Judgment Day!

The desire to express oneself in the written word is an unusual feeling. It is a form of expression that you have time to think about, compose and get just right. However; if you share these thoughts with people they are then handed the ability to break down your therapy in seconds on of ungathered thoughts. Now I know this isn't the case for everyone. It is just these thoughts and notions that keep myself from truly looking for an audience to read my blog. I write with the idea that only a handful of people actually read my entries and most of them are bias. Recently though I wrote about some fun events going on around town and thought I really should post this on facebook for my friends to know. I never expected that pressing that button, Share, would be so difficult. It is like saying I do in a form. I never thought about it until that moment. There is bound to be someone that hasn't read my post before. The will read it and be handed the ability to judge me. I guess I just need to say judge on and be ok with it. So ...

Judge On! 

The Chronicles of Hair Continued, Viral Extreme Challenge Hot Pink

I have been contemplating how I wanted to approach this post. It has been a couple days since my last update on viral extreme. It has now been a week since I first used viral extreme hot pink on my hair and so far still impressive. Here is the run down.

Day #2 

Day two really seemed to just a repeat of the day before except I ran and did yoga instead thanks to a lovely shoulder pain. There was a crazy amount of sweat that was created and 0 amount of seepage of dye into my sweat. Super bonus right. I don't know about you but I have had some crazy experiences of my hair dye running. The worst was in high school. I had early bird marching band ànd my brand new red hair ran into my nice new white shirt. Yep! Love high school awkward memories.  I showered and my hair color appeared to be the same as the day before. A little came out in the shower as did before but nothing drastic. Day #2 complete.

Day #3

This was a very uneventful day in the life of my hair. I didn't to any workout (I'm a slacker) and only did minimal sweating. To be honest day #3 was my birthday so the only think my hair went through was torture as I actually prepared it for a day out of the house. I mean the works people. Hairspray, root lift, curling iron. I know how to properly torture my hair. As you can see in the end the color didn't change. So moving on.

Ok so this was the only photo that I had of myself for this day since I didn't shower and I forgot. I was trying on an outfit for Halloween so please just disregard that and notice the lovely pink hair. 

Day #4 

A day filled with more of the same. Well not really. I took a lazy day here and didn't really do anything except watch TV, laundry light cleaning and watching so good old anime. That's right people another day without a shower. Don't worry. My husband and I have a kind size bed so we don't smell each other while we are in bed, and with that on to day five.

Day # 5

I showered today! Yay!  Day #5 was another day without an official workout. I know what your thinking, come on girl get going get off your booty. I really would have I swear but I was cleaning hardcore most the day and then cooking and baking preparing for poker night. You see I have this crazy person that lives inside my head. Whenever I have people coming over to my house I assume they will notice every little tiny thing that isn't finished or dirty. I call it my crazy. She likes to come out and play from time to time. What's funny about this day was it was a couple of guys. Guys! Most men don't notice the  things I do. See I know it's crazy, but I accept my crazy and move on, but I digress. My hair. I washed my hair and just the same as previous washes only minimal color leaked out with the soap,however; after Rowling my hair dry I could see my hair was lighter. The color is visibly beginning to change now. Sections are more of a cotton candy pink and  others are darker and truer to the first color change.

Day #6

So here we are all caught up on showers. That's right you guessed it. I didn't shower again. I probably should have since I did gardening today, but you know I didn't sweat and I don't stink so I'm not going to worry. Plus I'm laying here after having a beer hanging out with my sleeping two-year-old enjoying myself. Enjoy it when you can right. My hair has lightened up since the first color set. Currently, my hair has a multitude of pink colors through my hair. It is almost a highlight effect. It has been a week And people are impressed and asking questions about this product. I'm excited to see how many washes it actually takes, and again I forgot to take a photo. I know. The look of disappointment is burning through the computer screen. I promise to make it up to you.

Halloween Fun in Las Vegas

It seems that Halloween has always had a magical place in my mind of a safe time for kids to reap the wonderful benefits of being kids and getting lots of candy. What child doesn't love to dress up in costumes and ask adults for candy. Right?! However, It seems that the Halloween that I grew up with Walking around my parents neighborhood is one of the past. I have lived in my neighborhood now five years and each year we get less and less children. It saddens me. Now, I have a two year old and my nephew who I want to give them the Halloween that all of us remember and love, but how? There are many options that can be picked from here in Las Vegas a couple of which I do believe we will be partaking in the weekend of Halloween.

- Haunted Harvest is an event at the Springs Preserve. 

-Opportunity Village turns the Magical Forest into a spooky land of goblins and ghosts for HallOVeen. 

-Container Park is doing a Halloweekend with events and activities for children

-Town Square becomes Town Scary Halloween

There will so many activities and events to take our children to it's wonderful. It doesn't seem like someone could be more excited for the holiday festivities to begin, but I am. This year we are having our very own Halloween party for the children. The past couple years have been complete dudes so this year I'm pulling all the stops. I'm talking candy, treats, costumes, kids games, prizes and yes people a Halloween Invitation that is adorable. What? You thought I was going to go somewhere else with that didn't you.

Are you not just completely in love with it? First things first. Yes I know it's Monster Mash, but hey we are taking some artistic licensing here people. I'm not really sure what it is, but the act of sending out invitations gives me a sense that I am now and adult. Irrational, but it is a fact and how I think. There will be more fun to follow and the decorations are created. So many parties so little time. 

Day #1 Viral Pink challenge

Day # 1 Washing my hair pink has gone very well hair wise. If you are familiar with coloring your hair you know of the after marks that your hair leaves for you during the night. You know what I'm talking about, your pillow. You go to bed with a nice lovely clean pillow case and wake up to a new pink hair tie dyed pillow case. Well one night down people and no color on my pillow.

I did make notice today, that while straightening my hair to leave the house, that the bright hot pink wasn't consistent throughout my hair. Some of the sections seemed be darker or more washed out. I'm hypothesizing that this is due to how I put in the shampoo. This will be something to experiment with on round #2.... Pink is back.

Today wasn't just a day full of having pretty hair for this girl. NO. This girl got down and gross today with a nice two mile run on her treadmill. Full disclosure I come from a very long line of sweaty people. I don't know what it is but its just gross. The only saving grace for me is I don't smell. However, I do believe I found my calling for reaping the benefits of my sweating abilities. I am able to put hair products to the test. If a hair product can withstand my workout sessions it is top notch.

Sweaty Workout / After Shower

As you can between the two photographs my hair color really didn't change. I do know that I did loose a little color. I only know this from washing my hair out with shampoo. The color mixes in as the soap creates a lather. This is completely normal, but note worthy to mention that there was less color seeping into the soap with this color wash then in previous hair treatments with a clear coat on top of the color.

So Day #1 is done and over with. I'm curious to know what tomorrow will bring for this head of mine.

On a Side Note... Fun with Hair Color

Let me begin with the party planning is going really well and I super excited for the big reveal of the party setup and decorations. I can't wait to show everyone everything. In the meantime I thought I would change directions with you and talk hair. I don't know about all of you but I love colored hair. I have been practically every color in the crayon box (depending on your box) and I'm still trying new looks out. I even found I liked being a blonde, never expected that one. Just to show a few.

I have been given the gift of ability and opportunity to explore the wonders that is hair color thanks to my husbands great love for color and my wonderful sister who is a hair stylist. She is amazingly talented, but loves to explore new products and techniques. That is where I come in. This is me yesterday. 

Very blonde and by the look of the picture I was questioning the great questions of the world. This is before the science experiment that is my hair takes place. I have been given a bottle of hot pink Viral Extreme Color wash to try out. 

My sister told me to wash my hair with this shampoo as normal, but leave it in for ten minutes. I followed her instructions to the letter which if I'm being honest wasn't very easy. I was impatient to see what my hair looked like. 

Exiting the shower I couldn't and wouldn't look at my hair until I was in front of a mirror. I was nervous and excited to see what I would look like. Not surprisingly I loved it. I was expecting a much more subdued tone of color. Needless to say I am very happy.

As you can see it was a drastic color change for myself. I was very impressed with how much the color did change, but keeping in mind I did have very blonde hair. With stage one completed we move one to stage two, studying the longevity of the shampoo color life. All there is to do is wait and see how many washes with regular shampoo and condition it takes to lighten up my hair from this point. That is in addition to my abnormal ability to excessive sweating.   EEEEWWWWWW

Join me in my put Viral to the test. Let's find out how amazing or substandard this product is. 

Mickey Mouse Baby Bash!

You know the saying, "When it rains it pours" and right now it is pouring baby shower planning for this house hold. Two of my favorite people are pregnant right now and I am working both of their baby-showers. One of which is for my girl Amanda and if you have read my blog before you might remember my post her bachelorette party. As long as have known her Amanda has referred to Mickey Mouse as her boyfriend, until she married and then he became her side man. The idea of making her baby-shower anything but Mickey themed was just ridiculous.

First things first right, the invitations. I started my creative juices flowing by taking a stroll through my handy dandy too Pinterest. I know everyone knows it and loves it. Even if you hate it you love it. After narrowing it down we came up with this beauty of an invite. 

I love the way they turned out. Even if I did run out of room on the invite insert for the RSVP information I think they worked out well. I have to say thank you to my sister-in-law Resa without her and her cutter tool it would have been insane to make these invites. I love how they turned out and have even received many compliments on them. A great learning experience for Resa and myself as we develop our new ETSY store. Ever even and project is going to be a learning experience for us and I personally and looking forward to each one.

Changes in the Tide

It has been a world wind of changes here in the Koenig house hold. We went from being a small family of three with an amazing room mate to having my brother move in with his wife and son. Let me tell you first off this was entirely my idea and I love having them here. However; it makes life CRAZY.

wonderful crazy people of the household minus two husbands

The fun doesn't stop there for us. Due to the changes that have been going on in the family we have decided to start homeschooling my nephew of seven in addition to watching our niece and working from home. 

I have been recently informed by my sister-in-law Resa that prior to moving here to Vegas with us she didn't have much of an eventful calendar. Now oddly her calendar is filling up rapidly.
I briefly mentioned a couple of said events in the previous post, but to recap lots of PARTIES.

Baby Showers and Halloween parties and 30th Birthday Parties OH MY!

That isn't even including the usual holiday family events like Thanksgiving and bum bum Buuuuuuuum... Christmas.

This is just the beginning people.

New Beginning

Hello World! Now that is what I call a break. I originally started this blog with the intention of writing with great consistency, but obviously that didn't happen. However you were never far from my mind people. It usually went like this.

My two year old running around as happy as can be "oh I wish I was writing more"... No Kaleb please don't climb up that. Running after the toddler before he crashed. (Thoughts of writing gone)

I know there are THOUSANDS of women out there who have full time jobs, write and have several children and honestly I just don't know how they do it.

Around a year ago I suffered from a nervous breakdown that I assumed was Post Par-tum Depression after having my son. All the signs were there. I went to a doctor and low and behold I found out I have hypothyroidism. It was a surprise to say the least. It was at this point where changes began. I went from being a working mom to a full time stay at home mom. Let me just say I have worked harder in the last year as a stay at home mom then when I "worked".

So why am I here writing this for the world. Well people I am getting back up on the horse. Life is chaotic and wonderful. There isn't enough time in the day to do everything that we want, but you know that shouldn't stop us from trying. So who am I.

I am a Mom, Wife, Sister, Friend, and Crazy Person. I love life and I love people. So what am I here for. Everything. I want to write about my passion: party planning, crafting, Mountain biking, children and wonderful life hacks. I want to share my knowledge and experience with you.

Blogging isn't something that is done for money (even if I did make any money off of it) but an outlet for my sanity.

'

Mr. Adorable on a train ride with Mommy

Life is an adventure where we are constantly learning, growing and changing. Join me as we make these changes together. Please feel free to make comments and suggestions of projects to try. Currently I'm planning two baby showers, a Halloween party and a 30th birthday party for my wonderful Sister-in-law so there will be lots to look forward to. 

Late Night Wonderings....

Okay. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. Well I did, but now that I have your attention stick around.

Here I am late at night. I put my son to sleep and my husband works early so needless to say he is out cold. I on the other hand am not just yet ready to hit the hay. So what do I do. I wonder the internet. I hit Facebook, but find I quickly get bored with everyone else's lives that seem to be more fascinating then my stay at home mom life.

I quickly move onto Pinterest where I find all the things that I want to do with myself during the day if only the kids would allow me to. Does this sound familiar? Well this is partially true. I do wonder around on Pinterest, an insane amount of time, however; I do actually do a lot of the things I find on there.

My husband is constantly cracking jokes at me for this. I am addicted to Pinterest as most of the female population is. What is your favorite thing to Pinterest. Recently, as my newest obsession for information is Yoga, I have been spending all my time looking up yoga positions and reading about the history of it.

Soon I think i will be doing a Yoga pose challenge. This will most definitely be a challenge of one as I have not yet convinced my family members to dive into the world of yoga for more than the WII fit yoga. It is amazing how people can see the changes that something like yoga can do for a person, but they can't bring themselves to make the changes in their lives. 

Do you find yourself needing to make changes, but can't bring yourself to put your food down and just do it. I mean Nike did have one thing right. Sometimes there isn't anything else to be said. It just needs to be done. 

I know this may all seem like the ramblings, but to be honest it is. That is what the internet is for these days right? Right. So another one down for the books people and I look forward to my next ramble of babble. 

Kaleb's Monster Party - First Birthday Party Revealed

I would like to take a moment to mourn the loss of the days of my son officially being a baby. My baby boy has turned one and is no longer my baby. This birthday party marked the transition of my little boy becoming a toddler. I know I’m being silly, but you know I think I’m allowed to be silly from time to time.  He is now a toddler!

Ok. My sad boo who rant over.

My Baby is One! Yay.

When I first starting thinking about my son’s birthday party the first thing that came to mind was that I didn’t want this party to be over the top. There wasn’t really going to be many children at this party and I knew deep down that it would be all in vain. So the theme of the party was sweet simple and visually appealing for photos. I believe I pulled it off. Due to the results of this party I have been hired out by my niece to decorate her sweet sixteen party next February (don’t even want to think about her being that old).

This party marked not only the changes that may little man has mad over the last year, but marketed the growth of his momma. That's right after witnessing what accomplishments could be made by trusting your friends and relinquishing control over everything. I had help from friends on this party. So I have to thank Amanda and Jessica. I love you both!

Decorations! Yay I had a lot of fun getting ides for and making all the decorations. I took several different ideas that I found and kind of meshed them all together. My lovely Amanda did an amazing job on our front door to Kaleb's birthday party. She seems to think that she doesn't "craft" well, but she did an amazing job here. Be proud Amanda, be proud.

I saw a lot of different adorable ideas for kids goodies to give away at the party, but since we were going with a pool party option I thought beach balls would be a great option. I also went with an alternative of bubbles as well because face it who doesn't love bubbles.

 There were several different birthday banner ideas that I loved, but I found that I wanted to combine the standard triangle banner with monster puff balls. I have to say the puff monsters were so easy to make and were super cute! It would be a fun project to take on when Kaleb gets a little bigger.

I decided to follow up the triangle monster banner with a timeline banner that is made up pictures of Kaleb. It was a great way to show how much he has grown. Sniff Sniff. This was a big hit at the party, and I apparently take a lot of pictures of my son. 

We attempted to have a photo booth area for people to take silly pictures with Kaleb. It turned out really well I think with these super easy monster fans. However; overall it didn't turn out as well as we hoped.  Well it wasn't used like we hoped. I only had one picture taken and it was blurry due to host error in setting up the camera?! Fail. It did make for a cute seating area and care seat resting spot. 

I stumbled across this idea of decorating your French doors and giant legos. I couldn't resist. I have to say for something that was so easy it really made a big impact on the décor. Who knew? Plastic table covers and paper plates are great decorations. 

On to the Food! One word people. ADORABLE!



My girl Jessica did an amazing job at making Kaleb's smash cake. I say that she makes adorable monster's wouldn't you say.

I love food, and I love to cook. However; when it comes to parties I always seem to run out of time. So this year I decided to outsource some of my work. We semi catered this party to Cardenas where we bought makings for our taco bar.





Since our son had his adorable monster cake we had a desert bar for everyone else.

Cookies, Brownies and Cupcakes people! I found the most delicious recipe for Dark Chocolate Cupcakes and super addictive peanut butter frosting (post will follow as soon hopefully). I'm a huge fan of cake and frosting, but I don't like mine sweet so this was the perfect frosting possible. Just think peanut butter cup.

Overall I had a wonderful time preparing for this party and am looking forward to more parties and family fun!

[Mid-Week Snack] Zucchini Butter … not just another veggie snack

 

We have a saying here in the Koenig household, “Bread is just a delivery device for butter”. It isn’t the healthiest of sayings, but it is delicious mmm. We have a great love of food and the many forms that it comes in. As time slips by I have grown fonder of exploring healthier options to incorporate into our less than perfect diet. In regards to my husband he does prefer those of the more desert related forms, don’t we all.

So imagine my surprise when I was able to expand my knowledge of a family favorite. Now I know of several different butters: Peanut butter, almond butter, apple butter, cookie butter and now Zucchini butter. What?! Zucchini butter. That’s right you heard me right.

I know it sounds strange and trust me there was a definite eyebrow raise when I stumbled across this gem. I was slightly hesitant about this newfangled idea of a vegetable butter. However; I figured I have a lot of zucchini sitting in my fridge ready to be disposed of if I didn’t figure something to do with it. What did I have to lose? Nothing! I did, however, have a lot to gain.

I will have to say that this was seriously an easy recipe as I expected that I would burn it. Between the water in the zucchini and the butter that was near to impossible. The zucchini didn’t start to caramelize and stick to the pan until it had been simmering for close to a half hour. You will want to flip it occasional.

The steps are simple.

1. Grate the zucchini and drain the water.

 

 2. Heat up your butter or olive oil, I used butter since we are lovers of the stuff, with your garlic or shallots into a sauté.

 

 3. Add your grated zucchini

 4. Toss occasionally

 

 

 

 And enjoy!

 

 

I would like to say thank you to the Kitchn and your wonderful food ideas. I will be visiting you often for more ideas to bring to my table.

What do you like to snack on?  

 

 

Blogging Learning Curve

Have you ever felt like if you didn’t ever just start on something than you never would? Well, that was the case for me when it came to this blog. It all started way back in 2009 after seeing “Julie and Julia”. I know that movie was a catalyst for many people who thought, “Hey I can do that”. It isn’t as easy as that though. You can’t just sitting down and BOOM you have a blog. 5 years later still no blog. I stumbled across a post on Pinterest from one of my friends who started a blog, and that was that.  I decided to take the plunge, finally.  I started. I didn't want to think to much about the details afraid that I would just talk myself out of it.

I asked myself one question. Umm what platform do I use for the blog? There were so many options out there it was daunting.

 

In the end I decided to go with Google Blogger, as you can see, since I love all that is Google. I started tinkering with the layout and templates. Not really in love with any of the templates, but I decided I would fix that later. I wanted to get my first blog published. After many headaches over what to call my blog and where to start I published my first post, Giant Ruler Growth Chart! I have to say I loved every second of creating that post. I caught the bug!
 Time past and the posts continued… slowly. Now almost one year later with minimal posts, and my template still the same, it is time to work on my dream.  This is my dream a dream to write.

The process of a face lift to my blog has begun a NEW BLOG DESIGN! Yay! 

I decided that I would start with doing some reading on other bloggers suggestion of what to do. I quickly found that basically that I want to make my blog be visually appealing, but not too crazy. Basically, I need to dress it up like my blog is going out for a night on the town. Dress it up my way, Koenig style. 

I than began to move onto different options for template providers. There are several out there that have a lot of wonderful options available.

• wix.com
• mybloggerthemes.com
• designscrazed.org
• themexpose.com

I found a couple designs that I fell in love with. After following the instructions provided I previewed my blog and Bam! It looked like their blog and still wasn’t what I was looking for. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was that I wanted my blog to be. Aside from it being me and not them (to be honest I still don’t think my blog is right). So back to the drawing board!

It was at this point I decided that I needed to use my knowledge about programming and bring it into the practical world. I decided that I needed to use Blogger for all that it was worth and tweek it, make it me.  

I adjusted the background, width, layout all the usually things that people change on their platform. Still it wasn’t right. I knew I needed something that was a tiny bit me so my header is what I decided to do.

There are some people that would say that I’m an artist, and that I have a gift. I wouldn’t say I disagree, but more like I think everyone has it in them to be an artist. I think that we are just scared to put ourselves on a canvas. I have a signature in a way, my bird. I created this bird several years ago and he seems to keep sneaking into my work. I only felt it was appropriate to incorporate him with my blog since he is my style, and should stay with me.

Just one of his appearances

 

The header is up, not finished, but up! My husband, the photo editing guru, wants to show me a couple tricks to upgrade the image. My blog is like me, organic. I believe it will change with me. I don’t know if it will ever be just right, but I think that is because it is a reflection of me. Something I love, but feel that can be improved somehow.

 

Where we started... most likely not the end!

[Mid-Week Snack] Fruit Ice Cubes

Summer time in Vegas means drink your water people

Happy mid-week everybody! Let me just say that last weekend was amazing. This was a weekend filled with friends and family coming together to celebrate the joyyace occasion of the First Birthday. Not just one though 2 First birthday, my son's and our good friends daughters. So you know what that means right. Cake! I had a lot of cake. I do plan on sharing the festivities with every (coming soon) pending my son allowing me to write.

However; I wanted to share a Mid-Week snack with you first. Just a little something quick simple and an absolute favorite of mine. I am a huge fan of water. I love the stuff. The taste, smell, texture and the feeling that I get after having a big glass of the stuff. When my husband and I go out to dinner he just tells the waiter to leave a pitcher with me to save themselves time.

Vegas can get hot. Me? I like the heat. I know that it is very important to stay hydrated during the summer months. Just imagine summertime sitting at the pool drinking water drinking juice drinking a margarita, but you skip the water because it doesn't taste as good. Well, I agree with you on this one. Margaritas are delicious.. um yum. So I have a little trick though I'd like to keep in my back pocket for when I have friends over. Fruit ice cubes.

Now it sounds simple enough and that is because it is. All you really need for this little trick is

• water
• fruit
• some kind of ice tray or freezable container to make an ice cube.

The first thing to do after you decide what fruit you want to use is wash your fruit. The entire fruit is used with the ice cubes not just the juice. I am going to use oranges this time. I do love my citrus fruits. You could use anything. I have used strawberries and raspberries whatever you have around the house or a choice favorite.

Once you have washed your fruit you need to slice it up into portions that will fit into what containers you are using to make your ice cubes. I have these awesome silicon shapes that work wonderfully for this. They are nice and large in addition to adding a cute little flair of shapes.

Next place your fruit into the containers evenly. This will make it easier to fill and move into the freezer.

Fill the containers with water. I like to fill up to about an 1/4 - 1/8 below the rim of the containers. This makes it easier to move them without making a mess and it makes sure they don't expand to far in the freezer.

Place the trays in the freezer, and wait!

Now enjoy a lovely glass of fruit infused water.  You see as the water chills and the ice melts the flavor of your fruit infuses the water. I find it infuses the water much faster than placing fresh fruit into a pitcher.

Have a great summer everyone and remember stay hydrated.