. The goody bags were pink skulls that had black and white candy necklaces and bracelets.

food table sign I made in Microsoft publisher

white cake batter tinted pink!

Pink chocolate skulls I made! loved these

goodies...there was pink candy shaped like shells (they were a puffy strawberry cream candy) pink foil covered cookies and cream chocolate eggs, pink chocolate skulls.

A variety of puff pastry horderves, chocolate drizzled macroons, and white cheddar rice crackers.

Pink lemonade served in pink cups. Fruit and berry salad served in baby pink and white paper bowls with baby pink spoons.

Birthday Girl <3 Pink pearl hair ties, black shirt with bubble sleeves, pink and black tutu topped off with a pink rhinestone skull necklace.

After Christmas last year I bought these long strands of pearls, pink and silver glittery ribbon, matching pink ball ornaments (they came in a big box with mixed shiny diamond patterned and ones covered in pink glitter) for 70% off! The pink tulle pouf curtain I made by hand from wire, ribbon, and tulle.

Pink flower treasure chest was filled with gems, tiaras, necklaces, pearls, and a gold trophy. We had black and white skull balloons kicking around...they played a pin the X on the treasure Jake and the pirates game.

 

Pink xmas ribbon, ball ornaments and pearls.

Pirate Baby

Made her cake from scratch. It was a white cake that I tinted pink with buttercream and covered in fondant. My first  time ever touching fondant icing. The cake turned out OK. I did the pink ship in about 30 min total...during the party haha! It was a rice crispy treat base covered in fondant icing.

 

 

First day of school Photo sign and adding fonts

My little princess Zola started school this year. I ended up staying in the classroom till 9:30 and yes I cried leaving her there. She seems so small still and needs her momma. Zola's also been with me 24/7 nearly everyday since she has been born! It was sad for me to 'leave' her at school lol! Anyone else feel the same way about their kindergarten babies? I was so glad my husband had the day off and was there with us. I made this cute little sign for her to hold up for a photo outside before going into her new school.

I made this little sign in Microsoft Publisher. I looked online for a new fancy font to use. I chose one from the site http://www.1001freefonts.com/ from the calligraphy section.

To install a font

• Open Fonts by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Fonts.
• Click File, and then click Install New Font. ...
• In the Add Fonts dialog box, under Drives, click the drive where the font that you want to install is located.

I searched corner art in images in google...and added them to my picture. from here I then edited the size and color of the images in publisher. Click on the picture...in the format tab click on recolor. In here you can change the shade of your little art pictures. I chose a shade of pink that was slightly different tone then the pink I chose for the wording. Printed it out on a thicker paper. I used a 24lb cotton resume paper we had on hand.

 

Favorite Summer drinks: almond milk coffee slush

Coffee fix of the day <3 heading to the park for a lunch time picnic. So the smoke from the forrest fires have finally died down. Now we're trying to enjoy the out doors before it hits -50 here! I'm still nervous about how I will handle those temperatures. Apparently winter hits early here too. I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the playground and picnic during Sean's lunch hour. For our park date I made delicious iced coffee slush with almond milk for my husband and I. I lt was so good, low calorie, and pretty easy!

I started with a jug of my iced coffee concentrate. For this I mixed 1 cup of coffee grounds with 7 cups of water and left overnight. In the morning I strained it through my french press. The concentrate can last in the fridge for a couple weeks.

I filled an ice cube tray with the concentrate and froze to make coffee ice cubes. Fill them to the brim!

I Took 1 tray of frozen coffee cubes and mixed in a blender with 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk. Just blend until you have a slush consistency.

Pour into a cup...or in this case 2 travel cups for cold drinks.

Mix in 1 packet of stevia sweetener. This packet says it's equivalent to 2 tsp of sugar.

Stevia is a natural 0 calorie sweeter. I use it in everything even my baking.

P.S. It rained all lunch hour during our picnic haha!

Favorite Summer drinks: Mint lemonade

I love mint...I also love lemons. Together they make one refreshing drink! There are great health benefits to drinking fresh lemon (Sean and I drink a lemon a day each in room temperature water) 

* Lemons are rich in vitamin C. When someone is sick in our house we make fresh lemon, fresh ginger and honey in hot water. The tea works and tastes good.
* lemons are strong antibacterial, antiviral, and immune-boosting
* Vitamin C and other antioxidants in lemons clear skin and combat skin damage
* are use as a weight loss because lemon juice is a digestive aid and liver cleanser
* Lemons contain many vitamin/minerals like vitamin C, citric acid, calcium, magnesium, bioflavonoids, and pectin that promote immunity and fight infections
* Lemons help to balance to the body’s pH

* Citric acid in lemon juice helps to dissolve gallstones, calcium deposits, and kidney stones. 

* They detoxify the liver

* powerful antibacterial properties

* Lemons contain anti-cancer compounds

The list goes on! 

Health benefits of fresh mint:

* mouth and breath freshener

* Helps with weight loss by stimulating digestive enzymes that absorb nutrients from food and consume fat.

* promotes digestion and soothes indigestion or inflammation

* helps respiratory problems and Coughs

* Mint is a natural stimulant 

* It effects alertness and retention

Sean's gone for the weekend :( He's flying to the Yukon which is awesome for him. I'm mixing up lemonade and snacks for  the little ones. Maybe cartoon movie night tonight...

I roll my lemon to get the juices going and soften them up before I cut them in half. Then I pull the leaves off a washed stem (or 2 small stems) of fresh mint and put them in my glass pitcher. 

Then I take a spoon and jab them releasing their oils. The mint will smell so strong and yummy now. 

Squeeze the juice of 3 fresh lemons and add to the mint. I use a fork to scrape the pulp bits in too. I like the tangy bursts they add (I throw the lemon peels in after squeezing only if the lemonade batch will be drunk right away. Otherwise the lemon peel will make it taste bitter after awhile) HAHAHA! I noticed when I took the pic that I had a couple pairs of eyes watching and wanting to help <3

Mix in 1/2 cup of stevia sweetener.  Pour it in slower or you will make a stevia cloud like Zola did. We used the baking stevia that measured cup for cup. Its nice to not give the kids sugar. Sometimes I'll also do half cane sugar half stevia because my husband is the picky one haha He doesn't fully like the stevia taste yet.

Pour in 6 1/2 cups of water

Give it all a good mix then you can also pop in some frozen raspberries as 'ice cubes' to finish off. Sometimes we leave them out.

Delicious, refreshing, healthy, and looks cute in a nice glass!

Favorite summer drinks: Cold brewed espresso

Right now I`m totally addicted to iced coffee. My favorite part of the day (besides when Sean comes home) is when the baby is sleeping and I`m in my office with a cup of my iced coffee. Its actually how I look right now. I have been making them at home trying to save a buck ;) Because our income dropped a couple months ago with Sean`s new job. Plus our cost of living has gone up with us now living in the north. I like saving money where I can anyways and like making treats healthier/lower calories.
 You need to start with a nice smooth coffee or espresso concentrate. You don`t use regular brewed coffee or you will end up with a more bitter and watered down version. Cold brewing takes away the acidity and gives you a more smooth taste. Here`s how I brew up a batch of iced espresso:

I ground up 1 cup of  beans. Right now I'm using Starbucks dark roast espresso. We store the unused beans in the fridge to keep them fresh. You could use regular coffee grounds too (1/2 cup coffee for every 2 1/2 cups of water)

I dump it all into my glass pitcher and fill it with cold water. I used about about 6 3/4 cups of water. Give it a stir to make sure all the coffee is covered and mixed. Then I let this sit over night (at least 9 hours) You could do a shorter sit period of a few hours. The longer you leave it the stronger it gets. In the morning I pour the mixture into my french press to strain all the grounds through. You can store the concentrate in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. It never lasts this long in our house. A batch for us only lasts a few days!

Pour 1 cup of the espresso and add the sweetener (Sean takes 1 1/4 cups of espresso haha) I have different syrups and sugars. I personally use a spoon of sugar free caramel or else stevia. My husband likes a spoon of cane sugar in his. Then I add 1/4 cup of soy coffee creamer or else equal parts unsweetened almond milk to espresso concentrate depending on my mood. You can use regular cream or milk obviously and add more or less depending on your taste. We like the espresso taste strong and creamy with just a hint of sweet.
Finish with your ice and its ready to enjoy. I know there is a lot of coffee snobbery out there haha The way I explained is just the way we like iced espresso right now ;)

Dinner in the smoky heat

 

 I didn't expect summer in Yellowknife to be so warm! I mean the temperature has been between 25-29 degrees (around 77-84 fahrenheit) which isn't blistering hot....but its the sticky muggy gross kind of heat. Pair that with all the forest fires blazing around here with the awful smoke and it seems soooooooooooooooo much hotter outside and inside. There is a fire 30 km away from Yellowknife burning an area 20,000 hectares in size. The city has been covered in a hazy blanket causing our position on the air quality scale to be a +10 on a scale from 1-10! On top of that the power has been going out for periods almost every day. This means no fans running. Its been tough trying to keep windows closed and kids in side most of the time. Our home is like a gross sauna right now until late at night. So if anyone has ideas on how to cool a muggy hot home without AC send them my way!! I did decide to take the little ones to the park on Saturday and we ended up totally smoked out. It got so much stronger after we went out doors. I even woke up with a sore throat this morning. I feel so bad for my poor babies. What is there to do to make the day more comfortable or fun?! maybe sit in front of an open fridge? haha Even my picture above looks hazed and muggy. So our dinners have been easy and haven't involved cooking anything. Tonights food was delish! If your in Canada and love olives like me then you have to find this tapenade. It's an olive, feta and sun dried tomato tapenade made by Larosa and says made in Vancouver BC....yummmmmmmmy my new addiction. In my books feta make everything better so I love the big chunks in the olives. We had platters with salami, sliced ring sausage, gouda cheese, light cheddar cheese, spinach, light cheese spread, Olive feta and sundried tomato tapenade, sliced multi-grain baguette and lastly multi-grain wheat thin crackers. My favortite combo was the baguette with tangy cheese spread, olive tapenade, spinach and finished with salami.

 

 Thank god for the swimming pool here for a cool dip and break from the smoke. Another plus is its been free swimming all week ;) Right now I feel like camping on the deck outside because its so nice to have the bit of fresher breeze at night....I dread the inescapable heat and air tomorrow.

B-day goodies

My birthday was July 14. I was spoiled with home made dinner and gifts from my family. Some of my bday loot:

* Urban decay primer potion in the beige tinted version called Eden. I usually use the famous Mac paint pot in painterly but ran out a few weeks ago. I love an eyeshadow base that is a beige color over a clear one. I just prefer how it washes out any lid redness or veins. This stuff works awesome...no creasing at all at the end of the day.
* Smashbox High definition concealer in medium. This is my favorite concealer! I had this in the shade light before (from the suggestion of the makeup lady at the counter) I still used it all the time but it was a little too light for me. If you go too light it can look ashy. This stuff is great for all day wear and looks perfect in photos. mmmmmhmmmmm...
* Smashbox Brow tech to go pencil in brunette. Its a waterproof formula that lasted until I took my make-up off (haven't tried it near water yet haha) It has this sort of triangle shape to the pencil. Its taken a few days to get used to it. I didn't like the shape at all at first but its a different story now. I like how one side is pointed for finer detail and one side is wider to fill in faster. The other end also has a brow gel and brush to keep hairs in place! I have crazy wiry eye brow hairs that want to do their own thing some times so this helps.
* Urban Decay 24/7 glide on lip pencil in Naked 2. Its important to have a pencil that is close to your natural lip color that way it will go with almost all lipstick shades you have. I ran out of my nude lip color recently and chose this to replace it. Love me some urban decay...this is my first lip pencil I have bought from them though. So far so good...next time I would like a darker shade that leans more toward brown (any suggestions?)
* LACC nail color in the shade 1992. Its a gorgeous full coverage pale beige pink. It doesn't brush on sheer at all which I love. It's vegan, formaldehyde free, Dbp free, and toluene free. A company based out of Vancouver, BC. The website is www.laccbeauty.com
* Burberry London perfume.....LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this scent. I used to spray the tester all crazy every time I went in the store haha Its very fresh and sweet yet sophisticated. It has a very feminine and floral scent mixed with Sandalwood and Patchouli.
I love that I was able to pick these all up at right in the little Northern city we now live in. Yaaay for Shopper's drug mart! haha  

Brand spanking new

Here I go! Attempt # 2 at blogging. My first blog site I forgot about after only 3 posts haha I was sucked into maintaining my instagram and facebook pages so the blog was back burnered. This will be random glimpse into my world. I'm a mom, wife, entrepreneur and just a goofy girly. I have three kids. Nahlin is 12, Zola is almost 5, and Mahikan is 1. My husband Sean and I have recently packed our family up and left our beloved BC Canada to move to Yellowknife NWT. Sean has had his commercial helicopter license for a couple of years now. Hes wanted to be a pilot since he was a little kid. We decided to go for it and follow his dream at the same time as following mine of being a entrepreneur with my cosmetics line Kamamak. It might get tough starting a career from step 1 with a family and a new home city....but we will make it all work! (picture is from our April 2014 trip to the grand canyon!)