Le Petit Monstre

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

At least for the moment!

~Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack 

I think it is amazing!  I have always loved Karen O's voice and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahsare a favorite of mine.  The songs from the soundtrack really highlight her skills but not so much that it becomes annoying.  Her childlike voice, backed up by the untrained children's choir and the snippets of movie dialog (A. always rewinds the beginning of track 5 to hear Max say "Let the wild rumpus start!), random humming and amazing instrumentals make this an interesting but surprisingly mellow CD.  It is definitely kid approved as Little A listens to it every night and I often hear him singing the songs when he thinks no one can hear him.  The movieof course was amazing.  I went in not expecting to like it because a) I have always loved that book, which means Hollyweird would definitely ruin it for me (*cough* Harry Potter) and b) me being contrary and demanding that I am not a hipster and that is not why I wanted to go see it.  I am kind of tired of having things I love being labeled as hipster or for white people because it seems to happen a lot.  Oh well, if the shoe fits.  But you will NEVER see me in skinny jeans.

~ Picnik

it is an on-line photo editing site that lets you save your finished photos directly to websites like Flickr, Facebook, etc.  I really like the touch up makeup section and the effects look cool and are really easy to do.  My favorites are Cross Process and the rounded corners frames.  They had a lot of great Halloween options, but they are gone now (maybe to make room for some holiday things?).  Here are a couple of photos I did with the Halloween effects.

~ the Beatles Rock Band

This game is so freaking addictive!   The opening movie and the shorts in between levels are works of art.  I love the set list and although it is kind of short, it has both a lot of old favorites and some I was not  as familiar with but like a lot.  I always sing or play the drums, and I like how the drums are not quite as hard.  There are regular beats that I can catch on to quicker, rather then playing all over the place like Rock Band 1.  Favorite song to sing Paperback Writer.  Favorite song to play on the drums I'm Looking Through You.
 

Halloween Party

I know it is a little late to be posting about Halloween, but it has taken me this long to clean up the mess.  We just got rid of the last bag of trash a few days ago.   We had a party and it was amazing.  The only thing that could have made it any better is if a certain lovely lady in London had been here!  There are more pictures over at Flickr but here are a few of my favorites.

Aric and Jennifer.  Notice her deviled egg cookie.  she was super proud of that one.

Chad~  We had two bands play.  That is one of the perks of having a lot of musician friends.

the coffin of beer.  Keith and his brother Aric built this the year we were married.  I love it!

Mercury Heat was the first band to play.  They did an amazing job.  Thanks guys! 

There were a lot of great costumes!  Some of my favorites were Benjie and Dale as Bert and Ernie, Aric's Frank from Donnie Darko, Kelly as the Devil with a Blue Dress On and Amanda as an adorable Mad Hatter.

The party was an awful lot of fun, but it will probably be a while before I have that many people over again.  There were about 80 people here, but everyone was really cool and respectful.  The bands were both amazing, there was a ton of food that my best girls helped to make ahead of time,  custom costumes sewn up by a very talented Ms. Kati, a coffin full of beer and plenty of conversation.  Woohoo! 

Did you do anything fun for Halloween???
 
 
 

Halloween Party

I know it is a little late to be posting about Halloween, but it has taken me this long to clean up the mess.  We just got rid of the last bag of trash a few days ago.   We had a party and it was amazing.  The only thing that could have made it any better is if a certain lovely lady in London had been here!  There are more pictures over at Flickr but here are a few of my favorites.

Aric and Jennifer.  Notice her deviled egg cookie.  she was super proud of that one.

Chad~  We had two bands play.  That is one of the perks of having a lot of musician friends.

the coffin of beer.  Keith and his brother Aric built this the year we were married.  I love it!

Mercury Heat was the first band to play.  They did an amazing job.  Thanks guys! 

There were a lot of great costumes!  Some of my favorites were Benjie and Dale as Bert and Ernie, Aric's Frank from Donnie Darko, Kelly as the Devil with a Blue Dress On and Amanda as an adorable Mad Hatter.

The party was an awful lot of fun, but it will probably be a while before I have that many people over again.  There were about 80 people here, but everyone was really cool and respectful.  The bands were both amazing, there was a ton of food that my best girls helped to make ahead of time,  custom costumes sewn up by a very talented Ms. Kati, a coffin full of beer and plenty of conversation.  Woohoo! 

Did you do anything fun for Halloween???
 
 
 

Six Beautiful Years

This Halloween marked our sixth anniversary.  It has been six long, wonderful years.  We have grown up together.  Now more then ever, it feels as if we are a team.  Us against the world, taking it head on.  We are finally getting into our groove, and it feels like we are equals who choose to be together, rather then have to be together.  I want to say it has been hard because marriage IS hard work, but looking back it seems so easy.  Our marriage has been like a perfectly choreographed dance routine, where we side step to avoid conflicts and come back together again in perfect sync.  I have gained new respect and love for my husband over the years and I have not had to sacrifice fun or desire to achieve it.  In all honesty, not a day goes by that I don't wonder aloud how I could have been so lucky as to have found him.  And you want to know the icing on the cake?  He does the same.

from here to here

 

Halloween Goodies

A huge thanks to Cherish at Bittersweet Lane.  I recently recieved my box of Halloween goodies from her blog giveaway.  There was lots of fun stuff, but my favorite was the cute little owl ornament she made. 

The plate is already loaded up with yesterdays batch of cookies, the glitter spiders are dancing on the piano, and Little A. has already claimed the pencils and erasers.  What fun! 

 

(pictures are from her blog)

Halloween Fun

So, so, so, so much going on around here.  I know I have been MIA for quite a while and I will tell you all about it soon.  But it is nothing exciting or fun so I will save it for another day.  What is exciting and fun right now.... Halloween (my absolute favorite holiday)!!!  We are having a huge party and it just keeps getting bigger.  I am not sure if our house can fit 75 people plus a live band, but we will see.  Lots of decorating and cleaning and baking going on around here right now.  Some fun Halloween links/pictures for you.

I love these amazing silhouettes from Value Village.  I printed them out to go above the fireplace.

I was kind of disappointed to find that there are not a lot of Where the Wild Things Are Halloween goodies.  I went looking for pumpkin patterns for the wild things, but couldn't find anything I liked.  I just wanted the face, not the whole body.  So I used the book as a reference point and drew the face right on the pumpkin.  I pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 
More Halloween decorating goodness from Martha Stewart's Grandin Road collection.

We also made a bunch of spider egg sacs for the front porch which were in one of my past Martha Stewart magazines.  Sadly I cant find the article anywhere on her site.  I did find a link on Halloween Forum.com which had a picture.  These were very easy and cheap to make and they look great on the spiderweb covered porch.

We have also been making and decorating LOTS of cookies.  I collect sprinkles and I have really added to my stash this Halloween because I have found some very cool ones!  I love the silver chunky ones especially (made by Wilton)!

WOOHOO!  I love Halloween!  What are your plans?  Having a party?  Well here is my top ten list of songs for your Halloween Party Playlist

Poison~ Bel Biv DeVoe

Halloween~ The Misfits

Thriller~ Micheal Jackson

She Wolf~ Shakira

This is Halloween~ Marilyn Manson

I Put a Spell on You~ Creedance Clearwater Revival

Tricky~ Run DMC

Wild Thing~ The Troggs

More Human than Human~ White Zombie

Black Magic Woman~ Santana

If this doesn't get you in the mood to party, then nothing will!

Big Girls Do Cry

 

Dog                                                          Man

Little man just started preschool.  He did pretty good the first day, didn't cry at all.  And I was strong enough to wait until I got outside to start bawling. 

Outrageous Oatmeal Cookies

 

Our new favorite cookies, courtesy of Starbucks.  I picked up the recipe card the other day because Keith always gets one of these cookies when we go for coffee.  They turned out pretty good, considering my oven is completely awful at baking evenly.  The cake plate was full last night and now it is down to this.

Patience Times Infinity

It is amazing what can get me started down the long and winding road of a new project.  I recently checked out a National Geographic video from the library about Japan's Living National Treasures, and while all of the arts were amazing, one in particular caught my eye.  They were making dolls but rather then paint them, they used tiny squares of tissue paper layered over one another with glue.  This gave depth to the color but at the same time softened the look.  I thought that it looked great, so of course I completely disregarded common sense and said "I am going to try that too!"  I chose to overlook the fact that these people spend life times perfecting their techniques and that they also spend hundreds of hours on one single doll.  At times this project was tedious and boring, but most of the time it was simply relaxing, meditation-like.  It was one of those things you could work on until you were sick of looking at it, then set it aside and not think of it until you were ready to start again.  The layers of tissue paper were built up over time, adding different colors over each other to get the right shade.  The hair and eyes are actually a black party napkin because I wanted it really dark.  I have to say I am pretty pleased with the outcome.  The pictures don't really do it justice.  But this will definitely be a once in a lifetime thing.  I have picked up a new hobby, which is (surprisingly) even more tedious and time consuming..... miniatures.  I must be a glutton for punishment.

 

Long Time, No See

THE BLOG IS BACK!