Robyn’s Baby Shower

Biscuit in a beautiful basket

St.Patty’s in Newport!

These Shamrock's love each other!

The origins of Irish last names in Ireland! Courtesy of Muldoon's!

Kiss me, I'm Tipsy!

Finishing the night off at Cassidy's!

New Years Eve with my 1st Grade Buddies!

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Kaitlyn’s 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday Princess Kaitlyn!

Auntie Marie, Auntie Lana and Kaily Mae

Mommy and Daddy Woods

Gift from the heart :)

Look at that face! Nap time is approaching!

Aunties!

Happy Birthday Princess Kaitlyn!

Uncles!

Kaitlyn’s royal subjects wished our LifeGroup Princess lots of hugs and kisses on her 1st Birthday! A beautiful, bubbly, friendly Princess with a sweet tooth…my kinda gal! Love you Kaitlyn! Love, Aunt Irvina

Tirtzah’s Bridal Shower…Purple Roses, Pumpkin Pasta and Prayers Galore

 

Aint to shabby a spread!

 

Hair clips were the parting gift…cause a good bride knows how to accessorize.

Yes, I'll have seconds thank you!

I heart these arrangements! The roses weren’t as purple as I wanted so I added purple cabbage to the vases

Diggin' into the Pumpkin Pasta..Thanks for the recipe Christy! Tirtzah and my new favorite Grandma! She's so chic!

Hostess trying to listen to 3 conversations at once…I’m such a spaz it’s almost cute.

 

I met my sweet friend Tirtzah of 5 years through my lifegroup at ROCKharbor. She is the sweetest fellow INFJ’r I know! We have had many deep and facinating conversations over tall Chai Latte’s. I was incredibly honored to be asked to be a bridesmaid in her wedding this December. We hosted the bridal shower, a palette of silver and purple at Tirtzah’s Aunt Brenda’s house in Corona del Mar, CA. I cooked a Pumpkin Pasta for the lunch entree and Brenda made an incredible chocolate cake and cheese cake for dessert. I loved meeting Tirtzah’s family, the women in her family were witty and hilarious. The shower went off without a hitch with lots of fun purple hues, wedding trivia games and my favorite touch was a mini veil for Tirtzah, to wear during the shower. I was inspired by the adorable veil my friend Becky wore at her Vintage Wedding this summer. I included the Pumpkin Pasta recipe below since it has been requested by so many.

Pumpkin Pasta a la Christy Winston

2 T. Olive Oil
1 lb. bulk sweet Italian Sausage, crumbled
4 cloves garlic, cracked and chopped
1 med. onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
4 sprigs fresh sage leaves, chiffoned (=2 T. )
1 c. dry white wine
1 c. chicken stock
1 c. canned pumpkin
1/2 c. fat free half and half
1/8 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 lb. penne rigato, al dente
Romano or parmasean
Heat oil ( 1 T) in large skillet. Add sausage and brown, drain oil and transfer sausage to paper towel lined plate. Return pan to stove and add remain T. of il. Saute garlic and onion ( tip: add onion first – saute till tender, then add garlic – prevents burnt garlic!) Add bay leaf, sage, and wine to pan. Reduce wine by 1/2 ( 2min.) Add stock and pumpkin and stir sauice until it comes to a bubble. Return sausage to pan, reduce heat and stir in cream. Season with cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer mixture 5 – 10 minutes to thiicken sauce.
Return drained pasta to the pot it was cooked in. Remove bay leaf!!! and pour sauce over pasta. Toss over low heat for 1 minute. Garnish with lots of shave parm cheese and sage leaves.

Serves: 4

Recession Costume Party

Why can’t we have Halloween twice a year? Is that too much to ask? Katie, my lady, says “whatever you want princess Nini!” So, last March the fabuloso interior designer lost her job Boo! But, Katie as always took her lemons and made us some lemon bars and a “Recession Costume Party” to be envyed. The theme of the dress up was, “My dream job.” Katie was so cute and served us “Recession food” as in Pigs in a blanket, Cheese Puffs, Gummi Worms, Cheezits, Gummi Bears, Jungle Juice and Peach Schnapps….  Check it…

Gold Digger, Singer, Boxer-ina, NYC Housewife

So I think the boys were a carpenter, a handy man, a hit man and a Porn Star?

Diggin' and Boxin!

Gangster, Receptionist, Hooters, Astronaut...

"Oh don't mind us...we're artist."

Peace Out-erspace!

Haloween 2009…Best Costumes Ever!

Jayden the Alien!

We’ll let my cousins, nephews and girlfriends babies go first…. 

Ashton "The Pirate" RRRrrrrr!

Sonny as Popeye the Sailor Man!

Birds of a feather get their Halloween party on together!

No Rockstar can resist a Senorita

The Parisian and The American that are giving birth to a Green Card

Trooper the Terrorist...this was awesomeness!

My "hot date" Miss. Teichman!

xoxoxo

TTFN!

Pumpkins, Decorating and Sonny, Oh My!

The Fine Arts Center had a Pumpkin Carving Contest this year. Of course I debuted a carving of Edward and Bella. I only got a few nauseating eye rolls. Haha. Below are some of my fav’s! I love Krystyna’s Totem Poll with the Spaghetti Squash. Genius!

Nini's Twilight Obsession

Tori's Alligator

Krystyna's Totem Poll

Mitch's over achievement. Punk! He totally won!

Later I went over to my sister Dana’s house and helped her decorate for her annual “Haloween Monster Bash”.  My nephew Sonny was messing around outside with us while we tried to set up. He’s so much fun! He’s so different from playing with little girls like I’m used to. It’s like playing WWF with a little Noam. I love that kid!

Monster Bash 2007

Monster Bash 2007

 

All smiles, all the time.

I want to kiss those cheeks!

Messin' around in one of the coffins

Kiss for Aunt Nini!

Paella and Traveling Princesses…

The Getty

 

:)

First me, then Jeannette and now Jess and April are off to Spain. I gotta admit I’m a tad jealous they are all there experiencing it all together. I would love to go back to Barcelona and see the Gaudi’s. Crazy beautiful! Yesterday, I got my postcards from all of them. Postcards are so trippy to look at. I’m always like, “Wow! How many hands has this tiny piece of cardstock been carried by just so it could get into my hands on the other side of the world” Trippy huh?

Anyway, so for April and Jess’ Bon Voyage party we had an intimate gathering of just a few of us on Jess’ patio along with a huge pot of Paella that I was quite proud of. I was really nervous to make it since Jess is always hosting us and is an AMAZING chefista herself. However with the awesome cheerleading of my mother over the phone I was able to make a great dish. I even took a picture…check it out…

Muy bueno!

If you want the recipe I highly reccomend it! You can get it here. I can’t wait till the girls get home to tell me their Euro stories. Hopefully they weren’t followed by strange men and almost kidnapped like me. Oh the perils and beauty of traveling alone. I’ll never do that again. I’m so glad they have eachother!

Kitty Shower

*First of all this post is dedicated to Becky Waldron and her love for Kitty’s and Kitty mannerisms. Meooooooow!

Okay, so artist are known to be a little “Emo” from time to time, but this one is the grand daddy of emotional cute little cupcake moments. So my co-worker Ryan from the art center is out to lunch with some other gals from work. They are all pulling off the 5 FWY when they see a tiny little kitten in the middle of the off ramp. The girls exit and pull to the side of the road to help. Ryan pulls over on the off ramp (Emo moment #1) and steps into traffic in order to get the cat (Emo moment #2). All the sudden the kitten dissapears and he returns to the art center with the ladies distraght that the kitten might die from an OC Mom and her Hummer.

 

The next day Ryan’s roommate hears a meow coming from under his hood. It’s the same kitten Ryan saw on the 5! It ended up jumping into Ryans engine and then jumping into his roomates engine the next day. Now, Ryan feels this kitten is meant to be his (Emo moment #3) he takes the kitten to be checked out and get it’s shots…then the climax…Ryan’s roommates don’t want the kitten, (Emo moment #4) “Big Daddy” Ryan plans to move out to make room for his new feline friend. Oh! The drama!

 

In order to celebrate Ryan’s new found fatherhood. One of my co-workers Lisa thought it would be fun to throw Ryan a “Kitty Shower”. I thought this was the funnest idea ever! I ended up buying this Halloween costume for Kitty:

Boo!

 

Decorating this baby shower bag, by putting a Kitty face over the babies face.

Meowtastic

 

And making this “Kitty Daddy” card for Ryan.

Dear Kitty Daddy...

 

Oh the joy and drama of being an emotionally, bleeding heart artist. Life is purrrrrrrrrrfect. Ain’t it?