Becoming Jane

I've always wanted to become Jane Austen, or Anne Hathaway, so either way I was not going to pass up the chance this morning when my friend Jenn said she had scored some "press passes" (don't really know what those are but they sound official) for tonight's show.
I just hope I'm not disappointed by the flagrant disregard of Jane Austen's actual persona versus what she portrays in her books as a heroine.
I should have a thorough review for you tomorrow.

Simpsonized....

Adam has always been all about The Simpsons, so he's super excited to see the movie tonight with our friend Bill (Happy Birthday Bill, and lucky me I don't have to see the movie). But in honor of the movie, I've been "simpsonized".

Well there I am, Simpson Style.

Simpsonize yourself, if you wish.

There is nothing more satisfying

than finishing a book. Except for the feeling of finishing a series of books. I've had that feeling twice in one week, as I finished re-reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder series last week and of course finished the last installment of the Harry Potter series on Tuesday (ok, early Wednesday morning, once they broke out of Gringotts I couldn't put it down and was up until 2am reading). I didn't cry at the end of HP7 like I envisioned I would (happy or sad tears) but I will admit a tear escaped this morning as I was watching Meredith interview JK Rowling on the Today show. I'm all for a Harry Potter Encyclopedia and the interview answered more questions that had been plaguing me for 24hours.

But really I just love the feeling that I get when I finish a book. That sense of accomplishment and knowledge. Knowing the end of a story has completed, and feeling a part of someone else's life, no matter how fictional.

Harry Potter Birthday!

I received this delicious smelling and tasting bouquet from Mike, Kristi, Danny, and Jessica on Friday with lots of love and warm wishes. Thanks guys! I miss y'all so much!

My Harry Potter Birthday Party was on Friday. It was truly an amazing event. Not because of the Magic that surrounded the event, but because I was truly blown away by my wonderful friends. Gosh I just love you guys! I was completely overwhelmed by the wonderful faces, gifts, and excitement.

The Decorations

Adam made my signs for me while I was out of town. I just had to add the handwriting (have you ever seen my husbands handwriting?) Not shown: An outline of Hogwarts Castle, a sorting hat cut out, and a Hogsmeade sign.

The Sweet Shoppe in Hogsmeade

The Bar which is known in the books for serving Butterbeer

This is the sketchy bar in Hogsmeade

The Cake

This is the proof of "Happy Magical Cara." It was a magically delicious cake and I got to wow everyone with my abillity to cut cake with dental floss. (This picture was taken before Harry fell face forward into the cake messing up the "M" in Magical.)

This is how good the cake was.

The Party People

Here are some other pictures from the party. I hope everyone had fun.

Amber, Me, and Darby

Me and Tina, who's sporting the HP glasses

Samantha and Caleb

Me and Darci (my birthday surprise!)

Workin' Girls!

Toby showing off his skillz

Courtney's caption was best: A Cara Sandwich

Me and Steph

The Greek Boys

Me and Aymee who lied to me about the making of this blanket but I forgive her anyway.

The After-Party
I always wanted to be cool enough to have an after-party. A group of us headed to Barnes and Noble's to await the passing out of HP7 (No I haven't finished it yet, but there have been a few close calls on people RUINING it for me).

Us waiting in the Literature Aisle (that way we seemed smarter than the other PotterHeads).

Adam with his twin Hagrid

It took me a lot of harrassing to get Kerry to stand by Hagrid for a picture.

"I love Harry Potter! Heeeeeheeeee!"

Laura really enjoys getting her picture taken.

Barnes and Noble's was plenty busy that night

"Look! Here it is! I can't believe it! Adam, take my picture!"

Ellie the elephant....

I've been trying to kill time at work today..... 45 more minutes.... in the mean time.... enjoy this elephant i've named ellie.

Horray for Birthdays...

If you know me.... you know I do not wait to open anything. Many times I have been in trouble for opening my husband's mail and even the one time when it took heavy duty tools to open his Christmas present from my brother, promising to rewrap them as good as new.
So of course when I got a package from my fabulous parents in law addressed to Cara Kipp "Birthday Girl" I had to open it right away.... Just for the record, it made it all the way up the elevator and into the apartment before it was opened (I had groceries in my hands).
Inside were so many wonderful things, including vintage buttons Dad had found and a Harry Potter bookmark to go with my themed birthday (Mom loves themes, and so do I)! Also included were some really sweet vintage hankies or napkins (I haven't investigated this fully yet) and this:

I was so excited about it, I instantly started quickly flipping through it, showing everything to Adam along the way. I'm feeling so many projects coming on, I feel a little feverish at the thought of them all. So many sweet things, so little time.

I didn't get enough time to peruse it all because I was baking up a fury last night in final preparation for the Harry Potter party this evening. Adam surprised me with the cake for tonight (I knew I was having a cake but he wouldn't reveal what was written on the cake). He was so proud of himself. My birthday cake reads "Happy Magical Cara" (you will think this is funny if you are Nick or Kara, otherwise, no, it does not make any sense).
Here's the menu for tonight:
Magic Wands
Butterbeer
Magic Punch
Pumpkin Pasties
Magical Cake
Hagrid's Rock Cookies
(That's the end of the Harry Potter reference, come on what do you want from me?!?)
A good bar type thing I altered from another recipe
chips and dip
fruit

Yes I realize it's all sugar, that's why I added the chips and the fruit. Yes I realize that doesn't even make any sense, it's my party and I'll do what I want.

Can't wait for my party tonight. I'm sure there will be an obscene amount of pictures to post but they probably won't be up until atleast Tuesday because I will have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows stuck to my nose until then.

Lil Chicky

Birthday

Just a reminder, I haven't forgetten about my birthday being one week away. Oh gosh, I'm reaching that age where I start dreading birthday's aren't I? But this weekend my little cousins kept asking my mom how old she was and she always replies "25," but I made the point to remind her that now that I'm 25 (well close enough anyway) she couldn't also be 25 and be my mom. So she changed her mind and told the girls she was "26" instead. Good one Mom, way to beat the odds.
:)

Wonderful weekend

I'm in phase two regarding my last post. There is a very large pile of random things in the middle of my living room floor.

My weekend was wonderful! The highlight was the time I got to spend with my family, especially my mom. So often my visits are rushed (as this one was) that I always feel like someone gets left out of the mix. There's just not enough of me to go around I guess (yeah, right!). I had a great time hanging out with my family (and celebrating my birthday a little early).
On Saturday after the beautiful bridal shower, I got to spend time with Nick and Kara. I got to see all the wonderful changes they've made to their house and little Roscoe's card tricks. Then we went to dinner at a Japanese steak house. I tried to teach Nick how to use chopsticks but instead he ended up flinging it onto the cooking area in the middle of the table while our food was being cooked. The chef then got him the rubberbanded-child chopsticks. It was really funny. I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time.

The happy couple...

My Nicky and Me...


Nick with a K/Cara on either side


On Sunday I got to go to East Side for church and spend lunch time with my Music family to see Andi's beautiful wedding pictures and hilarious video. It was such a fun time when the wedding happened and it was almost as much fun watching it all recounted. Note to self.... the videographer is recording even during prayers.
Me and Andi Leigh


Craft Scene
For part of Kara's bridal shower gift I made some practical gifts that I hoped would match their new home These are some pictures of coasters that I crocheted and then added fabric to the back of with a free hand (machine) stich to look like abstract quilting. The coasters were modified largely from a tutorial on Purl Bee so much modified in fact that I might almost call them inspired instead. But they turned out so wonderfully with the stitching. I also made some dish cloths (really dish rags, but I didn't want to demean them by calling them rags) and packaged them all up along with her other gifts from the "suitcase game."

Traveling

I love traveling, but there are two things about it that I H-A-T-E.
1. Getting everything together so that I feel prepared to go.
2. Getting everything unpacked so that it's back to normal.
I'm in phase #1 right now.
I've got just about nothing done. And a lot less than 24 hours to do it in.
Thanks work for letting me off early to compensate for unpreparedness. My boss is awesome.

At least I've checked in online for my flight.... one thing done. check!

Fun times with Ben

We had a great time with Ben while he was here. Ben's one request was do to something "Texas" while he was here. Well Ben, we hope you got your fill of Texas.

We decided to go to the Ft Worth Stockyards and Rodeo on Saturday. It was the first day in almost three weeks without any rain, and that meant it was H-O-T.

We got there in time to see the twice daily "cattle run" which consisted of being really close to bovines that have the potential to gore out your guts. It's a shame that I had to word it this way to make it sound more exciting than it really was.

Ben and I did find this girl-cow though. I assume she's a girl because of the lipstick and rouge.

Ben also found this longhorn along the sidewalk.

There were a lot of shops (all selling Texas and Rodeo themed things) that center themselves around the Grapevine Railroad with the train that still runs daily.

Adam found this bovine near one of the shops and stops to investigate how a cow would put on their glasses.

We had some real Texan Bar-B-Que at Riscky's- get the chopped beef, it was delicious!

Texan Aside: One more proof that Texan's Love Texas and there's no way to deny it.

Then it was time to go to the Rodeo! Yeee-Haw! There were a number of things that completely amused me about the rodeo but the most amusing were the mildly prejudiced comments of the announcer against anyone not from Texas, the fact that Adam nor Ben had ever been to a rodeo and therefore needed a play by play of each event and the rules and goal of each of these events, much to the amusement of all those around us, Ben not being able to understand the fully Texan dialect of the announcer, and the fact that before the American flag was brought around, there was a round of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" while the Texan flag was paraded.

Calf Roping

Bronco Riding


Women's Calf Roping (they don't have to tie the legs together)

Barrel Racing

Bull Riding

And our favorite: The Mutton Race! Children run around and try to get the ribbon off the sheep's tail.

We were some happy cowboys and cowgirl!

Truly Nirvana
Adam and Ben went to go see Transformers: The Movie while I was stuck at work on Friday. Lucky for me, 1. I didn't have to see the Transformers movie with Adam and 2. They saw it at Northpark Mall which happens to have an excellent tea shop Teavana. I've been having trouble sleeping so Adam found and surprised me with a tea called Tranquil Dream. It's so delicious I've been drinking it day and night. I love the touch of mint.
Real tea is wonderful because you can see all the bits of things in it.

Look how pretty it is! I wish I could put the smell on here too. So fresh and fruity.




Harry Potter Update

I finished my party invitations over a week ago, but I hadn't posted pictures yet of them. I don't remember the sites where I got most of the stuff, but I know it wasn't hard to find any of it and they turned out really cute, if I do say so myself.

The front of the invitation. I took cream card stock and "antiqued" it using tea and then baked in the oven.

The inside of the invitation:

Stacks of the paper and envelopes

They wrinkled as they dried. I don't iron clothes, but I will iron paper. Go figure.

I sealed them with a wax seal kit that Adam had given me years ago (we knew it would come in useful someday).