Awesome August : Day 8

For the past few years, I've tried to do something crazy and fun for my birthday.  Two years ago, we had Laser Prom – this involved dressing up in formal wear and playing laser tag.  Last year, it was a Golftail Party – mini-golf in cocktail party clothes.  This year, I wanted to have a karaoke party where everyone had to come dressed as a rock star or a musical character (or embodies a musical lifestyle, as you will see).  This year was Meg's Rock'N'Roll Birthday Bash!

I have this weird obsession with making my friends dress up for my parties.  And I have a special name for people who don't dress up for my themed parties: A Flounder.  This, of course, is taken from Animal House: Flounder is the only one who shows up to the Delta Tau Chi not in a toga!  Luckily for me, none of my friends were Flounders and everyone looked awesome.

I just got these pictures of the night from Boyfriend and I'll let them speak for themselves.  Enjoy and be jealous!

The night started with everyone arriving and lots of oohing and awing over costumes and getting geared up with Flip Cup and Spoons!

Then the Karaoke began.  The rule was you had to sing a song related to your character.
Cher did "If I Could Turn Back Time"
Sandy did "You're the One that I Want"
Wayne & Garth did "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Cassandra did "Ballroom Blitz"
Robin Sparkles did "Let's go to the Mall!"
And there were tons of other awesome songs plus an amazing rendition of "Come Sail Away" complete with interpretive dance.

Everyone seemed to be having a blast...

And then these these guys showed up and broke up the party! Thanks a lot, Yoko.

Communism is Just a Red Herring

One time, Boyfriend and I were playing Clue and I said, "It was Sergeant Pepper in the Yellow Submarine with the Revolver." His response was to tell the 3rd player in the game that that was why he loves me. Swoon.

I love the game Clue and I love the 1985 movie staring Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahan, Eline Brennan, and many other talented people. And I have always, always wanted to have a Clue party...

Oh my god, you guys. I have wanted to have one of these for a long time. No, we didn't play Clue and, no, it wasn't a murder mystery party (tho I still want to have one of those at some point complete with costumes and plot and everything). But I did send out invitations and gave everyone a character and we all dressed up.

My team at work over the past year has reduced down to 7 amazing people who accept my craziness and agreed to all show up in costumes to a team dinner – It was probably easier to convince them since I was moving on to a new job 2 weeks later. We mostly based the costumes on the movie and everyone spent a good deal of time trying to line-drop quotes into random conversation. Also, instead of murder weapons I made everyone character cupcakes and then distributed them in these cute gift boxes.

I apologize for the bad pic but there is NO lighting in my dining room :(

Some day, I'll have a much larger scale party of this type with everyone assigned to teams. Or maybe I'll run Bay to Breakers carrying giant Styrofoam weapons? Or maybe I'll rent out an old building and just have flat out murder mystery party. I love all sorts of themed and costume parties, and thought this was a small one, it's defiantly been one of my favourites!

left to right: Prof. Plum, Ms. Scarlett, Wodsworth/Mr. Body, Mrs. Whie, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, Col. Mustard. My friends are the best!

I require pearls

I made my first from scratch Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting this weekend. It caused in to realize that I need a string of pearls. Yes, you read that right. Pearls.

Let me start over...

Last week they painted the inside of my flat. Without warning. It was kind of a disaster. And, gasp!, I had to bake for a dinner party I was going to. But, silver lining: I was able to use my Mom's newly remodeled kitchen to bake. It's like 5x as big as my kitchen and, right now, like a billion x less filled with paint dust

So, my mom comes home to find me mixing the last of the cake batter together - part dry, mix; part wet, mix; repeat. I'm pretty sure that she has no idea who I inherited my culinary skills from because all she can do is make scrambled eggs (but for the record, they are the best scrambled eggs ever. We call them "rubber eggs" because that's what her dad called them. I judge all other eggs by this standard... ) She seemed impressed by my use of the electric mixer that she got as a wedding present when she married my dad in the '70s. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who has ever really put it to much use.

ANYWAY, I baked the cakes and then made my first attempt at cream cheese frosting all while watching Julie & Julia. I think they provided moral support of some kind because my frosting came out surprisingly well. I did a victory dance. Seriously. Then I licked the beaters.

This all has a point, though, I swear.

See, the dinner party was on Saturday night and I was putting all this together on Friday night because I had to work on Saturday during the day. So, I bring my cakes back to my newly painted flat with the plan of frosting and assembling the layers after work before the party.

The next day I get off work, take a quick shower, and change for the party. I decided to wear a vintage style dress. I throw an apron over the dress and assemble and frost the cake. It actually looked pretty good, too!

My first Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting. Note the skull and cross bones plate.

Then I realized that my friends were coming over to carpool to the party and that my house was still covered in paint dust. Which is why I was holding a broom and sweeping the house in a vintage dress, heals, and an apron when they all arrived.

All I was missing was the pearls.