Cupcakery vs Bakery

It's definitely no secret around here, but I loooove to bake. Most of the time I don't even eat what I bake, I just really enjoy the process. One day, when I have alot more time and money than I do now, I hope to open a bakery. Seriously, it would be a dream to work doing what you absolutely love every single day. Not that I don't love accounting...but it's a different type of love :)

Last weekend Jonathan, Mac and I ventured off to Virginia Beach to visit my family. We are horrible children, and it had been awhile since we had been. Well, I had already found a website for this "cupcakery" called Just Cupcakes that I just had to go to. Not only did I want to have a cupcake (taking a break from the dieting for the weekend!), but I also wanted to see how they had it decorated. Let's just say it was ADORABLE! I loved the quaint little boutique feeling, not to mention they had owls everywhere...umm hellooo?!? Two of my favorite things! Cupcakes and owls! Here are some pics of the cute place:











The cupcakes were pretty good, but probably not worth the amount we paid for each one...yikes! I don't know if any cupcake is worth $3! Anyway, after we left, my Dad wanted to take us to a different type of bakery that served more than just cupcakes. This one was called Sugar Plum Bakery. It was so cute! And when we walked in, you could smell the buttercream icing used on like...everything! They had cakes, cookies, cupcakes, pastries. You name it, they had it! I can't tell you how it tasted, since I had JUST eaten a cupcake, but I can tell you that my dad ate his bearclaw like it was going out of style :)













After our two stops, we all decided that the bakery had so much more to offer, and if one day I do get to open my own place, it should be a full on bakery instead of just a cupcakery. But then again, the whole bakery thing is mainly just a dream of mine right now anyway :)

PS: For those wondering about my weight loss, I've actually lost about 13 pounds so far :) Well on my way to the 20 I wanted to lose!!! Yay!!!

My Wish List...in about 20 more pounds :)

Fact - I started hard core trying to lose a little weight about a month ago. I realized if I kept eating the food I was eating and didn't exercise, eventually none of my clothes were going to fit me...already half of them don't! Gaaah! So, with this realization came a little game. I figured I needed a little motivation to lose the weight I want to lose (about 25 more pounds), and what better motivation to lose weight than new clothes?!? I mean, really, you have to work for something, right? And it seems to be working too! I've lost right about 6 pounds so far, which is not alot, but it's better than nothing :) Mostly I'm just eating right and working out at least 3 times a week. And for a little more motivation, I've been doing some searching into what clothes I'd buy if I lost the weight I wanted to. Here's a glimpse of my wish list :) Keep in mind...this is a WISH list. There is no way I can afford to drop the cash on some of these things...they are not cheap!

From Ann Taylor Loft:









From Banana Republic:




From Chico's:




From Forever 21:




From Old Navy:




From Target:



So there you have it :) I'll keep you all updated with the weight loss progress. 6 pounds down...24 to go!

Tablesetting for Beginners

First of all, I should begin this post by telling you that on a normal basis, Jonathan and I do not eat at our kitchen table. We're more "eat while you watch tv on the couch" type people. However, when we have company over, we think it's a good idea to allow them a place to put their plate instead of sitting them on the couch with their plates in their laps.

Last weekend we had a couple of friends over for dinner, and I got totally into setting the table. We never eat at the table, so there's never a reason to set it really pretty. But I figured I might as well use the things I have a create a cute little table setting. I knew I wanted to focus on bright colors since it's still technically summer and all (even if I am ready for the Fall to get here). I also knew I had pretty much everything I needed except for some chargers, which I incidentally found at Wal Mart, of all places.

Here's what the final product ended up looking like:





I liked the simple, yet finished look of it when it was all done. I also got good use out of our sideboard buffet when it came to dessert. I'd made a cake, and since the real food was on the counter buffet style, and the table was full, I wasn't sure where to put the cake. Duuhhh...the buffet!!! It worked like a charm, and I loved being able to use it for more than just storing things.





All in all it was a great time with great friends :) And I enjoyed preparing the house and cooking for them too. MMMM...and that cake was delicious...I could actually go for a piece right now!

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend everyone :)

Ice Cream Sundae Brownies...yummm!

I love to bake...it's one of my many, many hobbies lately. I especially love to bake when I'm feeling overwhelmed or stressed. Something about going to the grocery store to look for ingredients, coming home, putting on an apron and baking something yummy just puts my mind at ease. I'm not very good at coming up with my own recipes, but I can certainly follow someone else's directions.

A couple months ago I found this amazing blog (I think I'm addicted to blog reading) called Picky Palate. She comes up with the most unique ideas, and I am a pretty good direction follower, so baking using her recipes normally turns out fantastic. Tonight I made Ice Cream Sundae Brownies, and oh my, were they amazing. I used Ben and Jerry's Americone Dream ice cream - it's vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered waffle cone pieces...delish!

Anyway, here's a picture - I decorated them with marshmallow icing and chocolate sprinkles :)

Hanging out...

This weekend Jonathan and I took on our first wood working project together. It was definitely a beginner project, but it turned out great. I'll start from the beginning...

A couple of months ago, I was on my favorite home decor blog - www.younghouselove.com. They were featuring another blogger who basically can make furniture look exactly like furniture you can buy in a store, and she posts plans on her website. Her blog is www.knock-offwood.com and on there you can find plans to build so many awesome things. This was our first project, but I'm hoping to talk the hubby into a couple more down the road.

Our goal was to end up with shelves that look like these from Ikea



Here are what Ana's (the plan maker and blogger) shelves look like in her house



We knew we weren't professional woodworkers, so ours were probably going to look a little more "home made" than Ana's, but it was worth a shot. On Friday evening we went out to Lowe's and bought all the supplies, only spending about $30. Just to put it into perspective, we got the supplies to make 2 shelves, and one shelf costs $30 from Ikea. So we were definitely saving some money in the long run.

Friday evening when we got home, Jonathan cut the wood so we would only have to put them together, sand them, prime and paint them on Saturday.



Saturday morning we started putting together the frames and sleeves and doing all the sanding, priming and painting.



Once I was into painting, I realized we weren't going to have enough paint in the garage to paint both with 2 coats of white paint, so we have only hung one of the shelves so far. The other one is waiting for one more coat of paint, then we're planning to hang it in our master bathroom above the bathtub for some nice storage.

The finished one we hung in the kitchen above the new buffet sideboard. I was thinking we would put both above there for even more storage, but if we had done that, I couldn't have reached the top shelf, so we decided to just hang one there. Here's a close up before I accessorized it.



So now the question...what to put on it? Well I had multiple options, but my favorite idea for now are some vintage glasses passed down from Jonathan's great Aunt. They are super cool and have etched "C"s on them, and I have been wanting to display them somewhere. This seemed like the perfect place!





So there you have it...a quick run down of our little weekend project. If you're interested in making the shelves yourself, you can find the plans here

More Hours in my Day?

Last weekend when Jonathan and I were home visiting my parents, my mom gave me a book called More Hours in My Day by Emilie Barnes. I am only part of the way through it, but the basic idea of the book is to give readers ways to organize themselves and their families. Now, with only Jonathan and I, there isn't as much to organize, and I'm sure many of her ideas I'll put into practice when we start a family. But reading this book got me thinking about things we already do around our house to keep things somewhat organized and save a little time each day.

First of all, I should say that I love organization. Seriously, if I could be a personal organizer and go to different client's houses and organize their spaces, I would have the dream job. There are certainly places that need more organization in our house, but there are a few things that we have started that work well for us.

One thing that I absolutely despise is laundry. I hate it. When we first moved into our house last year, I got a label maker, and I thought it would be a good idea to label our laundry baskets and place them above the washer and dryer like so:





Jonathan has really gotten into a routine of putting his dirty clothes in the labeled bins as he takes them off, which helps tremendously when it comes time to sort the laundry. It may seem like a small thing, but I bet it saves me about 10 to 15 minutes on laundry day...whenever that happens to roll around. I try to put it off as much as possible.

Another thing that we started awhile ago is sorting mail as we bring it in the house. I am one of those people that hates having anything on the kitchen counter, so I like to sort the mail each day and get it off the counter. We have this bin on the desk in the office where we sort the mail - one slot of bills to pay, one slot for Jonathan, and one slot for me.



This really is great for knowing when certain bills are due, because we keep the bills paid section sorted by due date. I normally glance at it near the beginning of every week and make sure I know what's coming up. Also, we each go through our individual stacks and file them in our filing drawers about every week or two, to keep down on the amount of paper out on the desk. We each had a filing system when we moved into our house, so it has sort of stayed separated, but eventually I'm sure we'll combine forces in this department.





My drawer is on top, and Jonathan's is the picture on the bottom. Both look different, but they each get the job done just as well - the key being keeping paper out of sight and where we can easily find something if we need to.

Lastly, I am a little crazy about my pantry. We have a small pantry in our kitchen (oh how I wish it were bigger), so a couple of weekends ago, once we had moved our new sideboard into the kitchen to create a little more storage, I was able to move some things out of the pantry and onto a lazy susan, leaving me alot more room to play with in the pantry. I like to keep the canned goods and boxes on the lazy susan, and the spices, baking supplies, etc. in the pantry. Here's what it currently looks like:



My favorite two shelves are the spice shelf and the dry baking goods shelf.





With both of these shelves, I love that I can see what I have of each item at a glance. Spices are a little tricky, since they come in so many different sizes and shapes. I had thought about storing them alphabetically, but for me it made sense to store them by size so I can read what each thing is without rummaging through 15 difference containers. The same is true for the dry baking goods. I can open the pantry and tell in about 2.1 seconds if I need to buy sugar or flour.

Those are just a few of the simple organizing techniques we have started using in our home. I do believe that those small things will help to create More Hours in My Day.

Things I'm Loving...

Let's be honest, I always have a long wish list of home decor items I'd love to see in our home at any given time. Some things I'll get, and some things I'll probably never have...we can't always have everything we want :). These are just a few of the things I'm oogling over lately.

The first item is from www.nameyourdesign.com The color scheme pretty much goes perfectly with our living room, and for only $20 for a personalized 8x10 print, you can't beat it.



The next item will have to wait til we have hardwood floors in our living room (maybe a year or two...I'm keeping my fingers crossed), but I think the design on this rug is just gorgeous. It's from www.shadesoflight.com



Then there's this chair from www.target.com that would go perfectly in our master bedroom. I really like the shape of the chair, which is more modern than many things in our home, so it would be a nice addition, without being over the top.



Here's a more practical thing I've been looking for. I cleaned off a space on our counter to put a bread box, but I just haven't found the perfect one yet. It's kind of a "traditional meets modern" item that we could really use...putting bread on top of the refrigerator is just not cute, and it goes stale so fast! Anyway, this one is from www.amazon.com and I think it could definitely work in our space.



Speaking of stainless steel, how great would this look in our kitchen?!?



I've been eyeing the bottom freezer refrigerators for awhile now, and stainless steel would be perfect in our kitchen. Buuuut, as soon as I change out the refrigerator, I'm going to want a matching stove and dishwasher. Let's just say for now, stainless steel appliances are just a dream of mine.

Now, on to something a little more realistic. I'd love to make our guest room more plush and welcoming for when we have company, and I think adding a swanky luggage rack would help add more of the "hotel vibe" to the room. This one from www.stacksandstacks.com is adorable, and I love the bamboo.



Those are just a few of the things I've been eyeing over the past few weeks. Of course I'll never have everything on this list, but it sure is fun to dream :)