The Official Twilight Convention

Courtney & I attended The Official Twilight Convention at Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas on Saturday. Being the obsessive Twihard that I currently am, when I heard about the convention I just HAD to go. Court, being the awesome sister she is, was game to attend with me so I didn't have to go solo.

We arrived at the hotel around 10:45 am, got our tickets and headed to the Grand Ballroom for the welcome from The Hillywood Show, hosts of the convention. They are a hilarious group who does parodies of the different Twilight movies, and many others. They started the convention off with the Eclipse Parody, which had just been released a few days earlier. IT. WAS. HILARIOUS.

The Hillywood Show Cast

Excited for the convention!

Christopher Heyerdahl (Volturi Leader Marcus) was the first celeb for Q&A on the stage. He was very funny! Very full of energy and NOTHING like his character. He would leap off the stage and run down the aisles and talk to the audience. It was fun to listen to him.

After the Twilight Lexicon Panel, who talked about their tales from the black, not red, carpet, I participated in The Twilight Saga Yes/No Trivia Game. I thought I had this in the bag. I mean, I play trivia on my iPhone through my various Twilight Apps all the time, how could I not. The questions they asked were HARD! As you can see above I'm concentrating a lot on the question. And embarrassingly enough, I answered wrong on the 2nd question and was out. How was I supposed to remember that Bella saw different colors that other people didn't see in Breaking Dawn. Really?! lol! Oh well, it was fun!

Then we received a visit from the Wolf Pack's Bronson Pelletier (Jared) and Kiowa Gordon (Embry). These guys were a riot. They were just big goofballs. Must be because they are 24 & 20. I enjoyed their crazy answers during the Q&A. It was pretty impressive when they started quoting Dark Knight together. Bronson also told a story about meeting David Duchovny when he was shooting The X-Files in his neighborhood when he was 9. It was a funny story about him having a mouthful of oreos which he spit into his hand so he could talk to David. :-)

After a short break there was a No Minimum Bid Auction with lots of the convention banners and autographed pictures. I was shocked that this Edward banner went for $500. I mean, I love me some Edward, but $500 for this?! Not so much!

Last, but not least, was a Q&A with Peter Facinelli (Dr. Carlisle Cullen). Court & I actually passed Peter Facinelli as we were going up the escalator and he was going down, along with some bodyguards, but we were so wrapped up in conversation that we didn't even notice until it was too late. Dang it! He was great though. Such a cutie and so sweet! He has a great personality. He also walked throughout the audience answering questions, as well as called individuals on stage so they could personally ask him their questions. The lady in front of us got called up on stage and he had her sit in his chair and hang out while he answered her questions. I was a little afraid she might pass out when she returned to the seat in front of us since she was shaking so bad!

It was a fun day that definitely fed my obsession with all things Twilight. I especially loved the Q&A they aired from the LA convention back in May that Taylor Lautner (Jacob), Robert Pattinson (Edward), and Kristen Stewart (Bella) actually attended. I could listen to Rob answer questions in his British accent all day, but I digress.

The next convention in Dallas is December 3-4, 2011 at the Westin Park Central Hotel again. Mark your calendars. I'll be ready to go again. I think I'm going to start a campaign for the next year to actually have Rob there! You know you'll want to go then! ;-)

Fall Girls' Weekend

Elizabeth, Vanessa, & Deborah came into town from Houston/San Antonio the weekend of October 22-24. I love weekends with my girls, who I don't get to see very often. It's a great chance to catch up, laugh until we cry, go down memory lane, and make some awesome new memories.

Bets, Deb, & Ness - tornado party in the bathroom

We spent part of Saturday afternoon in the bathroom due to the tornado sirens going off. We gathered up the cats in their crates and I made the girls stay in the bathroom for a couple of minutes as well. No tornado was going to get them on my watch! ;-) However, after few minutes it go quite toasty in there so we watched the weather from my room.

The crazy weather squashed my plans of taking them to the arboretum to check out all the pumpkins so we created our own pumpkin-picture-taking-spot in my apt! ;-)

We took quite a few pictures, and got a little silly as well. It's sad how long it took us to figure out how we could all be in this picture! We worked off quite a few calories laughing during that time.

Then we carved pumpkins and I made the girls watch my favorite Halloween move from childhood, The Worst Witch. I don't think it became one of their all time faves! ;)

They turned out quite nicely!

We had dinner at Babe's on Saturday evening and the girls told the waitress it was my birthday. I corrected them and told her it had been two weeks before, but I got the royal birthday treatment anyway. :-P

Sunday we hit up Josephine's Italian Bistro for lunch before the girls headed back home.

It was a very fun weekend and I can't wait until the next get together. I am SO thankful to have these girls in my life! Love them!

Birthday Weekend

I turned 31 on October 10th. Grrrr! LOL! At least I can have fun getting older. I had Monday off for Columbus Day so I enjoyed a fun, long birthday weekend filled with awesome friends and family!
October 8 - Friday night Stephanie, Trista, Julie, & I headed to Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie to see Joel McHale's comedy act. Before the show we enjoyed some awesome homecooking at Cracker Barrel. It was a very fun night!

October 9 - Saturday I celebrated my birthday at Bonnie Ruth's in Frisco with some of my closest friends. It was a fun night full of entertaining conversation, pictures, presents, wonderful food, and the best dessert. I had a blast!

The dessert tray! It was SO hard to choose!

I loved the Twilight cards, gift bag, and presents! ;-)

October 10 - My 31st! Courtney & I spent the day at Cowboy's Stadium in Arlington. As part of the iPromise campaign between the Dallas Cowboys and Susan G. Komen the Cowboys gave Komen 1 million dollars. We were volunteers in the half-time show, making a human Komen ribbon. We even got to meet Komen founder & CEO Nancy G. Brinker, with us above. It was lots of fun and a great way to spend my birthday by honoring my 3 mom, a 3 time breast cancer survivor.

October 11 - On Monday Leah, Leigh Ann, Courtney, & I headed to the State Fair to enjoy tons of fried food. We tried fried blackeyed peas, fried chocolate, fried frito pie, fried cheesecake, fried margarita, and a Fletcher's corn dog. It was fun, but we were exhausted, hot, and full when the day was over.

I guess getting older isn't so bad when there are fun times like these! Here's to year 31! :)

Birthdays Galore

August & September have been very busy birthday months for my friends & family. I've headed off to one party or another nearly every weekend, sometimes celebrating during the week as well.

Emma turned 5 on August 11th. She celebrated her party at Pump It Up on Saturday, August 14th.

We celebrated Leigh Ann's 32nd on Saturday, August 14th as well, with a party at her house. That was a busy day! On LA's actual birthday, August 17th, we helped her celebrate with Mexican food at Uncle Julios!

Deborah turned 39 (again) on August 27th. I decorated her cubicle at work and we headed to Down Under Pub & Grub for lunch so she could enjoy her favorite fried mushrooms and chicken dish. She received these beautiful roses from her daughter & family.

Jonah turned 5 on September 2nd. We celebrated with a family birthday at Lake Ray Robert's on August 28th, since his family was camping there for the weekend. Jonah and his cousins really enjoyed splashing in the water.

Court turned 28 on Friday, September 3rd. How is my little sister now 28?! Yes, I feel old! We celebrated with Texas Roadhouse that evening and lots of cake & ice cream throughout the Labor Day weekend.

James turned 1 on September 15th! It seems like he was just born a few days ago. Where has the year gone?! I traveled to Houston for his party on September 11th. It was so much fun to see how he much he's grown. He's not a baby anymore. Wow.

Sara turned 34 on September 5th, but we celebrated with a Chuy's lunch on September 14th. A little late, but SO much fun! The dance party in the car was the best!

And finally, Glory turns 2 this Saturday, September 25th. We celebrated her birthday last Saturday, September 18th, with brownie sundaes, gifts, and a pinata.

Whew! That was a lot of dates and locations, but tons of fun celebrating with everyone! I wouldn't have missed it! :-)

How To Make Twilight Cupcakes

First of all, you must start with a deep love of all things Twilight, as well as a love for your friend on her birthday! ;-) Then you should google Twilight Cupcakes in Google search to see what those bakers who have gone before you have created. I got lots of great ideas online, and to think I originally wondered if my search would return anything. I should have known my fellow Twilight lovers wouldn't let me down. Then you should go all over town shopping for supplies. I really got into the supply shopping and went a tad overboard, but it was fun so that's what matters.

I used a Funfetti cake mix & icing, LA's favorite. Then there was the ready-to-use white fondant from Wal-Mart and the multi-pack of black, light & dark brown, and pink from Michael's. Fyi, Michael's has an AMAZING aisle full of baking/decorating supplies. I LOVED it! I grabbed some cornstarch because I read online it would help if the fondant was sticky when you tried to roll and knead it. It really came in handy. Then of course you need cookie cutters to cut out the fondant. Party America & Party City came in handy when it came to the fangs and Twilight magnets and bookmarks, which I hot glued to the cookie sticks so I could stick them in the cupcakes. Of course I also needed assorted decorating tips, glitter & sprinkles, decorator icing bags, and edible color markers. Somewhere in there I hit up Hobby Lobby too. My shopping became a bit obsessive.

Then, I just winged it. I looked at the online photos and the covers of my Twilight books and just kinda tried to imitate those. I spent about 4-5 hours on the Saturday afternoon before LA's birthday party busting out these cupcakes. I would recommend starting a day or two before so that you aren't rushing around like crazy. The fondant decorations can be made in advance and you won't be so frenzied. The vampire bite mark cupcakes above were obviously the easiest. It's just vanilla icing and red decorating icing made into teeth marks!

Rolling the fondant out wasn't the easiest thing ever with my wooden rolling pin. I think if I work with fondant in the future I will buy the specific fondant roller that is available at most stores. You decorate, you learn. I used the round cookie cutter to get the perfect cut-out shape for the fondant decorations where I copied the Twilight book covers.

Then, I just copied the books. It was actually lots of fun to do. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get the details pretty closely to the original. They aren't perfect by any means, but you get the idea.

Tray one of Twilight cupcakes. The vampire bite marks and fangs are pretty self-explanatory. I did dark brown sprinkles on the cupcake with Jacob Black's (Taylor Lautner's) picture to symbolize him being a werewolf, with brown, wild hair. Bella Swan's (Kristen Stewart's) picture is in a multi-colored cupcake. The yellow sprinkles represent her being from sunny Arizona and the added in purple and pink represents her being a real, human girl. Edward Cullen's (Robert Pattinson's) photo is in a white, shimmery, glittery cupcake because of how Edward, and all vampires, look in the sunlight. And then there is the middle cupcake in the front row with flowers. This symbolizes the meadow in the Twilight saga where many important moments happen, especially between Edward & Bella.

More Twi-cakes. Again, Edward and Jacob's photos are placed in the respective glitter and brown cupcakes. However, this time Bella's photo is in a half vampire/half werewolf cupcake. Is she Team Edward or Team Jacob?! Then of course I had to have Team Edward and Team Jacob cupcakes and an I LOVE Edward cupcake...because I do. And, like I said, I just tried to copy the book covers. I also couldn't forget the 32nd candles for LA to blow out!

Inspiration.

Happy 32nd to Leigh Ann!

Fishy Lunch

We have a pond/lake behind our building at work. It's a pretty, serene area with a fountain, willow trees, walking path around it, and is full of fish. The week before last Deborah & I noticed someone feeding the fish bread during our lunch break. We thought this was a great idea, so we both brought our old bread to feed them as well. I'm not sure how healthy it is to feed bread to fish but they LOVE it! As you can tell, they all gather around and actually fight over the pieces. We quickly figured out the sly gray fish are the fastest at grabbing the bread. The big fish and turtle don't get to enjoy it as much because they are way too slow. We found it hilarious when the fish would jump out of the water and splash us! The two days we fed the fish were SO relaxing, even in the 100 degree weather. It was a great way to de-stress on our lunch break. Too bad we had to return to the sea of cubicles when our hour was up!

Splish splash!

Jumping to grab the bread!

Mouth wide open!

Big & slow = no bread!

Twi-hard? Really?

I don't get it. I don't understand all the drama with the whole Twilight Saga. Vampires and Werewolves? Seriously? Who cares?! I think I am part of a handful of people who have never read the books and/or seen the movies. I don't even know what they are about, besides involving those two mystical creatures. I do not get the hoopla. I have friends who go to the midnight premieres, wait in line for the DVD releases, talk about it non-stop. Yet I still don't get it. I just tune them out and move on...UNTIL NOW.

Yes folks, I am ADDICTED! No, addicted may not be the right word...OBSESSED. Yes, that's more like it. "Hi, I'm Kristi and I'm a...Twi-hard."

It's really all Leigh Ann's fault. She's been telling me forever that I would LOVE Twilight. That it was my kind of story. I would just roll my eyes at her and never gave it a second thought. I don't read, so count me out of reading 4 500+ page books and I did NOT want to see those movies. I don't even like Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as actors...UNTIL NOW.

Leigh Ann bought me the Twilight book as a gift over two months ago. I thought "Oh great, I'm going to feel bad that she wasted her money on getting me this because I'm never going to read the thing." But then boredom set in late one night when I couldn't sleep and I saw the book laying on my coffee table. I thought "Why not? Maybe it'll put me to sleep." Little did I know that was JUST the beginning. I started reading and was hooked. I couldn't put it down. I read it in just three days and it had 498 pages. ME...read a book...and it was Twilight for pete's sake. Aren't teenage girls supposed to be the only ones reading this mess?! So of course I had to see what happened next with Edward, Bella, and Jacob. I got my hands on New Moon and finished it in three days as well. I LOVED these characters. (Totally Team Edward, by the way!) When I wasn't reading the books I was thinking about them. Really?! Who does that. Right after I finished New Moon I quickly ran down to Kroger and bought Eclipse. Thank goodness for their book section! However I was a bit embarrassed by the conversation with the lady working the register, the sack girl, and the sack boy from the next register. I'm pretty sure my face turned red and I hung my head. Yes, I LOVE these books but I kinda don't want the world to know this 30 year old is reading them! lol! Just like the other books I finished Eclipse in three days as well. And of course it was unbearably good at this point, and I hadn't purchased Breaking Dawn yet so I couldn't keep reading. I had friends in town for the weekend and wasn't able to get to a store to buy it. I was like someone who needed their drug fix. I was definitely having withdrawals. I couldn't sleep while my friends were in town and was bitterly mad I didn't have Breaking Dawn to get me through the night. After they left town I headed to Target to grab a copy. This book took me a week to read because life got in the way and it was 754 pages. I was holding my breath during the whole book though. I KNEW how I wanted it to end but had NO CLUE what direction author Stephenie Meyer was going to take it. I have NEVER been so wrapped up in fictional characters.

Of course after reading the first three books I then HAD to see the first three movies. I watched Twilight and New Moon on a Thursday night after work and then headed to the theater with the girls on Saturday to see Eclipse. Seeing the movies brought about my love for Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Well that...and googling them during my reading to learn all about them. Yes, I may be a bit overboard. While reading the books I kept picturing the two of them as the characters and then watching the movies brought it all to life. I'm kind of totally obsessed with RPattz. I'm an E! News junkie and when they mention his name I've been known to run from other parts of the apartment just hear what they are saying about him. Oh, and same goes for Robsten (Robert+Kristen). You know they are a couple in real life, right? So that intrigues me all the more. And of course I want them to stay together so that the new two movies, yes Breaking Dawn is going to be split into two movies coming out in November 2011 and 2012, are amazing and have that chemistry. Yes, I know, I know. Get a life! I may possibly need an intervention in the future, but for now, I'm quite content in fairytale/celeb land. However I feel a bit like a middle school girl who has her fave celeb posters on her bedroom walls. Hmmm...

No, I didn't purchase 'Robsessed' at Wal-Mart, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to!

So what does one do when they finish reading a series/saga and have watched all the available movies? One visits the author's website and reads Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from Edwards perspective. Unfortunately she stops halfway through the book, right when it's getting good, because it had been leaked on the internet. She says she'll finish it some day. She better. It's AWESOME! Then when you are done with that you can always re-read all the books again. Would that be crazy?! Nah, I don't think so. I just finished re-reading Twilight this past weekend. ;-)

Now I leave you with a paragraph from New Moon where Edward is trying to convince Bella of his love for her. Yes it's cheesy, but awesome. I think that's why I love the story so. It's a love story, just with vampires and werewolves. Ha! It definitely pulls at the romantic girl heart strings in me. If you haven't read the books or seen the movies rush out and do so right now. Go! Seriously! Oh, but the books are better than the movies and THAT'S coming from a girl who never reads...UNTIL NOW.

"Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars - points of light and reason. ...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn't see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything."

Awe...I swoon.