Sorry Excuses

This is the saddest picture I have taken in a long time. I have to (for my sanity) present some excuses:

1) We have been busy with parties and get-togethers, watching Project Runway repeats and all of Christian’s TV appearances. These are obligations that I must tend to. 2) I have been spending a lot of time stalking my brother online, searching for interviews and articles to send to family and friends. How else would my Internet-challenged loved ones keep on track? 3) I am trying to get my new part time gig as a Pampered Chef sales consultant up and running in addition to my full time job. I have to make money to live fabulously.

I feel a little better, but it’s time to stop making excuses. This beautiful birthday gift that I anticipate will bring much joy to my life is sitting with things piled upon it in the corner of our junk room. It almost brings a tear to my eye. I haven’t bought one yard of fabric and only have white thread. I could make a list a mile long of all the things that I “need” to do, but I’ve got to start prioritizing. If I hope to get a job in one of my brother’s sweat shops, I need to at least learn how to thread this thing. I will achieve this, this weekend. I will.

At least I can boast that Evan is eating well this week. I have tried two new recipes so far and it’s only Wednesday. Usually, I make an effort to cook once a week. If Evan doesn’t make something, the rest of the week is FFY (Fend For Yourself). Tonight is the premiere of my second favorite show, Top Chef, so I hope that my cooking motivation will continue to be inspired. If Bravo would put together a “Clean House” competition reality show, maybe I would get it together in that department. Tim Gunn could still host and his tag line could be something like, “Ask yourself, would Nina eat off this floor? Make It Clean!”

Sugary Sunday

Lately, I have been in the mood for desserts. I think that the desserts were the only thing I ate at our party on Wednesday. This may be a small part of the reason that my hangover lasted until yesterday. My favorite thing we served was the “Turtle” Pretzels. I can’t remember where I found these online, but there are a bunch of sites out there that describe how to make them. These are the easiest thing I have allowed myself to serve at a party. Here’s what you do:

Take a bunch of mini pretzels and place a Rolo candy on top of each one on a baking sheet covered with wax/parchment paper. Be careful if you are trying to use the store brand of chocolate caramel candies, because they didn’t work well for me. You bake these at 350 for 3-5 minutes or until the candies start to look soft. You don’t want them to melt all the way. When you pull them out of the oven, immediately push a pecan onto the top of the Rolo to mush the chocolate down. I stuck the whole baking sheet in the freezer for a couple minutes so they would set and then stored them in an air tight container. Delish!

I don't know what is going on with my sweet tooth, because this morning I was craving something sugary, too. I pulled out a recipe I learned at a Pampered Chef party and it hit the spot. I baked a cherry cream cheese ring on my Pampered Chef pizza stone. Here is the recipe:

1 cup of cherry pie filling
½ cup (4 oz.) softened cream cheese
1 pkg refrigerated crescent rolls
1 egg white lightly beaten
1 tbsp slivered almonds

Mix together cherry pie filling and soften cream cheese. Lay out crescent rolls on a pizza stone or pan so that the wide edges are in the middle and the pointed edges hang off the sides of the round pan. Spoon the filling mixture around the ring and fold over the edges to create a "ring". (This is the same process that I use for my Chicken and Broccoli Wreath.) I brush the egg white on the top of the crescent rolls and sprinkle almonds on the top. Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

HE WON!!!

What an exciting night it was. Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep that a secret? I don’t do secrets, ask anyone. The party turned out spectacular. We had 24 guests to share the moment with. Everyone screamed and toasted champagne when the winner, MY BROTHER, was announced. It felt like New Years Eve. I’ll have to watch the show again without guests so I can catch all the little moments. There was so much cheering and laughing that I’m sure I missed some things. I can’t believe how much air time I got! I thought maybe a glimpse from the front row, but there were a ton of of shots. Every time my face flashed on the screen the group went wild. It was so much fun. One of my friends said that she had gotten her hair done right before the show and overheard two women talking in the salon and say something to the affect of, “I heard Christian’s sister lives here in Arkansas and is having a big party tonight, wish I was invited.” Isn’t that crazy?


We had the whole living room set up to look like the fashion week tent. We hung white bed sheets from the ceiling fan and down the wall, brought out all of our folding chairs and even painted a wooden runway. I made goodie bags for all of our guests. In the goodie bags was a photocopy of the TRESemme add in Elle Magazine, (I didn't invest in a copy for everyone) a travel sized TRESemme hair spray, a bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups, a package of Kleenex with a sticker “Hold for Ricky” and an autographed photo of my little brother (curtsey of Brad Walsh). People went crazy for those goodie bags.

The pictures didn’t turn out very good, but we were so crazy with party prep we weren’t worried about good pictures. Sorry.

I will post more about the party later this week. I have more pictures and some great easy recipes that I want to share.

Thank you all for the amazing messages the past week. I really do appreciate all the kind words for my brother and me. It makes my day to get messages from his admirers.

My Favorite Designer

The anticipation is killing me! With only two days left until the finale of Project Runway, I’m already feeling a little sad that it’s going to be over. What will I do with my Wednesday nights? Thank goodness for Top Chef to fill my void, but it won’t be the same. I have lived a plane ride away from my little brother for the last 4 years and watching the show was a way for me to see him, see what he is doing and get to know more about his adult life. When I left for college, he was just starting high school and just learning about his artistic abilities. From the time he was little we knew he was going to be a successful artist, but had no idea it all would happen so quickly and develop into such an amazing form. I don’t want to get too sappy because he will read this and kill me, but I’m so incredibly proud that I can hardly contain myself. It has been so fun to hear from old friends, past acquaintances and people that I’ve met only a few times. Everyone is so excited to know someone who knows him or tell me about their memory of him when he was the little brother tag along. Now when I go to visit him in NYC, I’m the tag along and I love every second of it. I don’t know how much sleep I will get in the next two nights because party plans are running through my head. I’ve prepared and revised the menu multiple times and I think Evan has reached his tolerance level for the furniture rearranging. It will come and go in a flash. While you are watching on Wednesday, keep an eye out for me in the front row at the Bryant Park show. I tried to keep a smile the whole time so if the camera caught me I wouldn’t be picking my nose. We’ll see how that worked out.

Soda Can Tin Stars

Party preparation has begun! I’ve spent all day today cleaning and rearranging. My kittens haven’t enjoyed it as much as I have. They don’t like the vacuum. I don’t want to post too many details about my party plan so that my guests will be surprised. But I did want to share these because they are so darn cute. My party theme colors are black, white and silver. These stars made out of a soda can are the perfect silver accent. I got this idea from a post on craft during the holiday. These little stars were surprisingly very easy to make. I simply cut off the top and bottom of my can with tin snips. (I drink a lot of diet coke, so I had plenty of materials to work with.) After my can could lay flat, I traced a star shape in permanent maker. I could fit two stars on one can and the star cut out is easy straight lines. After my shapes were cut out, I used a ruler to fold at each point. Be careful because the points are sharp. These will be the perfect decoration on my table.

Project Runway Finale Count Down: 4 Days