5th Annual Gingerbread House Party

Sweetville
Oh, why, hello, hello, welcome back to Sweetville, USA, the gooey center of Tootsie Pop County! I’m so glad you could come by once again to see our beautiful, snowy-sugared town. Come, take a walk with me and I’ll show you the sights.
Katie's Sweetville City Hall
In the center of town, you have City Hall, a gathering place for politicians and plebians alike. While the city council argues the placement of this year’s iced Gingerbread Christmas tree or whether the town should pave a caramel yellow brick road, you have the traffic violators paying their fines for parking in front of the candy corn cones or speeding down Peppermint Patty Lane.
Kim's Order of the Mousse Lodge
Ah, and there is the Royal Order of the Mousse Lodge, an organization dedicated to preserving the history of Sweetville and keeping the town sugar-coated for years to come. The members are very involved in the community, whether it is cleaning the streets of sprinkles, working in a soup kitchen serving Boston Baked Beans or even passing out Altoids for those with a touch of halitosis. The Order is very selective though, not anyone can join. I hear you have to be able make a tasty s’more (and knowing Mike-n-Ike doesn’t hurt either).
Amanda and Lauren's Sweetville Heights
This is Sweetville Heights, the newest addition to the city. Fast and furious building started in the beginning of the year, but like everywhere else, Sweetville was not immune to the economic downturn.
Lauren's Foreclosure
Our first foreclosure — how sad. The poor guy didn’t even have a Bit-o-Honey to fix up his Hershey pick-up. Although construction has slowed, the residents of Sweetville Heights are enjoying the amenities that it offers such as a Pop-Rock fireworks display and lazy afternoons by the Swedish Fishing hole.
Lauren's Church
The Sweetville Heights development also built this quaint church for it’s residents. Here is the church, there is the pretzel steeple, open the iced candied door and look at all the gingerbread people.
Jen's Occupy Sweetville
And we cannot touch on the economic crisis without visiting what many believe to be the root cause: The Bank of Sweetville. For years, basically any gingerbread man or woman could get loans to build larger and more elaborate houses — using the finest graham crackers and imported icing, of course — regardless of whether or not they could pay back the 100 Grand. What they didn’t realize was that unless their homes were properly lacquered, they would decrease in value exponentially. Of course, The Bank of Sweetville then bundled up these spoiled assets, slapped on a fraudulent Nutrition Facts label, and sold these empty calories to anyone who had the money. As you can see, the result of this skullduggery is the Occupy Sweetville movement. While these Gummi Bears are 99% corn syrup they are hopping mad about being misled. To show their displeasure, they have set up their Fruit Roll-up tents and are basically loitering in front of this tastefully decorated bank.
Katy and Christine's House
In addition to the economic woes, Sweetville was also the victim of a cotton candy cyclone. While most buildings escaped harm, some of the less sturdy structures were damaged. This was the worst natural disaster to a candy town since Timmy Thomas realized he was going to lose a game of Candy Land to his little sister and flipped the board in a fit of poor sportsmanship. In a show of support, the citizens came through with extra frosting and Twizzlers to patch the damaged roof of this home. If the marshmallow snowman in the front is any indication, this is going to be a very merry Christmas indeed!
Beth's Christmas Tree
There is the official town Christmas tree, I guess the council has decided to place it here, along Main Street. Many people come to help decorate, it’s tradition. You can’t go wrong with a red Twizzler garland, little candied ornaments and a Peep snowman. On Christmas Eve, families gather around with their hot chocolate, apple cider and other warm, delicious concoctions, sing Christmas carols and frolic beneath the frosting of its branches.
Monika's Mars Bars Inn
Over yonder is the Mars Bars Inn, a well-known dining establishment, a staple in this town since 1911. If you are looking for comfort food, a cozy atmosphere and good conversations, this is where you will find it. The specialty here is the Skittles Steak, served with a heaping mound of creamy mashed potatoes and perfectly grilled asparagus. If you have room for dessert, you must order the Milky Way Delight. I would tell you what it is, but then it would ruin the experience. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Although there have been some some misfortunes this year, the community hasn’t let it melt their spirits, hence the folks are always welcoming and Sweetville is just simply irresistible. That is all the time that we have today. I hope you enjoyed your visit and please, swing on by anytime. And if you have any friends who would like a tour, you can see the rest of the town here, here, and here.

Chip and Dale, Woo!


Oh, my! What a way to spend a Friday evening, watching these guys dance! They were so hot. I mean, those shoulders, those abs, the way they…wait, a minute. Whoops, my bad! Wrong guys! What I meant was: CHIPPENDALES!!!

Some weeks ago, I had heard that the Chippendales were coming to the Argosy Casino and I thought, “Wouldn’t that be a fun thing to do with the girls?” I gathered up all the women who were willing and ready to be wowed (by the ridiculousness of the show) and went over to the “East Side.”

It was the best $20 that I had spent on a show! I mean, you had singing, dancing, sultry looks, abs, comedy, thongs, shoulders, tattoos, you name it, it probably had it. I knew it was going to be hilarious but I was not prepared how much I was going to scream and laugh. There really are no words to describe a Chippendales show, you just have to see it for yourself. Besides watching the men strut their stuff (go Dr. Thunderbutt!), you had to watch the women in the audience. Lordy, lordy, I have never seen so many women go crazy over some half-naked men. While we all hid when they were looking for volunteers, gobs of women were grabbing the guys and trying to get themselves on stage. It was insane.

Although we were not partaking in flinging ourselves at the Chippendales, we did not escape unscathed. I did get a hug and kiss from my favorite one (my dream of being touched by a Chippendale has finally come true) while Kate danced with the one who looked like Fabio and Katie and Kim got hi-fives. But Sheena got the best deal of all: she got pulled on stage and was spun down the entire row of men and ended up lassoed! Awesome!

I highly, highly recommend checking out this show! I mean, there is nothing wrong with spending 2 hours cat-callin’ at some hot men and objectifying them. Leave your feminism behind and enjoy the ride.

Halloween Supper Club

It’s that time of year again: pumpkin carving! I love Fall and pumpkin carving kicks off the holiday season! This year we had quite a few participants (which meant more roasted pumpkin seeds, yum!). Check out these fancy works of art:

Kenny’s Jack Skeleton
Kenny's Jack Skellington Pumpkin

Krissy’s Gus-Gus
Krissy's Gus Gus Pumpkin

Kim’s Pac-Man Board
Kim's Pac Man Pumpkin

Kari’s Goofy Pumpkin
Keri's Goofy Shortbus Pumpkin

Kate’s Cerberus
Kate's Cerberus Puppy Pumpkin

Chris’s Pissed Off Pumpkin
Chris's Happy / Mad Pumpkin

Jen’s Creepy Pumpkin
Jen's Creepy Pumpkin

Amanda’s Scared Pumpkin
Amanda's Creeped-Out Pumpkin

Katie’s Spider
Katie's Spider Pumpkin

Bob’s Angry Birds
Bob's Angry Birds Pumpkin

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Vatican Splendors


I’m not Catholic but that doesn’t stop me from being fascinated with the history and its artwork. I love the secrecy, the conspiracies, the rituals that go along with this religion. When I had heard that this exhibit was coming to St. Louis, I was all over it (okay, so I really wanted to see the reliquaries, I’m morbid, what can I say?)

Now, an exhibit like this costs a pretty penny ($25) so I was a bit hesitant about paying that price but along comes Groupon which offered a buy-one-get-one free ticket, including an audio tour! Heck yeah! We jumped on that and headed on down to the History Museum.

Quite a few people have told us that it would be hard to obtain tickets: not true. We walked up to the ticket booth, redeemed our tickets and were even able to jump in line for showing at 12:30 (it was almost 1:00).

The exhibit takes you through the years of Catholicism, artistically and historically. The artwork is exquisite, I was just blown away with Michelangelo’s Pieta, the beautiful, intricate gold objects, and the old frescos depicting St. Paul and St. Peter. I think the most fascinating gallery was “Dialogue with the World.” It showed Catholicism throughout the rest of the world.

I don’t care if you’re Catholic or not, you believe or not, I think that you should take advantage of this opportunity to see this exhibition. It impressed me and educated me. I do have one complaint: there were definitely not enough reliquaries. Oh well.

“WICKED”-edly Fabulous


When we found out that Wicked was coming to the Fox this summer, it was decided that we had to make it a girls’ night out with a dinner and a show. We all cleaned ourselves up and away we went!

We started our evening at Kota Wood Fire Grill. We had heard that it had good food, it was right across the street from the Fox and we had a couple of coupons. I was a bit disappointed with the experience. Something in the kitchen prohibited any dishes to be sauteed so half of the menu was off-limits. We also weren’t really that impressed with the service. Our waiter seemed to disappear for long stretches at a time. I do have to say, my food was cooked well (Espresso Rubbed Beef Filet Medallions) so at least I had that. Let’s just say, sometimes the service really overshadows that quality of food.


On to the show! I had already seen Wicked so I decided to go for the cheap seats. Some of us had never seen it and I love going with first-timers, they are just awed and entranced by the story. I recommend seeing this show, it’s an interesting twist on the classic Wizard of Oz.

On to the second show! Afterwards, we headed down to 2720 to check out Kate’s artwork on display for one night only put on by Drawgasmic. It was a pretty neat show and an interesting environment. Let’s just say that we were a bit overdressed at this event. But it was fun and we were exposed to a wide array of artistic works from across the globe. I know it’s a bit late, but Kate, congrats on your piece!