Archive for birthday

Happy Birthday, Earl!

April 28, 2010 · Filed under birthday, family, oklahoma · Tagged , , ,

Yesterday was my brother Earl’s birthday, so my sister and I met up with him at Pachinko Parlor, just north of downtown. It’s a new little restaurant, kind of an asian fusion with sushi, Thai food, and other goodies. I really liked it. It’s particularly great to see funky concepts come into OKC. Pachinko Parlor is located in a part of town that’s recently been revitalized with new shops, cupcakeries, and restaurants. It’s so exciting to see – OKC just keeps getting better. I should’ve gotten an exterior shot of the place – there’s an enormous tree out front that’s pretty impressive.
Pachinko Parlor

Anyway, it was a nice sibling lunch – just me, Amy and Earl. I cannot remember the last time we’ve done something like that.
Amy & Earl
Afterwards, of course we had to go next door to Sara Sara Cupcakes.
Sara Sara

Sara Sara

I mean, what’s a birthday without cake?

Sara Sara

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twenty-eight

May 6, 2009 · Filed under birthday · Tagged ,

Twenty-eighth Birthday highlights:

  • Pretty earrings from a thoughtful & generous husband
  • Lunch at my most favorite place in our college town where I devoured the entire plate
  •  Surprise lemon cake & sugar cookies from Simon and Jude
  • Sweet birthday wishes from Jude: “happeeee bum bum!” (this is Jude-ese for happy birthday)
  • My mom getting released from the hospital! Yes! And subsequent good reports from the doctors.
  • Sharing a slice of pink & yellow-frosted cookie cake with Jude and seeing his eyes  light up like Christmas when he saw it (he then promptly yakked some of it up after filling up on it. Sugar overdose?)
  •  Gorgeous flowers from loved ones
  • Getting to see my birth mom on my birthday 
  • Feeling good and healthy
  • And so much more!

 






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Happy Birthday, Amelia!

April 7, 2009 · Filed under birthday · Tagged

My sister-in-law Chrysi is truly amazing. She is so creative, so fun, so good at making things. And I think she particularly excels at throwing parties. 🙂 Each one of her kids always gets an amazing party at home for their birthday each year. I just love it – there’s always a great theme, and she always makes amazing food.   Hmmm, maybe there’s a business in the works here?

And did we mention the cakes? She makes awesome cake, too. This year was no exception. Amelia turned two on Sunday, and she had an Elmo-themed birthday that was too cute. There was even Dorothy, Elmo’s little pet goldfish!

Oh, and look at the cute Cookie Monster cookie-toss game. Chrysi made it – even the felt cookies too! Sometime I have to remember to photograph the cute felt food that she made for the kiddos at Christmas. It was so amazing.I’m super proud of Chrysi. I really wish she would write a blog because I know that she’d be good at it and she’d enjoy it. Happy birthday, Milly Moo! We love you!

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Let the birthday season begin!

September 11, 2008 · Filed under birthday, family, party


In our family, we have what we refer to as the birthday season. It begins in late August, with my niece Blythe’s birthday, and it ends in December with my sister’s birthday (and of course the baby Jesus). Stuffed in between there are four nephews, my sister-in-law, my dad, my brother-in-law, Simon, and now Jude. We have a lot of celebrating to do!

Saturday afternoon, we had a little party at our house for my nephew Matthew, who turned 9. Matthew is our budding chef and all-around sociable guy.

Here he is blowing out the candles on his delicious birthday tarte au tatin. There was also a yummmm tarte au citron, both courtesy of the local French patisserie.

Here’s my folks with Jude in his chair, as we all watched Matthew blow out the candles (that did not want to be extinguished!). It took a group effort to get all of them blown out. As we tend to say from time to time, with tongue in cheek, it takes a village! Oh, there was also a birthday present treasure hunt; Luke thought it would be great fun to hide Matthew’s presents out in the backyard and make him look for them. 🙂  We capped off the evening with a walk through the neighborhood to the park.
Yesterday was my other nephew Benjamin’s birthday (brother of Matthew). We got a call from my sister, who said that when she asked Ben what he wanted to do, he replied that he really wanted to go out to Pops on Route 66 in Arcadia, and he wanted Simon, Jude, and I to go too. Well, what else could we say to that but an adamant “yes!”? Such an honor to be included! Plus, Pops is pretty fun to go visit. If you’re ever on Route 66 in Oklahoma, you’ve got to stop. They have tons of all different kinds of soda pop to choose from. Plus, the design of the place is just so darn cool! The food really is pretty good, too, surprisingly enough. Diner-esque, but delicious! Be sure to get a peanut butter shake too.



Here’s Luke, Eric, and Birthday Ben, enjoying our dinner. Check out Eric’s coffee shake. Mmmmmm!

Pick your favorite color!

Jude and his birthday cousin, Ben.
This is only the beginning of an exciting, fun-filled Fall here in our family! What are some of your birthday traditions?

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Happy Birthday to Oma Linda with a Flamingo Surprise

June 25, 2008 · Filed under birthday, oma linda, party, surprise

Well, we Shingletons are a sneaky lot. Or, maybe it’s just me that’s sneaky. I can’t help it – I just love a good surprise! And what better surprise than one that shows up in your yard on your birthday! The scene you are witnessing above (fifty pink plastic flamingoes) flew in just for my mother-in-law’s birthday this morning, around 6am.
There was a sign and everything, courtesy of Flamingo Surprise of OKC. They’ll even come tonight under stealth of darkness and whisk the flamingoes away to their next surprise.

Here’s a rather stupefied Jude and his lovely Oma Linda.

They were everywhere! Linda said her dog and cats didn’t quite know what to make of all the new additions to the yard. Hilarious!

Clearly, Jude didn’t know what to make of it either.


Flamingo Surprise is fantastic. You can order a bevy of penguins or an army of dinosaurs. I’ve even seen swans online as well as teddy bears. It’s a pretty cute way to get somebody’s attention. They customize your sign, too.

We love you, Oma Linda, and wish you the happiest of birthdays! We hope it was a wonderful day and that you feel special.

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Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…

May 2, 2008 · Filed under birthday, cake, graphic design, inspiration, stripes

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with string,
These are a few of my favorite things!


So in honor of my birthday (27!), a silly post today: I’m posting a few of my favorite things. I’m inspired by so much that I see, and as I was looking through some of my Flickr faves, I realized there are definitely a few themes that come together.

I spent several summers during college in France, primarily Paris. I studied French, as well as fashion and fine arts. After an initial visit to France to visit family as a teenager, I was irrevocably hooked. If it’s French, odds are, I’ll love it. Nobody does style like the French. I look back on my time in France as such a delightful experience, and undoubtedly a huge influence in my design career. I look forward to future trips someday. I would love to push little boats around the fountains in the Jardin du Luxembourg with Jude. 

(image: Kirsten Dunst in Sophia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette)
Speaking of my love for France and all things French, I really enjoyed Sophia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette. Visually, it is unmatched. Colors, textures, fashion, textiles — even the food is to die for. It’s an absolutely gorgeous movie, and a visual love letter to the chateau at Versailles. My favorite scenes are of the Trianon and le Hameau, where Marie-Antoinette would get away from the rigours of palace life. Anyway, worth a rental, especially if you’ve got a big ol’ flatscreen TV.

print+pattern

It was also inevitable that I would fall in love with prints and patterns. I grew up in the most fabulous, colorful house ever. My parents’ favorite colors were kelly green and royal blue, and their interiors entirely reflect that. They hired an interior designer who was inspired by what we would now term the Hollywood Regency style, with lots of chinoiserie accents (gorgeous bamboo shelves, I love you so). My parents were unafraid of color, and as a result, so am I. I’ve never met a color I didn’t love, perhaps with the exception of mauve. Because let’s face it, mauve is such a hospital color. I gravitate towards color, I totally crave it. 
The kelly green carpet that runs through their home was the perfect setting for all of my childhood dollhouses, stuffed animals, and My Little Ponies. A Barbie House really looks better with the most luscious green carpet you’ve ever seen. Nobody makes carpet like that anymore.

stripes

Stripes get their own category, aside from print+pattern because they are just so darn fabulous. I know that someday Jude will look back on his childhood photos and wonder what on earth was up with all the stripes he was wearing. But stripes are so awesome – they can convey order, but also whimsy; they can fool the eye and deceive the viewer.

(gratuitous photo of our darling child against a striped background)

In fact, I love stripes so very much that I painted our powder bathroom in black and white stripes. I’m sure our future buyer is going to looove that, but oh well. It still makes me smile every time I walk in it.

Finished Bathroom

Since it’s my birthday, and I am anticipating a fabulous cake, we should discuss cake. I love cake. I love all kinds of it. I would almost get married all over again just to have the cake testing again. And I am just amazed at how creative cake decorators can get. Nothing delights like a whimsical, fabulous cake. Check out these purse cakes below that we saw at the Wynn Las Vegas. 



This cake was inspired by an Oscar de la Renta gown from a few seasons ago. Nothing better than fashion inspiring food, non? That dress was amazing in person, a gorgeous mustard faille.  Anyway, someday I’ll take a cake decorating class just for fun.

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