Teamsugar

Calling all you crazy partyers, hostesses with the mostess, and anyone else who loves to party as much as I do! Join my Super Special Occasions group on TeamSugar and share pictures of the parties you planned, hosted, or attended. There are tons of members but few are showing us their pictures, what's up with that? I started this group so we could all get inspiration from the parties we've been to. I love looking at party pics for new ideas on centerpieces, tablecloths, and food spreads. For example how chic is this for an invitation?? It's the invite that illogicaldee sent out for her sweet 16 birthday party! Browse the images of her bash in the Super Special Occasions group and share photos of your fabulous fetes.

I was looking through the bookmarks on TeamSugar and noticed that one thing seems clear: cupcakes are awesome. Or perhaps it was actually: cupcakes are damn cute. Either way one thing is clear, you guys have done a great job hunting down fantastic cupcake finds. First up is this way too cute cupcake wristlet. It's simple, cute and has an anthropomorphic cupcake on the outside, what's not to love! Available for $25. Great find eruntale!

Next up is the Hello Kitty Cupcake Tote found by anti curl. This tote features cupcakes with Hello Kitty's face on them and we all know that cupcake + kitty = super cute! Available for $19.99.

Three more cupcake finds you can wear, so read more

I love looking through my pantry and "inventing" recipes with the resources at my fingertips. Sometimes you end up with a fantastic creation that you might not have tried before. Over in the Lite'n it Up recipe group, TeamSugar member mymaria posted a pantry creation that she calls Asian Stroganoff/Drunken Noodle Combo - and from the looks of it, it looks like a pantry hit! It's a hearty egg noodle dish full of ground turkey, sautéed veggies inside of a sweetened soy flavoring. I can't wait to try this one at home and suggest you do the same! To check out the recipe, read more

I've admitted it before, and I'll admit it again, I'm not really a fancy-drink kind of girl. All I need is vodka and tonic and I'm set. However, with that said, I'm trying to expand my drink options and so I always love checking out different recipes online. I found this one over in the Let's Have a Drink group. It's called a Fruji and it was posted by TeamSugar member Shiloh Jolie Pitt. She likes it because it tastes like a pineapple ice block found in New Zealand. Tastes like pineapple and contains vodka? Count me in! To check out the recipe, read more

As you might know, I love eggs. I grew up eating a lot of tea & "soy sauce" eggs, and was really thrilled to see that I'm not the only one who thinks they are as beautiful as they are tasty. TeamSugar member haze1nut has cooked up some tea eggs that are almost too pretty to eat. - TeamSugar

If you're a candy fiend (and I know some of you are!) you might want to start saving your wrappers. TeamSugar member Jinx has compiled a great gallery of things made with candy wrappers. This Starbust wrapper bracelet is pretty cool, but be sure to check out the dress. - TeamSugar

One of my favorite beauty blogs on the Web is actually right here on TeamSugar: Created by our very own Atoxicsparkle, it's called Beauty Product Junkies, and it has more than 1,700 members. If you're a fellow junkie, you should definitely check out BPJ: This is an incredibly active group where users post everything from product reviews to Beauty Marks to instructions on how to achieve different looks. There are also weekly Beauty Challenges, where users Beauty Mark their favorite products.

I'll be featuring the results of those challenges on BellaSugar, along with other occasional BPJ content. So, if you're a Beauty Product Junkies member, don't be surprised if you get a message from me asking to feature one of your posts on BellaSugar. (You can always say "no thanks.")

I love reading Beauty Product Junkies just for fun, but Atoxicsparkle and the other members have also been a huge help as I was gearing up to launch BellaSugar. So thanks, guys! Anyway, if you aren't familiar with this group, be sure to check it out.

In case you haven't noticed, we've gotten a bit of a facelift here at the Sugar Network. The stories have shifted to the left and we've now got a bunch of tabs on the right. I'm personally really excited about the new look, and wanted to point out a few of my favorite bits.

For starters we've got the latest Yum Marks on the second tier of tabs. If you're surfing the web and stumble across something you like, bookmark it and it'll show up there! Here's more information on how to bookmark an item.

Next you'll also notice an easy way to access tips and parties, as well as a quick link to all of the recipes located on TeamSugar! So start submitting your recipes and hopefully yours will show up here!

My last favorite piece is a quicklink to the Food & Entertaining forum (yep, we had a forum, who knew?!) in the bottom right corner. The last few topics are posted there, and you can go in and add your own. I thought I'd get things rolling with the question: What's Your Favorite Restaurant - so head over to the forum and tell us all about it.

And finally, while I'm talking site news, I just wanted to say a quick congrats to last month's top YumSugar commenter, celebrity_soup. Way to go celebrity_soup! We'll get a YumSugar shirt out to you asap!

If you want your own YumSugar shirt, you can check out the options at the YumSugar Store. And, if you're next month's top Yum Commenter, you can expect a prize of your own! So start talking!

There's been a lot of great recipes on TeamSugar lately, and just in case you haven't been paying attention, I thought I'd take a minute to talk about a few of them. First of all, the one that made me drool quite a bit was the recipe for Mini Molten Chocolate Cakes by haze1nut. So tasty and beautiful too!

The next recipe I want to point out is the Creamy Tomatillo Cilantro Dressing. TeamSugar member calibabi puts this on a pork barbacoa salad with rice, beans and more. Mmmmm!

Finally, the last recipe I want to make sure you guys check out is ArmoAngel's Apple Marinade Steak Fajitas. Apples in fajitas? Sounds awesome!

Thanks to everyone for sharing their recipes, keep 'em coming! And be sure to check out the recipes often, there are definitely some fantastic recipes out there.

The next group I want to highlight in our Better Know a Group series is Lite'n it Up. Lite'n it Up was started by our own FitSugar and is a place to put your healthy recipes and fat-cutting tips. In Lite'n it Up, you'll find original healthy concoctions or "cleaned up" old favorites (like these Lightened Up PB Cookies). So if you're trying to watch what you eat, but still want to experience some great tasting food, then join Lite'n it Up and see what's cooking!