Twinkie Mummys - FAIL = PERFECT

I saw these adorable twinkie mummies in Women's Day and thought "Oh that will be so fun to make with Monkey!"  I even have things on hand so don't have to spend any money.  I'm really trying to come home from work and do things with her instead of cooking and cleaning all the time.  Besides, making messes means I'm making memories! 

So I gathered my items.

A Box of Twinkies that may or may not have had 10 twinkies to begin with but somehow I only had 5 to work with. 

Popsicle Sticks

Melting/Baking Chocolate

Butter Cream Icing (or store bought)

Candy for eyes

At this point I'm thinking, oh this will be easy, fun, and yummy!  Now the Women's Day recipe doesn't call for this step and I don't know why I have to try and be ambitious and change it up thinking I'll make it better cause history has proven I won't, I'll just mess it up but who learns from history these days?  Sure as heck not me.  So I insert the sticks and freeze the twinkies to make dipping them in chocolate a little easier and this is where FAIL begins to rear it's ugly little head. 

Maximus our "precious" Pomearanian is demanding to be let outside, Monkey is needing a diaper change, Poppa is studying, and I'm still trying to get supper in the oven ALL while I'm attempting to melt the chocolate.  So of course I end up burning the chocolate.  So I start a new batch take care of everyone's potty issues and forget to turn the oven down and am now burning potatoes.  AWESOME!

Open the door to let the smoke out, now Monkey wants to go outside instead of making  mess memories with Momma and the dog is running in and out in and out in and out in and out OMG can I get a glass of wine please! 

Ok wine in hand, much better, all is right with the world, now what was I doing? Oh yeah, burning supper and making something with twinkies.  Who the hell dresses up twinkies anyway, they are already a glob of goodness in your mouth, why mess with a good thing?!  Whatever, dipped the bastards twinkies and put in the freezer to set up quicker.

 

Go to pull out my ButterCream that I always have on hand and I don't have enough to cover 3 let alone 5 and I sure as heck don't have time or energy to make any so my Mummies ended up looking like they had Egyptian Mummy Wrappers (yeah I made that up, I don't know the official wrapping term) who got really lazy and said the hell with it and half wrapped their mummy booty's and threw them in their tomb and said SEE YA SUCKERS! 

Oh and the candy I had were Gobstoppers which were way too big to be considered "eyes" so now it looks like my mummies got squeazed to death prior to being mummified.  AWESOME!  (BTW word of the day today is AWESOME).

 

 

So I'm trying to take pictures of these horrible looking creatures and all the time Monkey is having a blast, loving it, talking to her mummies, and thanking me. So right then I realized I took a fun thing and made it stressful because it didn't look like the picture on a professional decorating website and was just ashamed of myself. I almost let myself steal the joy of spending time with Monkey. So I looked around, saw the huge mess, smoke still coming out of the oven, chocolate covered Monkey face, and soaked it all in. I was making memories.

I took her outside and gave her the little mummy she had been eye balling the whole time and captured shots of her holding her "precious."

So next time you're stressing out over the mess or the project that didn't come out "perfect" or "blog worthy" remember that to your child it is perfect and that's what is important!

She just kept starring at it and smiling!

I kept trying to get her to take a bit and she just would talk to it.

She Loves Him

Finally she takes a bite.

Enjoying her Mummy with her Poppa

She looks like her Poppa but in this picture she really looks like him!

Happy Friday Ya'll

Flying Bats Craft For Kids

So as a working mom I struggle with finding time in the envenings to spend "play" time with Monkey.  Usually when we get home, I start on supper and Poppa plays with her.  Then we eat, he cleans up, and it's bath, bed time routine, and then bed.  Do you see what is missing from this routine?  Yep, me playing with her.  So I'm trying to make more crock pot type meals or meals I can throw in the oven so that while supper is "cooking" I can play.  Last night I threw supper in the oven and then she and I sat down at the craft table and made these fun Flying Bats together then went outside and had Bat Races.  It was what we both needed.

Now you and your child can make these adorable Halloween creatures and have your own Bat Races. 
Supplies Needed:
Black Construction Paper
Wiggly Eyes
Scissors
Glue or Modge Podge
Bat Template

Step 1:
Cut Out Your Template
Step 2:
Fold you black paper and lay your template down and cut out.
Step 3:
Unfold your bat cutout and glue wiggly eyes on.
Step 4:
Cut a piece of paper to fit around your child's finger and glue the ends together to make a ring.
Step 5:
Glue the ring to the back of the bat.
Step 6:
Once the glue is dry enjoy flying your bats around.  The wings really do flap up and down to mimic the flying motion. 

Monkey wanted to race them down her slide. 

She was entertained, stimulated, and exhausted by the time we were done!  I'd say this craft was a success.

Happy Halloween Ya'll.

All About You Features and Winner

First things first, Congrats to Teresa who is the winner of the Corner Stork Baby Gifts Giveaway.   Weatherbee said:

Great giveaway! The Jo Jo Giraffe and Pig in a Blanket are so cute! But the monkeys still probably the cutest. :)Thanks for the giveaway!~Teresa  

I've emailed Teresa and if no response after 48 hours I will draw a new winner.  Come back next Monday for a really awesome giveawy, I'm so excited about this one, you will be too!


Monday's are quickly becoming a favorite day of the week for me thanks to all of you amazing and talented bloggers out there that link up and show off your latest and greatest!  Here are a few I wanted to show you but they all are great so go check out the Link Up and post up of you haven't already. 

First you have to go check out these awesome little witch shoes filled with goodies at Red Couch Recipes.  Don't they just scream Halloween!

And I think Ghost Poop is just about the cutest thing since being Boo'd by your neighbors.  I love this idea from Can't Stop Making Things and she even provides you with the download printable to make your own.

Need an inexpensive but awesome gift idea?  Then head to Sassy Sites for this great tutorial and make one for yourself.

Want or need an easy last minute idea to add Halloween color and decor to your home?  Then Muse Lodge has got the tutorial for you.  I love the bright colors of the background!

Ya'll know I love all things Monkey so of course I had to show you this adorable Toddler Monkey Wallet from Nancy's Couture.  I love it!

Remember the link up is open until Friday so keep posting all about you! 

Happy Tuesday Ya'll

All About You Monday Link Up

It's Time For All About You Monday!

<a href="http://www.texasmonkey.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x287/shaynamills1/FEATURE_BUTTONpng-1.png" border="0" alt="Texas Monkey" /></a>



This Week's Theme is Anything Goes!

This past weekend Poppa and I took Monkey to a little pumpkin patch/festival.  Usually we go to one of the biggest pumkin farms/patches in Texas but just did not have the time to make that drive this year so we went to one a little closer to home.  They had trunk or treating, hay rides, a small pumpkin patch, music, and food.  She is going to be a Dalmatian for Halloween but I don't have her costume finished yet so I made her a little Candy Corn Princess costume to wear to this.  Enjoy the pics and have fun linking up!

• Link up to your post, not to your main blog.
• Link up craft, DIY, project, recipe, party, or post about you.
• Grab the button and put on your post or sidebar.
• Enjoy visiting other post link ups and learning more about fellow bloggers and tell them you're visiting from All About You.
• I will choose the features from those that carry the button on their post or sidebar and that visit and comment on the other link ups.
• If you decide to follow me let me know so I can follow you back
• Come back next week!

Happy Monday Ya'll.
I myself am linking up to these fun parties.
 

Before & After China Cabinet

My grandparents had this beautiful China Hutch and Buffet set that my Papa bought my Nana for their 25th wedding anniversary.  It was big and heavy and solid wood.  When I think of family gatherings, parties, holiday meal in their dinning room growing up that piece of furniture is in every memory.  So when my Nana and Papa had to move to a smaller apartment because they were getting too old to take care of a big house they no longer had room for it.  I jumped at the opportunity to have it passed down to me, the only granddaughter.  Yep I played that card to get it.  But come to find out the buffet part was down in Houston at some cousins house for some still unknown reason to me and when we called to request MY GRANDPARENTS piece of furniture back, we were impolitely told no.  So I had this enormous hutch but no buffet/table to set it on.  So it just sat against the wall not looking right at all.

I spent nearly 3 years looking for a buffet that was in my budget and had the right dimensions to fit as well as it needed to be a solid piece of wood.  Then a few weeks ago I did a search on CL with just the dimensions and a dresser came up.  HMMM never thought about using a dresser for the buffet.  That day I found the piece I was looking for in the form of a dresser, Poppa went and picked it up and Momma got to work on putting it all together.

Now I learned a lot from working on this DIY project.  I opted out of sanding and went with 2 coats of primer instead.  Normally I'd sand but this saved me a lot of time and the primer covered well.  However next time I think I'll go with a spray primer as using a paint brush just took forever and made my arm very sore.  That's probably due more to the fact that I'm out of shape though. One thing good though about using a brush to paint is your little monkey can help. Boy we both are looking rough here!

Here she was so proud because she painted the letter C. 

I used a brush nickle spray paint to turn that brass into some sass! 

Black was the color of choice.  I've been collecting white dishes and serving platters for a few years and thought the black with the white would just pop.  Plus our walls are white in our rental home so need something to add contrast to it.  We took the doors off and once they were off we decided we liked the look of it and kept them off. (and please don't mind the red and turquoise squares still up from the Cat In The Hat Party, don't worry they are down now. )

I just love the way it turned out.  Sometimes I get home and just go and stand in front of it and stare it, I've even been caught hugging it. 
So once again here is the Before

And here is the After

My Papa died 2 years ago, 3 weeks after Monkey was born and so this piece has even more of a value to me.  I hope to pass it on to my grandchildren one day.  Until then though I will be showing it all my love! 


What do you think?  I was thinking of distressing it a bit and or glazing it but just haven't made up my mind.
I have a few more DIY projects I need to finish and get posted but they seem to keep getting put on the back burner.  You know cause a glass of wine or taking a nap always seems more fun. :)

Happy Friday Ya'll.

Dear So and So

Been A While since I've written a Dear So and So post.  I should not go so long without these, I end up actually saying what I should not have said outloud.  Oh well right!  This one is a little long this week.

Dear Vegas:
Although you basically rock and had me at blinking lights and dinging bells from slot machines I must vent to you a little bit.  No Diet Dr Pepper?!  Really?!  Perhaps you haven't had the pleasure of having this crack amazing goodness touch your lips but let me tell you it's the most wonderful thing in the world.   Ok maybe I'm being dramatic but seriously I had a headache the whole time I was there from lack of my precious aka DDP.  Oh sure the headache is probably DDP's fault and the crap stuff they put in it to get you hooked but the least you could do is support me in my habit.  Obviously you're all about supporting every other bad habit, I mean really, smoking, prostituting, gambling is ok but I can't get one taste of goodness on my lips? 
Please consider working on this before I come back.  Thanks. Missing You!

Dear Self:
Obviously you have a problem, please seek help and quit the DDP already!

Dear Lovers of Jersey Shore:
I'll admit I don't get it, I don't care to get it either.  Not that I think I'm better or above that but I guess we just roll a little differently here in Texas.  But really.... a book?!  The Situation is writing a book?  Well having a ghostwriter do it for him but a self help book at that?  And I'm sure it will be on the best seller list although I can't figure out why.  I can just image the conversation that took place.
Gotham Books: Hey Situation, we want you to sign a book deal with us.
Situation:  What's a book?
Gotham Books:  Oh that's not really important but basically it's pages or paper if you will that has written words of your life that others can read.
Situation:  Oh yeah, I never bought one of them, well not on purpose anyway, I did have to buy a library book in school once cause I slapped this grenade in the face trying to slap the ugly out of her and it broke the book so I had to pay for it.  Hell yeah man where do I sign and how much money will I get? 
Gotham Books:  Let's just fist pump to seal the deal.
Situation:  This is a great situation for the Situation, I'm always looking for situations that can bring The Situation to the people!
Me:  Gagging!

Dear Dude on the airplane:
Clearly you do not carry the gift that allows you to be observant or to be able to read others.  So I guess it's not your fault.  And maybe it's my fault for saying hi when I sat down, clearly my mistake, lesson learned, won't do that again but that was not an open door for you to talk my ear off the entire 2 1/2 hour plane ride home.  I even put my ear buds in and leaned my seat back and closed my eyes and you still continued to talk.  People on the plane think I had a bad case of stomach issues as I sat in the bathroom for near 20 minutes just to escape you.  I for one do not care that you think the Godfather series is overrated and Titanic rocks, or that you once taped your thumbs to your hands to see what it would be like to be a dinosaur, or that your favorite gambling partner is your 80 year old grandma, or that some girl named Melissa that was in your wedding looks just like me, NO, no matter how many times you swear up and down I AM NOT MELISSA! Not shut it before I kick you in the nuts!
Thanks,
Not Melissa

Dear Self:
So apparently you have no idea what size bra you wear.  Please for the love of God and for the girls stop buying bras based on how cheap you are and go get fitted and spend some money on one that will actually support the girls.  They are really starting to get fed up with your laziness and cheap ways. 
Just saying, go get fitted!

Dear Poppa:
Next time I ask you what groceries and meals you want stocked up while I am gone and you give me a list and I take the time to go buy them for you and premake things, and label and organize it for you, will you just tell me "Hey, you're gone, the kid is gone, therefore I'm a bachelor so I'll just order pizza and Chinese and be good!"  I don't care what you eat just don't have me do work to take care of it and then it go to waste. 
Love,
Me

Dear Rangers:
I BE-LEE-VE!   You make your fans so proud and we are all acting a little nutty as we've never had this taste of playoffs before.  No matter what we are true to the red white and blue but please oh please give us this sweet victory and championship! 
Love,
Cowboys suck so I need to hold on to something, Me!

Dear Cowboys
You suck, for the love of all things holy get your stuff together and play like professionals and not a pee wee league team, and quit it already with the penalties!

Dear Wanna Be Bow Lady:
I remember you vividly from last year's show.  You came into my booth and tried to pick apart my bows to figure out how to make them.  Listen, it's not hard to figure it out, there are so many tutorials and tips out on the web but must you be so rude about it?  I overheard you tell your friend you're just going to buy one to take home and take a part and see how it's done.  Well I should have refused to sell to you but I like the challenge.  Now fast forward to this year's show and you are now posting on all my local forums about being the new bow lady in town, have a booth in the same show, and contacting my customers personally to get them to leave me.  I really hate to break it to you but everyone of my customers you've approached has come back to tell me and they are laughing in your face about how "pathetic" your bows are, their words not mine.  So of course I had to see for myself.  Look I know what it's like to be starting out new, trying to get your name out there, looking for support and customers, but the way you're going about it sucks!  I would have happily networked with you and helped you out the way someone helped me but not now.  You are making a really bad name for yourself and you haven't even started yet.  Shame Shame.
 

Her Bow

My Bow

Dear Julia at Work Wife Mom....Life!

Thank you so much for the humbling shout out and feature on your blog about little ole me.  It made my day as I'm such a loyal reader of yours!  It such a fun thing this blogging world, where we can reach one another, inspire, learn from, encourage, and just laugh together.  So many of you do that for me! 

Love ya'll!

Dear Readers:

As usual ya'll rock, thank you for coming back each day.  Do you have something you want to say to the world but didn't get a chance to say it?  Join my therapy session and tell us all!

Happy Thursday Ya'll.

Vegas Baby

Ok I'm finally at a point where I can muster up enough energy to sit down and blog about my awesome trip to Vegas.  If you've been here a while you know that I passionately publish for Macaroni Kid and this past weekend was our very first Macaroni Mom Meetup.  So it was a little of working and a lot of playing type of trip.  To say that it rocked would be putting it mildly but when you're so tired, words just don't come easy to you and so "It Rocked" will have to do.  But multiply that by 100.  Oh and I'm not gonna lie, this is a long ass post, may or may not have inside jokes, some ramblings, and not much of a good flow so you may want to come back after a few cups of coffee.  Just sayin, I'm still tired people!

First the Cons of my Vegas Trip:

1. Apparently Vegas doesn't think that Diet Dr Pepper is the greatest beverage ever so it was impossible for me to find one.  I had to settle for Diet Pepsi and that just sucked.  Oh how I heart you DDP!
2. I only won $40 instead of the million I was hoping for.  I so wanted to come back and give my notice at work and tell them to suck it but $40 doesn't really allow me that luxury.  One day my little pretties!
3. I missed Poppa like crazy!  I am one of those wives that just prefers to be with her husband at all times.  I'm more relaxed around him, feel safer, and just usually have a better time overall.  I really want to go back with just him.

That's it, those are the only cons! 

I won't go through a play by play but just highlight some of my favorite parts, which is kind of hard to do as I loved so much about the trip.  You may be wondering what the purpose of the MeetUp was.  Well that's none of your business.  Kidding.  It was to focus on us as Moms and learn more about community building, goals and purpose of what we've chosen to do with Macaroni Kid, some etiquette, Twitter 101, Advertising, PR, some legal stuff, and over all bond with other Publishing Moms. 

I met my Sister In Law out there, she's a PM (Publishing Mom for Macaroni) in Ohio.  It's been a year since we've seen each other and well that's too long to go without seeing someone you love so much!  I'm married to her brother and she and I were roommates for nearly 4 years back when Poppa and I were dating.  We've never done a trip just she and I especially without the hubby and kids so this was a treat for both of us. 

Our schedules were a great combination of work and play.  The mornings were spent in seminars and meetings listening to some amazing speakers like author Lisa Quinn who wrote the awesome book Life's Too Short To Fold Fitted Sheets.  If you have not had the chance to read this book you must, it's eye opening, hilarious, and sends perfection out the window! 

Some of us PM's are also blogging mommas and a few there are blogging gals that I  worship  stalk follow.  There's Chief from Hiding From the Kids, Supah from Supahmommy, my sis, Bree Bees, and then myself.  All 3 of these awesome gals helped me see that Macaroni Kid was for me and so I'm so thankful to them.  But I had no idea how much they loved me.  I mean from the moment we got there Supah was all like "OMG it's Shayna from Texas Monkey" and then Chief shrills like a little girl and jumps up and down and runs over to hug me and I'm all like settle down little fans, let's not piddle ourselves, there's plenty of time and me to go around to get your fill.  I mean every break we had they were like, "OH please have lunch with us, we need to pick your brain and learn from you and bow down to you.  Please take your picture with us!"  So being the loving celebrity that I am I of course spent every waking moment with them when really all I wanted to do was just take a nap, but hey this is why we do it right, to make others happy, make their dreams come true.  Who knew being so loved was so tiresome. I even signed their autograph book and didn't charge.  Oh you should have seen their eyes light up, it was like Christmas morning.  Bless their little hearts.  Small Disclaimer -  By they I really mean me and by me I really mean them.  :)   Yeah I kind of heart them!

Left To Right: Chief, Bree, Me, Supah (notice how big I'm cheesin?)

The awesome Headquarters and founders of Macaroni Kid really pulled out all of the stops for us this weekend.  Our resort and accommodations were top notch, to the belly rub downs to laying out by the pool, you get your fix of relaxation.  WHAT?!  Your resorts don't rub down your belly?  Oh you are so missing out.  

One night they took us to Simon restaurant at The Palms and can I just talk about this for a bit.  I'm a girl from Texas ya'll and here we're raised to have a love affair with food so there's not much that can still impress me.  But either I just don't get out much or this chef's main goal is to blow your socks off, either way the food was to die for. 

While there we had the pleasure of tasting wines and the maker and owner of the wine we were enjoying came into our room to speak to us with this beautiful thick Italian accent.  We couldn't understand a word he was saying but no one wanted him to stop.  Oh and yeah I won a bottle of wine that he signed  for me.  He had a little hard time with the spelling of my name and so it reads Shwawynana.  So guess who had the nick name of Shwawynana the rest of the weekend?! :)

After dinner a few of us took a cab while a few others piled into Chief's rental car and headed to the strip.  We were suppose to meet at Excalibur but apparently driving a rental in an unknown city with a car that fits 4 but has 5 wine filled women with the top down makes you get a little lost.  So after waiting on the curb for an hour we finally took a cab to them, much easier that way. 

Bree waiting patiently.

We were at the Belliagio so of course we had to go out and see the dancing waterfalls and it was beautiful!

Here are some more shots from the strip.

For one of our luncheons the great folks from Lego came and did a community building luncheon and had us build with a small set of Lego's.  We may or may not have known at the beginning what to build but at the end were to share a story about our little master pieces.  I totally sucked big time at this.  But it was fun. 

This was mine, see my bow on top of my little person's head. :)  Oh great now I want that cookie in the background!

Supah didn't suck, she was good at it and so proud of herself too.  This picture captures her in her proud moment with her stop light creation and Chief's look on her face in the background is priceless! 

Love It!

Lego Luncheon

The last night we had a bowling party, drinks, food, and lots of laughs.  Again to say this weekend rocked is an understatement!  I came back so energized, refreshed, motivated, and excited to make Macaroni Kid Dallas the best kid site this city has!  I can't wait for next year's meetup in Miami FL and know that if it's anything like this year then I'm in for a treat. 

Me and Nicki (one of the founders)

Supah and Eric (one of the founders) and her flying pig, again, she's such the overachiever!

No I'm not jealous. :)

My bowling team.  (Why am I the only one with a drink in my hand?! Hey the more I drank the better I got!)

Me and Supah (See I told you she was constantly wanting her pic taken with me)

And because I have no shame, I'll do a quick plug for Macaroni Kid, if you think your city would benefit from this service and want a real work from home job with no contract and working with the most awesome women and support then shoot me an email at shaynam@macaronikid.com and I can go over any questions you may have. 

Happy Hump Day Ya'll