10 Reasons I Loved Saturday

10. Bare Faced Brunch. I hosted a celebration breakfast at my house and fed my friends and family fruit, yogurt, waffles, eggs, and juice. Some people wore jammies/sweat pants and came bare faced. My friend Sierra helped us look beautiful with her Mary Kay products, and stylist Shelby cut bangs. I wore my PJ pants all day long.

Here is Ciara, me, Sierra, and my sis Jessamy. You like how I look like a peacock because of where I was standing in relationship to that mirror on the wall?

9. Roo. I know I haven't told my blog readers about him yet (though Facebookers probably know). Basically, Roo is a great source of entertainment. You'll meet him tomorrow.
8. Forty-five minute phone call from my Gram. She cracks me up. I just adore her.
7. Cupcake baking. I was asked to make some treats for the dessert auction my church held to raise funds for vacation Bible school (VBS). I busted out these. It was way fun.

A colorful way to give your dad a new look on Father's Day.

6. Listening to Casey Hurt station on Pandora while baking. I used to go to the same church as him. He's not famous or anything, but you should just enter Casey Hurt into your Pandora player so you can listen to him and the people that sound similar to him. Relaxing and good. Nothing techno. Some harmonica. Guitar. Clean lyrics.
5. Cascading waterfall french braid hair. I convinced my sister to try this on my head. If only I could do it myself. I did it to Sierra's long locks before she left.

4. Time to sit and read.
3. Phone call with Natalie.
2. Naps and not feeling like I need to be working on something or grading something.
1. Being able to find so many things to be happy about.

Things I make

This post is heavily laden with photos. I was rather impatient about it because it definitely took more than ten minutes to put them on here. So appreciate, please.

If you are an in-town friend and have been to my house recently, then you already know this. You might already know this as well if you are a stalker, know where I live, and have peered in through the windows of my house while I was at work. In the past month, here are some things I have made:

These were for the coffee break/sweet treat time we have at church. Quite obviously they are cookie monster cupcakes. The Sesame Street theme had nothing to do with anything, I just thought those blue faces were hilarious, so I had to make them. I got the idea from Pinterest. By far the best part was shoving the cookies into the mouths. Anybody have a children's birthday party you want me to plan?

Remember how I said I was going to make a chalkboard globe during spring break? Yeah, finally got that done.

Step 1: acquire an old globe from Goodwill.

Step 2: Paint in all the water with black chalkboard paint, then outline the continents with white paint, then paint the land masses black with more chalkboard paint. Two coats were necessary. Step 3: Decorate with chalk.

 

 

 

 

Of course he lives at the North Pole.

I kind of love Europe and mostly want to go to Africa.

When my friend Liz was over, she drew that picture of a penguin on Antarctica.

 I have this thing for maps, which is odd considering how much I get lost while driving. I made this pennant out of old maps that I bought for $0.79 at St. Vincent de Paul's thrift store. I got an ENTIRE BOOK of maps. Do you know how excited I was to find this book? Incredibly. I am going to craft so many things out of map paper.

I also have a thing for tissue paper pom poms. 

Can I just say that the color of my wall looks very nasty, but it is not that gross in real life. I'm not color blind.

Two Saturdays ago (on the 14th of May) I hosted a birthday party at my house for four of my friends, who were all born in May. I made a lot of cake.

Natalie, Kaitlynn, Leslie, and Casey all got a mini cake with their initial on it.

From left to right: Natalie, Kaitlynn, Leslie, Casey, my pasty arms lighting the candles.

We laughed a lot that night. And you know, ate a lot of sugar.

In addition to the spread you see here, I made a whole other sheet cake. We also had a potluck style meal, and guests brought PLENTY of food. Because we had so much grub, I was left with quite a bit of cake. I may or may not have eaten all or most of it the following week. For dinner.

Adopt a mother-in-law

I am unsure as to whether or not I will acquire a mother in law in the next ten years, but I guess it’s okay if I don’t, as I already have an awesome mother and an adopted mother in law, whom I will refer to as my AMIL. I didn’t adopt my AMIL so much as she adopted me. My AMIL is Judy, and she is actually my sister’s mother in law. However, despite the fact that I have not married any of her sons, Judy is really nice to me. She gives me fresh organic eggs, and sometimes when my sister and my brother in law go over for dinner, I go with them. She makes these killer barbecued mushrooms and tasty potatoes.

Another thing I really like about my AMIL is that she taught me how to make awesome cupcakes. I've loved making cupcakes since approximately Junior year of college, but I was struggling to find a fabulous frosting recipe. Well, Judy makes wedding cakes and cupcakes too, so one day she had me and my sister over to show us how to make them. I got all of her secret cake and frosting recipes, and I finally learned how to successfully use a pastry bag and tips for decorating. My life changed that day. Oh, you know what else Judy did? When she went to the cake supply store, she bought me some of this really nice vanilla and almond extract. I didn't even ask her. She just picked it up and sent it along with my sister. 

It's nice when people adopt you. 

P.S. If you haven't e-mailed me your mailing address, I still want it so I can send you a valentine. I was super excited when I found people in my inbox who are willing to let me send them some love. Send your address to TheRealPretend.JJG@gmail.com. I promise to not sell your information, send you junk mail, or refer your name to a telemarketer.

Hey there, Cupcake

I now cringe when I think about every cupcake I've ever made. They should have got straight down the garbage disposal. I passed them off as something good. Hah! My world was revolutionized this Friday when I spent three hours making the most scrumptious cupcakes yet, under the tutelage of master cake maker Judy, aka my fake brother's mother.

It all started (okay, well not all of it) when I went over to my sister's house a few weeks ago. Judy, her mother in law, had made her a birthday cake. It was chocolate with peanut butter frosting. So delicious. I ate a giant piece. I told her I wanted Judy's recipe. Judy had made the wedding cakes for my sister and fake brother's wedding. They're good. Thus, my sister arranged a cake making lesson for February 12th.

The rest of it started several years back, like junior year of college. I got really into cupcakes after discovering the blog Cupcakes Take the Cake. I was into all things cupcake. I tried to get good at it but my homemade frosting really sucked. I tried various recipes, but the frosting was always too runny and not conducive to crafting into beautiful swirly decorations. But I really liked to decorate them.

For a brief moment in college, my friend Liz and I were going to start a cupcake/cookie business called Suite Delivery. We would deliver fresh baked goods every Sunday to the students living in the dorms, straight to their doors. Fifty-cents each. Sadly, it never came to pass.

I have two tubs full of candy colored sprinkles, various cupcake papers, toppers, food dye, frosting tips, etc. I'm also very excited about the ruffly apron I acquired circa November 2009. I had all the supplies, yet my cupcakes were below par.

Until Judy.

When I got to her house on Friday night, she divulged all her secrets to me. Recipes were written on the backs of envelopes. Inhaling the very scent of the various frostings made me nearly fall over from ecstasy. We made 152 cupcakes. One-hundred fifty-two.

 

(not the cupcakes I made)

We made chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Vanilla cake with lemon filling, topped with a vanilla-almond buttercream frosting and raspberry filling. Cherry chip cake with pink cherry flavored frosting. It was all scrumptious. Think of the high you might get from smoking an illegal substance and times it by ten.

Judy showed me how to properly fold parchment paper and make it into a pastry bag. She talked about her early days in cake making class, working under the head baker of Gerry Frank's Konditorei.

In the end, I came home with 30 mouth-watering cupcakes. I ate one for breakfast on Saturday morning, and it was divine.

3 Things I Like (besides you)

Three things I am currently quite enjoying are:

1) My new phone. I got rid of my stupid Razor and got a Samsung Flight, which has a touch screen. It also has a full keyboard, which I much appreciate, because before it took me ten minutes to write a two sentence text message. Plus it is just better all around. It was also free when I renewed my contract. I've never bought a phone in my life, I just get what's free when you renew.

2) I got a new calendar for 50% off at the Craft Warehouse. I'm starting to frequent this store just as much as Target. My calendar is of cupcakes, adapted from the book Hello, Cupcake! My favorite month is September, because it has owl cupcakes. For the past six years I have bought a dollar calendar with island scenes from the Dollar Tree. I like the whole island thing because then I can imagine me going there, and not stuck in rainy Oregon.

3) I am currently reading Blink: the power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. I better hurry it up because it is due in two weeks and I haven't been reading that much since work has started again. But I'll make it.