Birthdays and Colleges

I'm really sad to see this weekend go because I have a busy week ahead. Not looking forward to that.....

Thankfully my weekend started a little bit early for me though! I had a college visit on Friday, so Thursday was like my Friday. It was also my mom's birthday. I was pretty proud of the gift I bought her - a totally beach-themed present. My mom loves the beach, and I thought a touch of summer was so fun in February!

We celebrated Thursday night with dinner and cheesecake. Yum!

I posted this picture on Facebook - it's one of my favorite pictures of my mom and I from when I was little.

Like I mentioned earlier, I didn't go to school on Friday because I had an Honors brunch at UC. I went with my friend Erin, and it was kind of fun. At lunch we were talking about the afternoon presentations, and we realized we had both already listened to those before. So we skipped on the rest of the afternoon, and instead grabbed a Starbucks, shopped around the bookstore, popped in the library, and just walked around campus. I felt like we were college students already - ha!

I literally did nothing Friday night. It was kind of cold, and I was tired, so I stayed home and actually watched some old TV shows from when I was younger on YouTube. I hadn't watched That's So Raven in years, and it was fun to take a trip down memory lane :)

On Saturday I spent the afternoon at another college. This time Xavier though. I had a scholarship interview that pretty much lasted all day. At this point, I'm just glad it's over!

via

Then we went home and got ready to head out to dinner!

Everyone on my dad's side of the family went out to eat at the Moerlein Lager House downtown. It's one of my favorite new restaurants. We had started planning this dinner at Christmas, so I had been looking forward to it for a long time. It also landed on my cousin Erin's birthday, so we were celebrating that as well.

It was so fun being together with everyone. What I love about my dad's side of the family is that when we plan something like this, all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins show up. That's a lot harder to do on my mom's side of the family :)

We also got my favorite dessert there: blueberry cobbler. I'm so surprised I love this so much because normally I believe that if it doesn't have chocolate in it, it's not considered a dessert. I'm also not a huge blueberry fan, but this cobbler is to die for!

I just have to add in this cute picture I took of Coco last night too.....

Today I have had more homework to work on than I have in a long time. Definitely a bummer, but I only have a 4 day week followed by a 4 day weekend, so I'm looking forward to a bit of a break at the end of the week. I'm also looking forward to watching the Grammy's tonight :)

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

First of all, I'm loving that I'm finally getting around to doing a WILW post. It's been months since I participated!

Here's what else I'm loving this week......

I'm loving that I only have 2 days of school left this week because I have a brunch to go to on Friday. I love short weeks!

I'm loving that as I'm typing this post, my dog keeps coming up and putting her paws on my keys. I think she wants to blog too :)

I'm loving that I finished decorating my 100% homemade cake last night. I love the way it turned out!

I'm also loving this fondant recipe that I used for the cake. It feels just like fondant, but it tastes like marshmallows! It's seriously SO good.

I'm loving that I get to share the cake with my friends in class today! I like to bake, and I obviously like to eat my creations, but my absolute favorite thing is sharing with sweet friends. There's nothing better than seeing other people get excited when I bring in baked goods.

I'm loving that I have a really fun weekend coming up! My whole dad's side of the family is going out to dinner Saturday night and I'm so excited :)

I'm really loving that my friend and I finally booked our airfare for our Senior Trip last night. We will be spending part of our summer in Savannah and Tybee Island. I literally cannot wait!

via

via

via

via

I'm loving that I'm literally so blessed. Everything seems to be falling into place lately, and I'm so thankful for that.

Snowy Weekend

This past weekend has kept me asking why I don't live in the south. I am NOT a winter girl, and I seriously hate the snow, which is what we've had all weekend. Boo!

Although it was kind of nice having a 2 hour delay on Friday. The bad part? Having to shovel snow off my car in the morning. No fun!

We watched a movie in school on Friday, so they cut out 3 of our classes, and the remaining 4 were only 20 minutes long. Success!

That night my friend Danielle came over and we worked on some more Senior Trip plans. It's really coming together - we just need to find some good airfare and we're ready to go. Yay!

Saturday morning I lounged around with Coco. I really don't think she's a dog :)

Then I spent my afternoon playing with this cutie. I love babysitting her!

The snow continued to fall that afternoon.....

That night I cuddled up on the couch with Coco, watched a movie, and worked on another baby shower banner for one of my mom's coworkers.

Sunday was spent doing what I do pretty much every Sunday....baking! I made a homemade chocolate cake, and it is seriously my favorite recipe ever. The cake is SO moist and chocolaty.

We didn't have any Superbowl plans, so we just spent the night at home. We made some party food for dinner, and then I didn't even watch any of the game (besides the halftime show!). Coco wasn't very interested in the game either.....

I was off school on Monday (wahoooo!), so I finished up that baby shower banner in the morning. This time the theme was trains, and I'm once again happy with the way it turned out.

Then my mom and I headed out for lunch at Panera. Perfect on a cold winter day!

We went to Target afterwards and found this new limited edition Ghirardelli: Dark Chocolate Strawberry. It's SO good!

Then I worked some more on my cake. Can you tell how moist it is?!? I can't wait to dig into this once it's completely finished :)

A messy kitchen is the sign of a successful baking afternoon - ha!

It snowed some more yesterday afternoon too. It was actually some of the craziest snowfall I've seen in years. The snowflakes were huge, and they came down really fast. Of course it hit when I had to pick up the kids I babysit too, so I had to drive in it. Bummer. Have I mentioned how much I hate winter?

I finished working on my cake last night too! I made homemade fondant, and it turned out so good. I have a meeting with my mentor tonight, so my plan is to finish decorating it then. I'm really impressed with how professional it looks though and how easy it was to do it. The homemade fondant makes a HUGE difference in taste :)

I can't wait to dig into that cake tomorrow! I'm also really excited about the rest of this week. It's only a 3 day week for me. I'm super happy about that :)

Makeup Monday {Organization}

I don't have a crazy amount of makeup, but I have enough makeup products that I can't just throw them in a small makeup bag and call it a day. That's why today's post is all about how I organize my makeup! I personally love getting ideas about this from other people, so I wanted to share my own.

I don't have my own bathroom in my house, so that means I have to keep all of my makeup in my room. I used to just have a makeup bag with all of my favorite products thrown on the floor of my room because I didn't have anywhere else to put it. I recently organized though and now it's in a much better spot!

I keep all of my everyday products on the bottom shelf of my desk because it's right there so I can grab it quickly every morning.

(And don't you love that throwback picture from grade school - ha! That's me with my friends Abby and Ashley, and they gave me this frame when we graduated. I just recently found it when I was cleaning things up, and I had to put it up. It cracks me up how much we've changed in 4 years!)

I keep my palettes and makeup brushes in the front (just because I think they look cute), and my makeup bag in the back.

I used to just throw my brushes in with the rest of my makeup, but I was worried that they would eventually get ruined. So I got this super cute chalkboard jar from Target! I think it was only $6, and they had a bunch of different sizes and colors. I just think it's the cutest thing. I still need to find a piece of chalk to write on it though :)

Then I have my makeup palettes in this little basket. This basket is the perfect size, and I love how it kind of displays my palettes. I've had this basket for years - I actually think it was part of a cookie bouquet I got years ago.

Then my makeup bag (Clinique) is basically a catch-all for my everyday products. I keep my most used items in there so they're all together in one place.

Most of my lipgloss I keep in my purse. Actually I have so many different tubes of lip gloss that I have maybe 2-3 in each of my purses so that when I switch purses, I have some different ones to choose from that I haven't used in awhile - ha! But I also keep a few on my desk so that I can use one as I'm running out the door in the morning. I usually keep my Revlon Lip Butters here because I use those the most often.

Then I keep everything else in a drawer in my closet.  I have 2 of those pretty large Rubbermaid containers with the plastic drawers in my closet. Those have definitely helped me be more organized (although my closet is still pretty messy....).  I have one drawer specifically set aside for makeup products. In there I keep the stuff I don't use every day. Basically a bunch of mascara, eyeshadows, powders, and lip gloss that I either got tired of using or just haven't been my favorite.

And those are my organization tips! I think it's best to keep the products you use a lot somewhere that you can easily access them, and then the products you don't use as often in another spot. That's what works for me.

Proud Baking Moment

Last week I finally tackled something I had been wanting to do for months. I made homemade French macarons!

If you're not familiar with macarons, they're a small cookie that somewhat resembles a meringue cookie (although it isn't). The small cookies then are sandwiched between a layer of buttercream icing. So yummy!

I had always been a *bit* nervous about them because, well, they're complicated. You have to use ingredients I had never heard of before (almond flour), as well as baking techniques I had never done. So I had always shied away from them. But I decided to just go for it because I had a project on France that I could bring in food for. Turned out perfect!

And the macarons were not as difficult as I had thought they would be. Sure, I had to measure out the ingredients in grams not cups, and I had to age egg whites for several days, as well as cut and strip an actual vanilla bean.

But I was SO proud of myself when they actually turned out well! I think the texture was slightly off, but I was incredibly happy with them. For being a complicated process, I think I did a good job for my first attempt.

I followed Amanda's recipe, and I was really happy with the results. I would probably say that the macarons were one of the baking attempts I have been the proudest of simply because they are more complicated, but definitely not impossible.

This endeavor makes me want to try a whole lot more "complicated" pastries :)

A Full Frame

When I was young, my mom bought a frame with 13 different slots for 13 different pictures.

Each picture would correspond to a year, a grade level. One for every year from kindergarten to 12th grade.

I've passed the frame every day for probably the last 10 years. I can remember looking at it with only 4 or 5 pictures in and thinking about how crazy it would be when all 13 pictures were in their spots. I thought the day would never come.

Because when you're living, sometimes the days seem to drag on, and you age so slowly that it doesn't even seem like your appearance is changing at all. But when you stop and compare the pictures, it's crazy how much your appearance changes even from one year to the next.

And it's crazy when you think back and realize that the days that seem to go so slow in the "here" really go fast.

Some days it seems like going to college, getting a real job, getting married, or having kids is just SO far off and that it will never come.

But then I think about how I never thought the day would come when the frame would be full and I would be graduating high school. It's just a reminder to me that different seasons of life go by so fast and that you have to live each day or one day you'll wake up and wonder where the last 20 years went.

This frame may just look like an ordinary one filled with 13 different pictures. But to me, it's a reminder of years gone by and memories I'll never forget.

And I can't believe the frame is already filled! Oh how I've changed so much over the past 12 years......