Mystery Murderer Dinner Party

Each year I try to do something different for my birthday, of course, this year was no expection.  I wanted to do a mystery murderer themed party for my birthday for a long time.  This year, I was able to make it with help from my friends and family, I was one happy birthday girl!

My friend had a mystery murderer party few years ago for her birthday.  She kept most of the materials and I borrowed the materials from her.  She and her husband were helping me to plan the party since they had experience of what we should do.  

For decoration, I had started thinking of how to decorating my party about a month before the party. I set few themed colors first (red, black, gold and white).  And work around with those colors and added little details to match the 1940s theme. Luckily, the themed colors at my house are red and little black, so I could easily reuse some of the decoration stuffs and frames from home and repurposed them.  We also created a photo booth and some photo props for pictures.  Everyone had a great time of taking pictures of the photo props I made.   

For desserts, I made few different desserts for the party, including donut holes and smore bites and of course cupcakes.  They were so yummy and great for us to walk around to communicate with other characters to find out who the murderer was.  I also made some little tags for each desserts, so people know what they were eating.

For food and drinks, we order Italian food from a local Italian restaurant.  Their price was very reasonable and food was great.  We also sticked with wines and old fashioned drinks the whole night.  We had two speical cocktails, Bee's Knees and Old Fashioned.  For non-alcohol beverage, we made cucumber rosemary lemon chiller; it was so refreshing!

I am so happy that most of my friends dressed up for their parts too.  They made the party even more memoriable than it could be. 

Here are some more pictures:

Found this old newspaper picture and a prescription for alcohol drinking online. 
Yup, you needed to obtain a prescription for drinking back to the 1940s.

My boot camp buddies=)

Another prescription I found online

Cucumber roseymary lemon chiller

Decroations on the dessert table

Posing with the photo props

My Asian gang

I love the setting=)

The boys in 1940s style

Our dessert table

smore bites

Love always makes me puke!

I made a dozen of South Park Valentine's Day Special cupcake toppers for my Etsy customer last week.  My customer got the idea from Wendy and Stan from South Park, and he wanted me to make Stan's throwing up on the toppers.  If you are a die hard fans of South Park, you know that Stan got nervous when he falls in love.  He often vomits when Wendy trys to kiss or talk to him. 

I made some talking bubbles to go with the toppers, so it looks like the two characters are talking to each other.

The cupcake toppers were sent out by certified mail. 
They were safely arrived at my customer's house.
 Here is a picture my customer sent me.  "you bake, I make them pretty!" 

Halloween Cupcakes

America should make Halloween as a paid holiday for everyone since this is one of the favorite holidays for most Americans (kids and adults) in the States.  When Halloween is around the corner, I know a lot of bakers are going to create some amazing cakes/cupcakes inspired by this holiday within this month.  I watched a lot of baking and cake decorating books, most of the cakes/cupcakes are inspired by the traditional Halloween images, such as black cat, spider/spider web, pumpkins, vampires...I wanted to do something a little bits untraditional for my Halloween cupcakes.

Few of the main characters from Gegege No Kitaro

I got inspiration from this Japanese manga.  Japanese manga (comic in English) and cartoons have impacted my artworks and my visions about art in many ways.  These cupcakes are inspired by one of my favorite Japanese anime, Gegege No Kitaro.  Not too many cartoons (for kids) would talk about ghosts or evil spirits, this one does.  And somehow this cartoon has managed to have great balance of the scary scene and still remain kids friendly.  I loved this show when I was a little kid.

I remember one year my parents took us to New Zealand to visit my dad's sister and her family during summer.  We stayed at my auntie's house for few weeks.  My parents left my sister and I at my auntie's house for few days because they wanted to have a little honeymoon themselves in Australia.  My sister and I, plus my two younger cousins were watching this show for few days during my parents' "honeymoon".  We even had a role play at my auntie's front yard.  Of course, we didn't see any ghost, but this few day role play memory and the 24-hour Gegege No Kitaro scene stay with me forever.  When I thought about this cartoon, I thought about the time my sister, I and my cousins in New Zealand; it was a great summer.

Kitarō is a yōkai boy born in a cemetery and, aside from his mostly decayed father, the last living member of the Ghost Tribe(幽霊族 yūrei zoku).
He is missing his left eye, but his hair usually covers the empty socket.
He fights for peace between humans and yōkai, which generally involves protecting the former from the wiles of the latter. 

Ittan Momen is a flying yōkai resembling a strip of white cloth. Kitarō and friends often ride on him when traveling. The original ittan-momen is a spirit from Kagoshima Prefecture myth which wraps itself around the faces of humans in an attempt to smother them.

Nezumi Otoko is a rodent-like yōkai-human halfbreed. He has been alive for three hundred and sixty years, and in that time has almost never taken a bath, rendering him filthy, foul-smelling, and covered in welts and sores. While he is usually Kitarō's friend, Nezumi Otoko will waste no time cooking up vile schemes or betraying his companions if he thinks there's money to be had or a powerful enemy to side with. 

Neko Musume, a normally quiet yōkai girl, who transforms into a frightening cat monster with fangs and feline eyes when she is angry or hungry for fish.
Predictably, she does not get along well with Nezumi Otoko.
She seems to harbor a slight crush on Kitarō, who sees her only as a friend.  

Medama-oyaji is Kitarō's father. Once a fully formed adult ghost, he perished of a disease, only to be reborn out of his decayed body as an anthropomorphic version of his own eyeball.
He looks small and fragile, but has a strong spirit and a great love for his son. He is also extremely knowledgeable about ghosts and monsters.
He enjoys staying clean, and is often seen bathing in a small bowl. He has a great love for sake.  (That's why I put him in a bowl).

Kitaro with his eyeball dad

If you have never watched this cartoon, you missed out.  It's such a great cartoon!

There is a Gegege No Kitaro Theme Park in Japan.  Here are some pictures from the Hong Kong Yahoo.com.  It gives me one more reason to visit Japan *again* (yes, if I went to Japan again, it will be my third visit to Japan.)

Medama-oyaji at the theme park

Neko Musume  transforms into a frightening cat monster with fangs and feline eyes.

Kitaro train at the theme park

Kitaro with his dad (hey, he really likes to take a warm bath in a bowl.)

Cupcake Ukulele

I love Etsy - is a high-class Craiglist for people, who enjoy making/selling and buying crafts or unique and original art works.  I bought couple things from the website; and I had great experience with the sellers.  The items listed on the website are not cheap, but surely you could take home a one of a kind item.

I came across this Celentano Woodworks shop on Etsy, and guess what I found?!  I found a very unique and cute cupcake ukulele ($450usd).  They have other very cute and special designs listed on the website, and according to their website, if you saw anything you like from the site, you could send them an email and ask for a quote.  All their designs can be made into a ukulele, guitar, bass, mandolin, and more.  How awesome it is!