All morning, my social media feeds have been filled with people upset that they saw spoilers on Facebook and Twitter about last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy. Everywhere I look today there are a lot of "Thanks a lot!"s and "You guys suck"s and "Whatever happened to warning 'SPOILER ALERT!!!' first???"s. Sorry, my beloved friends and family members. I can't believe I still have to explain this to adults in 2015, but...

Today one of the pages I follow posted an article from the Huffington Post entitled "10 Uncomfortable Confessions From an Imperfect Mom." One of the confessions, which the page featured, was, "I know that every time I feel defensive or judgmental about someone else's parenting choices, it's because I am less than confident about my own." Commenters were asked to agree or disagree. While there were other confessions that resonated with me almost to an eerie level of discomfort, this one did not. 

Miley, Miley, Miley... WTF, girl? Honestly, there isn't much I can say about her train wreck of a performance at the VMAs Sunday night than has already been said in many many places and by many people (including myself).
 So this is only partly about Miley. I want to talk about... priorities.

This afternoon, one of the pages I follow [and often share] posted this:

(W) Today's News quiz for the American public:

The phrase "MORAL OBSCENITY" is trending because:a) US Secretary of State John Kerry used it in the official statement referring to chemical weapons use against civilians in Syriab) Hundreds of mainstream media references to Miley Cyrusperforming at MTV awards yesterday.

Is the Web a mirror in which we see a real reflection of our society? If so, it ain't a pretty face 

It was a good point, but I believe it was pointless. For one thing, instead of getting the serious discussion I think the post was intended to have, a huge chunk of the comments (at least, as far as I bothered to scroll through--there were a lot) were about Miley's performance. I believe that was the exact opposite of what this page intended to do. But, more than that, this page (one I normally love, mind you) and some of the commenters on this page's status whose contributions to this post I read (the ones that weren't about Miley) about how "stupid," "dumbed down," or "desensitized" people who talked about the pop tart instead of John Kerry are, need to get a grip.


You know, it's perfectly possible and even acceptable to care about mindless, mundane things like Miley Cyrus making a complete fool of herself, Robin Thicke, and the rest of us while also caring about actually important world events. Just because you don't talk about Syria... or Egypt... or the NSA... or Trayvon Martin... or the 50th Anniversary of the "I Have a Dream Speech" on your Facebook wall doesn't mean you aren't informed and don't care. And, maybe, you know, underneath all of those grains of emptiness of millions of Facebook users and bloggers going on and on about Miley Cyrus and that poor excuse for "twerking" is a serious and legitimate concern that demands attention--like one woman who commented on this status pointing out that it's not a very "Liberal" (part of the page's name) attitude to have absolutely zero concern for the very feminist issue of why women feel they need to exploit themselves in order to be relevant?

Dafuq?? I'm pretty sure Paula Patton was ready to snatch those pine cones off her head...

For myself, though, I was just enjoying mindless fun--which I'm entitled to have. I read the news often. I'm generally up on current events. I am certainly no stranger to analyzing and ranting (both on this blog and on my personal Facebook wall) about world news and national or local political issues. However, for all of my talk today about the VMAs and all my talk for the last few months about women's issues, racism, voting rights, and other issues du jour, I have not posted one thing about Syria or Egypt. Why?

Well, for me (and only for me), when it comes to my political rantings and ravings I prefer to post about things that outrage me that I feel I (or my Facebook friends) can have some control over. Can the people I know change the way they approach and view others (subconsciously often) regarding race or gender? Absolutely. Can I remind my Facebook friends and family members (especially my younger family members who may still live in a bubble where they are 100% unaware of any news that doesn't fall into the entertainment category) of how important it is to vote? Of course. Can I do a thing about a government using chemical weapons on its citizens? Probably not. I can sign all the MoveOn.org petitions in the world, but there's nothing about my behavior, my actions, or even my moral outrage that could possibly do a darn thing. And really, that's part of my internal litmus test for my Facebook page and this blog. Some of the factors I use are: (1) is it funny or cute?; (2) do I actually have any personal or professional knowledge about this subject that allows me to talk about this without sounding like a complete idiot?; (3) does it directly affect me?; (4) can we do anything about this?; (5) is it worth my breath? Those aren't everything I internally process in approximately 10 seconds before I post something, but it's a pretty good summary of where most things break down. But that's just me.

My friends all have different tests. I have some friends who have one or two topics that get their goat, and they will latch on to any and every topic related to those issues. I have other friends who (as I often do) have a large variety of topics from which to draw their internet material. And I have other friends who feel like they would rather leave the negative issues in one place and use Facebook and blogging for the silly, funny, happy, and mundane. It's our variety that makes the world go 'round. Sure, I have friends who may have been busy posting about vacations or sharing funny pictures of polar bears when I was ranting and raving about the Texas Legislature's war on women, but that doesn't mean that they had absolutely no idea what was going on. It didn't mean they didn't care. And it also didn't mean that their cute polar bear pictures were somehow a waste of time or 100% unimportant (after all, funny and cute things improve your quality of life).

When I posted a very heartfelt "Some of you have been far too silent, so please delete me if you don't care about these couple of issues that are part of the essence of me and some of the most important things I believe" plea to all of my friends on my personal Facebook page, I got responses from a lot of people saying something to the effect of, "Please don't take my silence as an indication that I don't care. I do care. I just don't use Facebook for that." And, quite honestly, I have a lot of friends who admitted in one way or another that they really didn't care about certain issues, either because something else in their lives took priority or because they completely disagreed with my view of things. Whichever of these camps some of the answers fell in, it was good litmus test for me--to what extent was I willing to be okay with remaining in the online of company of people who didn't feel certain topics worthy of discussion or who fundamentally disagreed with me about things that I found so important that I was physically ill at points over the topic? The answer actually was, "Well... it depends on the person and why s/he doesn't want to discuss that kind of topic here/whether I can respect his or her point of disagreement." But it was also a good reminder: Silence on a topic doesn't mean someone isn't paying attention.

A friend of mine always has this statement about people's struggles: It isn't a contest, and someone suffering more doesn't mean that my struggles don't exist. Similarly, just because a person focuses on something mundane and mindless doesn't mean that s/he is mundane or mindless. It doesn't mean that the important, interesting, and topical thing isn't important to him/her. But it also isn't a contest. Why can't you be outraged by Syria and Miley Cyrus "twerking" (hardly) at the same time? Are we not allowed to multi-task anymore? Doesn't the fact that I belong to a page where discussion of heavy political and global issues is the norm while ranting about Real Housewives mean that I am multi-tasking?



So my answer to the page that I briefly considered un-liking today before shrugging off this one hiccup in our otherwise stable relationship (wherein I repost 15 gazillion articles from it a day) is this:

No, the web is not a mirror in which to see a reflection on our society. It is what it is. Everyone chooses what they want to share and to what they want to contribute, and sometimes that isn't going to be the heaviest and most serious issue of the day; but it is quite presumptuous to think that just because the things that the majority choose to discuss ad nauseum aren't the things you consider important means our society is headed for a downfall. After all, isn't the fact that a country is using chemical weapons on its people while an over-indulged former Disney girl performs the ultimate cry for attention on the same weekend partial evidence that we've kinda already fallen?

I dunno... This is pretty damn morally outrageous, too....

"Ma'am, that'll be 269--," the cashier started to tell me. "Wait! We're not done yet!" I interrupted, and I handed her my phone. The register verified that I had saved $10.41. Then I swiped my debit card, and my total bill went down to around $240. Not bad for two seconds work. What's my magic trick? Cartwheel and a Target debit card.

Cartwheel is a new app by Target. The basic concept is social couponing. You login to Cartwheel with your Facebook account, and you are instantly connected with everyone on your friend list who has downloaded the Cartwheel app. You see what they're saving, they see what you're saving, and you can choose to save on the same deals. You earn badges based on your savings and your friends' savings, and those "badges" result in more open slots for you to select coupons.

Unlike the Target Mobile coupons that get text messaged to you every week, these coupons are totally customizable. You can go through the extensive list of coupons and select what you what. My strategy is to go to Target with an empty Cartwheel and search for the items I'm purchasing. If my selection comes down to a choice between brands, I usually select whatever has a coupon. Since I shop first and save later, my savings usually end up larger than they do when I simply clip any and all coupons, because I'm truly only finding savings for things I want to buy (much like when I use Ebates), not changing my shopping habits by using coupons to subconsciously influence me to buy something for which I wasn't actually in the market. Also, unlike the Target Mobile coupons, once you use the Cartwheel coupons, they do not go away until either you physically remove them or the expiration date. Also, you can use the coupons multiple times for the same instance of an item. The Cartwheel coupons can be used in conjunction with sales and other coupons and the 5% discount you get for using a Target Visa or debit card.

Here's an example of some of the things that went into the $10.41 I saved today:

 

This isn't [NAME REDACTED]. I don't even know anyone by that name. Heck, I don't know anyone who lives in [LOCALE REDATED]. I would suggest that you try her at whatever address and phone number you have on file. I will delete the correspondence so as to not be held legally liable for retaining any of her private information, and I'm sure you would not want to be held in violation of any consumer privacy laws.

 

In the future, you may want to password protect such e-mails with identifiable account information with the last four digits of the person's social security number.... << This is just a suggestion and should not constitute or be construed to constitute legal advice.

 

Please remove me from your e-mail list.

Today's entry is going to be short and sweet. 

This week, I was listening to Lance Bass' "Dirty Pop" on my way home [Sirius/XM OutQ 109]. I don't remember the celebrity or the topic that started the train of thought, but Lance and his co-hosts opined that society has become less forgiving of celebrities when they screw up, and they believed the rise of social media has a lot to do with that. I completely disagree.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter (@popculturemom) or Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/the popculturemom), you may have seen yesterday that I've decided to participate in Awesome Luvvie's 31-day blogging challenge. 

This month, The Mom Pledge is embarking on an effort called the Dear Mom Meme. The idea is that instead of using the internet to always talk about what we don't like or releasing our negative energy, to take a little time before Mothers Day to say something positive about or to another mom. Towards this effort, I dedicate this letter to my friend, T. Life has thrown her a lot of curveballs lately, and I just wanted to take some time to remind her and to let everyone else know just how fantastic I think she is.

Dear T,

You're amazing. I know that no matter how often the rest of us in the Fab 5 try to tell you, you seem not to believe it. But you need to hear this again: you are amazing.

You are beautiful, strong, smart, funny, kindhearted, and an amazing friend. You are also an amazing mother.

I know there are other single moms out there doing it every day, but don't let the fact that there are others blind you from realizing that what you do—how everything you do in both your personal and professional life is for the benefit and the goal of your wonderful son—is outstanding. It shows in your son. He is polite and intelligent (not to mention, handsome as all get out). You made him that way. YOU did.

You are a fantastic friend. Of course, I see it in our own relationship. But I also see it in how you interact with others. You are someone that people can always count on to be real, true, and kind. But let's not forget funny. OMG, you can crack me up!

You are a wonderful daughter. You do so much more than many people would do in your situation and probably even more than most people could physically do, considering everything you have going on.

I don't know where you find all the time in the day to do the things you do for your parents, your child, your friends and your coworkers, but you do. Life has dealt you some pretty crappy cards lately, but you have handled it—as you always do—with grace and poise. I know there have been a few times when you've felt just beaten and battered and just exhausted by everything going on, but you still managed it all with calm and class.

You are a wonderful woman. I admire you as a mother and a friend. I strive to learn more from you.

We all see it in you. I hope you can see it in yourself.

Love you, girl!

XOXO,
Pop Culture Mom

Hey you over there with they keyboard! Yeah you—the one on the message board or blog implying that everyone who doesn't parent exactly like you doesn't love their children enough, is psychologically damaging their child, and/or is completely destroying their children's chances of being normal, happy, functioning adults [oh, but you said you don't think those ladies are bad parents, so it's all good, amirite?]. Yeah, I've got a message for you.

Dear Judgy McJudgerson,

Amazing how you think you know on such bold and sweeping, blanket terms what is best for EVERY child. I'm sure your vast experience in raising [one child] / [three children] / [20 children Duggar style] to the ripe old age of [two months] / [11 years] / [42], combined with the books and blogs you faithfully read, has completely qualified you to determine what will and will not make for a productive, functioning adult. Can I borrow that time machine when you're done?

I have two children who cannot be parented the same way by the same parents because they are so different; yet you, perfect stranger who we have never met and will never meet, knows exactly what works and doesn't work for my children. Why haven't you written your book yet? It's sure to be a bestseller. After all, why do we need so many parenting books out there when your one philosophy on parenting will surely answer every question any of us have ever had?

Before I swallow what you're selling hook, line and sinker, I just want to make sure your parenting techniques will actually work for my children. I know you think all children can be molded the same, which is why your one philosophy applies to all children equally, but I really want to know how this is going to work. So let's just start with Little Diva for example.

Even though I know [you don't believe in any type of punishment, because that will psychologically damage my child]/[only believe in spanking, because anything else will spoil my child], what does Little Diva consider the single worst punishment for her—the one that relates to her individual personality, motivations and triggers? What are the three most effective rewards to offer her?

I know you already have your own very strict beliefs about diet or television or cartwheels, but—assuming this question is even acceptable within your parenting philosophy—given a choice between extra dessert or an extra hour to stay awake and watch TV, which would she choose?

What are her fears?

What are her favorite movies?

How does she typically react in a social situation with people she's never met?

How does she feel about spiders?

What would her reaction be on a 4' high beam? In a pool of water?

Who are her favorite non-fictional people excluding immediate family? [you know, when she isn't hating us for not following your soon-to-be-patented parenting technique]

What is her least favorite word?

Does she like tomatoes?

What? You don't know? But you're sure your one-size fits all philosophy works? Based on what exactly? Oh... Those books and blogs you read? Have you met the author... and his/her children? You haven't.... So why do you assume their way to raise children was even effective for their kids, let alone yours or mine? Because the author's suggested parenting techniques fits your own personal style, instinct, preference and philosophy? That's funny. I was acting on my own instincts, style, preference and philosophy too… and you implied that it made me a bad mother.

Until you can answer those questions with respect to my child---both of my children—you don't know them. You don't know their ticks or triggers. Unless you can answer similar questions about me or my husband, you don't know anything about our family structure.

So don't purport to assume you know how to raise my kids.

Most sincerely (oh boy, am I sincere),
Pop Culture Mom

Of course, the One True Way Moms will never read my letter. They're too busy telling perfect strangers online what's wrong with how they live.

Look, I know that people judge each other's parenting choices, just like we judge everything else. When I see things I don't like or understand, heck yeah, I judge. I may even rant to my friends about it or write on Facebook, maybe even post a blog. But there's a difference between judging something that is different from you and trying to dictate how others live. Moreover, I think most of us who silently judge are fully capable of admitting that while we prefer our own way, that doesn't make any different way inherently bad.

If you can't understand the simple concept of how we are all made different, which is why different things motivate and appeal to us, try thinking of individual parenting choices as other choices. I am a cat person. Dogs are okay. I've had plenty of them, but I'm not really that into them. I have some friends who can't stand cats. Me constantly mentioning my love of cats isn't going to change the anti-cat person into a cat person, and them countering back to me with the merits of dog love isn't going to persuade me either. Now let's suppose we have a friend who wants a pet, but doesn't know what to get. Of course we are going to both try to persuade her why our pet preference is best. In the end, though, that neutral friend is probably going to pick the pet that fits best within her personality and lifestyle. If she's a dog person, my cat argument may have sounded appealing... until she found an alternative that was more "her." I can't get mad at her for that. I can't call her and the other dog lover horrible people or irresponsible pet owners simply because having a cat wasn't for them. I mean, I could; but if I did, they would probably be well within their right for hating me and my insistent one-true-wayism.

I'm not that gal, though. I might question why anyone would ever prefer a dog. I might even think they're crazy for it. But at the end of the day, I will always acknowledge that while a cat is right for me, it isn't for everyone, and I shouldn't give a flying flip about what someone else does in her own household unless it directly or indirectly affects me. I also don't need to justify my choice of cat to anyone. And if I had a fellow cat-loving friend who was One-True Way about her cat love and who refused to respect anyone who owned a dog, I couldn't be friends with her. I am not in the habit of maintaining friendships with people who can only respect me when I am exactly like them. Heaven forbid I want to have my own opinions one day!

I know some of you think this is a ridiculous example, because cats and dogs don't really affect society, but how someone raises their kid does. But not really. Yes, there are some universal bads that have a long-term effect on society. People who choose to allow their kids to be obese are affecting health care costs, but someone who occasionally lets her kid have junk food that you don't allow in your house at all probably is not. People who are sexually or physically abusing their kids are probably affecting the society around you, but people who are spanking their kids or strict Positive Parenting advocates most likely are not. People who raise their kids religiously or who raise their kids atheist are likely not affecting you, but people who are raising their kids to hate and even engage in physical violence towards people of a different race, religion or sexual orientation, probably are.

We all want society to be better. We all want our kids to be nearly perfect (whatever our version of "perfect" is). However, there are only a few examples of truly universally bad parenting. The rest is all shades of gray. So tend your own garden before you go pointing out the dandelions in someone else's.

Post Note: After this was published, someone asked me if I'm not doing the same thing I'm accusing others of doing—judging someone's parenting style. I think it's a valid question. Here is my answer: In the same way people who are intolerant of bigotry, sexism, homophobia, etc. aren't "intolerant" on the same level as the bigots/sexists/homophobes [e.g., hating Westborough Baptist doesn't make you a hypocritical hater], I'm not casting judgment in the same manner as the one-true way parent. I don't care how someone parents. I really don't. Even if I don't like someone's parenting style, unless it falls within the rare exception of a Universal Bad warranting a call to CPS, it isn't my business. That was the whole point of this post. It's none of our business when people employ parenting methods that are different from our own. Most of those people know nothing about your kids and what makes them tick, so they have no business publicly passing judgment on your parenting style. And, quite frankly, they also lack the qualifications. So, no, I'm not trying to say "Hey, I bash the One-True Way Moms who parent differently from me." Heck, I feel the same whether it's someone with a vastly different parenting style or someone with whom I generally agree [I cringe watching another lactivist attack moms who use formula. Killing the cause, deary. Killing. The. Cause]. I'm just saying, until you've walked several hundred miles in another mom's pumps until you made it all the way home, don't go around telling her that she's not walking the right way. That's all.

I don't watch football when I can help it. I can't stand it, honestly. In fact, I didn't even know which teams were playing until I Googled it this morning. Pop Culture Dad, however, is a huge football fan, so I cannot escape the Super Bowl no matter how much I try.

The night before the Super Bowl, Pop Culture Dad and I were grocery shopping with the kids, and I decided to pick up some cupcakes. Most of the cupcakes that were for sale were Super Bowl-themed. Not knowing or caring which cupcakes went with which teams, I picked the purple ones. Why? Because my kids and I love purple. I asked Pop Culture Dad if I should have gotten the red cupcakes instead, and his response was, "Meh. It doesn't matter. I guess I'll root for Baltimore, since I really don't care who wins this one." I actually had to ask him (as if it wasn't obvious from what he said) whether Baltimore was purple.

In trying to determine which team I would faux-root for, I started trying to come up with non-football related criteria. I've seen a couple of pictures where one Harbaugh brother (the younger one) was hotter than the other. So maybe... But those pictures were clearly doctored, because there isn't that much of an appreciable difference between the two. Tie.

Then I thought that stupid player for the 49ers who made the homophobic statement had made it easier for me, especially in light of the counter-point made by a very articulate player for the Ravens. But then San Francisco generally is pretty gay-friendly, and the 49ers were actually the first team to make an It Gets Better video. So, once again, no clear advantage.

I've been to San Francisco but never to anywhere in Maryland. Loved everything about San Fran except the fickle weather. And it's close to Napa. Advantage Dan Francisco.

I hate gold, so both teams lose there. But while I'm neutral about red, I really hate it combined with gold, unless, you know, it's Christmas time... Or a Quidditch game. My favorite color is black and second favorite is purple. Advantage Baltimore.

Bottom line: as long as the Texans aren't playing, I don't really care who wins. Somehow, though, I found myself kind of hoping the Ravens would win. Probably because I know if I attended Hogwarts, I would have been in Ravenclaw rather than Gryffindor.

So what about the game itself? Well, I used to watch for commercials. But ad people have run out of creativity [as evidenced by that GoDaddy crap, which was so awful, I won't dignify it with a link], so instead I just stay plugged into social media and try to accentuate the positive.

Here are some of my reactions throughout the game:

Before the game:
- "Why is everyone talking about Ray Lewis like he's the second coming? Didn't he kill somebody?"
- "The dude with the tattoos... Kaepernick. He's adopted, right?"
- "I know we just left a birthday party, but... How long before the game do I have to wait before it is appropriate to break open the cupcakes?"

Pre-Game Entertainment
- "Sandy Hook... Crap. This better not make me cry."
- "Jennifer Hudson, too??? There's another person who'll tell ya all that's wrong with our gun-crazed culture."
- "Shit. I'm crying."
- "Alicia Keys? Pass! I'm not really into people who like to steal pregnant women's husbands. I don't care if he married him later. Guess she'll get hers later. How you getcha man is how you keep yo' man."
- "Wow. Alicia Keys. That kinda sucked. Like. Really. Bor-ring. Can we get JHud and the Sandy Hook kids to come back?"
- made the interesting observation on Twitter, Facebook, and inside my home that the assessment of Alicia Keys' performance was very strictly divided among racial lines. White folks loved it. People of color (all colors), not so much.

During the Game
- "How long until Queen B?"
- "Wow. Commercials suck. Seriously. When is halftime?"
- During halftime, I had an interesting conversation with Pop Culture Preschooler [hereinafter, Little Diva] about Beyoncé. She decided this week that she can out-sing Queen B any day of the week. After watching two minutes of the performance, LD decided her singing superiority was confirmed.
- Best observation on Facebook (credit to one of my favorite writers, Kyra Davis): Bey should have sang the National Anthem live and lip-synced the Super Bowl. We would rather see you dancing than hear that screeching. Whatever point Beyoncé was trying to make by singing live tonight... Um... She probably made the opposite.
- Where Bey DID kill however? That dancing. That body. DAYUMN she looked good... Until...
- Beyoncé should never stand next to Kelly Williams... Like, ever. Kelly is HAWT.
- "Single Ladies"... Bey put her hand down when she said "you shoulda out a ring on it," because Jay-Z did. But is it just me or did that it kinda made Kelly and Michelle look a little sad? Did she really need to go there?
- "Godammit! Beyoncé bootylicioused the lights out!"
- The electricity failure presented a perfect time to give the kids a bath. Couldn't have planned it better if I had forgotten to pay the Superdome's utility bills myself.
- best comment on Facebook about the power failure (by Pop Culture Dad's friend, BMW enthusiast): Just another example of classic Mercedes electrical failure.
- while the Gagnam Style pistachio commercial was as stupid as all pistachio commercials tend to be, I had fun doing the dance with my girls. Side note: I need to do Just Dance 4 tomorrow....
- While rocking Pop Culture Toddler [hereinafter, Super Girl] to sleep, I found myself Googling "2013 Super Bowl score." Then I remembered I didn't care.

Thanks to our girls' sleep schedules, Pop Culture Dad had to watch the game on DVR delay. How did I spend my time while he caught up the last 30 minutes of the game? By writing this, of course.

For those of you who hate football as much as I do, if you're stuck with a football lover in your life, how do you cope with the endless day of football and football commentary that is the Super Bowl?

Photo by M Photography  Look at that smile!

As of Saturday, September 29th, Pop Culture Baby 2 (AKA Brennan) is a baby no more. My little princess is now one.

I started party planning mode months in advance. At first, I was set on doing a Lil' Angels theme after finding some of the decorations on clearance at Party City. I polled my gal pals about it. Most thought it was cute, but one thought skulls were a little morbid for a baby's birthday party. Although I disagree, I could see how some of my family members would have also had that viewpoint. Besides, after looking at and Pinning some of the Lil' Angel decorations to my Pinterest board for kids' birthday ideas, another idea was forming in my head.

PCT2 is such a little rock star. Early on, my friends gave her the nickname Super Baby. She was so ahead of everything, and so happy while doing it. She is honestly as close to perfect as a kid can come (minus her lack of sense of self-preservation). A rock star birthday seemed just too perfect for her. And, well, since we are practically the house that Sanrio built, a Hello Kitty rock star theme seemed perfect. I got to websurfing and Pinning.

I found a lot of great ideas online, but wasn't sure how I was going to pull them off. That led me to starting the decorations two months before PCT2's birthday, so I would have ample time to start over if I messed up.

The first thing I did were the invitations. I found some pink and black argyle images/digital scrapbook paper on Etsy. As I blogged about previously, I designed the invitations with an app on my iPad. I bought some 5x7 invitation paper to print them out (with gorgeous hot pink envelopes to match). When I had trouble getting the print settings perfect (going from iPad to PC), I got some help from one of my mommy board pals, Sweets4ever at Craftster.

The invitations were my starting point for the rest of the decorations. I found some a Hello Kitty buttons on Etsy also. While they never printed properly as 1" buttons, they did provide me with great backdrops for my other decorations. One of my favorite Hello Kitty rock star designs (the same one on the invite) served as the base for the lollipop decorations, some of the hanging decorations, the wall posters and the favor boxes.

Photo by M Photography

Hanging and Wall Decorations

The second long-term design project were the aforementioned hanging decorations. Initially I thought about buying those Lil' Angel hangers in the clearance bin and pasting Hello Kitty over the skulls. I figured out, however, I could do it on my own. I got circular and scalloped punches in varying sizes. At night when everyone was asleep (I work, after all), I would sit up in bed punching out the Hello Kitty's and various plain black circles with either PCT2's name or a "1" on them and plain circles or scallops on either the argyle pattern, black, or silver sparkles. Once a had a quart-size Ziplock bag completely full of punched-out paper, I started matching various shapes, sizes and designs until I was happy. I then bough decorating ribbon in black, pink and silver, and spent my nights gluing and taping my designs. The result were hanging ribbon decorations with three circles on each. I saved the remaining paper cut outs for other decorations.

I also bought several balloons to hang. We are in the process of selling our house, so the last thing I wanted to do is have tape and push puns everywhere. However, thanks to the helium shortage, my vision of floating balloon everywhere had to be curtailed. I did manage to procure two tanks, one of which was used almost exclusively on three gigantic mylar balloons shaped like the number one.

Photo by M Photography

I also made signs for the walls, door and window using the Avery Removable Wall and Window Signs. Some of the reviews regarding the actual removability of the stickers were not favorable, and with freshly-painted walls, I was not willing to take a huge chance. If I had to do things over, I would skip these.

Photo by M Photography

Candy Bar

I was desperate to do a candy bar. I always love seeing them at parties, and there were some very cool-looking ideas on Pinterest. However, I didn't want to spend three-figures making one. I bought some satin pink polka dot fabric on eBay to use as a table cloth and jars from the dollar store. I found pink and black candies on Amazon.com and from various candy wholesalers online. I also found some raspberry M&Ms in varying shades of dark pink and licorice bites from my local Super Target. I decorated the glass jars with ribbons I bought from Michael's and the punched-out designs I had made previously. For the lollipops, I got some flower decorating foam boards and wrapped them in black tissue paper, putting ribbons around one layer and pink and black argyle duct tape around the other. The personalized stickers on the lollipops were created on Microsoft Word with Avery 1" round labels. I took my favorite Hello Kitty button design and used Word to personalize the circle around her.

We will reuse the jars and the fabric. I can't sew to save my life, but my mother is very good at it and plans to make the girls dresses with the fabric.

Photo by M Photography

Photo by M Photography

Mmm.. candy ribbons!

Photo by M Photography

Photo by M Photography

Favor Boxes
I found cheap hot pink and black boxes on Amazon and used the same Hello Kitty design, but on the 2" Avery stickers to decorate the favor boxes. The favor boxes were all empty for the kids to fill up with cookies (see below) and candy from the candy bar.



Cookies

I bought some Hello Kitty cookie cutters from Sanrio.com and a guitar cookie cutter from Amazon. I already had the star [honestly, I can't believe we didn't have a Hello Kitty cookie cutter before now!]. I baked several dozen cookies and frosted them all.

For the packaging, I got Avery Printable Bag Toppers, which also came with the plastic bags. They perfectly fit all of my oversized cookies, except for a couple of the guitars, which had spread when baked. Most of those broke in half as I was trying to get them into the bags, anyway, so it all worked out. I also had some trouble with the black cookie frosting refusing to harden, but over all, the cookies weren't bad. My mom assumed I had bought them somewhere, so I take that as a compliment.

Some Kitties clearly fared better than others!

Water Bottles

Thank you, Pinterest! I made the water bottles by removing the existing labels from water bottles and putting pink and black argyle duct tape where the labels used to be. They matched the party beautifully, and unlike paper labels you make yourself, these could go in a cooler without being destroyed.

Photo by M Photography

Cake and Smash Cake

I take no credit for the actual birthday cake. After getting custom cake quotes that were way out of budget for a one-year old birthday party, I contacted a coworker of mine, who was the person who made Pop Culture Preschooler's first birthday cake [a cute princess castle; after the first birthday, we stick to sheet cakes from the grocery store]. I sent her the invitation design and asked what she thought she could do with it. She told me she would try a few things, but had never used fondant before. I set my expectations low. When she arrived with the cake on PCT2's birthday, I nearly fell over. The cake arrived in four beautiful parts, ready to be assembled. The last two parts of the cake were the Hello Kitty (head and body)—the part of the cake we were both worried wouldn't work. I had already bought s plush Hello Kitty to use as a cake topper just in case. No need. This Kitty was (is) FABULOUS. She's also edible (made of Rice Krispie treats on the inside). However, we won't touch her. She is too beautiful to eat. [okay, okay... We did crack open her body at work. Delish!]

Photo by M Photography

All photos by M Photography

My smash cake did not go as well, though. No matter. Its purpose was to be demolished! I am proud of myself for figuring out how to (kind of) use fondant, though. And PCT2 sure didn't seem to mind!

Photo by M Photography

Photo by M Photography

Photo by M Photography

Birthday Board

This is one of my proudest Pinterest-inspired creations. I spent weeks playing around with fonts on my computer and drawing things out on my iPad and by hand until I was satisfied with how the board would look. Initially I wanted to do a chalkboard with chalk markers, but I couldn't find a board with a frame I liked. So I settled instead on a black canvas with paint markers.

Some of my numbers proved wrong at the well-baby checkup the next day (she's actually 30.25" long and 19 lbs 12 oz), but it still looks good.

Photo by M Photography

Photo by M Photography

Pictures

Special thanks to my friend Mirna at M Photography for taking pictures. Mirna does all of our family pictures, and she totally rocks! If anyone is in the Houston area, I highly recommend you give her a call!

Pop Culture Preschooler ready to rock out. Photo by M Photography

Note: any picture that doesn't say "Photo by M Photography" under it was taken with my iPad (that's why the quality isn't as good).

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad