Category Archives: 2014

happiest vacation on earth | day 4

10 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by in 2014, San Diego, Sea World, Southern California, Summer 2014, Travel

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So the next day (second to last of these posts! which i WILL complete before i go on vacation again. on friday. lol) of this vacation recap isssssssss San Diego!

We left Anaheim pretty early in the morning and drove down to San Diego on a rather nice coastal drive. I hadn’t driven on that coast in a long time so it was really nice to re-experience it. Random fact: gas is real expensive in San Clemente.

Since we Groupon-ed a hotel again, we decided it really didn’t matter where we got our hotel and so we picked the Best Western about a 5 minute drive away from Sea World. The drive wasn’t super far so we were able to get to San Diego by around 11:30am, checked-in, got all our stuff in the room and drove over to Sea World.

Now, I don’t think I’ve been to Sea World, or remembered going to Sea World, so I was honestly pretty excited for it. I know it’s got a fairly poor reputation for how it treats it’s animals but the little kid in me was excited for you know… being in the splash zone during a show.

Honestly, my favorite part of the park was the front entrance and the way they decorated the park. Which is kind of sad. But it was a pretty well decorated park. Their landscaping was beautiful. At the front of the park there were those little dead skin eating fish and a ton of interactive/learning pools for kids. That was neat.

Slowly but surely though, it was made pretty clear that Sea World was an aging attraction and was hit pretty hard by it’s negative publicity.

The first thing we did was eat lunch – we found a random cafe and had sandwiches. Then according to the map there was a show about to start so we piled into the giant line and sat down in the middle of the seats. Close enough to see the orca whales pretty well. The show was your standard “look at them jump! look!” it was as much as I had expected.

From there though it was just…. sad. We rode one of their water rides, which was pretty fun but like a B+ compared to the Grizzly River Run ride at Disneyland. Then we walked around: there were some indoor tanks which is something we can see in closer aquariums. Although they had turtles. There were little outdoor tidepools. We walked by a flamingo pond which didn’t smell all that great. There were seals and sea lions and dolphins which you could feed or watch instructors play with but the animals just expectantly sat there waiting for food rather than looking like they enjoyed living there. The indoor penguin exhibit could’ve been cool but the glass was dirty and it was hard to see. There was also another indoor shark exhibit where you could walk under the tank in one of those tunnels. That was cool. We totally skipped a different indoor exhibit because the line was super long. Basically we walked all around the park, had dippin’ dots, went on their big roller coaster at the end of the park and then decided we saw everything there was worth seeing. There was also this random indoor room with a beaver and some tree frogs.

Long story short: Sea World was a little sad. It was a quick enough trip that we were able to go back to the hotel and just rest a little since we were continuously going for about 4 days there.

That evening we drove around the city since we didn’t do much at Sea World. There was a really beautiful sunset that evening and we ended up at a seafood restaurant called Anthony’s Fish Grotto. It had a very 1950s family/traditional/everybody goes there feel to it. The seafood was pretty amazing though – my mom and I both jumped on the chance to get some good seafood since we were in San Diego. I basically got a big ole plate of fried seafood which is arguably the best fried food. My mom got scallops and they were amazing too. We were able to watch the sun go down since it was sitting right on the water. It was a nice way to end the day.

We headed back to the hotel and basically packed up since that was the end of the trip, aside from the drive home.

I’ll have the drive home photos up tomorrow 🙂

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happiest vacation on earth | day 3

08 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by in 2014, Anaheim, Disneyland, Los Angeles, Southern California, Summer 2014, Travel, Universal Studios Hollywood

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Remember that time I went to Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Sea World with my mom last summer? Well, here’s the third day of that vacation. Because I still haven’t finished posting those photos. It’s 1000% for me to be able to track where I’ve been and what I’ve done and to remember experiences as fully as possible.

So here’s Day 3 of that adventure 🙂

We planned ahead of time to spend our third day in the L.A. area at Universal Studios. We purchased the SoCal City Pass which allowed you a 3-day Park Hopper ticket to Disneyland, a day at Universal Studios, and a day at Sea World in San Diego. Since we had driven down we figured we could just drive from our hotel in Anaheim back up to Universal Studios instead of stay a night in L.A. Originally we didn’t plan on using that third day at Disneyland but we ended up going back, just because we had time to. I’ll get to that later.

The drive was about an hour, with full L.A. traffic. It wasn’t an unpleasant drive or anything though so idk, not a big deal. We left in the morning at around 10 so we got to Universal at around 11.

You sort of don’t see anything form the freeway, aside from the hotels and parking garages and a few signs so it was sort of an anti-climactic drive. I will say that their parking situation is really organized though.

The first thing on our list was to eat and sort of map out the day. I didn’t know what rides were still there or not, so I sort of had the whole idea (and my mom did too) that we’d do the Water World show, the Jurassic Park ride, the E.T. ride, the Back Draft show, the Back To The Future ride and all of those classics because for us they were classics. Guess what? Of that list, only the Water World show and the Jurassic Park ride are still at Universal. It was sort of a bummer but it opened up the afternoon for us to sort of explore stuff and experience it regardless because we were there.

Universal is set up so similarly to Disneyland in that there are just different sections of the park that pertain to interests and/or themes. The entrance was all that glam sort of Hollywood thing with fake sets and a lot of stores and a fun reflection of that iconic Hollywood dream. Walking through the gate, there were immediately characters to meet with (Box Trolls was just about to come out in theaters so they were walking around). The last time I was at Universal I was like 7 so I had a few flashbacks of where we were but it was neat to experience that area again as an adult.

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We ended up sort of browsing that first entrance level, since the park splits down into a few different sections via escalator, and eat in the fake Italy set at a little deli. The Water World show was about to begin in like 30 minutes so that was the first thing we decided to go down to.

I’m going to preface the rest of this post with, “It was really, really hot that day.”

Seriously though it was super hot. It was 11:30 and about 80 degrees with no wind. Which made it perfectly O.K. for us to go to the Water World Show.

Also we were both shocked that the Water World Show was still a thing. Like, as a movie it was really not all that successful when it came out and that was like 20 years ago. It’s a cool show though and definitely unique. It’s clear purpose though was that it’s a water show. Also the set is set up exactly as I remembered it when I was little.

We sat near the front over to the side. I forgot that the performers in that show take their jobs real serious. They own those characters. They heckle the crowd. They go full on and ask kids if they have gills. The whole shebang. It’s cute. And funny considering 95% of the people in attendance have no idea what movie the show they’re about to watch is based off of. Also it’s funny that yes, there are splash zone seats, but they mean basically nothing because the giant pool you sit in front of has jet skis going for the whole 20 mins you’re in there. Everybody gets wet. It was SO nice though because it was hot.

The show was actually exactly as I had remembered it. And honestly it was like my second favorite thing when I was little, after the Jurassic Park ride. It was definitely a nice nostalgic note to start on.

After the Water World show we figured since we were completely wet, and I mean completely sopping wet from head to toe, we’d just go to the Jurassic Park ride because “why not”.

The walk down is cool because you can see the rest of the park as well as the lots that had projects going on at the time. Like we saw CSI being filmed so that was cool. Also a genius part of Universal is that they have little misting areas so that kids stay cool. More parks should have that, especially when it’s that hot.

The walk down to the second level with the Jurassic Park ride was 10 minutes. By the time we walked down my clothes (I was wearing a Target sun dress) were completely dry (and wrinkle free!). I basically steam pressed the wrinkles out and dried off in 10 minutes. It was a little crazy.

The wait for the ride, since we wanted to sit together, was about 30 minutes which wasn’t that bad. And again, the ride was exactly as I had remembered it. Well for the most part. There were some automated dinos that didn’t squirt water anymore. But again, it was fun for my mom and I to do it again after so many years and basically have the exact same experience.

Also the Jurassic Park ride guarantees that every single person on the ride gets completely, sopping wet (again). We requested to sit in the front because we figured we’d only ride it once, but we saw some of the people who were sitting in the middle and back after we got off the ride and they were soaked head to toe as well. Fun times 🙂

After the ride we looked through the little souvenir shop because I wanted some sort of Jurassic Park souvenir. They didn’t have much so I bought a keychain. That’s the one thing about Universal – get better at your classic souvenirs. Maybe it’s gotten better with Jurassic World coming out but man, I wanted a Jurassic Park backpack (for convenience but also for funsies) and they didn’t have anything.

We stopped for Dip n’ Dots and dried off (more steam pressed and mega quickly drying clothes!) and then headed towards the Mummy Returns ride. That two had about a 25 min wait but it wasn’t too bad. Especially because a lot of it is inside. The ride had some glitches when we finally went in, so they offered to let us ride again with a secret password. It was an indoor roller coaster so really we were ok. It was sort of “meh” and well our hair was dry after that ride so we decided to move on.

The next thing we did was go to the Studio Tour. The line was 60 minutes and essentially only going to get longer from there. And it was actually a full 60 minute wait so we just bit the bullet and went down.

They did make the wait a little better by having it sort of constantly moving and having a lot of billboards and infographics to look at so that was a plus. The actual tour was also again nostalgically almost the same. They took us through the lot (past some of the CSI props which was cool). There were some things being filmed so we had to go around them. There’s this whole 3D King Kong thing you drive through which actually was very cool to see. And then you go through sets like the Desperate Housewives set, and you drive past cars that were used in different movies. The Jaws and Bates Motel sets are still there. The plane crash set is still fully intact. For tourists it’s absolutely one of the cooler things to see. It was for us sort of relaxing to sit for a solid 45 minutes.

Now here’s the thing – we walked around the rest of the park but nothing really appealed to us so we decided to go eat (it was around 3 by that time) and then settled on really that there was nothing else of interest. We’re not that into Minions and that section of the park was mostly a little kid water park sort of deal anyways so we just skipped it. We’re also not super Simpsons fans so we didn’t explore that whole set up that much either. It really left very little for us to do. So we ate, and decided to go on Jurassic Park one more time, only this time doing the single rider entry and again getting to sit in the front. Single Rider is like the best invention. There are people that inevitably don’t understand you sit where you sit and not with your friends. But for the people that get it, it’s the quickest line, and you almost always get to sit in front if you ask.

We got our final dino fix in and left to go back to Anaheim.

Since we had another day at Disney available, we utilized that third day to watch the fireworks. We saw a little bit of the fireworks the first night but from a distance and over to the side.

We actually figured out that we could drive to DownTown Disney, eat, get our parking validated for 6 hours, and take the monorail into Tomorrowland. That’s what we figured out was the best way to go if we go again soon (which guess what, we’re going again in August!). We ate at the Napoli to-go section which was ok. Not the best food but the quickest option for parking validation.

We got dropped off straight next to Tomorrowland and walked around to figure out what to do. We didn’t need to go back to California Adventure because we’d done everything the day before in that section. We, however, didn’t get to do It’s A Small World, and we had time to spare, and the line was short, so we got to fit that in as well. It was totally different from when I last saw it. It’s very glittery now. Way less creepy 😀

We got out of It’s A Small World and walked straight to main street and found a spot for the fireworks right in front of the castle. It was essentially all good timing that day because we got in everything we didn’t have time for the other two days or just missed. It felt like a good end to Disneyland, especially because we were leaving in the morning for San Diego.

Was Universal everything I wanted? Not 100%, but I still got in the 2 things I was looking most forward to, and then it made room for us to fully use our Disney passes, so it ended up all being for the better.

It certainly helped me decide to go back again this August 🙂 Disney is a fun and almost guaranteed successful vacation. Close enough and easy enough where if things get lost, or forgotten, they’re replaceable, but also you see something new almost every time you go. I’m pretty excited to go back down.

Here are the photos from the day!

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Entrance to Universal Studios, Hollywood

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Part of the regional settings they’ve painted in

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Box Trolls!

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Marilyn drove by while we waited in line for Water World

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Water World set

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One of the Water World actors

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Part of the view from the escalators leading to the second section
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mid-level photo ops

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Suchomimus!

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Isla Nublar decor

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Dippin’ Dots!

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Outside of the Mummy Returns ride

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CSI props!

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On the way out of Universal. 

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Sunset at Downtown Disney

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these people, these memories

28 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by in 2014, Family, Meet The Family, My Person, Snergio, Theodore Evelyn Buford Burrito Leo Lee, Winter 2014

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[Steve] also taught me that the joy is in the journey, which was a revelation for me. And he taught all of us that life is fragile, and that we’re not guaranteed tomorrow, so give it everything you’ve got. – Tim Cook on Steve Jobs

I force my friends to take photos. I do. It’s because I like them. They probably don’t like it but too bad. I like it, and I want photos and I want to keep them.

My entire childhood was meticulously and almost obsessively documented. My mom kept almost all of my school work and my dad took thousands of photos. So I’m just used to having an abundance of things to remind me of what happened and how it happened and where and with whom. It’s probably why I like having blogs and multiple Instagram accounts, and videos on YouTube and all of that. A published record of existence in multiple forms.

I also completely get wanting to fall off the face of the planet and have hermetic alone time. But looking at these memories when you’re alone is what  makes them so special. Because you know you’re not alone.

A lot of people, without knowing it, struggle with the idea of immortality; how will I be remembered. How will I leave a legacy. Careers and accomplishments – who is that really for? It’s to show off to the world what you’ve done and what you can do.

I spent so much time growing up thinking “I’m going to do THAT and make all this money and be rich and have everything” and it was a waste of time because even though my dad was capturing it all on film, there’s a lot I don’t remember. I forgot to appreciate what I had, and the people that matter in that process of being immortalized. What’s the point of having everything you’ve ever wanted when there’s nobody there to share it with?

That’s why I spend so much time documenting things. I want to remember things just as they happened, with the people it happened with. It all goes back to seeing happy things – if you really look, you’ll see so much you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. The world has a lot of secretly wonderful things if you take the time to look for them.

2014 was a very strange year. A lot of ridiculous ups and downs and moments I would never have guessed would happen. 2014 Was a learning experience and a year that I needed for myself, without really realizing it until it happened.

2014 is ending on a pretty good note.

I had my Friendsmas and it was the best. And I made all my friends take photos and it was silly but it was worth it. It was a poignant moment where I knew and felt that these were the 3 people that I made the right choices about; after a long week, there were no other people I would’ve rather spent time with.

I hope you all had a wonderful 2014 and wonderful holiday season 🙂

2015, here we come.

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with a little help from buttcakes | christmas 2014

21 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by in 2014, My Person, Holidays, Winter 2014, Christmas, 2014, Arts & Crafts, Baking With Buttcakes, Foooooddddd, Baking, Cakes

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General rule of thumb: don’t cook while you’re sick.

My whole Christmas plan this year included making everybody (whom I deemed worthy… lol) a Cake In A Jar.

Background –

Ace of Cakes was a show on the Food Network about 6 years ago that was one of my top 3 favorite shows produced by the Food Network. Pretty much, Duff Goldman (and his #2 Geof Manthorne) are the original kings of TV Cake and I love them. I bought the book. They made the coolest cakes and had some of the most talented artists. The show was all about their cakes, not about the personalities in the bakery. It was authentic and fantastic and I have all the seasons on DVD (no shame). I tried watching other shows like Cake Boss or whatnot, and nothing compares. Ace of Cakes being cancelled was the worst news of my Food TV life.

Since Ace of Cakes was cancelled, I’ve followed Duff on his social media just to see all of his cake stuff. Again, he’s the best.

Recently he was on Popsugar showing how to make one of his newer products, the Cake In A Jar. It’s a super cute video and you can watch it down below:

It looked so easy and so cute, so I bookmarked it with every intention of making these as Christmas gifts this year (back in August, when I watched this – I’m a perpetual future-planner.)

As Christmas rolled around, I got everything ready to go and then got the flu. Like, the worst flu. That flu that takes everything out of you, literally.

Sick people shouldn’t cook.

But, I have a Person. And her name is Kate. And she likes to make Cakes. And I call her Buttcakes. And she’s my Person. And she helped me make all these Cake In A Jars.

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For the actual jars, I picked up just a case of 12 Pint Sized Mason Jars at Michael’s (I got them on sale for $12.99, but I believe they’re usually $15.99). I also picked up some Washi Tape, festive Ribbon Stickers and customizable labels. All of these you can purchase to your own liking – I just picked the red patterned ones because they were cute. At home I already had glitter, Elmer’s glue, colored sharpies and festive ribbon.

The best part about this project is that if you like to do crafty projects, you’ll probably have the majority of these things at home – you can even make your own labels with ties, you don’t have to buy them. Or you can simply decorate the jars in whatever fashion you’d like. It’s actually a fairly inexpensive gift to DIY.

On the labels, I just wrote “Merry Christmas” and drew a little tree. Then on the back I added some glitter accents – I just made little designs with the glue, dump a ton of glitter on top and waited for it to dry. 😀

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On the jars, I put just a piece of Washi Tape all the way around, and stuck a little bow in the middle. The Washi Tape is great because you can put it on and it looks seamless since the tape is so thin. It also doesn’t take away from the look of the Mason Jar – I like the rustic look of Mason Jars, so the simplicity of the Washi Tape adds a little bit of fun without going overboard.

The ribbon stickers were also something I added to just highlight that it’s a Holiday gift. They’re not over the top or gaudy either, which again I chose just to keep everything looking simple.

The labels were just tied on to the top of the jar with a bit of ribbon or string I had from last year.

Each jar is actually different because the bow stickers came with various patterns in the package, and the string/ribbon came in combo pack of different patterns as well. It was one of those $1 aisle purchases at Target – you can find small packages of ribbon at Michael’s too. The ribbon itself is only like 2 feet long, with like 4 variations of ribbon, but since they’re for the circumference of the jar it was perfect for this particular project. It’s an easy way to vary the look of multiple jars, say if you’re giving multiple to a family, without having to go and buy 4 different Washi Tapes or whatever. Buying combo packs is the way to go for projects like these 🙂

Now, I 100% recommend decorating the jars after filling with frosting and cake. The frosting and cake can get a bit messy, as Kate and I experienced over this whole, first-time process. While the cakes are baking and cooling, there is enough time to make the frosting as well as make the labels so there’s enough time for the glue to dry, should you be doing this completely on your own.

If you’re doing this with another person, like I did, you can prep everything for the jars, but I’d still say wait until the jars are filled to decorate them. Just in case.

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Now for the actual cake and frosting, I pulled two separate recipes. Then handed them to Kate, on a cryptically written post-it and said “welp, that’s it. Figure it out.” lol. The flu and I are not friends.

The cake recipe was taken straight from the Popsugar video:

  • 1 cup butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup multicolored sprinkles
  1. To make cake: Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour 2 9-inch cake pans (or 4 6-inch cake pans). In a medium-sized bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt, then whisk ingredients until well-combined. Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and cream together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar, and continue to cream for about 5 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, until thoroughly mixed, then mix in vanilla extract. Reduce speed to medium, and alternate between beating in milk and flour mixture in 1/3 increments. Mix in sprinkles until evenly incorporated.
  3. Divide batter equally between cake pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean. Let cakes sit for 5 minutes, and then transfer them to a cooling rack.

We doubled the recipe and had more than enough for 14 jars. Kate had 2 extra jars at her house which we filled, in addition to the 12 I brought over.

We also made some of the batter without the sprinkles, just because I have friends who don’t like funfetti cake (boooooooooooooooooo).

Also, if you make them into cupcakes, they’re easier at the end to cut into even sized disks and fit into the jar. The top of the cupcake you can actually cut off and then use as the last and top layer of cake in the jar.

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The video calls for buttercream frosting but I wanted chocolate so instead, I thought, “why not make the most decadent mix of chocolate and cake ever” and told Kate “we’re making that chocolate trifle thing you made once.”

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Here’s her blog post on that, and the actual recipe:

  • 4 oz. DOVE® PROMISES® Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate,
  • 16 pieces unwrapped
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  1. Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Melt at 30 second intervals
    until almost melted. Stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.
  2. Beat together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add cooled chocolate and mix well.

The rest of that recipe is in the link above, this is just what we used of it.

Kate added in the whipping cream to the chocolate mixture and it turned into a more mousse-y texture which was perfect.

At first we decided to double the recipe, then didn’t have enough. So Kate made another quadruple batch, which was a lot. And probably too much. But again, we filled 2 extra jars. With the chocolate, you just have to eyeball the amount you need. Luckily it’s a pretty straightforward recipe (as far as I can tell, Kate made it lol).

I randomly found a little piping bag at my house and brought it over, and I will say it’s probably the easiest in order to get the frosting into the jar, but find as large of a bag as you can because it’ll get messy otherwise. There was a good 10 minutes there where chocolate got everywhere. On Kate. I have dirty hand syndrome – I can’t handle dirty hands in the slightest. Obviously, cooking is an issue for me, like all the time. And gardening. But anyways, I was in charge of the cake. So I was basically chocolate free. Poor Kate. 😉

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For the jars we made, I specifically cut off the crunchy crust parts of the cake (which totally defeats the purpose of what Duff says in the video, I know), because it just made for a better bite of cake. If you choose to use that part of the cake, then you’d have A LOT of cake left over. The part of the cake I used, I just cut into small pieces that were easy to fit into a jar.

Things that make putting the pieces flat into a jar easier:

  • chopsticks
  • handle end of a butter knife

For the actual assembly of the jar (frosting, cake, frosting, cake, frosting sprinkles) I just followed the video.

The number of layers you put of each thing will depend on how big your jars are, how much frosting you use and how thick the cake layers are. We ended up doing 4 layers of cake.

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The total time to decorate, bake and assemble with the two of us was about 4 hours. In the middle we also left to get more cream cheese. There’s a bit of down time as well with the waiting of the cakes to cool and for everything to set.

It’s for sure more fun with another person – especially another person that’s the best at baking.

Holiday DIYs are sort of the best because it’s 100% customizable to what you have available to you. Plus I think they’re fun. I like crafts and stuff. And again, it’s a total bonus that My Person likes baking.

I hope you guys all have a lovely holiday – and a lovely winter solstice! Happy shortest day of the year lol 🙂 It just means that every day is getting longer now, and that means more sunshine and more opportunities for great things.

sick sick sick as a dog

20 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by in 2014, Winter 2014

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from PhotoCraftbook

I’m the most sick right now. Well I was the most sick on Thursday and Friday. And now I’m just massively headachey, and exhausted, and body achey. Moving is currently the least enticing action I can think of.

Which is great, because I’m just sitting at work. But I also just want to lay down forever.

It’s flu season!

Actually my doctor said to not go to work today or do anything, but I couldn’t find a sub, so here I am. So responsible lol.

I have 6 more hours of this shift and I’m dying.

And all I’m going to do is just go home and pass out.

But it’s Christmas time! And I should get into the holiday spirit. If I think it, I will be. How very existential.

Hope you’re all having a better day than I am 🙂

100 Happy Days | 31-40

20 Saturday Dec 2014

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Day 31: not really a happy day but this is all you'll get out of me today. #100happydays #5312011

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Day 31 – I Miss You

On Instagram, I’ve been seeing this tag go around for a few months now. Just this past week, Lindsay from LindsayDoesNails posted that she was going to do it, so I thought I would do it too. I thought this was a good way to turn things around, slowly. Lindsay mentioned the same thing – basically if you see one good thing a day, it can’t be all bad right?

I started this on May 1st, I’ll started posting them in groups of 5, and now am posting them in groups of 10. 

Day 31 – (above)

This is all you need to know about 5/31/11.

Day 32: Literally the most flattering comment I've ever received EVER. @xbrookecorex #100happydays

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Day 32 – 😀

I’ve literally never had anybody compliment me so highly. As some background, SayAnythingBr00ke was one of my absolute favorite polish lovers on YouTube. Instead of continuing YouTube, and cashing in from it, she chose to get a real-world job, become an adult and forge her own comfortable path. I miss her. She was the best. She’s still active on Twitter and Tumblr though, in case you’re interested. But anyways, for somebody to tell me that they like me because it’s in any relation to Brooke? The best thing I could have ever gotten out of YouTube.

Day 33: Nail Mail 🙂 #100happydays

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Day 33 – Maillll Timmmmeeeee

Polish hoarders (or I guess all compulsive shoppers) know that happy warm feeling when packages arrive. The little pieces of beauty lying inside those boxes are little bottles of magic. This was one of my boxes from Ji, the creator of Rescue Beauty Lounge. I get collections from her to review and film and every single time, they get better and better.

Day 34: I'm the only person in this theater. #100happydays

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Day 34 – Maleficent

Much like when I saw Million Dollar Arm, I saw Maleficent and was the only person in the theatre. It was awesome. And Maleficent was fun.

Day 35: I've never felt like I could relate to @_king_kyle_ until right now. @emmiller #100happydays

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Day 35 – Run

I used to work with a guy named Kyle, and all he would wear were Nikes. He had like 120 pairs. He hoarded shoes like I hoarded nail polish. And then he’d browse for more and more shoes and go crazy when new ones were released. And I totally knew how he felt, because I’ve been that person when nail polish collections launch.

He totally turned me on to browsing for Nikes and one day, I found a pair that I fell in love with. I don’t hoard shoes. But I see the appeal.

Day 36 – Look Up!

It’s so easy to forget how good you have it sometimes.

I love my house in late spring and early summer. We have a lot of greenery around our house so everything just looks so alive. I have a lot of photographs of all of that.

The one thing that’s the most difficult to photograph, at least for me, is how trees actually look. How light looks through leaves. And the texture of branches against the sky.

This photo was actually a total accident – I had my phone camera facing the other way and basically accidentally took a photo. It was a happy accident though 🙂

Day 37: minty toes on a beautiful summer day. #100happydays

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Day 37 – Minty Minty Minty

Mint was one of my favorites this summer. It’s so happy and pops and looks good on everybody. I think I had mint on my toes for like 6 or 7 weeks.

Day 38: baby tomato is getting I big 😀 #100happydays

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Day 38 – Progress

I had a photo in one of my #100HappyDays that was of the itty, bitty baby tomatoes and this is how big one of them got, in a matter of 10 or so days.

Again, it was fun to watch them grow. It felt productive 😀

Day 39: matching bandaid. #100happydays

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Day 39 – Minty Part Deux

I hurt my toe. I got a minty bandaid to match my minty toes. It’s the little things.

Day 40: smells like summer. #100happydays

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 Day 40 – Summer

In one of the malls near my house, they’ve planted hundreds of lavender plants along the outside of their parking lot. Every Summer, all the plants bloom, and the air is filled with lavender and honey bees. It’s honestly the most annoying parking lot to go to, but for sure the prettiest.

things fall apart

14 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by in 2014, Healthy Living, Self, Winter 2014

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Take me to church
I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life  – Hozier

The idea that you slowly die when in love is sort of perfect; it makes sense. And no, I’m not in love. Not at all. I haven’t been for a long time. I don’t even think I really was with my last few boyfriends or “whatevers” – the non-official, “we’re not labelled” dudes.

But you see yourself as one person in the beginning and then everything disintegrates. If you look at yourself from the other person’s point of view, you’re not even remotely who you thought you were. The person you were died. You just have to learn to evolve.

Thing is, I really like where I am right now. I’m also in no way saying I’m totally perfect, but, I just like where I am.

A lot of things changed this year. At the time, it felt like things were just constantly catastrophically doomed to fail. It was months of a haze of misery. And then one day, it all just didn’t matter. My issues were not even that bad, considering. To me, they were at the time, and it was important to feel that. But it was also important to wake up and keep going. It was important to realize that it’s just not that bad.

Feeling like I won the misery games – 18 year old me needed that. 19 year old me needed that. So did 20, 21, 22, and 23 year old me. 24 year old me didn’t. I was anxious, tired, annoyed, cranky, and just unhappy. And it felt like there was no way out. Being miserable was something I accepted to be, and was something I expected to feel forever.

And then one day, it just stopped. New people came into my life, and those point of views just snapped reality back into me. Not harshly. Not harshly at all. It was actually really gentle. That snap made me gather my shit and realize I needed to change in order for things to get better. I couldn’t be dependent on somebody else to make me feel better.

Fighting with friends, hating myself, expecting the worst – that was 90% of the first 8 months of this year. There were a lot of good moments, but I concentrated so hard on being angry that I didn’t experience them quite as fully as I should have.

At this point, it’s all starting to sound really repetitive – that you have to believe in the good. But I keep saying it here because even though I may not need it, somebody out there probably does. Or maybe I will in a few months. Who knows.

Anyways, I just like where I am right now. I’m happy with where I am. It feels stable. And I know I’m going to have bad days mixed in there, but I can bare them now. I don’t really want to move on from this place yet because it’s brought a lot of good. I’m not in any place to say that I can control what happens. I just – I just don’t want to lose where I am right now. It’s asking for a lot – to ask nothing to happen just so I can be in this place, at least for a little while longer. But I don’t want somebody to come into my life and kill the person I am now. Even if it may be for the better. And it’s purely for selfish reasons. And I should embrace the fact that more change and constant evolution is good. I’m just happy right now.

Things fall apart. You just have to find a way to put them back together with grace.

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Healthy Living, Self, Uncategorized, Winter 2014

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From Agnieszka Holland’s “The Secret Garden” Source: Tumblr

I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us – Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

The semester is almost over. And holidays are coming. And Angry-Holiday-Feelings are here. And my Tired-I-Hate-School-Game is strong. And all that from last week is still a thing. But, the semester is almost over. And I love celebrating holidays. Making holidays special for another person is one of my favorite things.

This past week was a strange mix of high-highs and low-lows. Like, of the good things that happened? Real good. The shitty, “I HATE ALL THE THINGS” part? I had the MOST hate for this week. And again, it’s all relative, so really, comparing to like parts of April or May, they weren’t even that bad.

I just had a busy week. And I guess that’s how I made sense of it.

I got an iPhone 6, then I had to deal with more work-shit that I can’t go into detail about but it was annoyingly bad, then I got to spend time with my favorite kids ever, then I had to deal with family stuff, then this thing happened that I never really expected to happen, and I got to have Chinese food with my peoples and then other things happened. That was all so vague. But I can’t really talk about some of it. Either way, it was a roller coaster of good-bad-good-bad-good-bad-REALGOOD-bad etc.

This post is quickly turning very annoying. And it’s so vague. But I’m in sort of a fog today so I don’t really have the mental faculties to straighten it all out right now.

I’m tired.

For the past 9 or so months, I’ve been getting an average of 4 hours of sleep every night. 4 hours rounding up. For the last 3 months, it’s been almost exactly 3 hours and 34 minutes every night. It’s the strangest thing.

There have been a handful of nights where I’ve been able to just zonk out and sleep for like 14 hours but most of those were when I was sick or when I finally just collapsed, emotionally and physically.

And for the first few months I – (OH MY GOD I’M SITTING IN THE COMPUTER LAB AT SCHOOL WRITING THIS AND I LOOKED OVER TO MY LEFT AND THE GUY SITTING NEXT TO ME IS WATCHING MUSIC VIDEOS AND LIP SYNCING ALONG AND SORT OF HEAD BOBBING WHAT EVEN) – was for sure not used to having so little sleep that I was cranky all the time. And then over the summer I just got used to it. And the sleep would just come whenever – some days I’d fall asleep at 8:30 in the evening and some days I’d fall asleep at like 5 am. And now I’m on a schedule so it just feels normal. Even though it’s so severely not normal.

I know 80% of it is because I’m not dealing with situations or emotional things that I know I have to confront. Which is why sleep aids don’t work. But anyways, my sleeping problems aside, I’m in a weird mood and feeling very up and down and I can’t wait until this semester is over so I can just collect myself for a while again.

I’m just tired.

Anyways, I wasn’t planning on sounding whiny this morning. I actually don’t even feel all that whiny. That all just came out. I’m relatively in good spirits. The good things that happened last week positively outweighed the negatives. Quite possibly because I sort of “reached goals” this past week, personally or whatnot. (So vague).

And actually now that I’m thinking about the bad things, after it all happened, I’m ok. They were shitty to immediately deal with, but now I’m good. How wishy-washy of me. Again, I’m in a weird fog. That December, “What’s even going on right now” fog where you have to buy gifts and finish tests and plan for the future. That weird “What shows have ended for their mid-winter break, and what shows are still going on, WHAT’S HAPPENING” sort of feeling.

At least the other day I was able to turn off my phone for like 4 hours and center myself. I haven’t had time for that in a long time. That was one of my good things from last week. I sat outside, in the overcast weather, in my backyard, with my roses (which are still blooming, thanks to that ever-so-lovely California drought) and just zoned out for 4 hours. It was great. Of course after that I was in crisis mode. Because everything is a-OK or a Red Level Catastrophe.

During my 4 hour break from the world though I got to re-calibrate my stance on the world and review, literally re-view, how I see things. It was nice. There really is magic out there, you just have to look for it. It’s as simple as waking up to rain, or finding twenty cents on the ground.

The long, round-about message of this post is, again, it’s all relative, and there’s something good in every day. There are beautiful things everywhere, no matter where you are, how you feel, what you’re doing. I really do believe it.

It took how long? Years, for me to come to terms with it. But at this precise moment, I 100% believe it with every fiber of my being.

Long, rambly, disorganized, vague post done 🙂

Happy Tuesday everybody.

100 Happy Days | 21-25

01 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by in 100 Happy Days, Dat Nanny Life, Flowers, Garden Party, Hydrangeas, Summer 2014

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Day 21: While doing some yard work I found one of my little hydrangeas going rainbow 🙂 #100happydays

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Day 21 – Rainbow Hydrangeas

On Instagram, I’ve been seeing this tag go around for a few months now. Just this past week, Lindsay from LindsayDoesNails posted that she was going to do it, so I thought I would do it too. I thought this was a good way to turn things around, slowly. Lindsay mentioned the same thing – basically if you see one good thing a day, it can’t be all bad right?

I started this on May 1st, I’ll be posting them in groups of 5. 

Day 21 (above)

So if you looked through these posts, most of these blog posts started as a place for my hobbies. One of them being gardening. It’s still a hobby, dirty-hand-complex and all. My mom’s favorites are Hydrangeas, so we’ve collected a lot of them. Specifically blue ones. Which we’ve figured out how to turn all of them blue. But one day I was going around taking care of them and found that some of them started going rainbow. It was pretty cute and happy and cool to see.

Calm. Forever calm.

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Day 22 – Calm After The Storm

May 22nd was a bad day. But the whole point of this series was to find just one good thing a day. And well, there was one good thing. Everything was calm. And everything was going to be ok.

Kate got into a car accident on the 22nd. She got a head wound. She bled everywhere. And Sergio and I had no details. And Theo and Joy were there and gave us no details. And it was the worst. And it was the worst to go into a hospital for the first time in years. And it was the worst to not know exactly how bad everything was.

But everything ended up ok. And it was calm again. Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.

Day 23: I bought a sweater and it has pineapples on it. #100happydays

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Day 23 – Target At Its Finest

I bought a sweater and it has pineapples on it. It’s my favorite sweater, and it’s like everybody else’s favorite sweater. It’s the happiest. And that’s all I have to say about it.

Day 24: learning to walk 🙂 #100happydays

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Day 24 – Learning To Walk

Being somebody that spends a lot of time with kids, you end up being part of a lot of special little moments. A lot of firsts. One of the happiest firsts though is seeing how happy and proud and excited kids are when they first learn to walk. When they finally do it by themselves. It’s all giggles and smiles. It’s so gleeful.

This particular baby did start walking that day, and I’ve blurred it out for security reasons. But it’s also a picture representing a lot of those little moments I get to have with all the kids I spend time with.

There is a lot of unconditional, and pure love when you work with toddlers. Everything is new and everything is wonderful and fantastical to them. They laugh whole-heartedly and they cry whole-heartedly. They’re soft and squishy and the best. Kids are the best.

BSB.

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Day 25 – Backstreet’s Back

Alright! What else is there to say.