Another cooking post!

Well, mostly. 

As always. I have a bunch to post! I wish I had more time to post over the week, but its way too busy during these last few weeks of school. I will probably be posting LOTS over summer!

But anyway, to my cooking!

Last weekend was the boyfriend's birthday so I decided to make him something yummy. He's not very high maintenance so he just asked for plain cupcakes, but I can't possibly make a plain cupcake! However, I wanted to honor his wish a bit (it was his birthday) so I went out and bought some Funfetti cupcake mix, which is his favorite. My dad so graciously filled the cupcake tin while I worked on the toppings!

So happy to be put to work!

While he did that, I made the toppings for my cupcakes!

I put strawberries upside down and cup them into thin slices. However, I picked the BIGGEST possible strawberries which was not a very good idea because they were too big to fit onto the cupcakes. Well I decided to experiment a big and instead of putting plain chocolate on the cupcakes, I put:

Nutella!

I was a bit nervous as to how this would turn out because I've never used it as a spread for anything but crepes. However, they turned out very pretty and everyone at the party said they were delicious! 

I tried one after everyone had one (I only had enough time to make 12 so I didn't want anyone not to have one) and they were pretty tasty! I think Nutella is versatile enough to go with any flavor of cupcakes. I am thinking of making breakfast muffins with Nutella and various fruits for my dad to take to work in the morning.

I had some extra batter though so I made a cake for Easter with my family the next day! The Nutella's thickness was ripping the cake apart though so I stuck it in the microwave for about 10 seconds and it basically poured on. 

It was super nom the next day!

And speaking of Easter, the Easter bunny brought me some treats. I told my dad I didn't want an Easter basket this year because the basket always seems like a burden and I'm very very very picky about candy so I don't eat most of it. He felt bad doing absolutely nothing though so he gave me a little bit of money for my school Bookstore and left my "basket" up to his girlfriend who got me this:

Movie, nice chocolate (I only eat dark chocolate) and the equivalent of a shirt at the bookstore=by far, the most extravagant Easter I've ever had. But boy, oh boy, HARRY POTTER! I would be watching it this weekend, but Gone With the Wind is first on Matt and I's movie list right now. I read it over Spring Break and cannot wait to see it!

We also had a little guest on Easter!:

We were watching Delilah for a neighbor and she is the silliest looking dog I ever did see. Thor was not happy to be sharing his people. He got quite jealous. 

Going back to desserts for a moment, these are some cupcakes my roommate and I made for a New Year's party this year. They were cheesecake cupcakes with a vanilla wafer crust on bottom. We used a variety of toppings on top like mint, (dark) chocolate chunks, curled orange peels, pomegranate, chocolate sauce and shavings. They were very gourmet. 

In other news, I finished Taylor's Graduation presents! We picked up her bulletin board and make-up bag last weekend and everything is wrapped. The only thing missing is the GDG earrings and they should be here soon!

Here are her wall letters. Take back the finished part, I have to put some ribbon on the top so she can hang them on her wall. I'm hunting for some cute zebra ribbon. I wanted to show the T alone because I did zebra on the side and was very proud. It took FOREVER!

I also made her a frame:

The frame came out pretty cute! I wanted to make it width wise instead of length, but the ribbon just did not look good that way. I bought that adorable Lilly button with the pink T on it for $7. $7 people! For a dinky button. It was the only one I could find. But as luck has it, as soon as I glue the dang thing on there I find some at Michael's for $1 each! Oh, well! That just means I can make more frames in the future!

Well I'm sure everyone is tired of my super long blog posts so I will leave it at that! I hope everything enjoyed it :)

Lots to post about today!

I feel like my posts are so jam packed sometimes because I don't have time to post over the weekdays so I make one mega-post! Oh well, I like mega-posts too!

First off, Preppy Lane gave me this sweet award:

which is my first award so I'm very excited! I'm supposed to share 7 fun facts and then pass the award on!

1. I ran my first 5k a few weeks ago and I got my medal in the mail today! I will have to post a picture of it soon!

2. I have been to 14 different schools in my life.

3. I was on Speech Team (I qualified for State!) and Drama Club and very involved in theatre in high school and I was convinced I would do something with theatre. However, my life has taken a completely different direction from there and now I'm a Business Management student. 

4. I went to Tap Day today! Tap Day is a Mizzou tradition where the members of the six secret honor societies on campus are revealed. My boyfriend's older sister was getting inducted so everyone went to watch her. Its actually a bit creepy because they all wear hoods to keep their identities secret until they're revealed. It was an awesome thing to watch and I want to do it one day!

5. I lived in New Orleans for seven years and even though I don't remember too much of it, I love the culture and going back there for visits. 

6. Mizzou was not my first choice, I caught between it and LSU, but at the last minute decided LSU was too far away and now I'm completely confident Mizzou is the place for me. Funny how things like that work out. Tiger either way, right?

7. I am "5'2" with dark hair and skin and have a "6'6" fair skinned brother with bright red hair. I always think comparing us is funny. 

Us as wee little children: 

All grown up!

Oh did I mention he's 16?

And I give this award to:

carenpants

Laughter Keeps Us Young

My Life: As Seen Through My Blackberry

And some of my lovely followers:

Sundresses and Smiles

Social Climbers

Miss Ashley In Mississippi (reppin State! My grandfather went there and my father for a spell!)

The Portuguese Prepster

The Landlady

The Social Knight

Suzie Lynn's Cupcakery

This last one here is actually my roommate's blog. She hasn't posted anything yet (got to keep on that school work!), but come summer time, head over and check out her cupcakes!

Next, I wanted to share my experience with GameDay Girls with everyone! My cousin Taylor's graduation is coming up so naturally I went on the hunt to find the perfect present for one of my favorite cousins! I compiled a huge list full of things like coozies, a mini umbrella, a monogrammed ring/necklace, towels, a throw, the list when on and on. I finally decided on:

1. A magnet board with her room's colors (pink, green and zebra). Pink board, green magnets and letter T and a zebra ribbon

2. Pink picture frame with green zebra ribbon and a Lilly button in the center with a T on it. 

3. A monogrammed makeup bag

4. Some wall letters with her initials painted of course, pink, green and zebra. I will posts pictures this weekend when I finish all the crafts!

But, relating back to the GameDay Girls, my favorite thing I got her were some earrings themed to her school. She is going to Belmont University in Nashville, TN so I ordered her these:

Now I did not have high hopes for these earrings because I literally said, "Put BU on them and we'll see how it turns out" and they are adorable! I also, a little selfishly haha, ordered myself a pair:

Well on to what a great experience I had with GDG (GameDay Girls is too long to type out every time). I emailed the GDGs to see if there was nickel in the posts because I am allergic. Unfortunately there is a very low percentage so they offered me a) a refund, b) to find me posts without nickel, all on their own time!!! Or c) send me the earrings and if I had a problem I could send them back for a refund! How great of customer service is that Most companies would refund your money and not care, but the GDGs truly wanted to make sure I was satisfied with my order! I was so pleased. My earrings should be arriving any day now and I am so excited! The pictures above are proofs that are sent to the customers to make sure the earrings look right before they ship them! I can't wait to debut these babies at Homecoming! 

Well thats all I have to say for tonight so take care everyone! Until next blog post :)

Cake Pops

A few weeks ago I tried my hand at cake and Oreo balls. I used bakerella's recipe for the cake balls and a recipe I found on Google for the Oreo balls. So with that under my belt I decided to try and take the recipes a step farther and actually make bakerella's signature cake pops!

First, you make regular cake mix. I like to dye all my creations. I tried to dye them a light pink (which turns out very nice, I've done it before with cupcakes), but accidentally poured too much red in so they came out very neon. I tried to fix one by pouring in blue, but the purple looked even worse so I left the second in all of its pink glory. That is my boyfriend's hand approving the cake mix. He so nicely agreed to help me experiment. 

Note: If you are going to dye cake, get the white cake mix and only use the egg whites. Some colors also look better than others. Yellow looks like regular cake, seems obvious, but I did not know. I tried to make Mizzou themed (gold and black) cake balls. Light pink is ok, neon is not. Green can be fun and red is always good. I would steer clear of purple. Mine came out looking like sludge, but any pastels are generally ok. 

Next I mixed up all the cake and crumbled it together. Looks fine here. 

Then I mixed in one 8 oz. package of cream cheese. I later realized the recipe called for one CAN of cream cheese frosting. The taste was no different, but there was not enough cream cheese to hold all the cake pops together. Sad face. 

Next, I melted chocolate by putting it in a mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water. 

Then, Matt stuck holes in a styrafoam block to make putting the cake pops in easier. He also cut the shish-ka-bob sticks in half (and removed the pointy ends) for me. The original recipe says use sucker straws, but I could not find them at my local Schnuck's and the shish-ka-bob sticks worked great. 

All the cake pops cooling in the fridge!

Finished product! Sorry for all the bad pictures, they were taken on my phone in my dark caveman kitchen. Even though I botched the recipe a bit and the colors turned out pretty weird, everyone liked them. I personally am not a big fan of these. I guess I just don't like cream cheese and cake mix together, but everyone loves them so I keep making them!

Oreo Balls Recipe:

1 8 oz. package of plain cream cheese

1 package of Oreo cookies (You can get the mint or any other variations, but do not get Double Stuffed!)

Chocolate bark/Baker's chocolate

Use a food processor or blender to grind the Oreos (cream filling included) and mix in the cream cheese. Then role them into small balls, dunk them in chocolate, and let refrigerate. Then  you're done! This is a very easy project to do with kids, especially since mixing the Oreos and cream cheese can entail using your hands!

Happy baking!

Purse Organizing

Its now secret that I love organization. Love as in underlined, capitalized, bolded, everything! Nerd secret, sometimes I reorganize my room or school supplies just for fun! If things aren't organized I can't find anything and I get all flustered and impossible to be with! Well, anyway, one of my must have organized things is my purse! The way I keep everything neat and tidy is by keeping everything in little bags. I got the idea for doing that from a friend (shout out to Blake!) way back when in my freshman year of high school. Right now I have:

1. Electronics bag holding: iPod, camera, extra flash drive and any cords I may need in my purse or other things I don't want sloshing around my purse. I use a Very Bradley zip clutch. 

2. Chapstick case: This is just a small coin purse (I like the Vera Bradley ID wallets) that I stash my many chapsticks in.

3. My 'I Wish I Had A' Kit: I got this idea from College Prep I think and its just anything you don't normally need, but might. I have stuff like a compact, Hydrocortisone, hair ties and clips, band aids, Advil, a sewing kit, glue, hand lotion, a variety of pen colors and other things I do not remember. This bag is the worst for the wear because it was a hand me down and has holes!

4. My wallet, of course. 

All my little bags are getting a bit old though! And with all the cute bags out right now I want to update a few of the worse for the wear ones. 

I love this Francesca Joy wristlet! It'd be perfect for an 'I wish I had a' kit! I keep so much stuff in it the bag needs to be a bit bigger and this would be perfect to double for a clutch if I'm going out to dinner with friends or summer nights when I don't want to carry a huge purse. I only have one wristlet for those kinds of things and its silver, so I only use it for formal things. I just love the pink anchor though and it looks so unique!

These Vineyard Vines totes are also top contenders! I love the seersucker and the festive little pineapples. The seersucker would be a perfect electronic case and the pink one would make a perfect pencil case if it was lined! I definitely need a new pencil case for school because my old one's lining inside is getting torn up!

I love these little totes too! I forgot where I found them so if anyone knows where I can get them please let me know! I know they're a bit hard to see, but the first has pills on it (another perfect 'I wish I had a' kit) and the second says gadgets. 

And lastly, I thought this one, by everyone's favorite, Lilly, deserved an honorable mention. 

Now, unfortunately I would never get this clutch because it is part of Lilly's sorority collection (its Kappa Kappa Gamma) and I would feel a bit weird owning something that is for an association I don't belong to. However, I love the owls (I have an obsession) and keys have always had a special meaning to me. If  Lilly hadn't oh so cleverly hidden the ΚΚΓ all over the bag I would get this in a heartbeat. 

Unfortunately, cute was these bags are, I will definitely most likely not be shelling out $30-$50 for something that will probably just get dirty on the inside of my purse so I thought I'd include some cute cheaper finds for the ladies on a budget (i.e. me!). 

Natural Life

Forever 21

Now, I have a big thing against Forever 21, but this bag is cute and I thought worth mentioning.

Target also has a lot of cute bags!

I might have to invest in the Francesca Joy wristlet though. At $30, that is not too bad for a wristlet I hope to use a lot! However, the anchor is painted on so I'm worried it will tear up more easily. Decisions decisions...

Only 6 more weeks of school! Time to get serious!

Back from living under a rock!

Hello followers (if I still have any haha)! I haven't been very attentive to my blog lately so I thought I'd finally update everyone on whats been keeping me away! Its been very busy around here at Mizzou. Last week was spring break so the week before was hectic with exams and work due! For spring break I went to Niceville, Florida through a program called Alternative Spring Break. If any of my college followers have this at their school I highly recommend it!
Alternative Spring Break sends groups of college students to different areas of the country to do different kinds of service work. I did coastal restoration to help clean up after the oil spill, a cause which is very near and dear to my heart, as some of my home town in Mississippi was affected by the oil spill.
This is our lovely camp we stayed in!

We spent the week doing things like forest restoration and my personal favorite, sea grass planting. One of the pictures below is some of the sea grass I and my work partner, Tim, planted. The other is one of the oyster reefs.

Speaking of oysters I saw this gorgeous mirror while in a boutique in Florida! 

I am determined to craft this one day! Perhaps as a present for my mother or grandmother, who both still live on the Coast. I will have to practice on a smaller scale first!

But now that I am finally back I have a lot of stuff to catch up on! Even though my trip was amazing, it set me behind on a lot of things other people got done over the break! I am going home this weekend for my first 5k (wish me luck!) and I have a long list of things to do. Firstly, Debutante is coming up and I have to get shoes for my dress. I got a yellow floor length gown that ties in the back. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of it, I will have to post some after Debutante. I have to get shoes for the dress and get it hemmed to fit the shoes. I also have to get a birthday present for the boyfriend! I can't share my ideas because the sneak reads my blog! And lastly I have to put together my cousins graduation "basket". I use basket lightly because instead of one big present, my father and I are going to get her a few small presents for a 'basket', but now we are just going to wrap them individually so she has lots of things to unwrap! 

First on the graduation list are some Gameday Girls earrings! Everyone has probably heard of Gameday Girls, but if you haven't go check them out! Taylor (my cousin) is going to Belmont University in Nashville, TN so I emailed the site and asked for a pair of custom BU earrings! Stingy me also asked for a pair for myself (at $13.00 it'd be a shame not to ;)) in Mizzou theme! They'll be perfect for game days (of course!) and I thought Taylor would enjoy having them to wear to any school events!

Hmm maybe they can make the Clemson pawprint into a Mizzou one? ;) They also have other accessories like headbands and necklaces. Gameday Girls, please extend your product line to the Midwest! It would make some Mizzou girls very happy! 

I'm also going to make Taylor some wall letters! Luckily her initials are TAM (i.e. reversible!) so I'm going to paint one side with her room's theme colors (pink, green and zebra!) and the other side with Belmont colors (navy and red). Then I'll tie some ribbons up so she can hang them on her wall like this!

*I found this room on Facebook (in the Lilly Pulitzer group, so if its your room claim it!)

I'm also going to make her a picture frame to match her room's colors with a bow (zebra print) and a pink button with a green T on the bow. I'm also going get her a magnet board with her monogram that matches her room and probably a monogrammed necklace. I'll have to post pictures once I have it all and crafted!

Lastly, I thought I'd post some things I'm craving!

Snow balls, not those horrible 'snocones' they have up here in the Midwest. Snocones are hard little hail stones of ice with some colored flavorless maple syrup poured on them. Snow balls are delicious shaved ice that can only be found in the South! I miss them so much!

And iced tea! I gave up tea for Lent and have been pretty good so far, but I want it to be over! I miss it!

Summer please hurry up!

Giveaway!

No, not mine! Cincinnati Prep is hosting a give-away for something everyone could use!

A coozie!!!

If you win, you get a choice of a 

 or 

in your choice of pattern. So go enter and get a chance to win!

Here is the actual post so you can head over and find out how to win!

http://cincinnatiprep.com/2011/03/100th-post.html

My charm bracelet

I think every woman should have a charm bracelet. I got mine when I was 9 years old. I added charms to it regularly, but stopped getting them for a few years. Well, I am officially starting to collect again!

Sorry for the bad picture, it was taken by my trusty iPhone that I hate tolerate. I have (going from top to bottom)

1. Angel- my high school mascot was an angel

2. Heart- honestly don't remember where this came from

3. Theatre mask- I used to do theatre

4. C enclosed in a heart- my name

5. Flip flop- represents our family's vacation spot, the beach

6. Piano- no idea where this came from because I don't play piano

7. Dolphin- also the beach

When I got my charm bracelet, I imagined charms that meant a lot to me. However, the charms soon became about what other people thought meant to me (sadly, one of the downsides to charm bracelets). So I desperately want a charm bracelet upgrade. I want to take off the ones that don't mean a lot like the heart, theatre mask (since I don't do plays anymore), the piano and the dolphin and perhaps pass them onto my cousins who would appreciate them more. My ultimate upgrade would include:

A hurricane palm, peel and eat shirt and a honey bee. The hurricane palm would be for Hurricane Katrina, the shrimp for the Gulf Coast and the honey bee because my grandfather used to raise bees. Other cute options would be a tiger, (go Mizzou!), an anchor (I just love them) and an hourglass. My grandmother has an hourglass (with real sand!) on her charm bracelet that she's had forever and I think it would be cute to have one too. I also have a magnolia, to represent Mississippi where I was born, that I can't wait to put on.

Do y'all have charm bracelets? If so what's your favorite charm? What does it mean to you?

The hurricane palm and peel and eat shrimp are from an adorable site called DixiePatches. They have lots of cute different charms.

By the way, make sure to check out Caroline and my new blog ClaireandCare on Wednesday to see what we're loving (I love whoever came up with that!)!