Enough about me, my crazy schedule, and excuses for shirking my blog responsibilities. I have something to post about! It’s geeky, wedding related, AND pretty – that’s pretty much the trifecta of awesomeness around these parts, right? Oh, also reasonably priced and FUN – a quintrifecta? I dunno.

Either way, it’s Twitter that’s responsible for the subject matter of this blog. FSM, how I love Twitter! Always hear about the coolest stuff there, probably because I follow – and am followed by – some of the coolest people ever. Love it!

This is Surly Amy… who is a geektacular artist located in Hollywood, California. You see what she’s about to pack in that gift box? Custom jewelry! Not any of that boring, fairly nondescript beaded jewelry that you see pretty much everywhere these days (which, I admit, can be fun to make… I do it myself from time to time!)… NO! It’s custom sculpted/cut/carved/painted ceramic jewelry! Awesome! Unique is ALWAYS cool in my books.. but when it’s technically well done, artistic, AND with a nerdy bent? Just awesome. Amy’s business, Surly-ramics, is a purveyor of all of that.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing friends post pics of Amy’s work – she’s obviously a gifted artist – but I REALLY fell in love when someone linked to her Trilobite pendant. Seriously. Is this not the coolest thing a girl could ever wear around her neck, or what? Well, I certainly think so, anyway!

“Wedding related?”, you may ask… well, yes. I totally would have worn this at my own wedding (We got married at the Science Museum!), and it would have been the perfect accessory. Knowing my bridesmaids, I know that they would have flipped out if I’d given Surlies as bridesmaid gifts.

Because the jewelry is all highly customized, Surly Amy can do any design, in any color/colors (wedding colors!), even add a wedding date etched into the back of each piece! Seriously.Amy, consider yourself added to my “If my husband ever agrees to do the WHOLE THING over again” file!

Here are some more photos of a wedding set that Amy designed – the wedding theme was “Black Eyed Susans”. I love that not only did this design fit SO well with the wedding look (and photography style!), but they could be worn with formal (wedding!) or casual outfits.. and SO freaking cute!

Aside from wedding party gifts / accessories, or even bridal jewelry (again, I would have been ALL over that, had I known about her at the time!).. I think these would make great shower gifts, be a neat favor for bachelorette parties… and apparently Amy’s even done a wedding where ALL of the guests got Surlies as favors! Take THAT, Jordan Almonds! Wanna get some Surlies of your own? Here’s how to get ahold of Amy: Main website: http://surlyramics.com Etsy website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/surly Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1653711616 Surly Amy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SurlyAmy

From time to time, I blog about stuff that I find cool. It may be what someone did for their Save the Date, it may be a cool product, or an awesomely talented artist. I don’t get asked for those blog entries, I don’t get paid for them. I just blog it because I find it cool, and – assuming you find *me* interesting enough to read my blog – I figure you’ll find it cool too! “Birds of a Feather” and all…

Alex, the ridiculously gifted artist behind The Pumpkin Geek is one of those insanely talented people I tend to “meet” on Twitter. I can’t remember how I came to follow him, but once I saw his work, I was an immediate fan! If you haven’t seen what he does, be sure to peruse his site – he carves the most intricate, geeky Jack o’Lanterns ever! They’re all from fake pumpkins, so you can treasure the art indefinitely!

Where I’m usually lucky to receive a “hey, thanks!” email (which I totally appreciate!), Alex shocked the SHIT out of me by mailing me a custom carved mini pumpkin – featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine – to thank me for the blog!

If you know me at all, you know that I shrieked like a little girl when I found out. I have a big crazy thing for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Not so much a crush as.. hrm. I don’t know. I find the character oddly relatable in some ways, and inspiring in other ways. That, and seriously.. I’d kill for Hugh Jackman’s delts. I have a BIG poster of him downstairs in my gym for exactly that reason!

Alex asked for my mailing address, to send me postcards and business cards. Given how much I fangirlled out about his work, I didn’t think anything of it. He wasn’t able to keep up the ruse for long, though, and ended up spilling the beans – he’d carved me a mini, 5″ pumpkin, and needed my mailing address for THAT reason.

Well, I don’t think I’ve been so excited to go to the post office in my life.

I make my morning mail runs about an hour before the “we will have all of the mail sorted to the boxes” time. When there was nothing in my box the day I THOUGHT it would be in, I went ahead and took my parcels to the counter to ship, feeling a bit disappointed. Asked if I could bug them to check if there were any parcels back there for me. Here’s how that went down:

USPS Guy: “Oh, are you expecting for something in the mail?”
Me: “YES!!”
USPS guy smiles, goes to the back, comes out with a box
Me: Shrieked, clasped my hands over my mouth, literally did a happy dance, and generally looked like a goof.
USPS guy, looking at the box as he hands it to me
“WHO is “The Pumpkin Geek”?”
Me: “OMG LET ME SHOW YOU!!”

So he got out a box cutter and was nice enough to open the box for me, while I was giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. He passed the box to me, and I gingerly dug out the packing peanuts, etc, fishing out my cute little mini pumpkin.

USPS Guy: “What is THAT?”
Me: “OMG it’s Hugh Jackman!!! As WOLVERINE!!!! AWESOME!!!”

To be fair, looking at the unlit pumpkin, you really can’t tell WHAT it is. I knew exactly what the picture had looked like, and even I was having a hard time seeing it. Alex carves the pumpkins at multiple levels of depth, so while I was seeing “uncut” solid color (textured), and space.. it didn’t look like much.

So, we had to plug it in. I love my USPS guys, they’re always so nice and accommodating. This one offered to find an outlet to check this out.

There was one on the wall behind the counter, so he plugged it in, and OMG. It was awesome. We all – the USPS guys, me, and a few other customers – had to stand back and ooh and ahh over it a bit. The lighting (supplied with the pumpkin), REALLY brought the whole thing to life. Here is my carve, lit up:

Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?

The thing that gets me… and this is coming from someone completely incapable of carving a decent looking Halloween pumpkin (triangle eyes and crooked zig zag smiles all the way!)… is HOW does he do it? I mean, when you’re carving a normal pumpkin, carving all the way through, you see what’s happening as you go. Just look at a close up of the detail in this:

I mean, seeing the lit up pumpkin is awe inspiring enough as it is… but then you realize he’s got to be pretty much flying blind as he carves it! I know my ability to visualize things is more developed than most, but this just blows me away. Completely. Absolutely sick amount of talent, this guy has!

The other day, he put out a request for pics of fans with their carves. As you may know, I *hate* getting my pic taken. I’ve turned down interview requests over it, I pretty much only trust my husband and Katrina from Studio Laguna Photography with it, and even then, I pretty much only allow a camera in my face.. maybe 3-4x per year. Yeah.

Well, I’m so thrilled with the unexpected gift, I did the honorable thing, sucked up my pride, and let my husband photograph my ugly mug with the pumpkin. Least I could do, this was awesome. Completely awesome. Never seen anything like this in my life, and I have it prominently displayed in my office now.

But I couldn’t resist photoshopping in some claws.

If you’re looking for a custom carved Pumpkin, Alex can do *anything*, and offers them at a much lower price than I would have imagined possible – they start at $100! I know he has a special going for the next couple weeks, be sure to get ahold of him if you’re interested!

You know, I try to keep these blogs at least tangentially related to weddings, so…

These would make AWESOME wedding gifts for your favorite geeky couple. If they’re not as camera phobic as I am, maybe have their engagement portrait carved for them? Otherwise, an “Enterprise” pumpkin, their favorite sci fi characters – he’s even done a carve of House! – would definitely be a stand out gift. I’d almost guarantee that a custom pumpkin carve would pretty much be re-gift proof!

Don’t get me wrong.. I have nothing against love, affection, showing appreciation for those you care about, romance, or whatever. I’m just not big on feeling forced to do anything, or ads that seem to.. well, encourage romance by way of guilt. Jewelry ads that seem to tell guys that they don’t really love their girl if they aren’t willing to express it by buying a “REAL stone” are particularly great for getting some eye-rolling time in!

Nope, I’ve always preferred the “Do something nice for my hubby, cause he deserves it / he had a rough week / *I* had a rough week / I feel like it / Saw something or had an idea that made me think to / etc way of romancing my hubby.

That said, the market really does get hit with an awful lot more “romantic” gift items this time of year, and I’m REALLY impressed with some of the ideas I’ve read about on Twitter, come across online, etc. Of course, I procrastinated WAY too much to actually order any of these for this weekend, but they’re all too cool NOT to share! Consider this partially my “fantasy Valentine’s Day wish list”, and partially me spreading some love to people/companies that I like!

First off, ThinkGeek.com is an amazing one stop shop for Valentine’s Day, IMHO. They have cool products year round, of course.. but major kudos to them for their VDay lineup! My Favorites:

Valentine’s Day Box of Mini Plush Microbes!
This was actually my #1 gift wish (to give OR receive!) this year, and actually would have been able to order in time, but they were sold out till this morning. Bah. Cutest thing ever! Admittedly, probably best for someone with a certain sense of humor – I’m sure some people would take offense at getting a heart box full of plush venereal diseases*. I, however, think it’s awesome! Click here for all of the details.

Plush Beating Heart – It’s adorable! What else is there to say? Click here for all those details

They have a ton of cool items.. check out their Valentine’s Day Gift list Here.

Next up, gotta give some love to my Twitter buddy, Geeky Clean. Sure, there are a million and one soap companies out there, and I’m sure many, many are just fabulous.. but she’s got a unique, awesome product. You know how it is. Nerd solidarity!

“Sexterity” soap
I’m not even into RPG, and I think this is awesome. “peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine” sounds amazing, and come on – super cute idea. My hubby is a reformed gamer, this would be perfect for him. You know, if I didn’t steal it for the scent! Also FTW: “Swine Flew” bacon scented soap and pretty much everything else they make.

I think their soaps would make amazing guest favors for any nerdy or geeky wedding, party, shower, or whatever – and she will do custom packaging! Mental note: Blog more about this later!

Now here is a company I recently found on Twitter, and I am COMPLETELY blown away by the talent here. I mean really, disgustingly talented. He carves fake pumpkins like this:

K, everything I said about no guilt Vday? 1 exception: Oh wonderful husband of mine, I know you’re reading this.. you know, if you *really* love me, you’ll totally order me a custom carved pumpkin, featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Claws out, preferably featuring him in a tank top. Thanks! *mwah*

You can follow this ridiculous artist on Twitter HERE, btw.

Pumpkins a stretch for Valentine’s Day? Not in my mind.. and hey, it’s my blog! So… there.

Ah, the love continues! My favorite radio station just played Nek’s “La Vida Es”, which I think is the most romantic song ever. Maybe I’m mentally ready to celebrate this weekend afterall, feeling warm and gushy after the song.

How are the Mr and I spending Valentine’s Day, you may wonder? This year, we decided to have fun with it: White Castle, Boone’s Farm, and B movies. Cause that’s just how we roll every once in awhile

* I get a kick outta the way people talk about “VD” on Twitter, much in the same way I snicker when brides discuss their STDs. (”Save the Dates”, for my non-wedding readers!) Mature, I know Gotta take your entertainment where ya can, right?

For today only, we have our Jacked Up Java Caffeinated Brownie Mix on sale – only $10. This is just over 28% off the retail price of $14!

Each package of mix make 18 large brownies, each containing the same caffeine level as a large cup of coffee. Super easy & foolproof to make. Mix is easily divisible into 2 separate batches, and comes in a resealable bag to aid in that.

Makes a great gift for programmers, gamers, nerds/geeks of every flavor, and college students. Well, and for anyone else who likes chocolate and coffee!
]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/11/30/cyber-monday-sale-at-celebration-generation/feed/ 0 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/30/bananas-foster-pralines/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/30/bananas-foster-pralines/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:02:39 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/?p=334

This recipe combines 2 of New Orleans’ most popular desserts – The flavors of Bananas Foster, in the form of a praline! Highly addictive.

Bananas Foster Pralines

1- 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup + 2 T. heavy cream
3/4 stick butter
3/4 cups pecans
3/4 cups banana chips
1 dram banana extract
2 teaspoon rum extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, brown sugar, cream, and butter.

Heat on medium or medium high until mixture comes to a boil – it will start out VERY thick. Once mixture starts to boil, turn heat down to medium low, or until mixture stays at a low boil. Affix candy thermometer to pan. Stir occasionally, scraping down sides of pan. Cook until mixture reaches 240 degrees.

At 240 degrees, remove pan from heat. Add pecans, banana chips, extracts, and cinnamon. Stir well – it will become opaque, a thick creamy texture.

Spoon quickly onto parchment paper or a grease cookie sheet, allow to cool & Harden.

This is a unique take on an earlier recipe I posted, Sponge Toffee. While traditional sponge toffee was always a favorite as a kid, I developed this recipe to satisfy my more mature tastes as an adult.

This sponge toffee was inspired by one of my favorite goodies, my grandmother’s ginger-molasses cookies. (Recipe coming in December!)

Ginger Molasses Sponge Toffee

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup Molasses
6 tbsp water
2 tbsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp vanilla

Prepare a 9″ x 13″ cake pan with nonstick spray, or a light coating of vegetable oil or shortening. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, stir together sugar, molasses, and water. Attach a candy thermometer to the pan, making sure that it does not touch the bottom of the pan. Bring mixture to a boil, and allow to cook until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (hard crack stage). From the time mixture starts boiling to the time it reaches 300F, do not stir.

Once mixture reaches 300F, remove from heat. Add baking soda, ginger, and vanilla,beating to incorporate. The mixture will start foaming quite a bit when you add the baking soda (chemical reaction!), so using a LONG wooden spoon is a good idea. The sugar will be very hot, and will burn if you get any on your hand as you stir. Be very careful and work FAST.

Dump foaming mixture into greased cake pan, spreading it out as evenly as possible. Allow it to cool completely.

Once toffee is cooled all the way through, remove from pan and snap into chunks / nuggets and serve. Be sure to store toffee in an airtight container – the sugar will attract water from the air, and the toffee can go soggy.

THINKGEEK.COM IS NOW CARRYING OUR JACKED UP JAVA BROWNIE MIXES!!!111!!!!1!!ONE!

YES! Hubby and I have always been big fans of Think Geek, so this has been an extra-difficult secret to keep. We are feeling so l337, it hurts!

Thinkgeek has always been my one-stop shop when it comes to gifts for my geek of a husband, and we both love perusing their print catalog *as soon as it arrives* at our house, scanning their website for cool new items, and figuring out cool uses for some of their unique offerings.

In fact, ThinkGeek was exactly what I had in mind as I developed my Jacked Up Java mixes! I’d already created one cake mix – and several cookie mixes. That was well enough on it’s own I guess, but we got into some evil megalomaniac brainstorming. “What can we create… that we could potentially get sold on ThinkGeek?”. THAT was the genesis of the Jacked up Java line, and it thrills me to no end that it was ThinkGeek themselves who eventually became our first wholesale client for the Jacked up Java line!

It’s been an interesting, surreal handful of weeks since I first heard back from their Caffeine Guru. (and I quote: “I need to buy mix right away. BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME. I am so wired from one of your “magic” brownies.”) Since that email, we’ve:

- Made an epic grocery run, picking up more than 900 lbs in dry goods. Definitely a record for us – I usually buy my ingredients on an as-needed basis, weekly!

- Individually labelled 400 pouches, by hand, front and back. My fingernails hate me – that was a lot of sticker-peeling!

- Processed that 900 lbs of dry goods into 400 mixes. In ~40 lb batches.

- Inhaled unhealthy amounts of cocoa and caffeine during the process.

- Bagged, sealed, crated, and hauled 920lbs worth of freight.

- Yes, FREIGHT! Had to take the lot of it to Blaine to ship as freight, something we’ve never had to do before. SO exciting! The 16 boxes were put onto a pallet and wrapped, while we took photos and giggled like schoolgirls as they drove it off on a forklift. See below!:

I cannot tell you what a huge relief it was to be done all that mixing, bagging, packing, and hauling.. and to see it be taken away! We shipped it as we were on our way to our a couple weeks ago, so the time off was doubly welcome. Especially the jacuzzi – hauling that much mix really does a number on the back!

On that note, I really should give a big affectionate shout out to my husband, who has been AMAZING throughout this whole process. From hauling the goods to the kitchen to spending LATE hours there with me, doing all of the weighing and bagging.. to hauling boxes, providing shoulder rubs when I need it, and more.. he’s just been wonderful. I married well!

So, that’s about it. They’re starting off with the brownie mix, but may end up picking up the cookie mix later. FYI ThinkGeek: our Jacked up Java cookies have a famous handful of fans : the Aces of Cakes themselves, the freaks over at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore. You know, just to name drop a little I had sent a couple batches of the buzzworthy cookies to Mary Alice, as a thank you for a recent referral.. and got the coolest email comment ever:

“Oh my GOD. Everyone LOVED them. They made us go coocoo – in a good way. Those things are LOADED! We loved them thank you thank you thank you! You’re the sweetest! – Mary Alice Y.”

Just sayin, that’s all.

Anyway, I think I’ll cut this short before I go into full out ThinkGeek fangirling…

Check out our Jacked up Java Brownie Mix on the ThinkGeek site here: ThinkGeek.com – Jacked Up Java Brownie Mixes @ ThinkGeek.

Check out the rest of our mixes (including the Jacked up Java cookie & Brownie mixes!) Here.

No matter which site you buy them from, enjoy responsibly! They make awesome gifts, too!
]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/27/awesome-news/feed/ 1 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/27/candy-apples/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/27/candy-apples/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:07:54 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/?p=340

Candy Apples are a fun activity for the family, are cheap and easy to make, inspire nostalgia, and are a tasty way to use some of the bountiful apples this season. What’s not to love?

Well.. aside from sugar burns, anyway. While this is an easy recipe, I recommend keeping little hands away from the cooking sugar, and ideally away from the dipping process as well. Kids can have just as much fin picking out the apples, the flavors, etc… without the risk!

Candy Apples

Up to 10 large apples, washed and allowed to dry*
Up to 10 Candy apple sticks (skewers, chopsticks, whatever you want to use)
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups corn syrup
3/4 cup water
Several drops food coloring*
2-3 tsp flavoring*

Grease a cookie sheet, and/or line it with parchment paper. Set aside.

Prepare the apples: Remove all stems and stickers (if applicable). Insert stick into apple – They should go in at least halfway. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir well, bring to a boil on medium or medium-high heat. Affix candy thermometer to pan.

Boil mixture, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 310 degrees. Remove from heat, quickly stir in food coloring and flavoring. Stir mixture until it stops boiling, and most of the “bubbles” disappear – this will minimize texture on your finished coating.

CAREFULLY dip each apple, one at a time, turning to coat completely & evenly. Allow excess candy to drip into the pan, then place on prepared cookie sheet. Be VERY careful – sugar burns are NOT fun! Leftover sugar syrup can be used to make Homemade Jolly Ranchers

Allow candy coating to cool completely – usually 30-45 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and enjoy, or wrap in cellophane to enjoy later.

*Apple Types, Coloring, and Flavoring: I like to flavor my candy apples with cherry, banana, or grape extracts… but you can flavor them however you’d like. I also like to color my candy to match: Purple for grape, yellow for banana, and so on.

I usually figure out what flavor I’d like to do, and then choose the apple type based on that. Grape and Banana candy look great on Red Delicious apples, Cherry and Grape look particularly nice on Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples. Have fun with it!

]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/27/candy-apples/feed/ 1 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/26/banana-walnut-brittle/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/26/banana-walnut-brittle/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:09:13 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/?p=342

While Peanut Brittle is always nice, I do like to get crazy with things every once in awhile. This is one of my favorite variations on an old standard! This is also particularly nice for gift giving at the holidays!

Banana Walnut Brittle

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup walnut meat/pieces
3/4 cup dried banana chips

Cooking Spray

Set oven to “warm”, or lowest temperature.

Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Place inside warm oven.

In a heavy saucepan (2 quart), mix together sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water

Bring to boil over medium-high heat, then attach candy thermometer to saucepan. Stir often until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees Celcius). KEEP A VERY CLOSE EYE ON IT after about 280 degrees, as the temp has a tendency to race up at that point. If you turn your back, you could burn it!

At 300 degrees, remove the pan from heat, add baking soda and butter, stir until incorporated. Quickly add in walnuts and banana chips, stir until completely coated.

Remove cookie sheet from oven, and pour brittle out onto it. Use 2 buttered forks to pull the brittle mixture out from the center, till it is thinly spread and relatively even.

Cool completely, then break into pieces.
]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/26/banana-walnut-brittle/feed/ 0 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/23/decorated-sugar-cookies/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2009/10/23/decorated-sugar-cookies/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:10:08 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/?p=344

Well, Halloween is just around the corner, so now’s a great time to post our recipe for decorated sugar cookies!

These are great to serve guests at your halloween party, or as a weekend activity for kids, or even to hand out to your favorite Treat or Treaters. Very easy to make, and can be a lot of fun!

Cookie Ingredients

2 cups butter, softened
2 1/3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs
4 egg yolks – Reserve egg whites for icing!
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract*
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
7 cups all purpose flour

Icing Ingredients

4 egg whites
1 Tbsp lemon juice
4-6 cups powdered/confectioner’s sugar

In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add in eggs and egg whites, a little at a time, beating well between each addition. Add vanilla extract, and mix until well incorporated and smooth.

Mix remaining 3 ingredients together, carefully stir into wet ingredients until fully incorporated.

Wrap dough in plastic film, chill for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, grease cookie sheets.

On a floured counter, roll cookie dough out to about 1/4″ thick (can be up to 1/2″ thick if you prefer a thicker cookie). Use cookie cutters to cut out whatever shapes you’d like, place cookies 2″ apart on greased cookie sheets.

Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until bottoms look lightly golden. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheets for at least 5 minutes before moving. Cookies need to cool completely before decorating.

In clean stand mixer, whip egg whites until foamy. Add lemon juice, whip for another minute. Slowly add powdered sugar until cookie icing reaches desired consistency. You will want a thicker frosting for piping details and borders. If you’re wanting to “flow” the icing within piped borders, icing can be thinned with a little lemon juice or water.

* 2 tsp Anise extract can be substituted for a fun variation. I especially like using anise (black licorice flavor) for doing cookies that will be shaped/decorated like black cats or bats.
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