Wrapping Up The Year

I made my blog private for a minute or two but I've decided to make it public again. I hate when people take my photos so I've decided not to post any photos that don't have a tag on them. I'm sorry if it makes my photography ugly but I just don't like when other people take credit for my work.

A lot has happened since I last blogged. I celebrated Christmas and had a grand ol' time with my family. Everyone got very nice presents, myself included. I got an IPod nano amongst other nice things, but I was really looking forward to my IPod because my poor mini doesn't hold a charge anymore. Rest In Peace dear IPod mini, you lasted me a good 6 years! I'm so happy with my new IPod though, it's adorable, touch screen and PINK. I also love that I can listen to the radio on it. Daniel got a bunch of great stuff including a trampoline, a kid's digital camera (already took 390 pictures - takes after his momma!) and the Creepy Crawlers that they just put out recently. I was surprised when I saw they brought it back, I had that when I was a kid! I was also surprised to see my Mom got me the full size of the original Juicy Couture perfume. The bottles are just to die for, really. With the extra money I got I think I'm going to get myself Flora by Gucci. I've been stuck on that fragrance for the longest time now and I think I'm due for a couple new scents.

I ate great food, opened great gifts, had a lot of laughs. Now it's time to detox. I'm currently taken by jasmine tea. It smells SO good, it's extra fragrant and delicious. I don't know what it is about the tea that makes me feel so cozy inside but I got a lot of new tea for Christmas. If I'm not drinking Pellegrino, I'm drinking tea. Anyway, I've come to post a couple pictures from the past few days. I hope you all enjoyed your holiday!

My home made cheesecake, it was as delicious as it looks!

Cupcakes galore

When did this turn into a cupcake blog? Well, it hasn't really but I bake a lot now! I used to think baking was hard for some odd reason. Now I have realized that baking is actually incredibly easy. Just very time consuming. I'm no Martha Stewart, my cupcakes will never win award for beauty - but hey, I try!

Anyone who knows me well knows that my son turns 3 years old tomorrow (shocking, I know). I'm very excited for his birthday. This year instead of buying him an elaborate cake I baked him cupcakes and tried to incorporate things that are quintessentially Daniel. Daniel really loves two things right now: bugs and SpongeBob Squarepants. And when I say he loves bugs, I mean LOVES bugs. He can talk about bugs all day, read books about bugs, watch videos about bugs on Youtube - all of the above. He also really gets a kick out of SpongeBob even though that is definitely not my favorite cartoon.

To make his cupcakes, I used recipes from Martha Stewart's cupcake book. I used a recipe for the chocolate cake and her swiss meringue buttercream recipe. I have never used the buttercream recipe before but they're all pretty much the same. This one used regular sugar and of course egg whites for the meringue. I like this recipe a lot because it's not a very sweet icing. Definitely buttery, though! Four sticks of butter will do that. I wasn't too keen on putting four WHOLE sticks of butter into the icing but that's what a lot of these icing recipes call for. Anyone who is watching their weight need not indulge in these cupcakes. The icing also sets up nicely and will hold it's shape, perfect for piping. I don't know why I feel the need to pipe the icing for every cupcake I make. I just love piping. It's my favorite thing. It's actually the one reason I even make cupcakes at all! I also love coloring the icing. Messy but a lot of fun. As you can see we split the icing into two portions (it made a lot, about 5 cups). I colored one part green and the other a blue. The green I piped into grass for the bugs and  the blue I piped into swirls for SpongeBob.

My "throw away" cupcake for taste-testing :)

We got the little boxes from Michael's - they fit 4 cupcakes in each and they're perfect for our party. The little candy treats we obviously bought pre-made. You can be a true Martha Stewart and make the little decorations yourself but I'm not that much of an over-achiever.

Tomorrow my baby turns three. I'm kind of in denial about him getting older. I love that little booger so much!

Halloween, etc.

Time really does fly by these days. We celebrated Halloween and had a great time. I have a couple pictures from the last couple days of October. Now it's November. That means we're getting closer to my favorite time of the year - Christmas!

We had a great time this October, I'm really happy. But I've noticed that the less time I spend on the internet the happier I am. This may mean that I spend less time updating but I'll make sure I am on here sporadically to check in. Mostly, I'm cutting out Facebook and all those other pointless "networking" sites that do nothing for me. I've been more productive, I have more time with my family and I am doing better in school. So far, it's been a win/win situation.

I will definitely be taking some pictures the closer it gets to Christmas. I can't wait for Thanksgiving, a break from school and when it really starts to feel like Christmas season.

Octobre Deux

More Halloween stuff? But of course!

My mother and I got in our heads thinking we're Martha Stewart or something and got some more ingredients to make cupcakes. This time I was determined to make the cake batter orange. I definitely succeeded in that. Unfortunately, the coloring for the icing didn't turn out to be as purple as I had hoped. Oh well! We live and we learn. The cupcakes are delicious no matter what, really. I made them by myself this time. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the icing, in case anyone was wondering.

And of course, because I was on a roll with the pictures I snapped some more shots of our outdoor decorations.

The leaves around the area have started to turn as well. I'll be sure to take some pictures of them. We have one tree on the corner of the block that turns this great bright red. It's so pretty. This weekend is going to be really busy so you probably won't hear from me until after. I hope you're all having a great October!

Octobre

October is really flying by and that is making me kind of sad. I have been trying to go out and do things when I have free time. Most of the week is eaten up by school and doing homework. This coming weekend Stacie and I have our two weddings, so there goes my relaxation time. We're hoping that on Sunday we can go to Larriland farm and take Daniel on a hay ride, have some apple cider and do some other fun activities they have there.

I got my hair cut yesterday and finally cut some bangs back into my 'do. I look better with bangs but my hair has crazy cow licks and is super thick so it's not really easy styling my hair. We took Daniel to get some pumpkins, I picked out mine. It's a big, round baby. Daniel picked out a tiny little pumpkin for himself. I can't decide what I want to carve into mine. I always pick out a pretty intricate pattern from the carving books - we don't carve silly faces into our pumpkins! It's between skulls and a werewolf but I'm not sure what I'll decide yet.

We finally put up some decorations inside and outside of our home, or I should say I really put them up. The kids playing outside were all like "isn't it kind of early?" I told them that it's never too early to decorate for Halloween. It's kind of lame because only a few townhouses in our neighborhood really decorate for any holidays so, we're usually the only house on the block. Oh well! Someone has to bring the festivity.