hopes for 2013

Dear the year 2013,

I have a lot of hopes for you, and I wanted to let you know what they are before you actually begin, so you can be prepared and know what to expect.

I will be graduating with my bachelors degree on May 11, 2013 at 9:30AM (and I only know this because I have already order my graduation invites). I am hoping before this time I will have a job while also knowing what graduate school I will be diving into for the fall semester. Graduate school already? Sheesh. You can definitely take your time getting to the fall semester because I am not ready just yet.

It also seems like everyone around me is either getting engaged, married, or popping out babies. Does this mean I should be doing that this year too? Ricky and I will have been together for three years in March, and I am very excited. I have never been with someone this long before, and I also never been with someone this long and still feel the way I do. It's so nice to be in love with my best friend, so if he wants to be engaged soon (YIPEE!!) then that would be exciting. I cannot wait to plan our dream wedding together, and I know his mother is even more excited then we are.

I am very grateful for all the love I received with my new cake baking venture in the year 2012, but I would love for that to continue. I am doing a few weddings so far, but I would love for a few more to pop up. I did in fact receive a order today from a friend of a friend, which is so sweet to know my friends are telling others about me and my cakes! :)

My apartment lease is also ending in June, which is perfect because it will give me enough time to find a new place here in Rome. Ricky and I want to stay in Rome for now, so I want to find a rental house as my next place. I have loved my cute college apartment, but I am ready for something better (and quieter with less rules). Ricky won't be living with one another until we actually get married, so it is exciting that I get to pick the next place all by myself, but I definitely know he will have an opinion since he will be there most of the time!

Ricky and I also want to be able to find a place for me to be able to get a puppy!! We have always wanted to purchase a little pup together, but we have never been able to afford one. We can finally have the time and money to do it after our graduation, so we cannot wait! That is why I want a little rental house too; I want him or her to be able to run and enjoy this Georgia weather! 

So, now do you see how much pressure I am putting on you 2013?? Please don't let me down!

What are you hoping for the new year? Any new years resolutions?

Ganache & Sprinkles

Whew! It was definitely been a stressful couple of weeks, but it is almost Thanksgiving, which means I will actually be able to drive away from campus for several days. I get to go back to my home and spend much needed time not doing homework and catching up with family. And I also get the pleasure to bake all the desserts for Thanksgiving since my dad and stepmom are hosting it again this year! Can't wait!

I also snagged two more wedding cake orders today! Two in one day! I thought I was dreaming. One of them is next summer, and the other is next September. I immediately marked them in my calendar. 

One of the cake orders I did (today, actually) this week was one I had never done before. It was a coworker's 21st birthday, and she has tried every single cake I have ever brought to our work parties, so she graciously let me do something different than I normally do. Love her for letting me try something new!!

So, introducing Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse Filling topped with Buttercream Icing and Chocolate Ganache, and the festive 2 & 1 on top are made out of white almond bark. 

Here's the step by step of the process, excluding the actual baking of the cake layers, of course:

Let me know what y'all think! It did take a while for this particular cake, but it was super fun to make.

Hope your weekend is going to be relaxing like mine! I cannot wait!

Roses Roses Roses

The cake I created last week was for a wedding shower. I met the bride at one of my college's alumni events, and she recently graduated this past May. She came up to my table at the event where I was selling my cupcakes, and she asked if I did wedding cakes too. I have technically only done two wedding cakes (all by myself), so I was VERY nervous when she was interested in that. I showed her the past wedding cakes I have done, and she was excited. We talked briefly about her wedding in December of this year, and it was going to be held here on our college campus. Anyway, long story short...she then later contacted me through our Facebook page about really and truly doing her wedding cake. I was super surprised but very excited!

We then decided to have a trial run cake done for her wedding shower in order for her to try our flavors and cream cheese icing. Her wedding shower cake was chocolate cake on the bottom tier, and the top tier was white chocolate. She wanted me to design it myself, with the helpful information of her bridesmaid dress color being dark purple, and this is what I created. She loved the rose design so much that she now wants her middle tiers for her four tiered wedding cake to be the rose design. I love it! It just screams bridal to me! The icing is also the cream cheese icing she wanted because it's the groom's favorite type of icing. I don't blame him!

I delivered the tiers separately because the mother of the bride was driving a ways to take it to party, so I provided support for her when she did stack the tiers at the party. I wish I could  have photographed it all put together, but I did not want to ruin the roses. I hope she remembered to snap a picture for me at the party!

I am also going to be doing the groom's cake for her wedding, which should be very fun too! I am very grateful for her giving me this opportunity to be apart of her wedding celebration when I merely met her a month ago! I love how easily people can trust. It makes my heart happy that there are people like that still out there. Thank you for letting me do what I love to do!

I cannot wait for the wedding in December. Almost there!!
Of course, I will show y'all every step of the way.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday! It should be an interesting night watching the news to see where our country will go next. I love that we have the right to decide that! Always be thankful of that! 

Just Wanted to Say I Love You

Tonight, I am having dinner with one of my best friends who has been in my life for a while now. We first met in high school, and we have always kept in touch since. We worked together for two summers at a summer camp, and she is the reason why I put up with that job! She kept me sane from all the crazy little children running around me at all times. I definitely took those times with her for granted because I really miss seeing her face every day.

I just want her to know that no matter where life may take us, I will always be there for her. She was there for me when I was going through the hardest time in my life, and I will never be able to repay her. She is such an angel in my life. She is one of those people that when you first see them, you cannot help but have the biggest smile on your face. She is such a ray of sunshine in my life and always brings out the best in me. I cannot wait to see what good she does in this world because I know (FOR SURE) that it's going to be something spectacular. She is that amazing!

I cannot wait to see your face tonight for a little dinner catch-up sesh. Thank you for always working hard at keeping in touch with me because I would be miserable without you.

I hope everyone has a happy halloween! You now know how I am going to be spending it, and I would not want to spend it with anyone else.

Spice Re-Do

Every time I would open my spice cabinet, I would get frustrated with how it looks and how it's organized. I was always fishing through, throwing things around, until I found what I needed. It needed to stop! I was at Walmart to buy a new trashcan since the one I have had developed some kind of permanent nasty brown colored puddle at the bottom. No thank you! While on that isle, I found the perfect solution to my spice nightmare. The little display shelf that are like stairs, much like this one from Bed, Bath, and Beyond! I know there has to be a technical term for it, but that is how I describe it.

I also ended up switching the side of where I wanted them displayed. The right side is next to the stove and such, so I felt like that placement would be perfect. I want to eventually get the plain glass spice jars and label them all myself. Another project for another day!

Along with my reorganization, I tried to organize the upper cabinets, too. I did end up purchasing a couple OXO food containers to try to organize the flours, sugars, etc. Of course, I need more for all the junk I keep in my cabinets for all the baking recipes I use, but they get expensive! I do want this particular brand because it is so durable and makes me feel like it helping with the pop button on top. Walmart does have their own type of these containers but from the Better Homes brand. Theirs do not have a button on type but instead have this plastic pull. It was weird to me, but they were much cheaper if you wanted to go that route. Personally, I just felt that it could easily spill with those pull tabs.

I'm a sucker for kitchen things (who would have thought?), so I also purchased this amazing kitchen mat for under the sink. It is leather and super thick to relax your little feeties while working in the kitchen. I am always using my tiny kitchen, whipping some kind of cake or dessert, so this makes it nice!

How do y'all personalize or organize your kitchens? Give me ideas! It's my favorite room in the apartment, so I definitely try to update it the most.

Fall Semester, Senior Year

Next Monday marks the first day of classes for the fall semester, the last fall semester as an undergrad! I never thought I would get here, and so quickly! I could not be more excited for the end of spring semester and take on my next life goal. Who knows what that might be, but I am excited to figure that out. As long as I have the people that make me smile around me, especially Ricky, I will be happy no matter what I may choose to do.

This semester may be a bit hectic because I want my spring semester to be easy, so I can work more and focus on finding a job. I am taking 17 credit hours this semester, so I can take the minimum 12 credit hours next semester. So excited for that! More time to do every thing!

This semester coming up even includes my last science class requirement that I have been putting off. Definitely not my thing! I took the first science requirement last summer, which was a bad decision on my part because the material we had to cover went faster, making it much harder for me. I took another summer class this summer too (Speech!), but I steered clear of science. I wanted to take speech because I knew I would not be able to take that type of class during the normal semesters because I would be way too analytical about it. I am very thankful I made that decision; there was only 11 people in the speech summer class, which made it a much more relaxing atmosphere to speak. 

SO, let me show you my schedule. Feel bad for me:

1. Business Statistics: I tried taking this class sophomore year, but the professor was dreadful, and I dropped it hoping maybe another professor would come along and teach it. Prayed for that! Never happened. So, here I am at the last hour taking it. I am thrilled! 
2. Old Testament: Ricky and I took Christian Theology with this same professor a couple semesters back and absolutely loved him! He thoroughly enjoys his job, and it made me want to be there and learn from him. He was so sweet, too! Ricky and I both needed another class to take for just the extra credit hours (to meet the graduation required amount), so we jumped on the chance to take another class taught by him. He loved us together too, and even catches up with us when we see him around town. I am just excited about taking with Ricky, too!
3. Entrepreneurship: This is an upper level management class I have to take where you create your own business, and your grade for the class relies on how well your particular business thrives. How nerve-racking is that? Well, the good thing is I heard the professor is super sweet, so hopefully she will be willing to work with me and enjoy my frequent visits to her office. I have to take a class in the spring with her as well, so I must get her to like me! 
4. Intro to Chemistry: Yuck!! I am not excited about this class. I hate science, and I hate lab. You will most likely here me complain about this class a lot this semester. And yes, it is an intro class, so that better be in my favor! But you never know. I have heard the professor is fairly new and easy. Please be true!
5. Organizational Behavior: This is another upper level management course I have to take. This one is taught by my adviser (YES!) and is also a writing intensive class. You have to take two types of writing intensive courses in order to graduate from the business school, and this is my first one. The second one I will take will be in the spring with the Entrepreneurship professor. I heard it is a lot of writing, but mostly casual like journal entries and such. I love the way my adviser teaches too, so I know I will be fine!
6. Health Topics: This is my last health education class I have to take in order to finish with that part of my general education classes. I took bowling and survey of wellness in past semesters as the other requirements, and those were easyyyyy! This class is more classroom based while the other classes I took were more activity based. Thankfully, this is my only 8AM class, but it also only half of the full semester.

Whew! Just writing about all these classes stresses me out, and it hasn't even started! Luckily, I am ready. I have my supplies (my favorite thing to buy!) and my books. Call me a loser, but I am always prepared and don't look ridiculous when trying to find excuses to tell the professor.

And this past Friday, I completed a super duper important application!

Graduation Application, done! I can't believe this is the last year. Bring it on!

"Insta" Week

I love starting new routines and traditions, so this here's one!
I am going to have "Insta" weeks every Friday (or try to!), so you can see what I have been up to that week. I always have my iphone with me instead of my huge camera, so unfortunately, my day-to-day life is captured more by my phone camera.

1. My new personalized planner! Fall semester classes start in two weeks, but I had to order this baby back in early July in order for it to arrive on time. I had never spent so much on a planner before ($50!!), but honestly, it was well worth it. I stumbled upon this beautiful planner someone had on Pinterest and searched high and low. It was from this adorable website called Erin Condren. Now for someone like me who is an organization & personalization freak, I fell in love. I went to this store almost every day just searching through all the options. Am the last one to know about this place???
2. This is my latest eBay necklace purchase. I have quite a collection now, and I should definitely have a post soon about all of them. I have gotten in the habit to search for a necklace I am drooling over on eBay before I go and spend more than a gas tank worth on a statement necklace. And most of the time, I am successful and find a super deal! 
3. My bestest friend in whole wide world is down to visit her Georgia family, and she helped me find these two new additions to my apartment lobby "nook". I have this random shelf area right when you enter my apartment, and this organizer is perfect for it. I can finally organize the mail I usually throw on there along with my keys. The white owl vase just adds the perfect cuteness!
4. This new schoolbag and my planner are actually making me excited for my last fall semester as an undergrad! Never thought that would happen! This purchase was pure luck due to a summer class book I needed to sell and the funds could only go to Paypal. That gave me a reason to buy this mint beauty; it is actually bigger than it looks. It fits my binder, spiral notebook, planner, wallet, and huge pen bag. Perfect!

This weekend is another quick visit with my bestie before she heads back home. I do hate that part, but we always say it's "See You Later" rather than "Goodbye".

Hope y'all enjoy the quick instagram week updates! Let me know what you think.

Hoot of a Good Time

This week started the crazy finals week no one looks forward to. Lucky me, I did not have a final this week; they are all the next week coming up! EEK! But that is okay because I was able to relax a bit and focus on a project I had planned on doing for this week.

One of my friends at my work on campus is obsessed with owls, so when I found this cake tutorial on how to make an owl cake, I immediately saved the magazine and kept reading and rereading how to do it. I read it so much that I realized I had memorized it all when I actually did it this week! I found it in the Martha Stewart living magazine I get (for free, of course), and now I make a point to read all of them I receive now because of this awesome owl tutorial.

Well, first I made the chocolate cake recipe I have had for years. I like to call it my own recipe because it is a combination of recipes I have tried for years and years. I like my cakes a certain way and cannot stand dry cakes at all. Yes, they are harder to work with when they aren't dry, but I am sorry, I worry more about the taste then the look of it.
Then you can print off the owl template from Martha's handy website and cut them all out and place them on the sheet cakes, just like this:

I thought the cutting out part was going to be so difficult and messy, but because I let the cake cool for a couple hours (while I got some homework done), it was much easier. I used a tiny knife too, so I could really cut close. The pieces actually turned out good before I even iced the whole thing. I thought I was going to have to ice over some mistakes! Once I cut everything out, I assembled them together to make sure I had everything I needed before diving into the yellow icing:

I am also very thankful I bought more of my icing ingredients than I needed because I had to actually make four times my normal recipe. The owl needed a lot of it! I feel like it just kept swallowing it! :)

And done! I did not have something to carry him into work that fit his entire body, so I had to makeshift a tray for him out of cardboard and tin foil. The pupils are Hershey Cookies and Cream Drops, and the feet/eye ball are chocolate wafers. I was hoping the grocery store carried chocolate wafers because I had never seen them. But I ended up having to make a batch of homemade chocolate wafers; I even had all the ingredients for it already at home. It was perfect.

I ended up having to cut the eyebrows a little bit because they hung off, which made it look cool, but when you put all that icing on them, they sagged like old ladies! It looked awful, so I snipped them a bit and make him have a unibrow.

And you can't tell, but my man owl has got a belly. A big one! I packed all the leftover scraps on top of his body to give him a nice round belly. I should have taken a side shot. Of course, the end result did not look exactly like Martha's owl, but I was still pretty proud of the little guy. It was a lot of hard work.

When I brought it into work, everyone loved it. Who doesn't love owls? They're adorable! The eyes and feet were gone in a matter of minutes, and the next day only the owls head was left. I am assuming the next time I am schedule to work that there will only be cardboard left, maybe even without the tin foil! Who knows! :)

Summer Monies

After the next two weeks of last days of class and finals, the summer will officially start for this college senior.
Senior? No way. Already? Crazy!

This summer might be the most hectic summer I will ever have. I am going to be working two jobs, one full time and one part time, while also taking one summer class during the second half of summer. I do not necessarily need to take this class, but this particular subject is one of my weaknesses, so I wanted to take it during the summer, so I can solely focus on it and nothing else. We will see what happens because one of my jobs is not very happy about me taking this class because I said a while back that I was not going to take a summer class. They seemed to understand more when I explained my difficulty with it, but these people still do not seem to understand I am still in college. I feel like I have to remind them constantly that I still have homework, tests, quizzes, long nights, study sessions, boring lectures, endless projects, and a constant headache.

Anyway, this post was not meant to gripe about my jobs (that's another post that could be 300 pages long). With the two jobs this summer, I have made a list. I make lists all the time in my notebook I always carry with me. I refer to it as my idea book; I record anything and every thing that pops into my mind throughout the day. You see, I do not have a strong short term memory, especially when it comes to ideas and things I need to do, so this is where I keep myself together. I could make a post every day for a couple years about each list I have made in this notebook. The most exciting part is that I am finally half way through this notebook. It will definitely be sad when I have to leave this one behind for a brand new, fresh one, but I still have a long way to go until that point!

The list I am writing about today is my list for things I would love to save up for, especially with a summer like this one coming up. I want to save, save, save and make my savings account the biggest it's ever been, and trust me, that is not hard to do! I am not going to hit all the things on the list (that would take forever!). I am just gonna hit the main ones!

1. The first on the list is a new bed frame. Oh gosh, I never thought something so silly would be at the top of this list, but I cannot stand my bed right now. I live in an apartment, and my dad did not want me to take my huge bed frame from home to stuff into my tiny apartment, so we just put my mattress on this metal frame. It is not cute at all, and it makes me want to take it down every time I hit the sheets, but I know from experience that my bed is not at all comfortable when it is directly on the ground. The rest of the furniture in my room is white, so I have been looking for a really cheap, but nice white bed frame. The only decent one I have found so far is this one from IKEA, but of course, I have all summer to look.
   
2. The next one on the list is a Bluetooth keyboard case for the iPad. Ricky and I put some savings together last year to buy an iPad. We thought it would be perfect for us to use, especially for our business classes that we take together. We used it a lot at first, but it ended up being not what I wanted to use to take notes. I am not a fan of the keyboard on the iPad. I am a fast typer and try to keep up with the professor when he or she is lecturing, and I was always falling behind on the iPad because I was messing up so much. Last Christmas looking for a gift for my dad, I stumbled upon this case for the iPad that has a keyboard that is connected by Bluetooth to the iPad. I thought it was so convenient! I have seen students bring in their iPad with a keyboard, but they have to haul all those odds and ends throughout the whole day, but this case just folds right up, and I can just slide it right into my huge school bag.
   
   
   
3. I know this one shouldn't be on the list anymore because I recently bought it, but it is still so exciting to me because I never thought I would ever be able to afford this baby. I love seeing a check mark next to this one especially! I finally bought myself an iMac, but of course with some help from my good friend who works at the Apple store. I have a Macbook Pro I got when I graduated high school, but I have always dreamed of owning an iMac. I finally had an apartment I love and a desk that is so beautiful and ready for an iMac. And of course, I am typing all this on it right now. I would show a picture, but I am in the process of organizing and cleaning the office, so maybe later ;)