yoga pants all day?

don't mind if i do.

due to my lack of ability {motivation} to post i have much to document. i've made many things, not taken near enough pictures, and have had some wonderful times. so, with diet coke in hand, here i go.

those beauties are coconut creme cupcakes. i made them for j's parents as a good-bye gift. coconut-vanilla cake, coconut creme filling, and vanilla frosting. how can you go wrong?

{not to mention dad and i snacking on the leftovers all morning}

and these monsters! snickers cupcakes. to make up for being a terrible friend and forgetting a lunch date, i made some girls an 'i'm sorry' treat. unfortunately, on these bad boys i had to cheat. {there isn't much time when you're moving you see} but box brownies and jarred caramel sauce did the trick. my little brother took the leftovers to his work and didn't return with any. 

thats success in my book.

moving as far away as i did was a big step. not only am i far away from my parents, but i separated these two.

harley and porter became best friends. they played together, ran together, barked together, and slept with me every night. it broke my heart to separate them. harley still seems sad.

not only did he lose his friend, but he had the worst allergies ever! i got him to the vet as soon as i could. poor little babe had sores on his nose from scratching so bad. he's doped up beyond belief, but not scratching anymore. i hope soon he'll be back to his normal doggy self.

T had another barbeque! She oh so kindly asked me to make dessert again. So of course I went to my usual, cupcakes!

She requested chocolate. Happy to oblige, but I wanted to jazz them up a bit. Raspberry chocolate sounded decadent. So I hustled to the store in search of raspberries. Come to find out the little flat they were selling was

four dollars!!!

I was not about to spend that kind of money on something as silly as raspberries, so I switched my idea to strawberry.

I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe and they turned out great!

aren't they darling?

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

3/4 c butter

2 c sugar

3 eggs

2 t vanilla

2 c flour

3/4 c cocoa powder

1 t baking soda

3/4 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 c milk

chopped strawberries

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar in slowly beating after each addition (I usually like to add it in half or even quarter cups). Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Finally, beat in vanilla.

Time to add the dry and wet ingredients. Starting and ending with the flour mixture, add the dry ingredients and milk in alternating additions. Mine usually looks like this

(flour, milk, flour, milk, flour)

Fill lined cupcake tins about one-third full with batter. Sprinkle chopped strawberries, then add remaining batter until the cup is approximately two-thirds full. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 18-22 minutes (16-20 for minis).

My trusty recipe yields 24-30 cupcakes. However. I halved the recipe, used mini cupcakes and came just short of 4 dozen. So be prepared to eat a lot of cupcakes.

As for the frosting, I wish I could say I used a recipe. But I don't. I just eyeball it. The ingredients are

butter

vanilla

milk

cocoa powder

powdered sugar

I always start with creaming butter and adding one cup of powdered sugar (and cocoa for this particular recipe). I'll add my liquid next (this time vanilla and milk), then make it to the proper consistency with however much powdered sugar is needed.

Top it with a quartered strawberry and there you have it! Delicious strawberry chocolate cupcakes.

i'm blue

in order to keep my house warm yesterday i had to bake.

(shame right?)

i asked the little brother what kind of cupcakes he wanted. the rest of the family had chosen so it was now his turn. 

he chose these cupcakes.

mine turned out slightly darker in colour than the original blog, but that's quite alright. they were also over-baked. so if anyone plans to whip up a batch of smurf-cakes i suggest reducing the time 2 or 3 minutes.

i spent saturday sewing his pajama pants too. the are huge but he loves them. he reassured me "the bigger they are the more comfy they are."

also speaking of cupcakes, last week i was invited to an "estrogen fest" at T's house. grand times were had by all. A was back in the country. S and H showed up later. we feasted on domino's and made vulva cupcakes. T dyed my hair a lovely shade of purple. vodka was drank and hedwig was watched.

i haven't had a sleepover in ages. it was a wonderful way to spend a tuesday night.

that night made me realise, sadly, that when i move to texas i will have no wonderful friends like those lovely ladies. i am quite a sociable person, and have no doubt i'll become friendly with people, but where ever in the world am i going to find another to make vagina cupcakes with?

i'm going to miss those pretty ladies something fierce.

new day

what better to do on a cloudy, windy day?

make cupcakes of course.

mexican hot chocolate cupcakes to be exact.

the recipe i used is here.

The ingredient list is quite involved. i was lucky my mother had them all in stock.

i need want a kitchenaid. 

don't they look delish?

i will say, however, that they are very dense. it could be the many ingredients, it could be the gluten free flour i have to use. i love my cuppycakes to be light and fluffy. but mom looooooved them. 

so i guess they're good.

mr. doggles is learning how to use the doggy door quite nicely. almost too nicely in fact. earlier i heard him and the neighbour dog barking up a storm. and it wasn't a nice friendly storm. there was thunder and all.

tonight was dinner at the beehive with mom and herm. 

i love their food. also their 3$ margaritas. 

i also learned today that j and i acquired a couch. it definitely isn't what i would have chosen, but its good! and i can decorate it with cute pillows and blankets. oh i'll have such happy fun sewing times.

feel free to send links or pictures of your favourite patterns for some inspiration.

i've been stalking a girl's blog whom was two years ahead of me in high school. (i've become disgustingly good at stalking being unemployed) 

i've fallen in love with all that she has posted. pretty much her life. she is crafty, has many girl friends, goes on fun dates with her boyfriend, has a lovely little body and always dresses fashionably. now i'm not saying that these are all things i need and i want to live my life just as she does. but i suppose she's given me inspiration? i know it sounds incredibly silly.

sometimes i need a look at someone else's life to jump-start my own.

i can't wait to get my lovely max back (macbook). i've become incredibly attached to him. while i'm grateful for my parents for letting me take over their computer i'd love mine back. i just searched amazon for the part needed to fix it. thank gods daddy is coming home tonight because overwhelmed didn't even begin to describe how i felt while searching.

another thing i've been thinking of lately is a camera. i would love to have a camera and to document my life in photo. i know its very trendy, but it has been established that i do fall into the hipster category and i've come to peace with that. i know a camera isn't in my budget. and i know nothing about them! advice is greatly needed in this department, if i ever get around to purchasing one. 

but for now i'll stick with the android.

today has been a lovely day. 

i'll push for tomorrow to be as well

.

.

.

last days and first days

Today is my last day of work. I'm mildly sad. Let's be real though. If they cry, I'll probably cry too.

Today is also my first day of no smoking. I timed it out perfectly (well, I tried to). I always smoked one on my way to work. That was it, not really any other time. Well, I had just enough to last me until my last day of work. Turns out I miscounted. So today I'll just have to see how I do without it. But it never really did anything for me, just ended up being habit by the end.
Now that I don't have work hopefully I won't need smoking.

But all this talking about it is making me want one. Moving on.

This was my workout today. I failed for the last three days. No workouts for me so this one kicked my ass. I'm discovering that even a short break from these will make you regret it. I'm learning from Lisa-Marie to not make any excuses, so I'm not going to even list why I didn't workout. I just didn't.
(is it workout or work out???)
Anywho. I was sweating, like crazy. Good thing it is raining outside for me to cool off.
Oh, and I'm up to seven dollas.

And this will be my breakfast as soon as I'm done writing this. Yumm.

I made delicious cuppycakes for my girls. 3 dozen of them to be exact. Today's workout probably only burned off half of the batter and frosting I ate. eep.

Time for that delicious breakfast =)